December 19th, 2007 at 10:13 am
(Damien, New, Sergey)
This morning, Damien was being an extra pest when it came to getting dressed.
Once his pants were on {and nothing else} he got up and walked away from me with his pumpkin full of toys.
After several attempts to convince him to come back so I could finish dressing him, I got frustrated, and tossed his undershirt at him, and told him to put it on himself, since he didn’t want my help.
Damien put the pumpkin down, picked up the undershirt and started putting it on, by himself. he did pretty well he had one are through on sleeve and the shirt was even on the right way {something I don’t often do on the first try, curse you tagless shirt}. His problem came when he tried to fit his head through the other sleeve. But with a little help from Dad he was able to get it on {literally}. I was so proud of him, I picked him up and carried him around the room as we did a little happy dance, Sergey even got in the some enthusiastic clapping and dancing of his own.
The I shoed Damien the trick of putting both arms in the sleeves of the shirt before you put it on, so the second shirt went on much easier.
It is so nice to see them growing more independent one step at a time.
So far he can put on his own pants, boots and shirts, but who’s counting. 
2 Comments
December 14th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
(Dan)
Me and my brother have been playing email tag for awhile, about when we are going to get together, over the holidays {see below for an example}. So I thought this blog might be a good place to sort all that out.
Some things to consider.
1. I have to work the 28th, for some end of year database stuff, but other than that, I am kinda open.
2. I would like to go Tree hunting with Mom and Dan if possible.
3. The great extended family gift exchange has been canceled as far as I know, but we will be getting presents for the little ones.
4. Not sure on the family gift exchange, what we will be doing, but Mom and I talked about toning it down, or removing it entirely, except for the boys.
I look forward to your comments.
==================================================================
Besides, the 24th/25th when I’ll be ‘doing x-mas,’ we can hang out. I think it makes sense to hangout in bunches, in order to lessen the transportation to-and-fro. In that vein, here is a suggestion: we hangout 1) sat & sunday the 22 & 23rd; 2) midweek (assuming you can take the days off) wed, thurs, & fri the 26, 27 & 28th; and then again around new years. I’m just throwing that out there, it can be more or less depending on your schedule.
Anyway, very excited about seeing you, Olya and the boyZ.
- D
On 12/5/07, Bill wrote:
> I can have off most of the days that you are in town. Let me know
> which days you want to spend with your bro.
>
> My plan is to game Friday evening, but that is the evening, I can have
> the days free if you like.
>
>
>
> Bill
4 Comments
December 14th, 2007 at 10:08 am
(Damien, New)
Damien can not only remove his sleeper by himself, he can also take off his pants and put them on by himself {assuming the shoes are not in the way}.
This is a big step toward potty training, so I am very happy to see him handling his own dressing and undressing.
1 Comment
December 10th, 2007 at 11:30 am
(Bath, Damien, NaBloPoMo, Olya, Sergey)
As you may have noticed I took about a week off from posting after NaBloPoMo.
My SPAM rating dropped to 4.2, what a wakeup call, I try to get it up to double digits.
My Aikido test Saturday went well, except that I tore the skin on the bottom of my big toe, and started to bleed on the mat, which is a big no no in Aikido. I was told to just put some socks on, which I did by running to the locker room, in the back, only to learn that I had left my socks with my shoes today, so I had to run back out and across the mat to the front of the building. My Sensei said not to worry, because the other three people testing with me were glad for the break {some of them even thanked me afterwards, and asked if I could do it again for the next test}.
Originally I had wanted to hold off on testing until spring, and then try to double test. However, my sensei said she thought I was ready to do the first test now, and that I have already not tested long enough.
I made several mistakes on my test {other than bleeding, which is not considered a mistake}. Mostly forgetting to Atemi {a fake attack to the attackers face}. However as she said the first test it to see if the student gets the basic idea of Aikido, {which I do}, and has the basic movements down, {double check, though my technique still needs lots of work}.
Olya missed all of my testing because the kids started to freak out, just before my test began. We were there at 9 AM, and my test did not start until 10 AM, or later. The kids were OK initially, but the just got so bad at the end, that Olya had to take them out of the room and into the building entrance.
To make up for all the hard work she put in, I bought Olya lots of chocolate.
Then we went to the [work] Christmas party. Where Sergey was afraid of Santa, and Damien, was brave enough to approach him on his own. Sergey got a truck with tools on it, which Damien tried to commandeer initially. Damien’s name was called almost last, and he was starting to fall asleep on the floor. No surprise, because both boys kept us up LOTS last night.
When Damien’s name was called, he walked up on his own, and sat on Santa’s lap by himself.
Damien got a red dragon, with flapping wings, and biting action. Both the boys fought for control of the dragon for most of the weekend.
Then home and a nap for Dad, then dinner, then a bath for the two of them, changed into their PJ’s, and off to another party.
Surprisingly the boys did not want to leave the living room, once at great grandma’s house. This wasn’t because they didn’t have the energy, or weren’t hyper. So they stayed in the room, and rolled around on the floor, and made several sorties at the Christmas tree. This just goes to reinforce the idea that our tree will again be up on a table, where it is not so easy to get at.
2 Comments
December 4th, 2007 at 10:32 am
(NaBloPoMo, New, Olya)
The rumor of our divorce is exaggerated. {Gotcha} 
Sorry for going to long without posting. I was sick yesterday, and didn’t feel like posting. And with NaBloPoMo over, I felt like taking the weekend off.
Olya and I resumed work on baby #3, we have not conceived yet, but I have vowed to keep trying.
For Christmas we used to do a name exchange, but this year we have decided to forgo presents for all adults, so no name exchange. This year Christmas will be about getting together and having a good time, and spoiling the little kids rotten.
I am still waiting for my brother Dan to tell me when he will be in town so I can ask off for those days. Presently he has certified that he will be in town around Christmas. I am sure for lawyers such as himself, this is a risky statement with laser pinpoint accuracy, but for me it is still to vague.
One thing Olya and I would like to do is visit our friends more, we are going to shoot for visiting someone somewhere once a week. With Olya’s parents coming next week, this won’t start until late January.
9 Comments