Welcome Back

So I think that I may start blogging again, as if I don't have enough to do.
It just seems like such a nice way to stay connected and also attempt to write something on a daily basis.

Don't know how far back I should try and catch things or just start from today.

The oldest four are in school, which is so wierd to see Ibrahim get on the school bus, they all seem to have adjusted well back into the routine. Ishmael is in 6th, Idreis 4th, Inayah 2nd and Ibrahim in KG. One funny story that happened this year in kindergarten was on the second day of school and the class was going over the alphabet, they were on the letter B, Ibrahim politely asks, "Teacher, where do babies come from?". I received a warm email from the teacher about that one. Mother is also in school, I am taking three classes at Augsburg now. The schedule is very hectic with school and then all the outside activities that the children particiapte in, football games, gymnastics and overnights swamp our weekend. I really don't know how I even manage to get it all done. So thankful for all the help I get from family and friends.

The weather here this week is beautiful, the sun is keeping us so warm, suprisingly I haven't even turned the heat on.

The Last 24hrs in Kiev

I cant imagine morhters who don't have their children.. Ishmael and Idreis left this morning with K for a 4 day road trip, we will be back in the States when they return. Ishmael had a bit of a cry last night and we stood and hugged for a long time. The fact that I know they wont be ringing the doorbell anytime soon, puts a little ache to my heart. I did not think I would miss them so much already.

We took a stroll down the the big store to pick up some goodies for the plane, the children played in the play area for the last time. There as a bully in there who would not share one of the swinging toys, and do you know these three little chickens, had the nerve not to fight back.. The boys would swat at them and even tried to spit once. The only one who attempted to hit him was Isa, and when he did that, the boy pushed Isa down, he got right back up. There on the sidelines... Inayah and Ibrahim... just staring.. Inayah did try to hit at him, and Ibo did more punching at the punching bag then at the boy. I thought to myself, as much as you all, wrestle and box and hurt each other at home, here is a chance for you to jump this little chunky bully and the two biggest fighters.. dont want to fight.. This is after I saw how the other child was treating them, and gave them permission to do some stomping... Peace once, Peace twice, and on the third Peace.. the other party just didnt get it, so get to whooping some ass.!

Packing the carry-on luggage and picking up the little bits and pieces that we dont want to leave behind. I have been thinking of the time spent here and wondering if I will miss my lifestyle here. I think that I will. The freedoms that I am going back to are such different ones, then the ones that I am leaving. Also back to the single-parenting for a few weeks, and less two children. It should be interesting. I do have to admit, part of me will miss living here and the experiences and times we all shared together as a family. Which makes sense, because that was the driving factor for making this journey in the first place.

Inayah and I walked up to Athina and ordred the last of the pesto, salmon and soup. We then walked to the underground and purchased some scarves while we were waiting for the food to get done. Beautiful day here, sun is shining, will probably go walk up the middle before it gets dark. Isa is napping and the rest are having quiet time.

Ms InaraArlene On Her Way

Ms. Inara Arlene

Inara is such a delight. She has been learning some new dance moves and loves to bounce and bounce to the beat. She has mastered drinking out of a cup and anytime there is food around, you can find her begging and yelping at your leg for a bite. She enjoys playing with all the children. Every morning when Isa wakes up, he has to come in and give her a hug or kiss, if she is awake. He just smiles at her and says, " Hey my pretty girl". She has also learned to climb the stairs and so we have to catch her, usually on the second or third stair. Otherwise she just yells and yells to the children from the bottom step. She loves to go outside and most times we can soothe her crying by just taking her to the window. She also has learned to stand up briefly. The best part is when she falls, she just laughs and smiles and gets back up. Determined little girl. She definently knows who and what she wants. The other night she was crying and crying and as soon as she saw Khalid, she just reached for him and stopped. She also lets Idreis sing her to sleep, such a sweet sight to see. They all seem to want to crawl into her playpen and play with her. She still loves her pacifier and luckily we have not lost it. That clip works great.

Yougurt... I must be in heaven

I just love this stuff they call chicken.

Sun is Shining

What a difference a day makes.

