One Day Passports are Back!!!

And we have one reserved!!!!  I am sooooo happy about this!!  It saves us several days and means we will be home sooner.

Day 7 A Great Visit!

We weren't sure what to expect when we arrived at the orphanage this morning.  We didn't know whether Dasha would be happy to see us or burst out crying again.  Her groupa was in music class when we arrived, so we waited for about 15 minutes until the nannies brought her to us.  As soon as she saw us, she smiled.  She came right over and we gave her hugs and kisses and started playing.  She still loved the bubbles today.  She also really liked the princess cell phone.  We colored a little bit and put stickers all over paper (thanks, Emily!) and blew up a few more balloons.  We also looked at a book that had animals and she was telling us their names in Russian.  I only knew cat (kot) and dog (sabaka).  We gave her a little snack of a few small cookies and a sippy cup of water.  She had no idea how to drink out of the straw on the cup, so I took the lid off.  She downed the entire (full) sippy cup in less than a minute; she was so thirsty.  Tomorrow I'm going to bring her 2 cups of water.  We took her outside and the Bergmans were there with Polina.  Dasha started yelling, "Polina!" as soon as she saw her.  The girls sat together at a little table and played with bubbles and play-doh.  The groupa came outside at one point and Dasha went over to show them her bubbles and then told them, "You go your way, we stay here."  I know that's what she said because our facilitator was with us and she translated.  We had given Dasha a candy bracelet before we went outside and she was sharing 1/2 pieces of candy with Polina and was fine until Polina wanted to eat a whole piece.  She wasn't too happy about that!  She took Norm and I to another playground that didn't really look like it was used much.  We thought that maybe she didn't usually get to go in this area and she wanted to try it out.  Norm pushed her on the swing and made her laugh.  She kept checking behind her to make sure we were following her.  When it was time to say good-bye, she didn't want to let go of the bubbles.  She had a bottle in each hand and I had to pry them away from her.  We gave her more hugs and kisses and told her "paka paka", which means bye-bye.  She started to go with her groupa and then ran back to us.  She gave me a hug and then wanted Norm to pick her up.  He did and she looked him square in the eyes and said something that sounded important, but we don't know what it was.  :(  We were in a hurry to leave because the judge was waiting on us to get to the courthouse to file some papers before he left for lunch, so we had to leave quickly and Dasha watched us get into our car.  We are super excited for tomorrow's visit because we have been invited to a special musical perfomance that her groupa is putting on at 10:00 am for the orphanage staff.

We are still waiting on the mayor of Makiivka to sign something that will allow us to proceed with the adoption.  Until he does this, we can't get a court date or send our paperwork back to the SDA in Kiev.  Apparently he is taking is sweet time because we don't think we'll have it today.  Please pray this comes through tomorrow.

Day 6 Meeting Dasha

Today has been such a great day!  It started off early because we thought our facilitator, Sasha, was coming to our apartment at 8:00 and we wanted to make sure we were ready and on time.  Sasha lives 11 hours away and took an overnight bus to Donetsk.  The bus was running behind and so she never arrived until 9:30.  Then she had to take a quick shower and get ready and we were out the door at 10:00 am.  Our first stop was the social worker's office in Makiivka.  Her name was Natalia and she met with us briefly before accompanying us to the baby house.

This is the building where the social worker's office is located.

