Books

We recently purchased these books for Aaron. They're very good and I would recommend them to anyone who has young children:

[Aaron might be a little young for this one-he hasn't seen it yet-but it describes everything about how our body is built and how it functions on a kid's level. Beautiful pictures. Very interesting]



[Awesome book about animals. Colorful, big pictures, has lots to offer for an exploring mind]



[Excellent source for a parent who didn't grow up in the US culture-that is me. It offers lots of rhymes, songs and folk tales that American parents should know. I find the songs on youtube and Aaron and I sing along. Besides, it talks about a preschooler's development and provides some guidence to the parents. I thought it was meant mainly for parents, but Aaron likes to sit down with me and look through the pictures that accompany the rhymes, songs and tales. The book is broken into several sections, including art, science, history...And though I am not the biggest art connaisseur, I enjoy going through it with Aaron. It's amazing how many details he can spot in a painting that I don't pay attention to. Also, it's a great way to develop a child's language skills offering him an opportunity to talk about a painting.]

I would caution parents, though, that DK First Reference books (like the first and second ones) support the evolution theory. You don't find it much in the books but every now and then there is a line about how humans came from monkeys:) We're not sharing that with Aaron right now, and when he gets older we'll use it as an opportunity to tell him that it's deception.

Our sweet little Aaron

Oh, where do I even begin to talk about him. He is the source of the greatest joy, happiness and encouragement and at the same I often feel discouraged and overwhelmed. I am definitely feeling a lot of "perks" that come with this age. And I can't help but be surprised how different his personalities can be from day to day, how 2 opposite natures can combine in one humanbeing. Some days he's the sweetest boy I've known: loving, caring, attentive, compassionate, independent (in a good way), and then there come the days when I just don't recognize him and wonder where all THIS came from. Sometimes I get discouraged not knowing how to find the way to his heart to change his behavior, rather, his attitude. But I keep pressing on because I know I'll reap later what I sow now. I understand that it's a critical period in his life and this behavior is typical for this age, but nevertheless, that doesn't make me feel better because something still has to be done to correct this behavior and attitude. His negative attitude is directly mainly towards me, not so much towards Cliff, and I haven't seen him acting out with other children at the playground (at least, not yet). I wonder if that's because I spend the most time with him enforcing rules, so for him it's like a battle for power and control.
I just pray and pray and pray for wisdom to raise him a Godly man.
New development in his eating habits: I stopped spoonfeeding him anything a couple of days ago. So far not as bad as I expected. And indeed, it worked for the benefit of everyone.
Last night was rough: our neighbors' car alarm went off twice(right under Aaron's window). I slept in and we all missed church. So, we decided to do home church with Aaron. We read the story about David and Goliath from Aaron's children's Bible that Uncle Carter and Aunt Becky gave him, discussed it, sang a song "Only a boy named David" and watched the Veggie Tales cartoon about David and Goliath. Aaron enjoyed our home service:)

Finish Line

I guess I am officially in my 3rd trimester now. Hopefully the finish won't be for another 3 months but I bet they'll fly even faster than the rest of my pregnancy.

I had my 28 week appointment today and was tested for gestational diabetes (routine testing). I don't know the results yet. The baby girl measures at 28 weeks as she should be, her heartbeat was 152 beats/minute. She's moving and kicking and I think she moved into the right position with her head down because I feel much stronger kicks under my ribs. We'll see where she is in 1 week...I am having another ultrasound. The reason for that is my frequent contractions in the past week, which neither I ( I had the same with Aaron) or the doctor seemed to be concerned about but he decided to be on the safe side and ordered another ultrasound to make sure I am not progressing yet. By the end of the day I sometimes have about 4 contractions/hour. They go away as I rest (which is only when Aaron is resting) and I don't feel them at night. It seems like my doctors order an ultrasound for anything:) Not a big deal except that taking care of Aaron in the middle of the week and in the middle of the day while I am at the doctor's is not always convenient for Cliff's work. But...it's better to be safe than sorry.

Last weekend we enjoyed a visit from Greg and Cathy. Aaron (and us) was so happy to have them here. On the weekend we went to an airplane show and had a good time there. The highlight for Aaron, though, was the military Hummers. He got to sit in one of them and I later regreted letting him do so, as he was very upset to have to get out of it after about 1 minute because there was a line of other kids waiting to try it out. I will probably post more about our little man and his new developments later. Will try to upload a video here in a second.

