Swings and sparkle

There was a yard sale here at the Embassy yesterday. These sales tend to be well attended by Russian staff in search of high-quality American goods for a bargain. Baby gear tends to go over particularly well, since stroller and swings and the like are insanely expensive here. Insanely.

We don't know whether we are done having children, but the plan is to cool it with the babies for the next couple years at least. And honestly, we didn't make the best choices when we picked up a lot of our baby stuff, so I wouldn't be sad to replace it, if and when the stork comes calling again. So yesterday we sold our jumper (which wasn't jumpy enough), our high chair (a pain-in-the-rear-to-clean behemoth eyesore), our infant carrier carseat (way too heavy) and the stroller frame it snaps into (not very useful without the carseat).

I could not, however, bring myself to part with our travel swing. It was handed down to us by a friend from my knitting group in Virginia. At one point, it was one of three swings we owned. But it was the only one that could put Natasha to sleep for any length of time. From about three months to nine months, it was the magic sleeping swing. Z didn't need a magic swing to sleep, but she liked it, too. I have great memories of the kids swinging away, sound asleep, while I knit or interneted or folded laundry or cooked nearby.

(For anyone who is interested in getting their own magic sleeping swing, this is the Fisher Price Precious Planet Open Top Take-Along Swing. It looks like they have come out with a new model, and it is possible that, as usually happens when manufacturers try to improve a good thing, it now sucks. If you can find the version I linked to, pay as much as they are asking. Even if you don't have kids. Seriously. It's magic. It could probably do your taxes and get you a killer refund.)

So the bottom line is, after a wildly successful yard sale in which we also offloaded a Wii and a bunch of random junk I had lying around, I still have a baby swing, but no babies to put in it.

Also, I picked up these awesome sparkly shoes for $10.

I plan to wear them to work sometime next week. Because every day could use a little glitter.

And now I have no babies

Little Z is one year old today, and I am sad.  No longer my little baby, she is saying "Mama," fighting with her sister, and becoming more toddler-like every day.  But she still finds time in her busy schedule of playing, defending her toys (or trying to; N still wins every time) and getting into the cabinets to crawl into my arms for a brief cuddle before scooting off again to explore.  These days are too fleeting.

Happy Birthday, little one!

A lovely fall day

We haven't been getting a lot of sleep around here lately, and had plan to spend Saturday relaxing at home.   But the day dawned sunny and warm - about 65 degrees.  In the morning we took a walk to a part of town we hadn't visited before, and after naptime, we played outside, enjoying a beautiful golden afternoon.  Today was cold and rainy, so I'm now doubly glad we took advantage of the weather while it lasted.

 

 

 

Guess we won't be trying that again ...

Today was a beautiful day.  Sunny, temperature in the mid-to-high 60s.  Everyone was outside. 

The girls woke early from their nap, around 2 p.m.  I decided we were going to go check out a yarn store I had just discovered.  It was about a 45-minute walk from the compound, so I decided we'd save some time by driving, then hit the playground before dinner.

You may recall my last attempt at driving alone with the girls.  It didn't end well.  I had a sense of foreboding as we walked to the parking spot.  But surely Natasha wouldn't throw up all over herself again.  Right?

Wrong.

We had been in the car about 10 minutes when she spewed banana down the front of her sweater.  Obviously, the trip to the yarn store wasn't going to happen, but I was stuck pretty darn near the center of a 12-lane thoroughfare with no hope of pulling over any time soon and helping my daughter out of her puke.

An hour later, we were finally home.  Natasha was a trooper in the car, and although she threw up three more times, she barely complained.  After she was bathed and sipping contentedly on a little bit of Sprite to settle her stomach, she was good as new.

What I want to know is, why does she only throw up when I'm alone in the car with her?  Jeremy will probably say it's something to do with my driving.  Whatever it is, I don't see us taking a drive without him again anytime soon.

(And it serves me right - we should have just walked to the stupid yarn store).

Birthday bash

Yesterday was the girls' joint birthday party and although I am glad we did it, I have to say that the experience confirmed my conviction that birthday parties for babies and toddlers are entirely for the benefit of the parents.  (Also, yes, we threw them a joint party.  Their birthdays are 2.5 weeks apart and we plan to double up as long as we can get away with it - I think we have several years yet before they demand separate parties). 

Saturday morning, both girls woke so cranky that, were it not for the fact that we had a party to host, I would have put them both down for mid-morning naps.  As it was, we had to power through.  And crank + lots of people (22 adults and 22 children) + sugar = a hell of an afternoon.  Jeremy and I passed out on the couch during nap time as well.  We are still recovering today.

I didn't get as many photos as I would like.  No cute shots of the more than 100 red velvet cake balls and Oreo truffles I made.  No cute shots of the favor boxes stacked nicely in a row.  And not a single family photo in which I do not look like a manatee (that last one may not be the camera's fault).

So here's what we got.