Morning started very slow and Idreis had to finish his homework while eating oatmeal. That is just how it goes some mornings.. I went back to sleep for a bit, Isa played on http://www.starfall.com/ a very good sight and has online books that he can click and be read to. Love that.

Cooked a very nice brunch of cheese omlette, oatmeal pancakes and cornbeef hash. I found the corned beef at the grocery store.. That will be my first and last time eating that over here. It looked too muchlike dog food coming out of the can. It tasted ok.. of course.. because I was cooking.. but I think I will have to wait to get back to the State and go to Good Day Cafe.

Isa spent part of the early afternoon painting and Ibo shooting hoops.. He reminds me of Ishmael running around in our Storrs, CT apartment.. We went for a nice walk up the middle and did some 3-D chalk painting on the sidewalk. A truck drove past, windows down and hiphop music playing loudly. The driver and passenger had shades on.. Ibrahim just looked up from his chalk work, made a face and waved them off. I had to laugh.. That boy is a hot mess!

School kids home and Ish and Dreis are off to pick GramaLene up from the airport, they also have basketball tonight so depending on the time, they will drop her first or get dropped, just depends on the traffic.

We put a homemade bird feeder up on our patio, but have had no visitors, me and K had a good laugh about what the neighbors who can see it are probably saying about us. Either way Ibrahim spends time looking out the window to see if any birds have came.

Spring Is Not Here!!

I would love to tell you all that it is warm here and that the sun is shining. This is just not the case. It has been snowing the past three days, not a lot, but even the fact that as I am typing I can look outside and see flakes coming down... the sun at least has somehow been popping out of the clouds here and there. I was looking at my last blog date.... what happenend to the days, when I got on here and blogged every day? As if I am that busy here... (NOT). I am going to try and recap the past few weeks.

Idreis turned 9 on February 27th, we had a nice birthday party for him while my mom was here, the cake was great of course. Another Jessica original. Isa also had a birthday on March 6th, and is now three years old, yet when you ask him, he is still two. We went to Arizona restaurant for his birthday, the non-smoking section was full, so we sat in smoking for 2 hours... Not good at all, he is very sensitive to smoke, which I forgot.. and so even today he still has a cough, but nothing compared to the wheezing and coughing the first few nights after..

Ibrahim has lost this tooth and also the other bottom one. He pulled both out by himself. Very proud to have joined the Toothless club. He sounds so funny talking without them. The tooth fairy also made a visit and left him 5uah which he went to the store and bought some M&Ms and a juice box.

We all went iceskating, minus Inara and Isa. I had so much fun, I dont think I have been ice skating for like 10 years plus, I was out there like a natural. Suprisingly, I did not fall once. Ibrahim did great and so did Ishmael, although he is still getting the hang on trying to stay on top of the skates and not use his anjles to balance. Idreis probably would get the flopping and falling award, as he found enjoyment in just going as fast as he could and wiping out. Inayah found some ladies who wanted nothing more but to hold her hands and skate around with her. The time she did fall, she must have landed really hard because her knees were purple and blue that evening.. she may have some type of disorder... bruising easily is a sign of what?

Ibrahim and Isa have continued with their weekly swimming lessons, the past two weeks Isa has had no interest at all in the class. He usually has a male teacher and the past two times he has had a different instructor and 1/3 way through the class, he is ready to get out... Ibrahim on the other hand has progressed tremendously and is ready for any swimming outings this summer. We also had a nice family swim when my mom was here, and the children all enjoyed swimming with her (like old times at the YWCA). The sauna was my favorite, and something that I surely need to incorporate into my workouts. Speaking of, I have been trying to get to the gym at least four days out the week. The cold and snow sometimes make me lazy as I have to walk up to the hotel, but I have been making a strong attempt to get there.


Inayah had a "Spring" show at the school in which she sang He's Got the Whole World In His Hands.. since then she has been practicing My Girl and also a song from The Wizard of Oz, determined to be in a pagent this summer, so if anyone knows of a local pagent in MN, please let me know.