On the way to the baby house, Sasha told me that Dasha was supposed to be transferred to a place called Mariupol this morning with two other boys from her orphange.  Oh how thankful I am that we were here today and she did not have to make that change.  As we approached the baby house, I began to recognize the brightly colored playground equipment that I'd seen in so many photos.  We pulled up to the building and there was a group of about 10 kids walking with a nanny.  I immediately spotted Dasha.  I couldn't look at her for very long because Sasha and the social worker were leading us into the building.  We went straight to the deputy director's office.  Her name is Ludmila and she was a very nice lady.  Apparently we would normally have met with the executive director, but that person was on vacation this week.  Ludmila's telephone was ringing off the hook so we just sat nervously waiting for her to finish her calls.  She called for Dasha's file to be brought in and while we waited, she asked us some questions about why we wanted to adopt and she thanked us for coming so far to get Dasha.  Once the file arrived, she began telling us all about Dasha.  We got tons more information then we received during our SDA appointment.  About 5 minutes into the meeting, the door opened and there stood Dasha in different clothes than what I had seen her in just a few minutes earlier.  Ludmila motioned for them to close the door because we weren't ready.  They must have waited outside for us because when we opened the door to go find her, there she was.  There were six adults all staring at this little girl and she just started screaming.  Ludmila picked her up and tried to settle her and I brought her a doll, but she wasn't interested.  Norm suggested getting the bubbles and that did the trick.  She loved them!  I blew some and then let her try.  She was blowing so hard that I was covered in bubble solution pretty quickly.  She warmed up to Norm so fast.  He was acting silly and making her smile by blowing up a balloon and letting it go flying all over the room.  She even gave him a hug!  It was ADORABLE!  We looked at the photo album I made and she was very interested in the pages with Matthew, Sammy and Caleb.  We tried telling her, "Mama, Papa, Dasha" and touching each person as we said the name.  She would nod her head and smile.  We realize she understands none of this, but it was cute.  She is so totally adorable and it took every ounce of control not to squeeze her. :)  When the visit ended, she gave us each a hug.  Sasha asked her if we could come back tomorrow and she nodded her head yes.   We ended up only getting to spend about 25 minutes with her before she had to go eat lunch.  It wasn't long, but we enjoyed every second of it.  Of course, we immediately told them that we wanted to adopt her so we could get the paperwork started today.  Sasha told us that the orphange staff told her they hoped we adopt Dasha because they think Norm looks like her papa.  When we left the baby house we went straight to the notary to have a few papers notarized (yes, we're still notarizing)  and then we were dropped off at our apartment and Sasha continued to work on paperwork all afternoon.  I am so excited for our next visit and can't wait to see Dasha again in the morning. 

Day 5 Donetsk

We arrived in Donetsk early this morning.  The train was just okay.  We didn't sleep that great and it was pretty cramped.  In hindsight, I wish we would have flown.  Getting on and off the train was the first time we felt like we had overpacked.  When I say "we", I mean me, but in my defense I'm here longer than Norm and I have all Dasha's stuff in my bag, too.

The driver was there to meet us this morning as we got off the train.  His name was Boba and he spoke very little English.  The ride to the apartment was weird.  It was maybe a 15 minute ride and  he stopped twice and told us to wait in the car.  The first time, we were parked in an Italian restaurant parking lot and he smoked a cigarette and made a phone call.  The second stop, he backed into the lot of an old building and just walked around.  When he got back in the car, Norm asked him if everything was okay and he said "fine" and drove us to our apartment.  Strange.  The apartment is really nice compared to the one in Kiev.  Jodi, it's your old apartment!  :)  It's much bigger, newer, and cleaner, but I did find a dead roach in one of the bathroom drawers which DOES NOT make me happy.  I absolutely HATE bugs and roaches are the worst!  I have been worried about this since day one of the adoption.  I know it sounds silly, but that's just the way I am.  If I see a live one, I don't know what I'm going to do.  Anyway, back to the apartment.  Boba was disgusted with our inability to lock/unlock the front door of the apartment.  The doors here are heavy duty and so are the locks.  That is a good thing, but it takes some getting used to to figure out how many turns until the thing is locked.  We eventually got it figured out and he left.  We unpacked and took a nap since we didn't sleep well last night. 

Tonight we met Mary and Brad Bergman for dinner.  We are so lucky to have them here in Donetsk adopting from the same orphange.  Their little girl, Polina, is in the same groupa as Dasha.  It was a lot of fun to finally meet Mary since we've been emailing each other for months.

We also Skyped with the kids tonight.  I miss them soooooo much and it seems like it's been forever since we've seen them.   I know we (especially me) still have a long time to go.  It makes me sad, but I am trying to focus on what we have to do here to get home. 

Tomorrow is the day!!  Our facilitator, Sasha, is coming over at 8 am to take us to the orphanage.  We will finally, after 7 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days, meet our little girl!!  We are excited and nervous at the same time.  We will be meeting with the orphanage director and vice director and learning more about Dasha's past and her medical history.  We realize that we are about to rock her world and change everything that is familiar to her.  Tomight will be the last time she goes to sleep not knowing her parents.  Please pray that this little girl is ready to meet us and open to getting a mommy and daddy.

Be sure to check back tomorrow.  I promise I'll post pictures and maybe some video (if I can figure out how).

