If you have been following world news in the slightest bit, you've probably noticed that we've been in the middle of a bit of a cold snap. Last week the high was 1 degree (F) in the middle of the day and lows got down to -18 in the middle of the night. Previously, Oksana had been bundling the kids up and bringing them over to the school a couple times a day, but they've been staying in since last week (coming out with us to watch basketball games (aka release some ENERGY!) or visit friends.) There have already been 131 deaths recorded, which is almost half of the toll in Europe. Most of these accounts are from homeless people. There aren't necessarily shelters for the homeless here, but some "warming tents" have been set up, one in each district here in Kyiv (10 total) and about 2,000 all over the country. When you sit down to think about it, it's quite interesting to imagine that some of these kids got Christmas presents that cost thousands of dollars and yet some people can't stay warm enough to keep their body functioning. Needless to say, the past month, I've quickly realized that my problems (where to go on vacation, even what to make for dinner) fail to be seen in the shadows of issues such as these.
On a lighter note, we have been having a bit-o-fun around here! Rawly loves the snow--so much in fact, that he doesn't want to wear his mittens and begins to cry when his fingers go numb (I guess that doesn't really sound like fun) he's enjoyed running around in the "snowmen" (that's what he called the snow at first), we're still looking to go sledding once it warms up a bit. This weekend we also went swimming in our friends' pool--which was supposedly 80F, but felt SOOO much colder. Rawly did a great job on the kick board, swam from me to swim coach Auntie Holly, and even put his face down in the water once (accidentally, while trying to head-butt a ball!)
Zoya's three and a half months and as active as ever. She's rolling to her tummy every time she's put on her back and doing what I call the surfing kick. She laughs and giggles and has begun to sing. Yesterday at church she and one of our friends' daughter (9 mo.) were having a conversation, one would babble, then the other, back and forth. She's learning to project her voice quite well, as this was happening across the sanctuary!
Rawly has also been quite the little helper. He mostly helps when asked, and oftentimes without being asked. Such as last weekend when he decided that we should be awake around 6:30 am. (Side note, friend pointed out that he's probably getting his 2 y.o. molars since he's been uncommonly gnawing on his fingers--sure enough he's in various stages of getting all four at once, which may account for his early waking sometimes around 5 or 5:30 and his less than chipper demeanor.) Anyway, he carried the laptop from the living room into our room so that he could watch "cars" (Sesame St.'s Let's go driving song). His second attempt a few days later wasn't so successful, and I don't have any pictures that I can add right now because on his third encounter, he accidentally ran into the cord and knocked the computer off the TV. The cord is magnetic to avoid problems like this, but he caught it just so that it came crashing down and landed on the connection breaking some of the magnetic pieces...we'll have it all together some day!
Ta ta for now...
Zoya's three and a half months and as active as ever. She's rolling to her tummy every time she's put on her back and doing what I call the surfing kick. She laughs and giggles and has begun to sing. Yesterday at church she and one of our friends' daughter (9 mo.) were having a conversation, one would babble, then the other, back and forth. She's learning to project her voice quite well, as this was happening across the sanctuary!
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