Okay, so we decided that we wanted to be sure to take some time this summer and get away. But the more we thought of it, the more we realized that the difficulties of traveling to and staying anywhere pretty much nullified the benefit of vacation. Traveling with a baby is hard. And staying in a place without all of the chilren's paraphenelia we've grown accustomed to is hard. So, it's pretty hard any way you slice it.
Then we realized that in the past six months of living in Kiev, we've never really explored the city. People travel from all over the world to see our city. And we've never really experienced. There's TONS to see and do here - and we haven't had the time or the energy to explore. Kiev has a zoo, a circus, swimming pools, old churches, beautiful places to walk. And we know a place where we can stay that has a high chair, plenty of toys, and room for the kids. Best of all - we're already paying rent!
And that's when it hit us. Vacation in Kiev. None of the travel. All of the comfort. And pretend that we're tourists and do everything we would do on vacation. So the next week is given over to being tourists in our new home. We'll see how it goes...
Ella's Words and Allergies
Wow!
Our lives have a constant commentary now. Ella is always looking to see if we’re watching her, and exclaiming, Oooh-ohhh! [Whoa.] Oooh-ow! [Wow!]
Dee-da, dee-da, dee-da, da-dee, da-dee, daddy, daddy!
Our lives have a constant commentary now. Ella is always looking to see if we’re watching her, and exclaiming, Oooh-ohhh! [Whoa.] Oooh-ow! [Wow!]
Dee-da, dee-da, dee-da, da-dee, da-dee, daddy, daddy!
Ella’s allergies…or lack thereof.
Ella is mostly doing much better. We are still not giving her any dairy, nuts or coffee. (Well, we probably wouldn’t give her coffee anyway! But she’s not getting any of those things through my diet either.) In May, we gave her yogurt one morning. She loved it! And I was delighted to see no severe allergic reaction—no diarrhea, rash, or fussiness… for about 10 hours. And then the crying started. That night, she woke up three times crying. And the next night. For two days, she was very clingy. Even the nursery worker at church asked me why she was so fussy. In her words, “Ella would reach for things, whining and crying, but then when I gave it to her she would throw it down and cry for something else.” That’s a good description of Ella in her fussy-stage. We never saw any other indication of an allergy, so in my opinion, she’s not really allergic. And I’m reassured that if she accidently eats dairy, at least she won’t react severely. But I’m not planning to give her any more anytime soon!
Which leaves us with the question, to what do we wean? So far, we’ve been weaning to … nothing. Well, just food and some juice. In fact, we’ve cut our daytime feedings from 6 to 4 in the last month. If she’s very whiny when she used to get a ‘snack’ she’ll usually take a cup of juice. But, our pediatrician recommended finding some replacement for the calcium and fat that she should get from milk. But when I tried drinking goat’s milk, she reacted just like when I ate dairy. Yesterday, we tried some ‘hypoallergenic’ infant formula, where most of the milk proteins are at least partially broken down. But within a few hours she was extremely clingy and crying. That day I ended up giving her two extra feedings, just because she was so fussy. Connection? Who knows. My neighbor says it could have been the hot weather, too. True. Should I toss the $12 can of formula, or wait and try again? But when is another good day to try, knowing that I might have to carry her and listen to her scream all day? (Any volunteers for babysitting that day?)
Despite all this daytime fussiness, she is finally sleeping well at night. Five of the last six nights, she hasn’t cried at all during the night! Before, she would always wake for a late evening feeding around 11, and then sometimes another after midnight. If I didn’t feed her, she would cry as long as we could take it. So we were expecting to soon let her cry it out, to teach her to go back to sleep without being fed. But then suddenly she stopped waking up. Amazing. (What’s more amazing is for me to realize that we expected this to happen a full year ago—if she’d followed the boys’ example, and our favorite baby-sleep-philosophy. But, no, she’s on her own timetable.) Even the day when we gave her formula, she still slept well at night. Her daytime sleep is also been great. She usually sleeps an hour and a half for her morning nap, and two hours in the afternoon. She would sleep longer in the morning, but I wake her up so that her afternoon nap is longer. If she’s slept too long in the morning, when I come in with Tima during the afternoon nap, she pops right up and wants to play. She and Tima will babble-talk and laugh for an hour before going to sleep. They do usually go to sleep without my intervention, but then they’re both ornery in the evening. (And I am, too.) For now, though, I'm very grateful that she's still taking two good naps!
Danya's lines
When waking me up after a nap:
"Mom, if you keep your eyes open, you won’t go back to sleep."
"Danya, I’m just waking up, so I’m going to be moving slowly for a few minutes."
"But Mom, you’re not moving at all."
When Eric was cleaning with the boys, and kept adding ‘one more’ thing to do:
“Dad, this is how you make 20 minutes turn into 40.”
"Mom, if you keep your eyes open, you won’t go back to sleep."
"Danya, I’m just waking up, so I’m going to be moving slowly for a few minutes."
"But Mom, you’re not moving at all."
When Eric was cleaning with the boys, and kept adding ‘one more’ thing to do:
“Dad, this is how you make 20 minutes turn into 40.”
Cheetahs and the like
Tima’s favorite animals
1. Cheetah
2. Leopard
3. Cheetah
4. Leopard
5. Etc.
“When I grow up to be a real cheetah.
...And I want to have nine Cheetah babies.
...I will teach them how to hunt, and how to pounce.
...Do cheetahs pounce?”
(What do you think? It's not a simple question!)
Danya’s favorite animals.
