I have finally found a moment to write an update and as usual, I find myself apologizing for taking so long to write. I have been held back for all the usual reasons. However, one of the things I have come to realize is that after almost two years of taking care of twins with two parents, I really have no idea how single parents (with any number of children) are able to function at all. If you are (or ever were) a single parent, you have my sincere and enduring respect. If your kid(s) did not turn out to be mass murderers, then you have my awe as well.
As for the Bauer clan, I think the place to begin would be just after the last update at Christmas. We finished the holiday season with New Year's and then Russian Christmas (Jan 7th). The girls really enjoyed the holiday season and never gave up trying to reach the ornaments on the tree. In fact, there were a couple of times that they succeeded and we now we have some wonderful and warm family memories of searching the floor for broken glass and wire ornament hooks. Good times.
However, the fun continued even after the holidays. In mid-January, Zoya had some business trips scheduled within the same week. She was going to fly out on Tuesday for a Wednesday meeting in Boston and then she would fly back that night and then on Friday morning she was going to fly out to San Francisco for the day. Unfortunately, she flew into Boston just ahead of the record snow storm hit the city. As a result, they were snowed in and she could not fly back until late Thursday (at the earliest), which means she would get home around 11 PM, and would then have to wake up at 4 AM to fly out by 5:30 again. Ultimately, her group from work decided to fly directly from Boston to San Francisco and then return home. That left me alone with the girls for the better part of a week. In case you skipped it, you should back up to my comments about single parents above. One thing I learned is that necessity is the mother of invention. I hope the mental and emotional scars will eventually heal (for the girls and for me).
Speaking of scars, Sophia went into surgery in mid-February. As you may (or may not) know, Sophia was born with a hole in the bones of her forehead and when the bones grew into the hole, they grew around the bubble of fluid and membrane which left her with a bump on her head that looked a lot like the bumps on people's heads in cartoons after getting hit with something. The super short version of the story is that the surgery went very well and her ongoing recovery is going well. She snapped back from the surgery must stronger and faster than anyone would have guessed, but she still has a little bump (virtually nothing compared to what she had) on her head as there is a special mesh holding the bone graft in place. It will eventually dissolve and be absorbed by her body (9-12 months after the surgery). Once that happens, she should look perfectly normal. Her hair has almost completely covered the scar across the top of her head and she acts like nothing ever happened.
Both girls are growing like little weeds. At their last check up, they weighed and measured both girls. We often think of Alexandra as the "little" one, but in truth she is at the 95th percentile for kids her age (only 5% of kids her age are her size or bigger). Sophia is pegged somewhere over the 97th percentile (that's as far as they measure… she is probably in the 99th percentile). She is just over three feet tall and about 33 pounds… which I feel in every bone in my body every time I pick her up. The run, they climb and they are very, very smart.
For example, they have both developed into little chatterboxes. They have been babbling for months, but nowadays there are more and more actual words in the mix, and they are frequently being used in a proper context. It has always been our intention to raise them in a bilingual home, so I speak English and Zoya speaks Russian. It is interesting to see how that is working out. They seem to understand just about anything we say to them in English or Russian. For example, you can point to things and ask them to get whatever it is that you are point at (or if it is something they are very familiar with, you don't even need to point… just name the item). You can also ask them to take things to different places. We often give one of the girls two of something (sippy cups, cookies, oranges, etc.) and ask her to take the second one to her sister. They always do… though the delivery can vary from handing the item to her sister (best case), throwing the item at the feet of (or at) her sister (not great, but acceptable) or showing the item to her sister and then walking past her to tease her with it (worst case). They both understand the idea of the trash can and will throw things away if you ask them.
Besides understanding what we tell them, they are using more and more words themselves. In most cases, the words they use are English or Russian. Until a few weeks ago, I would have sworn that about two thirds of their vocabulary was Russian, but then we seemed to have gone through a period where English became the language of choice. Now we are tilting back toward Russian.
For the most part, we have not really been trying to teach them specific words. Therefore, most of their vocabulary has been picked up from what they hear around them (so far that has not been a problem). The one exception is that I was able to teach them to say "please" (which comes out as "pease"). Whenever the girls wanted something, they would point to it and say "more!". Once the girls get back from Russia (more on that later), I will try to teach them "thank you".
The new year brought a new policy at our house in regards to the girls, exercise and fresh air. Up to that point, the girls exercised indoors and when we took them for a walk, we strapped them into their stroller and wheeled them around outside. We have now changed that. In fact, we rarely take the stroller anywhere because we (parents and toddlers) prefer that the girls do their own walking. The new policy has really highlighted some fundamental differences between the girls. When they are at home and free to move, they run around and act pretty similar to each other. However, when they are free to move around away from home, there is a huge difference.
Sophia is the explorer. If you let go of her, she is off and running… anywhere. She seems to have little fear and will walk right up to complete strangers and stare at them. She is also the climber. Both girls climb stuff at home all the time, but outside the house, Sophia does the vast majority of the climbing. She also feels obligated to keep moving. Alexandra is much more cautious. If she is in a new area or situation, she will stay right next to you and will not wander off. In fact she will not walk around until you take her hand. She will eventually warm up and start trying to take off on her own, especially after she has seen Sophia run around. Apparently it is contagious.
We got a couple of harnesses for situations like this (a little animal backpack that is connected to a "leash"). I have seen (and heard) some negative reactions from adults around me while using the harnesses with the girls. On the other hand, it has kept the girls out of the street, water and half a dozen other dangerous places… especially when they try to go in opposite directions. The bottom line is that the devices work (the girls are safe and sound) and I don't think it is going to harm the girls emotional or psychologically.
Easter was on the same date for eastern and western Christians, so we celebrated with everyone else yesterday. Technically it was the second Easter for the girls, but last time around they had just started crawling around, so I don't think they really "got it". I still don't think they understand what was going on, but they certainly did understand that something was going on and they seemed to enjoy the change. They got their first Easter baskets and we did an egg "roll" (basically we dumped them in the middle of the living room floor). We did not use real eggs as they are just not ready for that (nor am I), but we did use a bunch of plastic eggs filled with goodies (animal crackers, Nilla wafers, freeze dried corn and peas, raisins, goldfish crackers, etc). They eggs proved to be very popular. However, the real hit with the girls was the Easter grass in the their baskets. It took me nearly two hours to clean it all up (and we are still finding the rogue strand here and there).
Finally, it has been about three years since Zoya was last in Russia. A lot has happened since then (she was pregnant, the girls were born, etc). We had been planning for the entire family to go to Russia, but my contract does not provide for paid time off (I do get five holidays over the course of the year though). I was worried about Zoya traveling alone with the girls, but we eventually found a solution that we both could live with. Zoya's friend, Lusine is going to come here and then travel on to Saint Petersburg with Zoya and the girls (and return with them as well). The bright side to this (besides that I will continue to bring in a paycheck while they are gone) is that I will finally get a chance to do all the house stuff that I cannot do with toddlers around… including things that we were in the middle of doing when the girls were born (but they came two months early and so much was left undone). I will be moving furniture, painting, rebuilding our home network, etc. It will be tiring, but I will be very happy to get it done and I think the house will be more livable/comfortable if I can get all of it done.
Meanwhile, I hope all is well with each and every one of you, and with your families. We love and miss you all. Please take care of each other and may God bless you all.