Milestones

In the past week, Dietrich:

a) Ate a whole Happy Meal for the first time.

b) Got run over by a little red bike. Now every time he sees a kid on a bike, he says, "Bike. Uh-oh!"

c) Sat still for his third haircut.



d) Licked his way to the center of his first Tootsie Roll Pop — a gift from the lady from whom we buy our water. Somehow, the water lady has a whole stash of American candy that I've never seen sold in Ukraine. Dietrich thinks she has the best job ever, because from her kiosk she can see every car, truck, bus, motorcycle and tram that goes by.

e) Grew to love a new babysitter, Anna. Anna really bailed us out when our regular sitter's daughter got sick in the village (where they have a little house and grow veggies), so they couldn't return.

f) Took several three-hour naps. That Anna tires him out. Thanks, Anna!

g) Had a little girl hold his hand. But she was just trying to woo him into giving her his crocodile toy.

h) Only wet one pair of underpants today, and managed to put almost all his poop in the potty. This isn't consistent enough behavior to be considered a trend, but it's a nice break from the days when we go through every pair of underpants before naptime.

Things we're into these days

It seems I took a little break from blogging. We had guests for much of June, and then I threw a baby shower (in Russian!) for a friend, and evidently it's taken me a while to recover from all the entertaining and excitement. So, just to get back in the saddle, I present the following list.

Things we're into these days

1) Classic Sesame Street via YouTube. I'm trying to wean Dietrich off his addiction to the not-very-educational Muppet Show. But, oh the nostalgia! I nearly teared up at "I'm an aardvark" yesterday.

2) Fruit. On Sunday we quickly consumed the season's first watermelon, and I've been using up stuff in the freezer to make room for frozen strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and peaches. Here's to smoothies in November!

3) Dietrich's liberties with the English language. You say potato? Dietrich says podada.

4) Work. So much to do.

5) Late bedtimes. After-dinner strolls to take advantage of the warm summer nights have pushed Dietrich's bedtime back to about 10 p.m. He's a night owl, like his momma.

6) Playground vocabulary. I'm meeting with one of my old Russian teachers a couple of times a week to make sure that I'm saying things correctly when I talk with Dietrich on the street. When we initially studied Russian, I didn't realize how important phrases like, "Don't touch the dog/glass/poop" would become.