Idreis also did a history show about WWII, he was the British Prime Minister, it was a very nice show and I enjoyed the music and also the gas mask scenes. School is going good for all of the three. Ish and Dreis will be in summer school this summer. I just want to make sure they haven't missed too much. They also started here late and just being on a different school system, I think it would be best.

Eggroll Party!

The sun was out today and it was beautiful to have the rays shine down on me. What a difference a day makes. We went on a long walk to the park. We have to go underground at some street corners to cross the street. I saw some bulbs in a basket that I want to go back and get. If Spring is coming, then we want to be ready. It will be a nice science project as well for the childrn to watch them bloom.
The park was full of children playing. Isa and Ibrahim had a great time, throwing snowballs and Granma Kris and Randy.. Little did Ibo know that GK will throw snow balls back. Isa was so delighted to be able to ride the horse at the park. He has been wanting to do that for some time now. We had our usual hot chocolate too, without the swimming class.
We could not really decide what to do this evening and decided on an eggroll party! It was fun, only Inayah and my mom and me handled the business in the kitchen and Inayah is offically the wonton princess. Ibrahim was so delighted at dinner, " I love these!.. I mean I love these". Ishmael skipped basketball tonight to stay home and hang out with us. My mom brought the Gang of Four game with her, so Idreis and Ishmael have been getting their rounds of cards in as well. The owner came by the apartment today, alawys unannounced.. to check and make sure the celings were not leaking from the melting snow.. She is a nice lady, we somehow manage to communicate. The handyman will be here at 10am tomorrow to fix the three doors that we have broken... I am ashamed to say that we have still not shown her the bed.. I could barely tell her about the doors and felt so embarrassed to have to show her the next two after she was already in dismay about the kitchen door.. I just pointed and Ibrahim, since he is the one who has broken them all anyways.
Speaking of broken... thanks to Isa and Ibo the Wii is officially out of commision.. I think they tried to change the game and didnt know what the hell they were doing, and so now the disk just goes in and comes right back out... We are all bummed. I am going to try and return it since they gave a 2 year warranty.. we will see how that turns out.
Idreis has a birthday party for a friend afterschool tomorrow so we may all somehow end up there, it is at some place called Blockbuster which is like an enterntainment center. They have bowling, rollerblades and wall climbing.. should be fun.. Not sure what the day will be like. I just hope the sun is out again.
Thank you to R.E who has me blogging again, so nice to get the words out of my head and to be writing again.

Okay so I can't say that I have been too busy to blog..
I have been too lazy to blog.. The cold, gray, dreary winter days are not my companion.
We have been spending our time just getting through the days.
Swimming for Ibrahim and Isa has been going really well, Ibrahim may be in the Olympics some day, he is so athletic. Isa burned his left hand on the water dispenser in the locker room, two dime size second degree burns, one has busted and the other just keep expanding like a balloon. I hope it pops soon. He was in so much pain while walking home, agonizing every fifth step. I popped cranberry pastry in his mouth every mention of, " Ouuuuccchhh, my hand hurts".

Idreis is going to participate in the spelling b at school, they have literacy week at school. Also all three took a trip to the International Library here. Ishmael had his first official fight at school.. very interesting.. As the story goes, boys playing at recess, a classmate of Ishmael's was punching another classmate, and Ishmael decided to defend his friend. Which begins the altercation.. Ishmael was punched in the mouth. Idreis was observing the whole thing and was glad to be the informant for once, letting us all know that after Ish was hit in the mouth, "He went Mike Tyson on the boy and punched him like this, and like this!!". Ishmael says," I was defending myself and my friend". I reminded him that no one wins in violence.

Khalid is off today so we plan to do some running around and go get Ibrahim passport renewed.

