Big Boy Bed

For the last few weeks, Zoltan has been begging to sleep in the big bed. Unfortunately for spontaneity, he has a bad habit of falling out of bed during the night and the configuration of his room was not conducive to helping his stay put. Today we finally moved the room around, got the bed against a wall and packed away the toddler bed.

Our baby is growing up!

The best laid plans

We planned to go to the Butterfly House today, or whatever it's precisely called in Russian. Alex was so excited, one of the girls in her class had gone and told them about it. We got all the snacks and toys together for the trip, got the kids on the potty then into their car seats, and ... my seatbelt won't extend long enough to buckle. It's been finicky for a while now but never life-threatening. We're having a ridiculous thaw right now, temps over freezing and everything is icy (Russia, you should be ashamed of yourself showing such warm weather!). Given that driving here is like driving in Philly, nobody thinks it's a good idea to risk Mommy's life so we abort the plan. New plan for the day: Terry tears apart the car to see if he can fix the seatbelt and a few other things he's been meaning to get to while he's there.

A while later he comes in with the car part we need to replace. He writes down every bit of info he thinks I might need, tells me where there's 2 car parts stores nearby, and wishes me luck. The first place just says no they don't have the part. At the second place I think to ask where I could find it after they also tell me they don't have it. The guy tells me a bunch of things I don't quite understand, but I am pretty sure the gist is that "People go to mechanics to get this kind of part replaced. It is very difficult to do it yourself." At least, I caught the word for "difficult" and in the context, he must have been saying something like that. He asks me what make of car it is, then points to a stack of flyers like what you get at the grocery store, all about car repair shops or car parts.

Of course, this being a holiday, the place Terry tried to go to is closed. Our plans may get a bit restricted in the next few days without the car. The good news? Everything we actually need is within walking distance.

Oh Piter, there are so many things about you I will miss dearly when we leave.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy New Year / С Новым Годом

Happy birthday to me!

What an auspicious start to my birthday. Piles of dirty dishes and laundry. Squabbling children. The conversation with Alex this morning went like this:
Me: What do you want for breakfast?
A: Muffins
Me: We don't have any defrosted. I'll take some out but they are frozen solid and won't be ready until lunchtime.
A: OK
Me: So what do you want for breakfast?
A: Muffins
Me: Do you want to try to eat a frozen one?
A: No.
Me: So what do you want for breakfast?
A: Muffins

It got even "better" when, after a lot of screaming and crying actual tears she tells me we have some in the cabinet. Because I love the sound and sight of her screaming and crying so much I'd lie to her about having any defrosted when we had some in the cabinet? I don't think so.

Naptime: Zoltan won't sleep, calls for me every 20 minutes and is hysterically crying because I keep telling him to go to sleep.Finally, I tell him to give me 10 minutes and I'll be back to let him get up. I show him what the clock will look like. I go away and pour a drink. 10 minutes later I dutifully poke my head in and hear that most glorious sound - deep even breathing.

And, I have my one little word (heard about this for the first time last week and already loving it!); I ate some ice cream from the Last Pint of Haagen Dasz; and my birthday roast duck is in the oven. We have plans for tonight that should be fun and the baby monitor seems to be working again after a week of constant interference.

And I live in this beautiful city

And sometimes the kids are like this

Practice for January holiday

Between our wonderful surprise of Terry getting the 24th off, to the kids not feeling 100% and later having doctor's appointments, the kids and I just spent 6 days together (Terry was there for 4 of them). In between the fighting, chores, cooking, eating and naps, we managed to...

paint toes

work on puzzles

make a popcorn string for the Yolka

  read books

 play with the new train set

Ёлка

The Russian word Ёлка can mean either a decorated evergreen tree (much like a Christmas tree, but in celebration of New Year) or for a children's event that at some point in time takes place around such tree.

