Easter in Ukraine

This year for Easter, we ended up going to Ukraine because it was close to my grandfather's birthday (for which my father was also in town). Other than celebrating my grandfather's birthday, we were able to partake in Ukrainian Orthodox Easter festivities. This included making lots of cakes (my grandmother made these) and putting them in a basket along with other food and bringing them to a church to bless them on Easter eve. Then, we went to a small historic church for Easter mass (this church is the oldest wooden church in Ukraine), after which we got together with my uncle and aunts' friends to eat the food in the baskets (and other food and drinks we bought for the occasion). It was a really cool event to be part of and one I had heard a lot about but never had the chance to participate in.

Top: cakes made by my grandmother

Bottom: our basket and the church we went for the basket blessing

Top: inside the church we went to for mass

Bottom: a picture of all three of us on Easter day taken by my father

Chase at 3 years old!

In April, Chase turned 3!!!

It has been quite a ride, but it does totally get better! His speaking has improved a lot in both English and French. He is very empathetic and kind, giving hugs and kisses to both us and his stuffed animals. He is very funny, although usually he doesn't mean to be. He loves doing puzzles, riding his bike, discovering nature (especially bugs and animals), and watching Peppa Pig and Pocoyo.

One thing that is obvious from the pictures is that Chase now has glasses! We noticed his right eye started getting cross-eyed around October of last year. We quickly had an appointment with the paediatrician, who referred us to an eye doctor here in Morges. Unfortunately, it took us a long time to get an appointment with that doctor, so we didn't end up seeing him until the beginning of January. They prescribed glasses for Chase, which he picked out himself. After a few more appointments, it was obvious that things weren't improving as fast as they would like, so they referred us to a special eye hospital in Lausanne that has a division especially for strabismus and deals with children. From there, they adjusted his lenses (twice) so that he has more magnification on the bottom than on the top (may be hard to see in these pictures). He also wears an eye patch for 3 hours a day on his stronger eye to train his other eye to be a bit stronger. Overall, it seems to be going well, although it is a long process. We were afraid that he wouldn't want to wear glasses and that it would be a struggle for both him and us, but he is actually very cool with wearing the glasses. For the patch, we started off with the sticker patches that they prescribed for us (and cost like 1.2 CHF per patch). Nate (through his mom) found cloth patches from Amazon in the US that go right around the glasses. We have been using these ever since, and they are much easier and nicer for him.

Due to Easter being the weekend after his birthday, we held his birthday party a few weeks later. Many of his friends (Ona, Elias, Maria, Bea, Antonio, Marko, Matti, Theo, and Dirk) from daycare and church attended the afternoon party. The party was held in a rented room in Morges (which is actually a really beautiful former church). I think he really enjoyed it as the next few days when waking up he kept asking "are we having my birthday party again today??"