By Special Request

For Katya and Natalia, in Moscow, who have asked to see Katya in action at her silks class: I managed to catch a few minutes of Katya practicing a couple of new moves at the end of her class last night. The second move, the upside one, she just learned, and for safety reasons, they have to master the move close to the ground before trying it higher up. Katya still needs to work on her dismount on that one (a bit! - as you can see) but it is still cool to see how much she's learned in a few months.

(Kristen is still taking silks as well, but she missed last nights class because she was still in Florida. I'll try for more video of both of them next week.)

Ruffled Skirts and Valentine's Oreo Lollipops

Funny - Derrick and Kristen steal away to Orlando to ride roller-coasters and feed sea lions on a random weekend in February, and the most rebellious counter-entertainment I can think to do while home alone and in charge of the other three is to let the house get messy while making crafts. The craft tally for the week-end: two flirty ruffle skirts, one for Katya and one for my niece Bella, and about 60 Valentine-themed Oreo cookie lollipops. Oh, and I almost forgot: one green stuffed alien and one little woolen spider, made from scraps (by Jack, after my sister taught him how to use my sewing machine.)

Here is Katya's skirt:

And my niece Bella's:

I had to improvise on the design to come up with a skirt small enough to fit 10 month-old baby Bella's measurements. Somehow, when finished, the skirt turned out a little too short - more like a diaper cover - hence the improvised eyelet lace trim on the bottom.

If my good camera were not still in the shop, I would have made the girls get dressed up for a photo shoot in their coordinating skirts. Won't they look cute together? I'll have to see if I can come up with something for Kristen as well, when she is home and I can measure her, although ruffly skirts are not exactly her style, so she might not be too thrilled with that idea. With the right tops, tights and shoes though, these would make cute coordinating Easter outfits.

My friend in the UK, made these gorgeous crochet flower pins for when I get Simple Wishes up and running again. But, I hate to let them sit in a drawer, until then.

I got the pattern for the skirts from my sister, Natalie, who got it from my mom, who got it from her friend Cathy, who got it from a magazine over a year ago. But, with a little research, I found the tutorial on the designer's website, HERE. It is really very easy to make, just rectangles and straight line sewing, if anyone is interesting in giving it a try (it's the same pattern I used to make the skirt in the garden snake photo shoot of Katya last summer).

One of the nurses I work with had loaned me her serger to try (it was new, in a box - she's never used it) and Natalie helped me figure out how to thread and get it started. I LOVE it. I can't tell you how happy these beautiful finished seams make me: (yes, I can be a nerd, I admit.)

It would be hard to justify buying such an expensive toy for someone who sews as infrequently as I do, but I am already imagining all the purses and skirts I could make with my own serger. (So far I only know how to sew a straight line with it, which is somewhat limiting.) But, if my nurse friend wants to sell hers for a good price, I will be very, very tempted.

Now, for my other weekend project. I wanted to help the kids make something fun to take to school next week as an alternative to pre-printed Valentines. Natalie came up with the idea to make Valentine-themed Oreo cookie lollipops, borrowing an idea from her creative sister-in-law, Sarah, who had made them for a baby shower recently.

The lollipop sticks, cute sprinkles and baggies were all from the candy-making aisle at JoAnn's Fabrics (or Boring-Ann's as Ben started calling it, after our second trip there last night. BTW - it is HARD to be a single parent and have to load up all the kids for every minor little errand!) The remaining ingredients are Double-Stuff Oreos and vanilla-flavored almond bark (or white chocolate would work.)

Insert the lollipop stick into the middle of the Oreo cookie, dip in melted almond bark, let the excess drip off, then coat with sprinkles and lay on parchment paper to cool and dry. It only takes a short while to harden, and then you can cover the tops with the clear baggie and tie with a ribbon.

And now, for the bonus crafts, designed and sewn by Jack:

(These are original, one-of-a-kind designs. Sorry, no pattern available. =))

Sigh -- my weekend is almost over. Time to start cleaning up now, I suppose.