Ibrahim has been on youtube this morning and was so excited to come and show me the Chimpmunks singing, All the Single Ladies

In this corner we have.... Isa the Beast and... in this corner we have Ibo-Deebo

If Isa and Ibrahim have one more fight over the Wii... if they arent fighting about which game to play, they then fight about who goes first.. this morning, Isa threw the wii remote on the floor and that ended the game... Last time, he hit Ibo in the eye with it.. Morning moved on.. and eventually we made it out for swimming class. It went well, Ibrahim is really coming along and swam across the pool the short way all by himself, his instructor Mrs. Tanya is really great! She pushes him hard too which he needs, today Isa went under water and had a good time retreiving toys off the steps, he had a new male teacher today which happened to be Mrs. Tanya's husband! We walked home via the park and the hot chocolate machine but not before we stopped by a bakery in part of the hotel and picked up a few goodies. The weather today was fair, not really cold but a nice winter day, we stayed a bit at the park. By the time we got back home and undressed, the door bell rang and to my surprise it was he school crew! It was 4:00pm already, we had left for swimming at 1:30pm, didnt seem like we were out that long.

Dinner was quick grilled cheese sandwhiches and carrots, I also made a trip to the sushi spot with Idreis afterschool, so they had that as well. While we were out we picked up a new camera and also a printer! Finally!, so I will be sure and post lots of photos tomorrow, as soon as I get it working. Luckily I had the guy swith the camera to English so I should be good to go.

Best part of the day was making it back to the gym for a work-out! So nice to have that quiet time to myself.

We have also been working on our Black History Month books, we did not get a chance to do it this evening because the boys went to basketball and I was away, I may try to get up early in the morning and do something with them. Last night we studied Frederick Douglass and also KRS-One, children enjoyed watching Self Destruction video , definently took me back to my younger days.



Very proud to say that the website for my book has also finally be launched.
www.thecollectionpoetry.com
It is not only a way to promote the book but also a way for poets and writers to connect.
So we should see how all that turns out.
Also so glad to have Khalid back home!!!

First day of Black History Month !!

Having an extra child around (Inayah) twists things up a little bit in the morning. Oatmeal all around for breakfast, even Inara had about 1/3 cup, and enjoyed every bite. I have been doing the homemaking since I woke up, folding clothes, washing clothes, picking up, cleaning Ibo room, which he at least helped, straightening, etc.. you would think Khalid is going to be back tonight or something..

Played Wiz Kidz with Inayah, you pick 2 cards, one has a letter, and the other has creative questions. So that was fun, she has quite the imagination, coming up with yoga mat, for Y/item in the house.. she also kept score so we got some of the math in for the day.
Headed to the super walmart to pick a few things up for dinner and also out of toilet paper..
hoping to leave Isa and Ibo in the kids gym, ironically when I turned the calender to February, I had written kids gym... so I guess I am right on schedule.

Hoping to do some type of activity every day this month with them to celebrate Black History month, Ish is supposed to search for scientists at school today during free time and also reading about Sojourner Truth. If anyone has any good ideas or websites, please comment.

Headed down to catch the taxi now.

Last day of January

We had a busy and great Sunday for the most part. Ish and Dreis game went well, the gym was very old, made me very grateful for the school systems in the states, the floor was old wood and had so many soft spots in it, also during the game, cement pieces fell off the wall... I was like okay... good thing none of that fell on Inayah and Isa who were climbing up the bars a few minutes earlier.
After the game, home for a quick lunch of spagetti noodles and cheese, apples and chicken from last night.
Back out into the Kiev traffic to atten a birthday party for a boy named Igot in Nayah's class.
It was at a place with lazor tag, 4d movies and lots of games, similar to Chucky Cheese, needless to say they all felt at home there for sure. Inayah left us to go with the party goers. Ish and Dreis wasted some points of the card, being afraid to go into this dinosaur shooting game.. Ibo and Isa had a good time in the kids maze. Fun time for all, I even got the high at the basketball game (of course).
Dinner was a bit of a joke, as the fridge is pretty bare.. I threw together cheese tortilla roll-ups, apples slices, and grits!! The grits were the biggest hit of course. A few quick rounds at the Wii and then sent them all off to bed.

Inayah woke up at around 3am with a stomach ache, not sure if she just wanted to sleep in my bed or really felt bad. She settled for the couch and some Sprite. Luckily no vomit in the basin when I woke up in the morning. Kept her home from school (Monday)

It's The Weekend Baby!!!

