Here Comes June!!!

Hello everyone! This week started with Memorial Day, which was a beautiful weather day. We took full advantage and found a number of things to do outside the house. The pool in our complex opened that day, so we took Victoria (with her new swim vest…which helps keep her afloat) down for a swim. Of course, this early in the year, the water is frigid….but, she did not seem to mind that she was shivering (the kid really loves the water!). We stayed in as long as we could, then went down to the park. Victoria had been asking to fly a kite for some time...unfortunately, there was only a faint wind. Much to our delight, the kite was super light, so it caught a little air and she really enjoyed it.

After Monday, we seemed to spend a lot of time this week at the doctors. Little one is proving to be very healthy, but we are not short on appointments. Along with her other weekly appointments, Victoria headed to the Pediatric Dentist and Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor. She handled both exceptionally well. The ENT even commented (while using a vacuum to clean out her ear) that she handled it better than most adults that he has seen!! Turns out that Victoria has an ear infection, so she needs to use ear drops and take an antibiotic for 10 days. While she handled the doctor’s appointments like a charm and she loves her ear drops (she calls them “tickle drops” for her “ooskies (ears)”), the same cannot be said about taking the antibiotic (it’s the one that tastes like bubble gum, so we were surprised). Luckily, we found a plan that seems to work (involving a medicine dropper and ice pops). Just 8 more days to go with it, so here’s hoping the plan continues to work! Hahaha….

Since she handled everything so well, Mommy took Victoria to a cool indoor park here in our town. She had a blast and is starting to interact with other kids a bit more (her English is making huge strides!). On Friday, she even had pizza for the first time! Her favorites, so far, appear to be white and pepperoni. Mommy and Daddy love pizza…and we actually have a children’s TV show to thank for Victoria even trying pizza (she has turned a cold shoulder to it in the past). We told her she would like it if she would just give it a try!

While out looking at the moon through our telescope on Memorial Day, we happened to catch a small fireworks show. Victoria got really excited. She said that she loves “salute” (fireworks) because they are “beautiful” and that she saw them when she was at the orphanage. So, we’ll be sure to get her out for a big show on the 4th of July.

Some random thoughts from this week…Victoria chose an American flag star for the first decoration on her new Croc shoes. On the front of a Somerset Patriots (a local minor league baseball team) schedule, one of the players is holding his hands in the air with his fingers pointing #1 (they won the title last year). When Victoria saw this, she thought they were the Yankees. So, when she sees the Yankees on TV, she makes the same pose and says “Yaaay, Yankees!” It is really quite cute.

Here are some pictures from the week…

Sporting her new swim vest

Getting ready for a swim
Flying a kite with Daddy
She loves her Mickey kite
Holding a tea party with Mommy, Daddy and Barney
We were all “stuffed” after the tea party…those strawberry treats were delicious!
Riding the coaster at the indoor park
Enjoying a ball pit at the indoor park

The End of May Draws Near…Week #6 At Home

Happy Memorial Day to everyone. We hope that you are all enjoying a pleasant holiday weekend in the company of family and friends. This seemed like an incredibly quick week for us. However, that does not mean that it was light on action.

Early this week, Victoria was talking about school. We were delighted to hear that she said she wanted to go, just not yet. Interestingly, she has been showing an absolute fascination with school buses. When she sees one, she yells “School Bus,” thus, ensuring that we are aware of each and everyone that we come across on our drives. It’s really very cute.

On a somewhat similar note (because it involves learning), Victoria has begun enjoying time playing on the “kompooter” with us each evening. There is a site that helps teach the alphabet and reading. She has a blast and enjoys the little stories that the site uses to help with learning. Each night, we finish off by typing her name. First, we start with “Vika,” and we build our way up to “Victoria Ann Fantozzi.” She is starting to get more recognition of her name and it is adorable listening to her say her full name!! We picked up a digital tape recorder this week, in an attempt to catch some of these moments. So, we hope have some posted in the near future.

Today, the east coast we had some thunderstorms. Perhaps we did not mention, but our little one gets nervous about thunder and lightning. She’s become more and more secure with us. So, we reassured her that everything was going to be OK…that we would not let anything happen to her. So, she sat on Daddy’s lap while we ate dessert and waited out the end of the storm. Victoria has been telling us more and more stories about other kids and things that happened when she was back in the orphanage. This is sure to be only the tip of the iceberg. She is such an animated story teller. So, we are interested to hear more stories.

