A Trip to the Mountains

Two days after getting home from the Little People’s Conference Dave was having a vision surgery and I didn’t want Anya around, based on her response to others’ pain and her ability to create her own pain crisis when someone else is hurt. So, we shipped her off to my sister’s for the night. The day after that I took her to the Sierra Nevadas to Hume Lake to visit Dave’s brother’s family.

She actually had swimmer’s ear from swimming 2-3 times a day, for days, and it must have turned into an infection. Her fever had broken and she told me her ear didn’t hurt anymore, but later during the 6 hour drive, I realized she had a fever again. This was an incredibly quiet ride for me due to her sleeping through a great deal of it! Even though she wasn’t feeling well, she handled this trip up the mountains a million times better than when we brought her there for Christmas only three weeks after arriving in America! What a difference an additional 6 months has made.

The four days we were there she was pretty out of it, but it was a good place to relax and work through her pain, both physical and emotional. The earache brought back early memories of pain and being alone in her pain. Took a few days to work through it.  She gets several weeks to relax at home now…as we wait for…HER FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY EVER!!!

~Monica

The Little People Conference

Dave, Anya and I headed to Anaheim (90 minutes away) to take Anya to the national Little People’s Conference. Our dear friends live 1.2 miles away from the hotel and they were great about letting us stay with them. I figured it would be a bit too stressful on Anya to stay in the hotel that hosted the conference-there can be several thousand people that attend and I wanted her to have a place to unwind.

We headed down to the conference and signed in for the actual conference as well as for the track meet held by the DAAA (Dwarf Athletic Association of America) which was at 7:30am the following morning! Anya told us that she was scared, but she wouldn’t get angry or upset by all the little people at the conference. What a trooper.

The track meet was interesting. Anya hasn’t, as far as we know, run any races against people of her stature and age, or maybe even at all. We had to introduce her to “on your mark, get set, go” and Dave thought to tell her if she gets into the lead, not to turn around to check on everyone else. She was very excited to run and all she wanted was a medal. She saw pictures of winners with their medals on the DAAA website when I was showing her the different sport options.

Watching the softball toss with Papa.

Well, she is pretty tiny, even as a Achondroplasia dwarf, and has never run for any length of time before either. The first race was 60m and she was dead last. She gave a large disgruntled sigh when all the racers passed her and she slowed down. I was amazed that she finished the race at all. She eventually calmed down and there wasn’t a large melt down like I had expected. Anya did a softball throw and a plastic javelin throw as well. She wasn’t a medal winner but wasn’t in last place either. Dave and I asked her if she really wanted to run the second, 40m race. After Dave had talked to her about trying hard, lots of practice and trying something to see if you like it or not, she decided that she would run.

Javelin Throw    

click link above to see her throw the javelin at the National games.

She started the race with all her might, went further this time before all the others took off past her, and was really frustrated. I started yelling to her to keep going, etc and low and behold, she bolstered up some energy and took off to finish the race. She was upset with herself and after about 20 minutes, she calmed down and was chattering about going to the beach next. Amazing.

I also realized something. I really don’t think Anya ever did anything that was really hard before. I can’t imagine that she was asked to do any difficult thing that took perseverance. I can imagine that she did hard things for something that she wanted, but probably not at the request of other adult. The closest thing would be her choosing to go to America, having to go to court and leaving Russia (which she basically explains to me as her ticket outta there). Lately she has had to deal with a profound amount of grief, learn a new language, learn a new culture, learn a new way life, learn to swim and begin to learn to read. I think the running just pushed her over the top. Plus she was evenly matched up against runners that came from around the country and there were even people from around the world (not in her group though).

We headed to the beach later and she had blast. She let the waves drag her to and fro, almost like body surfing and was really enjoying the whole experience.

The next day was the Fourth of July and we headed to the hotel in the afternoon. We looked at the vendors, I did a workshop presentation for “Adapting Your Home” and then we went out to the July 4^th carnival. It was pretty overwhelming, so we let Anya do only one of the booths. She tossed the Frisbee through the hula hoops and won a prize.  She chose a DVD game and on the way to the car, she informed us, “I got a little televizeeon with a timer.” See picture below. Poor thing. It was just a game. We ended up being in a news clip on TV that night from an ABC spot! We are walking through the lobby at the 20 second mark of the news blip.

