Vica's First Day of School and Natasha's Birthday

Yesterday was a BIG day around here. Although she doesn't grasp the concept of a birthday at all, we had a little celebration for Natasha's 4th last night. Basically we did the small ice cream cake, candles and party hat thing so we'd at least have a picture to show her when she's 16 and becomes indignant over the fact that we didn't do ANYTHING for her first birthday in America, let alone the catered affair with engraved invitations and orchestra I'm sure she'll feel was more befitting the occasion. We can show her the picture and well, basically lie......

I'm taking her and Vica to Chuck-E-Cheese this weekend. I'm convinced that I've completely lost my mind, but I'll have backup in my friend Tracy and her son Kurt. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll just run themselves to exhaustion. Something tells me Mama is coming home with one big headache :)

The more important event in the Sicilian house was Vica's first day of school. Mama seemed to be the only one with any anxiety over this. I'll have to say it was a challenge getting both girls up, fed, dressed and out the door as they are Olympic caliber dawdlers. Matt took the day off so it was a bit more easy with two of us. Anyway, we took Vica to her new classroom and she seemed to really enjoy seeing kids her own age. The teacher also explained that one of the children in her class spoke Russian, although when Matt asked him "Do you speak Russian" he looked at him blankly and said "Whaaaaaaat??" Now, Matt's Russian leaves a lot to be desired, but I do know he asked him correctly and simply enough for a child, so I wasn't having too much hope about that scenario. Luckily, there is a little girl in the second grade who also speaks Russian and the teacher had her sit with Vica at lunch. When I asked Vica about her, she told me that the girls "talks alot" and that she had to tell her to be quiet.

Is that MY girl, or what- well on her way to establishing those critical interpersonal skills. I could have completely misunderstood what Vica was trying to tell me- so I'll just assume like a good Mom, that my kid was just perfectly behaved :)

When we went to pick her up at the end of the day, her class was just returning from Gym. She bounced right past us and I could see she was having fun and had a HUGE smile on her face. That minute right there told me I had nothing to really worry about. Matt reviewed some of the math work she did in class and she seems to be getting it and is working at the 1st grade level.

Unfortunately, we were hit with a huge snow storm last night and school was cancelled today. Then, they are off for an entire week next week, but we'll keep working with her during the down time so she doesn't "forget" about school!