And we have a social security number! And a certificate of citizenship! And a birth certificate!

When it rains, it pours. We got the certificate of citizenship on Friday--late, but better late than never, as they say. I went into the social security office on Monday morning, as soon as it opened. During my last two visits the clerk had been contending that she couldn't issue a number without the certificate of citizenship and a birth certificate, so I brought a printout of the Social Security Administration web page stating otherwise, along with a printout of all our Facebook friends in the Reece's Rainbow adoption group who got a number without a birth certificate. At first she couldn't figure out how to make it work--she's navigating her way through a series of screens with limited options on the computer system--but after some fooling around, she finally got it to go through. This morning I went back to pick it up, and called our social workers with the number before I was out of the parking lot.

Our U.S. birth certificate for Alex arrived Monday, too.

As for Alex, he continues to do very well. He is smiley and content most of the day, enjoying the little things with great glee (like driving a shopping cart made like a car) and interacting with us more normally day by day. He continues to acquire new English words daily, and has been stringing them together in short phrases. We are a long way from being conversational, but it is good to see progress. I keep wondering where his language abilities may plateau out...while we witnessed limited exchanges (in Russian) with adults at the orphanage, they weren't very sophisticated conversations. We'll see.

A couple big milestones: Alex now folds his hands to pray before dinner, and joins in when we say "Amen." I don't think he has any idea whatsoever of the significance of what he's doing, but it is great to see him participating in a group activity. And Lord knows, the little guy is a prayer unto himself in many ways. We see him acting compassionately and empathetically every day.

My other big milestone...he has started watching TV! "Blue's Clues," to be specific. He asks for it by name beginning in the morning: "Boos Coos? Boos Coos? Boos Coos?" (He is very persistent. Very.) It's a strange milestone to mark, given how anti-television I am (I pride myself on the fact that our two-year-old had remained entirely innocent of Blues Clues, Dora the Explorer, Elmo, or any other television programming, for the entirety of his life up until this summer). I think television becomes a substitute for more productive developmental activity for young kids. But in Alex's case, it is interesting to see that he can focus on something so abstract for a while, and apparently get something out of it. On the long plane ride from Germany to Chicago, he had zero interest in the in-flight programming.

Gee, I never thought I'd be singing the praises of Blue's Clues, but there you go.