Memorial Day.

Happy Father's Day.

Hope every father had a wonderful day today. We treated our dad to a haircut today, some hearty breakfast and a yummy dessert.

Ukrainian Easter Weekend.

Last Sunday we celebrated Easter with my brother's family. When I was growing up, the preparation to this day started 2 weeks prior to the holiday and involved everything from cooking, baking and cleaning the house. It was not only a holiday, but also an event. Additionally we would prepare a Easter basket to get blessed on the day before the holiday. Nowadays, I simply go to a Russian food store on Friday night and just purchase practically everything that I need for my holiday basket which includes babka, kovbasa, eggs, butter and some other food items.
With a busy Saturday ahead of us and much to Seth's dismay, David was ready to start his day at 5am. While Julia and I were still catching some Z's, Seth took David to a nearby stream to look for frogs... at 6 am. Since the weather has turned nice, Seth's been trying to spend a lot of one-on-one time with David outside instead of turning on the television.
Before heading to the church in the city, we headed to Abma's farm to pick up some organic chicken, fresh eggs as well as other healthy snacks. This particular farm also has a petting area where kids can pet and feed the animals.

When we returned home, I finished up preparing the Easter baskets; one for each child. On the way to the Church, David insisted on carrying his own, although I was afraid that by the time we returned home, all the eggs inside would have a broken shells from David shaking the basket.

The kids sat long enough on the steps of the church for me to shoot a few pictures of them until they realized they could be running up and down those stairs with their cousin.

We then planned to meet up at my brother's place so the kids could play in a nearby park, but the traffic turned out to be a disaster. Thoughts of driving to the city for Ukrainian school every Saturday, (starting in September,) and dealing with this sort of traffic scares me.

We were back to the city on Sunday to celebrate Easter with the kids' cousins. I know I didn't prepare days before for the holiday, but my sister-in-law sure did. The food was delicious and presented beautifully.

The best part of getting together with my brother's family is seeing the kids interact with one another (or rather jumping all over Seth.) Daria, who isn't even two years old yet, was riding her tricycle all over and even asking to go to the potty. Someday I'll start potty training Julia, but I am afraid it is not happening anytime soon.

Luckily for me, the kids and Seth were not interested in any dessert except for hallow chocolate eggs, so I felt obliged to eat their share. Anyone who knows me realizes how difficult that task is.

So what makes four kids sit still long enough for a photo? A movie of course!

The only reason David left their house while "Peter Pan" (his favorite Disney movie) was still on without much screaming was because there was a "big boy" bicycle waiting for him in a hall. His cousin lent his old bicycle to David, who took to it like a duck to water, jumping on the seat and peddling down the street to our requesting that he slow down and wait for us. I guess it is just a matter of time when those training wheels have to come off.

So to sum up: Great weekend, great company, and great food. What else can one ask for? Oh, yeah, for those terrible threes to go away (I wonder if I ever stop mentioning David's age without a word "terrible" next to it. I doubt it ... sigh).

A long weekend(not as long as this post).

It's been a really long weekend.

Earlier last week David started coughing which wasn't too bad, so I kept sending him to school and bringing him to his classes. By Friday, the poor child could hardly breathe, and a river was running down his nose. It wasn't his regular asthmatic-like cough which usually stops withing a few hours after administering him his asthma medication. This time it was different. His prescription medication wouldn't work, and he'd end up vomiting his meals during a coughing fit; meals that pretty much consisted of toast and water. Because of his coughing, David couldn't get enough sleep during the night or during his naps, so imagine David, with his existing personality , but really tired. I had a walking time-bomb in my house! On top of all that, Julia started sniffing and coughing.

We spent most of the weekend doing a lot of arts and crafts projects; everything from cutting out the Sunday comics, sponge and finger painting, playing with the pails and shovels in a box filled with rice (instead of sand) and, of course, making pasta out of play-doh.

Thankfully, Seth had set up a computer for David, so he spent a few minutes a day playing his games.

David doesn't really like us reading books to him unless it is just before his bedtime. He prefers sitting on his potty and looking through his books for 20 minutes at a time. This time, he would sit at the table and listen to me read to him dozen books because he was so exhausted. I must admit, as much as I hate seeing my son sick, I like when he cozies up to me which never happens when he is healthy. The moment doesn't last long anyway because Julia quickly climbs up on my lap and demands her share of attention.

