Chase's latest trip to the Ukraine

This spring, we decided to take a short trip to the Ukraine for my grandfather's birthday. My father was flying in from the US to celebrate, so it seemed like a nice time for a family gathering. My grandfather's birthday is just 6 days after Chase's so it also gave us a chance to celebrate the tail-end of Chase's birthday. We only had 4-5 days so we spent most of it in Kiev, but we did take a short trip to the summer house (last summer, we only went to the summer house while we were there). Chase did a great job of picking up Russian while we were there and even started saying a few things in Russian! He was a very good traveler and adapted well to all sorts of conditions. He was still a bit more clingy with me while other relatives were around but he really bonded with my grandfather (who he has seen 3 times now in person), which was nice to see.

We played in many playgrounds in Kiev (left was right before getting our haircut!). 

We spent two days and a night at the summer house (dacha) where Chase helped plant flowers and (of course) clean everything. 

Chase posing some more while at the dacha -- here feeding the fish and eating something. 

Back in Kiev, I had bought some bubble mix, which Chase grew obsessed with. He was surprisingly good at blowing bubbles himself!

Finally, we had a nice large dinner out for my grandfather's actual birthday. I was asking Chase something about his grandfather in the top pic, and on the bottom is the whole family that was there (4 generations!). 

Another homemade book for Chase

Since Chase loves letters, I wanted to make him another book. I bought these letter buttons while we were in the US and wanted to put them together into the alphabet and some words for him. I actually spent quite a while formatting it so that the alphabet would make sense color wise and that I had enough letters of each color to spell out some short but diverse words. A cute detail is that the front, which has Chase's name, has every color incorporated. Even further, the back which says "The End," somehow also has a letter of each color (this was not only a coincidence but quite surprising since there weren't many letters left when I decided to add that last bit to the book). To make it, I sewed all of the letters on black fabric (which I actually bought at IKEA). This took a surprisingly long time and was not easy since I had to make sure the spacing was ok multiple times. I, then, used the sewing machine to turn the sewn letter patches into pages. I stuffed each page with a black foam piece which was rather simple since the spine was left open. Finally, I sewed each page together at the spine using multi-colored thread. The back page actually has two foam pieces in it to make it a bit sturdier than the rest of the pages (especially because it has letters on both sides).

Chase is a big fan and especially likes the O, W, and S. It's a nice size to have in my purse at all time so Chase and I can look at it on the bus on our way to and from the daycare. The letters are a bit weird in that they are a mix of capital and lower-case letters, but I think that makes it even better because he can identify variations in the letters.

Chase at 2 years old!

Chase turned 2 years old on April 12th. Most of his interests are still the same as before, but now he's talking more and having more of a personality. He can identify quite a few letters (specifically O, M, S, and W being his favorites), count to 10 pretty well, and knows the words to many French and English songs. He has started speaking more French at home. His new obsession is chocolate and he asks for "chocolat" too often. He also likes to tell us when things are broken (casse) or dropped (tombe). He has some interesting misunderstandings -- such as "snowman" referring to accumulated snow of any type and "bathroom" referring to actually having a bath.

He is a pretty chill kid, usually sharing very well. He is very worried about others and likes to makes sure that everyone is taken care of. He loves play-doh and can play with it for hours. He can be good about playing on his own, but often wants mommy or daddy to play with him, which is quite exhausting for us. He has started this new thing where he gleefully runs away from us when we're in public (something my brother used to do at his age). He is a very good traveler, somehow napping instantly when getting on airplanes, and being able to nap in his stroller or even a car seat on the off chance we happen to be in a car. We transitioned him to a big boy bed around 22-23 months and he has enjoyed the freedom of being able to get out of bed and walk to the door of his room when he's awake. His sleep is still good (knock-on-wood), and he sometimes even ends up sleeping in until 9am! His eating is ok overall, but his weight could be higher and the variety that he wants to eat could be better.

Here are some pictures from the last few months:

Picture of Chase hanging at the daycare, in which I think he is so funny and adorable.

Chase trying to learn to play foosball while visiting the lab. 

Checking out the ducks, swans, and boats on one nice spring day. 

Wanting to bring his stuffed monkey to daycare one day. 

Finally, for his birthday, we gave him a scooter (called trotinette here). He loves that thing and is impressively good at riding/steering it!

Easter in London

This year for Easter we decided to explore another large city in Europe, so we set our sights on London. We had a great time there -- walking to see Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the London Eye; exploring the National Gallery and the Tower of London; having lots of great food (although we somehow completely failed at eating Indian food -- oops!); and enjoying being in a country where people spoke English! We even coincidentally met my aunt and uncle there and hung out with them and their friends for an evening.

In the end, while we did enjoy it, we have to say we were kind of disappointed with London. A lot of the main attractions were in a small-ish area so there wasn't as much to explore, the parks were not well kept, and the Tube was ridiculously dirty with a thick layer of dust everywhere. We had a much better impression of Paris when we went there last year, so that also clouded our judgement a bit. The weather was not great as it rained most of the time we were there (not shocking, I know). Interestingly, we found the prices on par or cheaper with Switzerland, so that was a nice surprise. It's definitely more expensive than the US and the pound is deceiving due to the exchange rate, but we spent less money than we were expecting to spend.

Some selfies in front of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. 

Chase and Nate across the river from the London Eye; Chase and I at the bottom of Big Ben. 

Our hotel was in Leicaster Square, right next to a small China town-area (I totally got boba and some red bean paste sesame seed buns almost every night - so yummy!); Chase and I at the London Tower -- with the Tower Bridge to our left. 

