Today we stayed inside the Orphanage due to the weather. All the other visits were partially outside in the play area. After a few minutes, the staff person took us to a separate room where we could be by ourselves with the boys.
When we entered the room, there was a "tunnel" made of large cushions. The boys immediately ran to them and crawled inside. We reached inside through the "windows" to tickle them, and they delighted in scambling away, which was towards the other one of us--and of course, scambling back after that person tried to tickle them.
We played with different toys, including some musical instuments. Erik was rather good at playing with a "mouth organ", if that is what it is called. He blew in one end of it and along the side there is a small piano keyboard--about an octave--which played a different pitch when each key was pressed. Erik "doodled" a little on it, then played the white keys in order, playing a complete "C" scale. We were impressed that he would play the 8 keys one at a time in a row.
Jevgenij really enjoyed a book that we brought. He carried it around everywhere and several times wanted to look at it and have us read parts of it to him. Jevgenij's name is Russian, and the equivalent in Lithuanian is Eugenijus. He responds better to that name and it is what the staff all call him, so we have also taken to calling him Eugenijus (pronounced you-gen-i-yus, and the "g" is like the g sound in "girl").
Of significance to us, the boys are starting to think of us as parents. When we first arrived, Eugenijus called Sharon "mama", melting her heart. A few times throughtout the evening, I also heard him call her "mama". Right before we left I was holding both boys, one on each knee. The one care-taker asked Erik where "mama" was. He pointed forward to Sharon. Then she asked where "papa" was, and he pointed behind himself to me, melting my heart.
When we entered the room, there was a "tunnel" made of large cushions. The boys immediately ran to them and crawled inside. We reached inside through the "windows" to tickle them, and they delighted in scambling away, which was towards the other one of us--and of course, scambling back after that person tried to tickle them.
We played with different toys, including some musical instuments. Erik was rather good at playing with a "mouth organ", if that is what it is called. He blew in one end of it and along the side there is a small piano keyboard--about an octave--which played a different pitch when each key was pressed. Erik "doodled" a little on it, then played the white keys in order, playing a complete "C" scale. We were impressed that he would play the 8 keys one at a time in a row.
Jevgenij really enjoyed a book that we brought. He carried it around everywhere and several times wanted to look at it and have us read parts of it to him. Jevgenij's name is Russian, and the equivalent in Lithuanian is Eugenijus. He responds better to that name and it is what the staff all call him, so we have also taken to calling him Eugenijus (pronounced you-gen-i-yus, and the "g" is like the g sound in "girl").
Of significance to us, the boys are starting to think of us as parents. When we first arrived, Eugenijus called Sharon "mama", melting her heart. A few times throughtout the evening, I also heard him call her "mama". Right before we left I was holding both boys, one on each knee. The one care-taker asked Erik where "mama" was. He pointed forward to Sharon. Then she asked where "papa" was, and he pointed behind himself to me, melting my heart.
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