March 2014- Spring?

Hi all,

First up this month was the Pinewood Derby awards presentation.  The look on our boy’s face when he was up there when he won for best design was just priceless.  It was a little bit shyness, a little bit proudness, and a little bit excited all rolled into one.  But Peter and mine- all pride for our sweet boy who had worked so hard.  There are already big plans for next year’s competition and I hope it meets expectations.   

Rinat is on a lacrosse kick now. Not sure where it came from but he is actually pretty good at it. He was good at tennis too so maybe he is a kid who is good with his hands rather than his feet. I dunno.  So I signed him up for classes. He tells me he wants to play for UVA. And Clemson. And a million other teams all at the same time. He cracks me up. He is just gung ho about everything all the time. I love that he is passionate. He is very much like his dad in that way and that is one of the things that drew me to Peter when we met.  I'm glad he 'inherited' it from his dad.   

Our big (little to us) 4 year old moved out of the car seat and into a booster.  Our back seat is now carseat-less for the first time in 7 years.  It’s weird.  The time has gone by so quickly which makes me sort of sad.  But it sure will make traveling a whole lot easier.  I mean, look at all that open space back there!  

Bek was playing upstairs after school one day and I realized it had gotten quiet all of a sudden so I went to check on him.  He’s such a sleepy boy that he fell asleep on the floor of his room with his pants half on and half off.  I guess the effort was just too much for him to handle.  So we are looking into getting his tonsils and adenoids out.  The thought of it just freaks me out after what happened to Rinat but really this was sort of the last straw.  No one should be THAT tired.  He falls asleep in the car, while eating dinner, he snores so loud I can hear him in our room (poor future college roommate), he has trouble concentrating sometimes, and I am afraid he might have apnea.  And also we are hoping it might help with his speech.  Those tonsils are getting in the way and I am worried the adenoids are interfering with his hearing.  Sigh.  Poor sweet baby I just want to give him big hugs.      

So…. more snow around here.  Not just a sprinkling but loads of it mounded on bushes and on top of our cars.  I mean really.  It’s enough already.  Where is this so-called spring?    

 Speaking of spring, we went to a Nauryz celebration out in VA.  A group of kids had come from Kazakhstan to perform around the US and this is one of the places they stopped.  They played traditional Kazakh music (love that dombra), they danced, they sang, they did puppets, and my kids were enthralled with it all.  There was plov and boursakis and Kazakh chocolate (which I have hoarded in a special hiding place at home) and most of all there were lots and lots of kids like them.  I love that we live in a place where we can keep in touch with our boys’ roots and our adopted country and celebrate those important events with them.  We might have brought them to the US but they brought us to Kazakhstan and I do feel like it’s our home too because it’s where our family was born.  Nauryz is a celebration of the end of the long dark winter and the coming of Spring.  A reason to celebrate indeed.  So I made plov.

Love to all and a happy Nauryz, -m   

Feb 2014- Birthdays, Snow, and Love

Hi all,

Finally in February was Rin and Bek's long awaited birthday party at the bowling alley.  On their actual birthday, I asked them where they wanted to have it and they were both undecided.  But a trip to the bowling as a family clinched it- bowling it is.  And Rin even told me he wanted to have his birthday WITH Bek which made me so happy.  It's fun to see the both of them be so excited together.  So they planned it, they decided who they wanted to invite, they helped me find favors, they helped me make the favors, they picked out cakes, and finally it was time for the long-anticipated day.  

Cakes were fetched from the store and balloons were bought and once people started arriving it was like someone pushed the fast forward button.  Lots of excitement, pizza, cake and fun was had and before we knew it the parents were arriving to retrieve their kids.  It was chaotic but I think they all had fun.  I think this might be the last year we eke out a dual birthday party and I am so happy it was a resounding success.  