Most evenings, we try to get out for a walk after dinner. On a walk earlier this week, we watched a father and son playing hide and seek. We wondered what would happen if we played with Victoria (who had been playing her own game of “how far ahead of mom and dad can I get”). So, we “hid” (actually, we just stopped walking). When Victoria noticed we were not right behind her, she came back down the path and started laughing. She made a reference to a noise from “behind her.” Let’s just say, we think that we scared her. Hahahaha….

This weekend, little Miss had her second haircut, helped us plant some flowers and was a very good girl for her first visit to church. She thoroughly enjoyed watching our organist play and got a big smile on her face when our Pastor had the whole congregation say “good morning” (in Russian) to her. All in all, it was another great week here at home.

Painting a picture on her new art easel
The finished product...our home…and the end of the brown paint! Haha…
Pretending to eat the Play-Doh carrot that she made
Enjoying her Dora bouncy-ball
Hopscotch action shot
Our girl, lovin’ life…we really love that smile!
Silly playing with Mommy
She loved her first sugar-free frozen fudge pop
Helping Daddy plant flowers

Weather is Looking Brighter…Week #5 At Home

Hello everyone. After a week of torrential weather, much to our delight, things improved this week. This allowed Victoria to enjoy some time at the park again. She was also back to swimming, where she is really starting to get the hang of things. This week, she actually moved to the big lap pool with mommy. She tried to imitate the swim strokes that she saw the other folks doing and mommy was there to help teach her. This worked out quite well and, as Victoria said today, “I tibia loo-bloo plavy-at” (I love to swim). She loves it so much that, even though it is obvious that she is cold at times (shivering), she insists that she is not.

One random funny story from this week….While visiting a doctor (the office is located in a hospital) this week, Victoria noticed someone pulling a small suitcase with wheels (like one that many use for airline carry-on luggage). She turned to mommy with a concerned look and asked very simply “Sam-al-yot?” (Airplane?). Anyone who thinks that she has forgotten about how much she dislikes flying would be completely wrong!! Hahaha….

This week, our little girl enjoyed her first time at a fair and she had a blast. She played games, jumped around on a moon bounce, picked up a cool dolphin balloon, and even had a pony ride. Well to be completely honest, she didn’t want to actually ride the pony, so she chose to be pulled on a cart instead. She did, however, enjoy petting the ponies…until one let out a loud “neeeiigggh”. She jumped back and the look on her face was hysterical.

This week, Victoria caught an episode or two of Barney. Being the animal lover that she is, she really enjoyed it. She even has a new Barney doll that she likes to sing along with…“I love lou, lou love lou…” We’re not sure who this “Lou” character is and why he loves himself so much!! Hahaha…Obviously, we’ll need to continue to work on her English pronunciation. But, hey, she’s getting there!!! Hope you enjoy these pics from the week!


Sifting sand at the park:
On the jungle gym at the park:
Building a very large block bridge at home:
Enjoying the moon bounce at the fair:
Petting a pony with daddy:
Relaxing on her pony ride:
Her first chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing…how can one cupcake make such a mess? Hahaha…

Rainy Days…Week #4 At Home

The weather here in the north east was quite horrible this week…seemingly non-stop rain. So, that meant a lot of time spent indoors for Victoria…who has been growing accustomed to enjoying the plethora of fun parks that we have near our home. So, she enjoyed herself with a number of a craft projects this week. Also, there was time for swimming…and Victoria is getting much more comfortable in the water now. She’s even sporting a new pair of swim goggles that mommy picked out for her!

This week was our little girl’s first trip to the dentist, where she had her teeth “tickled” (as she called it). It was actually her first teeth cleaning and set of x-rays, but it was good to see that she enjoyed herself, since trips to the dentist are not always enjoyable. Even though we have been working on her brushing skills, 6 years without us have left her with a few cavities that will need attention in the coming weeks. We’ll head to a pediatric dentist to try and lighten the blow and avoid a needle that she will be sure to detest.

Over the weekend, Victoria attended her first birthday party. She had a great time and fun was had by all. However, unfortunately, it was not without incident. Perhaps we have mentioned that Victoria would get an A+++ in swinging on swings. She is a little daredevil and seems to always want to go higher (which she is able to do on her own). Well, there was a beautiful new swing set at the birthday boy’s house and our little one was putting it to the test. Of course, the other kids were not yet used to the swing set…or, more importantly, how far to stay away from it while someone is swinging. On one swing pass, she collided with the birthday boy (sorry Trevor) who was walking by. Everyone was OK, but we’ll always remember that she nearly killed the birthday boy at his own house, on his new swing set at her first birthday party. With any luck, we’ll still be invited back (good thing they are family!). Hahahaha….

