Cheerin' on the Cards in Ukraine...

While we won't be able to watch the Louisville Cardinal's first round game tonight since it airs at 3am local time, we'll still be cheering them on in our dreams. We would love nothing more than to have Impellizzeri's Pizza with Dave and Dahbee and then watch the game. Hopefully we'll be able to do that if the Cards are still in the Final 4; I'm sure Daniel would be up for it. We keep holding out hopes that if UL wins tonight, that Sunday's game will be in the early afternoon. If so, we're going to try to watch it live at the internet cafe. Anyhow, congrats to Nina and the other Hilltoppers on their win yesterday.

We spent the lion's share of our visits today with Daniel riding the bike. He's like the Energizer Bunny and rides and rides and rides... So much so that we need to replace one of the training wheels already! Since he's gotten into the NASCAR frame of mind (apparently) - always wanting to go counterclockwise around the circle - the right side wheel is nearly gone. He has really improved his steering and is continually working on building his speed it seems. He is so focused on the bike that he didn't chase that many cats and dogs today - just rode on past them once Papa stepped between him and them.

Speaking of cats, Papa petted one of the cats in the playground today. It had a collar so he figured it was probably somewhat tame. Daniel was quite intrigued and Papa got him within about 3 feet of the critter without him yelling at it or throwing rocks and sticks at it. There was no way the boy was going to pet the kitty but it's progress...

Daniel continually amazes us with his increasing knowledge of English. He completely shocked us today when he spontaneously counted to 5 - in English. Who knows where that came from!?! To make sure he actually understood what he was saying we did a couple of tests and, sure enough, he fully understands that one, two, three, four, and five are digits. Also, today he mastered "puppy", "cat", "bird", "fish", and "bunny". Two days ago he said, "Bye, bye" with no coaxing. Also, "thank-you" and "please" are regularly in his vocabulary. Smart kid!

We're going to try to go to the bowling alley tomorrow afternoon. Yes - there is, in fact, a bowling alley here. Our goal is always to break 100; we'll see - it's been a LONG time since we've thrown balls down a lane.

Otherwise we've been keeping busy with our Bible studies. It's ironic that the topic of Jason's Discipleship study this past week was on being a father. How timely!

Another interesting tidbit of this city's roads - as mentioned before there are massive potholes in the roads. A couple of days ago, there was a work crew filling the holes - with dirt. They had one fellow shoveling in the dirt and another stomping the dirt down. Needless to say, the first rain took care of that "repair". Our driver, Simone, thought it was completely silly and had a good laugh at it.