Like last year, we got ourselves a little tree for the house. Unlike last year, we also went to the other kind of  Ёлкa. It was held in a former palace, which is now called unofficially the "Children's Palace" because all the citywide afterschool cultural stuff (dance, instruments, choirs, etc) are held here. It's a pretty sweet deal, nothing like it in the USA, kids get free instruction and it's open to all city kids.

Anyway. We walk in, strip off the millions of layers between the kids and their adorable outfits, everyone changes into their indoor shoes, and we take a few photos in front of the first sparkly flashing tree sitting in the lobby area (after watching a couple of Russians do the same). 

Then upstairs where a couple of ladies are leading the kids in singing and dancing what I can only assume are somewhat traditional New Years songs because Alex knew all the words. The kids, of course, didn't participate but were happy to watch. One of the helpers told another mom that the next room was quieter if she wanted to bring her kid there, so we did too. More trees, this time all white.

Then the performance.  The "seats" at the front were a sea of golden bean bag chairs. 

I was annoyed the one lady refused to let Zoltan sit with Alex, she assured me he would definitely cry unless he was with his parents. We ended up in the first row of proper chairs, and there were some bean bags there too, so it wasn't too bad. We watched ... well I'm not exactly sure what it was. It started with Snegurichka (a.k.a. Snow Maiden. She's Father Frost's granddaughter and helps him with his gift-delivery to good children duties) supposed to meet up with Ded Maroz (a.k.a. Father Frost) but he wasn't there, then she seemed to get imprisoned and there was a mischievous character.... well there was singing and dancing and sparkly costumes and the kids sat still for 45 minutes watching it - not a major feat for Alex who is used to longer performances but I was happily surprised about Zoltan. 

That's Snegurichka and Ded Maroz in the middle there.

  After the show we got let out into a series of rooms with games and things to play with and on. A huge slide that looked like a snake. A little play house like what you might have outside in your yard. A stack of large foam "blocks" like at Gymboree.

 We played for a while but the kids were already tired and hungry so it wasn't more than 30 minutes. Then to collect our presents - big boxes of candy - and home.

Bedtimes

We had a party the other night. It was an amazing demonstration of how ingrained some habits have become. Zoltan did a pretty good job of playing on his own most of the night, but right around 7:45pm he came to me and asked me to read him a book. When nothing happened after the book, he asked for another. It was like he knew this was when we read books, then go to bed. He ended up staying up another hour then went to bed without any complaints. He was ready!

Alex was less a slave to her biological needs. However, by 10pm she could barely fight it. Rather than go to bed, though, she lay on the couch with a blanket. Our neighbor's 8 year old decided that looked good and accepted a blanket and the other couch (mind you, that one had been trying to go home to go to bed for at least 1/2 hour!). As the party was a "right after work" thing, by 10pm things were well wound down, with only our neighbors left. Socializing after we leave Post will never be as convenient.

Of course, even after the last folks left, people were in the building's hallway chatting and petting our new neighbor's amazing dog. I even let Alex out after she was in her Pjs and teeth brushed. If all dogs were like this one, I might fight Terry less on getting one. Transporting them all over the world would probably be the thing that stopped me - thankfully he also hates the idea so the fight for the pet is pretty well deferred til retirement.

Wordless Wednesday

It was like her Kryptonite

My daughter is pretty amazing. She can watch the nurse give her a shot (I close my eyes). The other day, when a cart loaded with headless carcases rolled past our path, her question to me was "What is that?" and when I explained they were animals to be cut up for food and judging from their size I thought it might be lamb, she said she thought they looked more like pigs.

She's also a crafty girl. Loves a good project. We thought she'd love the paper making kit we bought for Hanukkah. Oh, wow, was that a mistake.

When we poured the watery pulp into the tray and started working with the screen to get the layer of paper properly flat and squeeze out the extra water, she gagged. Gagged!

So Terry and I moved quickly, and it turned out there was only enough pulp for 2 pages anyway. I'm proud of our creation ... but I don't think we'll be repeating the process for a long, long time.