Darryl made my birthday so special!  Thanks!  He surprised me with these flowers.  They were on the table when I got up in the morning.  Unfortunately, that was in the wee hours of the morning when Amelia woke up.  But it was still a surprise, and they are so beautiful!  Kathryn and Amelia were very excited in the morning, I’m not sure if it was for my birthday or not, but they were cute.

On Wednesday, Darryl stayed home from work to help me clean the house while Katya watched Kathryn and Amelia.  I considered that a birthday present because I really wanted a clean house.  We got twice as much work done (obviously).  Actually it was probably more than that because Darryl is such a great worker and cleaner. 

Back to Friday, my real birthday.  Katya came again to babysit so I could meet Darryl for lunch.  I picked TGI Fridays.  It doesn’t sound that exciting, but American food sounded really yummy.  And it was.

The card that came with my flowers said for my birthday I was treated to a “shopping spree” at a department store here.  I could check the box for three out of six items listed in the card (presents from Kathryn, Amelia, and Darryl).  I checked cake baking stuff, socks, and smelly bath stuff.   Those are the exact words from the card.  I don’t make it to real stores very often (except the grocery store), so just being in a department store was pretty exciting!

I got a cooling rack, which we have lived without for the past year.  I already used it today!  And I found a few new pairs of socks, which I was desperately in need of.  Interestingly enough, women’s socks are not so easy to find around here.  In the winter, most women wear nylons  under their pants, and so they don’t need socks. 

We also went for gelato.  Now that stuff is so heavenly!  What a great afternoon!  Darryl took the afternoon off and made dinner when we got home.  He also called and invited some friends over.  Kathryn wouldn’t go to bed until I unwrapped my presents.  I tried to explain that I had just bought them, but in the end Darryl hastily wrapped, and then Kathryn helped me open them!

Amanda | 4 Comments »

Amelia recently started saying her own name which she says “Mia”, and Kathryn’s name, “Kaffin”.  It’s really cute.  I love seeing the two of them play together.  For some reason bedtime always sparks some sisterly bonding of running around the house so they don’t have to put their pajamas on.  Sometimes they just giggle at each other and it is hard not to join in.

The other day Amelia woke up from her nap.  Kathryn was still watching a video and I wanted her to keep watching and “resting”, so I left her in my room.  When Amelia got to the living room she looked all around and finally said, “Kaffin?”  She was quite upset until I took her in to watch the video with Kathryn.

Amelia, Kathryn | 2 Comments »

I probably think this blog is about me. I know its really about Kathryn and Amelia, and I regret posting again so that those cute pictures of Amelia aren’t the first thing you see. However, I feel the need to explain my hair. It just drives me crazy, I guess because I am vain.

This isn’t a very good picture, but that’s because there aren’t any good pictures of me currently.  Darryl takes pictures by the hundreds these days (not an exaggeration), but I try to avoid being in them.  And when I am I often ask him to delete them because I look so lumpy or something.

So that is the picture you get and it doesn’t even do justice to my hair issue.  The first issue is that my hair is orange.  And my hair should not be orange!  My hair is brown, and I like it like that.  The problem is, some of my hairs are also turning gray, and I don’t really like that.  So several months ago I decided to dye my hair.  Dye it to its regular color, so there wouldn’t be so much gray. 

Being inexperienced with hair dye, and also cheap, I discovered that there was really cheap hair dye in Ukraine and purchased some.  Well, it turned my hair bright orange (which I admit did explained a little about fashion here).  I wouldn’t even let Darryl take a picture of it.  And the next day we went together to buy some better hair dye to cover the orange and make my hair normal again.  It looked much better, but after a few days it was fading back to orange.  And when it started growing out, it looked terrible with my regualr brown hair.

By this time I knew I was pregnant, and maybe that had something to do with the hair disaster.  Anyway, we made a trip home during the summer and I decided to go to an actual hair salon (recommended by a friend) to get my hair re-dyed to its normal color.  I paid some good money and my hair seemed back to normal.  Unfortunately it didn’t last.  Again, maybe this is due to pregnancy – I have always heard you shouldn’t dye your hair when pregnant.  The dye faded back to orange again.  So now I am growing it out again, and there is an inch and a half of my regular hair (complete with gray), then the orange. 

