23 February

I know, it is mid April, but better late than never.

While I was growing up it was a tradition in my family to celebrate 23 February-the Red Army day as this was the day it was formed in 1923. Every male was required to serve and my Dad was a reserve officer in a tank division, plus my paternal grandma was a battle front nurse and grandpa was a partisan in WWII. On that day there usually were parades and as a kid I loved them. Anyhow, never in my life would I guess in my childhood than n-years later I would become a US citizen on February 23 (ha).

It was definitely an interesting day, off course it did not go as expected (he he). I was sworn in along with almost 300 other dudes and dudettes from almost 50 different countries at Rose Wagner Theater in Salt lake. By the way, did you know that swearing in ceremony is actually a judicial proceeding? So a person from Judicial office was conducting and presiding. I have to say that it was a first time before a judge for me. It was rather strange saying the Pledge of Allegiance for the first time, especially before saying the Oath (which is done as a group and not individually, otherwise we would've been there for the entire day).

You know, now at least one of the dilemmas in my life is gone. I remember many times walking through BUY campus at the time when the flag at the Brigham square would be lowered at dusk and the anthem was played. At that moment every single person nearby would stop, put hands on hearts and stand still. I usually just stood, but wondered if those around me wondered why I was such an unpatriotic American, ha ha.

Oh, funny moment...well, funny now, but not than. At the start, the speaking lady asked everyone to turn off their phones. I figured mine is on vibrate so no need to bother. So guess whose phone began ringing just as the Pledge of Allegiance was being spoken? Oh my gosh! I wanted to just crawl under my seat and not come up till the end of the ceremony. I began looking for it in my purse and surely it became even louder as I got closer to it. Bah! Was that embarrassing! Oh, by the way, if you must know who called- it was my Dad buzzing to congratulate me, ha ha.

Unfortunately Andrew had to leave the ceremony after the anthem was sung as Miss Erin threw a major fit. He had to leave because it looked like the usher lady was just going to throw him, Pooky and Danny out. So they spend the rest of the hour in the car in the parking lot. Both Erin and Danny screamed and Andrew fumed.

After the ceremony I received my Naturalization certificate and went to search for my gang. I finally called Andrew and discovered to my surprise that they all were in the car. I was slightly bombed that Andrew missed the event, but oh well. It is done! We are done filling out tons of forms, driving to Taylorsville for fingerprinting, getting cashier checks to pay INS (the most bothersome part, ha ha) and supplying bank statements, lease contracts, medical records and whatever else would proof that we are really married.

To celebrate the end of this journey aunt Theresa hosted a party! That was so sweet and kind! The theme was red , white and blue starting with decorations and ending with the menu (hot dogs and apple pie including , of course). Theresa is amazing and always so thoughtful! She even prepared me a present, a puzzle (Oh, do I love puzzles! the bigger-the better! ).

I know America is not perfect, nor are the streets paved with gold, but here my voice can be heard and respected. I can practice my religion and speak my mind. I can be successful because of who I am and not whom I bribe. I can find justice and be treated as equal to any other person. I'd say that this is a pretty good foundation for happiness and dreaming!

Beebee and Co

We finally got a pet and it is arguably the BEST pet ever. It is cute, furry, fuzzy, cuddly, always ready to play, doe snot shed on my carpets, requires no maintenance and can not break our hearts by moving into the pet paradise. Here is Beebee - Erin's Eyepet! Erin plays with it, washes it, styles it, dresses it, draws with it, does challenges and has tons of fun. In case you wonder how it works: there is a camera and a motion controller. The eyepet sees the motion controller and can see the motion, hence you can pet it, make it jump, roll, etc. Pook is busy with it during her allowed TV time. I love it because Beebee turned out to be a great leverage in having Erin get things done. When Erin turns into a terrible green monster(I think I wrote sometime back about Erin's Tasmanian devil mode), she gets no Beebee time. This happened last week and I do not even remember what her crime was, but she was banished from Beebee for three days. Ever since than she figured that she can pretend to be Beebee or that Beebee is right there invisible. So for the last two days Erin's been roaming the house meowing, hopping around and petting her imaginary pet. It is rather comical and adorable. Plus Beebee helps Erin to behave, eat and go potty. Beebee rocks!

Erin feels that she is entitled to have me spoon feed her three meals a day. I say bite me! So she kinda eats her breakfast, than for lunch enlists her friend Aliyah to come and feed her (seriously, one three-year-old feeding another!) and complains through dinner that it is too hard. According to her the only foods fit for consumption without outside assistance are the ones requiring no spoon or fork. Pook tries to involve Danny in her games more and more, though he does not always appreciate that. One of her favorites is building a fort around Danny-boy while he sits in his little play pin or exersaucer. Little Monkey tolerates big sis' building zeal until things start collapsing on his head. Speaking of Danny. He is almost crawling. He learned how to stand on his knees and hands, but can't quite grasp how to move them at the same time. He will either move his hands, or knees or will simply stand and rock back and forth until the frustrations makes him cry. His favorite food is rice cereal, squash and mango. Oh, mango makes him super animated and smiley! Still, only two teeth, but judging by the amount of drool in these past days, more are coming. Our teeny guy is finally outgrowing 3-6 months size clothes and is apparently having a growth spur. He babbles a lot and is becoming rather mobile. Through a combination of rolling and military crawl he can make it to the object of interest ( usually a controller, remote or some cord) a distance away. Just working on his teeth here...and drooling Erin continues inventing new games. Her most recent one is called a "garbage man". If I understand it correctly the point is to save your toys from the evil garbage man, by piling them onto the office chair and climbing on top of that mount. Beebee at that times sits in a purse, also stashed in the midst of the pile. Somehow even with this amount of toys these kids get bored. Erin and her friends were complaining that they could not come up with anything fun to do. In the best spirit of Bill Cosby I suggested they go wash windows, sweep the floor or scrub the bathroom. To my astonishment they got super excited, but unfortunately two 3-year-old and one 5-year-old do not qualify for any of these chores unless I want to redo them later. I wish they were at least 10, but than... they would unlikely be offering their services. They declined a suggestion of going to clean Erin's room. Well, that was too bad! Ta ta for now!

