How I begged for a nickname and how nuffle found an admirer

So for A and O this was the first real weekend of summer and they agreed to take us along to O's sister's summer cottage out in the countryside. It was to be a grilling/birthday party with O's sister, brother-in-law, niece, mother and father. And it was, but with Russian influence. Three different languages were spoken to include all parties and four different types of alcohol drunk to include all tastes. Birthday boy was toasted as well as Jackie Chan and senator Obama. Everyone had a jolly good time.

Now back to my story. In my eagerness to prove myself better Russian speaker then, let's say my brother, I asked for a salad bowl in Russian. I wanted a "moshka" and when that didn't provide any desired results then a "moska". Only when I gave up and asked O to translate ("miska" was the word I had needed) did I realize that I had demanded a mouse. A word that I knew (and reminded myself to avoid in situations like this) at least a month ago when I had practiced for the upcoming move. The funny thing is, I've been called mouse before, Mousy, to be more precise. And that in a class by an older gentleman who couldn't memorize my name. I wonder why he picked that name... ;)

Now, let's call O's niece Chrissy. She is four years old, a cute and smart girl. She can count to ten and name several animals and colors in English. She does not understand Estonian, though. You know how nuffle likes children and how he gets along with them. Chrissy and nuffle didn't need any outside help (read: interpretor) to teach each other new words or make the other giggle. Whereas at first Chrissy was a bit shy as any normal kid would be when meeting adults, by the dinner time she chose a seat right next to him and afterwards took him to walks around the yard and climbed to his lap making it clear nuffle was her best buddy at the party.