Two days home with the kids is all it takes for me to loose my sanity, so we had to take the kids out on the third day. We decided to take David bowling. He loves throwing and kicking a ball and the bowling alley has a lot of space for him to run around. (We should have taken him months ago! He loved it!)

David would throw a ball and then hop back to see if it came back up.

He loved his "new" bowling shoes which caused quite a scene when it came time to returning them.

And the winner of the first and second games is ..... David!

Seth intended to play with David, but once David got his hands on the ball, he was ready to bowl the next frame. A couple of times, he'd thrown a second ball down the alley before the first ball was returned. One thing of interest - David really did throw the split in the eighth frame!

I was planning to take the kids out on Monday, since Seth was off for the holiday, but I suspected that a lot of places would be a zoo that day; a fact that the Liberty Science Center's website confirmed. It was probably for the better since David was still getting over his cold and Julia was just catching hers. We settled for another day indoors, filled with arts and crafts.



Unfortunately, there is so much painting and "play-doh-ing" that my son can handle, so I let them turn on tv once to watch "Free to be you and me", also known to David as the "carousel video."

Even though the weekend dragged, I got plenty of rest, waking up at 10 am and getting help with the kids - thanks to my husband. I didn't have to worry about grocery shopping as he and David took care of that, in addition to cooking two dinners for us and the kids. It is always nice to have another pair of hands to help out on the weekends. Unfortunately, because of all this rest, it is 2 am on Tuesday morning, and instead of sleeping I am blogging...

Happy Independence day!

Today we started our own family tradition that I hope continues for as long as we live in Leonia -- participating in the town's annual "Run for Fun" race (I am still trying to figure out the fun part of it). As I prepared to run a 5K race, my family cheered me up from a distance. One day, I hope, my kids join me running around the block race for the kiddies, then 1 mile race and maybe even 5K race with me.

Believe it or not, I made it without needing a medical attention that was cruising around in the ambulance.


I even managed to get a trophy for a second place among the women in my age category. Shortly after, my kids were banging it on a street.

Once the "ceremony" ended, we headed to our friends and neighbours for a BBQ. The grilled food and homemade dessert were so amazing that not only did I replenish the calories I lost while running in the race, I consumed more than I'll be able to lose even if I run every single day this week. Oh, well, it was definitely worth it. Needless to say, it was both my lunch and dinner for that day. Julia had her first taste of pizza and a hot dog today and as expected, she approves of them. David, on the other hand, is another story. He hasn't had any lunch nor dinner today.
Baby Mina and her brother Jordan were perfect hosts sharing their toys as well as their table. As an older playmate (she is 20 days older than Julia), Mina showed my daughter how her toys work.

And later they had their own race on the deck.

The kids slept almost till their dinner time and so did I. Even though it rained later on, the day couldn't have been more perfect. As the day's approaching to an end and we are putting the kids to bed, I am off to run those 7 miles.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Seth, Taras and Michael!

On this father's day, our kids don't make any efforts to act any more appreciative towards their dad than on any other given day. They are still too young to express their gratitude to their daddy with a signed hallmark greeting card although David's been working on his own card.

These days it is my pleasure to honor Seth and thank him for being a wonderful father to our kids.

People say that being a stay at home mom is more difficult than going to work. But I feel so lucky being able to play in the park with the kids while their father is stuck in traffic on the way to work or splash in the pool while he is at the office missing on all the fun. Neither one's job ends at 5 o'clock. As soon as Seth walks in the house, the first words he utters are "Hi, I am home! What can I do?" and rushes to kiss the kids who are absolutely delighted to see him. After helping to feed David and giving bath to Julia, he takes David to see the train and plays with him in the park until it is too dark to see anything. He plans the activities for the weekend at least 3 days ahead and spends a lot of one-on-one time with David either taking him to the Central park, across G.W. Bridge or to the local parks. It's been an exhausting year for all of us, but Seth's managed to work harder to help me and spend more time with both kids. I truly believe, that it is quantity and not quality of time that's important for the children.

Thank you, Seth, for being such loving, caring and fun father to David and Julia. I am looking forward to watching your relationship with them grow and I am positive that soon you'll be receiving plenty of cards from them with the words of pride and love for you.