June 22nd, 2010 at 6:45 pm
(My Kids, New, Parenting Tip, Vacation)
So we were all having a good time on the second half (or later 1/8th) of our journey to Russia. When the steward cam around with paperwork for us to fill out. I had almost forgot about this part, you have to fill out paperwork for customs when you land, this is different from the visa you need to as well. Since we are all Americans, even though we are all related and all, each person would need their own paperwork. They had run out of pens, by the time they got to me, but fortunate for me, Sergey had found a pen that I had confiscated on the last plane. Usually they like these things filled out in Black or Blue ink, well they would just have to do with a gold paint pen, with sparkles. I figured the worst I would have to do would be to re-wright it, and I would at least have a perfect copy to for them.
Lucky for me Olya had given me a sample filed in with explanations, because the form is all in Russian. It also ask all of these annoying questions that no one has memorized, such as: Passport Number, Date of Birth, Start and End of stay (OK I could be exaggerating, but I now know my passport number almost by heart, which is kinda like memorizing it). Also for some reason each form must be filled out twice even though it is the same questions and answers. Thought I believe the reason it is so small is so it can fit in your passport.
But I managed to fill out all four double forms with time to spare, my secret technique, ignore the children. I just told them I had more important things to do. Sergey kept throwing stuff on the floor and asking me to get it for him which sucked because he was in the row in front of me, and after a few times I just told him I didn’t have time to do it, because it meant putting all of the sippy cups back, and stowing all the passports and papers.
After we land I let everyone go first, and the stewardess helped me with Sergey, who claimed that his legs did not work anymore, then he sat in front of me and had a meltdown. I was briefly temped to run him over with mini stroller carrying Xavier, but resisted.
Once we get to the customs area / border patrol (vague but you get the idea), there are two options to get to the main floor, stairs, or escalator. With Xavier firmly buckled in, and our marching order expressly laid out we took the escalator.
Parenting Tip: If you don’t know you can, take a baby on a stroller on an escalator, and be completely safe, the trick is to keep the baby and stroller above you at all times, so when going down, as in the case above, I walk backwards onto the escalator, pulling the umbrella stroller behind me.
At the bottom there are several lines, seeing that we are in a line with a red sign that is all in Russian, none of which I understand, I ask the lady in front of me if this is the Russians Only line. At first she says no and that we are all fine, then a few minutes later she tells us that we should be in a different line. No biggy, I was the last person of the plane, so it is not like someone skipped me. Then an official woman (everyone is wearing military uniforms, well the look military to me) points me to a line that is empty, so I get to go from the back to the front (go me).
We enter a stall with a locked gate at the end, how do I know it was locked; Damien and Sergey spent most of their time trying to force it open, and announcing every so often “hey it’s still locked”. I mad them sit down several times but they managed to walk on their butt cheeks back to the gate, when I finally got them to stop messing with the gate, the took closer note of their surrounds.
Damien: Why are their mirrors on the ceiling.
Sergey: Hey there is a lady up there looking at us.
Meanwhile the lady in the ceiling was going over my gold glitter pain pen paperwork, I was hoping she would be easy on me with three kids. Then an overhead metal door started closing behind us, and the gate in front of us had not yet opened (things that make go “oh crap”). Lucky for me she didn’t ask me to re-do them, just handed them back to us, she probably just wanted us out of there.
Now all we have to do is get our luggage, except that there are only two bags and we are supposed to have three. the was a lost luggage desk, but there wasn’t a line, there was more of an angry Russian swarm. In Wisconsin we are all about lines, if there is a line, we just get in it until told otherwise. While waiting for the buzz to die down, Grandma and Grandpa showed up at the doorway, then the kids went all crazy and started running around. The grand parents took the kids, but the boys ran back into the room and started running around until Xavier got hurt. Since they couldn’t come into the room, and the boys didn’t want to leave, I took them out of the room along with the two bags that had arrived (big mistake, never leave the baggage zone without first reporting your bag lost). When I went back to report my lost bag, I was given the third degree by Russian Lady at the desk, fortunately my father in-law was there to help explain things, after 15 minutes of and three different desks staffed by women waring three different uniforms they had located our luggage, and it would be sent to us the next morning.
