Been working on something ...

... for about six months.  Figured I might as well give you all a sneak peek.

  

Made a few receiving blankets too, but those are in a suitcase in a closet and being six-and-a-half months pregnant, I couldn't get it out by myself.

This is my excuse for infrequent blog posts.  I've been trying to stay off my feet, which is challenging with two high-energy toddlers running around.  I had grand plans for a full hand-sewn layette, but the above (and those blankets) might be all we end up with.

Stay tuned, as I do have some stuff to blog about, including a road trip we took to Yerevan earlier this month, and some more crafts.  Hopefully I'll find some time to blog about those in the near future.

We made votive candle holders

We are on day six in Moscow and, as I have complained recently, the jet lag is murder.  I don't have the brain power to think of a more interesting or witty title for this post.  Also, I don't want to get on a plane again until they are at least 10 and 11.

I know you are wondering why we are crafting when we are so freaking tired?  Well, we're also battling a nasty phlegmy coughy cold thing, so we haven't had any playdates since we've been back.  And I have to find something to fill the time while we're under quarantine.

On Wednesday we turned old baby food jars, tissue paper and glue into candle holders.  First we tore up the tissue paper.  I was surprised that N was not interested in this, but in fairness, I had just woken her from a long nap and she was a bit peeved.  Z is always up for ripping paper, though.

N did pretty well painting the jars with glue (I mixed Elmer's School Glue with an equal amount of water), but her attention dropped off when it was time to affix the tissue paper to the glue-painted jars, so I finished it for her.  Z painted a little, but mostly just sucked the glue off the brush.  I was too tired to care. 

This activity held our attention for about 15 minutes.  Minimal mess.  We didn't break any jars and no one died from glue poisoning.  Not terrible.  Next time I think we need to do more layers of tissue, or maybe use brighter colors - I had a few pastels in the mix.

Jet lag update

Oh, sleep, how I miss you.

We're hating life here right now.  Yesterday I reverted back to plan A (get them out of bed and limit nap time), after plan B (let them sleep in and take a long nap) didn't work after plan A didn't work.  I don't think I'm being unrealistic.  I don't expect them to sleep through the night.  But I was figuring that, by night four (last night) after arrival, we'd see SOME improvement.

I was wrong.

Last night was the worst night so far.  I had mercilessly roused them at 9 a.m. They were allowed to nap for three hours (was that the problem?  Too long?  I don't know.) from 1 to 4 p.m. We kept them up until 9 p.m.  I went to sleep not long after.  I'm running on fumes here.

Natasha woke up crying at 12:30.  She cried, then Z cried, then she cried, then Z cried.  I spent an hour in there rocking them.  I did everything all the stupid websites tell you - didn't turn on the lights, didn't allow them to play, just rocked them and sang.  And still, SOMEONE was crying until 6 a.m.  And often, more than one someone.  And sometimes, that second (or third) someone was me.  Jeremy and I finally separated them, putting Z in the pack n play in our room, and we slept on the couch and floor in the living room. 

So these stupid websites, I don't know, maybe they are talking about jet lag over a two- or three-hour time difference, which, no offense, doesn't even count in my book.  Because just about everything I read cheerfully chirps that "night two will be the most difficult," or "by night four, things will start to improve," if they're not promising that your baby will sleep normally by then.

My.freaking.foot.

And now I'm faced with the dilemma.  Today do I go with plan A or plan B?  I'm thinking plan A, but at this point, my kids have only slept 6.5 of the last 12 hours.  Will they be overtired?  Will that cause me another night like last night?  Or will allowing them to sleep in just reinforce the wrong schedule?

Like I posted before, you'd think after five transatlantic legs over the last two years, that I'd know what to do.  But I don't have a solution.  Except to never fly.  Sorry, friends and family, I don't think we'll be leaving Georgia at all during our next tour.  See you in 2014 ...

Jet lag

Well, we're back in Moscow after a great vacation filled with family, food and shopping (stay tuned for a post about the expat phenomenon of panic buying).  But all good things must end, and, in their place, we have jet lag.