Home Alone

I recently succumbed to the latest trend and replaced my FB profile picture with a picture of my alleged celebrity look-alike: Sarah Chalke...you know, the girl from Scrubs. Now, I don't honestly really think I look that much like her, but over the years, at least half a dozen or so different people have independently mentioned that I do. So, I figure there must be something to it. Although come to think of it, I heard this more when I was thinner and blonder, and not so much lately, and even then, usually when I was wearing scrubs, but WHATEVER.

So yesterday, 13 year-old Kristen is looking over my shoulder, while I am on Facebook and when she saw the picture she exclaimed, "Mom! What have you done with your profile? Why is that girl on there?!"

"It's my celebrity look-alike. You know...the girl from Scrubs?"

"But..." she continued incredulously, "the girl in that picture looks like a teenager...a cocky teenager!"

"You don't think I could pass for a cocky teenager?" I asked while crossing my arms across my chest and tilting my head like Sarah Chalke in the photo.

"Um...NO."

But only because it's impossible to BE a cocky teenage when you HAVE a cocky teenager. (That's what I wish I had thought to say.)

So, speaking of the resident teen (I seriously still can't believe I have one of those), Kristen and Derrick flew to Orlando this afternoon for a father-daughter weekend. They are hitting up Sea World and Disney World and then we are letting her miss school on Monday so they can fly home that day. This is the consolation trip I promised her ever since last spring when she wasn't able go to Moscow with me and Jack and Katya because of not wanting to miss rehearsals for her piano guild. (I told her I'd take her somewhere when we could find a great deal, and Derrick said, "No way, I'll take her. You had your turn.")

So, they've been wanting to go to Orlando during off season, ever since the lines were so horrible when we went last spring. This was the first time that all the stars aligned and Derrick was available and Kristen could miss school, and I was not on call (to be okay home alone with the others), and I could find a great deal. And poor Derrick, didn't realize until after I'd purchased the tickets that it was Super Bowl weekend. Oh well, he is in Florida and I'm home in the cold with the three Littles, so he'll get over it.

I just think it's so cool that she has the kind of dad and the kind of relationship with him, that at 13, she'd want to hang out with him alone for a weekend. (I certainly never had that.)

While they are away, we're rebelling and just letting it all hang out at home. My sister Natalie came into town and Natalie and Francie went fabric shopping while I was at work, then came over and brought all their sewing supplies. I used some scraps and begged some fabric off Natalie's new stash and made a skirt for Katya - my first using a serger. (Natalie's - LOVE it.) Francie made a purse and Nat helped Jack sew a stuffed alien. (Don't ask. It is really cute though.) I made some lentil soup for dinner and the kids scrounged some freezer-burnt ice cream for dessert. Lori and Todd stopped by with kids, on their way home from their little trip to Hershey, PA, and brought massive Hershey Kisses for the kids.

My kitchen and dining room are strewn with a messy combination of fabric scraps and supplies, dinner mess and chocolate paraphernalia. But, the kids are in bed now, and you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to put on my pajamas, kiss my kids good-night, and go curl up with my book and pretend it isn't there. Because I can. (Who says I can't play the rebellious, cocky teenager?!)

P.S. Don't worry, Hon - it'll all be cleaned up by Monday. Don't have too much fun without us! And, yes, I remembered to feed the animals. Barely.

Young Russophile

While waiting for Katya to finish up her gymnastics class - Katya was practicing her back handspring, with her teacher spotting her - one of the other little girls, about Katya's age, came up to me on the sidelines and asked me, "Are you Katya's mom?"

"Yes."

"That's so cool that she's Russian!" she said.

"Oh? She told you she's Russian?"

"Yes!" she effused, "and I think it's so cool! I don't have any other friends who aren't American."

"Well," I corrected, "she actually IS American now."

"But she's Russian too?...Right?"

"Uh-huh. You're right, she's both."

"So cool!"

