Day Without Mama

1. Ana and her cousin helping her with the Princess Shoes.
2. Ana on the rocking horse.
3. Ana spoon-feeding Lola. (!)
4. Ana and Aunt Helen on the swings.
5. Ana coming out of the slide.

[Phil]
Ana is taking a nap right now (Hallelujah!), so I have at least a few minutes to update the blog. Somehow we managed to survive yesterday without Robin, but I think both my mom and I were exhausted by the end of the day. We also had a lot of help from Carmen, who became our de facto chauffeur since she has her nephew's child seat in her car. She took us to Target in the afternoon, and Ana went completely bonkers (in a good way) when she saw all the children's clothes and shoes. To say that she has never seen anything like a SuperTarget in Kramatorsk is a major understatement. I'm pretty sure she has no idea about private property in general. In fact today at the playground, I could see that she didn't understand why she couldn't also play with the other children's Big Wheels -- in the orphanage, all toys are shared.

After the Target trip, we eventually went over to Bill and Lia's house for Ana's first official play date. Earlier in the morning she had hurt her hip when she landed wrong jumping from her stool, but when I told her that they have a slide ("horka") at their house, she immediately wanted to go. Carmen again provided the transportation, and as usual, Ana was asleep in the car seat within 5 minutes. We woke her up, however, and as we took her to the backyard, I could tell that she was mesmerized by Isabel and Lee's "fort". Isabel asked me to tell her that it was a special members' only club, but that she was invited. Did she want to come up? Ana nodded "yes", and I put her up on the 2nd level. Despite the left groin injury (she's listed as Probable for Sunday), Ana gamely when down the slide a few times, before we all went inside for some popcorn (yum!), fish sticks (she shook her head at them), and general frivolity. Lia told her to go look through the toy chest in the den. The first thing she pulled out was a toy cellphone (you can take the girl out of Ukraine...). She loved it immediately. Lia asked Isabel if she'd be willing to give it to her, and she said yes. Ana smiled and said "Spasibo", and Carmen ferried us home to meet Robin, who had just returned from the airport. Ana was very happy to see Mama, as were the rest of us!

More later,
Phil