Monday, August 7, 2017
So catching up on last week: July 31 to Aug 6.
Tanya and I have had nice time at the playground a few times. She is fun to be around when she's playing and not just not listening. Sometimes I would stay with Olivia in our courtyard, then come home, feed her and change her diaper, and we would head out again, this time to the big playground where my Mom and Tanya usually go. Then my Mom can sit with Olivia's stroller while I can play with Tanya. Other times we all head to the school playground where there is a nice shade around the stadium. I always let Tanya direct our play although I do try to make suggestions.
Last week, she went up to the fence and started to pretend it was a cage where Baba Yaga put us and then we were running around, hiding from Baba Yaga on the little jumping bridge and on the slide, etc, until finally we went home to hide there (which was great since it is always hard to get Tanya to leave the playground). This play was inspired by the story in the 5-minute Fairy Tale Disney collection my Dad got her for her birthday. It is basically classic stories retold with Disney characters in a very Disney way. It's pretty hilarious. I love the one with Little Red Riding Minnie, where Big Bad Pete wants her chocolate chip cookies that she is carrying to her sick grandmother, and puts on grandmother's clothing outside grandma's house to trick Minnie. He ends up grabbing the wrong tin and eat menthols and gets all red, which teaches him a lesson.
The one Tanya was inspired by was the take on Hansel and Gretel, called "Minnie and Mickey and the Gingerbread House." The witch puts Mickey in a cage and Minnie pushes the witch into an oven. A cold oven, since it is a Disney story, although she then barricades the oven and leaves so one can possibly ponder that witch dying from thirst or even suffocating there. So a witch from the story became Baba Yaga.
Olivia is sitting by herself longer. Smiles a lot. It took about two months last time too, but I'm finally into the rhythm of taking care of the baby and I'm able to enjoy having a baby more. It is not my favorite stage but it does have its moments. One thing Olivia does that Tanya never did is vocalize this early with cooing and saying a-ga. It's very cute.
Last week was not that eventful. On Monday, I wasn't feeling well in the afternoon - waking up all the time at night catching up with me a bit. I was able to grab a nap, but naps actually make me feel more groggy, so I'm resisting them. And then on Saturday, but really yesterday Tanya got sick. She doesn't have a temperature today but still doesn't want to eat much at all. She barely ate yesterday. My Mom came over today and made her chicken soup but she still didn't want to eat a lot of it. At least she is drinking her milk.
We did put on "Frozen" movie for her on the big TV yesterday to cheer her up. Bear got it for her for her birthday. She watched "Secret Life of Pets" a few times before but in installments on a tablet (Netflix has it). This was the first time we let her watch a whole movie on TV. She didn't finish all of it (I did, after she was done!), but she did like it. And when Elsa started singing "Let it Go", a song Tanya knows well from YouTube, she got off the couch and was dancing to it, with all the hand movements Elsa was doing. And told me to dance too with Olivia.
Another random thing last week - on Tuesday I learned the Russian word for celery.
сельдерей (sel'derey). I'm fluent in Russian but I left Belarus when I was 12, almost 13, so there is some vocabulary (like anything higher education) that I don't always have. My Mom, who left at 36, also didn't know how to say celery in Russian. We are on Skype with my Aunt and my Mom was trying to tell her a recipe for something. And neither of us knew how to say celery in Russian. I looked it up on my phone.
Last week I also read "Geek Feminist Revolution" book by Kameron Hurley. It is a book of blog posts and essays that is nominated for the Hugo in related works category. I already read Neil Gaiman collection and Ursula LeGuin collection from that category. This book was my favorite of the three. I loved her common sense language and the subject matter, of course, and it was right up my interests. The essay collections tend to be repetitive of theme but it was ok here mostly. I loved the essay on Mad Max Fury Road as she articulated why I loved it so much. Her essay on the way American health care insurance system sucked before the Affordable Care Act made me sick to my stomach, because it is in such danger to be taken away. She has a good take on Gamergame and Hugo Puppies things, and explains how writers need to understand their privilege in a lot of ways and why it's important. A lot of her points are very familiar since I was Women and Gender history minor in grad school - so I read a lot of theory. I loved her articulation of the issues. A fun book for sure.
I also finally watched the last two episodes of Killjoys, Season 1. I liked the season. Enough to want to watch Season 2, so I asked my Dad to get it for me. I enjoy the characters the most - they are fun. What makes this show 4 out of 5 for me and not the best show ever is the worldbuilding. It is a little too dark. And not very nuanced with a very evil Company (they are clearly super evil and everything) and rigid class division based on planets. I do like how absolutely everything in the season, even seemingly random things came together in the finale and I do want to see more.
I got a change to watch the first episode of Doctor Who Season 10. I loved it. Bill is fun and I love her questions and sci-fi savy and calling doctor out on the mindwipe thing. Donna is my favorite and I can already tell that Bill will be up there as well. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.