After class, I watched as both girls longingly perused the leotards-for-sale rack, collectively ooh-ing and aah-ing over the sequins and shine, drawn like magnets to the shimmeriest of the lot.

When the girls were putting their shoes and coats on, the same girl said to me as an aside, "You know, you've got a really great kid!"

There was something just so freaking funny about hearing that from a nine year-old - completely cracked me up! It was all I could do to say seriously, "Yeah, I know. She is pretty great."

And she is. Sparkly flamed orange lame and pink velvet leotard and all.

Will Run for Massage (aka "It seemed like a good idea at the time!")

At this very moment, I am enjoying my first in-flight wi-fi experience. So, instead of finishing my 10 cents/day overdue library book - as I ought to be doing - I thought I'd seize the opportunity to briefly recap my weekend in Miami, before I jump back into the daily grind with an early morning work meeting tomorrow. Besides, the library uses those late fees to meet budget and buy more books, right? Consider it my community service deed for the day.

My weekend in Miami was a girls-only get-away for myself and three of my good friends. Courtney lives in Miami, Jill in Dallas, Lyn in Chicago - two of these girls and I have know each other since we were in grade school, we all went to college together. We have done our best to stay close over the years, but it's been since college graduation (16 years ago) that all four of us have been together at once. But, these are the kind of golden friends who, though life and time and distance may come between us, we always pick up seamlessly where we left off. I know that any of these girls would be there for me in a heart-beat if I needed them.

OK...I would go on about how great these girls are and how grateful I am for their enduring friendships, but I better get right to the point, before all electronic devices have to be turned off. (I read for part of the flight - before I realized about the wi-fi, of course.) The purpose of this trip - or, I should more accurately say, the excuse we all used to justify a girls weekend away - was to run the Miami half-marathon together. It was a good plan in theory, with one small problem: all four of us got busy, procrastinated, and forgot one small important element. To actually TRAIN to run a 1/2 marathon. (See how compatible we all are?) Well, crazy girls that we are, we ran it anyway. Here we all are in our post-race glory, smiling through the delirium:

(I am the hatless one.)

We have spent the last 24 hours limping around and popping pills like a bunch of geriatrics (you should see us go down stairs or get in and out of the car - it is quite comical and we've made no fewer than 3 trips to the drug store for meds for various ailments.)

Lest I leave you thinking we are complete masochists, today alone, we went out for a fantastic breakfast, spent the morning at the spa getting massages, then braved monsoon-like rain to have gelato at the best place in Miami Beach. Seriously, we had to roll up our jeans and wade across the street! (One helpful passerby offered piggy-back rides - an old man with an umbrella!) Thankfully, the rain abated before my flight left - I'm such a nervous flier.

OK...gotta hit publish and put my seat back and tray table up. Forgive my abrupt ending and lack of editorial review.

P.S. Editorial note from Cincinnati airport: It WAS a good idea. Totally worth it. But, oy!, I am hurting anew right now after sitting still and cramped for 2 hours.

Funnies

I stopped at the drugstore over my lunch hour to pick up a birthday card for a friend. On the cover of one card I selected:

An elderly woman called 911 on her cellphone to report that her car had been broken into. "They've stolen everything! The radio, my dashboard compass, even the steering wheel!!!" The dispatcher responded, "Stay calm, a police officer is on the way." Minutes later, the officer arrived and radioed in...

Inside the card:

Disregard that last call...she got in the backseat by mistake.

I laughed out loud right there in the aisle at Walgreens.

And then I laughed again about 3 or 4 hours later when I randomly thought of it again.

I am easily amused sometimes.

(Or, maybe I am just in a good mood because I am going to Florida in 3 days...)

I Am, I Said

Saw this on another blog I enjoy reading and thought I'd post my answers here as a little time capsule of January 2010.

I AM READING

Diana Gabaldon's Voyager, the third in the Outlander series.