Friday night with the crew, very mellow evening, Idreis and Ish had practice, I did not cook any dinner.. made them all fend for themselves. Bagels were delivered earlier today and we had a block of cheese. One of those evenings when, whatever you can find, you can eat. I made Ibrahim and Inayah eat some cream of mushroom soup.. Inayah raved on how delicious it was... until I noticed she had the whole bowl left, Ibrahim complained his stomach hurted.. maybe because he put raisins in his soup.. Isa would not eat the soup at all, "that's not soup". I had to laugh. Must have been nasty because when does Isa ever turn down food.

Took the smaller crew on a walk before the school crew got home, just up and around, the blocks are long here, I saw some red boots the other day so we stopped back at that store, they were in the window, they looked good there, because as I took a closer look, the gold brass strap was not cute at all, went to the Walgreens to get some fabric softner and shaving cream, was also able to get followed as usual by the security guard. I passed by this new sushi spot that is around the corner, but resisted, since I have had sushi for the past three days. The place is www.campai.net Weather was a bit warmer today, still winter of course, I carried Inara in the sling, she is still fitting in there and we enjoy remembering our walks around Calhoun together.

Inara teething again and gave me her cold, so I am a bit under the weather. She is pulling up on all the couches and flashes a smile when you notice her standing, she hasnt figured out how to get down so the usual plop ends with a cry. A very sensitive girl, and gets rolled around enough by Isa that a simple flop down should't hurt too much. Eating baby food and chewing on bagels, exploring the electrical sockets... She let Idreis rock and sing her to sleep tonight, very sweet.

It is 1:10am now, just finishing Ishmael's hair, he has twists, looks cute, he has a game on Sunday and needd a new hairdo... Idreis clowned at practice tonight so that will be his last one, maybe I will look into that skiing class for him. Like he told Ish, "ther's more to life than basketball". Speaking of basketball, K is on the road til the 2nd of Feb...
such a different place when he is gone.. feel like we are in witness protection program around here :). Luckily Sunday we will get out of the house, Inayah has a b-day party from school and Ishmael's game as well.

So glad not to have Saturday school tomorrow.

Two Little Fish

Ibrahim and Isa started what will be weekly swim lessons at a hotel that is about a 15-20 minute walk each way from the apartment. It was a very cold day today, but we bundled up and managed, cheeks rosey red and little dripping noses. The pool and the two trainers, were very nice, and spoke English well. The boys has a wonderful time and I had no idea how good of a swimmer Ibrahim is. The class was 30 mins long and the boys lasted without tiring. We also had cocoa from the vending machine at the park on the way home, they enjoyed that too, Isa seemed to spill a lot of his down his jacket on the walk. I thought we would get home and they would take a nice nap... that did not happen, they played the wii until the school crew arrived.

We had a nice surprise when we returned from the hotel, Khalid was home from the road, two days early. The team that they were supposed to play is no longer in the league.

So of course all the children were happy. We made pizzas for dinner with our turkey pepperoni, also had salad. Ishmael and Idreis are off to basketball, the second time for Ish, they started basketball at school today too, and he was appointed the captian of the team, so he is very excited about that.

Very happy to have K back, it is enough to handle with all of them in a foreign country and even more when he is gone. As well as having to hear Isa cry, " I want my daddy.. I want my daddy".

They are all layed on him, all of them on the floor, watching Animal Planet.

Had conferences yesterday at the school, all of the children are doing well, wasn't able to meet with Idreis' teacher, but he seems to be doing well and enjoying school. I am just happy that he is staying out of the lockers now. Ishmael needs to work on his spelling and also writing structures, not using paragraphs... So he now has a new best-friend, the dicitonary, which he is to look at afterschool for 10-15 minutes and just study words. We have Scrabble, but he seems to rather play on his laptop, and when we do play, he only seems to come up with 2 and 3 letter words... Not to blast my baby, just some things to address with him.

We made M&M cookies last night, that was fun.. Isa of course was just interested in eating the candy.

No big plans for the weekend, they actually have Saturday school this weekend, no games, so I am sure we will just be chilling here at home. I hope to make it to the hotel where I have recently become a member to their gym. Should be a good time, it is just cold cold cold here.

