I write this feeling a little melancholy, with tears in my eyes. Iv'e been looking at 'old' pictures of Yankee Stadium for the last hour and my eyes are tired from looking at the screen, hence the tears and I'm feeling a little sad because the pictures were taken, it seems a long ten years ago. It has nothing to do with the fact that my youngest daughter is now seventeen. I know all of you out there believe me. The problem here with me is they grew up real quick. It hasn't been ten years and soon they will be going to college or off to work. I used to laugh that I never changed a diaper, but by not having that experience and adopting them at eight and ten Iv'e missed half of their growing up. Teri and I have tried to make up for it and up until recently, maybe over done it. The hardest part is giving them more freedom, treating them a little more adult like.Letting them go to the Mall, talking about letting them take the bus somewhere, when you know if they get lost they would not be able to tell you where they are.We'd have to find them with the Apple find your phone app. It's a sweet/scary time when your youngest tells you a story about something that happened with a friend and she stands up to someone on a principle that you hope she learned from her parents.
ELENA'S 17th BIRTHDAY
It happens every summer, like it has for just seven short years, the annual Elena Birthday. There was some guilt back in 2008-9 when it took us a little over a year to get the paperwork finished. We had hoped to get to Russia, before Elena's birthday. We got there in September, missing it by a month. I think in the back of our minds we have alway felt a little guilty about that. Plus with the fact that Elena has need a little bit of extra help. Nastia always seemed the type of person who'd survive, Elena, as tough as she has become and earlier, she thought she was, I think the tides of western Russia would of drowned her.
On her seventeenth birthday, my mom commented that she seems to be a bubbly, happy outgoing person. Not like the sullen, brooding person she once seemed, I have high hopes for her.
At Home she was almost alway that first person. Out in the world she put up a wall and you had to prove yourself before she would let you in. Sometimes it was not an easy in, Iv'e got the e-mails from teachers to prove it.
Over the summer, Elena out of the blue said to me that she was going to try these last two years to do better in school. Inside me I leaped for joy, outside I said good.
Her Birthday started this year on Sunday the 6th. We invited Amanda and Nick to join Nancy and us for some dinner and a cake I made from blueberries Nastia and I picked from the blueberry patch (it's a wonderful place, you should come and pick berries next year.) I'd put up netting this year so we got more berries then the birds, it was lots of fun. Sundays gathering was just a warm up, the real thing was to be on Thursday, her birthday. Elena loves wings and ribs and wanted some good wings. Teri said "Well Hooters in New Jersey has good wings" and yes it is called Hooters because the waitress' all wear tight shirts and short shorts.(The previous is for the edification of those in the future who don't know what hooters are.) and the wings, they were good. the location, questionable cleanliness.
The Final part of her birthday was on Friday. She invited some friends over for a swim and pizza. The weather cooperated, but the water was too cold for swimming, so they went to the park for a while, them had some pizza, went swimming again then watched a little TV until Joshua's dad got home from work and picked him up.
