A World of Firsts

Logan has had many firsts in this past week. His first time flying was a smashing success! Despite only sleeping for 45 minutes the entire 10 hour flight he was a happy guy the entire way. God certainly spared us and the passengers around us from a very long 10 hours! Logan's first time in car seat was another success! He slept almost the entire way home from the airport. After a few rocky days he seems to be settling into riding confined! Logan's first time in nursery at church was another success! Yeah! I am thankful that he seems to be ok with being passed from one person to another, at least for the time being! His first time meeting his grandparents another success! The first time my dad held him, Logan laid his head on Dad's chest and sighed like he was happy to finally be home! So cute! He has really enjoyed being at Garrett's parents, the constant attention from Grandma and Grandpa constantly brings smiles to his face. Yesterday Logan met Mommom, my grandmother. It was a great experience all around. In the past 3 weeks Logan has gotten 3 teeth! He's been a real trooper through the whole ordeal, but I think we are both looking forward to a little reprieve from this new development! OUCH! Logan's favorite first was driving the car!

Going Home

This is how Logan feels about his first ever transatlantic flight...

6 Months!!

It's quite a milestone, 6 months. It's funny how time works, on one hand it's hard to imagine (or remember) life without Logan. He's such a integral part of our lives now. On the other hand it seems like just yesterday that he was so tiny he was swimming in newborn clothes. Well, the swimming in newborn clothes days are LONG gone! Logan is a healthy young boy weighing in at just under 20 pounds at his 6 month check up. He took his vaccination shot like it was a tickle. We decided that his hefty thigh had no trouble absorbing the little pinch. He is quickly outgrowing all of the 9 month clothing I have and would easily devour up to 4 ounces of peas, pumpkin and apples at a feeding! We love our little guy and look forward to many more milestone moments.

More on Solids

Gotta love red beets!

Our Sashay into Solids

Yummy pumpkin!

We Are Penn State

Thank you Savoys for making it possible for Logan to show team spirit!! These are Logan's various game day faces.

Go Phillies Go!!!

Our Little Man is 3 Months!

Music

Some dear friends and fellow missionaries are leaving Ukraine. While in their cleaning frenzy they practically gave Garrett this wonderful guitar! It has been such a blessing to us to enjoy music and song together with the great addition of the guitar!

Logan 2 months 4 weeks

Click on the picture to see a slideshow!!!

Getting Bigger by the Second

Garrett was gone this past week at the annual English Summer Camp. (more on the actual camp in our July update). Logan and I stayed home and enjoyed each others company very much, but Logan (and I) missed his daddy. When Garrett got home he couldn't believe how much Logan had grown. I notice Logan's growth, but I'm sure it seems much more drastic when you don't see him everyday. We went for Logan's 2 month check up and first round of vaccinations and found out he is in the 50th percentile. He's a healthy, growing boy and we are SO thankful for such a beautiful blessing from God!
No posing necessary, I think we have a little ham on our hands!

Loving gymnastics and strength training with Daddy!


Our little family

Our First Art Project

Logan surprisingly enjoyed getting paint all over his hand! I can't wait to put my college degree to good work and try all the other fun activities I've learned along the way!

On the Metro

Thought you might like to see this video of a good friend playing guitar on the metro. This is his job. Enjoy!

On the Metro from Cellar Media on Vimeo.

Logan - 4 weeks

Here's our little Sumo wrestler. He's gonna love this picture when he gets older!

Logan really likes his cool new sneakers from Jed. Thanks!

Love, Alfalfa

Word on the street is that as a baby I had a little sprig of hair that stood straight up. Apparently, according to a very reliable source, my mom tried everything, "spit, duck tape, super glue" and nothing served to keep that hair down. Well I'm not sure if "sticking-up-hair" is genetic or not, you can be the judge!

Logan

Logan's First Outing

Today we took a trip to the Kiev Zoo. Logan loved seeing all the animals and cool things! Well... actually WE loved seeing all the animals, Logan slept the entire time!

Meet Logan Charles

He was born on Thursday May 20th and we're all home safe & healthy!

Now Let This Be a Lesson to You

When you are not able to run and the weather forecast says rain always always always take your umbrella, even if on one side of the house the weather looks promising...spring thunder storms are never predictable!

I'm sure every Ukrainian woman I quickly waddled past, as the rain came pelting down on my way home, thought I was a very negligent young girl! Next time I'll take my umbrella! (Although I do have to say that I saw at least 1 umbrella blown completely inside out on the way home, so it might not have done me any good...)

