Day 5 – Thursday, 10 August, 2006

This morning was a little more organized, and I was up and showered before Masha woke up….after about 3 hours sleep on the basement couch.

After taking care of a bit of work and making sure that everything was covered, Masha and I got some breakfast (OK, Masha got Rasin Bran – her choice – and I got a vat of Starbucks House Blend). Mark, Masha, and I packed up and headed out the door, with a stop by Becky’s to pick up Masha’s swimsuit.

After ESL and a craft, we all headed out to Fox Island County Park, where one of their naturalists showed us all up by knowing more Russian than all of the host parents put together (OK, well, that’s an exaggeration….but she knew some good phrases!). She let the kids all pet a variety of animal pelts and learn the English words for them. After the presentation, everyone posed for photos before heading down to the lake for a cookout and swimming.

Thunder and a little lightning threatened, and put an end to the water fun. Masha and Khrystyna had some fun with changing….Masha grabbed her top and pants, but failed to take her panties. Khrystyna decided that panties were all she needed, and failed to take her pants and top. Between the two of them, they make up one full outfit and one naked child! I think Khrystyna would have volunteered, but her Mom had a VERY different position on the matter! (Sorry, Lisa!!)

When rain and mosquitos finally drove us out of the park, we all headed back to camp to regroup. Families gradually drifted back home while the last few kids hung out and played Clifford ABC Bingo. Once they all got the hang of it, they had fun trading places as the caller and writing the English alphabet on the board and doing the Bingo Dance each time someone filled a line on a card. And Bingo didn’t mean the end of the game…these girls knew how to keep a party going!

On the way home, we stopped off at Wal-Mart to pick up some printed photos, and popped into the pet store. Masha did not seem terribly impressed by the bunnies, but we picked up a bone for her to give to Simon. He loves it! After that, we stopped into the dollar store. Masha picked up a little cell phone, some sparkly barrettes, and a big tub of foam ocean animal stickers. Yes, stickers. We are inexperienced at this parenting thing!

We arrived home to a new bit of drama. Before we left camp, Masha and Khrystyna had come up with a plan for each of them to take one of Khrystyna’s walkie-talkies and to talk on them from home. They were pretty disappointed when that didn’t work, but a nice long phone call solved that problem and brought Masha out of her funk.

After the call and a little recovery time, Masha came downstairs. Mark found a virtual Cyrillic keyboard online, and Masha was able to type out a question to me. We pasted it into a translator tool, and communication was made! Masha asked if we would be going back tomorrow to “the place where Natalia and Maxim are”…Day Camp. I was pleased to answer “Da.”

After that, she said she was ready to eat, and scarfed down a loaded taco (complete with guacamole and LOTS of sour cream) and some Mexican rice. After dinner, she watched a short Veggie Tales video and headed up to her room. She asked to play a little in her room before bed, and since it was a little early we agreed. Bad move. The armoire in her room is now coated with foam stickers that we got at the dollar store. Not sure whether to praise her for doing such a great job or punish her for trashing the furniture…..Since we didn’t tell her not to do it, I guess I can’t say a while lot other than “Let’s not have any more of this putting stickers on furniture business!” But we both knew she was special when our ultimate reaction was “She did a really good job!”

She also raided my teddy bear collection, and rearranged the contents of her room. It took a little cajoling and a kind but firm Russian “Bed. Now.” And she hit the sack by about 9.