Can you guess the food?

Here's a little taste of what it's like to search for things in the stores, some things are obvious, some take a little getting used to!
Hint: these are all in the refrigerated section...





























And now for the spices and other baking supplies...

This is curry. Can you sound out the Cyrillic?









Everything comes in packets! Here's the basil.






And now which one is cinnamon and which one is hot chili pepper???







Maybe this picture will help you tell the difference...one of the difficulties with Russian is that there are many "cases" so a word might change in ten different ways, makes it kind of tricky.
I'm frustrated trying to arrange all these photos and text--pretty sure the programs I used ten years ago in high school were designed to be more user friendly...ridiculous.

Oh, but here's the list of refrigerated items:
45% is mozzarella cheese which is our favorite so far
26% is whipping cream (as the picture shows)
72% is butter
2.5% are milk which is the lowest fat content you can find, most people buy tetrapack milk because the bottled kind goes bad in a couple days. Beware, the orange cap is buttermilk!
Keifer is the white and green bottle and Rawls is gnawing on a bottle of yogurt--both words are the same as English if you read them in Russian

Reminded once again

First of all--it's sunny once again in Kyiv! The spring sunshine has brought a much welcomed and brightened demeanor to all the passersby who were milling around this afternoon. Rawly had his four month check up this morning: 44.5 cm head circumference, 8.36 Kilos, 68 cm.
Ken and I were sitting waiting for some friends to come out of the Embassy. As it is there are long lines of Ukrainians outside of the gates who are trying to get VISAS to come to the US. Prior to today, my thought had always been--phew, I'm lucky we don't have to stand in that line. How narrow minded I was. All of a sudden as we were sitting there this group of three or four people started running down the road jumping and shouting "Visa, visa, visa!!!" (I'm getting tears recalling the encounter even now as I type.) The young woman inside the gates was proudly displaying her approved paperwork (inside a plastic sleeve of course *see former blogs for reference.) We get so wrapped up in the me, me, me that I forget about the basic liberties that we Americans take for granted. Besides Cuba, we can pretty much go anywhere our money can take us. It really makes the griping about not having drawers in my kitchen seem pretty vain in comparison. We really have nothing to complain about. I do give thanks to the Lord for our family, our safety, and our shelter.
On another note (quite literally) I'm attaching two videos, the first is of us coming across a filming of a musical group dressed in traditional Ukrainian clothing and singing in front of one of the many beautiful Eastern Orthodox churches, Saint Michael's. The next is of Rawly playing the piano for the first time. Well, it's taking a while to upload, so I'll save Rawly's piano playing for another day.

The Artful Giver

Some of our co-worker friends have started an organization that provides art supplies for an orphanage in Krivoy Rog. They also auction off artwork made by the students (who are using the donated supplies!) There are a couple pieces that you can bid on now...Please check out their website www.artfulgiver.org.
Also, they aren't yet a 501K (non-profit) because they need help going through the hoops. If you can, please help!

Marigolds

It's the end of March and the snow has just melted off the ground! The Spring breezes are blowing today and walks are once again pleasant.
Lately we've had a rough go with our nanny. The poor thing got chicken pox last week. Ken stayed home on Monday to take care of Rawly and I took Tuesday off. We both really enjoyed our time with the wee little one, but needed to be back at work. Fortunately a co-workers' friend was available to fill-in for the rest of the week. She doesn't speak English, so Olga (co-worker) came to translate the first morning. She's really cute and tries to tell me everything in Russian, but luckily her husband knows English, so between him on speakerphone or an electric translator we've been communicating! She writes down a brief descriptions of what they did throughout the day. This is one of my favorites:
i cut marigold on hand and on foot. i see, how on foot on big finger--wound. He marigold break down? Must plaster?
Marigolds, hmmm, it is hinting at Spring but we're still a long way from having blooming flowers...okay, I thought, she must mean finger nails. That morning we had trimmed one of his big toe nails because it had split--there was a little area that looks like a hangnail, so she thought that he might need a band-aid. As I had guessed, the words marigold and fingernail are very similar in Russian, hence the cut marigolds in March:)