Yea! Except we had forgotten to take along an extra car seat which we had planned.
Oh well, I would worry about that after I had some sleep.
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June 21st, 2010 at 6:50 pm
(Damien, My Kids, New, Parenting Tip, Sergey, Vacation, Xavier)
Well I made it to Russia.
Apparently if I didn’t go then the kids couldn’t go either, so I definitely had to go.
Problems started before the plane left the gate.
There was a freak thunderstorm that hit the area, my first clue was that the plane was shaking and rocking. While this is fairly normal behavior in the air it is quite surprising on the ground when partially protected by the airport and boarding ramp. That is when we got our first delay for about 40 minutes.
Then after the storm, there were no workers allowed on the airfield far an additional 15 minuets after the last lightning strike.
Finally we made it to the runway and we were third in line, then second in line, then first in line and we just sat there. Apparently it was OK for the other two planes to take off but not for us as the tower was not giving us a flight number, so the plane could not take off.
By this time I was already on my second bag of candy just trying to keep the kids under control.
I had a special harness for Xavier to wear that made his seat belt secure (since yes he did have his own seat, it’s an 8 hour flight. The extra seat came in handy for sleeping and wrestling.), Xavier just screamed his head off the entire takeoff, so I lifted up the armrest between us, and hugged him as best I could and sang songs to him as best I could, it worked more or less.
After that I just asked for a lap harness for Xavier since that is where he wanted to be anyway.
The lap harness is like an extra belt that loops through your belt and can be buckled around the child to keep the secured. Mine kept slipping off, which is a real pain trying to recover from the floor while holding a baby on your lap. My suggestion is to loop your belt through the lap belt twice this will stop the lap belt from slipping off, it may seem awkward but it much easier than fishing it off the floor every time you undo your belt.
Damien spent the time either drawing, watching movies, drawing, sleeping or drawing. Thanks honey, for packing the colored pencils and coloring books and drawing pad. Sergey didn’t want pencils or crayons, so on one of his journeys throughout the cabin he found a marker (yellow highlighter), which he proceeded to use for coloring purposes, and then complain that (under the low light of the cabin) it didn’t look like he had done anything. Xavier was a pain most of the trip, yup that is about as nice as I can put it.
When going to the bathroom I would have to take Xavier, so after waiting in line, then sitting there doing my business, I hear Sergey wandering up and down calling for me. That was a fun conversation I am sure.
Sergey: Papa, Papa where are you?
Me: I am in the bathroom.
Xavier: Whaaaa.
Sergey: Papa what are you doing?
Me: What do you thing I am doing?
Xavier: Whaaaa!
Sergey: Papa I want to go somewhere?
Me: We are going to Russia?
Xavier: Whaaaa!
Sergey: But Papa I want to go outside?
Me: We can’t go outside it’s against the rules?
Xavier: Whaaaa!
Sergey: But why?
Me: Because we are in an airplane, at 37,000 feet, and if we go outside we will fall to our death, and if for some reason we don’t die from the fall the sharks will get us?
Xavier: Whaaaa!
Sergey: But I wanna?
Me: Can’t this wait till we get back to our seats?
There were lots of other children and babies on this flight and mine were the quietest (go me), I was actually getting compliments from other passengers and attendants on how well behaved my children were. One thing I did do is really crack down on the boy when they put their feat on the chair in front of them, since that is a peeve of mine being kicked in the back for hours, I thought I should try to spare other the pain as much as I could.
Luckily our second flight was after a two hour layover, so we didn’t have to rebook.
