Little Russian Potty Mouth...

Things are going well here--although it has been a busy week work wise. I have been trying to keep my schedule pretty lite since D got home, but this week was pretty crazy... Hopefully next week will be less stressful on the work front. D is really doing well with learning English--although he doesn't speak a lot on his own, he repeats everything we say in English. He has already learned the ABC Song, he is saying "no" instead of "nyet" almost exclusively. His favorite phrase is "No, no Addie!" He asks for "juice" instead of "sok" now. He says "bye-bye" instead of "Paka". He also likes to tell me "Be Nice Mama!" when he is mad at me for some reason. He is already testing me to see what he can get away with---if I ask him to do something, he sometimes will flat out refuse and argue with me in Russian when I insist. A typical 5 year old. He really understands a lot of English now too. You can pretty much ask him to do or get anything in English, and he seems to understand what you are saying. It is pretty amazing how fast kids can pick language up. Little A repeats everything he says in Russian--in fact she constantly copies everything D does. She is still extremely jealous of him, but she follows him around like a puppy, mimicking him. Unfortunately, each of them seem to have picked up the other's bad habits....

One issue I have been having with D is that he has been using "Russian Curse Words" when he gets mad at me-- especially at bedtime. One night he yelled "Vuy Hooey!" at me. I could tell by the look in his eyes that it was a bad word... I said (in Russian) that I didn't understand, and he just laughed and began repeating it. Well, I looked it up online the other night-- he was saying "You Dick/Cock!" Yesterday he said it again to me, only this time I told him I knew what he meant (you should have seen the look on his face)and he was immediately sent to "Time Out" -- he was pissed! He says other things that I have a feeling are "bad words", but I never can remember them long enough to look them up! He's definitely a little "rascal" . He is constantly pointing everything out and asking what it is--so I tell him in English. He repeats it, then points something else out. It is our little game. Despite his stubbornness and potty mouth, things are going pretty well... :)