I've flown internationally with babies five times now.  And I have come to the conclusion that I am either incredibly dense, or that there is really not much you can do to get your kids over jet lag.  Each time, I have a plan.  Usually the initial plan involves waking the kids up somewhere close to their normal rising time.  And usually, it doesn't work.  No matter how much I engineer their schedule during the day, they still get up at 2 a.m. ready to play.  We expose them to sunlight (well, what sunlight there is in Moscow this time of year - not much).  We feed them at the traditional meal times.  We keep the room dark and discourage playing in the middle of the night.

Days later, still, 2 a.m. seems to be a good time for a party.  So then, around day three or four, I usually vary the plan.  I tell myself that "sleep begets sleep," or some such nonsense from the gospel of child-rearing experts. I stop waking them and let the, sleep as much as they like.

And, surprise, surprise, they still wake at 2 a.m.

Usually, after about a week, and just before I think I can't possibly take one more night of awful sleep, jet lag is over.  And it's not from anything I did or didn't do.

And I know that we're looking at about a week of terrible sleep, yet I still woke the girls up this morning (they had screamed more or less from 2:30 to 6 a.m.) at a relatively early hour.  They took good long naps at the appointed hour.  And I find myself hoping against hope that they'll sleep at least until 5 a.m. tomorrow.  Wish us luck.

A journey across the sea, by the numbers

We arrived in the U.S. six days ago, but I've only now summoned the energy to blog about it. 

Miles traveled: 5,200
Hours in flight: 13.
Hours in airports: 7.
Hours in transit to and from airports: 1.5
Hours slept by Z: 3
Minutes slept by N: 45
Minutes slept by M: 8
Minutes slept by J: 15
Diapers changed: 14
Cups of coffee drunk by M: 6
Toys packed in the carry-on: roughly 78
Varieties of snacks packed in the carry-on: 12
Future vacations canceled once we realized what the flights entail: 1
Last-minute decisions to carry-on a car seat: 1

Checking in at Domodedovo Airport in Moscow.

Somewhere between Moscow and Frankfurt.

Frankfurt Airport.

Contemplating the next 13 hours of travel.

Somewhere over the Atlantic.

We spent a large portion of our trans-Atlantic flight trying to get the girls to sleep.  That was largely a failure.  Predictably, the girls fell asleep once we hit the security line at Chicago O'Hare.  At that point, it was about 11 p.m. Moscow time - they had gotten up at 5 a.m.  And then we had to take them out 15 minutes later to go through the TSA check.  Which was fun for exactly nobody.

We learned that, no matter what you do to make a flight better, traveling that many miles with two toddlers is just never going to be easy.  Also, N's eczema flared up like I haven't seen in 18 months, whlie on the plane.  I don't know whether it was stress from lack of sleep, something in the air, or something gross on the seats and blankets, but it took three days of OTC cortisone cream (which we usually don't use) to ease her pain.  As a result, we decided to give up on the idea of going someplace warm for a week in February.  You have to fly at least 10 hours to get anywhere beachy from Moscow at that time of year, and it's just not worth the stress on her body.  Sob.  Goodbye, Sharm el Sheikh :(

The dirty secrets of motherhood

Having been at this for two years now, I am definitely not an expert.  But I have learned a few things.  Secrets.  Dirty, dirty secrets that no one tells you when you are pregnant.  I don't know whether they are taboo, or what, but I'm going to share them.

1) The terrible twos don't actually start at 2.  Around here, they begin at 15 months or so.  Just FYI, so you're not caught off guard like I was.

2) You will eat previously chewed food.  I know, it's gross.  But you'll do it.  In my case, the first time was while at a holiday party at someone-important's home last year.  I was holding Z when N came up to me, chewing something.  She then spit it into her hand, as toddlers do (see item #1), and handed it to me.  I was holding a baby who, it dawned on me, had just done a big pile of stink in her diaper, in a crowded room in a fancy home, with no trash can or toilet in sight.  So what did I do, but pop that partially chewed piece of cheese into my mouth, and wipe my hand on my skirt.  Which brings me to #3.

3) You will wipe your hands on your clothes.  Even when you (see #4) ...