Wrapped in plastic

This may be humorous only to those who have lived here, but here's a little background info for those of you living vicariously through us--you know who you are, don't deny it, you have secretly always dreamed of living in Ukraine! Every type of document is stored in a plastic sleeve. A P.E. teacher has even said she gets, "Please excuse Sasha" notes in a sleeve.(Sasha is the common Ukrainian name here for boys or girls equivalent to how we always say Johnny or Sally.)
We were at the American Medical Clinic (which I'm so thankful for the AMC) waiting in the lobby when Rawly filled his drawers. We had come directly from school, so didn't have a change of clothes and wanted to get him into a new diaper pronto so that he wouldn't be messy. Since there aren't really changing tables anywhere, we've grown accustomed to the quick change on our laps...so without thinking, we stripped him down. Unfortunately, his diaper had been folded when he had been changed last, so as we held him up, out came the poo--all over everywhere! About that time, the doctor came out to get us. So I had poop all over my coat and pants and Ken was holding a half naked baby. Shocked, the doctor suggested that we change him in the room where it was warmer. Oh silly parents.
Anyway, the doctor began his examination--Rawly needed his clothes off for that anyway, right? Once the appointment was finished, we put Rawls into his jacket suit (kind of like super thick pajamas) we were trying to figure out what to do with his soiled clothing when the doctor suggested a plastic sleeve. To which he said, "Why not?" Also probably more funny to us because this is a very common phrase that almost every English-speaking Ukrainian uses. So out we went to catch a taxi, soiled clothes wrapped in a plastic sleeve and tucked away.
It took me a lot of scrubbing and washing my pants three times before I was able to get the stain out of my black dress pants--weird.

Arabian nights, like the Arabian days...

In as much as I would love for Rawly to only have eyes for me, he's met his first fling--a cute little German girl! She's three months his elder, but about the same size. Her motor skills are more refined than his, and she has two little teeth poking out--I think that's what did it for him. For her, it was his red hat--her dad sang "Rawly in red is dancing with me..." in his German accent. She's quite proactive too, during their first meeting she reached right out and grabbed his hand and wouldn't let go! On their second encounter he got up the nerves to touch her leg and she swatted him away like she was saying, "As if!" (At least that how the moms interpreted it.) Last night there was live music at dinner and the two of them looked like they really enjoyed dancing as their little squeals of delight filled the night air.It's been fun to see them interact (probably more so for us parents,) she's the first baby that he's touched or communicated with. When we get back we'll have to do a better job at fulfilling his social needs and finding him "play dates."

Skidamirinkadinkydink

Skidamirinkadoo, I love you! I love you in the morning and in the afternoon; I love you in the evening and underneath the moon. I love you! These are the words that you'd here if you were hanging with the Chapmans for any period of time over three hours. For a little over a month now Ken and I have been swaddling Rawly to sleep with a song and a wiggle thanks to the good doctor from “The Happiest Baby on the Block.” Some sleep philosophies might say that this is our crutch—but boy howdy how I enjoy it. There are two reasons: first, Rawly finally sleeps enough during regularly scheduled naps and at nighttime (he's slept through the night four times already and generally wakes just once around 12:30 for his nightcap.) The second is that I absolutely love putting him to sleep! It brings me so much satisfaction when I can bring a tired, fussy boy into sweet slumbering bliss in five to ten minutes (quite often less than that.) Watching Rawly sleep (or I'm sure any sleeping baby) is one of those eternal nows—those moments in life when you just want time to stay still and remain in the joy of the moment. Even during those times when it takes a little longer, he's extra tired and crying hard and loud, we remind ourselves that these times will be short lived. Soon he'll be climbing into his own bed and before we know it, I'm sure he'll be falling asleep in his dorm room or his first apartment. Oh how we cherish our little Rawls (when he's awake also)!
It's quite possible that all babies do this, but here are some things that Rawly is up to lately...He's always loved lights so walking around our lit up resort at night full of marvelous new wonders for the little guy. When he wakes up from a nap he arches his back, stretches his arms out above his head, and as soon as he makes eye contact, he grins from ear to ear. We recently received a big diaper changing (no roll away) foam pad, when we put him down for his change his arms and legs start pumping with uncontrollable glee. And if we move our face over his, blocking the bright light, Rawly's eyes pop open as he squeals with his toothless grin. Once he has on his clean diaper, we flip him over and play games, sing songs, or just talk and giggle back and forth. Also he has begun to gnaw on his fist and slobber all over the place--new toofers here we come! He loves his fist so much and sometimes chokes himself when he opens his fingers inside of his mouth, so that he starts this cute little cough. He's also started to stick out the tip of his tongue a lot when he's smiling, mouth full of bubbles. We have been blessed with such a mellow, laid back and happy baby!