We have a great old time thinking that Kathryn looks like me when I was little. Here is a picture of me twenty-something years ago, and one of Kathryn last Friday.
We live very close to a mall that has an ice skating rink. Once when we were there several months ago Kathryn watched the ice skaters in awe and asked if she could ice skate. I said, maybe when she was 3 years old, because that seemed like a long time away and of course Kathryn would forget. Well, Kathryn does not forget. And almost everyday since then, she has reminded us that she can ice skate when she is 3.
So we decided to have Darryl take her ice skating for one of her birthday presents! Here are some pictures that I got, before a security guy tried to communicate to me that taking pictures is not allowed.
We didn’t know if she’d last 5 minutes. Luckily with Darryl’s help, she didn’t fall down at all, and they made it around the rink twice. Then he carried her once around, and she was done. It sounds short, but it did take about half of the skating session time. She’s excited to do it again sometime!
* this post is to go along with the ongoing series on my sisters blog, and recent responses by my other sister, and sister in law.
First of all, a visit requires much less packing than actually moving, and you can pick the season – I recommend spring or summer. We just moved Amelia into Kathryn’s bedroom so now we have a “guest” room.
We buy fresh bread that is sometimes still warm. There is really yummy ice cream including Italian gelato. Yes, you can get gelato that back home, but isn’t it a little more exciting in a foreign country? And the chocolate, oh, the chocolate!
Kathryn will show you how she hops on one foot! And she will invite you to “check out” her room, and will introduce you to her friend Amelia. Your pre-nursery age child can attend nursery at church! This is a major perk of our small branch, if you’ve ever had a child under 18 months at church. Amelia has been going since she turned 1. (The only other kids are Kathryn and another boy).
You can see things like this:
And this:
August 24th was Independence Day here. The 24th was Sunday and there was a big military parade, which we unfortunately missed because we were at church. This was the first military type parade since the early 90’s and was very symbolic of the steps Ukraine has recently taken (such as applying for EU and NATO admitance). They practiced the parade every night for a week leading up to Sunday. Each night Darryl saw streams of soldiers marching, tanks, and rocket launchers and such going through the streets. That would have been cool to see!
Monday was a holiday, though. One of the missionary couples called and invited us to go to a park with flower sculptures. Little did we know that all of Kyiv would be there at the same time! Just walking from the entrance to the flowers took a great deal of time and Kathryn actually fell asleep. Luckily we had a stroller. We didn’t stay long because it was just so crowded we couldn’t really enjoy it. On the way back it was so crowded I was being pushed from behind into on-coming traffic (of people). Kind of reminded me of when I visited the Great Wall of China.
Darryl was able to take some pictures, though. I was really quite impressed and perhaps we will make it next year at a less crowded time.
A few weeks ago we took some pictures at a grocery store. This is not the store where I usually shop. I usually go to the closest one, since I’m on foot. But we took a trip on the tramvai and discovered this store not too far away. I think it’s interesting the different types of things that are at the grocery store, as compared with at home.
These 4 pictures show things that are in every grocery store here at some level. The size of the rows always vary depending on the store, however, the proportions always remain the same: the smallest row-canned foods; medium sized rows-kalbasa (sausage) and fish; always the largest row-vodka!
I know I’ve mentioned Katya several times, and some people may be wondering who she is. Shortly after we arrived in Kyiv I asked one of the Ukrainian girls at church if she knew someone who could help me learn Russian. The same week, Katya asked that girl if there was anyone at church that needed help with kids. So we got together for some of both!
Unfortunately, I decided to stop the Russian lessons a few months ago (when I got pregnant). I am bitterly disappointed with myself for my utter failure in this area, but that is not the subject of this post.
She has still come at least once a week to watch the girls. It is so extremely helpful to go grocery shopping by myself. Also, to have some time to clean by myself. And when I wasn’t feeling well, she even did some shopping for me and I took a nap!
Kathryn and Amelia love her. She came for both of their birthdays, with very thoughtful gifts. She is so happy and positive all the time. You can see her testimony shining through, and she always talks about Church things making her happy. She is a great blessing in our lives!
Although Kathryn looks and sometimes acts like me when I was younger, there is also a lot of Darryl in her. A couple weeks ago we bought some shelves for our kitchen. Kathryn was very excited to help Daddy put them together, and she really was a helper. I kept Amelia out of the way, but had to poke my head in when I heard Darryl ask Kathryn to pass him a dowel. I needed to be reminded what a dowel was!
Kathryn got a backpack for her birthday. I’d been wanting to get her this for a long time and am pleased that she absolutely loves it! The day after her birthday she took it everywhere. We were also lucky enough to get a hand-me-down bike. She looks like such a big girl on a bike with a backpack!
We’re having a little issue with getting pictures into the blog, but you can find lots of birthday pictures by clicking here and then refresh, then click on Kathryn. Yes, we are having some difficulties. There are 3 pages of pictures. I tried the link directly but it wasn’t working.
September 1st is the first day of school in Kyiv. Kids of all ages (even a branch of college next to our building) started school today. It is quite a big deal (there were even fireworks last night and tonight!).
Darryl called me on his way to work and told me to go outside and take some pictures. We got outside, but we only saw this boy hurrying to school. Dressed up and taking flowers to his teacher.
Later in the morning I saw lots of cute little girls on their way to school. Now I know why there was a crowd around lots of dark skirts, jackets, and white shirts at the store on Saturday. Also the big white puffy things. I wasn’t sure what they were when I saw them in the store! The girls are really cute!
Little boys were wearing suits, too. And lots of people carrying flowers for teachers.
Even older kids/students were dressed up so nicely. All the boys are wearing suits!
It was fun to see. I always tried to wear something nice to school on the first day, but nothing like this. I thought it was so cool until Darryl came home from work and told me what someone in his office said. This practice is a remnant of Soviet times: If you don’t dress up and take flowers or a present to your teachers, you are penalized.
