Halloween preview

A cute shot Jeremy snapped of our little gray slon (elephant). I thought of a banana costume for the baby but Jeremy pointed out that Slon doesn't eat bananas... really? Oh! Then maybe I'll just get a pumpkin.

At the music class last week Sonia twirled and danced.For one of the songs where kids pick instruments to go with the rhymes, she asked for a harp and singers.

At the story time Sonia has her favorite pink poodle. We have to leave it there and it is always hard. She calls it my pink poodle ;-)

So far she requests an ABC song about twenty times a day... we love the song, not so sure about knowing the letters. I have to add that I don't know any alphabet in its order, I have never learned them so it is challenging to keep everything straight.

Yesterday I did my own very first story time at the Sherwood Hall library. They had budget cuts so we got a group of moms helping the library with keeping up their programs. I did color songs, rhymes and read "Put me in the Zoo," "Lemons are not red," "Painted mouse," and "Sylvi." The children seemed to really enjoy it. To top it of we made ice cream cone craft -- Sonia loved it.

Mischa is doing much better. He is eating again and acting like himself. He is being a good boy, Sonia says.

Free Dog

I walked through the front door after picking up Jeremy from the late night session, the house smelled like... not sure if there is an adjective. I wondered how we have spent a whole day inside listening to General Conference and not noticed the "smell". I ran upstairs to hide something in the closet, a treasure to be used for Christmas stockings and saw our bed!!!!!!!!! There was an alarm clock covered in liquid poop. My precious pillows, my perfect Martha Stewart bed!!!!

Jeremy walked in and I begged him to come upstairs. "Please take care of this mess!" I begged because I felt like passing out; in a few minutes Jeremy was in the bathroom cleaning his clock!!!! WHAT ABOUT MY BED!!!!!! A clock can wait ;-) so I washed it all in the sink then in the washer... good thing Martha's bedding is not dry clean only while Jeremy discovered more surprises in Sonia's room on her little carpet and in the living room.

Mischa has been sick and throwing up. In his defense he tried escaping through the door and tore it apart as well. Mischa has been sick since last Friday. He lost a lot of weight and I will probably end up taking him to the vet tomorrow. Good Heavens! He goes to see a doctor more than anyone else in our family! I haven't even figured out a pediatrician so far!

So I went downstairs and yelled at him... letting the worst of my feelings out and he felt SO bad. He hid himself and his always proud tale was hid and he was very sad.BUT I felt better, right away... he had to know that sick dogs need to stay downstairs. Good thing too because Jeremy forgot to shut the doors to our bedrooms and I even reminded him before leaving... and I think yelling at the dog is sort of better than your husband, right?

Podarok from Utah

We couldn't open our front door on Wednesday because there was a huge box on the porch!!! Babulya sent something for everyone. Pretty hand made blankets for the baby are here just on time! Sonia got two bears, a wooden building log set and an adorable sun umbrella.We had to take it with us to church this week. Plus the box itself turned into a great fun! Jeremy's suit pants arrived all fixed and we also got a box of delicious Russian chocolates. Thank you so much!

On Sunday night we drove to DC temple for a concert with Mormon orchestra and Jenny Oaks... a family friendly event! Sonia loved looking at all the instruments, a harp was new to her. She sat through the whole concert and was very attentive.

Happy Birthday Mischa!

Mischa turned one year old today... our big wrinkly puppy ;-)He is Sonia's boddy and they chase each other around the house. He also takes Jeremy on early morning walks and late night bike rides. He helps me get up in the morning and go for a jog. He is a good boy. Sonia and I made a birthday hat for him; it kept falling down. We decorated his big farmer's market bone with a candle and sang him Happy Birthday song. He was not so sure about putting fire on his bone but then he licked it like a lolly pop and ate it like ice cream.

George Washington's Grist Mill

I left my camera home on Saturday morning when we went biking to the Huntley Meadows. After conquering a huge hill and riding for about six miles, we all felt pretty good about myself ;-) The best part was walking through the wilderness, enjoying fields of yellow and purple flowers and watching Mischa run wild. Sonia found two good mushrooms; she picked them up and carried them most of the way back. We picked some wild flowers and put them in our hair.

I did bring camera to the Grist Mill where a miller talked about how everything works. We looked at a huge water wheel spinning and causing the action.

Corn goes in and gets milled by two huge stones.

Then it comes out and goes through a lengthy process of sorting fine, medium and rough one. A new mill that required only two people to operate cut costs and was huge money maker... the whole process was automated.

We also watched how whiskey was made and on the way back Sonia told papa that we are going to the store to buy some whiskey ;-) I asked her what are we going to do with it. She thought for a minute and said we are going to try it! Oh, Dear! Good heavens... I've got to watch where we take her ;-)

On Sunday Sonia wore her new dress to church. I made it from very pretty corduroy that was 40 percent off at Hancock's Fabrics. It is a first piece of clothing I have ever made and it turned out pretty well. I even got a few compliments in church. It has two pieces for now: a dress and pants. I will also make a matching hair piece. Sonia asked for it Monday morning; it is one of her new favorites ;-) I just might make another one for her and a matching one for myself!

Learning as we go

At the Sherwood library yesterday Sonia used scissors for the first time.She held them to the end and didn't want to give them back to the teacher... so we had to stop at Walmart on the way back ;-) After story time we also went into a children's reading room and Sonia ran circles on the alphabet carpet for about forty minutes. Hopping like a frog around,She would stop, name letters on the carpet and words.At the end she could name them all in the very silly song ;-) She couldn't figure out what Yo yo was so we've got to find one. Another mom came in with a three-year-old and Sonia told her about all the letters and words in the reverse order... Sonia sort of read them right of the carpet ;-) I have to say as much as I wanted to get going... I did feel just a little proud. All this running, hopping like a frog and singing turned rather educational ;-)

Today we hosted our weekly play group with Alyssa and Clair so we put our new art supplies to good use. The theme of the day was colors: we read books, did rhymes and sang songs then I let girls choose two colors of paper. Sonia wanted pink and yellow, Clair chose black and white and Alyssa just wanted purple so I added light pink to hers.

Then all chose their little animals to glue in the middle of the page and the work began. Cutting with scissors, squeezing glue, pealing off stickers might seem easy but for the girls it was hard work ;-) and lots of fun. Sonia said her pink flamingo is eating a crab ;-)

Sonia actually cut out all little pieces by herself, placed them on with lots and lots of glue then added some stickers. I can't believe she can do it all! Children grow rather slow, at times they seem not (unlike puppies; Mischa was potty trained at an age of four months) but they surely grow in most amazing ways. What a joy it was watching these little girls today!

Joys of the week

Just under an hour drive and we were at the temple. Thank you, Valerie, for watching Sonia. We had a good time there and ran into some friends from LA. It was even more special because it might be awhile before we make it back... with our new baby almost here.

Sonia and her little friend Alyssa in the kitchen while we were making peach pies last week. They are such silly girls! Sonia showed Alyssa around the house and they had all the fun you can have... climbing into papa's bed and jumping into mama's pillows, running around and chasing a dog, getting wet in lala pool and giggling in the kitchen chair.

I finally discovered an affordable sand at Home Depot that is also kid friendly. Last night papa cleaned out lala pool and made it into a sand box to Sonia's pure delight. Jeremy got into it and they built a castle.

They dug and dug and dug until and past dinner time.

Sonia can't wait until Thursday when her little girlfriends come to play.