Meet the Yozhins, part 1.

Zdravstvuyte! My name is Maria Fyodorovna Yozhina, but you can call me Masha. My middle name is called a patronymic because it comes from my papa's name, Fyodor.

I have two bratya, brothers. Their full names are Aleksandr Fyodorovich Yozhin and Vladimir Fyodorovich Yozhin, but we call them Sasha and Volodya. Sasha always calls me Moosha and I sometimes call him Sashechka. I wonder how Volodya will call us when he can talk (he's just a baby).

In my family there are also Mama, Papa, and Babushka, who is Papa's mama.

I have put everything here in English writing, but maybe you would like to know how to spell it in Russian (if you do not already know)? Well, our alphabet, called "Cyrillic," is not too hard to learn. I'll show you one day at a time! It can be fun, I promise.