We ran into Anton and Lyuba who were in London for business; Chase and their goddaughter, Shay, hanging out with some dogs in a pub. 

Budapest Trip

In early March, my girl lab mates and I traveled to Budapest for a girls' weekend! I was very excited because I have wanted to go to Budapest for a while and this seemed like the perfect chance. We caught a flight at around Friday lunch time and came back Sunday evening so we had three days there, which felt short but sufficient to get all of the highlights (also, interestingly, we did not have our passports checked going there nor coming back). We walked A LOT -- our phones told us it was around 45 km so more than a marathon!! We saw some beautiful sights, learned about some of the history by taking a walking tour, ate some great food, went to a bath (Gellert), saw a Hungarian folk band performance, and enjoyed getting to know a new city. It was particularly interesting to see the juxtaposition of old and new, such as the city with a well-preserved 1st underground metro in Europe and a super modern huge American-style shopping mall. Unfortunately, the weather was not very cooperative and it was colder than we had hoped for with some slight drizzle here and there.

Here are some pictures of our adventures (thanks to Elsa for some of the selfie ones):

Overview from a lookout below the Mattias Church (from Buda side on Pest), St. Stephen's Basilica (Pest), Matthias Church (Buda)

Us posing for selfie on Heroes Square (Pest), Parliament (from Buda side on Pest)

Gellert Bath House (Buda), Historic metro station -- not the best picture but it was beautiful and surreal (forgot which station this was but somewhere on the Pest side)

After the baths, we climbed up to Liberty Statue and saw the city at night, which was super cool!

2015 in Review

Another crazy, full year for us!

We had a smaller number of trips than usual, and only a few with all three of us:
Short trips around Switzerland (N, O, C)
Paris (N, O, C)
Sardinia (O; lab trip)
Kiev (O, C; N had to work)
Nebraska (N; for Melissa's wedding)
Japan (O; girls trip)
US: Omaha, Las Vegas, San Diego (N, O, C)

Chase hasn't significantly added to his state/country/continent count (+1 country: Ukraine, +1 state: Nevada) but he is getting much better at traveling so we hope to increase our count in 2016. Chase did spend time with all of his grandparents and (living) great grandparents this year. His maternal paternal great grandfather visited in January for his daycare transition, his maternal grandparents (and uncle) visited for his 1st birthday, and his paternal grandmother visited for two weeks during the summer for his daycare holiday. He went to Kiev to see his maternal paternal great grandparents and then to Nebraska to see three of his paternal great grandparents. He also saw/met every single one of his aunts and uncles, and saw all his grandparents again during out trip to the US. Wow! Such a big accomplishment!

Speaking of Chase, I updated on his first year (to 15 months) and his 15-20 months milestones.

Very few crafts this year, but I was able to make Chase some shorts and a quiet book. I already have material and patterns for many more Chase-related crafts next year! We also took some family pictures and made a holiday card out of them. In terms of home improvements, we have been battling a leak in the roof in our Cambridge apartment and waited for 3 months for a new dishwasher in Switzerland.

I will leave you with a Instagram picture collage of the year. As always, you can follow me on Instagram and Twitter. Have a happy 2016!!

Trip to the US

This year, we decided to go back to the US for the holidays. I was to attend a mid-December conference in San Diego and Nate needed to be at Harvard in early January for an exam. Chase and I had not been in the US since August 2014 (almost 1.5 years!), whereas Nate had returned October 2014 and October 2015 for the weddings of his siblings.

It has been a fun but intense trip. We have spent a good amount of time with every member of our immediate families and have seen many members of our extended family and friends. I started the trip by flying to San Diego for the conference. Nate and Chase flew to Omaha (and got stuck in London for the night, then missed another flight in Dallas, delaying their arrival by more than 24 hours!). After my conference, I flew to meet them in Nebraska where we spent lots of time hanging out with family and friends. Chase finally met Nate's father's mother, the fifth of his five living great-grandparents. We also took some nice 4 generation photos with all grandparents on Nate's side.

We visited various child-friendly spots including the Children's Museum and the Henry-Doorley Zoo. We were able to watch a football game with our Nebraska-based fantasy football team (and sign a very interesting trophy...), and we were able to see Brett and Amber the day before they had their third baby (so glad that worked out timing-wise!). Last but not least, Chase and I were able to meet Melissa's new husband (whom Nate had obviously met at the wedding) and had fun hanging out with them. We also got some nice snow for a real white Christmas and built a snowman!

On Christmas day, the family dispersed from Nebraska (Nate's parents going on a cruise) and we hopped on a short flight to Vegas. There, we met up with both of our brothers, Ivan and David, and David's wife Colleen. David met Chase for the first time, and both Chase and I met Colleen for the first time. The next day, my parents arrived from Greece (where they were the week before) and we all hung out for about 4 days there. Finally, we took a rental car, and made our way back to San Diego for the new year. Here, we have been hanging out with family and friends and will be exploring the zoo, beach, and other fun spots. We also have lots of appointments (dental, doctor, dmv, eye, lawyers, etc.) so it hasn't all been just relaxing.

Chase experienced his first Christmas (last year, we did nothing for Christmas since we were in Spain) although he really didn't understand it and we urged all relatives to keep down the number of presents (due to travel and the fact that he already has too many toys!!). He still enjoyed the atmosphere of our Yankee Swap in Omaha and a visit from Ded Moroz (Father Christmas) in San Diego. In San Diego, we got a Happy New Year balloon for our party, which Chase just loved and wouldn't let go of... and still hasn't given up!

Although our trip isn't done yet, we're really glad we had this chance to come back home and see everyone!