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One thing that upset me the most is how kids not speak Russian. Kyra used to be absolutely amazing, speaking full sentences 10 words in each. Main thing that she wanted to. Now.. she does not.. At all. I have to fight with her to talk to my Mom in Russian. My parents are very very upset because I not only orphaned them from grandkids but also they do not speak their language. I am sure later in life they will wish they did but it will be too late..

Brandon keeps asking to take him to Russia. I really hope that sometime I will. I wish so much to show them where I grow up and show that there is another world beyond the one they know.

Good Times

What a good day today we had. Kids were off school for Easter break, so ,me and Kyra watched Finding Nemo in the morning, learnt how to sew buttons with Brandon and he had Wesley over and then we went for Kyra's haircut. There Brandon so intently was looking for my attention actually asking me if he could sit on my lap. Heck, YES! He is almost 8 and I can imagine it will not last long so yes, he can sit on my lap for as long as he wants! :)

When we got home, boys went to baseball practice and me and Kyra played Go Fish (she taught me) (I lost twice), Old Maid (each of us won once), we danced to One Direction's Let me kiss you and just were silly.
I love those times. It does not take much to show love.. Play, be silly and just be there. I love my kids so much!!!!

Brandon's Girfriend WIll Be A Lucky Girl

Besides liking and being able to cook, bake and fix things, put toilet seat down :) Brandon expressed interest in sewing last night when I was fixing Kyra's bunny who had a hole on his back. I asked if Brandon would like to learn how to sew buttons (yes) and here he is.. Sewing mine on my work pants which needed it.
No child labor, I promise :) he is just that good on his own :)

Kyra's Annual Haircut

Somehow it happens that Kyra had her haircuts in March. This time, just like last year, it was the end of my many months patience. I kept telling her that she can not scream bloody murder like that every time I brush them. Finally that day came that I can not listen to it anymore. I felt terrible because I LOVE her long hair. They are simply gorgeous! But I had to stick to my guns... They are short now till her chin. She is still same pretty little girl.

A New Pet

Jimmy took kids to the store to get Brandon a hamster. Kyra calls him Hammy (which she usually does just adding -y to the pet). He has 3 floor house and seems like adjusting ok, just very loud at night.

He bit Brandon because he tried to get him out before he was allowed to and he bit Kyra who was putting a water bottle in his cage, but probably put her fingers in as well.

Now he loves to be finger fed but we did not take him to our hands yet.

Weather Is Crazy

I wish I had more pictures of the town my parents live in (I do not) but weather there got absolutely crazy this year. Last summer they did not have rain. This winter they have snow, snow, snow. Water level right now is 2.5 times higher than should be. I hope at the dam nobody will make a silly mistake that can cost them a lot.
Here are two pictures of how much snow they have at their house

Chester!!

Kyra tell me every single day who got Chester the raccoon. Every day she hopes it is her. That is what she and Chester did this time she had him.

Teeth Are Everywhere :)

Brandon's first front tooth, after exactly 5 years being out, finally in and almost the whole way. Can't really see on this picture, but his second one came through too. He looks so much older with this new tooth. Just imagine how will look after both of them are all in!

How Many Squinkees?

Kids each have a few packs of them - about 70 or so each. They are so cute, I love them myself. Kyra shared with me some of hers. Of course, we had a few tears because kids traded some and wanted back and another person did not want to give them back. Now the rule is - no trading. Peace and quiet :)

Lego City

It is Brandon's favorite place where he keeps some of his Lego creations.

Kyra - Reading Level

She is the only one right now who jumped to level 5. Keeping her for a year longer definitely is paying off! Proud of her!

Third Tooth For Kyra Out And Funds Urgency

She kept on checking if this tooth was ready to come out and it was not and was not. Eventually she was ready. Funny thing that it is not top big tooth. It is 3rd one in the row on the bottom. So, since Brandon got the first one out, Kyra got 2nd, she asked me but I am afraid (yes, I am) so she asked Jimmy. He wiggled it a little bit to start the process and Kyra got very impatient. With a sense of urgency she said:
- Oh come on, Dad, pull it out, I am low on funds..

Really??? Did not even know she knew that phrase.

Silly Tooth Fairy, in her note she said that it was Kyra's second tooth. I get Tooth Fairy get overworked too! :)

Roughhousing Buddies

One of their fav deed of all times:

Kyra Sleepy Head

When Kyra comes over to sleep with me, she grabs my hand and does not let it go if it is at night. Here, she wanted to sleep with me even though I was still not going to bed (reading).
What a cuddly, pretty girl she is! Love her to many pieces!

