Chance encounter

We went to the park after her nap on Sunday. Amanda enjoys the playground at Zorinsky Lake. There are lots of different activities, lots of swings, and usually quite a few other kids there playing. She wanted to swing on one swing first, then over to the tire swing, then to another swing right by a gal who was swinging. Amanda said something either to me or to the gal (she talks to everyone), and the gal (hard to tell her age - 23? 28?) smiled at Amanda and told the guy pushing her that Amanda was cute, or something like that. She had a very strong accent, and it sounded quite familiar. I waited to hear her say something else, and when she did, I asked her where she was from. She said Russia - I thought so! I told her I recognized her accent, and as a matter of fact, Amanda is from Russia too. The guy asked her if she understood what I said, and she said no, so he repeated it. I think her name was Natasha. She got a big smile on her face and asked if Amanda spoke Russian. I told her I didn't think she would understand it anymore. I stopped Amanda from swinging and put her on the ground, and Natasha bent down to talk to her. Amanda had the same look on her face as I had when she used to talk to me - no comprehension at all. Kind of a bummer, but not unexpected. As I mentioned, we've been reminiscing about Russian words she used to use, so I explained to Amanda that Natasha speaks Russian, like Amanda used to when she said "dah" and "spasiba". Amanda smiled, and Natasha thought it was a funny explanation. Amanda was swinging again at this point. I remembered that Amanda still sang one of her Russian songs, so I told her to sing it and got her started, and Natasha joined in. It was so cool! They were both singing together and swinging together. Amanda wanted me to keep her swinging in sync with Natasha, but that was a bit tough for me to do! They sang the song once, and then Amanda said, "Do it again!", so they sang it again. Natasha said it is a New Year's song (makes sense that she knew it so well, as she'd probably just learned it the month that she came home).

Natasha said something about her husband, but I wasn't sure if she meant the guy there who was pushing her - hard to tell. There was also a girl about 12 years old, and Natasha said she was her daughter, named Veeta. Veeta didn't speak any English when I was around, although Natasha said something about how hard it was for her (Natasha) to learn English since she is older, but Veeta was picking it up pretty well in school. They have been here 2 months, I think she said? Natasha was very hard for me to understand, so I didn't catch everything she said. I asked who else came over, or who else was in the family, and the guy said he had some older sons, but Natasha & Veeta were the only ones from Russia. At this point, Amanda wanted to go slide, so we said goodbye. They came over to say a final goodbye when they left, which was very nice, and I thought about getting a phone number or address, but decided against it (not like Amanda could talk to her, and I couldn't really talk to her either). They walked away, the guy with his arm around Natasha's shoulders, so I decided I didn't misunderstand - he was her husband. So I guess she is one of those "Russian brides" you hear about! I hope it works out. He didn't seem creepy or anything.

I researched a Russian detective recommended by other adoptive parents (to perhaps try to get information about Amanda's birth family, health history, etc.). When I looked up the website, the main emphasis of the gal's business (based in Texas - she is a 20-something native Russian) is helping men from being duped by Russian bride schemes. I didn't know that so many men were pursuing foreign brides these days, that there could be a business helping do detective work for it. I pray for the best for Natasha, her husband, and for Veeta. It was awesome to meet them, for me to find out if Amanda could understand any Russian anymore, and to get to hear her singing her Russian song with a fellow Russian. What a great encounter!

Saturday I sang at a wedding, and Amanda went over to a friend's house for her daughter to watch her. The original plan was for me to pick up Kim and take both girls to church, and Kim would watch Amanda in the playroom, but it seemed easier for Kim to stay at her house and entertain Amanda there (the wedding was at 3pm). It was nice for me, as I could just concentrate on singing and not worry about the girls. And I had to concentrate, as I still had a bit of a voice problem due to last week's cold. The rehearsal Friday night was a bit rough, but passable. I did all I could to be ready for Saturday, and it went ok. I was unhappy about a couple of notes and even thought maybe I should tell the couple I was sorry my voice wasn't in top form, but before I got to them, other people sought me out to tell me it sounded great, so, ok, good enough! Some friends of mine were at the wedding, but thankfully I didn't find that out until afterward. I really would have been nervous if I'd known I had friends in the crowd. If you don't know anyone, you can sneak out the back if it doesn't go well! They are the couple who recommended me to the bride and groom, so I should have guess they'd be there. Anyway, I'm so glad that is over! I worried about it all week (but what can you do to get your voice back faster?)