Day 4 Travel to Region

This morning we woke up early and got ready to head to the Lavra Cave Monastery with another couple who are here in Kiev adopting.  Our driver Eugene was to pick us up at 10:00 but never showed until 11:30.  There was a HUGE bicycle race going on and many streets were closed and he said he couldn't figure out how to get to us via an alternate route, so we waited.  It was a beautiful morning and we sat in the park beside our apartment and watched all the bicyclers. It is so much fun to people watch here.  The monastery was mildly interesting for us.  It is a massive complex of churches, chapels, and caves that are still used to this day.  It is also the headquarters of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.  To go down into the caves, you have to purchase a candle.  It's really tight quarters down there and both Norm and I felt like we were about to be set on fire by the person walking behind us, not to mention the small spaces filled with lots of people made us claustrophobic.  We're glad we went, but it was definitely not our favorite thing we did in Kiev.  After the monastery, we grabbed a quick bite of lunch and headed back to the apartment and started packing up our things.  Eugene and Nico were both back for us around 5:30 to give us the paperwork we needed for the orphanage and to take us to the train station.  The train ride went by quickly.  We left Kiev at 7:20 on Saturday evening and arrived in Donetsk a few minutes after 7:00 on Sunday morning.  We watched a movie and fell asleep pretty quickly, but didn't sleep well.  In fact, I don't think I've had a good night's sleep since we arrived.  I hope that once we get settled in Donetsk we can begin to relax a bit and get some rest.

Some things we have noticed here:

-Ukrainians LOVE their soft serve!  There are little kiosks everywhere and you constantly see people eating cones.  I had one the other day and it was better than the soft serve ice cream at home.  It was much creamier, 
-In addition to soft serve, they also love their PDAs.  I was sitting next to a couple in a pizza place that were definitely beyound second base right there in the restaurant.  Yesterday as we walked on Kreschatyk, Norm saw a couple standing in the middle of the street making out and the guy's hand was up the front of the girl's shirt.
-The grocery store has tight security.  There are guards standing at the in and out doors and posted throughout the store. 
-Overall, the people have been very friendly.  Sure there have been a few that have yelled at us in Russian for something we inadvertently did, but most have gone out of their way to be helpful and nice.
-Out allergies aren't a lot better here than at home.  There is so much cottonwood (at least we think that's what it is) blowing all over Kiev right now.
-EVERYONE smokes here (which isn't helping our allergies, either), but the cigarettes are longer and thinner than the ones in the U.S.

Day 3 Referral

The weather in Kiev is absolutely perfect right now.  It's so beautiful here!  This morning we visited the FC Dynamo stadium.  This is Kiev's soccer team.  They don't give tours of the stadium, so we could only walk around and take some pictures.  When we got back, we walked to the souvenir stands near the SDA.  They sell all kinds of chachkes here like t-shirts, key chains, soccer jerseys, magnets, matryoshka dolls, etc.  We spent some time browsing before meeting up with Lisa and Terry Brown and the other driver named Eugene.  Lisa and Terry are another Reece's Rainbow family and they're here adopting two little boys with Down syndrome.  Then the five of us went into the SDA and picked up our referrals. This meant handing them our passports, them recording something in a book, us signing next to it, and them handing us our translated dossier and a referral letter.  This all took less than 10 minutes.  Once we were done at the SDA, Eugene drove us to buy our train tickets for Sunday night.  The train station was a nightmare.  It took over two hours to buy the tickets and they didn't even have what we needed.  They were sold out of all tickets for Sunday night, so we had no choice but to go Saturday night.  Then, and we still don't understand this, we were charged almost double for the tickets.  We quickly figured out that poor Eugene is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so Norm called Nico to try and figure out what in the heck was going on.  He didn't know, but agreed the tickets were overpriced.  He told us to buy them because otherwise we risked not getting them, so we did.  Once that fiasco was over, we headed back to our apartment and then to dinner.  We had read about an Italian place called Il Patio that sounded good.  We walked down Kreschatyk St., which is the main street of Kiev, looking for the place.  As we walked, we stopped to buy a phone card and a homeless girl pushed me because I wouldn't give her any money.  We have given to numerous beggars since we've been here, but tonight we had only brought enough money for dinner and the phone card.  Although I didn't appreciate being pushed, I felt bad about not giving her anything and, in retrospect, wish I had.  She obviously needed it more than I did.  Anway, we finally found the restauant.  For those of you coming to Kiev, it's right next door to TGI Friday's.  In fact, the two restaurants are connected and share a bathroom.  It was really, really good and I would highly recommend it.  They even have an English menu, which was a bonus! Today was the last day of school for kids in Ukraine and there was a party atmosphere in the city.  All day long we saw kids walking around all dressed up and wearing sashes across their chest.  Tomorrow is what's called Kiev Day and we were told that the city will be packed.  Apparently the celebrating started early because as we were walking home from dinner, we saw a huge concert taking place at Independence Square.  There were thousands of people dancing and cheering.  Once we got back to our apartment, we could sill hear the concert.  Then fireworks started going off so we went our on our balcony and got to see a great fireworks display.  Tomorrow we are waking up early and going to see the Lavra Cave Monastary with another Reece's Rainbow family.  It's the #1 tourist attraction in Ukraine, but I don't really get what it is.  I guess I'll find out tomorrow.  After that, we're going to come home, pack up, and head for the train station.  I can't believe that soon we'll be in the same city (well, almost) as Dasha and that we will finally meet her on Monday!! 