4) ... wipe your children's runny noses with your hands.  Yes, you will do this too.

5) And sometimes, you'll wipe your hands on your children's clothes.  You'll think, well, her jeans are already filthy and going in the wash tonight anyway.  And you'll wipe snot, or regurgitated cookie, or dirt, or whatever, on your toddler's pants.  And hope no one saw you do it.

6) You will touch poop.  A lot.  Not on purpose, hopefully, but it will happen.  And at some point you will even get used to it.

So there you have it.  The dirty secrets of motherhood.  You are welcome.

Zoia and the cat

N is in the middle of a marathon nap at the moment, and Z and I have been spending some quality time for the last hour.  We were sitting on the floor playing with a puzzle when I heard mewing coming from outside our back door.  (Some might have characterized the mewing as "piteous," however, not having a soft spot for cats, it sounded more menacing to me).

As soon as Z caught sight of the cat, she made a beeline for the door.  They stared at each other, Z rather astonished and very curious, and the cat mewing tirelessly, for about 10 minutes.  Then the cat, likely realizing that she was mewing at the wrong door, went on her way.

People still ask whether I regret leaving the FS.  It's not a question I think about a lot.  But every once in awhile something like this happens and I am grateful, all over again, that I am around to see it.

(Also, I'd tell you to ignore the smudgy windows, but what with an army of ants setting up camp in my master bedroom and the occasional pee on the carpet, windows are frankly the least of my concern).

Irina's little helper

Mama has a big helper. Her name is Irina. She comes for a few hours a week to help watch the girls and clean the house. We all adore her.

Irina has a little helper. Her name is Natasha. Natasha follows Irina all around the house yelling "EEEEE-ya!" and demanding to be held. In her less needy moments, she might help "I-ya" with the vacuuming.

Natasha also learns a lot from I-ya. She can now moo like a cow, yap like a little dog, and mew like a kitten. And she can scrub a mean floor.

That's a diaper insert around her neck. Don't worry, it was just out of the wash.

Stroller Junky

Did you know there was such a thing?

I did. I knew before I had kids. I raised my frugal eyebrow at anyone who spent over $100 on a stroller. I raised both eyebrows at anyone who owned more than one stroller. How many people REALLY use their jogging strollers for their intended purpose? (Don't get all offended. You know it's true.)

I'll take that plate of crow Provençal now.

We currently own four strollers. We are trying to sell one of them. We use two of them. We are keeping the fourth - the stroller frame that goes with our infant car seat - in case we have another baby. We used to own one more, but have since given it away.

But we have four strollers.

And now I'm kind of obsessed with them. You know that mama who studies your stroller as you walk by? I'm her. I can spot a fancy stroller on the street a mile away. I can't tell a 4Runner from a Tahoe, but if you need to pick out the UppaBaby in a crowd of Bugaboos, I'm your woman.

I wasn't always this way.

Our first stroller was the Graco Snap n' Go. It is designed to work with an infant car seat and was very handy when Natasha was little. It was also handy for Jeremy when we were in the U.S. He used it, without the car seat, to convey groceries home from the Ramstore a mile away. It's the one on the right.

This was our second stroller, bought during my judgmental it's-crazy-to-spend-more-than-$100-on-a-stroller days. It's a Graco Mosaic, and is actually a rather nice stroller. It has more features than your standard umbrella, but still folds up pretty nice and small. We paid $25 for it on Craigslist. It worked fine in the States, but here in Moscow, with the stupid perekhod ramps, it was not ideal. It now lives with my sister and niece in Virginia.

The king of umbrella strollers, this is a Maclaren Volo. No recline and the sunshade isn't great, but it only weighs 8 pounds and you can sling it across your back with the shoulder strap if you need to. Great for the Metro or any time I am going somewhere with just one kid (or when I'm taking a short walk and can wear Zoia in the Ergo).

This marvel is the Baby Jogger City Select. It was chosen after painstakingly careful consideration. As a single stroller, this baby is incredible. It fits on the ramps here (well, most of them), reclines, has a huge basket, pushes like a dream, etc. Have another baby? Add another seat! It's the fancy stroller du jour in the States. Unfortunately, I've found that the second seat adds a LOT of weight onto the front of the stroller, which makes it hard for me to get it up and down stairs. That's a problem in Moscow. Still, we love this guy and are sad to be selling it.

