Now it’s your happy birthday to you

I was told a few days before my birthday that at school all Nastia was talking about was soon it would be Papa’s birthday. I’d had fifty odd before this one so I was less impressed then she was.
The morning of my birthday I decided to sleep in a few minutes so I lay in bed with the over head light casting a yellow glow over the first few hours of my fifty-second birthday.
Teri had gotten up to shower and I had about five minutes to myself before I would get the girls up.
I hear what has become their telltale whispers, it’s a hissing sound like a fly buzzing by your ear just before it decides if it is going to dive into that dark hole and someone talking on the other side of a door telling your wife news that they don’t want you to hear but they don’t know how to whisper.
The door swings open and in walks Nastia and Elena. Both just stand there for a moment. Nastia with the goofy grin, you know the one that shows up only when she is so happy she doesn’t have enough face to keep it all in and Elena next to her all smiles too, except she has it more under control being a little more reserved then her sister. They both wish me a happy birthday and they give me cards and a gift. I open the card Elena card first and Nastia’s second.
Nastia’s card is homemade and I guess Elena liked the idea because that evening she comes home with two presents she has made for me in school.
Nastia’s card reads happy birthday in sparkly glitter around a heart in glitter. On the inside is a note for her Dear Papa, Happy Birthday to you! Thank You so much for everything you do for me! I love you so much! You are the best Papa in the whole world. I hope you enjoy your birthday. Love Nastia.
Elena drew a picture of our house and the school and the route we walk to school. Her second picture is a bunch of hearts glued together on a black background. The two of them can be the sweetest.
I was going to take the day of f from world but I thought what difference would it make and I was wrong and should have taken it off. But then again I would have had to make the delivery I made Saturday morning via Danbury to pick up the milk I bought home with me. I got home a little late and the five of us. My Mom being a late addition to our party set off for El Bandito in Spring Valley.
The Girls like El Bandito restaurant, but they don’t like to eat there. They like the live music and the excitement that seems to fill the building all the time. Teri and I enjoy the food and the drinks.
My Mom agreed to drive home for us if needed. We arrived at the restaurant around eight in the evening and we had to wait a few minutes for a table, a sure sign that the economy is starting to come back after the recession of 09. During the hay day of the mid 00’s a table their on a Friday night might take an hour or two. Late in 08 and most of 09 you could walk in and get a table right away.
We order the girls some rice and beans and some chicken. They complain about their food and I taste one of the pieces of chicken, it is great and is very tempting to take more, but I know I will over eat this night and don’t want to make it worse then it will be. Teri asks if she can still order a pitcher of Sangria and I say sure neither of us are driving. I order a frozen strawberry margarita; usually I limit myself to one because I drive. Tonight I will not drive so I have two and to my disappointment they are not their usual great tasting. I think they forgot to add the second bottle of Tequila.
We have a good dinner; the girls dance a little and eat even less. Teri and I have a good dinner, my mom enjoys her food and when it is time to leave I feel sober. I know that is what all drunks say just before they get behind the wheel of their car and kill everyone inside, so as I pull the car out of the parking lot I am very aware of how I am driving and if I detect any problems in my driving I am ready to stop and let my mother drive, but it all goes well and we all arrive home safely after a really nice dinner.

What's a Saturday without a trip to the ER

The day started slow. I had a delivery to a customer to make and on the way back I picked up some buns from a store down the road and we sat around eating sweets and playing video games.
Around three in the afternoon the girls went outside to play in the side yard while I took down the Christmas tree and Teri finished up the house cleaning. I looked out the attic window and saw Elena swinging a stick, being the bad parent I am I watched her swing the stick and didn’t say anything. She was swinging it very fast and carelessly. I did talk to the girls from the window, but I never said anything about the stick.
About an hour later I’m taking the tree apart when I hear some commotion coming from the back door and the kitchen.
I hear Teri saying “What’s going on?” Then I hear her say “What happened?” Then she franticly calls me to come there. When I come from the front living room to the Dining room I see a little blond girl, Nastia crying and blood seems to be pouring from her face. I panic, but there is no one else to turn to, My Wife has called me in a panic, my daughter is injured and I’m not sure how badly and I don’t know what to do. This is a first for the both of us and it was really not something I gave much thought to. Why I don’t know. If I was to have thought about it I’m sure I still would have panicked at that moment.
The first and only thing to come to my mind was to put cold water on it, so I say “Let’s put some cold water on it.” We go over to the sink and I grab a dish towel, of course it was a well stained one and when it accompanies us to the ER I’m thinking I should have taken a clean towel, yea your right it was my wife Teri saying that.
I gently apply pressure to the wound and Teri says maybe I should put something cold on it and I go searching through the freezer for the mini cold packs she had gotten from the doctor and manage to find one hidden behind some container of frozen forgotten and gently apply it to her face. Yes I did forget to say the wound was under her eye high on her right cheek. It’s amazing how many times it’s on the cheek under the eye and yet it manages to miss the eye itself. Thank God.
I’m applying light pressure to her face when she coughs and a bunch of blood flows out of her nose. I start to wonder if maybe we are in deeper trouble then I thought. That is my major problem in all this. I’m handling it like a small cut and what if it is not a minor thing and all the blood that just flowed out of her nose is an indication that she is bleeding inside and I am wasting very important time.
Since the cut and Teri calling me maybe two or three minutes have gone by. Teri has gone upstairs to get dressed and we are going to the ER. It’s not like I’m reading war and peace and debating what to do. The blood stops flowing and Teri comes down stairs. This is where it becomes the keystone cops. We decide to take her car after a quick debate. My car is out front and it’s in the road. She wants me to care for Nastia while she drives to the ER in Nyack. I go out the front door and leave the door open figuring she is following. She goes out the back figuring I’m following. When she see I am not she comes back and shuts the door and goes out the back and we meet at the car. She drives at a reasonable pace considering the state she is in and we manage to get to the hospital without killing ourselves or anyone else. I take Nastia into the ER and Teri and Elena park the car.
I am now calm and feel everything is going to be all right. We are in the hospital and I am at the front desk and the blood has stopped flowing and if this was me I would consider not going to the hospital and just go home, put a few butterfly bandages on it and be done with it. But it is our brand new oldest daughter and this is our second trip to the ER, our first with blood, and I want to do it right plus Teri would not approve.
Our wait is short, we get a space and the attending doctor or maybe someone lower down then that looks at Nastia and say she should have a plastic surgeon look at her because the wound is jagged.
She is given two tetanus shots and she cries up a quick storm. She is not one for pain it turns out. Her Sister on the other hand will grit her teeth and take it. They are night and day in that respect.
The plastic surgeon comes in and agrees with the procedure. He comes back a little later and brings with him the assistant and something called a papoose to restrain her. Teri and I have explained to Nastia what is going to happen and we think she can handle it. They think differently and they wrap her up in this thing, which turns out to be a good idea.
After they wrap her up in a sheet and put Velcro straps around her the doctor checks out the wound and Nastia begins to squirm and cry. We tell her to close her eyes and she doesn’t hear us. Teri moves closer to her head and talks to her about closing her eyes. When she finally closes her eyes it is better until the Doctor begins to inject the Novocain into her cut to numb it more than the cream did. She starts an all out unrestrained crying and in some ways it was OK. It still kills us that we could do nothing to stop her pain. Elena remained at Nastia’s side watching all of this and when she turns away I motion for her to look at what is going on. I then realize I am again being a bad parent. I may want her to see the results of what she has caused, but I didn’t have to be cruel. I pick her up and hold her asking her if she is all right and I try to convince myself that I am not a cold hearted person. I talk with Elena about what is going on and ask her if she could do it and I tell her there is nothing to be afraid of. Elena is a tough little girl, she got her ears pierced without the drama Nastia went through. She got into the chair first and knowing only a little about the pain factor faced it and was fine about it.
After the shots in the wound Nastia was given a few seconds to compose herself and the Doctor starts in with cutting the ragged skin away. Nastia doesn’t react to this. Later she will work herself up into another crying fit but it was obvious she felt nothing. After cutting away the skin the Doctor cauterizes the wound, burns the wound to stop the blood from flowing, Nastia feels nothing and has no reaction. When the Doctor goes to sew the wound closed that is when she goes off the deep end and starts crying. She may have cried a lot, but she never shook her head and made it impossible for the Doctor to do his job.
After it is over she recovers quickly and again wants to play her game. She has played it off and on during the three hours we were there. Thank God for the electronic babysitter.
We meet Donald and Nancy, Amanda and Thasha out front of the Hospital. They are invited to come back to the house for pizza and to watch a movie and this night is ended by watching Cloudy with a chance of meatball

