Day 16 – Monday, 21 August, 2006

Some battles are worth fighting; for others, capitulation is the right option. This morning, I vetoed potato chips and coke for breakfast. As an alternative, corn on the cob seemed to be the Breakfast of Champions. Added to Fruity Cheerios, buttered bread, string cheese, and grapes, it soared right over the top. Every day, I say to myself that I have never seen a girl so small eat so much! The crazy part of it is that she followed this up with an apple!

Once the wild hunger was appeased, we watched the end of Snow White (well, Masha watched while I squeezed in a little work). Then began the Harry Potter debate. Masha found Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the cabinet below the TV in our room, and insisted, despite a previous thumbs-down, that she LOVED Harry Potter, and that she would DIE if she didn’t get to watch him right now. I agreed that if she would go peacefully to the dentist that we would consider an earlier Potter flick later in the day. Reluctantly, she hopped in the Jeep.

Two fillings later (thanks to Dr. Roach for his gentleness and generosity!!), we put The Prisoner of Azkaban in the player and I checked email and made a couple of calls before dragging her kicking and screaming to Lenscrafters. Note that she went to the dentist peacefully, almost cheerfully, but that the idea of wearing glasses was completely abhorrent.

The visit to the eye doctor presented its own special challenges! Our new friend Nadia was hosting two sisters from the orphanage, and Olena, the older sister, also needed a vision exam. Nadia is a refugee from the Ukraine; she and her family came to the US about 3 years ago, and she speaks Russian fluently. Nadia has been a tremendous blessing to the hosting program, acting as a translator and a surrogate mom for all of us! While Nadia translated during Masha’s eye exam, I wrangled Olena and Marina.

In the end, Masha chose a beautiful pair of glasses. Because of the distortion associated with the correction for her astigmatism, the doctor encouraged her to wear the glasses for just a few hours a day for the first three or four days. After that, she agreed to wear them all the time. We’ll see how that goes.

Nadia had been wanting to spend time with Masha for a while, and we agreed that Monday afternoon would be a great time for Masha to spend with her and the girls. They went to the chinese buffet where we finally discovered the ultimate capacity of Masha’s stomach. Mark and I were both surprised when she said no to dinner, and downright amazed when she said no to ice cream.

We finished the evening by watching the end of Harry Potter; the family congregated on our bed, complete with dog and hedgehog!