Seems like my feet are still cold from earlier this afternoon. Most sidewalks are not shoveled, it is very icy and slippery on the sidewalks, not sure why people dont shovel here... Some of the stores do, but majority of the walkways that we are on, are not. Isa fell a few times on the way home today.

The internet has been tripping for the last 4 days, to say the least... it seems like we cant even get on during the day, and even now as I thought I had a signal while typing this, the internet has gone in and out. Seems like the signal only stays strong like 11pm and on.. which means I have been staying up too late. Usually we have problems when it is snowing, but that hasn't happenend for at least a week. I'm nore sure of the problem, but it is very frustrating.

Game Day

The team won, the game was not too exciting and as Idreis said, " This game is boring". None the less, the children had fun, Isa was asleep by half-time, this is usual. Lots of snacks and running around before the game since we arrive so early. It was cold here today, really felt like home, the gym was also cold, and they had the nerve to have 2 heaters on, but one was only on air because if they turned the heat on, the electiricty would blow in the gym... REALLY...
we all kept out coats on for most of the game, my feet were freezing inside of my boots.

Went to Tequila House again, for Mexican food after the game, the children had ice-cream for dessert, so that was a treat, very well behaved, I was plesantly suprised.
After dinner came home and played the Wii. It is nice because they can all do it together, even Isa is learning how to bowl and he makes sure that we include him.

Inara still teething but seems to be sleeping it off for the most part, her poor gums are so swollen and red, you can actually see the tooth bulging on one side, so any day and they may pop through.

It's the Weekend Baby!!!

So the first week of school went well, I think I may be the happiest that I dont have to be up at 7am Saturday morning to get them ready and out the door.
Cooking dinner now, frying some type of fish, salad, mac/cheese, corn, and yams, and made some apple crisp for dessert.. Well that is whay they will be eating.

Ibrahim worked very well today on writing all of this numbers 1-10 and we also worked on the letter T. We also looked online at some photos of Haiti. Tryed to explain to him what is going on in the world, he looked sad and then looked at me and said, " can I get on the Wii now"... That boy. The power went of once today and the internet has been off and on all day, So I figure while its on, I will post something.

Inayah and Isa and Ibo are playing bowling on the Wii and Isa actually is getting the hang of it and beat Ibrahim earlier today, his Mii is light skinned with big cheeks, it is funny. Of course I have the bowling high of 201.

Game tomorrow, and we got our bagels for the week today, the 1/2 of one that I ate was so good, egg and cheese. Inara still teething, and just waking up now at 9pm, but she has not been asleep that long so hoping she will not try and stay up too late.

As Cube Says, " Today Was a Good Day"

The morning was hilarious, I woke up at 7:45am, Mr. M comes at 7:50am to pick them up for school... you do the math. Thank the lord for those bagels... wrapped them in paper towels, cut up an apple for the three and made sure the door didn't hit them on the way out, bad breathe all around, but faces were washed, hair not combed, no lotion, clean clothes and school bags.. They had a greatday at school too.

I had forgotten how much 2 year olds like to work.. so pretty much as soon as the three left, Isa woke up.. Of course his first words were, " I want cereal mom". Even when he does say that first I still make him say good morning. So he ate while I cleaned up the school area, which was a mess. After he ate, he wiped down the cupboards, painted and counted some Ukrainian coins up to 5. Then we took down the dry clothes and folded them, he was in charge of the socks, we washed a load and then made the bed in his room. He was very attentive.

Inara woke up during the laundry, but she sat on the floor as we folded and hung. That lasted long enough for her and she was ready to eat. Her teeth have been bothering her a lot lately, I think the top two are just about ready to bust through her gums, they look really swollen. So glad that I have the baby ambesol, thanks to Rasheedah. She just chilled all day for the most part. She is learning to play by herself in the playpen, but is sure to let us know when she is ready to get out.

