The Social Butterflies

Went to pick up Little Man from school today but he wasn't quite ready, "Mama, I say goodbye to alla barnen (all the kids) first." So I stood outside the door while he hustled back inside, all business. He stood in front of each kid's cubby (where they wait for their parents to pick them up) to address each of them with a proper farewell, careful not leave anyone out:
"Bye Do: Yara/Gustav/Emilia/Jasmin/Halle/etc.."

Now "Goodbye" in Swedish is "Hej Do". But our Little Man flexes his bilinguality (made that word up) and says, "Bye Do".

When I drop him off at the park every morning, there's usually a fan club there to greet him, mainly consisting of females. No surprise there, especially if you know his father.

And the past two weeks, he has received handmade gifts from two female admirers. A painting of his name and a bead bracelet.

Yup, our little man is Mr. Popularity...ha!

And tomorrow we find out if we're headed to Moscow this Saturday for five days. You might remember me mentioning some great friends we met on a beach in Montenegro. There I was on said beach running around after my little 1+ year old, likely hollering something in English when a blonde approaches me to ask me something "touristy".

She's Russian and like most Russians in Montenegro, has just bought a vacation home. She has two sons, one now 3 and the other 6.

We started talking and well, we haven't stopped.

They've been asking us to come and visit for the past several years and as hubby turns the big 5-0 this year, he said of her latest invitation, "We're going. If we don't go now, we may never go." And if the Visa Gods are smiling, we'll get our passports back "approved" tomorrow and be on our merry way.

I've been very blessed to have travelled a lot these past ten years but I'm nervous as hell about this trip. Genuinely excited to spend time with dear friends and stay in the posh-est hotel in all of Moscow with a view overlooking The Kremlin but...

What do I wear? (Already spent a small fortune and still freaking out)
How do I speak? (Apparently Moscownians find Americans/Canadians speak too loudly and it's considered rude. We're loud talkers!)
How do I eat? (Fork in the left, knife in the right)
What do I wear? (Still freaking out about this)
What do I give? (Remember: Never yellow flowers and always in odd numbers)
How do I behave?(Moscownians will think you're crazy if you smile too much. We're a smiling people!)
How do I repay such kindness? These dear friends have already pulled out all the stops and we haven't even arrived yet!

Yup, I have a case of the social butterflies!