Four Feet More

Vika turned 5 today! This birthday is an event which she has been eagerly awaiting since we attended her friend Rachel's 2nd birthday party in March. In Russia, Vika did not celebrate her birthday. In fact, she didn't even know what a "birthday" was. As a result, we were tempted to go "all out" this year so she could experience a birthday in all it's glory. However, knowing what we do about kids with traumatic pasts, we decided to keep things a bit more low-key. This turned out to be a wise decision, especially after yesterday - the excitement of her impending birthday was a bit too much, and Vika wound up lashing out in all kinds of new and interesting ways! But with plenty of reassurances and a couple of time-ins, she calmed down and was able to approach her special day in a more positive light.

This morning, Grandpa Joe joined us for a birthday breakfast of blueberry pancakes, and Vika opened her first gift - a new outfit (I do love to buy clothes for the kids). Her second gift was a Dora the Explorer dress-up doll, which of course, was a huge hit. We also got Dora a new "going to school" outfit, since Vika will be starting school next month. That way she and Dora can be "in it together."

After breakfast and gifts, we took the kids to Build-A-Bear and let both Vika and Eamon make a new stuffed animal. Interestingly enough, neither of them chose to build a bear. Vika got a Hello Kitty (groan...she's such a girl...), and Eamon got a WWF giraffe (that's my boy!). They had a great time stuffing the animals and doing that little heart ritual thing they do at Build-A-Bear. It was also nice for Eamon to get a gift and participate in the fun with Vika.

For lunch, we went to the Cheescake Factory and had a wonderful meal. Vika was serenaded by the wait staff, which she though was just the coolest thing ever. Here's a picture of her watching them sing:
The day ended when Babushka and Deydushka Ed came by for a quick visit and to have Vika open a couple of gifts. Our daughter is now the proud owner of a tinkerbell costume and a silver plastic tiara. She danced around in this quite a bit, and probably would have slept in it too if I hadn't made her put on her PJs.

All in all, Vika's birthday went much better than we expected. Yesterday was so difficult for both the kids that we feared today might bring more of the same. The only real issue occured when Vika hit me as I was getting her ready for bed. While this behavior was not OK, I understood that it happened because she was sad to see her birthday end, and didn't know how to deal with those feelings. After a time-in, she was calmer and we were able to work through her sadness a bit.

Jeff and I are very proud of the way Vika dealt with her birthday. We've read that birthdays can be hard for adopted kids, so it was great to see her enjoying her special day without too many negative feelings to mar the occasion.