I doubt I'll post tomorrow since we'll be on the train, but I'll be back on Sunday and then Monday with PICTURES!!  :)

Day 2 SDA Appointment

Last night I set two travel alarm clocks and our cell phone alarm because I was so worried about oversleeping and being late for our SDA appointment.  I shouldn’t have worried about it because I didn’t sleep well at all.  I was awake several times an hour checking the clock.  I finally got up at 7:00 and got ready.  Our apartment is about a 5-10 minute walk from the SDA and our driver, Nico, walked us there.  I had some concerns about whether or not Dasha would be available due to several factors.  International adoptions are on shakey ground right now in Ukraine and lots of changes are about to take place.  We met with Serge (our facilitator) right before walking into the SDA and he lead us up to the office.  We sat on a little couch and he introduced us to the psychologist.  I could see she had Dasha’s “file”, which was several pieces of paper inside a sheet protector.  There was a picture of her stapled on the back.  They asked if we came for Daria's referral and we said yes.  I felt so much relief at this moment because I knew this all meant that she was cleared for international adoption.  The psychologist wanted us to tell a bit about ourselves and why we wanted to adopt.  Then she started reading Dasha’s file and told us about her health status, her personality, and her family.  We found out she has two older brothers who are in the custody of their grandmother.  This little girl was destined to have brothers and lots of them!  That was pretty much the appointment.  All total, it took 5 minutes.  We walked outside and Nico was still there, so Norm and his new BFF stood and talked for a long time.  Oh, one other thing.  They gave us the picture they had of Dasha in her SDA file.  I didn’t even have to ask.  They just pulled it out, shoved it at me and yelled at me to hide it.   I wasn’t expecting it but certainly didn’t argue. 

We headed home to email and let everyone know about our appointment, but the electricity in our apartment was out.  Apparently there was a city wide power outage.    We decided to take a walking tour of Kiev.  We found a company online who does free tours of the city in English (http://www.freetours.kiev.ua).  Our tour guide was a college student who was super knowledgeable about the city.   She took us all through ancient Kiev.  One thing that struck me was how many churches this city has.  There are something like 300 of them.  The government has spent so much money rebuilding or restoring many of them to their original condition.  I can’t help but wonder why when this country has so many social problems the government chooses to spend its money fixing up old churches so tourists can walk through them.  Doesn’t make a lot of sense.   There were two other guys on the tour with us.  One was from Argentina so he and Norm had a lot to talk about (Norm’s family is Argentinean).  Once the tour ended we went to lunch with the tour guide and the two others at a Ukrainian buffet.  We weren’t that hungry so we only had pierogies and some bread, but it was good.  I love how all the English speaking Ukrainians pronounce buffet like Jimmy Buffet.  Believe me, I am not making fun of them.  English speaking Ukrainians are my very favorite people right now!  J

After lunch we headed home and took a nap.  I never take naps, so it was kind of nice.  I don’t think I’m caught up on sleep yet, especially since I didn’t sleep that great last night.  I think I’m going to take something tonight to help with that problem. 

We have to go back to the SDA tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 pm to pick up Dasha’s referral.  After that, we’re going to buy our train tickets for the 12 hour trip to her region on Sunday night.  She’s in Donetsk, which is in southeast Ukraine.  The region borders Russia. Serge said he’s going to see if they’ll let us come a day early, in which case we’ll be traveling on Saturday night.  I doubt that happens, but we’ll see.  In the meantime, we’re going to spend the next few days checking out Kiev. 

