Julia's First Half-Movie

On Saturday, June 28th, the family went out to see the latest creation from Pixar: Wall-E. This was going to be Julia's first movie in the large screen. At first, Nataliya suggested that I either take David by myself or take both kids. I wasn't so sure that Julia would be as good at the movies as David had been at (approx) 23 months, so I gave Nataliya a nudge to join us.

Lucky thing, too; Julia only lasted half-way into the movie before I needed to take her out of the theater. Additionally, if Nataliya hadn't given Julia snacks during the film, she wouldn't have lasted more than a half-hour.

While Nataliya and David got to enjoy the remainder of the film, Julia and I pretty much used the open space of the nearly empty lobby to play. Between going up and down escalators, jumping from one video game seat to another, and playing hide and seek behind the large support columns, she had the time of her life.

Perhaps Julia will be ready for a movie next year.

So What Makes Julia Tick?

It was another typical morning. Nataliya and I slowly dragged ourselves out of bed after resisting much-needed sleep the previous night to catch The Daily Show. As I was getting ready to leave for the day, I heard Nataliya call me into Julia's room. By the urgency in her tone, I rushed upstairs.

At first glance, Nataliya's first impression looked correct - overnight, something seemed to to have grown out of Julia's head. The thing's color appeared to match Julia's scalp and was as large as a watermelon seed. To me, it looked like a seed had gotten stuck in her hair. I tried to pull it out of her hair, but it wasn't sticking to her hair, but rather to her scalp. Turning the "seed" over, I could see legs. This thing was acting like a tick, but I'd never seen one so large.

Going with the assumption that it was a tick, the first (lyme) thing I could (lyme) think of was getting (lyme) this thing off of her. I remembered hearing that ticks hated vinegar and they would release their grasp to escape if exposed to it. All that managed to do was to make her hair stink. I tried pulling it out with tweezers, grabbing it as close to the head as possible, but it held fast and I stopped in fear that I'd just tear the bug in half and make the situation worse.

Unsure of what to do, we headed to the emergency room at Englewood Hospital. She was seen pretty quickly and they confirmed that it was a tick. After a quick examination of her basic vitals, they brought her into the ER and pulled the tick out with a tweezer -- basically the same thing I was doing, but the nurse pulled a lot longer than I did.

Dropping the bloated tick into a jar, we were sent on our way. The tick's journey will continue in a lab, where it will be checked for lyme disease.

Stay tuned... We find out the results of the test next week.

The Day Care Cinema

When David came home from his school a couple of weeks ago, excited that he'd watched Aladdin, it shocked Nataliya and myself. David currently only goes to day care three days a week which comes out to nine hours a week. We don't expect or want him to watch television at day care. We don't let him watch television at home, so why are we paying hundreds of dollars a month for someone else to let him watch TV. Television is the easy way to take care of a toddler. We could do this ourselves and save loads of money.

I went to the school and questioned one of the teachers regarding this. The excuse was that the temperatures had been excessively high (true) and they passed a television around to all the classes as a substitute for the usual outside activity. I raised my concern and requested that television be omitted from their schedule, or at least wait until the afternoon when David wouldn't be able to watch.

A week passed and we heard nothing from David regarding television.

Then today, David starts singing a song that I didn't recognize, but Nataliya did. It was from a children's cartoon called Dora The Explorer. Nataliya asked David where he watched Dora, and he quickly replied 'school.' sigh...

Perhaps it's time to look for another 'school'...

The Birthday Season is Upon Us.

This weekend we celebrated cousin Kayla's, 2nd Birthday at My Gym. Here are some pictures of the birthday girl as well as our kids having a blast doing what they do best -- running, climbing, jumping, throwing, kicking balls, and shooting hoops. They were so busy having fun that neither one of them noticed when cake was being served. (Whose kids are these!?)

Kayla grabs Nemo by the tail

Julia prepares for her dismount

Julia is shocked that a single ball contains 147 unique diseases

David finds that the uneven bars are harder than they look!

David ponders his next move

Later this weekend we attended a birthday party in town for a playground friend, Victoria. The theme of this year's summer parties seem to be attempts to wear out the kids just in time for pizza. In the following picture, David, Victoria, and other guests are testing the sturdiness of a bounce house.

Julia was getting comfy with Dora the Explorer. She has no idea who Dora is, but it didn't stop her from feeling proud to hang out in a company of a "big" girl.

Between the two parties, David and Seth went to see Seussical the Musical at the Bergen Performing Arts Center. We actually had other plans this weekend, but they were canceled due to the excessive heat.

I'm In!

Today, after 13½ years, I finally became a United States citizen!