Lets dance the night away

Tonight was the girl’s first dance. It was held at the school in the cafeteria. They had a DJ and he had smoke and lights in addition to the music. It was from seven in the evening to nine.
I worked until six and got there a little late. Teri got home fed the girls and the dogs and still managed to get the girls to the dance only 10 minutes after it started.
The music was load and the lights flashed and all the kid ran around as if they had been saving up all this energy since the beginning of the week, maybe they had. Nastia and Elena danced like girls possessed. They jumped, they twirled, they flung their arms and danced a year worth of energy off in a few minutes.
After dancing got to be nothing special they were running around and they were going to get drinks and something to eat and of course go to the bathroom.
The first hour was dancing. The start of the second was a dance contest that I figured the girls had a chance to win until it was announced everyone had to dance the cupid or something like that. It was a silly little dance that resembled the electric slide and the song reminded me of Archie Bell and the Drells song ‘The tighten up’ It was not a huge successful and the group never had a second hit that I remember. So it will be with this song and the group.
    It all blissfully ended at a little before nine with the four of us in the hallway, with Nastia introducing us to everyone who attended the dance. I don’t know if they were her friends or if she just met them tonight.
    Teri and I had not eaten so we were going to get some food afterwards and ended up at the New City Grill on Main st. We ordered food for ourselves and thought we were treating the girls nice when we ordered them French fries, but they were not hungry, just tired. A warning, never try to eat while there are tired children near you, it’s not fun. By the end of the meal Nastia had fallen asleep and I was going to try and carry the both of them to the car, but it was late and I was old and Nastia was awake, so I didn’t. So ended their first dance night.

Pickups and Miss Cranky pants in the New Year

We spent the end of the old year and the beginning of the New Year at home. The girls went to bed early and they were still up at 11:30. We didn’t think they would understand the concept of New Years Eve and New Years day so we just sent them to bed and Teri and I watched the old Year leave with few regrets. There was the trip to Russia and our meeting the girls again, but beyond that there is little that either of us will want to remember beyond that.
Around New Years day Nastia began to hiccup and she called them pickups. And of course everyone tried to scare them out of her and she would get the chance to make a lot of noise and she would thoroughly enjoy it and of course she would suddenly get a case of the pickups for no reason at all. Once I did get annoyed at her pickups and told her to cut it out. I wish sometimes I would think before I acted. It was all play and I could have handled it better. I did try to make it up to her the next day and reassure her that it was alright to have pickups and her attack of pickups lasted several days more. And everyone myself included enjoyed scaring her. My personal favorite was to call her over to me and scare her when she came over. The result would amazingly be a sudden case of the pickups where none had been before.
Elena was in a mood one day and someone called her Miss Cranky pants. She got really angry crossed her arms and said “Me no cranky pants, you cranky pants” she has this way of saying it where she rolls the ‘cr’ and for some reason it is funny, so now everyone says it with rolling ‘cr’ and the response is “Me no cranky pants, you cranky pants”
And finally Nastia the little lady continues to take great delight in farting near her parents and getting a big kick out of it. She’ll sometimes get up and come over and force it out. It was bad enough when she would go out into the hallway and do it. Where have we gone wrong?

Twas the night before and the day of Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and the Muller house had no cookies for Santa. Poppa had been putting off making the cookies and it was now late on Christmas Eve. What better time would it be to make cookies? It didn’t matter that there was presents to be wrapped and put under the tree. Poppa finally felt it was time to make cookies. His loving wife in all her mystery had asked for those cookies that he had to make a few weeks ago, but only if they are easy to make. Now a week later he is ready to make the cookies. "But wait poppa", says momma sweetly, "it is late and the poor darlings must get to bed before Santa can stop at our humble home and deliver the gifts our two sweet and loving children have been waiting for these last nine years."
Elena chimes in “God bless us everyone!” Everyone smiles, for it is Christmas and it is snowing outside (somewhere) and this is the night we have all waited for over the years.
OK, I’m fibbing here a little bit. Elena didn’t say God bless us everyone, but she so fits the part of Tiny Tim so well that I had to put that in.
Oh, you don’t believe that part about our humble home either? Well Momma did say “it is late”. Ok it wasn’t sweetly either.
OK, Ok, you want the truth, well here it is.
I had waited to make cookies because my job had been keeping me busy and I didn’t have the time until Christmas Eve to make the cookies. Teri had asked for the Niemen Marcus cookies to be made, they are delicious, but take a lot of time to make. You have to grind oatmeal into a fine powder and mix a bunch of different ingredients and it takes time and there wasn’t that kind of time, but I wanted to do it.
Sorry Teri. Teri yells this information at me and I get angry and walk off to watch TV. She was right and I really hate it when she is.
After a while she goes upstairs and I hear her talking with the kid. It starts to get late and I feel the girls should be going to bed. I get struck with this great idea and I bounce it around in my head for a few seconds. I’m still not in a very good mood and I question if I can pull it off feeling like this. I figure what the hell, and go for it.
I run up the stairs and Nastia is in the bathroom and I rush to the window and ask her if she just saw Santa Claus go by. I was outside and I saw him go by. She gets all excited and Looks out the window. At this point I know it is going to work. I run over to the bedroom window and ask Elena if she had seen Santa out this window. She says no. I tell them both that they better get to bed so Santa will come. They rush down stairs and get Santa a glass of milk and I say maybe he might like chocolate milk and they excitedly add some chocolate syrup to the milk. They put the milk out next to a cookie plate and then hurriedly add some left over Halloween candy to the plate and run up stairs kiss Teri good night and then me and are in bed in just over seven minutes and are a sleep within ten. If any of you know how Elena sleeps you will know that that is the big miracle of the night. Most nights she tosses and turns for an endless period of time before she finally settles down and sleeps. The next morning you will usually find her almost upside down in her bed with the covers off her and mostly on the floor.
The second miracle happened after Teri and I stayed up until three in the morning. The reason we sat up that long wasn’t that we were putting together presents, we just were sitting up talking and drinking some 43 and time just passed. Any way the second miracle was the girls slept in until nine in the morning. I managed to get down stairs first and the girls, Nastia came down and gave out a big “wow!” Elena eventually followed and gave out the same big “wow”. Teri came own and we had a very special Christmas morning. It took the girls about 45 minutes to unwrap all of the presents they got. They were given some really nice gifts for everyone and there were more to come when they went over to Eric and Lynn’s house and Karl and Madeline’s house later in the day. The only thing wrong with all of this is they have received more in a twelve hour period then they have ever gotten in all of their life before this. I know there is some making up for lost time here, but some really nice gifts have gotten put aside and been forgotten by the girls and it is not due to lack of enjoyment, but being overwhelmed by all of this sudden abundance. Next year, well let’s just wait until next year to say anything.
The late twelve months have been the highs and the lows for this family. Teri and Nancy have lost their mother and Joe has had cancer surgery and we were not sure if he would make it. Now he looks real good and I hope he feels the same. And we lost Mosha after fourteen years. She had become such a part of our lives that even after all these months it is still hard to imagine our lives without her.
     We have make the trip to Russia and come back with a life time of memories and two wonderful girls who have done everything possible to fit into their new lives and to do it with as little fuss as possible. They are both loving and warm and friendly children and we are proud to say they are our children.
We are very hopeful for the New Year. That the girls will continue to grow and adapt to their new life with the same enjoyment and wonder they have shown in the first three months they have been here.
As I said in December of 08 going into 09. It’s going to be better.

