Category Archives: Everyday Life

Photos and Videos

February 13, 2011 Molly 9 Comments

This cracks me up. He was telling her, “Okay, okay, stand righ der. Okay, okay, smile.”

He was telling her where to stand and to smile, but I don’t think he can take credit for her natural model moves.

It warmed up A LOT today, so we were able to actually leave the house and go to the dog park. YAY! The kids are no longer scared of ANY dogs, so now we are working on our manners around dogs. You know, reaching out your hand when a dog approaches you so he can sniff you, not running up to dogs.

Ilya is losing his Russian. I guess I expected it to happen without much notice, slowly, as he picked up English. But he seems to be forgetting the Russian and babbling sometimes. Just babbling, but he expects us and Lena to understand him. “Ah de da de da da de da.” Clearly not any language. But, can a Russian speaker please tell me what “ipso” (or something that sounds like that) means? He says it all of the time… I might just teach him Latin so he has a new use for that word!

We are working on the pronunciation of “h”. He has a really hard time with it and says “cands” “celp”, etc. He is doing really well with words that he does not understand, but still struggles with very familiar words like “hand” as you will see in this video.

Lena had a little too much to drink and couldn’t walk the other night…

As did Ilya.

Any interest in another Q&A post? Anything you want to know about how things are going?

Everyday Life

Dogs and Kids

February 12, 2011 Molly 7 Comments

I made Pioneer Woman’s breakfast burritos, but without the tortilla this morning. And they loved them. I love all of your wonderful ideas. Thank you so much! I am going to try a bunch of them out, since I’d love for the kids to have a bunch of breakfast options.

If you know me well, outside of this blog, you know that I am passionate about dog rescue and that all three of my dogs are rescues. Having worked with weimaraner rescue and having a ton of friends who volunteer with rescues, I know that one of the most common reasons someone gives up their dog is because they’re having a baby.

Well, I’d like to urge those people not to, and here’s why…

We have 3 large, high energy dogs. When it comes to high energy dogs, weims are pretty high up on the list. Especially 2, 3 and 5 year old ones. A few weeks ago, when we came home, both kids were terrified of dogs. Screaming, clingy to us, needing to be picked up, terrified.

Now, my dogs are the kids’ best playmates. Seriously. So patient…

This is the one we call “Puppy”. 65lbs and very tall, still acts like a nutty puppy at 2 years old. No formal training whatsoever and little known kid experience. Laying there as they climb all over her and put blankets on her.

Same dog. This was once I had told him just not to put the blankets over her head. She laid there for quite awhile, until she heard something downstairs.

Two of my dogs when Ilya told them it was their naptime. Yes, that’s the same “puppy” in the background, who was wrapped in blankets before.

And then once the kids got them all of their stuffed animals to nap with.

My dogs have been wonderfully intuitive with the kids. Patient beyond belief. I have to tell you, I really envy their patience when they can get put in a headlock all day by Ilya or when he tries to ride them like horses (Both of which he knows he should NOT do). Or how Nina came back so many times today, after getting up, not looking thrilled, but climbed up on the bed so she could turn into a blanket-wrapped babushka again.

(Sorry for the poor quality photos… if I had gotten the real camera, well, these photos would not exist)

Everyday Life

Help! Breakfast Ideas?

February 10, 2011 Molly 22 Comments

I would really love some healthy, easy breakfast ideas. Lena will eat dry cheerios and sometimes oatmeal. Ilya we are really striking out with. The ONLY thing he’ll eat is cheerios with kefir and he does not seem to like that much. We have tried lots of different kinds of homemade oatmeal (cinnamon sugar, banana, banana and peanut butter) and lots of different ways of making eggs (scrabbled, omelet, over easy, hardboiled) and no luck. Please help. My stipulations are that it is easy to prep and not processed.

Everyday Life

First Road Trip

February 8, 2011 Molly 6 Comments

We took the kids on their first road trip this weekend. Our dear friend Amy has been taking care of our dog Josie since late October. She and her family have been giving Josie lots of love and the best care possible. I really can’t thank her enough… it means so much to us to have someone take on that ball of energy for three months and love her like their own dog.

