Bye Bye Snow! Stay Away!!

Two weeks ago our snow finally melted!  This was the first day we went out without our winter gear.  It was supposed to be a sunny day, but we didn't care we were just so happy that there was no snow!  We went on a long walk down Old Arbat St.  We ate at Wendy's which has curly fries like Arby's here so I love it.

 We stopped at a playground along the way and Oliver got to do his favorite thing - ride a teeeter totter.

 We tried to see the church Christ the Savior, but it was Easter weekend for the Russian Orthodox church so it was closed between services and we didn't get to go in.  I feel that I am cursed to never see the inside, but at least I got to see the outside.

The negative of our day was that our left tire went flat, but only after both kids were asleep so I didn't want to wake them up.  Our Sundays are hard enough here with Levin being bishop.  When I add tired kids who didn't get a nap the day before it becomes unbearable.  So . . . we pushed them along anyway and my left arm was aching before we reached home so we switched the tire to the right side while both kids were sleeping and continued on home.  Luckily Levin got it all fixed up and the shorter walks I've taken with the kids have been so pleasant.  It is the only way to get Leah to nap these days so I really should take more walks.  The weather has gotten soooo nice!  The only problem is that now the kids and I can't breath because we all have allergies to all the pollen floating around.  The ground is yellow/green with pollen everywhere!

Spring Yet??

The other day Leah came up to me VERY excited and said, "Mom, Mom, come look!!!" I went following her and we looked out the window and there we could see . . . . GRASS! Leah said, "soon we won't have to wear our coatses to go outside and we can go to school." I have no idea what the school idea was, but we all look forward to the day when we don't have to wear our coats or our "coatses."

The next day it snowed . . . no more grass. The next day the grass was back so I excitedly showed Leah . . and then it snowed again.

But this week it actually rained one day. I've never been so excited to see rain in all my life - just maybe the grass we can now see will stay around.

Honestly this is the first time we've seen grass since December. So it is exciting!!

Happy Easter

A full week before Easter the Embassy had a "Sundae Egg Hunt" for the kids. I guess we can't call it Easter these days. Anyway, the kids had a great time hunting for eggs. The kids went in age groups and were allowed to get four and the basket already had a few treats in it for the kids.

Oliver took a minute to get the point, but he finally did almost just in time to kick him out as he'd reached his limit.
Then we ate ice cream sundaes - sorry no picture of that.
Then they had time to take a picture with the Easter Bunny. Oliver wanted nothing to do with it and wouldn't even sit on the other side of Leah, so Leah is solo in this. I wasn't too impressed at the costume, but figured it wasn't a big deal since we hadn't really built up the Easter Bunny too much. Levin wasn't even confident kids still did the Easter Bunny.
The next morning the Easter Bunny DID leave us some stuff - a hop scotch game and some candy. He left some eggs for Mom and Dad to hide later when our friends were visiting after church. But Mom forgot to take a picture of that. Their daughter was very concerned about why she couldn't see the eggs when she first got there and had to wait to go downstairs and come back up later after dinner to find the eggs.
Here are the kids in their church clothes. Sadly, this is the only picture we took where both kids were looking at the camera. I'm a little jealous of people's outside Easter pictures with blossoms and green grass in the background.

Happy Birthday Levin

We had a little birthday party for Levin. We were going to have it the Saturday before his birthday, but he and I went to dinner and bought a Baskin Robbins cake on the way home and decided why not just do the party right when we got home. These were hats I bought for New Years, but we didn't actually do much or use them so we used them as birthday hats. He'd mostly gotten boring church presents for his birthday since he was recently called to be the Bishop of our ward at church. So I had the kids get him one fun present. We went to the commissary and were going to get his favorite candy - Reese's. Somehow Oliver pulled a little switcheroo and got HIS favorite candy - Tootsie Pops. I didn't realize until we got home. I even double checked the receipt and we'd only paid for the lollipops - or "pop pop" as Oliver calls them. I went back the next day to get Levin some Reese's. ;)

Here is Levin in Kamchatka which is where he was for his actual birthday, not with us at home.

Life With Leah

I don't have my camera because Levin took it with him on his week long trip to Kamchatka, but I'll try to come back and post a picture of my sweet Leah.

I've always feared having a daughter with a big imagination ever since my niece Mary wanted me to play pretend ponies with her and we had to fly around up in her bedroom. (Rebecca if you're reading this, don't tell Mary I wrote this.) Well, an imaginative daughter is what I have. Lately she has a game of, "Mom what do I look like?" Two days ago a teacup on her head and she was a princess. Yesterday she asked me again and so I ventured, "a princess?" Scoffing and offended she walked away so I had to calm her down and ask her, what she thought she looked like and it was the man with a yellow hat from Curious George. FYI: The teacup was pink.

That's not the hardest part. The hardest part is that I am absolutely not an imaginative person so when she wants me to play "mouse" with her I don't know what to do in the game. And it's awkward for me.

The easy part is that she can turn any object into what she needs it to be. She was making sour soup at a friends house and needed a spoon to stir her pot. She grabbed their Barbie doll and Barbie became the spoon. I was trying to clean the living room after playing with her for a long time and she needed ingredients for her "recipe" and I could hand her blocks as well as her pretend food for any item she needed. An orange was cherries, and a block was some other fruit.

We do "Mother Goose" time every day with another family - a little preschool. I have noticed it is hard for Leah's friends to play with her sometimes because she goes racing off on one of her imaginative games and they have no idea what is going on - I mean when you're pretending your Barbie is a spoon it can be hard if you didn't clearly hear her state what is going on.

