Round Four.

David stayed home today with a low grade fever... again. We picked up Julia earlier from school who was complaining of a stomach ache. Yep, now she is sick too. What really made her upset was not that she is running a fever, but that she is going to miss her turn to have me and Seth come in tomorrow and talk about her during her star of the week. Without a beat, David reminded her that just yesterday she wished she were sick too. And then he told her to get on a couch, covered her with two blankets, set up arts and craft area next to the couch and has been reading to her for a half an hour now.

Those moments are extremely rare in our house and that's why when it does happen I run to get a camera. Of course, there are still 7 hours till their bed time and I'm sure in no time Julia will be reminding David that anger leads to a dark side as she usually does dozen times a day ( I told you kind moments are very rare between those two).

Cozy.

This is a view from outside of our window this morning.

This is inside of our home.

David was off from school again with a strep . Yesterday, when his fever hit 103 degrees, all he wanted to do is sleep. This morning, feeling much better and fever down to 99 degrees, he insisted on doing his math homework and playing math games. I think we'll stay indoors today drinking hot cocoa, reading Christmas books (we are celebrating Ukrainian Christmas today), playing games and enjoying an outside view, but tomorrow it's playtime outside! Through the eyes of my kids, winter is becoming my favorite season.

Easter, Spring Break and Lots of Bunnies.

Last weekend we celebrated Ukrainian Easter. The kids colored their eggs and a few hours later we went to the church to bless babka, eggs, kovbasa, butter and salt.

Why do my kids looks so tired? We headed to the city during their nap time, were stuck in traffic for over an hour, so they fell asleep in a car 15 minutes before we arrived to the church.

Of course, Julia "woke up" as soon as we arrived to a friend's birthday party two hours later.

On Easter Sunday Seth took the kids hiking at 7:30 am, so I could get some sleep (I love sleeping in late on the weekends).

When they got back, David ran into a house telling me about 7 deer and a blue bird he saw.

Last week David was off from school for a spring break. I wonder who the breaks are for. Not for the parents and definitely not for the children. What do they need a break from -- running in the playground? David kept asking me at least twice a day when he's going back to school.
The week didn't exactly go as smoothly as the winter break did. At this point, David was bored of playing the same games over and over again. He is over mazes and connect the dots activities. He still likes to color, but not at as long intervals as a few months ago. So, there wasn't much for me to do, but to introduce him to some new activities .... like math. Well, not exactly, but I did try to teach him some adding. He finished almost two books of simple additions and wanted to proceed to subtractions. We stopped at that.

I tried not to push him to do anything that he didn't want to do. Occasionally, he would just get his notebook and start copying short words from his various board games. Julia would join him sometimes when she wasn't busy coloring.

For the past month, as I would drive David to school, he would tell me what letter craft he wanted to do when he got back from school. So, almost every afternoon, I would borrow an idea for the letter of the week project from No Time For Flashcards and the kids would do the craft project. David loves it as he thinks he came up with the project and thus he controls what we are doing. Afterwords, we would practice writing letters and do all sorts of other activities.
But I decided to try to make the last week as much fun as possible. So, instead of the letters, we were making lots of silly bunnies. I am sure that most if not all of the craft project ideas came from Ramblings of a Crazy Woman . We made some bunny ears which the kids would wear as soon as they woke up and insisted on wearing them outdoors.

David decided to draw his own bunny. He asked me to help him, but instead of drawing a bunny on his paper, I drew it on my own and then he copied it and colored it. And so did Julia although I can't find her drawing.

The kids liked making a bunny wreath since it involved splashing lots of paint all over their little fingers.

And then they made some bunnies some time between finishing their dinner and waiting for Seth to come home. I really felt like every second of that week was monitored by me because when it wasn't, all hell would break loose ... literally in my house.

I did my own craft project that week as well. I just needed to unwind at night and knitting was that kind of therapy for me. I found a few links to the beautiful pictures of knitted Easter eggs and I just couldn't get them out of my mind. I had some spare yarn from knitting my kids' blankets, so I decided to give it a try. It took me about a week to figure out a pattern since the one I worked with produced rather ostrich size eggs. Once I figured out the pattern, I realized I didn't know how to work using multiple color yarn. I was originally planning to hang them on the branches full of blooming flowers. So, every time I went for a jog, I would memorize where in our town the prettiest tree grew. Seth told me not to even think of going back and cutting the branches. Long story short, here are my knitted eggs, in a basket.

A few weeks ago Julia's furniture was delivered and assembled. They did a horrible job on putting it together. We are having someone come in this week and hopefully get it all fixed. Julia wasn't even remotely as excited with her new bed as David was with his furniture a year ago. She does love sleeping in it though and she stopped climbing into our bed in a middle of the night. We changed the dresser's pink panels to white as I figured this room already blinds me with too much bright color.

Oh, and on top of all this, both kids got a fifth disease which I wouldn't really worry about since all it really is a rash. But last week before the rash even became visible we had a few playdates, at the time when my kids were contagious. One of our friends went to Aruba afterwords, two more are going away this weekend and one is still a baby. I keep my fingers crossed that no mom was pregnant since from what I understand this disease is very harmful to a fetus.
So, that's been our week. We survived it somehow. David is again a happy camper once he went back to school and even more so because he visited a doc's office today. I think he is the only child on this planet who gets visibly upset when his sister gets a shot and he doesn't. Again, I am trying not to question this too much.

Table for Eight? Hai!

It's been a rough two weeks at the Meyer household, which would account for the lack of blog posts recently. In addition to our normal hectic lives, we're had to deal with some minor flooding as well as scrambling to get all our tax information together. In addition to that, David brought home a nasty little virus (in addition to a cold) and was good enough to share with the rest of the family. Thankfully, with the exception of coughing, runny noses and a couple of flatter tummies, we appear to be out of the woods. (Unfortunately, we had to postpone David's birthday party.)

