We're starting to get into a routine and I didn't have any firsts to document, so this is really all I have for day 3.
Things are still going great so far, we haven't had any issues outside of what you might expect from a 4 year old boy. He is learning our rules and routine, and we seem to all be settling in. We haven't had any real communication issues-he doesn't speak any English, although he is starting to pick up a couple of words, but we learned a couple dozen Amharic words, and Eric learned a few more important ones while in Ethiopia. He understands that we don't speak his language and is good at showing us what he wants.
One cultural difference that is harder to get used to is that instead of saying 'yes' in response to something, he raises his eyebrows and tips his head up. Imagine there is a string attached to your eyebrows, and when the string gets pulled, your head tugs up a little too. He never says 'yes' out loud. He will say 'no' to make sure I don't put vegetables on his plate! Another body language thing is when he's pouting about something, say, taking off his boots when it's time to come inside, he'll throw his shoulder into the air and turn his back a little. I guess it means 'I don't care, I'm not listening to you' or something similar. We've only seen that a couple of times though so far :)
Jeb is used to spending a lot of time outside, outdoor play was part of their daily routine at the orphanage, so he wants to be outside a lot. The Amharic word for outside sounds like 'witch' and he will point to the door and say "witchy?" and never wants to come back inside, but it's so cold out there for little hands and ears, we only let them stay out for about 20 minutes.
Here are some close-ups of my cuties! You can really see here how much darker Jebriel is than the girls, especially Journey! The guest house owner in Ethiopia said that he'll probably lose some of his tan because he won't be outside as much here in the winter months, which has probably happened to the girls in the past few months, but so gradually that we didn't notice. I'll have to compare these with summer pictures and see.
Things are still going great so far, we haven't had any issues outside of what you might expect from a 4 year old boy. He is learning our rules and routine, and we seem to all be settling in. We haven't had any real communication issues-he doesn't speak any English, although he is starting to pick up a couple of words, but we learned a couple dozen Amharic words, and Eric learned a few more important ones while in Ethiopia. He understands that we don't speak his language and is good at showing us what he wants.
One cultural difference that is harder to get used to is that instead of saying 'yes' in response to something, he raises his eyebrows and tips his head up. Imagine there is a string attached to your eyebrows, and when the string gets pulled, your head tugs up a little too. He never says 'yes' out loud. He will say 'no' to make sure I don't put vegetables on his plate! Another body language thing is when he's pouting about something, say, taking off his boots when it's time to come inside, he'll throw his shoulder into the air and turn his back a little. I guess it means 'I don't care, I'm not listening to you' or something similar. We've only seen that a couple of times though so far :)
Jeb is used to spending a lot of time outside, outdoor play was part of their daily routine at the orphanage, so he wants to be outside a lot. The Amharic word for outside sounds like 'witch' and he will point to the door and say "witchy?" and never wants to come back inside, but it's so cold out there for little hands and ears, we only let them stay out for about 20 minutes.
Here are some close-ups of my cuties! You can really see here how much darker Jebriel is than the girls, especially Journey! The guest house owner in Ethiopia said that he'll probably lose some of his tan because he won't be outside as much here in the winter months, which has probably happened to the girls in the past few months, but so gradually that we didn't notice. I'll have to compare these with summer pictures and see.
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