And our newest acquisition, the Phil & Ted Explorer. We bought this one to replace the City Select. The second seat is on the back, making it easier to get this thing up and down stairs. We had originally decided against the P&T because we thought the second kid would hate riding back there. Also you can't recline the second seat at all, nor the main seat when the second seat is in use. And you can't use the basket when the second seat is on, because that's where the kid's feet go.

As it turns out, none of these problems were deal-breakers compared with the biggest problem I have with the City Select - not being able to go up and down stairs for fear of capsizing and sending my babies flying.

I haven't totally gone off the deep end, though. I have sworn not to buy any more strollers. Though I really think that a double umbrella stroller would be super-useful for our R&R back to the States this fall ...

Must.Not.Buy.Another.Stroller.

Not so lamblike ...

So, here at Where To Next, winter is still in full force. It snows for at least an hour every day, I didn't think that the "in like a lion, out like a lamb" stuff applied to Russia, but just in case it does, memo to Russia: there are only three days left in March. Lamb it up!

Yesterday we took a walk. We were going to go to the playground. But it was in the low 20s and quite windy, so we ended up just coming home. First, I took a picture of the underpass ramps I am always talking about. I have to navigate these to get most places. As you can see, it's only a very narrow range of strollers whose wheels will fit. And also, the ramps aren't standard. Some only have two "lanes," and some are made of the same stone as the stairs and built in (I like those better, as they are wider and easier to navigate). I've fallen on these ramps a couple times while pushing a stroller. It's a giant pain in the behind.



Looks like Burger King is opening a restaurant on our walking route. Hadn't seen one in Russia before. It's about half a mile from a McDonald's (which, I am proud to say, we have not even walked into yet).



Later in the afternoon, cowed by the cold but determined to make the best of it, I introduced Natasha to a new game. Here she is moving ice cubes from one bowl of water to another using a slotted spoon. This occupied her for 20 solid minutes while I made dinner! I can't take credit - got the idea from a mommy blog. I sewed the apron, too. Pattern is here (scroll down to Little Chef Patterns in the middle of the page) if you are interested.

Our intrepid toddler, and the Vice President

Vice President Biden is in Moscow and Natasha got to meet him today.

First she patiently waited around in the gym.

Then, when Biden invited all the children on stage, she wasted no time. That's Jill Biden helping her up.

Not content to hang out on that side of the stage, she ran to the other side, where the Ambassador's wife caught hold of her to stop her from going overboard.

She then put up her arms in a request to be held. The Ambassador's wife obliged. Mama, not wanting to disrupt the VP's speech, and not knowing what else to do, sat, rather mortified, on the floor in front of the podium and took photos.

Necessity is a mother

This morning, driven more by the need to get out of the house, than by the need for cabbage, I decided to take the babies on a walk to the Ramstore about a mile away. Natasha and I made this trip at least twice a week in the summer, and it looks like we're on track to do the same this winter. My getting-everyone-bundled-up system is still being ironed out, so I should not have been surprised when, about five minutes after leaving the Embassy, I noticed that Natasha was not wearing boots. Just her snowpants, her down parka, a hat, mittens and little pink cotton socks. I had decided to put on her boots after putting her in the stroller, and then forgot completely. It's a miracle I made it as far as I did without being flogged by a babushka for exposing her to the elements like that.

I looked in the basket for the pink fleece blanket I usually keep there. Empty. I had taken the blanket for Zoia's swing when she spit up on the other two warm ones we keep in the house. Nothing in the cupholder, or in my pockets for that matter. I tried to pull down her snowpants to cover her feet, but they actually fit her properly so that didn't work.

So I had a decision to make. Walk another 10 minutes to Ramstore, spend 10 minutes in the store, and then walk 15 minute back home? It was about 20 F . Downright balmy after last week.

No, I couldn't do that. Natasha would be fine, but the babushki would have my head. Reluctantly, I turned around, kicking myself for wasting 20 minutes' getting-everybody-ready-time for a mere five minutes outside.