Ibrahim woke up around 10:30, he slept in.. No Wii for him today because he did not go to bed last night.. He is learning to write his name so well, I am proud of him. Today we worked on the letter Y and also counting to 10 with M&Ms, that was a big hit, his favorite part was eating them at the end. We went on a walk, the weather today was cold, they went out with no snowpants which was fine, they weren't too cold. We walked up to the park and around the corner to a paper store to buy some dry eraser markers, when I was paying, one of the attendants made sure to come and tap me to get Isa, he had snuck away and was down some isle messing with something.. I told her thank you, she was not rude about it. When we got home from the walk, and started to take our coats and boots off, Ibrahim commented, " What is that smell?". It is chicken.. as I then remembered I had left the oven on... let's just say we had Jerked wings tonight, I mean they were so dry, the mean was gone for the most part. Funny thing is that Inayah has been protesting meat lately. She happened to see the wings once thawing out and saw the red and asked what it was, when I told her it was blood... She made a face and hasnt eaten chicken since, fish she will eat. Well the jerked wings must have been right up her alley because she got the hot sauce out the fridge and ate them to the bone... which she also never does.. It was funny.

Children came home afterschool in good spirits, had their baths, Ish took out the garbage.. Did some homework, ate dinner and then we watched Ice Age 3, while I braided Inayah's hair.
All in bed by 8:30pm and asleep.

All except Inara... She did not have a late nap at all, maybe 6pm she woke up, but that was after a 1hr nap at max.. Her teeth are still bothering her, I have over nursed her but seems to soothe her... Then as I was in bed online, and tired of pushing her away from the laptop for the 100th time, I remembered an old trick... a warmer than warm bath. So today she had two baths.
She loves to play and splash in the water, it was funny to watch her face and reactions when I put her on her hands and knees in the water, she did not move to crawl forward.. she took her left hand, splashed a little bit and then reached up for me.. I had to laugh at that.
So now, she is back in the bed and out of the count.. Can you believe she is 9months...

Then when all six are asleep, I hear someone calling for me, it never ends... Ibrahim awake.. Hope he didn't think he had a nap.. I brought him a glass of water and also a slice of apple which he asked for when he went to bed and I said, "No". Just a bribe to get him back to sleep, not sure if it worked as he has called me twice since then, but at least he is not getting out of the bed.

Bagels in Kyiv

I did not believe it either, but sure enough around 1pm today, the door bell chimed and our bagels were delivered. We met a man and his children after the game, they were eager to get their shoes signed by Khalid. Come to find out this family has been here for 11 years and has a bagel business on the side. We have had some cream cheese in the fridge, so we were excited!

They are acutally good too, deliveries only on Monday. The children were happy afterschool to have this for a treat and Ishmael commented, " It has been forever since I tasted a bagel".

Such a simple thing to remind us of home.



We have been relaxing and laying low this past week of winter break. The three did start back at school today, and I went to pick them up with Mr. M and the smaller children too. Idreis received 100% on his math test, he was in good spirits. Inayah and Ish also had a good day at well. The new 7am wake up was welcomed this morning, but we will see how the second day goes. Inayah and Dreis are asleep now, Ishmael has not made it home from basketball practice yet.. we are pushing 9:30pm so... hopefully he will get here soon.



We went to Tequila House after the game, it was Mexican-American but pretty good, over priced a bit, but I think that is any restaurant here that attracts foreigners.

The children behaved very well, we went with the Henderson's and Derrick too, so the children were happy to be in their company as well.



I will be doing the solo act til Wednesday since K left today to go on the road. Should be fine, just hoping to keep Ibrahim and Isa involved in something besides the Wii and Nickolodeon... I am going to look online tonight, see if I find anything happenning in Kyiv for two small rascals... otherwise it may be the indoor playland or just a walk up to the park, if the weather permits, today was slushy snow and drizzling rain outside, Isa's snow pants were disgustingly wet.

Inayah is Seven

W e had a long celebration of Inayah birthday and it is not over as we still need to go ice skating. We are hoping to do that on the 9th.

Her actual birthday we hung out at home, painted nails, danced and dressed up.

Also went on a really nice evening walk in the snow. The big boys and dad were out of town so no cake that night.



Balloons and honkers sounded as we lit the candles of a delicious cake, the frosting was so good!

Cream cheese and sugar and butter, no three things do it better. Nice cake and presents from the grandparents, spent the evening drawing.