Marbles Rocks!

What would I do without Marbles? And why are they closed on Mondays anyway?! Marbles is the Children's Museum here, in Raleigh. And we go there A LOT. As a matter of fact, not a week goes by without us stopping by for an hour or so.

Thankfully, back in the fat times, we got the family membership so now we only pay for parking. And sometimes we don't pay for parking either, when the parking meter machine in the museum's parking lot is broken (which's been happening a lot lately). Of course, other times we pay way too much, like the other day when I got a $20 ticket for parking 6 inches too far from the curb. So unfair!

Anyway, back to the Marbles. Mark loves the place. He always asks me to go to the "zemey" (he can't or won't say музей). We already have a routine worked out. First, we go upstairs to play the drums. Here are the two phrases Mark now says very well:

Марк банит как дяди! (he also watches a video of a drum line at the Carnival in Rio)

Бабаны забили! (this is actually a line from an audio-book he listens to)

After he's done with drums, we quickly stop by the little Moroccan marketplace corner where Mark serves us some pretend tea. Then we're about leave, but not without watching some German pop videos. His favorite is Emanuela, because the video shows a marching band.

Then we move to the racing cars. At first Mark used to just watch other kids racing. But lately he wants me to build a car for him. Then he races it downt he track and excitedly toddles along.

Then I usually make a paper airplane for Mark to launch from the balcony and we move on to a workbench. Now, workbenches at Marbles have real tools - screwdrivers, hand-drills, hand-saws... Mark tried the saw the other day, but didn't like that once the a piece of wood was sawed off, there would be not way to stick it back on. So he prefers screwdriver and screws (which, by the way, are available by the bucket).

Then we go to the fitness exhibit. At first Mark used to go through a little obstacle course. Then he moved on to throwing plastic balls into the ball pit (but he never wants to get into the ball pit). Later he was into throwing plastic play foods into big buckets. And then finally he discovered the hockey rink. The rink is actually all plastic and the kids take shoes off before going in and slide or walk across in their socks.

Usually there are about 20 boys ages 4-7 wielding small hockey sticks in the rink (and the rink is probably 15 by 30 feet). Obviously, it's a very hectic place and is absolutely irresistible to Mark. He gets the smallest stick and walks around grinning widely and miraculously avoiding all the sticks and pucks. And obviously, it's impossible to hoax him out of this rink. The only way to get him to get out is to ... well... get in there, grab Mark, and drag him out. I try to stay away from the rink for now.

After exhausting our options upstairs, we move downstairs to play with Thomas the Train sets at a giant train table. Occassionally Mark also goes to the pirate ship. And he always makes his way to the pretend kitchen and the grocery store. He used to cook kasha, but now expanded his repertoir and offers soups, muffins, torts, pasta, egg, hot dog, pancake, or kasha.

Dad's 65th Birthday

We're back from NY. It's been a very short trip this time, just there and back. We left on a Thursday evening, after Chris's work, planning on stopping for the night in Fredericksburg, VA. Unfortunately, we didn't get to the hotel until after 9pm totally exhausted.

But we were able to get back on the road first thing in the morning (ok, almost first thing since we had to stop at a grocery store for breakfast). Anyway, we got to NY fairly early in the afternoon after a little detour to pick up Arkadik.

Mark was so excited to see his grandparents! He loved being around them so much that when Chris and I took him to a park, he kept asking to go back home to be with Deda and Baba.

And the next day it was Dad's big birthday party. It was honestly the nicest birthday party I've been to in years. It was just the immediate family (ok, most of the family). Mom cooked lots of food, as usual. The weather was warm and sunny and we all just sat on the deck and ate and talked. Then Mark and his 4-year-old cousin Alisa went inside to play with playdough.

Unfortunately, we had to leave on Sunday early in the afternoon. We didn't want to drive 9 hours straight. That would've been too much for Mark (and for us). So we stopped half-way, in DC area.

Evolution of Drumming (или Барабан Страдивари)

Forget Thomas and the rest of the trains (although Neville is still loved). The new obsession is drumming. We now play "boom-boom music" in the car, read "boom-boom books", look at pictures of drums and watch "boom-boom" video from Я Все Могу (actually called До-Ре-Ми, but who cares, right? It's like 20 minutes long and has exactly 5 seconds of drumming in it - Mark watches it almost every day). Also, he watches a cartoon Бим, Бам, Бом и Волк, 'cause the piglets' names sound like drumming sounds.

First, things were very simple - mandatory participation in the drum circles by each family member (except Xander), simple rythm (ok, total absence of).


Then things got a bit more complicated with multiple drums and complex composition.