The Hard Wok, Tomatoes and what vomit looks like on a wall at 1:30 am

This is one of those heartwarming stories that you will sit back and say, I’ve been there and I’m glad it was you and not me.
Teri was Christmas shopping on Monday and got home late. I on the other hand got home early so there was no time to fix dinner or that is what I told myself when Teri said lets go out to dinner. I said yes almost as quickly as she said lets go.
We chose the Hard Wok because it is cheaper, relatively and it was close by and quick and it was late.
We got there about 8pm or so, Teri took Nastia and I took Elena to get them some food. I put French fries and chicken on her plate and Elena moved too quickly and some of the food slid off and went on the ground, a preview of later events. Elena went back to the food area about six or so times and we never thought anything of it. Some nights she would eat some nights she would not. We were happy she did tonight. Nastia went up almost as much. Near the end of the meal they discover plum tomatoes in the salad bar and proceed to eat over a dozen and a half each, Elena more. They finish the meal with ice cream and I am wondering if they are going to need to go on diets the way they eat. They are both talking about how big their bellies are after eating all that food and the only thing on my mind is getting home to get into bed.
   I get into bed about eleven and Teri is on the computer doing Christmas cards. I fall asleep and wake back up when she is getting into bed just before midnight. I kiss her good night and fall back to sleep.
I wake back up to a bright light shining in my face. Being it is Christmas time I am expecting to see the second of three ghosts. It turns out to be Elena and she is in the bathroom. It is rare for her to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and it is rare for her to close the door. I wait for her to finish so I can use the bathroom. I begin to get tired of waiting and get back into bed when she comes out and I say hi to her and get no response, which is not unusual. Then I notice the bits of vomit on her pajamas, it’s not a lot and it is red just like her pajamas. I ask her if she is alright and get no answer. I ask a second time and that is when she points to the wall near the light switch and the pretty pattern of vomit dripping down the wall. There are little white and red chunks and it is all very Christmas in color. I don’t remember how I find out about the pile in the bedroom, but I set to work cleaning it up Teri wakes up and I know her feeling about vomit and don’t invite her to join me. She does get up and helps Elena change out of her pajamas into something a little cleaner. I clean up the bathroom and Teri and Elena go in there because Elena is feeling a little sick. I go clean up the pile in the bedroom. I go in and turn on the light, Nastia turns over and goes back to sleep, orphanage behavior, if it doesn’t involve you turn over and go back to sleep. When I am down in the bedroom and am heading for the bathroom I hear Elena vomit against the wall between the sink and the toilet, missing the toilet and the garbage can and the sink. A final small round erupts and she finally hits the sink.
It takes a little more time to clean up this new mess and Teri gets involved cleaning up stray bits of this and that that was missed. We get back in bed about an hour later mostly none the worse for the wear. The house smelled a little but we were back in bed.
The cat didn’t want to be out done so he decides to break a few cheap old ornaments off the Christmas tree and scare the crap out of us. Hey it’s just another day in paradise.
The next day we sent Elena to school. She is quiet and sore, but has not temperature. Says she feels good. Within two hours the school is calling and Teri is picking her up from school. She spent the day with Teri. And just like Nastia’s arm the other day it was nothing.
I might have forgotten to tell you about that one. It was nothing. Nastia got pushed down by her sister and the school asked us to pick her up and said we should have the arm looked at. Teri was have dental surgery and I was in Danbury so I got to leave work early on a Friday and I met my mother and Lynn at the hospital and Teri came after her dental surgery. When we first got there Nastia refused to bend her arm. After the doctor looks at her and before the x-ray she is jumping all around and hanging from my neck. Surprise, the x-ray was negative. We have not gotten the bill for that one yet and hopefully Teri’s insurance will cover the bill.

Oh, Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree, Oh fake and plastic Christmas tree

Having tried buying a live tree that we would plant next spring and neither of us satisfied with the way it looked. we have gone back to the tried and true fake tree that we have had for about a dozen years.
In the beginning it was supposed to be fake one year, real the next. I got lazy and we have done fake for some time.
   I pulled the tree down from the attic its green plastic storage bag covered with a year’s accumulation of dust and wear bumping down each step in time to the opening notes of the little drummer boy.
Many years ago I lost the directions to putting the tree together so each year it takes me a little time to remember which letters go where on the tree. I did have the good sense every year to tape the branches for the same level together, mostly because a lot of the letters have fallen off the tree.
When the girls saw I was putting up the tree they complained that it was too short until I showed them the final foot of the tree. Then I got an approving ‘ahhh’ from them. When the tree was together I got another ‘ahhh’ of approval and when the lights were put on the tree and they were different colors and were big I got a third ‘ahhh’ from them.
I have hallmark ornaments that I have been collecting since the early 1990’s and they have become important to me and each year I see them get a little older and work a little less or not at all so I try to appreciate them more as the years go by and each one has a special place on the tree and is put up with care and the wrappings are put back in the box to be rewrapped for next year. That almost is what happened this year. The girls were very interested in decorating the tree and Teri and I both wanted it to be a special time for both so they put ornaments up on the tree and we both tried to help them while making sure that the important ones did not get dropped or put in places one of the cats might find the perfect height to hit with his paw. The tree came out very nice and nothing got broken and the girls had fun doing it.
We watched ‘Christmas Vacation’ while we did the tree. The girls asked when Christmas is only a few times while we were doing the tree, and that was a record.
My mother remarked that the difference between here and Russia has to be extreme and do they really know what to expect for Christmas? She said when she asked Nastia what she wanted for Christmas her answer was her ears pierced and that was it. I hope we don’t spoil them.

You deserve a break today.

It is less than a week before Christmas and the girls are all prepared for it. They keep asking when we will get the Christmas tree and they keep plugging in the wooden Christmas tree at the foot of the stairs that we use during this festive season as a night light (they do it during the day after I’ve unplugged it).
We went for the tree today. We were going to do it last weekend and it rained and was just awful. This weekend they predicted a major snow storm so it was a good idea that we waited for the last weekend before Christmas to get the tree. I had a delivery to do and after the last one which I have not told you about yet I figured it would be a good idea if I did it on my own. It was over it Port Chester NY so it was done in under an hour and I had some cleaning up to do before the storm. So about noon or so I gather the girls up into the car and set off to get a live Christmas tree. We stop at the nursery over near the junior high school and they have a nice variety of trees, all cut ones. The few trees that they have that are in pots are a little bit over fifty inches and will need just about six ornaments and half a string of lights. It is your classic Charlie Brown Christmas tree, just with more needles on it. We pay sixty-eight dollars for it and load it in the car and off we go. By the time I’ve gotten home I feel it is not the tree we should put up in the living room and Teri agrees. So after all of that we will stick with the fake tree again this year. We do have a memento of this year in a brand new Siberian spruce tree to plant next year.
Now to the part of the trip that I skipped over, this is the slightly grinchie part. We were on crusher road over near Trap Rock when I hear the door open. I pull over and I ask in a not too kindly voice who opened the door? And yes it was Elena who did it. I temper shoots off the charts and I start yelling at her that she could have died if she fell out the door. Blah, Blah, Blah… The one saving grace is I rained in my temper after about three angry sentences. It wasn’t quick enough because she had already started to dissolve into tears. I then took her into my arms and in a quiet voice told her that I could really not live with myself if she died because she fell out of the car. She did have her seatbelt on, but that was beside the point. She calms down and I get her to smile and I ask her if she understands why I was so angry. She nods yes, I hope she really does.
We went a few yards down the street when I notice the open door light is on. I stop the car, open and close my door, no change. Then I open and close Elena’s, no change. I go over to Nastia’s and it is not fully closed. I open it and close it walk around and ask her if she opened her door. She says no and I tell her she is not telling the truth and I head down the same path that I just went with Elena and I continue until Nastia is now crying. It seems… Well I guess I don’t really know if I should have been angry at them. They should have not opened the car door when we were moving but did I have to yell at both of them and have them both in tears on the day we go to get the Christmas tree? I’m glad kids are really resilient. For all the things parents do to f*$k up kids it is amazing any of them ever come out and can live anything near normal lives. I know everyone out there is saying you do the best you can, but that sometimes isn’t enough. And maybe I’m blowing this all out of proportion. Its just that this is supposed to be a magical time full of wonder. I remember so many Christmas where that was true. I really want this one to be special and there is no time. Hell I haven’t even got the one gift I got for my wife yet. It is ready and I just have to get to the store to get it. I haven’t even got gifts from Elena and Nastia for Teri yet. Too much damn work and not time.
There are still a few days left to go before Christmas and I will come through. I usually do.