In this installment, our time traveling heroine, Claire, recently widowed (by her modern day husband) and having confessed to her 18 year-old daughter the truth about her father (that he is an 18th century Scotsman), risks everything and travels back through time to reunite with her true love and OH MY GOODNESS, this book is 870 pages and I pretty much lost interest after they reunited somewhere in the 300's and it's all I can do to keep myself from getting on Wikipedia and reading the plot outline so I can move on, and NOT to book four. (Although, of course, I'd have to read the plot outline to book four too. Just so I know what happens.)

I AM DRINKING

Coffee with a splash of milk.

I moved into a new office at work this past week. The old office, though adequate and comfortable, was on the main hallway across from the patient bathrooms - bathrooms with very loud, annoying fans that automatically come on with the lights, that I was forever getting up to switch off with an exasperated sigh. (Don't people turn off lights anymore when they are finished?!) The new office is the plum quiet corner office with 6 long windows overlooking the woods and a nice big desk that was custom built for me. (It is lovely.)

And, if you're wondering where I am going with this or what this has to do with coffee, it is that in the course of cleaning out the old office, I brought home 11 coffee mugs that had been stashed in various drawers and cupboards or littering the surface of my old desk. I think that when one leaves a trail of coffee mugs in their wake, there might be a problem. Maybe I should cut back. (On the mugs, at least.)

I AM LISTENING TO

I just finished listening to Carrolly Erickson's The Last Wife of Henry the VIII, an historical fiction interpretation of the life of Catherine Parr, which was riveting. The narrator's voice was so pleasing to listen to that I awoke one morning, having dreamt in her lilting British accent, strangely. (Thank goodness it wasn't a night-mare - I was sure I'd have one after the chapters about fifth wife Katherine Howard's brutal execution.)

I have now started listening to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. And while I am enjoying that as well, I think it is time to choose something American - and preferably this century - next, lest I start speaking in a pseudo-British accent.

I AM WATCHING

I'm really looking forward to the return of LOST next week. Derrick and I are also watching 24 together this season, which is off to a decent start so far.

I loved George Clooney in Up in the Air, although I hated the ending. (It was the right ending, poetically speaking, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.) I am rooting for this one, come Oscar season.

I AM LOVING

I've got a little thing going for mandarin oranges right now. I can't stop eating them. Although, next week's arrival of the Girl Scout Cookies will likely put an end to that little brief healthy infatuation.

What are you READING, DRINKING, LISTENING TO, WATCHING, LOVING right now?

All the News that's Fit to Print

1. My Dad turned 60 yesterday. I asked him if he felt old, and he said, "No. Why? Do you?" Well kinda, sometimes...

2. My mother-in-law had surgery on her hip yesterday. As far as I know, everything went well. If she's feeling up to visitors we'll pop in on her at the hospital this evening. (Although, we are quite the crowd - all 6 of us - for just popping in.)

3. I lost another 3# all of a sudden. Thank goodness. With all of that effort and so little results, I was starting to wonder if my metabolism had come to a screeching premature halt. (See #1.)

4. I succumbed to peer pressure and signed up to run ("run" is used verrrry loosely here) the Miami half-marathon in 2 weeks even though I haven't trained at all. The good news is that I am going to Miami! (With some girlfriends from college.)

5. Oh, and the behavior chart is back.

I am throwing in #5 like an after-thought for effect. Because, that's what Katya did when she came to the car on Tuesday after school, handing it over with feigned nonchalance and a what-can-you-do shrug, "Well, look what's back." You have to give her points for pluck.

Tuesday night we had the hour long going-in-circles "are you struggling and trying, but just not getting it or remembering? or, have you gotten lazy and slipped back into your old habits? are you not getting what you're supposed to do? or, do you know what you're supposed to do and you just choose not to do it? 'cause I thought we finally worked out all of these kinks and you knew what kind of behavior is expected in 3rd grade - what gives and how can we help you?!" talk that left us both frustrated and exasperated, and she'd already had the same talk with Derrick before I got home from work. It is frustrating to go backwards - for her and for us. But, back to the behavior chart it is - it did work for her when she had it, at least.