Finally, Mark achieved mastery of drumming and became a marching band of one! He marches around the house and says "marching-drumming, marching-drumming" (in Russian he says ходить-банить). He also found a book with a picture of an animal marching band - elephants and rhynos drumming and marching around the house (thank you, Sandra Boyton!). So Mark gets that book out every morning, find a picture of the marching band, studies it for a few seconds, and then starts his marching-drumming practice.

Барабаны- для крутых пацанов!

Hiatus Explained... Sort of...

Looks like I've reached the rock bottom of blog update frequency (or rather, infrequency). My last post was a month ago! So now I have a big problem - I have way too much to talk about and not nearly enough time. Besides, I don't want to turn this update into a book-length thingy.

So, where should I start... Maybe I should tell you all about how it snowed in late February (or was it early March) and how Mark absolutely loved walking in the snow - didn't even mind his snowboots - and building a decent snowman...

Or should I tell you about Mark's art classes? He goes every Thursday morning for an hour to an arts class where he paints, glues, plays with clay, and in general expresses himself. He mostly sticks to painting with paintbrushes since everything else tends to get very messy (and he doesn't like getting his hands dirty).

Or maybe I should tell you of the latest news about my business. Ok, there'd be too much to tell, so here's a list:

• udpated website - http://www.oneclickva.com/ (if you're interested)
• I wrote and published a free report (available on my site)
• wrote and submitted 2 articles to Ezinearticles.com (will see how that goes)
• bunch of networking stuff going on, both online and in the "real" world
• got a new client - a professional organizer; look at my beautifully organized crafts closet now!

Or maybe I should mention that our little garden is doing well. Only one garden bed is used so far (still have to get topsoil for the other two). But this one is working overtime, let me tell you. We crammed so much stuff in it, we don't even remember what and where we planted. The first two rows are peas for sure (or maybe beans). Then - a couple of rows of leeks and scallions. Then it gets more confusing - a row of radishes (should be ready at the end of April), 2 rows of lettuce, and a mystery row. For the longest time I thought that the mystery row was unsuccessful row of radishes. Only a couple of days ago looking at the little plants closely did I realize that this is another row of lettuce (mesclun, actually). Oh, and then, there are a couple of rows of carrots.

The tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are growing well for now. I re-planted them into bigger containers and can't wait to put them outside into the garden (not until the end of April, though). Plus Chris planted a couple of each of raspberries and blackberries. Mark helped, of course!

So as you can see, there are tons of things going on here. I'm sure I'm forgetting to write about most, but then it's almost midnight and I'm running on like no sleep (and hey, I don't drink coffee).

Где обедал воробей

А точнее, чем обедал воробей:

Our Victory Garden (или Скучаем по даче)

We have a large backyard - a third of an acre (I'm guessing about 12 соток?). But it's overgrown with ivy, brush, and tall pine trees (то, что кажется называется мачтовые сосны). The benefits are many - no need to mow grass, smells of fresh pine, lots of birds and squirrels. But of course as far as the entertainment goes, the backyard is useless - dark, uneven ground, no grass, lots of mosquitoes the size of a hummingbird.

At first we thought about doing something about it. But with one and a half jobs between the two of us and the scary economy, we decided to postpone this project until some unspecified later date. Instead, we're going to concentrate on a more manageable front yard.

The big plan is to take the old trees out - they are ridden with some desease anyway and plant fig trees and blueberry bushes instead. There's also some talk about a miniature pomegranate tree and flower beds. Of course, first we need to borrow a chain saw from one of the neighbors...

In the mean time, we decided to start our own vegetable garden. Oh, the dreams of self-sufficiency, even if for only a couple of weeks in summer. Is there such a thing as partial self-sufficiency? Not having to pay $1 for each red pepper, $3/lb for decently-tasting tomatoes, and $2 for each eggplant would save us a bundle. Plus we would finally have very fresh, great-tasting, organic produce!

But since the backyard conversion is out of the question, we started very small with 3 small raised beds right in the front yard. So we're gonna put some tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cukes, and some herbs.

We already cleared up the area (Mark was helping to pull out weeds). Chris put together 3 frames for the beds (again, with Mark's help). And I'm busy germinating the seeds. I used Chris's old Army T-shirt to soak the seeds in. So quite literally we are beating swords into plowshares (перековываем мечи на орала).

Now Chris is turning one of the beds into a cold frame and we're thinking about where to get cheap uncontaminated top soil (we don't have nearly enough compost to fill all the beds). So far it's a pretty expensive project! But Mark loves it and it promises to be a lot of fun (as long as we don't have another bad drought this year).

Getting ready for a parade

Mark loves to drum. This is his new thing! He grabs drumsticks and his plastic toy drum and says "Я банить" (барабанить) - I drum. And then he walks around the house doing just that - drumming. He especially loves it when someone else joins him in his little parade. As you can imagine, the cat is going crazy (and he thought that tail-pulling was bad).