Tanya and I have had nice time at the playground a few times. She is fun to be around when she's playing and not just not listening. Sometimes I would stay with Olivia in our courtyard, then come home, feed her and change her diaper, and we would head out again, this time to the big playground where my Mom and Tanya usually go. Then my Mom can sit with Olivia's stroller while I can play with Tanya. Other times we all head to the school playground where there is a nice shade around the stadium. I always let Tanya direct our play although I do try to make suggestions.
Last week, she went up to the fence and started to pretend it was a cage where Baba Yaga put us and then we were running around, hiding from Baba Yaga on the little jumping bridge and on the slide, etc, until finally we went home to hide there (which was great since it is always hard to get Tanya to leave the playground). This play was inspired by the story in the 5-minute Fairy Tale Disney collection my Dad got her for her birthday. It is basically classic stories retold with Disney characters in a very Disney way. It's pretty hilarious. I love the one with Little Red Riding Minnie, where Big Bad Pete wants her chocolate chip cookies that she is carrying to her sick grandmother, and puts on grandmother's clothing outside grandma's house to trick Minnie. He ends up grabbing the wrong tin and eat menthols and gets all red, which teaches him a lesson.
The one Tanya was inspired by was the take on Hansel and Gretel, called "Minnie and Mickey and the Gingerbread House." The witch puts Mickey in a cage and Minnie pushes the witch into an oven. A cold oven, since it is a Disney story, although she then barricades the oven and leaves so one can possibly ponder that witch dying from thirst or even suffocating there. So a witch from the story became Baba Yaga.
Olivia is sitting by herself longer. Smiles a lot. It took about two months last time too, but I'm finally into the rhythm of taking care of the baby and I'm able to enjoy having a baby more. It is not my favorite stage but it does have its moments. One thing Olivia does that Tanya never did is vocalize this early with cooing and saying a-ga. It's very cute.
Last week was not that eventful. On Monday, I wasn't feeling well in the afternoon - waking up all the time at night catching up with me a bit. I was able to grab a nap, but naps actually make me feel more groggy, so I'm resisting them. And then on Saturday, but really yesterday Tanya got sick. She doesn't have a temperature today but still doesn't want to eat much at all. She barely ate yesterday. My Mom came over today and made her chicken soup but she still didn't want to eat a lot of it. At least she is drinking her milk.
We did put on "Frozen" movie for her on the big TV yesterday to cheer her up. Bear got it for her for her birthday. She watched "Secret Life of Pets" a few times before but in installments on a tablet (Netflix has it). This was the first time we let her watch a whole movie on TV. She didn't finish all of it (I did, after she was done!), but she did like it. And when Elsa started singing "Let it Go", a song Tanya knows well from YouTube, she got off the couch and was dancing to it, with all the hand movements Elsa was doing. And told me to dance too with Olivia.
Another random thing last week - on Tuesday I learned the Russian word for celery.
сельдерей (sel'derey). I'm fluent in Russian but I left Belarus when I was 12, almost 13, so there is some vocabulary (like anything higher education) that I don't always have. My Mom, who left at 36, also didn't know how to say celery in Russian. We are on Skype with my Aunt and my Mom was trying to tell her a recipe for something. And neither of us knew how to say celery in Russian. I looked it up on my phone.
Last week I also read "Geek Feminist Revolution" book by Kameron Hurley. It is a book of blog posts and essays that is nominated for the Hugo in related works category. I already read Neil Gaiman collection and Ursula LeGuin collection from that category. This book was my favorite of the three. I loved her common sense language and the subject matter, of course, and it was right up my interests. The essay collections tend to be repetitive of theme but it was ok here mostly. I loved the essay on Mad Max Fury Road as she articulated why I loved it so much. Her essay on the way American health care insurance system sucked before the Affordable Care Act made me sick to my stomach, because it is in such danger to be taken away. She has a good take on Gamergame and Hugo Puppies things, and explains how writers need to understand their privilege in a lot of ways and why it's important. A lot of her points are very familiar since I was Women and Gender history minor in grad school - so I read a lot of theory. I loved her articulation of the issues. A fun book for sure.
I also finally watched the last two episodes of Killjoys, Season 1. I liked the season. Enough to want to watch Season 2, so I asked my Dad to get it for me. I enjoy the characters the most - they are fun. What makes this show 4 out of 5 for me and not the best show ever is the worldbuilding. It is a little too dark. And not very nuanced with a very evil Company (they are clearly super evil and everything) and rigid class division based on planets. I do like how absolutely everything in the season, even seemingly random things came together in the finale and I do want to see more.
I got a change to watch the first episode of Doctor Who Season 10. I loved it. Bill is fun and I love her questions and sci-fi savy and calling doctor out on the mindwipe thing. Donna is my favorite and I can already tell that Bill will be up there as well. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.