The worst part was that in Stockholm, the airport proper is much higher than the plains which means that there are escalators used to get down to your plane. We were the only people in sight when we entered the boarding area. I noticed the escalator and was in the process of gathering my things so I could carry Xavier down, when I turned to look at the boys, Xavier (the brave one) had decided to step on while the other older boys looked on, not sure if it was safe to enter. So I ushered the other boys on in front of me so as not to leave any stranded at the top. Now Damien had been doing a great job with his own carry on that was sized for kids and it was light as it mostly had his coloring supplies and jackets. When Damien got on the escalator it nudged his bag at him, as he tried to correct the problem, the bag came loose and headed down the escalator right at Xavier’s head, there was nothing I could do but swear, so that is what I did. Xavier had through the escalator was a ride so he had sat down to enjoy it, you could tell he was happy as he was singing to himself and bopping his head. Then SMASH the little carry on that could blasted him right off his perch and sent him face first down the last few stairs of the escalator, lucky for him that he had a big head start as there was not far to fall, but it looked awful. Damien was immediately apologizing and say it was an accident, but I knew it was and let him know that I was not mad at him, just at what happened. Xavier just lay there crying as the escalator churned on. He has some scrapes on his chest, but they look like they will heal, and he was acting fine before I buckled him into his seat.
I’ll pick up here later.
3 Comments
April 27th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
(Damien, My Kids, New)
Damien would like to take this time to let everyone know that he no longer wants a baby brother.
Brother Sergey is OK, and Papa and Mama are OK, but Xavier is right out.
According to Damien “I like playing with brother Sergey but not Xavier, he is no fun I don’t want babies anymore Papa, I just want big little brothers like Sergey”.
“He is not cool” says Damien when asked about his brother Xavier.
Why is he not cool? “Because he keeps following me” says Damien.
Also “He keeps taking all of my legos” adds Damien.
Damien’s solution:
Damien: “Put him back in the baby store”.
What about Sergey?
Damien: “He is my best friend”.
4 Comments
March 9th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
(Damien, Swimming)
Damien’s first day of swim class without a parent.
Damien was fine I on the other hand had to force myself to turn him over to the instructor at the door. Two of the other Mom’s decided to carry their child all the way to pool side, which only made the separation worse.
Damien was the most positive and fearless student. You could clearly hear him answer with an enthusiastic “YES” to each request the teacher had, like who wants to jump in the water, or who want to swim with a fun noodle.
The most fun for him was when he learned that he could bounce off the bottom of the pool, so that he was not in immediate fear of drowning.
He pretended to “fish” with the fun noodle while waiting his turn to swim. Then he got the other kids to join in. He hasn’t hit anyone yet, yet. Then he pretended to lose his noodle accidentally on purpose, just so he could reach for it and fall in on “accident”. Mostly so he could bounce off the bottom some more.
Damien swam back and forth, with his fun noodle, on his front and on his back, and didn’t panic or freak out, I was very proud of him; even though he was with the teacher all the time.
When it’s Cally’s turn, he tries to fish her out of the pool with his fun noodle as she swims back and forth.
2 Comments
March 8th, 2010 at 10:59 am
(Linkety Goodness, New)
I have lots of Russian Learning tapes, but they are getting old, and tapes degrade overtime, even if not being used, so it is time to copy them over to MP3, so I can make CDs of them for the car, or for a music player or phone.
Also cars no longer come with a tape player standard, you have to ask for the special, and soon if not already they will no longer come with a tape player.
I used to have a tape player walkman but after a few hours of looking, I decided to just get a new one. Turns out Walmart only has MP3 players, and CD players, the only Tape Player they had was an older desk top model that comes with a microphone, then I just needed a cable to connect the the “phone” out on the tape player to the “mic” in on my laptop.
My laptop prompts me when I connect at cable to the mic, if it is a “microphone” or “inline” connection. For my purposes I select “inline”.
Originally I tried using Microsoft’s Media Player, to make the MP3s but since I am still on XP (not wanting to go to Vista), the “Plus!” addon that I would need was discontinued, though Microsoft did suggest that I update to “Windows 7″ which they claimed had many fun solutions for me, but was not more specific.
