Sasha wants his life to be full of Balloons!

I am sorry this will be a long post. This is the first day Sasha has been relaxed enough to let me get on the computer. The quantity of balloons in his life to come in America was a major concern for him on Friday. Irina assured him there would be lots of balloons. So far so good. People at Vlad Inn have been wonderful at helping me keep him supplied in balloons. Cindy who also had court on Tuesday gave Sasha a beach ball that he found to be "very beautiful." So we work on being a family. I finally got a suite yesterday and it has made a huge difference for us. Ironically, Sasha tends to stay in the main room even with a bedroom so the main benefit to the space is that when he needs to run around like all little boys do, there is some space.

And we have a full size frig which Sasha totally adores. Of course he can go and get anything out of it he wants. He is going through serious amounts of sweet yogurt and what I can best translate as "sweet cheese." He also has his own shelf for food that he can control. That is where he has his chips, something that looks like mini-doughnuts but is a hard sweet bread and fruit. Lots of fruit.

For the most part we are getting on famously. He adores bath time. If it were up to him there would be several baths a day. :) There are moments when it is still hard for him. He misses having lots of children around. There is a playground here at the Vlad Inn that is very popular with the locals. Yesterday, we went there and he found kids to play with which seemed to help enormously. And there are so many things for him to get used to that it must sometimes seem overwhelming to him. Silly stuff that I forget about, frankly. Things like there is no negotiation when it comes to not turning on the stove. One of those things that we all learn so young. That was a difficult conversation let me tell you. My ability to speak Russian is still pretty limited but he is usually good about letting me grab the dictionary to find the words I do not know. In the case of the stove it wasn't the vocabulary, it was a fundamental difference of opinion. The stove has a light he just loved to see turn on. Me, I do not care about the light, I care about him not getting hurt. Eventually, I prevailed but he sure was mad.

For the most part he and I have worked out boundaries so now it is quieter. I feel for the people around us the first couple of days (he actually came to stay with me last Wednesday) given all the yelling and door slamming. I think that in the beginning all of it seemed like a one time thing so he was over reacting to everything. Sort of like when we went to the corner store. The first two times he was everywhere, running, poking at everything and generally being a crazy boy. The babushka lectured him severely but winked at me as we left. Today the visit to the store went beautifully. He helped to carry things and he was a jewel when we went to check out. And he knows he gets an ice cream for being a good boy.

Oh oh he seems to be getting ants in his pants so I should go.

For those that want to know more about Vlad Inn I would say to generally check out their website. The staff speak English and the menu in the restaurant is limited but American for the most part. I would, however, suggest skipping the seafood medley given it includes calamari and octopus (unless you normally eat that then go for it). There is a beautiful playground at the back of the property for the children. The rooms are nice and the suite comes with a kitchen, a baby bedroom a regular bedroom and bathroom. There is a second bed in the main part of the suite. All in all a nice place to spend time with your child. Take care, Sarah