Vacation at Kiawah Island!

Last week our family went on our annual vacation to Kiawah Island in SC. My parents, my brother and his family and our 6 rent a big beach house for the week. Of course this year was special because it was Ladi's first time! Our families love this special time together - my niece Sadie and Ladi are just days apart in age- they really bonded this week. They would put on their princess night gowns and prance around the house and play pretend; they would build sandcastles together on the beach; swim in the ocean together and go for long bike rides on the back of our bikes! Even Brady was allowed to play with them at times! I can not tell you how much our family loves this vacation-- it is sooo relaxing! We do nothing productive all week- except what you want to do- like going for long bike rides (Ladi jumped on the tandem that is attached to the back of my bike and was ready to go! She loved it and she would always ask to ride the bike when we went outside- one day we went for a bike ride for over and hour!), reading a good beach read, going running early in the morning or for long walks on the beach, or lying under the canopy on the beach all day long! The boys love playing games so we do a lot of that and some nights we stay up very late playing a "heated" game of Spades! One of our traditions is to go to the Kiawah Family Carnival, it is on Wednesday night and we all look forward to this night! They have the bouncy things set up and Blake and Bryson do the climbing wall and the "boxing ring" and we get our faces painted and eat lots of kettle corn and cotton candy! And of course we have to ride the "Little Train"! Oh on Tuesday we took a day off from the beach and went into Charleston and we meet with Elena our adoption agent. We were so excited for her and Ladi to finally meet! Well poor Elena; she didn't know that my entire family was coming to see her! But mom and dad really wanted to meet her and I wanted them to meet as well. So all 8 of us go to Elena's office -- well the boys were glad to put a face with the person they have come to know as "the lady who helped Ladi become their sister" and my parents were able to thank her for helping make Ladi their granddaughter. It is hard to believe that last year this week we were meeting Elena for the first time and signing our papers to start the Russian adoption process with her! Anyway Ladi put on a "show" for Elena (when Ladi meets someone she doesn't know she acts very silly until she knows how that person is going to react or interact with her). Elena didn't talk to Ladi in Russian until she felt more secure around her and when she did Ladi responded to her; but Elena said it was not really Russian that Ladi was speaking now. She said it was a sort of mix of languages or made up language. This is what we were told would happen because she hasn't heard Russian in 7 weeks. Ladi's English is getting better daily. She is really able to "mimic" what we say and pronounce everything more clearly. And she is only using a few Russian words with us now. All in all she is doing great! Now that we are back home we will be getting back into our routine and soon we will be getting ready for school to start! But as the boys keep telling me, "We will not discuss this at this time! No S word!" Here are some pics from our week! Love you all!

It was a grand 4th of July celebration!

Ladi loved all the festivities - fireworks on Thursday night- boating on Friday with her cousins- picnic and jazz at Airlie Friday late afternoon and more fireworks Friday night! By Saturday she was exhausted! And Saturday afternoon the brothers came home from DC! We all missed them so much while they were away-especially Ladi! As you can imagine and as I stated in the last post; this 4th of July was very emotional for us. Ladi doesn't understand it now, but maybe by next year she will understand why as Americans we celebrate this special day. Since the boys were away last week Ladi was very "clingy" to me. We think it is because it was quiet in our house (which is very rare). When we would put her to bed she would get upset, which is unusual for her. Again we think it was because usually when she goes to bed the boys are still up and doing things around the house. By Monday night I got the idea to put a CD player in her room and put on some soothing music- it worked and now she says "Musica Momma!" before we kiss good night! And the "clingyness" is no longer present with the boys home. She and Brady play together a lot and when she is tired of playing with them she will go to her room by herself as long as the boys are upstairs and are making noise (that goes with out saying!). So we are back on track and she has been speaking English a lot! I could not count all the phrases but there are many! She really seems to understand everything we say to her and she can follow commands as well. She is learning so fast! And now that the boys are back home I know she will continue to prosper- especially with Bryson playing flash cards with her! As for the boys, they had a wonderful time in DC!

This is Princess Ladi today in our neighbor's' garden. She loved looking at all the beautiful flowers and garden art!