Such little ladies

This is a story I really should save and tell it on one of their wedding days. Things like what happened should be saved and put away for the time you can get maximum benefit from them.
We were all at the dinner table on Friday night and things were a little crazy, like usual. It was Teri’s weekend to have Tony and the girls were a little wired with it getting close to Christmas. I was teasing Nastia about something, it is a bad habit that I picked up from my father, he was big on doing that and I thought I’d long since grown out of it, guess not. I’m trying not to do it and if I do, I’m trying not to overdo it and it turns mean. Anyway, I say something to Nastia and she gets mad and goes into the front living room. I go after her and I pick her up by the waist and start walking into the dining room. In the hallway near the stairs, I walking and patting her on her backside, which is up in the air and towards my face. Really do I have to go on and say it? Ok, she goes and farts in my face! At first, I don’t know if she has exploded or something so I stagger backwards and put her down. She is not sure of my reaction and when she see I’m not mad she starts laughing and runs into the dining room. I go into the room and Teri is laughing and Elena is laughing. I sit down and Elena comes over and farts near me, runs away laughing, next it is Nastia, finally it stops.
Such little ladies,
the next night Elena tries to do it when we are upstairs and I quickly put an end to it, such little ladies

It's my happy birthday to you

Nastia's day started off early and she didn't seem to mind. She was up and dressed and wearing a goofy smile.
   We were on our way to school by seven-thirty. I still don't know what time school starts. I know I need to get them there before eight, I think.
   I carried the clementines and Nastia carried the mini cup cakes for her party in school. Elena just tagged along and she might of been a little jealous of her sister and only showed it once later that night  at the table when we were opening presents. (got it on video)
   At school still wearing that goofy smile, Nastia proudly announced that it was her 'Happy birthday to you'.
    The principle, Martha Ryan gave an approving nod to our remembering the healthy alternative to the cup cakes.
   Teri bought 48 mini cup cakes and thought each kid could have two. We also had a box of clementines and figured we would get back a box of clementines and no cup cakes. Just the opposite happened. I hope a box of clementines are not sitting somewhere for me to pick up.

   The plan for the night was ambitious to begin with and in retrospect we should have not tried to do everything we did for Nastia on her birthday, Thursday. It was a lot which is not to say too much it’s just she has a sister who for the most part was a good sport about it and if this is the first one what do we do for an encore?
Both of us got out of work a little early on Thursday and I spent the hour transporting people to the house and wasted time that would have been better spent starting dinner. I picked up Tony and the girls from his house and bought them over to our house. Then I started to feed the dogs and to start dinner and have the girls do stuff to get the evening moving. First mistake was stopping too soon. Nothing got finished. Nastia was to help feed the dogs and I did more than she did and they still didn’t get fed. Elena was to set the table and I did more than she did and the table was still not set.
I stopped to get my mother over here at the right time and the girls wanted to come along and I knew it was a mistake but they did and we went to pick up my mother. We got there and we went to Eric and Lynn’s to see the present Ruth got Dennis for his birthday, a tuxedo. I left to pick up the dogs, they didn’t fit on the first trip from Tony’s and I came back to get the girls and my mother. A trip that was supposed to take fifteen minutes took nearly an hour and of course Teri got home before me and was calling to find out where I was and if you know Teri you know the rest.
Dinner was served a little late, about six-thirty or so. We had a very good dinner of bratwurst and sauerkraut, with thick fried potatoes ( I usually would cut them paper thin and I’d never had them this way up until a week or so ago and I think I prefer them this way.) . We also had corn and I had a salad.
After dinner Nastia opened presents, Grammy, my mother got her a colored pen set and she was thrilled very much about it. We (Teri picked out our gifts) gave her a fake tattoo set and some markers and some money to spend in Toys R Us later that night.
We settled on Temptations for ice cream and cake. The girls had ice cream that they barely touched (they eat very well at dinner, it was one of their favorite meals) I had Apple Brown Betty and ice cream. Teri had some cake and coffee, Tony had a scoop of pistachio ice cream.
We finished eating about nine-fifteen and went up to Toys R Us. I have not been there since Kristen was a child years ago and a lot has changed since then. A lot of the toys seemed to be geared at preschool kids and there was not a lot else. The girls went through the aisles giving out oohs and aahs every so often until we got into the isle with the toy cars that are a lot like hot wheels. Each had been given a twenty-five dollar gift card and Nastia had twenty-five dollars in cash. They each picked out a part for this car set, one a gas station and the other a box of cars. They were very excited and happy over their purchases.
It was after ten pm and it was time to go home. The girls took a quick shower and went to bed. Nastia had promised to get up for school the next day without problem and that is exactly what she did.
Elena didn’t and she was her usual self and it took several attempts to get her up.
The whole evening was busy and fun. All day long Nastia wore a goofy smile that seemed a little too big for her face. I hope this the first of many birthdays is remembered by both as a very special day like it will be for me.

Gobble, Gobble, its Turkey day already

Yesterday was August and we were getting ready to pick the girls up in Russia. Today it is a little less than a month from Christmas. You are getting old when almost half a year goes by and you don’t notice. I’ve noticed, so I guess I’m getting close to old or something like that.
Every day the girls speak a little better English and they surprise me again. On Thanksgiving they met for the first time Joe Van Demark and after all the things he has been through it would of hurt , but would have been expected if they had been afraid of him . He had an operation on his throat and had his voice box removed and uses a vibrating device to speak. When we got to Eric and Lynn’s house, Joe was already there and we went in and introduced the girls to him like nothing was different. He motioned he could not talk to them and in a few minutes he was using the device to talk to them and they were their charming selves. The three of them spend a good portion of the night together and had a good time I was very pleased and proud.

It was a typical Thanksgiving Day people watched football, other people sat around and talked and some talked, watched football and drank. I played poker with my nephews. Dennis who is all of about seven or so was begging me to play poker with him. We started doing this a couple of years ago and he got really into it except he will not gamble with money. He has chips and cards and likes to play black jack, but will not gamble with his money. I guess that is a good thing. I had him playing Texas hold em for a while. I’ll have to get everyone back into that.