Well, this weekend, we went down to Texas to pick Josie up. I was looking forward to seeing Josie, Amy and her family, and enjoying the warm weather! It was a longgg drive down to Texas– 10 hours of driving time, which translates to 12+ hours with two kids and 2-3 dogs. Everyone was very well behaved. We had some crying over potty breaks and being bored, but they were very good overall. They had a great time at Amy’s house, even though we were there for just 16 hours, 10 of which were sleeping time. They learned about nerf guns and trampolines and tractor tricycles. I did not take ANY photos at her house, because I am terrible like that. And distracted, making sure that Cache, one of our other dogs, does not pee on her curtains.

This is how we burn energy and pass the time in the car… dancing to Paul Simon.

We had to drive through “Ok-la-co-ma”.

Lena is showing you all of her signs. She was being quite funny in the car, “telling” me stories about birds and cats flying in the window and “telling” me about a train taking a bath in the rain.

This is how we roll. (Thank you, Babushka Lola!)

Talking to Babushka.

We learned that if she is upset, you can just get my mom on the phone and that will cheer her up.

She does much better in the car with her shoes off, so she can play with her socks and toes.

Trying to pet Josie.

Josie is settling back in nicely. She seemed a bit shocked that we were there, but she seems happy to be home. We did not have enough room in the car for her crate, so she is crate-less until Amy brings it up. So, tonight, she wandered into the bathroom as the kids were taking their bath. Lena said “Josie!” And then Ilya said “Iz okay. We’re takin’ a baff.” Ilya cannot say Josie very well at all, so he calls her “Zosie” or “Zogie” or even “Zo-zee-ce.”

Everyday Life

Funny Friday

February 4, 2011 Molly 3 Comments

If you have been read our private blog while we were in-country, you heard about our first confusing language misunderstanding. One of the few foods we were allowed to bring to the orphanage was crackers. So we bought some Ritz-like crackers and took them with us everyday. We told the kids that they were crackers, which to 2/3 year olds, comes out sounding like “kaca”. Well, if you know the tiniest bit of Russian, you know that “kacut” is Russian for poop and that also sounds like “kaca” coming from a toddler. So, every day, Ilya would say, “I need/want (in Russian) kaca” and we would never know if he was talking poop or cracker, without his body language. Poor kid must have been very confused.

These little similar sounding misunderstands happen often in our house. Like when Ilya had just been home for a week or so and we were watching signing times. “Mom” was the word, but Ilya just kept signing “more.”

Last night, Aaron told Ilya that I was busy cooking. Well, Ilya could not stop talking about cookies. Aaron finally asked to bring the kids in there so they could see what cooking was. And that, unfortunately, it had nothing to do with cookies.

We recently discovered both kids prefer to have ice in their water, and the other benefit is that it slows Ilya down. Otherwise, he will drink all of his water before all of the food is on the table. Now that Ilya knows what they are called, he asks about them and talks about them a lot. “Eyes Cubes! Eyes Cubes!” He always has to point to his eyes when he does it too.

This morning I heard the kids talking as I got breakfast ready. I: “I want more applesauce please.” L: “Okay, okay.” Both: (Laughing) “Mama, mama” L: “Want more applesauce please” I: “Umm…. uh… ummm… uh…” L: “Okay, okay.” Can you guess who Ilya was pretending to be the second time? 😉

What makes us laugh about Lena is usually not her words. She does not say a lot of words very well still. But she is still hilarious. We had soup and bread a few nights ago. Lena dropped her bread in her soup. She was trying to fish it out with her spoon alone. She just kept pushing the bread and could not get it up on her spoon. After a minute of frustration, she let out a very guttural “gowwwwww.” Of course, I burst out laughing and she just smiled at me, like she had intended it to be funny.

These two keep us laughing, intentionally or unintentionally…

The time he “borrowed” my camera…