A few new photos

1. Ana in a kitten hat that Robin brought back from China
2. Ana playing "butterfly"
3. Ana's close-up photo of Lola
4. Ana building a city in Carmen's living room

A year ago this week

Photos:
1. Lola's 10th birthday treat
2. Our shrimp boil feast at the beach
3. The Girls at the pool in Pine Knoll Shores
4. Ana on the beach (with papa's sunglasses)

[Phil]
I just looked at our oldest blog entry, and it was a year ago this week (July 26th) that we first went to Ukraine. It seems so long ago. For the sake of comparison, here is our first post from Kiev last summer, after we had been there for a couple of days.

At that time, we could not have possibly imagined what awaited us. We knew theoretically that we might have to make 2 trips, but we had no idea what the actual implications were: the expense (!), the stress, the feeling of helplessness, the red tape, etc. But at the same time, I feel a lot of nostalgia when I look at those photos and read those words that we typed. I think a lot of it has to do with Walker Percy's ideas in his book Lost in the Cosmos about how day-to-day life shuts one off from actual living, and how novelty and even, let's say, stressful experiences make you feel more alive. I remember an example he uses that goes something like this:

Imagine you are on a tour of Greece with your alumni group. You have had a big breakfast of all your favorite foods in your hotel that morning. You are driven to the Parthenon in an air-conditioned bus, with an English-speaking guide who points out all the interesting landmarks and gives you a concise and entertaining description of each one. Now you are let off the bus to take a tour of the Parthenon. You take a cursory look around but feel bored. Question: Can you see the Parthenon?

He then goes on to write:
"Imagine you are a NATO colonel defending Greece against a Soviet attack.
You are in a bunker in downtown Athens. A missile attack is under way. Half
a million Greeks are dead. Two missiles bracket the Parthenon. The next
will surely be a hit. Between columns of smoke, a ray of golden light catches
the portico. Are you bored ? Can you see the Parthenon?"

Okay, that whole digression (besides revealing my love of Walker Percy - please read his essay "On Bourbon") was just to explain, maybe to myself, why I still have such great memories of Ukraine. For the most part every day was a new adventure, be it good or bad. And we were way out of our comfort zones (for example, take our first apartment, which we promptly flooded on the first day, since we had no idea how a "bathroom washing machine" worked). Nevertheless, I'll never forget us watching "Hour of Justice" on Russian TV every afternoon, Robin getting her daily latte at "Kofe Khauz", or our afternoons spent reading Harry Potter books in our tiny sleeping nook to pass the time until we could go blog at Le Borsch. Granted, I may have more pleasant memories of the first trip since the second was so hectic (Mission: Get Anastasia). But nevertheless, I actually miss Ukraine and would love to go back to Kiev with Ana and Robin one day in the not-too-distant future. I might even take our first apartment, now that we know how to do our laundry.

Okay, back to the present. It's been almost a month since we've updated the blog. Since then we've had Lola's birthday, my birthday, another trip to the beach, Ana's moving to a new class, and Isabel's (my goddaughter) 7th birthday:

Lola's 10th birthday party was a lot of fun, and featured THREE vizslas, a puppy, numerous humans, and a birthday cake (one of Ana's favorite things). Then a couple of weeks later, we had my birthday. Carmen was nice enough to invite us to the beach for that weekend, so we had another fun couple of days at Pine Knoll Shores, featuring many of the same activities as last time (lunch at the Shark Shack, Ana in the swimming pool, beachcombing, dancing around the condo to old R&B on the ipod speakers). This time, however, we also had an awesome shrimp boil on Friday night, a great birthday dinner at Scotch Harbor and a pretty hilarious "jazz brunch" at DJ Shooters. We had tried to have breakfast at the very old-school restaurant in the Ramada Inn, but it seems as if there's no more Ramada Inn! What happened to it? If anyone knows, please tell me. We saw a suspiciously drab-looking Sheraton and thought that maybe it had taken over the Ramada, so Robin drove the car into the lot and asked the parking attendant "Did this used to be a Ramada Inn?" He said, "Ma'am, I really have no idea." She then asked, "Does it have a restaurant with, like, breakfast and rope?" "Breakfast and rope?" He looked genuinely puzzled, but I happen to speak "Robin", so I leaned over from the passenger side and said, "A nautical-themed restaurant." We all had a good laugh about it later (like 2 minutes later), but we never did find our breakfast-and-rope restaurant.