Then Grandma Shay came in town and the boys got to show my mom their school routine.  Bek was super cute at school pickup running with arms wide open yelling "Gamma Shay!!!" to give her a big fat hug.  And then we headed down to NC to spend time with the cousins and go skiing.  As always, there was just lots of cousin love- playing, giggling, running around like maniacs, making fart noises at the table, a dip in the condo pool, movie watching, and skiing.  And the grownups had fun too of course.  We all just sort of slide into the familiar cadence that is time with family.  

This year, we decided to make our Valentines instead of just buying cards and candy.  It turns out there was plenty of time to make them because we got a foot of snow soon after Grandma Shay left.  Yes, I said a foot.  In DC.  Where a foot of snow very rarely falls and we are not at all prepared to deal with it when it does.  There were no cars in the street so instead there was sledding down our big hill with abandon.  The kids packed down a trail to make a toboggan run and traveled down it in 3’s and 4’s.  It was so much fun and it was great snow for sledding and snowman making and all of that fun stuff.  I just love that the snow brings neighbors out in droves and people spend time together and get to know each other in an entirely different way.  Even the parents where yelling, “WooHoo!!!” as they sped down the hill.

The snow was so deep that Bek finally gave up on trying to walk in it and instead crawled on his hands and knees to get to where he wanted to go.  Poor exhausted little boy.  It was absolutely hilarious and it reminded me of the time when Rin was about that age and we had the SnowPocalypse.  He insisted on going into the backyard where he, inevitably, got stuck in the snow and I had to go out in my pajamas to rescue him.  I have told him this story so many times he can recite it by rote.  I guess this one might be Beks’ snow story that I pull out at every snowy occasion so he can roll his eyes and tell me, “Yes, Mom, I remember the snow.”  

After a fair amount of hot chocolate to get them back to normal, it was on to Valentine making.  These little nuggets of mine worked and worked and worked on their little gifts for their friends and were so excited about giving them.  Although it is much easier to just buy cards, I love doing things like this because I feel like it just holds so much more meaning.  Holidays sometimes feel really superficial to me and I love when I can make them a little more what they were really supposed to be- a time to reflect and think about the people around us.  

And these boys just keep on growing no matter how much I try to stop them.  There are no more potty parties like they used to have where they would keep each other company and didn’t have to be by themselves for a second- they are both so independent now.  But every once in a while I get some of that sweet snuggle time I love so much.  Recently, I told Bek he can crawl in bed with us and watch Max and Ruby and he's been doing it ever since.  It reminds me of the early years with Rin when he crawled in with us and snuggled in for some slow wakeup time.  I just love drifting in and out of sleep with the little guy by my side.  And I use the word ‘little’ loosely.  He is such a big boy now.  But with a little bit of little boy still in there.  And he’s hilarious.  He’ll do things like twirl his spaghetti “like a ballerina” and it just cracks me up. He is completely obsessed with the nutcracker. This bulky manly boy is a ballet lover. And his fave character isn't the nutcracker or the rat king like I would think but instead it's Clara. It's always Clara. I hope he never loses that girly part of him. I am so afraid of my kids getting pressure to be macho but I really hope they can remember what it is like to appreciate beautiful things too.  And I will do all I can to foster that. 

And we just keep on getting snow snow and more snow- so much snow that I am flat out tired of it.  Even the kids are.  But it's mostly because it's snow/ice and I have already fallen down and busted myself up several times and once could hardly walk for days due to the giant gash on my knee.  I'm ready for it to be over.  And the kids have been stuck here inside mostly for 5 days and have yet another 3 hour delay today.  Ugh.  So I put Peter and charge of the kids because I had sort of had enough of them and needed to have some time to myself.  Since we were once again stuck at home due to snowblocked roads, I locked myself in my room, put on music, and got out a book to read.  I could hear them outside yelling and playing as Peter tried to dig our cars out.  I looked out the window to see what they were up to and saw that they were sledding down the front yard hill and into the semi plowed street.  At least he made them wear helmets.

Happy Valentines Day.  To all of those who we really and truly love and appreciate though we may not say it nearly enough.  Love to all, -m