Other News for the Relatives

 I love giving sink baths. Oliver has been getting them for a while.  But this weekend, Kate wanted to join in the fun.   

On the communication front…  For about three weeks now, Oliver has been shaking his head “no” and nodding his head “yes”in response to questions.  He’s always talking gibberish and is possibly going to be more of a communicator than Kate.  I don’t think it’s an issue of  language confusion from exposure to Russian (he’s had very little), but a matter of personality.

 

Other Silly Firsts: 

On July 3rd, Kate had her first Happy Meal and saw her first film in a movie theater (an IMAX Under the Sea type of film).  I was thankful that the Mc Death was located in the California Science Center so that she’s not likely to recognize one when we drive by.    Once more, Yipee!

She Said “Yes”

On July 1st, Kate said, “Yes”. 

Yes to what you ask?  Nothing particularly important…the question was, “Do you want me to bring you a book to read while you sit on the potty?”   See, nothing memorable.

So, what’s the big deal? 

 

She’s NEVER said “yes” before.  Up till now, it was always “Da” (’yes’ in Russian).  She’s THREE!   Three!   Do you hear me?  THREE!

She says ‘Yes” in Russian and “No” in English. (Da/ No vs. Yes/ Nyet)

From three months until almost one year of age, Grandma Nelly cared for Kate … in Russian four days a week.  Kate was pretty speech delayed in both languages.  She spoke a bunch of words for one week at 14 months and then almost nothing again for months and months and months.   

So, on July 1st, she said “yes”.  On July 2nd, it turned into “Das”.  And on the 3rd, it was back to “yes” again.

 Yipeee.

Updates for the Family

Kate’s favorite dress right now is M’s old girl scout t-shirt. 

Charm and decorum are things we encourage and actively cultivate around here.

 

I have no idea how she took this, but I like it.

A Wee Bairn No More

He’s …

Mr. Kissilicious, Mr. Snugglicious, Sir Poopsalot, My Growly Bear

 

  

 Photos by Kate.

The Backyard

In the winter, we had our backyard levelled.

This is what our backyard looks like right now (one tree).

Rome’s sister was trained as an architect and put together this plan for us.  We like it so we’re going for it.

Looking at the plan, I figured we were on a 3-5 year plan for filling this in.  We were going to start the grass with seed, but we’re running into summer so we’ll probably lay sod.

The veggies went in last weekend.  And on Sunday, we bought this. ( I figured this was one of the year 3 items.  I was wrong.)  Both of us are a little leary of formed ponds, because so often the final product looks bad, but we figure knowing that at least gives us an advantage in figuring how deep to put it and how to fill it in with rocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s Rome digging the hole for it.  He’s one HARD worker!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll take more pictures as we move forward.

Nursing and My Polka Dotted Son

Kate is nursing Daisy Duck.  Oh Sweet Cheeks, you do your mama proud.

 

 

Oliver gets one to three bites a day right now.  I’m going to back off of the bananas for a bit and see if I can sneak garlic into his food.  The poor guy is almost polka dotted.

My Little Tomato

Is this tomato staking?  Kate thought it was totally cool that Armstrong had pink tomato cages and promptly tried them on.  If only she knew!

  

It’s a Good Day

 

My husband is reading Winnie-the-Pooh to Kate in russian while she takes her bath.

It’s a good day.

The Following Post is Not About What You Think

It used to be “p0rn” and  “hot p0rn”.  

We would drive by Target where Kate clearly remembers getting the slushy-popcorn special and she would yell out, “Buy p0rn!”;  She’ll never know how she made us laugh.

Yesterday it became “pap0rn”.

Today it is “papap0rn”.  And I know that soon she’ll get it right and say, “popcorn”. 

While sometimes we figure out the first time our children do things (stand up, roll over, say ‘mama’) , we never know when the last time is that  they’re going to do some particular cute thing or say that one silly phrase that makes you smile.  And then it’s gone, never to be done spontaneously again.

Kate’s two-year-old sweetness slipped away quietly.  And while it’s been replaced by three year old sweetness, I could just kick myself for not savoring every single lovely moment that is now gone.

Interviewing the American Worker- part 1

 

 

On Tuesday, Rome interviewed five people for warehouse jobs.  If hired, these folks would be doing order fulfillment and packaging of orders for shipping.  His boss gave him three math questions to ask each interviewee.

1. How many inches are there in a foot?
2. How many square inches are there in a square foot?
3. What is a square?

The purpose of the second question is not to hear “144″, but to see if the person can get there.  An acceptable answer would be “Whatever 12 times 12 is.”

For the third question, there were several answers that would have done just fine… i.e.,  something about four sides and all angles being the same.  They got extra credit if they used the phrase “90-degrees”.

Four out of five interviewed were HS graduates.  Two out of five could correctly answer the first question.  No body was able to answer the second question. And none could answer the third question.  One guy offered that there were three lines or three points in a square.

I’m not saying that this is the best our school system is putting out.  That is clearly not true and would be a mis-representation of this small data set.

What I am thinking is that there are clear implications for our welfare system, our unemployment office, and our society in general.