Spell check and a good story

I guess after the last story it is clear I am not  good at spelling. I do hope you didn’t think anything else. I usually write the story and do not go back and proof read it. I guess I will be changing that policy now. I think I will also leave the last story as is.
Elena got sick again. It started on Sunday, when they were in Pennsylvania. The four of them, Teri, Nastia, Elena and Tony had gone to visit relatives and got back about six or so and we went out to the Hard Wok to eat. There Elena didn’t want to eat and she complained of stomach pains. Teri kept asking her if she had to go to the bathroom and twice the two of them had gone.
After one trip Teri had mentioned that Elena had gone and how long it was. I could not believe what followed. First off that this conversation was taking place at a table I was eating at. And second that Nastia was put out and saying that she could make one bigger. It was an odd night for table talk.
Elena didn’t eat anything that night, not even ice cream, so we knew she was sick. We put her to bed and were getting more concerned that she was complaining about stomach pains. She was walking all hunched over and it almost looked like she was putting on an act it was just a bit much I thought. Teri jumps to the conclusion it might be appendicitis. I didn’t think so, but she has been right so many times with her dad that I said it might be a stomach virus, but I wasn’t ruling out anything even appendicitis.
About three in the morning the bathroom light goes on and wakes me up I go over to the bathroom and Elena is finishing up using the toilet. She has a tear in her eye and is upset. I ask her why and I am thinking the last time she was sick she had an accident in the bed and it might be that. I walk her back to bed and it is dry so I tuck her in and take her temperature with that pointy thing from the last story. It was about the same as before, 100.7. I kiss her good night and go back to bed expecting her to get up at any moment and I don’t sleep very well. The next morning she is worse and Teri says she will stay home and take her to the doctor id I can call and make the appointment. She goes in at 11:15 and is sent over to the MRI place for a scan, it might be appendicitis. They also do some blood work and she is sent home with a prescription for a possible virus in her colon. She has to take the medicine every six hours and we give her the first pill at eight pm. The next pill I give her at 2am. About nine or so Teri has become very concerned about Elena because the pain seems to be getting worse. I call my mother and she says to call the doctor and see what she says. The Doctor doesn’t have a night service, but she does leave her cell number if it is an emergency, we decide to wait and give the medicine a chance to work. I wrote down her number in case later we need to call quickly.
The next morning she is a lot better, not 100%, but much better. I was almost ready to send her to school. Teri said she would take the day and work from home so common sense ruled again.
By the end of the day Elena’s energy level was down and it was a good thing we didn’t sent her. A teacher even said nothing was happening this week and she would miss little by not being in school.
Wednesday we kept her home and we will send her back on Monday.

A Day in the life*

*Thank You John Lennon
We had our first sick run yesterday. It showed me how unprepared I was for it and how we will have to depend on others to help us.
Up to yesterday, my plan, I don’t know what Teri’s was, was to hope the kids did not get sick until we had a plan in place to take care of them being sick and having to come home from school. Well Nastia wasn’t feeling good yesterday about 1 in the afternoon and the school called Teri and said someone should come and pick her up.
Elena had a cough the week before and Teri gave her cough medicine and that seemed to take care of it and I figured we were out of the woods. Then Nastia started coughing and I hoped we could skate by like we did with Elena and of course it did not work out.
Teri got the call to come pick her up and Teri called me to see if I could find anyone to pick her up because she had no one. I called my mom, but she was not home. I then called Lynn. I hate calling Lynn. She has agreed to take the kids on Tuesday so they can get out of Tony’s house. It’s not that Tony’s house is a bad bad place; it’s just that the girls have no place to go and nothing to do when they are there. They can’t go outside, because the only attractions around the house are a hole in the ground and busy streets. Both are low on the list of things you would want a child doing in the twenty-first century. As a kid growing up my mom would see us when we got home from school and then she would call us to come home for dinner when it was ready. No kids need to be looked over by an adult or at least we all think so.
Lynn agreed to pick up the girls and take them to Tony’s house, but Teri didn’t want a sick child near her eighty year old father, understandable. She arranged to pick the girls up from Lynn and she took part of another day off. Thank god for an understandable boss.
Teri called me later to pick up a thermometer, about fifteen years ago I purchased one of those ear reading thermometers and since Teri and I never get sick enough to need our temperature taken it was never used and I have no idea where it is or even if we still have it. Which is a shame because the price on a new one is now fifty dollars and I refuse to pay that? The thermal head scanning ones were thirty dollars and I was going to get one but I didn’t like what it said on the package about how long it took to work and you still needed to touch the child with it and if the child was sleeping you would wake them up and it made no sense to spent that kind of money. I ended up getting a battery operated one with an extra large display so I can see it and it changes color depending on wither the temperature is normal or border line or a high fever. It is pretty cool and it cost fourteen dollars. A regular thermometer non mercury style cost nine dollars so I figured the extra was ok and worth it so I could read it.
I got home and Teri had sent the girls to bed for lying about something so I went up stairs to check their temperatures. The problem became very clear when I told Nastia I wanted to take her temperature and she didn’t understand. How do you tell someone who doesn’t speak English to put this pointy thing under their thong? I think they figured it out. Their temperature came out a little low 97.6 and 97.8 so I think they were ok. I checked it on myself later and it read 98.6 so I guess it works.
The next day they were full of pep and energy and ran all the way to school and almost got hit by a bus turning into the school. Times like this make me feel like a real bad father. I was trying to give them a little freedom and I almost get them killed. It wasn’t like the bus slammed on its brakes, it was just the crossing guard telling me to have the girls stop at his corner and wait for him to cross them. I hope they live long enough for me to get being a parent down before they kill themselves. Could someone tell me about the rules for running with succors please?
Well it’s another week down and they had hot dogs for dinner, they called them sausage, hot dogs. I guess back in the early 1900’s if you read the Nathan’s tray cover they were originally called Vienna sausages. Elena had three dogs with some good fried potatoes and corn, she ate well. And Nastia had two dogs, potatoes and corn and ate almost as well. It’s nice to see them eat and enjoy their food. Most of it is so different from what they used to eat. I might try cooking something from the mother country.
The most heard sentence at the table these days is speaking English please. It is coming from the girls they are trying to become American and they don’t want us to speak Russian to them. I was told Nastia told the only Russian speaking girl in school not to speak Russian to her. I am also told that they were insulted when a Russian speaking teaching assistant came by to determine how well they read in Russian. They were not overly friendly to her. It is classic behavior of people from other cultures who come here to want to fit in that they stop speaking their native language and become more American than Americans. I read that somewhere.

Striking up the band at El Bandito’s in Spring Valley.

The more I learn the less I know it seems. I always start a blog with a topic, an idea then thoughts get in the way and I go on my merry way writing down these thoughts. This is going to be a long one so if you have to go to the bathroom or you need a second cup of coffee, stop here and go and get it taken care of.
I thought I would be the best parent in the world when I had no children and everything was based on my thinking things out calmly and rationally. I can hear all the long time parents laughing way over here in Congers. Calmly? Rationally? What were you raised on Leave it to Beaver or Father knows best? No but all my best intentions were. I have rediscovered that bad ass temper that was only supposed to come out when no one was looking, and I don’t like it. Eric and Tony saw it on Sunday and Eric commented about drawing a line in the sand and that may have been true, but did I have to go from zero to sixty in the temper department to get the message across to Nastia it was time to go and her saying no she was not going to go to change things? What bothers me even more is it happened so quick I didn’t know it had happened until I was almost done scolding her.
The incident went something like this; I tell Nastia and Elena it is time to go and they ignore me. I say it a second time and Nastia says she doesn’t want to go and something else. Maybe she says she is not going to go. I don’t remember. The temper in me rises and boils over before I know what is happening. And I start the Once, no, second time no. do you want to find out what three times no is? While I’m saying this my hand is going under the net of the trampoline she is on and I am getting ready to smack her. I stop and she gets off and the storm has passed and Eric comments about drawing a line in the sand. I feel like crap and try to act like it never happened. What makes it worse is that they remember and they are trying to be really good kids and I think sometimes they behave out of fear. God I hope that is not true. It is taking a lot of work from all of us to make this work. I never would have thought it would be this kind of work. I thought it would be the school calling us up and telling us the girls are acting up and they are out of control and if you can’t calm them down they will be thrown out of school. I was all geared up for the problems to be their problems not mine. In school they are well liked and sometime get out of control when they are together, but they are doing well and are well liked. All the teachers and the office people all look after them. It’s great.
We went to El Bandito in Spring Valley on Friday. We didn’t really have the money to go but Teri and I needed to get out and relax. It was a real good time and the food as usual was great. We really didn’t expect any problems from the girls. They had tried tacos and other Mexican food we had made at home and loved it all. So we figured everything would go well. We get there at about seven thirty and get a table almost right away. With the economy still not great tables are easy to come by. We all sit, Tony came with us to make five, and almost at once the girls have a light in their eyes, there is live music. They are all smiles and are watching the band as the adults try to figure out orders. Teri and I have the usual, Tony has a peppers and chicken dish and the girls get two tacos, rice and refried beans, no cheese for Nastia. Chips and salsa are on the table, with cheese filled flour tortillas on the way.
It doesn’t take the girls long to get up from their chairs and start dancing. Every so often we have to tell them to move away from where the waiters are coming with food. They dance until the food comes and when the band leaves for a break they ask where the music has gone. How do you tell someone with only a little English they went on a break?
The girls sort of eat their food and Teri has a drink and I have one as we watch the girls dance. It was a really good night.
Saturday started out not so good. For some reason Teri and I were angry at each other. We could not get out of the others way and we had Sally Ann’s party to go to. I thought once or twice about not going. I have never been a big fan of going to parties for little kids, but this was Sally Ann and it was for her daughter and  she has always been there for us and it was important to Teri and She was already angry at me and I at her, so even if it had disaster written all over it I was going. So did going to the party when I was in a bad mood.
We got to Sally Ann’s house a few minutes late I thought and there were no cars. Teri commented that we must be the first ones here. I let it go figuring I must have not known the correct time we were expected. I get some chairs and Teri asks if I need help and I say no. On Sally Ann’s front porch are Tasha and Amanda they say hi and offer to help. They take a chair and start towards the door at the door they stop and say I should go in first. Then I notice the blind in the kitchen bend down and then quickly go back up. It all starts to come into focus and I try to push the girls in the door first figuring out this is the party Eric had mistakenly mentioned about a month ago, and the taco dinner my mother had talked about a month ago was not. I walk in first and take off my hat and try to fix my hair as everyone says ‘surprise’. Just about everyone was there.
The girls acted great and they were dressed in dresses so they looked like ladies even if near the end of the party I had to tell them to sit like ladies. The party went really great. The high light (sorry Sally Ann) was the free porn on the TV.
Now for all of you, who were not there, the TV had shown Scooby doo cartoons earlier and someone had turned it off. Well now the girls, Elena specifically wanted to watch some more, and I guess Phyllis being the caring person she is turned on the TV. Instead of Scooby there was a man and a woman going at it like rabbits. Well for the seven seconds it was on that was what it seemed like. Everyone got a big laugh from it and we were all terrified to turn the TV back on. Later it turned out to be a tape that had been in the VCR and was turned on. Sally Ann was a little upset, but she faced everyone right away which was good. If I had been in her shoes I would have done the same thing and made a joke out of it.
The party broke up around 9 or so and we stayed around until 10:30 until the place was clean and we loaded a mess of gifts for the girls in the car (Thank you everyone) and almost didn’t have room to fit everyone. It was a really nice party.