The Big Neville

This is the Big Neville. It is missing a few wheels and some small details got broken off. That's what happens with a toy that gets carried everywhere, sent down slides, banged on many a hard surface, and launched down the stairs. Here's Neville's story.

Mark, barely 2 years old, knows the names of pretty much all the trains from Thomas the Train stories. His first most favorite train (MFT) was the green Percy. Soon it was replaced by a succession of others - Annie, Clarabel (he pronounces it Ka-bel), Salty, Rusty, Duncan, Gordon (Go-nooon!), James (Debs), Henry and, of course, Thomas. Thomas stayed Mark's favorite for quite a while.

Then, on his birthday, Mark got a big train with a light and sounds, from Arkadiy. Mark immediately named the train Neville. But of course, Mark already had another Neville in his toy box - a small wooden one. So to make it clear, Mark calls the new train the Big Neville (Bolshoy Neville). He carries Big Neville with him everywhere and keeps it by his bed. You think I'm making it up? Here are pictures:

First thing in the morning, getting ready to change the diaper.

Getting dressed:

Watching cartoons:

Having a mid-day snack (had to change the shirt):

Clay-modeling at an arts class:
Putting toys away and getting ready for bed:

More birthday pictures

Some more pictures from Mark's birthday weekend. The weather was great - unbelievably warm for February (oh, but we are paying for it now!). So we all spent lots of time outdoors - at the playgrounds and parks.

Of course, evenings were spent in the house, playing with all the new toys Mark got for his birthday.

Birthday Bash - Mark is 2!

Ok, the original birthday bash was cancelled because Mark was sick. So instead of a party with 4 toddlers, their parents, and Mark's grandparents and uncle, we had to settle for grandparents, uncle and Mark's best friend - Maeli (and her parents, of course). But of course, it was lots of fun nevertheless.

The original plan was to have a train-themed birthday party. So that explains the cake. But the gifts weren't limited to just train stuff. Sure, Mark's got a radio-controlled train (from Grandpa and Grandma), which he promptly named "Debs" (James) and a small black train (from uncle Arkady). This black train, which Mark quickly started calling Big Neville (he also has a small Neville), edged out Thomas (unheard of!) and is still THE MOST FAVORITE train and is taken everywhere.

Other toys included the Pig's Barn from the Word World cartoon (Pig is Mark's favorite character!), a play kitchen (now Mark cooks kasha, soup, and muffins, all with lots of butter), a few Russian-language books, cartoons and Elefun (still unpacked this one). So Mark is super-busy and entertained with all these new toys! Thank you very much for all the toys!

On the day of his birthday, Mark woke up early and didn't nap at all. So he was ready to crash by about 6pm. But we had to keep him awake because we were expecting guests over - Sean, Stephanie and Maeli. Well, he barely stayed awake. But once Maeli came over, he's got the second wind and partied until 8pm. So he set a record for staying awake for over 14 hours straight.

Riding horses at Dead Broke Farm

For Maeli's birthday Stephanie and Sean wanted to take her to ride a pony. Steph found out that there was this Dead Broke Farm over in Durham Co where they had 20-minute pony rides for toddlers. Off we went. I didn't think that Mark would want to even sit on a pony. After all, he doesn't even want to sit on his little tricycle (even when I offer to push it)!

But I was wrong (you just never know with this boy). He loved sitting on a pony and petting it. Then he got a bit bored waiting for the ride to start. But once we took off, he just kept smiling bigger and bigger smile. And he sat well in the saddle too. At first, we had a problem since he kept holding onto his Thomas the Train and only used one hand to hold onto the saddle. But once he got into the ride (about 10 seconds later), he just gave me the train and placed all his attention on the pony.

And it wasn't one of those carnival rides either, where poor ponies go round and round in a circle like 100 times. No, this was an honest trail ride, first on the dirt road and then on a woodsy trail and back on the dirt road. When it was over and he was off the pony, he wanted to go again. This time, he got to ride a big horse! Again, he loved it! And afterwards he got to pet the dogs and the cats that live on the farm.

When it snowed

So the weather's been crazy lately. One day it's really cold, way too cold to even go outside. And the next day it's warm enough (low 50ies) that you see college students in T-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops. But we did get some snow, lots of it actually, and it stayed for a couple of days. As a matter of fact, we had a big snow storm. Most of the places were closed and people were encouraged to stay home. I didn't need much encouragement since I really can't drive in the snow.

Mark hated snow at first. I took him outside and he immediately objected - it was too cold, too white, too snowy. Then again, he refused to wear his snow boots and mittens. Chris got a little blue plastic sled, shaped like a flying saucer and we tried to take Mark on a ride. He tolerated it for a little while only because he really did not want to walk in the snow. But every time snow touched his fingers or got on his coat, he whimpered.