Kim didn't have any trouble with Amanda, which was good to hear. We returned home and I mowed the lawn and changed the oil in the mower. Nice to get that done, and Amanda played with her training bike and sidewalk chalk while I mowed. I finished the lawn at 6pm and at 6:15 it started to pour. Good timing in my world! We ate supper and then took a couple of popsicles outside. She danced around in the rain a bit, but the heavy rains had already moved off by that time. The night before, it poured as we came home after rehearsing the songs with the pianist, and I let her run around in the rain. She screamed and laughed! She just had a ball, getting wet.

Her newest phrase is,"Well, that's what happened!", not always in a context that makes sense. I'll be telling her not to do something and I can just see her bristling (no fair! or maybe just, but I want to!) and then she'll say, "Well, that's what happened!" Ok, whatever you say. =)

Sometimes she'll get a stubborn look on her face when I'm telling her not to be naughty about this, that or the other, and I can just see her working up to yell back at me ("Oh yeah? Well let me tell you what I think about that!"). I try to stop her in her tracks and tell her not to talk back, unless she wants to sit in the naughty chair. I tell her to just say, "Ok, Mom" and not get in more trouble! She's pretty good about it, but there was something tonight (I always think I'm going to remember details, but they're gone...) and she just took a deep breath and started yelling at me. I just took her hand and said it was sad, but she must need some bedroom time, and took her up to her room. Oh, the tears! I told her she could come down when she was done crying. She finally came down and was actually pretty cheerful, and we had a pre-bedtime snack. I'm trying the "Love & Logic" ideas from the CD set my sister gave me. Consistency is the most important thing, but not my strong point sometimes.

I opened a can of peaches Sunday night, and dished up some vanilla ice cream to go with it for a yummy after-supper treat which we ate outside on the front steps. I like sitting out there - it's shaded by supper time and nice to watch the neighborhood activity (when there is some - sometimes it's just noisy mowers). We had been writing on the driveway with sidewalk chalk on Saturday, while eating our popsicles and watching the rain (part of the driveway has an overhang so it wasn't wet), and she wanted to do that again. She went down the steps to get the chalk from the garage, but mis-stepped and sprawled on one of the wide bottom steps. She has a scrape on her chin and an owie on the inside of her lip. It's really one of her first big owie's for me to give her big hugs (the in-house stuff has been little bumps or pinched fingers, and the surgeries - well, totally different category). Poor baby. Then last night we went over to play with the puppies and she slipped and scraped her arm on the cement - a bigger owie than the previous night, but at least not on her face. She continued to play, but every few minutes had to check her arm (make sure it was still bleeding a bit? make sure we still knew she had an owie?) She asked Mike to chase her, and swing her around again, and he complied. I hope he doesn't start avoiding us! She really enjoys playing but has no off switch. Probably he enjoys it but I don't want us to become pests.

I had a technology success the other night, as I burned the first days of my trip to a DVD, and was able to play it on my DVD/TV! Probably sounds like no big deal, but the background is that I've tried many times to make an audio CD that will play in my car with no success (turns out Sony is not a good brand, Memorex works fine), and also I have not experimented at all with making DVDs. I didn't even know how to start, and then I thought I had it but it said I had selected too much data, but didn't show me how to just eliminate some from the 'project', so I had to start over. Anyway, it was a long process of preparing the data, naming the menu pages, etc. and it was wonderful to stick the DVD in the player and have it actually play on my TV! And of course I had to watch it a bit (even though it was almost midnight Sunday night.)

Here it is, after 10:30 AGAIN! Must go to bed now!