ABC Little People Conference and DAAA coverage
 click link above to watch news footage

That night we walked to a park near our friends' house to watch the fireworks from Disneyland. Anya loved her fireworks for her first Fourth of July as an American citizen! Overall, it was a good trip and we could see the great changes in Anya’s ability to cope and cope well. On to the next trip next time…

The next day, Anya and I met some other families with little people children for lunch at Downtown Disney. So glad we haven’t taken Anya to Disneyland yet, she was overwhelmed just walking around Downtown Disney. She was moving so slowly looking at things that we’ll have to plan on lots of time at Disneyland. We met Anya’s pen pal and we all went to The Disney Store together after lunch. That was a bit overwhelming too. But, she did pretty well and was able to choose one thing to buy.

~Monica

PS something just came in the mail from DAAA for Anya today-it said “Anya was supposed to pick this up after the 40m race”. I heard there were only medals for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place-apparently I was wrong! Watch her response in the video  below…

 

Anya gets her DAAA medal     click the left link to watch her get the medal

You may notice that Dave gives Anya a speech in the video upon presentation. This is his way of dealing with children-to talk to them in an adult fashion while "tricking" them at the same time. He pretended that he was reading it out of the inside of the envelope. Only he got busted this time. Anya grabbed the envelope to see what was written and there was nothing there. Had to explain that it really didn't say that, but it was all still true!

Swimming...again.

Anya lost her nerve to swim after too many breaks taken from visiting the pool during the winter. Our second son is a lifeguard at the high school pool, so we visited him there in June. The 2’ deep was a hit with Anya. It is 3’ deep in the middle and then it slopes back up to 2’ at both ends. The water level came up midway on her torso and she could move around with ease and without fear. After a few days of visiting the pool, Anya learned to swim again. I found it interesting the day of the first visit that I, at the last minute, thought, “I should put a suit under my clothes just in case I need to jump in and get her or something.” Threw a two piece on (one that I don’t wear in front of other humans-due to having four 10lb children, not the suit), pulled my other clothes on and off we went. How is it that an hour later, I was floating on my back in the 2’ deep water, in the two piece, at a public pool, being pulled around by my ankles?! I can’t tell you how, but I can tell you it happened. 

But alas, we visited my parents’ pool in Palm Desert and all I heard was, “I can’t swim in 3... I will die.” Then there was the terrorized screaming fit in the condo pool, only the kind a previous orphan can throw. Nor would she swim in our pool. “I don’t like it that one.” Frustrating she can be (said like Yoda would). I did do a couple of handstands in my parents’ pool for pure entertainment sake and she really liked that. Here is a photo of her handstand-done right after my glorious show. Mind you, it was safely executed on the top step.

Eventually, after more visits to the high school pool, she got very comfortable and can now swim about 10’ (she hasn’t mastered breathing while swimming) in pools that are 3’ deep. And yes, ours is finally acceptable. She can also swim at our friends’ pool in Anaheim. We are adding pools left and right to the “pools I can swim in” list. She can almost do a real handstand now too.

I set up a cover over our outdoor chairs because I figured that I would be spending hours outside during the summer and sure enough, I am. It has worked out well. The best thing about Anya swimming two to three times a day is that all the chaos that is trapped inside her body, due to grief and change, finds it way out. She is a much calmer girl these days!

The summer traveling schedule I have her on would upset most adults and she is handling it very well, I believe due to all the swimming. We came home from the Little People Conference a few days ago, washed the clothes and she repacked her suitcase (while I watched) the next day to see my sister for an overnight trip. She even had all the details of toiletries and medications down! Of course you don’t need 5 shirts for 24 hours, but she was prepared. And she remembered to give my sister the invitation to her birthday party and to give my niece her birthday present-and I wasn’t even around.

As a side note, I must be the only mother who won’t give her child her cell phone number. She asks, “Mom, can I have it the number a call you?”  My answer, “Uh, no.” She asked her older brother Scott for his number yesterday and he came up with a great answer, “When you get your cell phone, I’ll give it you.” She can be sneaky and obsessive and too much information in her hands can be dangerous-that includes cell phone numbers. Besides, if she isn’t with me, she is with family or close friends, so why would she really need to talk to me? As my mother-in-law always says, That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

~Monica

LAX to SFO

What a difference a month makes! Anya was great on the one hour flight to San Francisco and handled the shuttle buses with ease.  We, of course, had to stop for some macaroni and cheese and chocolate milk before we headed into the city.

Off to Fisherman’s Wharf to see the sea lions and most especially to visit the USS Pampanito. It’s a museum on a submarine that is docked at one of the wharfs. Anya has watched our home movies several times and has seen her older brother and sister touring the sub. So, we wanted her to have a similar memory and took the tour.

Note to self: submarines aren’t made for dwarfs’ short legs.

She also got to play a racing arcade game (with help from Dave for the pedals) and LOVES it. I told her she isn't driving any car of mine any time soon based on her performance.