A brief update on Ana:
Likes: Little Bear (TV series based on the M. Sendak books); Enchanted (Disney movie with Amy Adams - I'm hearing "Happy Working Song" in my sleep); Robin Hood (the very 70's Disney animated version with Peter Ustinov doing the voice of the evil prince); Isabel's birthday party with the giant (really giant) slip and slide; her new class (Classroom 1), which has the oldest students in the Y preschool - 4 and 5 year-olds; singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "The Wheels on the Bus"; swimming in the pool with her float; free samples at the grocery (especially cheese); teasing Lola; pizza.

Dislikes: Bedtime; any TV show I want to watch; not letting her talk on the phone to my clients; plain old water instead of juice; being asked to entertain herself; bugs; english muffin pizzas; not being able to wear flip flops to school.

Until next month,
Phil

Brimming with Confidence

1. The girls of the pack together on a Saturday morning
2. Ana and Robin feeding baby carrots to the fainting goats at Fearrington Village

(by the way, that's an electric fence, no joke)
3. Ana singing to the beat of her own drummer. We still don't know what to call this song. I call it "Macher", which sounds like what she's saying, but I know for a fact that she speaks no German. If any of you have an idea, please leave a comment! In any case, it's an AWESOME song.

Brimming with Confidence

[Phil]

That's the way I would describe Ana since her surgery, especially in the last week or so. She has a much better command of English now, she likes to "say hi" to everyone, and she tries to push our boundaries as much as possible (although not in a bad way, really). Looking back at the earlier blog entries from Kramatorsk, it's hard to believe that it's the same person. Without a doubt, the main difference is her ability to communicate with everyone. Not everyone (including us) can understand everything she says, but since the surgery she can say many basic phrases very clearly and distinctly. In fact, she likes to talk on the phone as much as possible. This used to be an exercise in futility, but now she can say "Hi, Helen!" in crystal-clear English and then at least carry on some semblance of a conversation (especially if you ask her yes-or-no questions). I'm sure the rest will come in due time.

In other news, this weekend will be the 10th birthday of our dog, Lola. As you may recall from earlier posts, in Ukraine Ana was scared to death of both dogs and cats, but once she was got here she quickly warmed up to Lola and now they're fast friends. In fact, Friday afternoon I went looking around the house for Lola and found her curled up on Ana's bed with her head resting on Ana's discarded pajamas. To me it meant that Lola definitely considers Ana part of our pack now, and more importantly, wants to be near her. And tonight when Lola went upstairs to go to sleep, she actually went into Ana's room instead of ours! I never would have thought any of this could have happened when we first brought Ana home. She was literally terrified of Lola. But, as can be seen from the older blog entries, they both eventually came around due to some bribing and prodding from me and Robin. In any case, this is a long introduction simply to announce that we're actually having a 10th birthday party for Lola on Saturday, and our friend Jack (who did our beautiful wedding invitations) made a great invitation to the party, which can be seen here:

Lola Invitation

In much less important news, our beloved Oranje of the Netherlands lost to Russia in the quarterfinals of the European Cup. Now there's no question who I'm supporting: Onward Russia!

That's all for now. We'll update again with photos from Lola's party next weekend.

Brief update and a few new photos

1. Ana, Aunt Helen, and Bella.
2. Ana's portrait of Jack and cookout detritus.
3. Yeah, so Ana beat me and Robin in straight sets that morning. How embarrassing.
4. Robin and Ana at the Flying Burrito on Thursday night. Yes, they have reopened!

[Phil]
Ana's still doing well in her recovery from surgery. We have an appointment this Thursday for the surgeon to see how she's doing, but I feel confident it will be fine. I'm hoping that the doctor will give us the green light to return to normal food -- even I'm getting tired of ice cream and macaroni and cheese!