1. Cheetah
2. Leopard
3. Lion
4. Tiger
5. Bear
6. Anaconda (thank you, Cheryl)
7. Sled dog
8. Horse
9. Eagle
10. Vulture (note: This is his favorite bird, usually just beating out the eagle.)
11. penguin
12. flying fish
What about dolphins? “They’re coming.”
(But We cut him off here.)
“Mom, Can a person ever run as fast as a cheetah?”
“Is there any way I could ever turn into a cheetah?”
It turns out that youtube is a great place to find videos of cheetahs. The following link is for a 2 minute video--our favorite, since it shows most of the skeleton.... This also required some research to answer the question, "Does a cheetah have bones in its tail?"
http://www.youtube.com/v/iarsmqA3dck&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0
(I was tempted to embed the video, but don't want to go overboard with my new skills.)
If you can imagine, we have a lot of running around our apartment. Danya is impressed with himself, since he can bound on all fours faster than Ella can walk.
1. Cheetah
2. Leopard
3. Cheetah
4. Leopard
5. Etc.
“When I grow up to be a real cheetah.
...And I want to have nine Cheetah babies.
...I will teach them how to hunt, and how to pounce.
...Do cheetahs pounce?”
(What do you think? It's not a simple question!)
Danya’s favorite animals.
1. Cheetah
2. Leopard
3. Lion
4. Tiger
5. Bear
6. Anaconda (thank you, Cheryl)
7. Sled dog
8. Horse
9. Eagle
10. Vulture (note: This is his favorite bird, usually just beating out the eagle.)
11. penguin
12. flying fish
What about dolphins? “They’re coming.”
(But We cut him off here.)
“Mom, Can a person ever run as fast as a cheetah?”
“Is there any way I could ever turn into a cheetah?”
It turns out that youtube is a great place to find videos of cheetahs. The following link is for a 2 minute video--our favorite, since it shows most of the skeleton.... This also required some research to answer the question, "Does a cheetah have bones in its tail?"
http://www.youtube.com/v/iarsmqA3dck&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0
(I was tempted to embed the video, but don't want to go overboard with my new skills.)
If you can imagine, we have a lot of running around our apartment. Danya is impressed with himself, since he can bound on all fours faster than Ella can walk.
Gardens of Святошин
Video from April
We're trying to finally let you see some of the snippets of video we've managed to film this spring and summer. So, this is a bit dated, but you can see how Ella's skills are developing.
Cherries, anyone?
The boys love to climb the trees in our courtyard. All the bigger boys have reached the reachable cherries, but they sometimes share the sour yellow fruits.
Tima has learned to pump, by standing on the swing. It turns out that swings like this are easy to pump very high.
But they do have their drawbacks.... We had a traumatic morning last week when a little girl fell off. Her sister was still on the swing, and in her disorientation, the little girl tried to stand up under the swing. Amazingly, she ended up with only a few stitches; the rest of us ended up feeling sick whenever we thought about it.
On a happier note, Ella delights everyone with her out-loud enjoyment of the slide. She climbs up herself (though I keep a hand behind her just in case) sits herself down and slides with a smile and then "Oooooh!"
Ella’s Development
Everyone asks us, “What is she saying now?” In truth, there are only a few new ‘words’ that she’s added in the last few months. Most of the following started while we were at the Black Sea.
She’s getting better at animal noises, though. Dog barks used to be a gentle, “ooh”. Now, it’s a healthy, resounding, “Aaaff”. Cats are greeted with “Ksss” which resembles the Russian word for cat that people use with kids (kee-sah).
First sentence: Da-da, aah-you?
(Danya, where are you?) It’s pretty cute to hear her sing-song phrase called out repeatedly, looking for either brother. Sometimes, she tries to say a sound more like “Tima” but usually she calls both boys “Da-da”.
Ella has learned to shake her head ‘no’. At first, it was amazing to be able to communicate so well with her, figuring out what she wanted. But after we all started encouraging her to show off, now she just answers every question with a ‘no’:
“Ella, do you want some jello?”
“Zzzh,” she hisses please, while shaking her head ‘no’. Hmmm.
By the way, Ella likes blueberries, cherries, raspberries, jello, and animal crackers. We’re not sure how many vegetables she actually eats, since she likes to chew her food and then spit it out. So after she finishes off a bowl of veggies, we find most of it in her bib. 
She’s getting better at animal noises, though. Dog barks used to be a gentle, “ooh”. Now, it’s a healthy, resounding, “Aaaff”. Cats are greeted with “Ksss” which resembles the Russian word for cat that people use with kids (kee-sah).
First sentence: Da-da, aah-you?
(Danya, where are you?) It’s pretty cute to hear her sing-song phrase called out repeatedly, looking for either brother. Sometimes, she tries to say a sound more like “Tima” but usually she calls both boys “Da-da”.
Ella has learned to shake her head ‘no’. At first, it was amazing to be able to communicate so well with her, figuring out what she wanted. But after we all started encouraging her to show off, now she just answers every question with a ‘no’:
“Ella, do you want some jello?”
“Zzzh,” she hisses please, while shaking her head ‘no’. Hmmm.
By the way, Ella likes blueberries, cherries, raspberries, jello, and animal crackers. We’re not sure how many vegetables she actually eats, since she likes to chew her food and then spit it out. So after she finishes off a bowl of veggies, we find most of it in her bib.
Tima's Dog
I can't spend all the time I'd like to today writing, but I just overheard a gem.
Tima [coloring] to Danya: Look how big this sobaka is.
Sobaka is the Russian word for dog. I've never heard Tima use it before.
Tima [coloring] to Danya: Look how big this sobaka is.
Sobaka is the Russian word for dog. I've never heard Tima use it before.
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