A tale of why you do not run around with sticks or fall on them!

Erin had her first visit to the ER today which she for the most part enjoyed. The trip was brought on by a laceration to her left eyelid. Poor kid was running downhill over and over with her friend Arianna in the back yard when she tumbled down. I am not sure whether she was running with a stick or just fell on one, or wood chips, here the story told by two 3-year-olds has discrepancies, but the fact is that all of the sudden there was screaming. I found Erin right outside the back door clasping her eye, crying and blood dripping down her hand. I took her inside and to my relief discovered there was no visible eye damage, but there was a lot of blood and tears. Poor Erin was really shook up and shocked by the incident. But we cleaned the wound, dried the tears, put on How Grinch Stole Christmas (Erin's request), covered Erin with a blankey and popped some corn. Arianna's mom, my good friend Karina, held Danny, who was also sending distress signals and wanted some attention. That allowed me to finally make a call to our pediatrician Dr. Wilcox (look him up in "I am a Mormon" videos :). The final advice was to take her into the ER if the wound was gaping. By my assessment it was, so we called papa and asked him to come from work and take care of the battle injury. By than Erin was totally cool and began exhibiting signs of excitement of going to the mysterious ER at the hospital where "doctor took Danny out of mommy's tummy".

Anyhow, we got there and Erin weighed in at 35 lb (That made me sad, because that means I need to chuck my bathroom scale that shows her weight at 30 lb. On the other hand I can tell myself that Pook gained that extra 5 lb in one week and that my weigh is what the scale says. Yeah, I'll do that , it's a more pleasing option!). Got a medical bracelet from a very loud medical bracelet printer and eagerly showed her boo boo to anyone who was interested. Erin was sure that the hospital will have a small bed for her, so the normal size hospital bed turned out to be not what she expected. Despite that she joyfully climbed on it shaking off her froggy rain boots she chose to wear to the hospital (they've been her footwear of choice for a while even though it hasn't rained much lately). She was examined and the doc recommended we do one stitch with a local anesthetic. At that point Erin was still happy to be sitting on this hospital bed. I was impressed with her accepting medical help when I can't make her even take some Tylenol at home.

Danny and I stepped out as there was not much room in our corner of the ER, plus I do not do well seeing skin stitched up. Erin was, as the nurse called it , turned into a hot dog bun by being wrapped in a blankey with her arms straight. Andrew held her on the bed, nurse held her head and the doctor did his thing. Erin began screaming, and probably regretting coming to the ER, only when a needle meant to save her the pain of stitching, poked her. That's when I began padding Danny on his bum trying to calm Erin down. I am not sure how Danny's bum padding would do it, but for some reason that's what my hand kept doing. Anyhow everything was over in a minute or two and Erin's mood improved. Partly because a nurse presented her with a teddy bear and a sucker. Than, my child, said she needed a mirror to see her eyelid, after that she wanted to show the fixed boo boo to her friend Aliyah.

Anyhow, all is well now! Erin's got her first ER trip and the boo boo should not even leave a scar.

In the evening Pook floated in the tub in Danny's blow up bath, blew bubbles through a straw and felt perfectly happy and content.

Here is a close up of the boo boo. And as a piece de resistance! A confession from Miss Erin made at 11 pm: "I want to tell you the truth. This is my life! I just don't know what to do with my nap time!" I assumed she was referring to the fact that she was still up at 11 pm. Oh, she was also yelling "I can't do this!" when the doctor was injecting her with anesthetic in the ER. Where do these pearls come from?

Ta ta for now!

Giddy days!

Winter is over! Finito! Kaput! We are happy! Erin, Danny and I used the first warm day this March for an outing to the duck pond. We went bearing a gift of 3-year-old rolled oats to treat the ducks. Erin and I covered the shore with this special treat and Danny watched. Apparently ducks like oatmeal.

This is obviously not a duck in the photo below, but our friendly neighborhood muskrat. He joined the feast and was the bravest of them all attempting to get close enough to snatch the oatmeal bag from Erin's hands. I put an end to his advances though, by making Erin retreat. The creator might have rabies and has big teeth!

Danny got his first slide ride and discovered the joy of swings! Swings made him giggle and laugh. Second time around I am a wiser mom and did not send Danny down the big slide all by himself (unlike Erin at this age, which she was rather upset about, ha ha). We did the short one together. I figured we'll start there and progress to the bigger ones.

Erin was showing Danny her toys and he spotted a few that were of interest to him. They played together and I actually had a chance to escape downstairs and secretly eat a cookie. Shhhh!

Danny is almost 8 moths old and has been sitting for about a month. He sports two bottom teeth and puts them to good use eating his baby food (as long as it's not green peas). His favorite is rice cereal, but don't you dear put formula in it or he won't partake. Baths are super fun and wet nowadays-the little guy discovered how fun it is to splash now that he can sit. The first time he got to sit by himself in his little blow up tub he splashed half of the water out. Erin took care of the rest by pulling the plug while I took Danny into the room to dry. Unfortunately she did not take in the account the location of the tub- the bathroom counter. I heard the sound of a homemade waterfall and saw Erin fleeing from the scene of the crime. Andrew came running upon hearing my yelling for towels. He ran into Erin who headed for her closet, ha ha. I like that she wants to be helpful and now knows why you don't pull plugs not over the sink, ha ha.

I love these baby cheeks!

Ta ta for now!