I really hate to look at it, and I assume other people do, too.  So I just wanted to get that out of me.  Now I am prepared to accept the consequences of my vanity.  I’ll just have to live with it for a few more months until I can cut all the orange off.  I thought about getting a flat top, but Darryl isn’t too keen on the idea.

Amanda | 5 Comments »

On the 16th Amelia officially turned 18 months!  She is so big and has been walking so long and now talks so much, that I sometimes forget she is only 1 year old.  But now she is 18 months.

The past couple of weeks her talking has exploded.  She repeats just about everything we say, and I’m always discovering new words she says.  Even putting 2 words together.  Like “hold it”, when she wants something, or “baby sleeping”, or “read it”. 

She is crazy about yogurt, eating up to 4 yogurt containers in one day.  No wonder on SUnday she wore a dress to church that Kathryn wore just one month ago.  Amelia’s feet are just about the same size as Kathryn’s, too.  I’m a little disappointed for what that means as far as hand-me-down shoes.  She loves walking around in my shoes, like a typical one year old.

Amelia has become quite the dancer, and recently she discovered stuffed animals and dolls.  She loves to have some in her crib, and carries them around.  She usually has something in her hands.  Measuring spoons and measuring cups are some of her favorite things to hold. 

She also loves to hide.  And climb.  She loves to climb, pushing chairs around so she can climb where she wants.  She climbs up and goes down the slide by herself, even sliding down on her tummy.  Oh, and she also loves her belly button.

Amelia | 1 Comment »

My girls love to color.  Especially Amelia!  I have always been afraid to let her color, because it would get everywhere.  But we tried it at the table with me supervising, and it has gone quite well.  Amelia asks to color several times each day, and the first time they both spent almost an hour coloring.  That is a long time on one activity for Amelia!  She is also learning some colors.  Blue is her favorite, she always knows when it is blue.  If I tell her what color it is, she will repeat it.  She is talking up a storm!

Kathryn likes to draw/color also.  The other day she drew a world or a bulldozer.  It was both, she said.  She is really into bulldozers for some reason, I’m not sure where she got that.  So we did coloring for our Family Home Evening activity this week to make some Thanksgiving decorations.  Amelia colored the turkey and Kathryn did the pilgrim.

Family | 2 Comments »

Any guesses as to what this is for?

коли под наем

Family | 8 Comments »

Over the years I’ve really become interested in photography and have enjoyed taking and looking at other’s photos.  A good friend of ours started a photo-a-day blog a couple years ago and I always thought this would be fun to do.  So, I’ve made the committment to take at least one photo a day and post it to Darryl’s Photo-a-Day Blog (with Amanda’s permission as some of “her” time will be eaten up with this hobby). 

Feel free to take a look and leave comments, if you’d like.

Darryl | 6 Comments »

This week I had a new mother experience!  I sent Kathryn off to preschool, while I stayed home with Amelia.  I had been going with her, but it wasn’t working as well as I wanted, so now our beloved babysitter Katya is taking her for me.  (Why don’t I just hop her over by myself in the car in 10 minutes, you ask?  Ha!  It doesn’t really work that way here.)

I thought it would be so easy to take just Amelia to the grocery store.  I unwittingly let her get out of the stroller and she promptly dropped some raw eggs on the floor.  I’m sure they LOVE me at that store.  They see me on average 3 times a week with double stroller, 2 kids, and I have been known to rant and rave about the lack of grocery baskets, peanut butter, chicken, milk, or whatever I needed that day that they didn’t have.

Anyway, Kathryn came home from preschool in good spirits and as I asked her about it, I realized I would probably never know what goes on at preschool!  A few things came out during the day, like she didn’t want to play with shaving cream.  Apparently they were finger painting with it, but Kathryn refused.  She said it wasn’t for little girls. 

I keep getting off subject.  The point is that I was sending my daughter out into the world!  Leaving kids at home with a babysitter is not the same for me, I know (generally) what can go on in my home.  But outside, that’s a different story!  I was really quite excited and didn’t expect to feel alarmed that I didn’t know what Kathryn was doing for a whole morning.  I guess I will be a basket case when she goes to kindergarten, but I’m counting the days anyway.  Okay, years.

Amanda | 5 Comments »