I am surprised and proud

It’s been a little over a month since we have gotten back from Russia with the girls and I know there was a time in my life where we did not have them but it is hard to remember when. I remember life was a lot simpler and easy then it is now but it was a lot less fun and interesting. No insult to my wife.
This weekend I had help with the leaves. I went out and started with the rake and had a large pile when at my side was Nastia, she wanted to help. I figured it would be like mowing the lawn. I would go from good progress to very little. She surprised me and was a good helper. A little while later her sister Elena was standing off to the side waiting for an invitation to join us and she too was a good worker and moved things along. But as you might well suspect there is a but to this story and the great progress we were making ground to a crawl when I saw a patch of grass with just a few leaves on it and decided that it need the leaf blower and of course the girls needed to use it and of course they were blowing leaves all over the place. They would blow leaves toward the spot I wanted them and then they would turn around and ask a question while blowing leaves where there were none. I had lots of fun. The girls got to jump in the pile of leaves that we gathered and they had lots of fun. It was a good Saturday.
Afterwards, Teri and I stayed up until two am watching a movie which we never do.
Sunday was bacon and pancakes, or a Bellini as they call them. A Bellini is a thin pancake in Europe and I had some with cream cheese and they were good. It was like a cross between a pancake and a crape. I don’t know if they ever had bacon before. We had to push them to try it and they have gotten pretty good at trying different things here. And like any kid they loved bacon. We have them eating pancakes with cranberries and walnuts in them and liking them too.
After breakfast I finished up the lawn and expected to see the girls come out to help, but I guess the novelty of raking leaves is one day. They did come out and jump in leaves later.
They wanted to go bike riding at Eric and Lynn’s so I stopped and took them over to Eric and Lynn’s and the first thing they did was go on the trampoline and that is where they stayed. Dennis came out later and the three of them got a beach ball and played keep away, usually from Dennis. Whenever Dennis got the ball the two girls would gang up on him and wrestle the ball away from him. I hope he had a good time. He did get mauled a little by Nastia and Elena.
The day there started at two and ended at about four. We then went over to Karl and Madeline’s so they could spend a little time with them. Karl and Madeline were insulating the walls of their house and we stayed for a short while, long enough for the girls to meet their two dogs. Sam and Malibu I think.
We then headed home. When we got there I got out of the car and went inside to watch TV. I noticed the girls didn’t follow, they were too busy playing their games (DS system) I let them sit out there a little while figuring they would come in, but they didn’t. I looked out the window and they are still playing that damn game. At this point I get a little evil and get my keys and press the alarm key and the horn started to honk. It took a honk or two until first one face pops up from the yellow light of the screen and then a second. They get out of the car and I’m laughing at their reaction. I turn the alarm off and they come in and for some reason don’t ask about the alarm. I wonder if they knew I did it.
We ended the day at the Hard Wok in Nanuet neither of us felt like cooking. I offered Nastia a piece of pineapple wrapped in bacon and she would not touch it, she likes both, never a dull moment.
   Having the girls a month has really been an eye opening experience. They have been really great to be around and I could not be more proud and pleased with them. Their progress in learning english and becoming Americans has been fantastic. I just hope they don't lose their Russian language. Getting these two has been the best idea my wife ever had and the reason I feel I was put on this earth for. I see a great future for the four of us.

Lions and Tigers and Halloween, oh my!

The concept of Halloween is not well known in Russia. It is an American event and from what I know it started in the north east.
I don’t know what the girls know about Halloween and I don’t really care right now, because they had a fun time dressing up as lions and they were part of a parade in school on Friday. They seemed to enjoy dressing up as lions. They practiced growing and jumping around like lions to the point that I warned the ESL teacher that they were really into it. Everything at school went fine. They were in the parade and Teri had the day off so she was able to see the parade. Her camera battery died as she went to take a video of the parade.
On Saturday, it rained. It looked like it was no going to stop all day, even if the weather service said it was going to. The girls got into their lions costumes around two in the afternoon and we went over to my mother’s house. It was Teri’s father’s weekend with us so he came along.
We gathered with my younger brother’s family and my sister’s family, forgetting about my older brother, sorry Karl and Madeline.
Eric and Lynn’s youngest, Dennis was dressed as an army soldier, the older, Billy kept changing from one thing to another and finally went out with a hard hat and a reflective vest, I guess he was a construction worker.
Ruth’s two; Cory and Ryan were dressed as soldiers.
The six kids, Cory, Ryan, Billy, Dennis, Nastia and Elena went out trick or treating. They were joined by several adults. It ain’t like old times that’s for sure. They went to about a dozen houses before it started raining again and they came back.
Teri wanted to bring the girls to the mall to trick or treat, but we ran out of time and we went to the Halloween parade in Nyack.
It rained off and on for most of the time we were in Nyack. We found a spot close to the parade route in one of the bank parking lots. We had Tony’s wheel chair and we rolled him over to the Helen Hayes theatre, on the upper level to see better. Close to the beginning of the parade there were spots still open on the street so we moved closer for the better view. I thought the girls would be afraid of some of the costumes and the only time they were was when the wicked witch of the west snuck up on them.
The parade lasted about thirty or forty minutes which was long enough. We were wet and hungry. We ended the night by going to Banchetta feast at the Nanuet Mall. It is a very nice restaurant.
When we got home I received a call from my sister telling me everyone had stayed at my brother’s and the kid’s had gone back out to trick or treat and they had ordered pizza. I never thought about finding out what everyone else was up to. It is taking time learning to be a parent, but it is harder remembering that the kids might enjoy hanging out with other kids. I’ll get the next holiday right (yeh, right, don’t laugh so hard it could happen.), how bad could thanksgiving be?