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us to have a successful appointment today.  I am so grateful things are going well and working out as we hoped.  I really feel in my heart that this little girl was meant to be in our family and we are literally counting the hours until we get to meet her. 

Day 1 Travel and Arrival

I wrote this last night but didn't get the chance to post it.

Our trip so far is going exactly as planned.  The flights were fine and we were able to make all connections without a problem.  I fly fairly often, but I always have my kids with me, so to be able to sit on a plane and sleep, read, and watch movies was a treat!  On our long flight to Germany, I chatted quite a bit with the lady seated next to me.  She asked me where we were going and why and I was telling her about Dasha and our adoption.  She (very seriously) told me that she had done something similar.  Once she drove 5 hours to Detroit to adopt a West Highland Terrier.  LOL  Even though she obviously didn’t quite get it, she was a sweet lady and kept me entertained for most of the flight.

Things went fine at the airport in Kiev.  Our driver Nico was there to pick us up and helped us exchange some money.  As we were leaving the airport, I asked him a question but he didn’t understand it.  He said he’s not so good at English and mostly speaks Spanish.  Norm speaks Spanish, so the two of them immediately began chatting away.  We noticed how much more helpful and friendly Nico was when we (well, one of us anyway) spoke the same language.  I sat in the back of the van and enjoyed the hour ride from the airport to our apartment.  The apartment is in a great location.  We are less than ½ mile (about a 5 minute walk) from Independence Square, which is the center of downtown Kiev.  The building is located literally right next door to St. Michael’s cathedral.  The inside is pretty much what we expected.  It’s very basic, but clean.  It does have air conditioning…yay!  The building has an elevator that I refuse to use.  I have visions of getting stuck and nobody finding us, so we’re walking the four flights of steps.  It’s good exercise.  J  After getting settled, we ventured out for something to eat.  We were headed to a café Nico told us about and had to cross the busy intersection via an underground walkway.  As we entered the walkway, we came across an entire underground mall!  We found the food court and since we were hungry and tired, we just decided to find something to eat there.  We ended up getting chicken, mashed potatoes and a crepe filled with shredded chicken.  We found it kind of tricky to order the food because we didn’t really know what most of the things were and you can’t figure out anything by looking at the Russian word.  We’re trying to stay away from McDonald’s and TGI Friday’s, but it’s so tempting when you see something familiar and in English! 

After dinner, we found a small grocery store.  So different than at home.  There were about 4 or 5 small connected rooms and each had something different.  One was dairy, one was meat, another was alcohol, and another was packaged things.  We just picked up some water, yogurt, and a sweet roll for breakfast.  We hope to find a bigger store with more variety.

We came back to our apartment and were able to Skype with our boys at home and my mom and grandparents.   Before we left, I taught Matthew and Sam how to log in to Skype and find me or send me a message.  When I logged on tonight, I found a message from Sam (he’s 5).  It said momihowpzatursafendurhapeyandiloveyoo.  Translated, that says, “Mom, I hope that you’re safe and you’re happy and I love you.”  How sweet is that?  I love my Sammy! 

Tomorrow morning is our SDA appointment.  I’m so glad we didn’t arrive a day early.  I don’t think I could stand the suspense!

Paka Dana in Eastern Europe!! Preevyet Dasha in Ukraine!!

Finally the blog is private and I can share more information!  If you haven’t figured it out by now, we’re in Kiev, Ukraine.  Dana’s real name is not Dana, it is Daria.  The nickname for Daria is Dasha and that is what she is called at her orphanage.  We are planning to rename her Rachel Daria.  We will call her Dasha as long as she wants/needs us to since we’re not looking to make more changes than absolutely necessary for her right now.  For those of you not familiar with the the adoption process in Ukraine, it works like this.  We travel to Kiev for an appointment with the SDA, which is the government’s adoption ministry.  At this appointment we let them know we want to adopt Dasha (so far, check).  The following day we pick up the referral that gives us permission to travel and meet her (we do that tomorrow).  Then we take a train to her region of the country.  She’s near a city called Donetsk.  Once we get to Donetsk we will meet her and tell them that yes, we want to adopt her.  Our regional facilitator will start the paperwork process and work on getting us a court date.  We don’t know how long it will take to get a date, but we’re praying it’s quickly.  All the while, we can be visiting Dasha everyday and getting to know her.  Once we have court, we have a 10 day wait before we can take Dasha out of the orphanage.  We are allowed to stay and continue visiting daily with her or we can go home.  The plan is that I’m staying and Norm is going home to be with our other kids.  Once the 10 days is up, we’ll take her out and she and I will head back to Kiev for a couple appointments at the US Embassy.  Then we are free to go HOME!!!  That’s the process in a nutshell.  I don’t know exactly how long it will take, but I’m obviously hoping things move quickly.  I miss my boys and don’t want to be away from them one day longer than I have to.

