Barney and Justin Timberlake?!

1. Ana playing her keyboard (a present from Kate, our next door neighbor).
2. Ana meets Bella the Beagle. Instant love.
3. Ana at a tea party at Kidzu, the Chapel Hill children's museum.
4. Papa with Ana and baby Catherine. Ana turned 4 around the same time that Catherine turned 1.
5. Riding the tricycle on Bill and Lia's deck. By the way, those giant running shoes are hand-me-downs from cousin Madigan. Ana wants to wear them every day.
6. It's hard to believe that Ana was scared to death of cats in Ukraine.

[Robin]
I had to laugh this weekend. Phil discovered that we have a channel called "Pre-school on demand." I flipped through various options with Ana, watching: Pingu, Thomas the Train, etc. Guess which one she got excited about---yes, that purple dinosaur strikes again. She jumped up and down and clapped her hands at Barney.

Our house is now filled with lots of repetitive music, as Ana's favorite activities involve two different "piano" keyboards, a leap frog alphabet learning program with sounds/music for each letter, and an electronic sing-a-long book of Disney characters. She does some hilarious dancing/kicking when the music plays. Phil says it looks like modern dance. I say it looks like some sort of Irish jig.

[Phil]
By the way, several people have asked how pre-school is going. The answer is: surprisingly well, all things considered. She usually cries when we drop her off there, but she seems to have bonded well with the teachers. They're great, incidentally. Today they asked for me to write down a few expressions in Russian (phonetically) that would be helpful in dealing with Ana. I wrote down 4 or 5 like "Bathroom?", etc., and then when I picked her up today they had a whole page of expressions they wanted to know. That's dedication.

[Robin]
Ana got to see her fairy room at her Baba's house this weekend. She thought it was really cool and spent a lot of time going back and forth to the room to "collect" new toys--fairy lantern, kaleidescope, etc. She also bonded with Helen's little dog, Bella. She played "mishka" (bear) with her granddaddy Baxter and would scream with delight when he would chase her.

The tea party at Kidzu was somewhat of a success for Ana. She got the opportunity to decorate her own wand and a picture frame. This interested her for about 5 minutes. She then jumped up from the activity table and ran out to get back to her obsession with this matching game that lights up and then "pops" out a dragon if you do the game in the correct order. She also helped Carmen take books off the bookshelves and then restock them. She didn't want to go back and engage in the other tea party games with the other kids until the food came out. Chocolate and pink lemonade were just the enticement her to get back to the group.

Later that night she got to play with Lia and Bill's kids. She had an absolute blast. She has now mastered the tricycle and spent most of her time cruising back and forth on their deck area. She really interacted well with Isabel, much to our delight. Nothing makes Mama happier than a play date with wine in one hand and being able to hang out and just watch her have fun with other kids.

[Phil]
Speaking of Ana's dancing, I forgot to mention that the first American song she ever sang along to in the car was "Damn, Girl" by Justin Timberlake. I was hoping it would be something cool like Superchunk or The Lucksmiths, but alas it was JTimms. Actually, I don't blame her -- it's a great song. Still, this proves that Ana is indeed her mother's daughter.

Also, I would like to pass on the good news that our friend Colleen is spending her last night in Kramatorsk as I write this. Tomorrow she picks up Lily and heads to Kiev to get Vika, her other daughter. Hopefully they'll be in the US by this weekend. Keep them in your thoughts.