Robin leaves next weekend for her association's annual conference, so it will just be me, Ana, and Lola for a few days, but things are now much easier than when we first came back from Ukraine. We have our daily routines, favorite books and movies, etc., that make day-to-day life so much easier. That said, I'm not sure how many more times I can watch the "Cars" DVD, even though it's pretty awesome for a kids' movie. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we've watched it (or had it on in the background) for at least 10 times this weekend. I think I'm going to hear that "Tow-mater" character in my sleep...

Home from the Hospital / Photos from Atlantic Beach

1. Ana in her room at UNC Children's Hospital a few hours after surgery. Note her pink monkey on the IV stand.
2. Sleeping angel.
3. Beaufort waterfront.
4. Atlantic Beach.
5. Ana singing unknown song as we drive over Radio Island.

[Phil]
Just a brief update about Ana. First of all, thank you to everyone who sent their good thoughts and wishes for Ana's surgery and speedy recovery. So far she's doing just great. She definitely seems to have some occasional pain in her mouth, but the oxycodone every 4 hours works wonders, especially on her mood! The only real side-effect of the surgery that I've noticed is that she has to blow her nose A LOT. We've probably been through a couple of boxes of tissues already. Ana has been mostly good-spirited through all of this, but as a child who loves her food (and is picky about what she eats), she is definitely tiring of soft foods like apple sauce, mushed-up baked beans, yogurt, etc. I think she's even tired of ice cream. We're going to have to get creative with our cuisine if this food prohibition is going to last for another 10 days. We were also warned repeatedly to keep Ana from touching her mouth, but so far this hasn't been a problem. We tried to put the soft arm restraints on her at night (they just keep her from inadvertently touching her mouth during sleep), but she really couldn't sleep with them on. Instead, Robin put her hands in mittens that she pinned to her pj top. This seems to be working well and during the day she's fine without them. So overall I would say things are going much better than I expected.

I have also included a couple of photos from a fun beach trip that we went on with our friend Carmen the weekend before the surgery. It was Ana's first experience seeing the ocean, and the look on her face was priceless. I could only describe it as "awe". I'll let Robin tell more about the beach trip. Right now I have to go puree some more beans. :-)

[Robin]
Ana, not unlike many children, was really frightened by the waves at the beach. She spent much of her time trying to herd us away from the ocean with "Careful, Mama!" She also was very apprehensive about getting her hands and feet "dirty" in the sand. She finally came to grips with it once we put a bucket of sea water next to our sand castle area, allowing her to dip and rinse as the mood struck her. The one ocean-related thing she really did like was searching for seashells. We had a great time picking them up, washing them off and selecting the winners to come home. She now has a beautiful selection of shells on her nightstand.

She also really enjoyed the State Aquarium. She loved watching the fish darting back and forth and the river otters swimming up to the front of the tank to say hi.

Lastly, clam strips were a surprise food hit with Ana. She ate them like popcorn and went through an enormous amount.

[Phil]
(I also liked the clam strips)

Surgery was Successful

Ana's doing fine. She's in bed at the hospital with Mama. I came home to feed Lola but will be heading back there soon. I should have an internet connection there if anyone wants to email.

More details later,
Phil

Belated Update

1. Ana's preschool class
2. Ana lifting weights with one of the Carol Woods residents
3. Ana and Papa dancing at the first Carolina Inn bluegrass show of the season
4. Ana and her friend Cole
5. VIDEO: Ana singing her ABC's


[Phil]
Okay, so we haven't really updated this in a while. I suppose we've been too busy with work and parenting. The good news is that Ana has been doing great. She's speaking a lot more English now, the downside of which is that she seems to have forgotten a lot of Russian. The only Russian words she ever says now are "konfyetka" (candy) and "soak" (juice). It's kind of odd, because all the rest of the food words she says in English. For example, on the way home from school the other day, I asked her what her favorite foods are. She replied, "pasta, cheese, pizza, konfyetka, banan (I forgot, she still says that in Russian as well), apple (pronounced "ah-POOL"), and chicken." She's definitely not on a low-carb diet! In any case, we're able to communicate much better with her these days, except that her new favorite word is "why". For example, we had this conversation when I picked her up at school yesterday:

Ana: Where's Mama?
Me: She's at work.
Ana: Why?
Me: Everyone has to work.
Ana: Why?
Me: To make money.
Ana: Why?
Me: To buy food to eat.
Ana: Why?
Etc., etc.

