DAY AT THE DENTIST

Yulia's oral surgery went very well today. It was basically a "non event." They pulled 2 permanent and 2 baby teeth and did 5-6 fillings. She was very excited about the fact that her face was numb, something she'd never experienced before.

Mom was hoping to get a nap this afternoon, thinking Yulia would be down and out, but she was happily watching "Hannah Montana" and "Cheetah Girls" and singing along. Mom had to stay awake to make sure she stayed somewhat quiet.

She had so much energy by evening that we went ahead and finished the Christmas decorations. She still wasn't ready for her bedtime, but we sure were;)

Have a great weekend and GO COWBOYS!

BARRY THANKSGIVING WITH THE BARRYS

We spent Thanksgiving in Texas with family and friends.

We flew in late Tuesday and picked up Kitty at her assisted living Wednesday.

Yulia was thrilled to finally meet her Babushka Kitty!

And her Brat Jon!

On Thanksgiving Day, we had snow at Kitty's house in Arlington. If you look closely, you can see the flakes On Yulia's chest and in Mom's hair. This is Yulia's cousin, Laura.

And, you can't have a trip to Texas without visiting our great friends Thresa and Albert. This is Yulia with their daughter Gracie, who's a year younger than Yulia. BFF!

BARRY'S THANKSGIVING WITH THE BURNETTES

On the second leg of our trip, Yulia got to see her Sistra Colyn, again! It's been two years since they first met when Yulia was visiting Texas. Yulia hugged and hugged her Sistra and was so excited. Colyn has a new BFF!





Yulia also got to see her cousins, Courtney and Julie. She had met them once before in Galveston!

Yulia got to see her cousin Troy(Debbie's step-son) participate in an area football playoff game. She loved the cold weather, bands and cheerleaders. But most of all, she loved Troy's X-Box! So much for Mom and Pop's hopes to keep her away from video games for as long as possible.

Colyn, Yulia and Britney(Debbie's step-daughter)

A quick speech queen meeting one day at lunch. Fellow speech queens Bedeiree and Cuestas! Cuestas' twins Noah and Jonah were there as well. Ms. Sarah Bedeir was on hand, but not up for pictures that day!

Also had a quick, literal run-through, of Arlington Rehab. It was so great to see everyone there. There's no place on earth like ARH!
Had a great visit to Texas, although it was great to be back HOME in Missouri. We now understand why people don't like traveling during the holidays! We'll be back home for Christmas though!

Yulia has oral surgery Thursday to have 5 teeth pulled and 8 fillings. Should be an interesting day! We'll keep everyone posted.

Love to all, Karen, Paul and Yulia

Meet Me in St. Louey, Louey!

We've had a lot of requests for pictures of our new house and pictures of Yulia's room. Since many of you furnished Yulia's room and the clothes in her closet, we thought we'd oblige. The first picture is obviously of the front of our house. Our bedroom on the bottom right, piano/sitting room on the bottom left and Yulia's room upstairs. We live at the end of a culdesac and love our neighbors! You can see one of the trees we've planted out front and the lawn we've recently installed. Also, notice the woods behind our house. Some of those creatures who live in the woods have been invading Kozmo's doghouse on cold nights and she's none too pleased! We were told we had to have a 3 car garage for winters here. Not looking foward to whether or not that holds true!







Here's a picture of the gorgeous view from our deck. If you haven't joined us for a glass of wine on the veranda, you'll have to soon!

This is Yulia's quilt, which many of you helped pay for! She just loves it! You can see the new curtains Pop hung over the weekend. (Of course, Yulia and Sponge Bob never miss a photo-op.)

Here's a better view of the curtains.(And Yulia taking advantage of another photo-op) Pop painted the walls "ballerina pink." I think we've about finished with the room. Over her bed, we hung the Y U L I A letters, but they didn't show up in the pictures. I think I'm going to put hot pink polka dots on each of the letters and that will bring them out better.

And below, here's another gorgeous picture of the fall foliage. I drive this road to work every morning and one day it was so pretty I just had to stop and take a picture. A big change from Texas!

Hope everyone has a great week and a safe Thanksgiving!

Love, Karen, Paul and Yulia

Slowing Things Down a Bit!

We've tried to slow things down a bit this week. We learned from our mistakes lastweek that just like all the adoption paperwork told us, Yulia will get easily overstimulated! Of course, Mom and Pop are easily overstimulated and TIRED as well!

Big news this week was our trip to the oral surgeon. Yulia is going to have oral surgery the Thursday after Thanksgiving. Her mouth seems to be her biggest problem. She'll be put under general anesthesia and have at least 3 teeth pulled and at least 5 cavities filled. The general dentist doesn't want her to have a bad experience in his chair since she wouldn't be able to communicate pain or they couldn't explain the processes to her. So, we're just going to knock her out! Of course, Mom is a little worried about this because we don't know what her reaction will be to anesthesia and we'll have a hard time explaining the process to her. We're going to use the two Russian girls at church to try and explain the process without scaring her.

Of course, Mom and Pop love to be knocked out and drugged up, but it's a little different when it's your child!