A little surprise from Mexico way

Teri and I love to eat at El Bandito restaurant. Now with the kids the cost is most likely out of the question. So on Monday we cooked tacos.
I got home earlier then Teri so I started cooking. The girls were home so I had them helping. I dumped some chop meat into the frying pan and
Nastia’s response was “ugh, no papa, no.” and she pointed at the meat. I laughed and continued to cook the meat. Elena asked to help and I told her if she wanted to help she would have to eat the meat.
Her response was just like her sisters “no, papa, no” and she pointed at the meat. I let Elena help cook the meat and then I added the spice mix to the meat, for some reason that got their attention.
When the meat was ready I asked if they would like to try it and they said nimnoga, a little. I put a small piece of meat on a spoon and each tried it. Elena first, she liked it. Nastia tried it second and she liked it so suddenly we were in business. We could feed them Mexican food, well at least taco and fajitas anyway. I gave each one a small plate with meat and some taco sauce. Elena wanted cheese. I asked each one to try a taco shell and at first neither one liked it, but almost as soon as I sat down they were after me to give them some of my tacos. I was smarter than they were. I told them they had to eat what they had first then they could have some of mine. This gave me a head start and I managed to finish just about all I had. I think they each swiped a taco from me. They ate well that night and we can now give them tacos. Or if they are like real kids the next time we have tacos they will forget that they like them and refuse to eat them.
School seems to be going well. We got up early today and went to the town hall to get some more photos for the new passports and get some papers notarized. It also made it easy to take care of a promise to show the people in the town hall the girls; they have been very nice and helpful through this whole process.
Now if I could only get to bed at a better hour then I have been.

Head, shoulders, sneeze and toes

It’s the newest song that the girls have learned in school. They touch a part of their body and say the name. They start at the head, go to the shoulders, then the knees and then the toes. They do it twice, than they name the features on their head, ears, eyes, mouth and repeat the shoulders and so forth.
In their version, it comes out as head, shoulders, sneeze and toes and on their head they have a mouse. I will try to post a video of it.
Their English is coming along as you might have guessed. At the dinner table one night Elena looks at Teri and says “What’s the matter?” which comes out as whatsa matter? It’s all very interesting watching the changes day by day.
The JCC after school care didn’t work out so we are trying it with Teri’s father and Amanda. The first week went pretty good. There was a little hitting by Nastia, where Donald was talking to her and I guess she was playing her Nintendo and he wanted her attention so she hit him. The second hitting she said she did not do, but I was told she hit Tony the same day. Nastia has gotten into trouble at school for biting and scratching two different children. I hope we are not witnessing a pattern.
We went to the eye doctors last week. We knew that the girls had eye sight problems and the eye doctor confirmed it. Both girls are extremely near sighted. Nastia’s vision was corrected to 20-80 and Elena’s was corrected to 20-60. She said that was the best she could do. I think the way the girls took the eye exam made it difficult to go further. Nastia kept switching from her right eye to her left eye and I think they kept moving away from the eye thing they put on your eyes to determine what strength glasses you need. Both kept looking over their shoulder to see the correct answer to the question which way the letter is facing. They didn’t want to give a wrong answer. The Russian speaking assistant told them there was no wrong answer. Still it was a test they wanted to do well in.
The Nintendo game again came in handy to keep them occupied while the other was being examined.
Everybody is being so nice to us. I have had people offer clothes for the girls. Every relative we have has gone out and purchased clothes. Teri and I are very touched by all the kindness of everyone. Even the eye doctor gave us a break on the cost of the glasses. We need a social security number for the girls before we can put them on insurance, but the school requires doctor visits, eye doctor visits and dentist visits (coming on Sunday the 25th at 10:30) within a certain number of days of admission to school, so all these doctor visits are coming out of our pocket. The eye doctor cut the exam price from 110.00 to 85.00 each and the glasses were cut in price too. The total bill was 320.00. I’ve spent that and more for glasses for myself. Teri and I were very pleased and we are thinking of moving our eye business totally to them. The only problem is Teri has been with Spring Valley Optical for just about her entire life and I’ve been going to them for the last fifteen years. Also the new place is in Englewood NJ.

Every thing old is new again

It seems like we went through this once before. The girls are in an after school program and the after school program has asked them to leave. They feel that the girls’ lack of understanding English is too time consuming and it takes time away from the other kids. It’s not that the girls were bad, except for today, it just the language. I’m really getting tired of all these people who don’t want to handle the girls, really tired.
Teri and I had a phone call with the principle Martha Ryan today, nothing to do with the JCC after school program. It was an interesting conversation. She talked about bring in more help for the girls. A teacher’s assistant some more ESL help and some Russian language programs. I’m just a babe in the woods when it comes to getting what a student in need needs, but it seems that she is trying her best to help the girls out and is not nickel and diming us. I hope it turns out to be true. She is a really nice person and her staff seems to be really nice and helpful. Again I hope it all works out right.
With work I don’t get to see the girls much. I was told that Elena acted up in the after school program. The two of them were barking like dogs, which they have done before. But Elena was climbing on furniture. Teri got the fun job of setting the two of them straight on proper behavior in public. I went to donate blood at the local FD. When I got back all three were alive and there were no obvious bruises so I guess it went well.
Up until two nights ago the girls were sleeping in the double bed in the back bedroom and Teri said they were talking too much and were not getting to sleep quick enough so she made them go back to their room and to sleep in their own beds. Elena did try to get into Nastia's bed, but was stopped. It always seems to be Elena who wants to be with Nastia and is stopped. I’m not sure I agree with it. I think for the two of them it is a security thing. But then again this is the second night of it and there seems to be no side effects. I guess when they are in therapy in ten years and they blame Teri for all their attachment problems I’ll know that it was a mistake.

It's all happening at the zoo.

This past weekend we wanted to do something as a family. So we decided to go to the Bronx Zoo. We figured that the price of a ticket for the four of us and then we invited back up and babysitting, Amanda and Thrasha. Everything worked out about as well as could be expected. That sounds like I have some reservations about the day. I guess maybe I do. I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that every time we go out the price of everything we do is going to be twice what it was. We went to the Hard Wok Thursday and we had a great time, my mother and brother and his family and my sister and her family were all there and the price to take the four of us out was just a little short of fifty bucks and I always viewed the Hard Wok as a cheap place to go eat. I guess we will not be going to El Bandito, where Teri and I can do 80-100 dollars, anytime soon.
We invited CJ and Fran to go with us to the Zoo, but they could not come. So Teri, Amanda, Thrasha, Nastia, Elena and I all went to the zoo. We got there at about one pm and it was a warm day so like idiots, we at least me, we threw off our jackets forgetting it was October and not June. About an hour or so later in the shade it started to get a little cold.
The first animals we saw where the Water Buffalo and they were at the other end of their space. I wonder if the girls could see them, we still need to get them glasses.

Being Lions

They really enjoyed seeing the Tiger, the snow leopard and several other animals. They enjoyed seeing a peacock up close and after Birobidzan I didn’t trust Nastia to be alone with anything with feathers. If you don’t remember she enjoys chasing pigeons and trying to catch them. Got as close as a handful of feathers once. I don’t know what a peacock would do if it was chased and cornered by Nastia.
We ate some pretty poor food at the food court area and around four in the afternoon we were at the other end of the park. We started back by another route to see other things. We stopped at the Giraffe enclosure, but there was none to be seen. By this time most of the animals had been bought inside I guess to be fed.