Playing the Waiting Game!

All the baby clothes are washed and folded up neatly.
The crib is ready...
all the tiny socks are paired and waiting...
the pack and play is ready...


We are so excited we can hardly stand it! Tuesday makes 40 weeks. The house has been scrubbed, the windows cleaned, food staples purchased for weeks out, what else is there to do?? Now we just wait and enjoy the quiet of our little apartment for the time being!

Finally!!!

The picture posting dilemma has been solved, thank you Garrett!!! So now to make up for lost time!

19 weeks

21 weeks

28 weeks

34 weeks

Easter Sunday with our friends Katia and Sasha

Question of the Week

How did you manage hip pain while pregnant? I've read lots of advice about pillows, my bed is full of them, there is almost not room for Garrett anymore! It's kind of unwieldy turning over with all the pillows, but they do help. I've also been taking lots of warm baths. Any other suggestions from those who have gone before?

The baby bump grows

I can't believe I'm already reaching the 30 week mark! I don't know if this is a special time in the schedule of things for pregnant women in the US, but here in Ukraine it is a benchmark which calls for lots of test! Next week I get to have a whole new blood panel done where they will test for everything under the sun along with a wonderful urine analysis, a KTG, another EGK, a visit with a General Practitioner, an ultrasound (the 5th one so far), a meeting with an obstetrician, and a routine meeting with my prenatal doctor. All in all it adds up to about 3 hours of appointments and tests!! But I'm not complaining they certainly like to have a handle on things!

Unfortunately the blog won't allow me up load pictures (not sure what the point of a blog is if you can't upload pictures?!?!) argh...
So I posted some new pictures on facebook.

Kristen

Ukraine Election

On Sunday Kristen and I went with a friend to the polling station while she voted in the Ukrainian Presidential election. There was really no difference from voting back in the State's, except that they use paper ballots instead of electronic ballots. Because there were 18 candidate's on the ballot no one won a majority of the votes and so a runoff will be held between the top two on Feb. 7th. Viktor Yanukovich got 35% and Yulia Timoshenko got around 25%. Here's a good article about the election if you're interested.

In spite of all the disillusionment with this election it is encouraging that Ukraine, for the first time, held an election where all seemed to go smoothly and there weren't widespread reports of fraud. Hopefully Feb. 7th is the same.

Baby Stuff

So I've been thinking that now is the time for action. At 21/22 weeks I still have the ability to travel easily and comfortably, so I thought I should get out there and scout out all of the options for baby. Then I thought hmmm... maybe I should create some kind of master list of necessities before I just go out and look. So then I thought I should ask those who have gone before me what have been some of the things that have "saved you" in bringing up your own baby. What are some things you would suggest any first time mom have to make life a little easier? I've gotten some great feedback from my sisters and friends; boppy pillow, thermometer, humidifier, "booger sucker", finger nail clippers, receiving blankets. Do you have any suggestions? What made life easier for you after baby arrived?

Basket Weaving Extravaganza!

Our family and friends at Covenant Church in PA sent us a huge package for Christmas! A large part of the poundage of that package was basket weaving supplies! As I was singing for joy over such a treasure a couple of the ladies on our team asked if I could teach them how to make a basket. So the ladies on our team all got together one afternoon and had a basket weaving lesson.

Thank you Cindi Teti for the pattern for Pretzel Basket! There were 5 women and 2 girls who participated in the event. The 5 women tackled the Pretzel Basket and the 2 girls (Alison and Natalie Eide) made a Tea Bag Basket together. I was extremely impressed with outcome seeing as none of the ladies had ever made a basket before!

I marvel at the creativity that is inherent in each of us. It comes out so clearly in basket weaving (I'm sure in other things as well, but for now basket weaving is enough). 5 ladies were given the exact same supplies with the exact same instructions and 5 completely different baskets were created! One was square, from base to top, square, another square on the bottom and oval at the top, another square at the bottom and round at the top, another tightly woven bottom making the outcome much smaller, but still quite handy, and another made with a continuous weave (which made for it's own unique intricacies)!

I'm planning on posting pictures, but for some reason our blog has not been working to post pictures...
So if all else fails, I will post the pictures on Facebook.

Thank you to all who sent basket supplies! It was a wonderful day of fellowship and creativity. There is something very special about having a tangible thing to represent the love shown by others. Thank you!!!

With much love and gratitude,
Kristen