Yulia continues to make good progress at school and socially. Some things we've learned about her:

1. She loves to eat.(She's still partial to fruit, meat and potatoes, but is venturing out every now and then. Seems to be taking a shine to spicy food!)
2. She loves to go to the Sonic.(Wonder why????)
3. She loves to eat.(She loves "cheeeeken") Any time she sees a KFC ad on television or the bird- word is mentioned, she jumps to attention. Paul thinks she'll love Thanksgiving. We're just going to tell her it's a big cheeeeken.
4. She is happy 97% of the time and loves life.
5. She loves to eat.
6. No problem getting her to bed. But, she's up with the chickens(or cheeeekens....ready to go and expects everyone else to be right there with her.)
7. She loves to eat.
8. She loves to go shopping(Especially Target. Wonder why???)
9. She loves to eat.
10.She's very hard headed and set in her ways.
11.She loves to eat.
12.She loves people and thinks everyone loves her.
13.She loves to eat.
14.She loves to sing and dance. The movie o' the week is "Annie." She'll just break into song at any time singing "Tomorrow, Tomorrow..." Of course, Mom sings right a long.
15.She loves to eat.
16. She's learning the abc's, days of the week and months by song. Thanks to Paige Preston and her mom for the month song. If you'd like to hear it in person, just give us a call and she'll be happy to share. She's not shy AT ALL!
17. She loves to eat.
18. She loves to go to church. (There are 3 girls there who speak Russian)
19.She loves to eat.
20.She continues to be VERY MUCH into fashion and how her hair looks. Sometims she looks at Mom like, "You're going to wear that?" and Mom has given up trying to dress her because she's got her own fashion-sense. Of course, Mom does require that things match before leaving the house.(Yulia often has to be reminded that Mom was "best dressed" in high school and has to live up to that prestigious title)
21.She loves to eat.
22.She loves company, so anytime anyone would like to visit us in lovely Missouri, COME ON UP!!!
23.She loves to eat.
24.She loves to cheer AGAINST the Longhorns and the Dallas Cowboys.(Yes, we're thinking of sending her back to Russia!). She just loves to mess with our heads. If we cheer, she boos and vice-versa.
25.She loves to eat.
26.She can't believe that Kitty Babuska is Paul's mom. It's very difficult for her to understand that Pop actually has a mom! She'll get to meet her Thanksgiving!

Pop and Mom are doing well. Pop continues to work too many hours at work and home. He's currently doing the garage in true Paul Barry(anal) style. Our neighbor is going to start work on finishing out our basement soon. Mom is now working 4 days a week which is exhausting, but she was getting bored otherwise. Working 4 days a week is stressful when you're trying to get all of those trips in to go to Sonic and Target!

Hope everyone has a lovely week,

Love, Karen, Paul and Yulia

Cats Like to Swim

It's been a busy week for Yulia. We went to Pumpkin Prowl at the St. Louis Zoo Saturday. This picture is of Yulia and Mom in front of a waterfall at the zoo.(Wearing Halloween hats!) We're proud to say the Longhorns did pull out a win over Nebraska that day!(I'm throwing that in for our friend Merle)

We really enjoyed riding the merry-go round at Pumpkin Prowl. All proceeds from the ride go towards conservation of the animals featured on the carosel. ( Pop, our photographer, enjoyed the merry-go round because there was a Bud Light stand nearby. )

After Yulia jumped fully clothed into the Gulf of Mexico last month, we decided we'd better teach her how to swim! She had her first swimming lesson this week. Problem was the only other participant, a portly 14 year old boy who's deathly afraid of the water, wasn't moving quickly enough for her. Not the most patient of children. (Sounds like she has Mom's patience!) At the end of the class, the students were to jump in without any floats, feet first. Yulia chose to do a race-type dive. (Sounds like Paul Barry to me!) Of course, no diving is allowed in the beginners class, so we had to properly scold her although we were really proud! Where did this Russian child learn how to dive? Anyhoo, she loved swimming and is ready to go back. You may see her in the Olympics one day!

Halloween turned into the big sugar-overload day. Yulia bounced to the car Halloween afternoon, showing off her take from the school's fall party and toting more candy than the Hershey Factory. Since she'd already eaten most of it, Mom decided to let her continue eating it. Bad idea. First of all, the teacher had decided that Halloween wasn't a good excuse for getting out of homework, so getting Yulia to attend to her hour's worth of work was a challenge. After a grueling task of writing the months of the year, she decided to throw her candy at Mom. She was promptly sent to her room where she fell asleep. When she woke up, her mood wasn't much better. Seems the cat outfit she'd been wearing to bed, to the post office, attempting to wear to school and counting down the days until she could wear was suddenly NOT GOOD ENOUGH. You see, it was too tight, too itchy and she just wasn't going to wear it. Of course, Pop said she just wouldn't get to go out trick or treating. Mom said, "Yes she will. I paid 25 dollars for that outfit and she's going to wear it and she's going to have fun!" So, after much hissing, scratching and back arching, our little kitten who'd now turned in to a tiger prowled around the neighborhood with Pop and Kozmo. She was ready to return within 30 minutes and was just as happy passing out candy. We're still not sure if Yulia has ever been trick or treating before. She said she had, but we're still not sure how much she's understanding. What we do know for a fact is we've hidden all the candy and it will be given out in small doses!

Scary cat, hyped up on sugar!

Our sweet kitty! About 98% of the time ;)

Hope everyone has a good week!

Love The Barrys