Happy dozeday

Which is as close as we got to "happy birthday". Our little "princess" has now been here exactly two months and celebrated her first birthday (her 11th) here in America last Friday. But let me back up a little...

The last two months have included a lot of firsts for Anastasia - new holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas and new years American style, and her birthday. It has also included starting school, of course. We got Anastasia into the school starting Thanksgiving week. This was a nice introduction since it was a short week. Not sure if I should be naming names, so I'll follow the same rules I did in Ukraine - without permission, I won't do it. But let me tell you - the teacher has been fantastic! Anastasia is in a normal class, but gets pulled out a couple times a week for ESL. We were also told that she would have access to Rosetta Stone in the classroom. I'm not clear whether this has really happened or not, but there are definitely some computer programs that she uses to learn English. Between the immersion and the classroom instruction, there is not much that gets past her at this point. She can also almost always get her point across. This continues to be more true with her mother. Nsatiya and I still have our moments where we're two ships passing - she and Sue seem to have a psychic link. It's that girl thing.

One of the funnier moments of the acclimation process occurred one morning at breakfast. We were discussing an upcoming ski trip. We described going to the mountains and getting to the snow. During the discussion, Anastasia effectively asked, “when will it snow here?” Since we live in San Jose, of course the answer was “never”.  Obviously this discussion went more along the lines of “nyet snow”. “Vot???” Followed by the most shocked and dismayed expression I’ve ever seen on a 10-year old face. Apparently this idea had never crossed Anastasia’s mind before. We promised she would see snow when we went skiing. The funniest part was that when we got to Reno, she wanted to spend all her time in the hotel pool and didn’t really want to go skiing. I even found a Russian-speaking instructor for her! So Connor and I skied and Sue and Nastiya swam.

We do still get the pouting from time to time. There are times when corrections are not appreciated. But these are fewer and father in between as Nastiya gets used to the house rules and the cultural differences.

So finally we arrive at the party last Friday. Practically since Anastasia has been going to school, she has been telling us that her best friend at school has the same birthday. It's been amazing - the teacher assigned this girl to help Nastiya, and we thought she was doing all the things she was doing because she had been assigned the task. But Nastiya talked about a party from the day she learned that they had the same birthday, and in the process we found out that her friend was indeed a friend. It's been amazing seeing how fast Nastiya makes friends.

Sue was terrified as she was arranging the party. Girl party??? But we’ve had a BOY for 16 years! Fortunately we have a neighbor with two girls bracketing Nastiya’s age. Thank God for good neighbors! All the sudden I see pink stuff – lots of pink stuff – coming into my house. Napkins, frosting, you name it.

The party was a hit. Anastasia loves the princess theme, as did her guests. I think one of the best parts was her brother. Connor agreed to dress in his white shirt, red bow tie and black vest to act as “The Princess’s Personal Butler”. For part of the party, Sue gave Nastiya a bell. When she rang the bell, Connor came running and said “Yes, Princess Anastasia – what may I get for you?” This was a complete hit at the table. Of course, all good things must come to an end – Connor stole the bell, went into his room and locked the door.