Random thought….Victoria enjoyed her first (and last) Sunny D drink this week. The sugar had her bouncing like Tigger! On a more serious note, we received Victoria’s official Certificate of Citizenship this week from the Department of Homeland Security. Also, her Russian passport was returned to us, having been officially registered with the Russian Consulate (as required by Russian law). From a citizenship perspective, all that is left is to obtain her US passport (something that we will take care of over the next month).

The weather turned nice just in time for Mother’s Day, which was a weekend-long celebration, where we were able to spend time with our mothers. Today was Sharon’s day, so she got to choose all of our day’s activities. Daddy did his best to take care of everything and let mommy take the day off. Victoria gave mommy a Winnie the Pooh card and a nice ceramic imprint of her hand and foot (all of which mommy loves, of course). Daddy is treating mommy to a day at the spa (something that she so deserves). All-in-all, it was a great weekend and a great Mother’s Day! Here are some pictures from this week.

Showing off her new swim goggles...

Painting with Mommy...
Playing with a blown up “glove-balloon” she received at the dentist’s office...
Enjoying some chocolate cake at the birthday party...
Hugging her new Pooh doll...
The happy family...
Just chillin’ with Pooh on the ride home...Hanging with Mommy at the park on Mother’s Day...
Cuddling with Mommy on Mother’s Day...

May Arrives…Week #3 At Home

Hello everyone! Hope you are all doing well. We just finished off this week with an enjoyable family weekend. Victoria is making strides with her English. In the last week, she has added a few words to her English vocabulary and has been more consistently using words like “Fun”, “Bye”, “Hello”, and “Monkey” (in reference to a character on one of her shirts), etc. At bed time the other night, she said “Good-a Night” to us (it was close and we thought it was cute). While watching “My Friends Tigger and Pooh” the other day, one of the characters said “Think, think, think”….Victoria started with “Dink, dink, dink”, then moved to “Bink, bink, bink”, then onto “Fink, fink, fink”. Again, she is getting closer and really has taken an interest in learning to say and write things in English recently.

While at the park this week, Victoria had some friendly interaction with a little girl. While Victoria was on the tire swing, the little girl asked a boy to come on the swing with her “friend” (referring to Victoria). So, they came over and the three of them enjoyed swinging together…giggling and chatting it up. Of course, the other kids were a little confused by Victoria speaking Russian. At one point, Victoria’s little friend asked “Why is she speaking Spanish?” While mommy thought this was hysterical, she mentioned that Victoria was speaking Russian because she is from Russia. The little boy said “Well, I am from New Jersey” and the little girl said “I am from Hillsborough” (the town that we live in). It’s amazing how kids process things. Haha…

This week, Victoria learned that mommy and daddy have actual first names. In the store, mommy called daddy by his first name. When he responded, Victoria said “Papa, eta Steve?” When daddy looked, she laughed and seemed to want explanation. So, daddy explained that his name was Steve and that mommy’s name is Sharon. It was interesting to see her take in this new information.

Victoria went with mommy to the dentist. She was very interested watching mommy and wondered if she was hurting. Of course, mommy calmed her by letting her know that it did not hurt. The dentist used the opportunity to have a quick peek at Victoria’s teeth and she enjoyed riding the chair up and down. Since she handled it so well, she got a cool toy. She has an appointment for a cleaning this week. So, we’ll see how that goes.

For some time now (starting while we were in Russia), Victoria has asked to go swimming. While we thought it highly unlikely, she insisted that she knows how to swim. Seems like something always got in the way, but today we decided it was time and we headed to the pool at the YMCA (our neighborhood has two pools that we will be able to use once Summer comes). Once we reached the pool, she headed right for the water and it was the moment of truth. As we entered the water, she was all smiles and giggles. Then, we watched and our suspicions were confirmed…this was clearly the first time our little girl had been swimming (other than in the tub, of course). Even with the aid of a floating device, her style was like Aquaman (Think late 70’s, early 80’s…if you know the cartoon, you know what we are talking about). She, though, was clearly not afraid of the water and put a lot of trust in mommy and daddy. Not unexpectedly, she was most nervous about not being able to touch bottom. Oh well, she kept saying how much “fun” she had and that she wants to do it again. So, we’ll get her back out there soon!

Well, that about does it. Here are a few pictures from this week. Hope you enjoy!


If she enjoys the sandbox this much, she is going to love the beach)

A cute close up

Enjoying some time on the swings