Yesterday morning, I sat in bed with her for a few minutes, having just awakened her, and scratched and rubbed her back. "Today is going to be a better day. I can feel it!" I encouraged her.

"I can feel that I am trying to sleep and someone is squishing me and scratching me and making me cold," she replied through half-closed eyes in a dead-pan monotone, even as she inched closer and arched her back towards my scratching fingers.

But, it was a better day. Let's hope the upswing continues.

Confessions of a Reformed Drama Queen, Mellowed with Age...

When my eldest daughter was born nearly a week past her due date, I thought those extra 6 days of pregnancy were akin to some sort of travesty. (Forgive me, I was young and lacked perspective.) I remember stepping onto the scale at the doctor's office, on the morning of what was to become her birthday, and bursting into hormone-addled tears at the (unjust!) result. More legitimately, I was also stressed about the fact that I was in medical school, in the midst of my clinical rotations, and was faced with having to make up any missed time prior to graduation. With Kristen due on New Year's Day, it was hard to sit idly still pregnant and watch two weeks of Christmas vacation - potential "free" maternity leave - slip away. My sister Lori, who had come to spend Christmas with us and stayed for as long as she possibly could, hoping to be there for the birth, had to fly home on the 5th. It seems silly now that Kristen is thirteen years old - and here I thought I'd be pregnant FOREVER - but, it was all very dramatically important to me at the time.

This year, on January 5th, the eve of Kristen's thirteenth birthday, I solicited her for suggestions for the big day. Dinner with family? Order in, eat out? What kind of cake? Party with friends, or...? Thirteen seems like kind of a big deal - I felt horrible for not having planned anything except spur of the moment! How could I let it sneak up on me like this? Still trying to come up with good last minute birthday ideas, distracted, I was pondering that very question later that evening, while working out. I'm so exhausted, I thought. I've barely had time to recuperate from the festivity and chaos of Christmas and New Years - the tree is still up, for goodness sake! Where can I muster the energy to give a birthday its proper due? And then it struck me - those extra 6 days? A GIFT from a wise and practical God with a poetic sense of humor. Procrastination has always been my Achilles heel.

Kristen decided this year that instead of a party (whew!) she would like to go away for an overnight trip to a hotel with an indoor waterpark and invite her two best friends to join us. So this past weekend, that is what we did. We headed north a couple of hours with 6 kids - ours and two extras - and spent Saturday night and all day Sunday at the resort. We (well, they) came back late Sunday night and the kids had yesterday off school (for MLK day) to recuperate. I had to come back earlier on Sunday for a meeting for work, so we had to drive 2 cars. On the drive up, I got the tweens in my car.

Kristen, with her 2 best friends, Ivette and Kaitlin. The girls sat in the third row seat of my SUV and put the middle seat down to prop up their feet. They were quite the trio.

The kids had a blast and were all very well behaved and low maintainence. The big girls were really great about keeping an eye on the little kids. They even let me sneak in quite a few chapters of my book on the sidelines, when not coaxing me to go down slides with them.

Unfortunately, I only have a handful of photos from the first evening and none from the second day. I remember while taking this one...

...of the boys in the hot-tub, thinking that the fog and steam might not be healthy for the camera. Later, when packing up our things from the locker, Kristen tossed my bag on the ground and I remember saying to her, "Careful! My camera is in there." Much later that night, when the three girls were in the whirlpool tub in the hotel room with bubbles up to their chins and spilling over on to the floor, I got up to remind them to keep it down and not stay up too late. Then, I snuck back a few minutes later to get a picture of them. That was when I discovered my camera was broken. My nice, new(-ish) DSLR camera of less than a year would not turn on. I have no idea whether to blame the steam (myself) or the drop (Kristen), but, I tried everything I could think of, even charging the battery just to be sure. It appears to be dead, and I am sad. (I'm crossing my fingers it's under warranty - will find out Thursday when I have time to take it to the camera shop.) But, alas, no week-end get-away pictures beyond those few.