 My view of Anya while waiting for the plane-yes, that's my iTouch. Gotta earn more money for behaving on the plane. And the count down timer

is on the iTouch.

 Her view of me while waiting.

 At Fisherman's Wharf-what is she looking at? Or rather listening to?

 The Sea Lions-if you've never been, it's a sound to behold.

 I always loved Rosie the Riveter!

 I took a couple of pictures, but Anya couldn't look at the camera 

because the men next to me were holding dogs.

Anya told us she wanted to see the thing like this (hand motions of the shape of the Golden Gate Bridge) and “it’s red”. So we went off to a coffee shop at the base of the bridge that my high school friend took us to last year when we visited. After walking around there, we headed to my aunt’s house in Montara, on the ocean, where we were going to stay.

 Must catch the bird...

 Mama, do it again, yawn!

 Just messing with my cheapy camera and liked this shot.

Our family also got the chance to see my friend from childhood and enjoyed a few hours at their family store, Flax Art and Design and then had lunch together. We had a great dinner with family and the next day we went to the tide pools and explored. Later in the day we met up with our older daughter and took a 3 mile walk on the beach to the Cliff House (with an eating break) where our daughter sells her jewelry. W walked home party of the way through Golden Gate Park. Anya was a bit stressed sleeping in a different house, but she did alright. Dave and I went out to dinner for our anniversary while my aunt watched Anya and they walked down the street to see the baby alpacas, all four of which had jackets on!

 Anya took this photo. We were in Golden Gate Park.

The next day we went to Anya’s favorite spot-a zoo, the San Francisco Zoo to be exact. It is really a very lovely zoo, and I’m not much of a zoo person. Anya got to see two sister bears, about 20’ in front of us, wrestling for about 10 minutes. She also now describes a sea lion as an animal that was shot in the head and is blind. All this describing is done with hand motions and a lot of “like this”. In a special tank, there was, you guessed it, a sea lion that was shot in the head and is now blind.

 I liked how long Anya's hair looked this day!

 Anya's favorite animal at the zoo-Simba. 

From her Russian childhood movie watching.

Dave and I knew the battery in his car was not holding a charge and that we’d probably have to jump start his car when we got back. If we only had time to change the battery before we left, but we didn’t. And we did have to jump start it. Anya has a special memory of pushing papa’s car with mama and then with papa (mama doesn’t push fast enough to get into second gear…) and having it start! Nothing like ending the trip with In-N-Out for a cheeseburger, fries and milk-Anya style.

One problem-shortly after we got home, my older daughter got a dog. Now Anya wants to put our Pug in the overhead bin and take another flight up there so we can all meet the American Bulldog, Brutus.

~Monica

Riding English Style.

On Memorial Day weekend we went to a BBQ at a friend’s house and she has a pony among other things. Our friend Bob took awesome pictures of Anya as she met the horses, groomed the pony and rode it as well. 

She was hesitant to get near the horses or even brush them. Finally she brushed the pony and eventually agreed to ride. In honor of her sister Amanda, Anya rode English style. She couldn’t get the boots on since her feet are so wide, but she did have on the helmet and rode in the English saddle. It was going really well until she slid on the saddle a little and she decided that she’d had enough. After a bit we asked her if she would ride again, and she agreed she would. She is such a happy camper when there are animals around. I wonder if she’ll want to be a vet someday-who knows?

Wow! A horse.

Hmm, it's awful big.

First pony ride!

 What on earth is that?!

Anya also got to feed the horses and give them treats. We found out they like watermelon rinds. Much of the day was spent on the large trampoline too-that’s what prompted Dave to buy a smaller one today for her to jump on at home.

One of Anya’s funny phrases when her underwear is not quite in the right place: “My unnerwear is fathering me.” It took a bit before I asked her if it was bothering her. She also saw someone smoking and told us it is not good to smack. (Yes, that's my husband jumping like a kid on the trampoline in the picture below).

She is currently in the backyard with me right now dancing a spring shower. She’s jumping and splashing and twirling. You can tell she never had the freedom to do too much of that. I know I wouldn’t let 30-80 kids outside to play in the rain and get all wet and muddy if I were working in an orphanage! I’m glad the rains have come today off and on so I don’t have to spend time making sure the outside plants are watered enough to survive my departure.

Tomorrow we are off to San Francisco to see our older daughter. Anya says she misses her sister every day very much and we must go see her. I got her bag packed into a small backpack and this trip she’ll learn about the quick flight, the quick carry on and the quick trip. More to follow after the trip!
~Monica