Fire Station Visit

The children got a treat Wednesday with a visit to the city's fire department headquarters. The reason we stopped by was to let the children give the firemen money for Jerry's Kids. (We'd seen them collecting money at an intersection earlier in the day. But when we went back to give them our change they were already gone, so we just had to take it to the firemen directly.)

Turned out for the best as far as the children were concerned. They got the full treatment. They were given plastic firefighter helmets, stickers, suckers and a tour of the garage area where the firetrucks are parked. A fireman turned on the flashing lights for a few moments (but no siren) and let the kids sit in the driver's seat of a fire engine. On our way out, they gave the firehouse dog statue a big hug.

Gymnastics Ribbons

Saturday was Anna's last session of her 6-week YMCA gymnastics class. After their routines students each got to ascend the winner's podium to receive a certificate and ribbon. Here are photos of Anna on the bars, the Kip swing, balance beams and attempting a cartwheel.

Indoor Picnic

Here are some photos of the children enjoying a pretend picnic yesterday. It was all Anna's idea, and you can see her preparing everything. She got annoyed with Alexander because he kept messing up her spread before they finally settled down to eat.

Speaking of eating, Anna will eat just about anything, including homemade salsa by the spoonful. Alone. With nothing else on the spoon but the yummy mixture of chopped tomatoes, onions and cilantro. She also loves black olives and pickles. Alexander, like his dad, is a bit more picky and at times it is painful to watch him eat when he chews on a bite for 5 whole minutes. Usually that means he's just not that into the food or simply isn't hungry or, like most recently with his strep throat, is sick. He has taken to stuffing potato chips or French fries into his sandwiches. So cute.

The children both refer to their milk mustaches as milkstaches.

School Picnic

Anna is officially out of school for the summer. They had their final field trip to Bear Country on Tuesday. And on Wednesday we attended the school's family picnic. The children sang songs, did a little dance and were given certificates and photos that teachers had taken of them doing work throughout the year.

Readoption

Today was our readoption hearing here in the state of South Dakota. The children are now legally Anna and Alexander. Until today they were legally Yana and Ruslan, though they have had our last name since we adopted them in Russia. The children will now also be issued American birth certificates. These American birth certificates will say the children were born in Russia, so I'll be interested to see how they read/look.

Just two more post-placement visits/reports left and we'll be all done with this adoption-related officialdom paperwork stuff. Russia will require that our social worker send the remaining reports at the 2-year and 3-year marks, which will be this October and the following October. Speaking of legalities and ties to Russia, have I mentioned before that the children have dual citizenship? They'll be considered Russian citizens until they're 18, at which time they can choose if they want to relinquish that right.

As for the hearing today, we were in and out within 10 minutes. After the ruling the judge took a photo with us and Anna told him he was handsome! Then we went out for lunch a new Mexican restaurant.

Hillary's Getting My Vote

Look who came to town today. And look who got pulled out of the crowd for a one-on-one!

It was a surprise visit, but word spread a bit and a few people gathered in and around a local doughnut and coffee shop where the Democratic presidential candidate and former First Lady was to pop in and say hi. When we got there, the inside was at capacity and we weren't allowed in. So we found a spot outside. The folks inside saw we weren't allowed in (I'm not sure I really wanted to go inside anyway), so someone quickly walked out with a bag full of doughnuts for us. Isn't that sweet? When she arrived she waved to the little crowd outside and promised to come back after first going inside. She probably stayed inside for 15 or 20 minutes before coming back out to greet us.

When she walked over to us in the crowd one of the Secret Service guys said, "Mrs. Clinton, these children have been waiting here the whole time (or a long time or something to that effect)." She pulled Anna and Alexander out from the crowd about 3 or 4 or 5 feet and chatted with them. She asked me their names and I told her. I also gave her our Curious George scratch pad for her to autograph. She had planned to address her autograph to both children before Alexander intervened. (See autograph photo). She got as far as writing "Anna and", when Alexander told her he wanted to write his name. She said something like, "Do you know how to spell your name? You have a long name." But she indulged him, and you can see his chicken scratch that looks like a # sign. Then Anna wanted to write her name, and Hillary indulged her, too. Anna wrote the letter A and N and that other letter up at the top. Finally, Hillary said "How 'bout if I write my name?" So she signed Hillary at the bottom of the page. By the way, Anna was sure to tell Hillary how to spell her name, A-N-N-A, which the candidate seemed to find both amusing and impressive (I think you can see her surprised expression in one of the photos here).

It felt like Mrs. Clinton devoted a good 2 or 3 minutes with the kids and I sensed their time together was coming to an end. I instructed the children to tell her "Nice to meet you." And they both said it at the same time very loud and very clear and everybody got a big kick out of it. She then went on to greet others down the line, and as she was leaving she waved and said "Bye Anna, Bye Alexander."

Since we were the only children out there, I suspected we might get some attention. (While we were waiting for the long time, the children were sitting on the ground and at one point a Secret Service agent told me to make sure they stand up when the vehicles arrived so that the children would be visible.) I didn't expect that much attention but was delighted. I guess it pays to have cute kids! At least that's what the police officer told me after it was all done.

She's getting my vote!