And then inspiration struck.


Those would be my red-velvet-and-Thinsulate gloves on her feet. I bought them at Marshalls to wear on the just-warm-enough-to-be-somewhat-fashionable days. Turns out they are actually warm enough to wear on it's-so-cold-that-I-don't-care-if-I-look-like-a-giant-brown-caterpillar days! And warm enough to serve as boots, should the need arise. Natasha's feet were toasty when we got home.

Natasha is 1!

It was pointed out to me recently that I haven't done such a great job at keeping up with the blog since leaving Moscow.  So here's a little update.

Natasha turned 1 on Thursday.  She also cut her first tooth about a week ago, and has been almost-walking for the past three or so weeks.  She does up to 10 steps at a time before falling.  It's pretty cute.

I'm due in less than three weeks and #2 is officially full-term.  So Natasha could become a big sister any day now.  Hopefully #2 will wait until Jeremy arrives on October 9, but I'm starting to worry that he/she plans to make an unfashionably early appearance.  Not much we can do about that, though, and it wouldn't be the first time a Foreign Service brat is born before Papa arrives ...

And speaking of Papa, he's been living it up in Moscow.  I've been telling him to blog about his adventures, but I guess he's too busy attending concerts (U2 and The Pogues) and bottling his own beer to fire up Blogger.  It's a rough bachelor life, I tell ya.

A few birthday photos, starting with Natasha wearing the same dress I wore on my first birthday (incidentally, my father was also absent - having moved to Washington ahead of me and my mother to start his Foreign Service training).  The cake is carrot (made using this recipe, which really is awesome - I just added vanilla and omitted the nuts).  We made sure Papa was part of the proceedings using the magic of Skype and webcam.  And Natasha ate her entire carrot cupcake (though unfortunately I had to give her dairy-free frosting as she is still allergic to cow's milk), but only after I took her out of the high chair and held her on my lap.  After that, it was meltdown city.

Ah, the first birthday ...

I'm famous!

OK, that might be an overstatement.  But I am guest blogging about cloth diapers today over at Vanessa's Crafty Nest.  Figured it was a good way to talk about one of my favorite topics without doing yet another post about it here.  Maybe I should start a mommy blog.

More fluffy mail

Pardon me while I discuss cloth diapers for a minute.  These days, it's my favorite subject.  I recently completed a huge online shopping spree to bump up our stash in preparation for #2, and the packages have been trickling in over the last week.  The latest shipment is pictured in the photo.  The three columns of diapers are teeny tiny newborn fitted diapers for #2.  When Natasha was that small, we used prefolds, which are what you think of when you think of cloth diapers: rectangles of cotton that are fastened with a pin or a Snappi.  We are still going to use prefolds, but I have heard that fitteds contain the newborn poop better, so I figured we'd try some out.
The diaper on the left is a new fitted diaper for Natasha, shown for comparison's sake.

Sunday

This is why the house is a mess and there's no food in the fridge ...

Last night Ghana beat the U.S. in the World Cup.  Jeremy didn't know the U.S. was going to get its behind handed to it by Ghana for the second World Cup in a row, otherwise, he says, he would NOT have stayed up until 1 a.m. to watch the game.  Sucked for him, then, that today was his morning to get up with Natasha and that she decided to wake at 6 instead of 7:30.  Not my problem, though, so I rolled over and went back to sleep :)

I woke at 8:15.  Natasha was pretty cranky, so she went down for a nap at 9 a.m.  Since she wasn't going to be up in time for church, I went alone.  I returned at 10:30 and Jeremy went back up for a nap around 11:30.  Natasha and I spent the morning playing.  At about noon, she fell asleep on me.   My water glass was out of reach, the computer was across the room, and I was pretty sure I would have to pee soon, but at least I was lying on the couch, and dammit, I will never wake a sleeping baby!  Plus, she hadn't fallen asleep on me in like five months, and I was enjoying it.