On the second day, there was no steam from the hot-tub. The boiler at the hotel broke during the night and they weren't able to heat the water at the park. Upon learning that Sunday morning, I was a bit worried about how the day would play out, but it was fine. The kids - through bluing lips - insisted that the water was FINE! They went down slide, after slide, after slide, until, Derrick was finally able to drag them out of the water and home late that night. It was 11 p.m. when they finally made it home, exhausted but happy.

And He is Just Full of Great Advice...

One day last week, Ben and I went to the YMCA* together after I picked him up from morning kindergarten. Ben, having not been to the Y with me at that particular time of day for many months, was disappointed to discover that the big kids' gym is closed from 12-2 during the winter months, so that all the kids were in the smaller nursery. During the car ride home, he offered this very modern solution: "If every mom writes on her blog that the YMCA should keep open the big kids' gym from 12-2, I'm sure that would work!" (Naturally, he assumes that all moms blog.)

Later that afternoon, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things I needed to make dinner. I was having trouble finding provolone cheese, so we went to look in the fancy cheese section across from the deli. The first package I found, I put back, realizing on closer inspection that it was sliced. "Oh! You don't know if the knives and slicers at this store are rusty and dirty?" Ben asked, or rather announced in a loud conversational voice.

"No," I laughed (it was a nice grocery store), "it's not that. I just want to grate it myself at home, so not sliced would be better."

I found another kind, but it was a large chunk, much more than I needed for the recipe, so I put that back as well and asked Ben to help me look for a smaller one. "Oh!" (again in the loud announcer's voice), "'cause that one's too ee-spensive?" ("ee-" long e, as opposed to "ex-")

"Mm-hm," I answered distractedly.

He persisted, "and parents don't like to buy ee-spensive things?"

"Not when they can help it."

"Because if you buy too many ee-spensive things you will be poor. Right?"

Very practical advice, I thought, laughing to myself, as I vowed to remember that line next time the topic of Legos came up.

*P.S. I've been working out regularly and dieting since the day after Christmas - so determined am I, that I got a one week head start on that New Year Resolution - and despite all my efforts, I have lost a very disappointing, piddling, wait for it...2 pounds. Sigh.

A Walk Down Memory Lane, in Honor of Lucy

We received some very sad news this week. Lucy, the wife of our St. Petersburg coordinator for Katya's adoption, died on Friday, January 8, after battling ovarian cancer. I'm surprised at the force of my emotions at hearing this news - I've broken into tears several times this week at odd, random moments, thinking about her and about Igor. Perhaps it was the heartbreak resonating in Igor's short email. Perhaps it was because even though I only knew her briefly, she played such a key role, and her memory is so deeply knit into one of the happiest, most emotion charged times of my life - bringing another child into our family. Perhaps she is just one of those kinds of people who emanate a special warmth and generosity of spirit, that transcends barriers of time and language and distance.

During our first trip to St. Petersburg, in December of 2006, we went to receive Katya's referral for the Ministry of Education and to meet and spend time with her before filing the petition to adopt. Usually this trip is just a few short days, but we decided to make the trip a little longer and work in some sight-seeing. Lucy and Igor were our willing and able tour guides, even making special arrangements for Katya to be able to leave the orphanage and spend days sight-seeing with us. Igor, who spoke flawless English, was our translator and Russian-side paperwork coordinator. Lucy, whose English was rudimentary at best, enjoyed being a part of bringing families together and often tagged along while Igor worked. There were a couple of days during our trip that Igor was busy with paper work for our adoption and one day where he had to teach at the university (adoption was his side job) and Lucy volunteered to "take" us for the day. (The orphanage wouldn't let us leave with Katya alone, since the adoption was not final, but they would allow her to leave under Lucy or Igor's supervision through some special arrangement.)