But she has soooo much fun in life!! So I'm trying to make myself adjust instead of make her adjust, but it may take a while for me to change and acquire new abilities. A little tip I've learned is to pay close attention to a TV show she watches because she will most likely make reference to something in it during a pretend game in the next 6 months or so. Did I mention she has a fantastic memory?

There is one thing to be said of Leah as she runs to our friends' house wearing a purple summer dress with jeans on underneath and winter coat on, her pink sunglasses on even though it's snowing and carrying her purple Dora purse filled with some random pieces of our toy toolbox, a teacup, and a magnet - the girl's got personality!! I wouldn't trade her for a boring old dolt any day. Well, maybe when it's bedtime as I assume super boring children get into their pajamas more easily.

Proof We're Still Alive

We finally got our new camera. Unfortunately, Oliver tripped right as I was taking the picture, but I thought Leah looked cute so I still posted it. We still do ballet every Mon and Fri. There has been some controversy about her recital in May or June, but I think she'll get to have one. She and two other girls (the other 3 year olds), I call the Three Stooges. They're all sweet, but have become a little too good of friends and are often goofing around and can't keep their hands off each other. The 4 year olds are definitely better, but that's okay.

One day Oliver woke up from his nap and sad and wanted me just to hold him. I needed to do something else so Leah volunteered to help me and this is what we got for a few minutes actually. Several other times she's begged me to hold Oliver, but he will have none of it. I guess this was a once in a lifetime, but it was a nice brother and sister bonding moment.

Friday night we went to dinner at a nearby restaurant. I get impatient just walking to the Embassy with Oliver because he likes to practice going on and off the sidewalk, stops and stands and then turns and run the other way, etc. So I take the stroller when I'm in a hurry or feeling impatient (most of the time.) Levin convinced me not to bring the stroller and I am sure it helped that "Da-ee" (Daddy) was there, but Oliver walked almost the whole way there and back and did a very good job of it!

It didn't seem fair this was "the first week of spring" and we are all fully bundled up. It was around 7:30 when we took this picture and it's still light out so at least it is not dark by 4 anymore and it is light in the mornings now too.

Catch Up

For some reason I'm not sleepy even though I took a red-eye flight last night and only got 4 hours of not very good sleep on the plan, plus one at home. But I read a friend's blog and it made me realize how I've neglected this and her writing inspired me to just write something! Here are some latest events.

1. We went to Israel in February. We had good and bad moments and worst of all, lost our camera when we only had one day left there. We originally thought it'd be a place we'd return to, but now I'm not so sure. BUT I think the experience was so valuable and I look forward to having greater vision when I read the scriptures.

It wasn't as spiritual of an experience as I expected it to be, perhaps because of the running kids, pushing the stroller up many, many hills, all the tourists, I don't know. But the great experience was attending the LDS services at the BYU Jerusalem Center. After being around so much devoted, yet . . . strange religious things going on around us (the wailing wall, the muslims, the Christians with all their incense and kissing objects . . it felt so good to be "home" at church. I didn't even walk in expecting to feel the spirit, but just thought it would be a nice break to get to sit with Levin at church for a change (in our own ward he sits on the stand) and have him deal with Oliver. We sang pioneer type songs I haven't sung in a long time and I just felt the truthfulness of the church and wanted to visit Utah. :)

2. Right after our return I had emails from my doctor wanting to redo some tests on my thyroid - TSH levels. I was a little annoyed because this has been a problem with every pregnancy and it always works itself out. But in the end she convinced me to go to London rather than go back and forth between her office here at the Embassy and the European Medical Centers around Moscow and then maybe re-test and send stuff to America. My veins can't handle all that. :) Plus I was almost ready for a 20-week ultra-sound and I could get that done while in London.

It took some stress and time to get it worked out who would watch the kids and flight info, etc. but they took care of a lot of it for me, and Levin and his admin assistant at work. My hotel was amazing in its service and an amazing bed. I meant to peak under the sheets and get the brand, but I forgot. The concierge was my BFF and they had a fresh fruit basket in my room both days. I think that's what really sold me and I swear I'll be a Best Western supporter for life. Ha.

I was worried about getting around on public transportation, but I'm smarter than I think I am sometimes, and it was a breeze. Sometimes finding the street when I came out of the subway station was harder, thank goodness the Brits speak English or I'd still be looking around for the Charles Dickens museum. (FYI: It was boring.)

I saw the play Wicked - I loved it, but with the Jet Lag and all the walking I'd done, I was pretty tired during it. I started out with the worst seat you could imagine - except the one on my left - but we got "free upgrades" since they hadn't sold out and moved to a pretty good one and was glad I told Levin to get me the cheapest possible.

I went to Madam Tousseauds. I felt guilty spending the money because it was quite expensive, but I was earning a lot of per diem for food I wasn't spending AND Levin confirmed he'd never want to go there with me so therefore, it was probably now or never. It was a fun place!

And for the important part of the visit! First, I found out we are having a girl! The ultra-sound tech kept saying, are you sure you want to know??? I think once I informed her I already had one boy and one girl so this one wouldn't be devastating either way she relaxed. I'm already looking forward to buying the cute baby pink snowsuit things I've seen in stores here.

Second, I am still waiting on one set of thyroid test results to come in, but the ultra-sound (yes, of the thyroid) and other tests came back great. The doctor was so smart and explained everything so clearly that I didn't regret my trip and also found it all very interesting. So . . looks like it was as I thought, my body just goes weird for a while during pregnancy, but from the tests it looks like nothing that'd ever effect the baby.

And that's it. Maybe someday I'll go through and add some photos to this post - if we ever get some copies from my brother-in-law of Israel (we met him and his family there.)