Doctors...

Things are going really well.
Mareks has a wonderful sense of humor, and although he's not cracking jokes yet he gets along quite well with good natured teasing.
He's still adjusting to the time difference, which is fine... and probably good for his sanity. Joe and Kyle are "up and at 'em" by 6:30 (if not earlier.) The first words out of their mouths? Not "Good morning, Mom," or "What are we having for breakfast?" It's "Is Mareks up yet?" Poor kid has groupies.

He slept about 14 hours yesterday, and we're going on 13 this morning... but maybe it's not so much jet lag as it is normal sleeping patterns for a 16 year old boy? Regardless, I was going to let him sleep as late as he wanted this morning, but Kyle has a Dr. appt at 9:30.

Dr. yes. Poor Mareks, it's been 3 days of doctors.
Monday was the dentist. (3 cavities down, 6 to go) We'll go back on Friday for the rest of the cavities and then once again probably early next week for the cleaning and to fix a chipped/broken tooth.
Yesterday was the eye Dr. (no glasses needed)
And today I'll have to wake him up for Kyle's appointment. Kyle has a weird rash on his face. It's not 5ths. Joe had fifths and thats not what this is. To be honest, it looks a bit like the online pics of Rubella, but Kyle doesn't have many of the other symptoms- AND he's had both vaccinations. Nor do I want to self-diagnose. So, in case he's contagious Kyle won't be going to school today.

Joe won't be going to school today either. He didn't go yesterday, and we had to pick him up before lunch on Monday. Fever, cough, dizziness, crud. The fever is gone, but he was up coughing so much last night  (and the night before) neither of us got any sleep. I told him he could stay home, but that he wasn't going to watch TV all day and if he DID stay home, he had to take a nap this afternoon. He agreed to both... so I KNOW he's not feeling well.

I'll write more about this in the next couple of days, but it's been interesting to me how DIFFERENT Vladik and Mareks are. Not that I expected them to be the same- I mean after all, they're from different countries, Mareks is 3 years older, Vladik didn't speak English, etc.
But the differences are STRIKING.
They're on complete opposite ends of the spectrum in so many ways.
Not that either way is wrong or bad... it's just different, and I hadn't consciously anticipated that.

Most of the Ukrainian kids arrived last night. It pleases me a great deal that Vladik is back in the US for Christmas and with a family who will love on him. I hope they enjoy him as much as we did.