People tell us this is typical 4 year-old behavior.

Ana has also learned to recognize and name all the letters of the alphabet, thanks to Robin. Every night they read the Dr. Seuss ABC book and every morning they go over their letters during breakfast. It's totally amazing to me, considering that she didn't even have a concept of an alphabet just a few months ago. Now we're moving on to actually writing the letters and making words. Since she'll have one more year of preschool, I'm confident that she'll be ready for kindergarten next year. The next thing we need to tackle is arithmetic. She can more or less count to 20 and likes to count things, but we haven't attempted to teach her addition and subtraction yet. All in good time!

As for fun, Ana has really been enjoying gymnastics, and her coaches are really impressed with her strength. She's not too crazy about the other kids, however, so it's usually just she and I playing together. Her favorite things are the rings, the trampoline, and the springboard (or vault, or whatever you call it). She also really loves putting chalk on her hands, although I'm not sure she knows the purpose of it! Besides gymnastics, she also enjoys riding her bike, walking Lola, kicking the soccer ball, blowing bubbles, and playing with her toy golf set. She's also crazy about jigsaw puzzles. Her first one was a wooden puzzle of the United States, and she's gotten so good at it that I swear she could do it strictly by feel. She doesn't even really look at the colors of the states anymore -- she knows the shapes instantly. It's a humbling experience to do the puzzle with her! She also likes books a lot. She often mimics her schoolteacher and pretends to read us one of her books, to the point of shushing us when we talk and making us raise our hands, I kid you not. Robin has been the main one involved in the reading, so I'll let her talk about Ana's favorite books.

[Robin]
Ana and I usually read three books each night before going to sleep. She picks the books out and then we snuggle on her bed and read them to one another. She particularly likes Harold and the Purple Crayon, the Dr. Seuss ABC book, Messy Mark, a Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book, and a "scratch and sniff" Christmas book. Phil and Ana went to the library recently and he let her pick out some books--it was funny because she came home with a number of dog-related books. I guess that is a good indication that she really likes Lola.

Ana's school is really great. It is so ethnically diverse -its like a little U.N. She tells us her favorite friends are a little Russian girl, Marina, and a Chinese girl, Claire, in her class. She comes home every day with art projects to share with us --most go on our fridge as display items. On Mother's Day she brought home the cutest card for me. They apparently asked her a series of questions and her answers were written on the card...it went like this:
How old is your mom: 27 (!yes!)
What does she do for work: She drives a car.
What do you like to do with your mom: Ride bikes.
What do you like about your mom: She makes me pasta. She loves me.
It went on..it was so heart-breakingly precious.
One of Ana's teachers had a baby recently and this was super curious to the kids in her class. Ana spent a lot of time playing that she was having a baby--- showing us her belly and putting "babies" under her shirts.

[Phil]
Finally, we should mention that Ana will be having surgery next Wednesday, May 21, to repair the remaining gap in her palate (called a 'fistula') and to put tubes in her ears. The reason for the tubes is that her hearing is being impaired by fluid buildup in her ear canal, which is typical for cleft palate children. In fact, the ENT doctor told us that tubes are used in 99 out of 100 cleft palate children. Right now her hearing is impaired to the point that she would need hearing aids if she were an adult. Once she has the tubes installed, her hearing (and consequently her speech) should improve dramatically. Right now we don't know the details of the surgery, except that she will only stay one night in the hospital. We have a pre-surgery appointment the day before, so we'll update the blog then.

Speaking of the blog, we'll probably change it to 'invitation only' pretty soon. Once that happens just send me an email and I'll send you an invitation. We just want to avoid the spammers and other riff-raff.