We walked to one gate only to find out that it was the wrong gate. Finally as the sun was setting and it was getting colder we finally found the correct gate and got in the car and went home. All and all it was good to get out as a family and we dropped Amanda and Thrasha off at Tony’s house and picked up an old file cabinet that Nancy got from work and bought it home.
At Home I was bring the file cabinet out of the car and the cellar steps were exposed and out of the corner of my eye I see a figure tumble down the stairs. It was weird, it happened without any sound. The first sound I heard was Elena starting to cry. I dropped the cabinet and ran down the stairs. I picked her up, I know I should have seen if she was ok first, and I carry her inside and sit her down in a chair in the kitchen. I would not let her get up until I was sure she was ok. Teri checked out one side of her and I did the second. Now the most important thing out of all this was during the fall and me carrying her and checking her out she did not drop her Nintendo game. Oh also she was fine, maybe a knot on her head which she played up for the rest of the night, just a little bit

A bicycle ride and the trampoline

Today started slowly, we had work to catch up on that has been neglected for the past five weeks. The lawn hadn’t been mowed in six or so weeks and must have been a foot deep.
I started to mow the lawn and it was going slow. The bag would clog up with wet grass very quickly and have to be emptied often. I had the good fortune to get some help after about twenty minutes of this when the girls came out to help. They turned a job that was going to take an hour and cut the time to two hours. They both wanted to push the mower and both wanted to empty the bag of grass and then take the wheel barrow to the recycling pile to empty. As they emptied the wheel barrow I started the mower and did as much of the lawn as I could until they got back .This went along for a while until one got tired and went in and then the other one followed. I thought they were going to come back so I hurried to mow as much as I could. After a while I saw that they were in the dining room eating hot dogs so then I was able to finish the side yard at my leisure.
After they had lunch, they came out and wanted to go bike riding. I figured if I made them wait they would get into some trouble and they would never get to go, so we went.
My brother has a long paved driveway and it makes for a nice place to bike ride. Last year the girls had trouble going up the slight grade in the pavement. By the time they left it was a breeze.
This year they are out of practice and are having some difficulty going up the incline. Before the snows I hope they will have managed to go up and down the driveway with no problem. I would like to take them to the park near us it has a three and a half mile trail that they would enjoy biking once they are in shape. They went up and down the driveway about a dozen times and I stood at one end near the road. I took my eyes off them and they did not come back down the driveway. I went looking for them and I found the bikes and I continued and they had decided to go on the trampoline my brother has. I was angry they did not ask, so I played the parent and made them get off the trampoline and come to me and I told them that they have to ask before they do something like that and then I made them ask me. Some parent, it’s the same thing my mother did to me. I don’t know if that is good or not. In this everybody wins and there is no losers’ world and if you swat your kid they call the cops on you world it makes me wonder.
The day at my brothers lasted about two and a half hours and I hadn’t eaten lunch so I went to Nathans at the Nanuet Mall, which is very empty and had a hot dog and originally I got the girls one soda to share. Yea, you know what’s coming, I ended up getting them a second soda because they begged me and I’m sure Teri has told you she thinks I’m a soft touch, I not really.
Our final stop was the fruit store. I love the fact that these girls think fruit is a treat and I’m trying to maintain that. Teri says eating a dozen bananas in a two day period is not good. But isn’t fruit good for you?
We got home Teri made penne and sauce for dinner and the girls loved it, the good old standby. Thank god they will eat something.

First day at school

I’m writing this about four or so days after the fact and I think they went to school for the first time on Monday, the fifth.
I don’t remember the day, but I do remember what happened and how everyone felt. Well most everyone, I couldn’t read Teri too well that day.
Nastia and Elena started the day just like they started everyday of their time here last summer when they had to get up, they didn’t do it willingly. I came into the bedroom; while Teri was in the shower and tried to be gentle waking them up, it didn’t work. I should have known it would not. These two are survivors of an Orphanage and are used to noise and distractions and all that other stuff that goes along with it. When I remembered that I straightened up, grabbed a handful of covers and pulled them off of them. They didn’t move. I turned on the light and got a groan, progress. Finally I resorted to sitting them up on the edge of the bed only to see them fall back over as I reached for the other. The final solution turned out to be getting them to stand up and not let them get back into bed. Of course it would have also been a good idea to get them to bed at an earlier hour, which we did try. It started out as an 8:30 bed time and I think it was after 10pm by the time they quit talking.
With the two of them full upright and almost awake I told them to get dressed and started to leave and when I turned back guess what I saw. Yes that is why I have the smartest readership I know, they were both getting back into bed. So this time when I told them to get dressed I waited for them to start before I left.
We had toast for breakfast, Teri fixing it and maybe some fruit too. At about 7:45 we started to walk to school. Teri and I had a big discussion about their backpacks and I didn’t like the packs we had bought for the Russia trip being used, but they had a lot of stuff to bring to school and nothing else fit it all so we did it. I was afraid that they would seem like freaks if they went to school with backpacks that I thought of as airline luggage. I thought that they were going to have enough trouble fitting in without starting out with some weird backpack given to them by their out of touch parents. It turned out OK, all the kids had backpacks of various sizes and they didn’t standout too much.
Walking to school I ended up carrying both bags. I don’t know if it was a scam run by those two to get out of carrying the bags or if they were just too heavy. I thought they were too heavy. Kids are supposed to carry bags weighing no more than ten percent of their weight and these bags were more than ten pounds.
We entered the school and were greeted by the people we met on our first trip there. I was allowed to walk the girls to their class room and we first went to Elena’s. I thought Elena was handling it better then Nastia so I continued on to Nastia’s class. There Nastia was introduced to some of her class mates and a fifth grader who spoke Russian. The teachers are all very nice and the principle is extremely helpful and nice. The ESL teacher is good too.
Everyone is so helpful and I have good feelings about it all. It is about time these girls catch a break in their lives.
I have read a history of their lives and it is not pretty. Their mother got a government pension for some mental disorder that Nastia and Elena are said to suffer from to a lesser degree and she would use the money to buy Vodka.
A very telling incident happened while we were at the airport. Teri told me about it. She and Nastia were out in front of the duty free shop and Teri said something about Vodka and buying some and Nastia very pointedly said NOOOOOH. And then Teri asked about Papa buying some and again another emphatic NOOOOOH.
It seems somewhere in her memory she remembers that her mother drank and what happened when she did.
Another story; we were at some friends house last year and someone was drinking beer and Nastia asked if he was a drunk?
It’s sad that a person and especially someone that young has those demons running around in their head. Maybe it will save her the grief of getting involved with alcohol and not being able to stop like her mother, hopefully for both of them.
After the Nastia was settled in her class, she was given a hook for her jacket and a desk for her books and stuff; I went to see how Elena was doing. She was at her desk with her jacket and gloves still on and did not want to remove them, I guess they were her safety blanket.
I left with the Principle, Mrs. Ryan and we walked down the hall and she kept telling me they would be OK and I told her I knew they would and that I was feeling worse than they were right now.
I left after another quick talk with Mrs. Ryan and our separate days were starting.
Teri picked them up at 2:30 and sat and talked with Mrs. Ryan and told the same stuff I was told in a phone call I received about 11:30.
For a first day it went well.

The weekend 10-03-04-2009

The weekend like friday went very fast. Here it is Sunday afternoon and I am having trouble remembering what happened.
Yesterday was spent at the house I was sick friday night and most of saturday I had no energy and could not eat.
Teri cleaned the house and went to a Bruce Springsteen concert at Giant Staduim with Amanda last night. I got some chinese food for Tony, the girls and myself and the girls didn't eat it. Remember they do not eat lo-main or at least on this day they did not and they also turned their noses up at broccolli which I can't blame them. Even though I like it I can imagine why they would not so they had spaghetti again for the forth time in two days and when they tire of that all that is left is peanut butter and jelly. 
  Sunday was better, first off  I felt better and I got the girls out of the house and we went to Corrado's in Patterson NJ. to get some pumpkins for halloween. They most likely don't know what it is so we are going to try and ease them into it slowly so they don't get scared. They did find funny and interesting a screaming head and it didn't scare them.
   After that we went to Lynn and Eric's to bike ride and they had cookies, popcorn and soda to make up for the missed lunch, my fault. They also jumped on the trampoline and Elena was doing flips on it. We are going to take Ruth's trampoline, but I'm not sure how comfortable I am about it.
  That took until about three in the afternoon and it is now five. The Giants have won, the Yankees are going to the playoffs and the Jets are just starting. Life is pretty good right now.