Instead I downloaded a free audio program “Audacity”
Below is the source
Free, open-source audio recorder and editor for Mac OS, Windows, Linux, and VST plug-ins. … Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. …
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Then I need an other program to save the files as MP3s called “Lame” with is an add in for “Audacity”
I did need to link these together, but only the first time I used it.
http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php
To start open Audacity, click “Record”, the press “Play” on the tape player.
To stop press “Stop” on the tape player, and “Stop” on Audacity.
Audacity’s Noise Removal Effect is ideal for removing constant background noise such as tape hiss, electric fans or hums. It will not work very well for removing talking or music in the background.
It relies on your being able to provide Audacity with an audio sample containing only the noise you want to remove, not one containing music or speech mixed in with the noise.
Select an section of the recording that contains just the hiss noise, using the mouse.
Under the “Effect” menu, select “Noise Removal”.
Click the “Get Noise Profile” button.
Select the entire audio file under “Edit” > “Select” > “All” (or you can press “Ctrl + A”).
Under the “Effect” menu, select “Noise Removal”.
Click the “Remove Noise” button.
I trim up the beginning and end of the file by deleting all extra dead air, I only leave about one to a half second of dead air at the beginning and end of the recording.
After that just export the file as an MP3, under the “File” menu, and give it a good name.
There is also a wiki page for Audacity
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Audacity_Wiki_Home_Page
2 Comments
March 6th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
(My Kids, New, Sergey, Uncategorized)
Well Sergey is out of diapers during the day, but at night he is still in a diaper, so that he will not wet his bed.
Yesterday he woke up with a dry diaper, and asked if I wanted to know a secret?
“Yeah, good job, how did you do it”, I asked?
“I peed in the bathtub last night”, he said with a smile.
The bath with all three boys in the tub.
Well at least it’s sterile.
1 Comment
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:52 pm
(Damien, New, Talk, Uncategorized)
Well Damien has been diagnosed with a “Language Disorder”, rather than a “Language Delay”. A language delay will go away with time, however, a language disorder is there forever. On the plus side we know what we are dealing with and while language will always be difficult for Damien, he would still be able to graduate from college, some aspects will just be more difficult for him.
If you think about language as a brick wall, most people use various bricks to build the wall they need at the moment. Damien is having a hard time seeing the bricks in the wall, he just sees walls, so he tends to build prefabricated walls.
The way to help Damien is Speech Therapy, which will help give him a wider range of prefabricated walls to use, as well as special tools for Damien to begin building his own walls.
Originally our insurance was not going to cover the the Speech Therapy, because even though Damien was diagnosed with a Language Disorder, the insurance company classified it as a Language Delay, which they don’t cover.
Well Olya kept after the Insurance company, and no we have the go ahead for 40 sessions next year. Our doctor is suspicious though, so she has scheduled only three of them so far, and they take place every other week, just in case the insurance company changes their mind on covering it, at least we won’t be out too much money.
I am just happy that Damien is getting closer to getting more assistance that aid him in communicating with his peers and brothers.
5 Comments
December 22nd, 2009 at 10:41 am
(Damien, My Kids, New, Sergey, Xavier)
I decided to take notes on paper about what the kids do, because as soon as I go on my computer, they they start acting out. So with a note book, I can just jot down some things while I am watching them, and the note book in much more portable, and takes less time to set up, no spell check but those are the breaks.
Currently (as of this writing) the boys are acting great. Damien is reading a book to Sergey, while Xavier is spinning himself silly in the swing. When the story that Damien makes up is over, they sings songs, such as the ever popular “ABC’s”.
Sergey is actively encouraging Damien to read to him, he often takes several of Mom’s books off the shelf and sneaks them over to Damien for translation. Being as the books have no pictures, Sergey has no idea what the books are about, but that doesn’t stop Damien he doesn’t need pictures to make up a story, just a book.