By 2:30 p.m., my bladder was threatening to explode, so I tried to put her down on a blanket on the floor.  To nobody's surprise, she woke up screaming.  I changed her diaper and got her a bottle, then ran into the kitchen to fix myself a plate of bread and cheese (I hadn't eaten since 9).  Natasha freaked out when I left the living room, but Mama (and #2) have to eat!  Once I returned to the couch, she crawled over to the back doors and loudly indicated that she wanted out.  We took a blanket and toys out to sit on the grass until 3:15, when we decided Papa had slept long enough.  We still needed to go grocery shopping and set up Natasha's new crib before dinner.   I had planned to clean the kitchen, but that's clearly not going to happen today ...

Fluffy mail!

I have been going a little crazy buying new diapers in anticipation of #2's arrival.  Yesterday was mail day here at post, and we got three packages bearing these diapers.  For those who are into this sort of thing, the zebra one is an all-in-one Goodmama diaper (that means it is waterproof on the outside and doesn't need any covering up).  The aqua one is a Haute Pocket pocket diaper, and the three on the bottom are Grobabies, a "hybrid" diaper, which is a type I've never tried before.  The stack of white things are inserts to go in the Grobaby diapers and the Haute Pocket.

These days, cloth diapers actually excite me more than yarn does.  Who knew that was possible?

Excuse me while I talk about poop

I actually think it's kind of amazing that Natasha is eight months old and we have yet to discuss poop on this blog.  Well, today's the day.  We started using cloth diapers with her when she was three days old.  They worked great for us and we happily used them exclusively until she was about seven months old.  Then we switched to disposables temporarily for a couple reasons.  First, I had a pretty good case of morning sickness, and dealing with poopy diapers made me vomit.  You still have to deal with poop when you use disposables, but with cloth, once a baby gets more in her diet than breastmilk, you have to scrape the poop off the diaper into the toilet, so there is an extra poop-handling step.  I also didn't feel like handwashing diapers in hotel bathrooms while in transit, so we started using disposables.  We tried several different brands, and while I did find that one worked better for us than the others, I truly hated them all.  Up-the-back poop all the time, leaks and worst of all, the stink!  I don't know who thought that scenting disposable diapers was a good idea, but I have to say that it's not.  When Natasha pooped in her disposables, the smell was this putrid mix of poop and chemical perfume.  Kind of like when someone tries to cover up a bad case of BO by putting on perfume.  Not good.  Plus, we had several times more blowouts in a month of using disposables than in seven months of using cloth. 

Anyway, we've been in Moscow over a week, and I was still using disposables until yesterday, because it had been awhile since I'd done diaper laundry and I had built it up to be something more difficult than it is.  But yesterday was the last straw.  Natasha woke up soaking wet.  Then around 11 a.m., she pooped all over herself and me.  I couldn't stand to put another Pampers on her (not least because of their recent smear campaign against cloth diapers - sorry folks, but at least cloth doesn't give babies chemical burns!), so I pulled out one of my Bumgenius 3.0 pocket diapers.  No more blowouts.  No more leaks.  No more wretched poop-perfume stink.  I freaking love cloth diapers.  I really hope I can keep up with it when #2 arrives.

Leaving soon and some news

We're still here, but packed out and hoping to be in Moscow next week.  There were a few delays while we waited for visas and clearance updates, but we finally got word last week that all three of us would be flying.  Which will give Natalya and I a chance to enjoy a Moscow summer (highs this week in the 70s and sunny, according to weather.com) before returning Stateside to await the arrival of the littlest Richart.  Yep ... we're due this fall with baby #2!  Jeremy will play with probabilities and hope to time his trip back to coincide with the birth.  I've heard too many stories of Foreign Service babies being born while dad is still on the plane, so wish us luck!  With any luck, this labor will be a little shorter than the last one ...

Natalya

Figlet is finally here, and it turns out that he is a she! We were both pretty sure we were having a boy, but earlier this week, I dreamt that I woke up from a nap during labor to discover that I had given birth to a baby girl with dark brown hair. Labor wasn't quite so easy (20 hours of active labor plus back pain due to the fact that Natalya was posterior, meaning that her skull was raking against my vertebra as she made her way down), but she does indeed have the dark hair!