Yesterday I took Olia for her first American haircut.  Her hair was so short when she first came to the U.S. that she never wanted to get it cut.  Before she went to the internat she had waist-long hair.  She still gets a little teary when she talks about the internat cutting off all of her hair.  Her hair has grown quite a bit and is really thick. She never wanted it cut because she wanted it to fit into a ponytail.  But now that it has grown, it was time to get it cleaned up and trimmed at the beauty parlor.  She liked having it washed and blow-dryed.  I kept looking over at her while my hair was also being cut and she was smiling away.  When we left the salon, she was quite happy.  Olia told me that she didn't know that she was getting her hair washed and blow-dryed.  She just had thought she was getting it cut.  She looks so cute with her new haircut.

       Today we were supposed to go to my friend Joni's and have a picnic and go to a huge outdoor playground.  Joni adopted two cute siblings from Ukraine.  But she called this morning and said she was really sick with a fever so we will go there Fri. instead.  Today Olia and I are going to go see the movie Road Trip. We wanted to go see it with Renee last week when she was home, but both Olia and Renee were sick all last week!

     The doctor called me yesterday with Olia's blood test results.  He said that she doesn't have any bacterial infections so she just had a bad virus that hung on.  She still has a loud raspy cough; he said that could hang on for weeks. Tonight Olia will go to gymnastics because we will be away on her regularly scheduled Wed. night class.  Thur. night is Olia's first softball practice.  I hope she knows a few girls on her team.

  Last night my friend Diana called me.  She adopted three siblings from Ukraine when we adopted Olia.  Her daughter Olya, age 10, is so much like my daughter Olia.  She told me that Olya always wants to have the last word!  And so does Olia!  When we tell them to do something, it is NOT a question, it is a statement, but they both feel that they can add their two cents to every comment!