Keeping Busy

We've been doing our best to kill time around here! Even Ryland is asking to go to America several times a day! Yesterday we went to the beach for a couple hours and had a good time. Ry was beside himself and smiled the whole trip through! He was ok playing in the sand, but had to constantly go back down to the water to rinse off his hands and his toys. After that, we went to see Toy Story 3 in the afternoon. Ry enjoyed it and especially loved the popcorn; Dust & I thought it was cute, but couldn't understand any of it! We'll have to go see it again once we're home. Most of the kids DVDs we have here at the apartment can be played in English or Russian. We always ask Ry what language he wants to watch them in and he usually picks Russian. Since yesterday, he has requested English! He is learning more and more every single day and it is absolutely amazing how well we are communicating with each other.

Today we went to see a traveling dolphin show and that was a very interesting experience. About 1/2 way through Dustin leaned over and said to me that the dolphins weren't even the interesting part...how right he was. Not sure on the whole animal's rights thing, but I was in shock that they had the dolphins (really baby beluga whales) in such a small tank. It was like a large, above ground, backyard swimming pool. There was some type of entertainment (think rodeo clown) that lasted more than half of the show and was pretty terrible. Ry almost fell asleep and asked to go home several times during the show. At one point, they had the dolphins "paint" a picture and the stopped the show to auction it off around the arena. Strange. Also, at the very beginning, they asked for volunteers to come up and there was a pre-arranged couple that went up there. After doing the trick with the dolphins, the guy proposed to the girl. It was over the top cheesy...we were just cracking up. I told Dustin that if he had done something so ridiculous, I would have said no!! Anyway, long story short, the traveling dolphin show was a big bust!

In less than a week, we've made so much progress. The first night Ryland cried at bath time and didn't want anything to do with it. Tonight during dinner, he said he wanted a bath! He's a great eater and will eat most things and I have finally mastered milk porridge, well, I don't know if mastered is the best term, but he will finally eat my version!! He loves fresh vegetables (any kind), but is not a fan of them once they've been cooked. We are learning just as much about him as he is about us everyday and things are getting so much easier. We've been tweaking the bedtime routine every night to see what works the best for us and we're making great progress!

I am officially taking some time off of work for the next couple of months, so it's been a big adjustment for me to take on more of the domestic duties while Dustin focuses on work. Since we both work a lot, we both typically do everything. I'm not quite sure how one little man adds so much extra laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning...but he sure does!

Well, I'm off to pick up the apartment, again!

Love,
Cort

Playing ball at the beach!

People watchin'  - just like his mama!

Ry & Dust got matching temporary tattoos from the "Cars" movie.  This really made his day and he loves to lift up his sleeve and put his arm right next to Papa's!