SDA Appointment

Our appointment went GREAT!!!  I'm sorry I haven't posted sooner.  There was a city wide power outage here and we have a land line modem that must be plugged in to get internet.  We're going to get some dinner and when we get back I'll post a full report.  I'll probably turn on the privacy setting so the blog will be private for the next post. 

We made it!

After a full 24 hours of traveling, we are now in Dana's country!  We even managed to get some groceries, find an underground mall with a big food court, and order some dinner.  We're exhausted and can't wait to get some sleep!  Our SDA appointment is tomorrow morning at 9 am.  Please pray it goes well.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Almost every adoption blog I have read has a post with this title and this is mine.  :)

First of all, thank you to everyone who commented on the last post!  My goodness, I never knew I had so many sweet readers!  :)  I'm very flattered that so many people want to follow along on our journey and I am eternally grateful for the prayers and well wishes.  I'm not sure when I'll change the privacy setting, but it won't be for a few more days so if anybody else wants me to add them, I still have room for you!

Tomorrow is the big day!  I have been crying pretty much all day today.  So many emotions and I just can't seem to keep it together.  On a brighter note, we are almost packed, which is good because our flight leaves in about 12 hours.  The packing for this trip has taken weeks and weeks.  I can't wait to zip up the suitcase and hit the road!  Dana, here we come!

Going Private

I know I haven't posted much lately.  I've been soooo busy getting ready to leave.  Too busy, really.  I don't think I've ever had so much to do and so little time to do it.  It's definitely been very overwhelming and stressful but it's all coming to an end very soon because, ready or not, we get on a plane Tuesday morning and fly to Eastern Europe.  It's feels so surreal that after all these months of planning, preparing and dreaming, the time has finally arrived to go get our girl.  We are really praying that we don't encounter any surprises when we arrive in Dana's country.  There are a few things surrounding this adoption right now that really concern me, but since they are out of my control I'm trying to let go of the worry and just trust that God is in control.  I know that whatever happens is what is meant to be.  Right now, we need prayer for three things.  First, please pray that our flights are all on time.  We do not have much wiggle room if one of them runs late or we miss a connection.  We obviously don't want to miss our appointment.  Second, please pray that Dana is still at her orphanage and we are able to get the referral without any problems.  Finally, please pray for our boys who are staying at home with family.  They are seven, five, and (almost) two and have never been away from me for more than a few nights (my little guy, Caleb, has NEVER been away from me).  This is going to be hard on them.  They know why we are going and are willing to make the sacrifice, but still, they're going to miss their mom and dad (and we're going to miss them).

I'm going to be making my blog private in a few days.  I went back and forth on this (hence the late notice), but ultimately decided that if I want to blog freely, I'd have to go private.  If you want me to add you so you can read, leave me a comment with your name and email address.  I won't publish the comments.

A Date for Dana

I realize I'm not a very good blogger.  We hit a major milestone in our adoption journey this past Wednesday and I didn't even post about it.  We received our appointment date!  We'll be traveling to Dana's country in 17 days!  Hang on a few more weeks, D!  We're coming to get you!!!

Snow Who?

This afternoon Sam was keeping me company as I did some cleaning.  He was playing around with a little Snow White doll and cottage that somebody gave us for Dana.  He kept calling the Snow White doll "this girl" and I finally told him that she wasn't just a girl, she was Snow White.  He looked at me and said, "Huh?"  I repeated myself and said, "You know...Snow White."  He said (totally seriously), "Yeah, I know snow is white."  I didn't realize until then that he has no clue who Snow White is.  I didn't bother to fill him in.  I'll let Dana do it later.  :)  We're obviously not big on princesses around here, but I have a hunch that our three boys are going to get a crash course in all things princess very soon!