One of those days, truly one of the most memorable of that trip, we drove out to Tsarskoe Selo (Pushkin) on the outskirts of St. Petersburg and spent a fabulous day exploring Catherine's Palace.

Lucy, Katya and Derrick in the Great Hall. Notice how they are wearing surgical slippers to cover their shoes? This is common in Russian museums - there is a bin by the entrance for the slippers and one by the exit to discard them. Katya thought it was great fun and all the better for "skating" and sliding all over those floors. A lot of what I remember from that day - in addition to the fantastic historical beauty - is Lucy chiding Katya not to slide on the floors, Derrick and I picking Katya up to carry her (to prevent sliding on the floors), and Lucy chiding Derrick and I not to carry such a large child. Repeat.

The gardens at Catherine's Palace. Always thinking ahead, the consummate grandmother, whether Lucy wished to be called that or not - she told me once that she didn't like to be called Babushka (Russian for grandmother) and that she had her own grandchildren call her Lucy - Lucy pulled a ziplock baggie of bread crumbs from her purse for Katya to feed the ducks. We were near frozen by then, but it was great fun for Katya (who, bundled in a million layers, as was the Russian orphanage fashion, did not seem to be feeling the cold as much.)

Later that day, we had dinner at Pizza Hut because Lucy deemed Katya should try some American food.

Waiting for our food at Pizza Hut, entertaining ourselves by taking pictures of each other across the table, after we'd run out of things to talk about - her with her rudimentary English and I with my equally rudimentary Russian.

My other favorite memory of Lucy - though I have no pictures to illustrate (conveniently) - was the day she took us to the indoor water park - the "aqua park" at the Park Hotel on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. Igor had warned us that Lucy had this idea, so we had packed swimsuits for ourselves and Katya - quick: most unlikely travel destination to need a swimsuit in December? Russia! What I did not think to pack was flip-flops. Apparently, you don't go barefoot at a Russian aqua-park. You wear flip-flops. No worries - Lucy packed towels and flip-flops for all of us. (Cringe. And thank goodness no one knew me there - December pale in a swimsuit with borrowed terry-cloth flip-flops!) Once I got past caring what I looked like, it was SO. MUCH. FUN. And the water was WARM.

It was immediately obvious that Katya did not know how to swim, but ever the resourceful, clever girl, after the first time she jumped in and went under, she grabbed TWO sets of arm floaties from the bin, put them on, and jumped right back in. Lucy taught me a new word that day, "astarozhna" (careful!) and Derrick and I spent pretty much the rest of that day, under Lucy's watchful eye from the side-lines, chasing our little dare-devil around the pool and side-lines making memories chanting "astarozhna, ASTAROZHNA!"

When we were finished swimming, Lucy marched us all over to the sauna and ushered the three of us in for the obligatory warming up. It was SO hot in that sauna, we thought we'd all die of heat exhaustion. It was a great bonding moment for Katya, Derrick and me, as Lucy stood guard at the door, tapping her watch "pyat minute!" (five minutes!) as we all looked at each other in helpless camaraderie.

Katya and Lucy enjoying cotton candy at the St. Petersburg circus, also during our December '06 trip.

Katya and Lucy at the orphanage, on the first day we met her. (Lucy and Igor had previously come to the orphanage and met Katya, before our trip, so she was already warmed up to them. It was me taking pictures of her with Lucy and Igor that warmed her up to me. Shy at first, she was very interested in having a look at my camera.)

Lunch at Stroganoff Palace in St. Petersburg, during our second trip in March 2007. (We ate there several times, I think it was a favorite of Lucy and Igor's.) Igor and Lucy with Derrick and me in the first picture (taken by Katya, with no cropping!) and with Katya in the second. Not a very flattering picture of me - my face is all mid-laugh, squinty - when I showed this picture to Katya (preparing this post yesterday) and pointed out that she should have waited for me to smile, she remarked, "Mother! What did you expect? I was just learning about cameras and stuff. And, I was like, seven, or something." (lol)

If you look closely in the first picture, you can see that Derrick has a painted egg in his front pocket. It was his birthday, and Lucy brought this to him as a gift, "to bring good luck." That egg hangs on the corner of our dresser in our bedroom today.