Pickles before bedtime

is a very bad idea.
We decided to grill hotdogs for dinner tonight. As Cliff was grilling outside Aaron was running around on the patio getting excited that we were going "to have a picnic". Everybody enjoyed their dinner outside and we shared about 5 pickle slices with Aaron which he loved. Ever since then he doesn't stop asking for water. So, now I wonder how many sheets and diapers I am going to change tonight and if I am going to get any sleep...

Update: It wasn't too bad. He had an accident at 5:30 am, almost right before he usually wakes up. He did have a hard time going down. Cliff was putting him down for almost 2 hours. After 1.5 hours of surfing internet in the hallway, taking a short nap on the floor, Cliff decided to come downstairs thinking that Aaron was already fast asleep in his bed. Not a chance:) As soon as Cliff came downstairs, Aaron ran up to his door and called out: "Papa!" I thought it was cute that he was calling out his papa, but Cliff kept asking me what the deal was:)

A new haircut

Yesterday afternoon I decided to give Aaron a haircut. No, I didn't get carried away. I knew it was going to look something like this:) I felt like I was getting worse and worse with my haircutting skills and I thought it was a good time to "reset" his length and try it again when it grows back the same length. I still can't get used to this new look. It feels like he grew up about a year with his haircut. Not like he needed a haircut to make him look older than what he actually is...I went shopping for some girly clothes this morning and found lots of good stuff which Aaron approved. Sometimes I wonder how much he understands about his sister. He bring up his little sister in conversations even when I do not talk about her. Does he really believe in what he's never seen? Like this morning, he came up to my belly and said "Hi" to her, then he said he was going to read his book to his baby sister. He calls her by name which means we are most likely to keep the name we already picked for her. At the same time I wonder how he will act when the baby is actually here. I watched him interact with Vitaliy: at times he'd be gentle with his baby cousin, bring him toys, give him a hug. Then other times he would want to sit on his cousin who happened to be crawling by, or push him away. I know, though, that ultimately he'll be the kind of a brother that Cliff and I teach him to be.
Not much new with our little Miss. She's growing fast. I gained about 14 lb since the beginning of my pregnancy. I am 26 weeks pregnant and am very thankful to God that He's allowed me to carry her this far.

Summer In Pittsburgh

Aaron and I spent a week visiting Seriy and Jules and the boys in Pittsburgh. We had such a great time and felt very welcome there. Thank you, Jules, for delicious homemade meals and for being such a wonderful hostess.
The past week was full of new discoveries about Aaron. I didn't see Aaron playing so well with another child. He loved wrestling and playing with Nikolai, and just doing things together. Also, Aaron's sharing skills were put to a real test and I must say they need some work:)
There are many pictures that I opened a new album for (Summer in Pittsburgh). Here are some of my favorites to summarize our time in PA.

24 weeks

Little Missy is now 24 weeks old in utero. I had another ultrasound yesterday to check her heart (the tech couldn't examine it at 20 weeks as she was all curled up). We praise God, everything looks good. Her little heart was beating at 138 beats/minute. I think she was resting during the exam but usually she's a very very active baby, especially at night:) I could see her opening her mouth, her little fingers were near her face. During the exam she was head and feet up in the air, like a gymnast. Once the sickness of the first trimester passed the time started flying fast. In 4 weeks will be my last appointment of the second trimester and after that I will be seeing my doctor every 2 weeks. I try to enjoy every day of this pregnancy but looking forward to holding her in my arms when the time comes.
As far as her name, we keep going back and forth. At the moment I think we have decided but that could change by the time she's here:)


Her big Bro is doing well though we've had some troubles with his sleep (should I had mentioned anything about what a great sleeper he was in my last post?:)) Some days he wakes up on the wrong side of the bed-everyting is wrong, he can't even pinpoint what exactly:) It's also something I am learning how to deal with correctly as I don't see this behavior in him very often. But then the next moment is all fine-happy and smiling. The weather has been hot but we're trying to hit our playground in the morning before the heat of the day, and spend a lot of time inside doing crafts. This weekend we'll be visiting Aaron's big cuz Nikolai who turns 3 today! Happy Birthday Nikolai! Aaron can't wait to give you your present:)