We did manage to take the kids out to eat this month, despite the events from our last experience and our mutual agreement to wait a while before trying again. The last time we took the kids out, not including our bimonthly visits to Donna's Pizzeria was last November to Dinousaur Barbeque. Regardless of the fact that this child-friendly restaurant had yummy food, the kids didn't want to sit in their chairs and caused quite a fuss. So instead, we found a babysitter and have been enjoying "fine dining" which we hadn't done since late 2004

Time has a way of softening ones memory, and you go down the same path which has led you towards the inevitable. It took us almost 3 months to get over (or forget) our fear of eating out with our kids in public. We decided that despite our reservations, the kids should be exposed to eating out in public -- otherwise, they may never know the joy of eating in a restaurant.

A friend mentioned how well her daughter behaved at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant because there are other kids there and they're all entertained by the chef. Despite our opinion that hibachi-style restaurants are rarely very good, the idea intrigued us. Could a knife-juggling chef keep our children calm through a meal?

On our way to the Kiku, a local Japanese-style hibachi restaurant, Nataliya was nervously sweating, running the possible scenarios through her head. It's bad enough having the kids sit at a table in a regular restaurant, but this restaurant would offer new challenges. Utensils that David would equate to drumsticks, uncovered dishes containing sauces that could easily be knocked over, and a large grill a mere 18 inches from him that generally doesn't react well to human skin. Were we crazy for even entertaining this idea?

To our shock, David started off with a bowl of soup. We couldn't believe our eyes as he fed himself the miso soup. He then proceeded to eat some noodles and rice. The night was starting out in the right direction. Naturally, I whipped out the camera to capture these unbelievable moments.

Imagine David and Julia's surprise, after being told for months NOT to play with their food, for them to watch someone else not only doing this offense, but being applauded for it. David was so busy eating his food that he only intermittently stopped to watch the chef cooking.



Julia was the picky eater this time. I guess she hasn't developed a taste for asian cuisine yet. She played safe and chose to eat only plain white rice, but enjoyed the show just the same.



The kids were very well behaved throughout the dinner. By the end, they got a little bit restless, but considering they sat still for an hour, it was a huge improvement from our last dining experience.

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...

Never a Boring Moment in This House.

It's been an exciting past few days, but not the kind of excitement I would like. Where do I even start?

David's cough came back a few weeks ago; the same cough that resulted in weekly doctor's visits last year. Since his cough kept him up all night long and interrupted his naps, he was extremely cranky and temperamental when awake -- so much that I was afraid to say anything that could set off his temper tantrums. Seth even borrowed a book from the library called "Parenting the strong willed child" and we take turns reading it. I must admit that after reading a few chapters so far has helped my relationship with my son.
Even though the doc still doesn't know what causes David's cough, the medications for asthma seem to be working. At least now he can sleep at night (and so can Seth as he was the one getting up all these nights to comfort him) and David's behavior improved a lot as soon as he started getting enough uninterrupted sleep.

The following week we were back at the pediatrician's office for Julia's 15-month routine check-up, except there wasn't anything routine about it. The doctor was trying to clean Julia's ear with a long plastic stick (I have no idea what its medical term is...) and he scratched the inside of her ear which then started to bleed. Neither one of my kids had ever screamed as loud, or as long, as Julia cried. She was hysterical, and wouldn't calm down for over an hour. Seth rushed home from work, but thankfully Julia's behavior was normal after her nap, although she still seem bothered by her ear. Needless to say, it was the last time we saw that particular doctor.

Today I took both kids to the hospital, or as David called it "a big house." (Every time we "take a tour" of a house we are potentially interested in purchasing, I tell David he is going to play in a 'big house.') David was getting a precautionary chest x-ray to rule out any serious issues with his lungs, and Julia went in for some blood work - another routine procedure at this age. Oy! They did great during their appointments, but not the waiting in between. For reasons beyond my comprehension, David wanted to use every single bathroom in the building. (Was he constipated, or overly curious?) After the third time, Julia, who had to accompany her brother during each bathroom visit, decided she'd had enough, threw her body onto the bathroom floor and refused to get up. At times like this, I look forward to their naps.

If you take all the madness out of our lives, we are a regular, yet busy family. Our days are filled with playdates, park outings, tricycle riding and even an occasional TV show (if David behaves well. ) Lately, our kids have been obsessed with Laurie Berkner (thanks, Ms. Anne!). We listen to her CDs in the car, in the house and even when they're falling asleep. I let David and Julia watch her DVD, but only a few songs at a time and they get very excited when I reach for the remote control. I know our kids are TV-deprived because they'll even watch CNN when it is on.

David loves having tea parties with me and Julia. They'll pretend to pour and drink from the tea cups (which are made in China and probably are covered with lead paint) and eat pretend -cookies and cupcakes.

I am already getting prepared for those cold winter days when it's too cold to play outside or when they're sick. I restocked our inventory of arts and crafts supplies and the kids and their friends have been having fun time doing all sorts of projects.


David and Julia patiently wait to see their daddy walking down the street from work since it's getting too dark and cold to meet him at the bus stop.


David's been brushing his teeth a lot lately in preparation for his first dental appointment in a few months. Recently, Julia has joined him, but I think she just loves looking at her reflection in the mirror and chewing on sweet children's toothpaste.


I know the worst challenges of the winter are yet to come and I don't think I'll ever be prepared for them. We'll just take one day at a time with a lot of patience, playdates, play-doh, and a few bottles of children's Tylenol (or was that recalled?).