Venice for Thanksgiving

We went to Venice for a long weekend over Thanksgiving. There was an incredible deal on flights, and we went with two other Embassy families, both of whom have two kids under 5. We all rented apartments in a nice former palace - and my thrifty husband even negotiated a 10% discount since there were so many of us and it was the off-season.

We wandered the city, and saw many sights but of course the most important part of the trip was the food - pizza every night for dinner? Heaven for kids! I think this is the only photo I have of the other kids (on Friday our friend's brother and cousin joined us, with their 5 kids, so at that point we crossed into the territory of the ridiculous.) THe kids loved to run amok in the courtyard in front of our palace.

Ostensibly our Christmas card, it didn't turn out as well as hoped. We just have too many people. But it's still a nice photo - M and A are showing off their new, quite expensive high quality leather jackets from our day trip to Firenze (Florence) to visit and to see our friend Jennifer Tattanelli who happens to own a nice leather goods store called Casini Firenze. She gave us "mates rates" and we all ended up with some nice early holiday gifts.

Behind our packmule and his charge you can see St. Mark's square starting to fill with water. The first day we missed the tide, but on this day, we got to experience the famous bridges and traffic jams of trying to get around when a city is under a foot of water!

And of course a famous gondolier. We had to forego the gondola trip, I think the little ones wouldn't appreciate it for the price. We went with the lower coast ferry boats, which were warm and enclosed and equally interesting.

The girls in front of a canal.

And the view looking toward the main square from the first bridge by our accomodation.

On our train trip to Florence but that's a story for another post...

New House!

So in early November, I returned to the States to sign the paperwork to buy a very expensive house that my husband and I had never seen. We also found out about a week before the purchase that I was being offered a position in Wellington, New Zealand, and we weren't going to be living in this house. Despite that small wrinkle in our otherwise flawless plan, the home purchase process was nowhere near as difficult as I thought it would be. Of course, I wasn't able to actually collect all of the money for the downpayment until around 24 hours before the house was signed for, which caused both me and the sellers a little bit of heartburn. The stress was in the fact that I signed around 11 AM on Armistice Day (aka Veterans' Day 11/11) and the banks were closed, so we had to make sure the funds were transferred a day early.

Our broker was wonderful, and worked with us for about 5 months on the whole process. Buying this house was serendipitous, since on the day we found out the sellers had dropped the price to our price range, we were literally about to sign an offer on a fixer-upper that was nowhere near as nice. Two minutes difference, literally! This house is in our desired high school "pyramid" area, and as a bonus actually attends a really great elementary school that is smaller than the one (with 600+ students) that most houses would have been in.

It's a 4-level house, but more like a two-level where half the house fell. So 3 bedrooms and a bath upstairs, kitchen/dining/living on the 3rd level, down to a bed, bath and family room on the second level, and then a basement that is unfinished (and sufficiently big that my brother would find it acceptable for projects...) The photos here are a little unusual, but since we hadn't seen the house, but there was an on-line show, and our agent sent us pictures, these are photos of things that I didn't think were clear from the other sources.

Below - standing in the living room looking out the back door to the yard, and the little kitchen is the piece on the left.
Entryway on the left, I'm in the living room, kitchen through the door on the right, stairs up and down. Small closet.Above you are standing by all of the bedroom doors, looking down to the living room. Bathroom is off to the left by my coat and purse.

Our budding star!

There are about 20 different videos of the 2 hour production, but I chose this one since she is singing in English here. The song is "Autumn is rainy, autumn is wet. Autumn is yellow, Autumn is red." Not surprisingly, she is a star at this song, since she is one of only two native English speakers. For weeks until the performance, she would sing this song to herself quietly. I think that that's why she applauds at the end, so excited to finally perform it live!

First Nursery School Performance

G loved the whole thing - she is so into music. And so proud of her big sister.

Waving the autumn leaves around.

The girls had to dress like berries and the boys like rabbits. I have no idea why, since it seemed to have no correlation to the songs they sang. But here the kids are running in a circle, although it looks like S is being chased by a rouge rabbit.

Hanging at Home

Here is our budding chef, stirring her roux, which served as a base for a whole heap of mac and cheese that we made for our trip out to the Otchiy Dim orphanage. She really enjoys doing things in the kitchen, and it is a great test of my ability to take a deep breath and let things get messy and out of order and sometimes not quite perfect. We're both learning at the same time, I guess.And this little one is now big enough to start "sharing" toys with her sister. Here she is driving the big girl car!And here is proof that the car can not quite fit two girls. Actually, they did both almost fit at this point, but within a couple of weeks, with the growing spurt they are both going through, it wasn't possible anymore. But for a brief period, there was harmony and carpooling!

Babi Yar

While I was in the State signing the papers on our new house, A took the kids to the Babyn Yar memorial. It is a ravine which is the site of the largest single massacre of Jews in all of WWII (33,771 Jews on September 29-30, 1941), and is surprisingly close to the center of town. I know that Kyiv was smaller then, but it really is only one metro stop from my office. Overall, another 100,000 - 150,000 people were killed at this site, not just Jews but Ukrainian nationalists, gypsies (roma), Soviet POWs and communists. And so the place has a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people. And all of those meanings are sad. About 18 months ago someone in Parliament talked about building a hotel (?!?) in part of the park, not directly on the ravine, but near. Can you imagine? Thankfully smarter people prevailed.

Trip to Cherkasy Part 2

Cherkasy just produced a billion dollar plan for investors to improve their waterfront, turning it into, I don't know, something like Atlantic City or Miami? I wish them luck. Here G and I are posing at the top of the hill - the beach we played at is over my left shoulder. This is the park that we had our picnic in, as seen from the top of the hill with the statue shown below.