Book And Sleep

As soon as I picked Brandon up from school, even before he said hello, he asked me to take him to Hershey library to get some book. Usually I have to talk kids into going so I was very happy Brandon asked me to take him. He had the whole list of topics he wanted to take books about. I directed him to the shelves where to find them and then he wanted to go to big kids section. He picked two books (one was Harry Potter) and I said we could take the books if he would be ok for me to look up to see if they are age appropriate (there is no way to tell in the library).

When we got home and I checked, I said he could not read two books: Harry Potter was recommended for at least 10 year old and another book was about a boy whose parents were murdered and he had to go into hiding from the gang. Why would any child want to read a book like that?? It would give me nightmares just to think about it, which I told him. He was upset he could not read them but at the end he was ok with that.

Around 9.30 when I was reading in bed, Brandon came up to me and said I had been right and he was having nightmares from the book (he did not read). He asked if he could sleep with me (yes) but I would have the light on. He did not mind it. I forgot how he sleeps with his eyes half open (or half closed?)
I love him to pieces!

Snow Surprise

Me and my Mom were talking about weather and how ridicoulously lot of snow they have this year and that I do not have a single picture of the kids in the snow this year (because we really did not have any). Two hours later.. We got it. A lot. We let the kids stay outside from 5 till 6.40 just to play in the snow and neither of us minded them having supper an hour later. They both ate like there is no tomorrow.

The first thing Kyra did when she came out - of course, she ate snow.

 Then made a snow angel.

 And don't forget do gymnastics :)

 Brandon was building a fort :)

Stuffed Child

We were talking about Jenn O having their third child a couple days ago. Kyra asked if I slept with her or Brandon when we were in hospital.
- Yes, I did.
- Oh, just like with stuffed animal!!

Yeah, sort of :)

First Date Deed

- Kyra, where do you think you will go for your first date?
- Umm. May be Easter egg hunt.. Or kissing in a movie theatre..

I wonder where she hears things like that sometimes..

Lunch With 2nd Graders

Brandon asked me last night if I could come to his lunch today. (Of course, I would!). We sat across Katie and Valerie (I guess, Brandon's fav spot to be :)

I can understand why he is so wind up when he gets home. Not because it is loud, but just with all the excitement and craziness kids talk. They make up silly jokes, especially like "Why did the chicken cross the road" etc.. I really enjoy this time. Kids grow so fast and hopefully I can come over for couple more lunches this school year :)

Math and Comprehension

That is interesting how kids' education is going. First, in the beginning of the year 2nd graders started doing comprehension tests for fiction and non-fiction. For the first time in all school time Brandon got below proficient (68%). Ms. Hommel assured me that he would get better as they learn strategies on how to do it and will do more tests. What do you think?

Today he brought another benchmark test - with 94% total - Advanced.
Comprehension fiction 7/8 =87%
Comprehension nonfiction 7/7 = 100%
Written response to reading 3/3 = 100%.
So proud of him!

Math, on another hand, has been another Brandon's strength, where he is ahead with his rocket math, but there is one type of tasks that he has trouble mastering. Example:

A boy saves quaters. Their number he saved is between 300 and 400. It is an even number. The number of the quarters is the sum of two of the numbers below:
215      248     137     226     182

It took ME awhile to figure out. And that is what they learn in 2nd grade! Crazy!! Tasks are the same, just numbers are different.

What I wonder is how Ms. Hommel teaches them theory while seeing that one of her best performers can't get the concept. Jimmy will go over them with Brandon this weekend and hopefully, it will help although for some reason I hoped Ms. Hommel would step up.

Me and My Lil' Man

With how much time Brandon has been spending at his grandparents, I really enjoy spending time with him when he is home. Last night we did homework together, played ball and then I asked him if he wanted to help me make mac-n-cheese with baked beans and ham. He did the hard job making sauce, the entire time mixing it up. We talked about stuff and cooked. I LOVED it.