This one is also from our second trip, in March, when we had returned to Russia for court. (Taken in our apartment, after court.) It was Lucy who comforted me with a knowing look and a rub of the shoulder as I burst into tears on the sidewalk outside of the court, overcome with emotion that our adoption had been approved, but the 10-day wait had not been waived as we had cautiously hoped it might have been.

These last two pictures are from the third trip in April 2007, when I returned to bring Katya home. The first one is Lucy and Katya waiting at the train station for the midnight train that would take Katya and me to Moscow. The second picture is Igor, Lucy, and in the background, Sergei, our driver for all three trips, looking into our train compartment to say good-bye, and the final time we parted.

On the last night Katya and I were in St. Petersburg, Igor and Lucy came to our apartment late that night to take us to the train station. They brought gifts and cards and a bottle of champagne to toast our success. Igor pulled the cork from the bottle and carved our last name into the cork and slipped it in his pocket. He said he was saving it for a souvenir to remember our time together, until such time that we would come again for a visit, and then he'd give it to us for keeping. I'm so very sad that we never got the chance to do that before Lucy died. She was so vibrant and full of life - Lucy, with her black leather pants, her irrepressible motherly ways, her thoughtful, loving, giving spirit. I'm so thankful we had the chance to know her - however briefly. I pray for comfort for Igor as he grieves. And, though it won't be in Russia, as we'd all planned, I DO think we will meet her again someday.

Most Likely To Succeed

...and, to look smart doing it.

Jack (8) looking very updated Alex Keaton-esque in the outfit he chose for school today. (The update is the shaggy hair. =))

I let Jack talk me into allowing him to tag along when I went to work out at the Y tonight. On the car ride over, we struck up an interesting conversation about career choice.

"Have you decided what you want to be when you grow up?" I asked.

"Yup." (definitively) "I'm going to work for iWebAwards."

"Oh?"

I imagined this to be some hybrid of his two current loves: iCarly and the Internet. I was pretty close!

"What kind of company is iWebAwards?" I asked.

So, it turns out, as Jack explained, that this company is for handing out awards to great websites.

"What will you do for them?" I asked.

Well, he has that all planned out too. Most of the year, he will work on planning the big award ceremony. He'll choose a great location - like Africa or Brazil or something - to hold the conference and awards, send out the invitations and the packets and such. During the award ceremony, he would be either the announcer, or maybe operate the cameras.

"Does this company already exist? Will they hire you, or are you starting the company?" I asked.

"Oh, either way works," he said.

"Hmmm," I said, "It sounds fantastic. Do you have any other options you're considering?"

"Well, I might just be a doctor."

"That might be kind of cool," I replied with all the feigned indifference I could muster.

Ben, on Love...

Seen today: Ben planting a big kiss on the Lego catalog, newly arrived in the mail.

"Why are you kissing a magazine, Ben?" I teased.

"Mom." (dramatic pause) "You kiss me so much because you love me. Right?" he said, and then he looked at me pointedly, but only for a second, because by the next one he was absorbed in the pages of his catalog.

If...

If I were taking the 365: Photo-a-Day Challenge and if today were still yesterday, I would have posted this one:

Or maybe this one...

Or this one with the puffy cheeks is kind of cute:

Did you notice that there are exactly 13 candles in a HAPPY BIRTHDAY candle set? Serendipitous, no? Considering I pulled that box of candles out of a drawer in the kitchen at the last minute, I think yes.

13

That magical, mysterious age where girls morph into creatures who no longer wish to take cupcakes to school on their birthday.

Tonight, I tucked in a 12 year-old.

Tomorrow, I will wake up the mother of a teenager.

(It's crazy! I can hardly believe it's true!)

And though she won't let me make cupcakes for her class, at least she still lets me tuck her in.