Happy Father's Day

Sunday, June 21st

Today was Father's Day. I told Alex "Happy Father's Day" when we woke up and then when we went to pick Katya up I told her to tell him "Happy Father's Day" (it sounded so cute!). I had meant to get cards before I left but with all the other stuff I had to do, it didn't happen. Sorry honey!

Elena had sent us a text in the morning that said that Katya wanted to take us to Cafe Camelia. We are a little scared of going to places that we don't know what food to order but decided that we could oblige her. We called Elena before going to make sure that Katya really knew where this Cafe was and then we were off. It wasn't too far - just a little past the first park - but when we arrived there were no customers. We called Elena to make sure this place actually served food because it looked more like a night club. The menu had no pictures and so we had to have Elena talk to the waitress and then relay to us some of the food they have and then we had to tell Elena what we wanted who then in turn told the waitress. It was very complicated and after we had finished ordering Katya ordered something. We were a little scared of what she had ordered and had Elena ask the waitress how much this was going to cost, to which we never got a response. So the whole unknown food thing, the not knowing how much it was going to cost, and Katya wandering around the restaurant while our food was being prepared put Alex in a bit of a sour mood. He figured that the "wandering around" thing warranted another call to Elena and he had Elena explain to Katya that when we go to a restaurant in America, we sit at our table and wait for them to bring our food; we don't walk around to each table, go back and chat with the waitresses and chefs. This then put Katya in a sour mood, but she seemed content to pout a little and eat sunflower seeds. Our food took FOREVER. You would think that us being the only people in the restaurant would speed up the food prep but nope! When the food finally came, it was actually really good. We had soup and shish-kabob meat and potatoes. Katya only ate a couple of bites of her soup and chicken (she was the one that wanted to come here, remember!) but we finished off her chicken and the bill only came to about $20. Not bad!

When we were walking to the Cafe, we saw a group of orphans walking back to the orphanage on the other side of the street. We are guessing that they were walking back from the church. Alex had gone into the market to get some water and the kids asked where he was. When I motioned that he was in the store, the kids dawdled along until Alex came out so that they could wave at him. All the kids just love Alex!

I think that we have become addicted to sunflower seeds. It has become a ritual to buy a bag of them when we are out in the town and you can see us all walking around spitting out sunflower seed shells. Today Katya was feeding them to the birds. Normally we would tell her not to waste them but they really cost the equivalent of about $.20 so if it entertains her and Allie - why not!

Katya doesn't complain too much when we have her do her English lessons. We have learned that she will do things eventually. She just has to decide that she wants to do them. We had brought her a new pair of tennis shoes that she refused to put on (to the point that Alex was so frustrated with her that he had to take a "breather" from her). But later that day, she decided that she wanted to wear them. The same goes with the English lessons. That first day she stood her ground but then after that she has decided that she wants to do English lessons - and sometimes even asks for them. Today we were having her practice writing her letters. We brought a dry erase board and as she wrote them we went over what they were called and the sound they made. We have been having her watch those Leap Frog letter videos that tell what sounds the letters make so she has the sounds down pretty good. She doesn't know the names of them as well but the sounds are the most important anyway. She can sing to the letter "G" in the alphabet song. After she had written all the letters, she decided to try and spell some words (she did this all on her own - which was awesome!). She wrote "papa" and "mama" (which are easy, since they are the same in Russian). Then she wrote "sester" in an attempt to write sister, but wouldn't believe me when I told her it should be an "i" and not an "e". Then she wrote "babushka" and was trying to write "brother" but wrote "brat" and I mistakenly thought that she really might know what "brat" is and was writing it in response to Allie's trying to "help" her which was making Katya mad! So I made the mistake of laughing and then Katya got mad. She is so sensitive! But I coaxed her into cheering up and then we played a game of "go fish" with Allie.

So, overall it was a good Father's Day I think. One down, eight to go...