After supper I asked him if he wanted to ride his bike outside and he asked me to get mine out. I have not ridden mine in about 3 years, I think. I got it out, he checked my tires, put the air in, showing me how to do it and then said I was good to go. My little man is growing - already being able to get our bikes in order :) 

We both rode and I was in heaven :) to ride with him and actually ride my bike, I missed it so much :) 

And we finished the day going upstairs earlier finishing reading one of Junie B. books and starting a new one - reading for 40 min. I love our reading time :)

Such a good day :)

Roller Skating

This past Saturday we went to Docs Family center to roller skate as Cub Scout activity. How interesting that both kids, having no experience, took different approach to roller skating. Kyra got up and took off. Very clumsy, but took off, going slowly. Brandon took off but he was falling a lot because he just wanted to go as fast as possible :) Both of them fell more when they paid attention to their surroundings more than how they were skating :)

In the middle of skating, they both asked me to take them here again because it is a lot of fun. On the way home they rated their experience, both agreeing that they would give roller skating 10, Disney 9 and Main Stay 8.

 Brother and Sister

 Brandon and Tucker

 Brandon is trying to be fast :)

I guess it should mean that our possible vacation should be pretty cheap, knowing Disney was only 9 :)

Brother To Have

What do you think Brandon is doing? Since Kyra can only take out her earrings right now, but can not put new ones in, Brandon is doing it for her. What a brother to have! 

Love

It is interesting how Brandon shows his emotions - he is too tough to say I love you, I care about you. But he does show it. Yesterday Jimmy was trying to get me to give me a kiss and Brandon was ready to sacrifice his sister so that his Dad did not get me (Dad said he would attack a girl on a chair and Brandon told Kyra to go quickly sit on a chair). He protected me for at least half hour :)

Right before bed, I finished brushing Kyra's hair and reading a book with her on the rocking chair, when Brandon climbed on my lap just to sit there and rock. I love him so much!

Who Has Got A Tooth Coming

After exactly 5 years (to the month), Brandon finally is getting his front top teeth. Hop-hop, hooray!

Girlie Time

While boys were at the cabin, I was with Kyra. What heaven was to have off on Saturday! I do not remember the last time I had off at the busiest time at work. It felt awesome :)

We did many things together with Chester - we played bord games, did scrapbooking, made 4 place mats as a craft, stopped at antique store and went to Hosse's for a big lunch. Since I do not go out for meals with family because I work during the weekend, I could see such a huge difference with how Kyra handles it - she got her food practically all by herself and was ok sitting at the closest booth while I was getting food for myself.

We drove to Staples to laminate our place mats (one of them them seriously messed up) and rented Hop the movie at Redbox.
I gave Kyra a bath and washed her hair with not a single complaint from her. :)

When we got up in the morning, I got some dishes to do and Kyra went downstairs to play in the basement with dominoes. At some point she asked me to come down and that was what I came down to:

I really enjoyed our girl time :))))

Brandon's Cub Scout Cabin Overnight Sleepover

Initially Brandon wanted to go alone but later changed his mind asking his Dad to come too. They did have fun and when asked to rate his experience on scale 0-10, Brandon rated it 7. He said 3 things would have made it 10:
- if fire was not in his face when he was attending to it
- if bunk beds were not shaky
- and if cabin would have been heated.
They took two hikes, one very long one on the first day. Jimmy had to put pillows under Brandon's feet because they were so sore.

 Hiaya!

 Handsome guy :)

 Playing Sorry with Andew King

Level 4

Kyra is on Level 4 for reading. Yay!

Cub Scout Meeting

Kids met at school the other night and had 3 activities planned (besides learning about different summer camps which Brandon said he would like to go). Theme was healthy life style.

Cooking was the first one - kids made healthy fruit smoothie and made pancakes. Brandon was impressively good about flipping them over.

Second one was pretending setting a campfire (stones around, wood with air to flow), then building real camping tent and playing a few board games inside of it. 

 Third, doing some physical exercises. Just a very different, fun filled evening :)

Popping The Question

Hmmm... Should I be worried that Kyra keeps telling me that she will ask Kellen or Winter to marry her, because it does not matter that boys should ask - Nanee asked Pop. She already pops a question if she should be the one buying a ring then.. Waaaaaaay to early to even think about..

K is Ready for Dr. Seuss Month

Left to Right:
Baron, Emma, Zachary, Victoria, Matilda, Hannah, Lauren, Kyra, Maddy, Matthew
From the door to the right:
Megan, Chayenne, Abrianna, Lyla, Winter, Brady, Kellen, Carter

As much as Brandon wants to spend his nights at N & P, Kyra wants to sleep in my bed. Here she is all snugly with all the necessities :) Actually I have to say that is as minimum as I ever seen her climb into bed with :) 

Squinkies

Years later kids will hear the question if they remember those :) First there were silly bandz, now Squinkies. Both kids have a lot of them and from different sets. Typically you can put them on pencil top. Kids exchange/let them borrow at school. So cute :)