I really could do a whole photo book of Miss S posing near monuments to the victims of WWII and other horrors that occured in Ukraine over the last 100 years. THank heavens she doesn't really know what these all mean.

The long view towards the statue - a ubiquitous presence in the former Soviet Union, a woman holding an eternal flame.

Trip to Cherkasy

On a sunny day in mid-September (OK, so I'm all out of order, but the posting is the point!) we took the girls down on a day trip to Cherkasy. It's a decent size city on the banks of the Dnipro river. I've been there for work a few times, as the Training Center for the State Border Guard Service is located there, but I hadn't had much time to see the town and the rest of the family hadn't seen it either. We arrived at lunch time and set up a picnic in a park near the river. G loved it, as you can see.While we were eating, the lawnmower came by to tidy the landscaping. He worked well, but took a lot of cigarette breaks.While G liked the picnic, someone else really enjoyed the beach. Being the off-season, and also being the state-maintained beach, it was a bit dirty, and obviously used as a drinking place/toilet. About 10 meters to the right of the picture there was a fence, and beyond that a nicely-maintained beachfront, so don't think that this section is the norm.We headed over to the private beach, and found a great playground. The best thing about having little kids is that they are entertained no matter where you go. Perhaps this is why our son doesn't join us on these trips - nothing too exciting to see. The other reason could be how cramped it is in our backseat with two car seats.

Anyway, here's our future pilot flying her airplane.And Miss S had a great time playing, and talking with the group of teenage boys, who had a few words of English, and were more than happy to test them out on us. I felt like a curiosity - they were fascinated that there were Russian/Ukrainian speaking tourists just hanging out at the playground in the off-season.

Why Ukraine is a hardship post

My husband went out to get groceries and picked up baby food. Our regular brand was out, so he grabbed another maker's product. I picked this up to feed the baby and then read it. It says "Horse with potatoes." Really? And to confirm it, there is a picture of a happy smiling horse to prove it.

I took it to work to prevent the nanny accidentally feeding it to her. And for the record, Ukrainians do not normally eat horse, so we can' put this down to local custom. THe best part? It actually cost more than the usual brand of chicken with potatoes...

Don't Make Me Angry

You Won't Like Me When I'm Angry!

Mashed Potatoes

If there is one thing this baby loves, it is mashed potatoes. Preferrably as a facemask.

Marine Corps Ball

This year the Marine Corps Ball was held on October 30 at the Ukrainian House. It's a big Soviet-style building, very large and open. I didn't find it the nicest venue, but we always have fun at these things. The only reason I mention the venue is that the lighting and seating conspired to ensure that none of our photos at the actual event really came out - sorry! So instead I give you pre-Ball photos of Team Mayhew. This year we brought along Michael, since he is interested in the Marines, and there is a great ceremony that they do every year. Michael's modelling one of my dear husband's old suits that he outgrew. Look pretty good, don't they? Even 007 here...

Our artist

Just a photo of our budding artist using her birthday gift, a nice easel and paints. Personally, I think the nanny enjoys using it more than our daughter, since when we come home the paintings we find are often more adult than I would expect from a 3 year old.

Halloween

Each year the Embassy hosts a Halloween party for the kids, as it isn't widely celebrated here in Ukraine. They hold it in my office building, and many of the offices get really into the process of decorating. (I do not as my office door is very remote and hard to find, and each year I have been out with the kids - I used to leave the older, single lawyer who works with me in charge of candy distribution. He didn't wear a costume as we figured that a U.S. Federal Prosecutor is scary enough as is!)

Now that Miss S is old enough to understand candy, we actually seem to get something out of the holiday. Conversely, now she knows when certain older people start eating her candy. So this year we had the following:

1 Princess - check!1 Lady bug - check!

1 Lacrosse player - check!1 Good sport father wearing the ladybug antennae.1 set of sisters "sharing" the candy. Which meant that S let her sister touch the candy, but not eat it. (I am in thebackground with my devil outfit...)

My favorite Superhero

I don't know when she started doing this, but we've had these foldable laundry hampers for quite a long time. She puts it on her head and runs around yelling "I'm Laundry Head!" I think it's a superhero, with the magical power of spinning and rinsing evil. If only it could fold evil as well, life would be perfect!

The many faces of GEM

This child is not shy, she is not quiet, and although she is the third, she will not be forgotten. She's at a great age as we come up to one year, learning how to make different noises (Daddy, mama), getting teeth, walking. But she is above all developing her character. Her are three phases - serious, artistic (she can point the lightbulb when asked, but I think it looks like a "Romeo, Romeo" moment), and her most common, laughing out loud.

3rd birthday

I have to admit, when it comes to the personal, home birthday - not the party, just the birthday, I tend to be very laid back. We congratulate the person, and have dinner together, but we don't really do presents or anything over the top. For S, I did have cupcakes, which is about the pinnacle of joy for a 3 year old (We can learn a lot from 3 year olds, I think...)

And also, one photo of the first time that my big girl climbed all the way to the top of Ultramarine (which is like climbing to the second floor.) I was so proud.

Lights, Camera, Cars! The 3rd Birthday

I was overall most impressed by A's and M's cooperation on decorating the house. Our teenager got out the ladder and strung streamers and blew up balloons and rearranged the furniture. We had Cars balloons and Happy Birthday balloons and even balloons with the birthday girl's name on them! And now 6 weeks later, we still do. They never seem to go away! During the preparations, we quarantined the two mischief-makers in a small fort. No, it didn't last at all, but they had a good time playing, and looked pretty cute together if I do say so myself!