It's starting to feel like we're a Clinton family, as we got to see former President Bill Clinton just a few months back while we were in Lake Charles. That was just before the Louisiana primary. South Dakota's primary is June 3. (Bill was here in town campaigning for his wife on Saturday but we were all sick then and figured we'd already seen him!)

Wheels Day

Yesterday was Wheels Day at Anna's school. I wish I had photos of all the kids riding their wheels in the school parking lot. I even went to school to pick her up about 30 minutes early, but they were all done and back inside. I think the teachers had little stop signs and traffic cones set up throughout the parking lot. Sounded like fun!

Helmets were required, so I took her shopping on Monday. She picked out a pink and purple Barbie helmet. It came with knee and elbow pads, too. While we were there I picked out a red Cars helmet with pads for Alexander, since he likes to ride her tricycle as much as his Big Wheel (hey, remember those when we were kids?).

I probably should have gotten the children helmets when we first got the tricycle last August. Even though it's not up as high as a bicycle, she did take a nasty tumble once and popped the back of her head on the driveway.

Today her class went on a field trip to the fish hatchery and then to a park. I had to unload her car seat so she could be safely transported. Since I allow the kids eat lots of snacks in the car and was disgusted by the looks of it, the seat required a good vacuuming and wipe down!

Next week they get to go to this place called Bear Country, and the day after that is the school's picnic with families at a local park. And that's it for the year. Mikel and I gave Anna "the talk" several times about how to act on said field trips. In fact, both parent and child had to sign a field-trip permission slip which included a few sentences about proper child behavior. I was relieved to hear from the mom who drove Anna and four other children in her gigantic SUV that Anna behaved very well and even held her hand a lot of the time. Whew!

The Circus Came To Town

Last Sunday we took the kids to see the circus. It was heavy on the acrobatics and not so much on the animals, so the kids didn't seem quite as interested as I'm sure they would have otherwise. No tigers or lions doing tricks this year!

Here are the pictures.

Sick Update

Amendment to the sickie blog: Three-fourths of us now have strep throat.

Mikel went in for testing Saturday because he was starting to feel awful. At the time he tested negative, but his body knew it was brewing cuz his white blood cell (the cells that fight infection) count was up. They gave him antibiotics. And on Sunday, the lab called to confirm that his culture had developed into strep!

Amazingly, Anna still seems fine. We never got a call from her lab folks.

We're Sick

Half of us have strep throat.

I woke up Thursday morning with the left side of my throat hurting. I figured it was my sinus draining because I had my head turned that way or something and that it would right itself after I'd been up a while. By the time I was bringing the kids home from Anna's art show I realized it never went away, about the same time my eyes were feeling all heavy and sick and my shoulders and lower back were all achy. Oh, boy, (instead of darn or worse) as the kids and I would say. After flashing a light into my mouth I suspected the worse. So on Friday morning I hauled in the kids with me as I went for a doctor visit. Sure enough, I was positive for strep.

I asked the doctor to feel Alexander since at times over the past few days I thought he'd felt hot (though I could never get a temperature reading), plus he hadn't been eating well at all in the past few days. She gave him a quick once over and said he probably had strep, also. Red throat, swollen glands, "strawberry tongue." But she said to call his doctor for meds. Of course, his pediatrician wouldn't prescribe anything based on my diagnosis and what my doctor said about him, so after picking up my medicine I took both kids in to the pediatric clinic for their lab work. Alexander tested positive, but Anna tested negative. They'll grow her culture in the lab for two days to see if it develops into strep. Hopefully we can keep her healthy so she won't miss all her fun activities at school next week.

I don't know if I got it from Alexander or he got it from me. He could have picked it up at the nursery he was in during my MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting on Tuesday. OR, I really want to blame it on Wal-Mart! I had to take him with me shopping there on Wednesday morning. The last time I had to go to W-M about a month ago I ended up vomiting six times later that night.

Anyway, this wasn't the first doctor's visit for me this week. On Wednesday I carted Alexander in with me to see an orthopedic specialist, who confirmed that last week I ruptured my calf muscle! I'd been flying down our stairs to check on Alexander and the dog and stepped the wrong way. Man that hurt. I didn't so much hear that popping sound they talk about when you tear a ligament or tendon, but I felt this flopping sensation inside my leg. It could have been worse. Thankfully it was only a partial tear. But it was bad enough for some terrible dark purple bruising all the way down to my ankle, as well as across the front of my leg. I couldn't walk on my foot at all the first day or so, but slowly I've been able to get around. The leg felt significantly better yesterday and I'm hoping to get back to the Y soon, though full recovery could take a month or so. Basically, they just said I could take prescription strength ibuprofen for the pain (the pain was waking me up at nights!), do stretching and activity as pain and swelling allows and that it would otherwise health itself.

All in all, I took a nap when the kids did three out of five times this week and didn't feel very productive around the house.

Anna's Art Show

Today was the art show at Anna's school. I sent Anna off to school this morning in her Easter dress (Mikel's takes her), then Alexander and I put on some nice clothes and headed over to her school around 10 a.m. It was so cute. I think just about every child's parents attended, and there were refreshments such as fresh fruits, breads and juice. The children's art work was hanging all throughout the school.

I've included photos from the day. Anna is standing by several of her pieces, displayed on a piece of cardboard.

What A Difference A Couple Days Makes

With only a few patches of snow still left, by Monday we were back out for sun and sand. Oh and ice cakes!