In the late afternoon, after the snow stopped falling, we went to the school yard to let Mark sled down a small slope. Again, he did not like it, this time refusing to even sit on the sled. And he normally loves all sorts of slides.

But the next day, when I took him to the daycare, he warmed up to the idea of playing in the snow and even helped build a snowman. By the end of the third day, he kept asking to go see "sneg", bravely walked in the deepest snow under the pine trees, and tried having a snowball fight with Chris. But it was too late - the next day all the snow was gone.

Let's call Baba

Mark LOVES making phone calls. Ok, not so much making calls, but asking me to call people. His favorites are Baba (Grandma Rita), Didi (Grandpa Yuri), and Maeli. He doesn't actually talk on the phone - get very silent if you ask him to say hi. But he just loves knowing that Chris or I are talking to one of his most favorite people. Here's a pretty typical video (I didn't know Chris was shooting it) of me talking to Baba.

Holidays

Ok, I do know it's been a while. As usual, things are just getting out of hand crazy-busy here. I only get to work in the evenings, after Mark is in bed. So that's what I do. Then at the end of my very long day, I'm way too tired to even think about writing a quick post, much less about uploading pictures (takes too long). Besides, we don't even take that many pictures any longer.

But of course, with all the holidays, we got some nice pictures. First there was a party at Mark's day care. If you don't know, it's a small at-home daycare and all the children there speak Russian. They had a giant Christmas tree nicely decorated with hand-made ornaments. There was a puppet theater, lots of crafts, a small tree for kids to decorate, and even appearance by Снегурочка and her favorite северный олень.

Mark didn't care much for most of it though because right away he got to a big red choo-choo train that was set out under the tree. He ended up playing with that train for most of the party.

Then there was Hannukah. We went to a special Hannukah story-time at a local Barnes&Noble where a rabbi told the kids a Hannukah story about a boy making latkes. The story was fun, but the best part of it was that rabbi Aaron juggled through it. Hard to explain, but it was really great. Next year (yes, he does it every year) I'll be taking a video.

Mark's gift for Hannukah was a big Melissa & Doug easel from Grandma and Grandpa. Mark helped Chris put it together. Boy, he absolutely loves his easel now and finally draws with crayons (and chalk). We're going to do some painting soon as well.

Then, of course, was Christmas. Mark helped Chris make some gingerbread man cookies. He's really good at mixing things up. Sure, he's got plenty of practice helping me make his most favorite food of the moment - muffins. Every day he asks for more muffins. He actually learned to pull up a step-stool to the counter and climb it to get to the muffin tin.

Ok, back to Christmas. Lots of gifts. Mark's got a big pop-up book about trains which he now wants to read 5 times in a row, every day. That was a gift from Great Grandma Phillys. He also got a Thomas the Train book with lots of buttons that make train sounds. Plus Mark has a set of 4 minibooks about Thomas from his Grandpa Ron. And Mark got a pig from Word World (he loves watching Word World and Pig and Dog are his two most favorite characters).

Then on the last day of Hannukah Mark got a little green train from Thomas the Train set, Percy. Mark's been carrying it around with him ever since and quickly learned the train's name. Oh, and for the New Year's gift, Mark is getting a couple of DVDs with Thomas the Train cartoons.

Halloween 08

This year we weren't going to get any costume for Mark because he absolutely hated all different costumes we tried. But then at the last moment, Chris went out and bought a train engineer costume, since Mark is really into choo-choos now.

Of course, putting a costume on brought out a 30-minute-long temper tantrum. But then we went over to our friends, Sean and Stephanie, and Mark always loves going there. His little friend, Maeli, was also loudly objecting to her batterfly-princess costume. So they made quite a loud duo. Sean was dressed as The Cat in the Hat and acted totally goofy. He kept making up silly rhymes every time someone would ring the door bell. Like one of the rhymes was "I'm the Cat in the Hat/ Eat this candy; it'll make you fat."

After having a bite to eat, we all went out for some trick-o-treat fun. We walked around the neighborhood, looked at a couple of funky haunted houses and lawns decorated with big inflatables. And we saw large crowds of other trick-o-treaters. Actually, Steph's neighbors kept count and said that they had 77 kids stopping by that evening! Crazy!

Well, Mark and Maeli didn't care to walk much, so instead they rode in the little Radio Flyer wagon which we all took turns pulling along. We even took Sean's dog, Maple, with us since it wouldn't be fair to leave her all alone in the house. That was probably the only time in the recorded history, when a cat was walking a dog! The entire procession - Sean in his costume leading Maple, followed by Chris pulling the wagon with the kids in it, and Steph and me bringing up the rear looked pretty funny. The kids got lots of complements and candy. Of course, as they are too little to eat candy, we got to eat it all (after putting Mark in bed). Loving it!