Xavier did make a big mess by grabbing a container of crayons and dumping them on the floor, then trying to spread them around evenly. It is partly the other boys fault as well, as one of them did not put the crayons far enough out of Xavier’s way (this is something that we have been working on with them for some time, so it is expected).
![DSC_1369[1]](http://billtheannoying.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/DSC_13691-300x199.jpg "DSC_1369[1]")
Since they are so good now, I don’t feel like busting them at the moment that would send the wrong message, I just wait for them to act badly, I don’t expect it to be a long wait.
Minutes later…
Everyone was given a plastic container, and told to pick up the crayons. After a brief legal battle with Damien and Sergey, cleaning did take place, even Xavier helped pick them up.
5 Comments
December 21st, 2009 at 12:35 pm
(Damien, New)
A while back we went to the Dentist with the kids.
Damien was not on his best behavior, as he would not open his mount for the dentist to get a good look.
So we will have to take him to a dentist that focuses on children for him.
The kids all got new cleaning kits, complete with toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss.
When it came time to brush teeth, a fight broke out over who would get to use the green tooth brush.
Since Sergey was given the green toothbrush by the dentist, and Damien the blue one, we decided to stick with that. Needless to say Damien was not happy with this. That is Damien’s logical thinking reared it’s ugly head.
“Papa I can’t use the blue tooth brush“, said Damien, “It’s broke“. Damien held up the blue tooth brush which now had a 90 degree bend in the neck. “See“, he said, “I have to use the green one because this one is broke“, and he made a grab for the green toothbrush. “No it’s OK“, I said, “it just got bent, by accident, here let em straighten it out“; so I straighten the blue brush out, and used it to clean his teeth.
The next night the blue brush was broke again, on this time more permanently, he had snapped the head of the toothbrush clean off. So I brushed his teeth with the broken end of the blue brush and still wouldn’t let him have the green toothbrush.
The day after that, Damien had to go to the bathroom, but since Sergey was in the downstairs bathroom, Damien decided that he must use the bathroom upstairs. After a few minutes I checked on him, and found him closing the drawers in the bathroom, and running out as soon as he saw me. After a moments inspection the coveted green toothbrush was now also broken, having it’s head removed.
So that night during teeth brushing time, we talked about how you can’t just break things to get what you want. I also gave Sergey a new (more solid) green toothbrush, and continued to brush Damien’s teeth with the broken end of the blue toothbrush. After brushing I put all the toothbrushes away in the linen closet, because even though the new green toothbrush is more solid, so is Damien’s determination, and I think the toothbrush would lose that showdown.
I did tell Damien that if he is good, that Santa will probably give him a new toothbrush.
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December 19th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
(Damien, My Kids, New, Sergey, Xavier)
So I let the kids out to play in the snow, after they got in their snow suits.
A short time later I hear an “Ow!” First from Damien then from Sergey, then alternating back and forth.
When I check to see what is going on the are both standing under the eves of the garage, and looking up.
Me: What are you guys doing?
Sergey: Icicles are falling and hitting us in the head.
Damien: Ow!
Sergey: Ow!
Then the both laugh as water drips onto their faces.
After that they wanted the colored chalk, so I got that out for them.
That is when Xavier wanted out, so I had to get him dressed, in his snow suit.
Of coarse that is when Sergey wanted to come in, so I told him to ask his brother to open the door for him.
Sergey: Damien open the door for me.
S: Damien! Opeeeen the doooor for meeeeee!
Damien: I hear you, I’ll be right there.
Damien open the door for Sergey.
S: Thank you.
D: Your welcome.
Then Damien and Xavier color with chalk outside.
Damien was doing a very good job making a picture of a tree house, I think it is form “Go Dogs Go”, do to the giant ladder that he had going to the top of his tree. He also used lots of different colors, in making the pictures, and was able to tell me a (very) brief story about the picture.
Xavier had fun adding to the picture as best he could.
Xavier didn’t last long, but it was a start. It is always good to get the kids moved to different activities and if possible a different local.
3 Comments