[Yes, Gio recently finished "P" week at school. When asked by his teacher to think of a P word during circle time Gio made an "interesting" choice. I cannot say I was proud of it, but I was also not too surprised. At least his knowledge of male anatomy is accurate....]
Our lives continue to be quite interesting around here. Ukraine remains on the brink of political and economic collapse. Thousands of protestors are still occupying much of downtown Kyiv. And, in Belli family news, Enzo has become a father! We have no pictures yet of the puppies (4 boys and 2 girls born Feb 2), but I will post them as soon as we get a few.
We are about to adopt two cats from a family who is leaving Kyiv. They are two 6-month old brothers named Salt and Pepper. This is a picture of Salt. Can you guess the color of Pepper? And, yes, we are crazy. Happy but crazy.
Maria continues to explore new foods. Broccoli is a hit....
....but pasta wins the popularity contest!
Gio and Maria are quite a pair eating dinner together.
Maria watches every move her beloved brother makes.
I just love her adorably chubby arms!
Since she has no teeth I steam carrots for her so that they are not too mushy but still gum-able (is that a word??)
Post carrot she gets her pasta "dessert"!
A first taste of tangerine.
Embracing Ukrainian cuisine I offered Maria a few Ukrainian meat "paddies." Thumbs up.
Post dinner a bath is always a MUST.
Maria has found her feet at last....
...and thinks they are great fun!
This past week I took a walk down to Maidan to see the protest camps. I had not been since before Christmas and was curious to see how things had changed.
First I went to the place where the Lenin statue had been toppled. Protestors had put in its place a gold toilet to mock Yanukovych who supposedly has gold toilets throughout has massive compound outside of Kyiv. By the time I went to see it, the toilet had been removed. Too bad. It would have been funny to get a shot of Enzo peeing on that!
Once I entered the barricades of the protest camp I saw this poster of various bullets and explosives the riot police had allegedly used again the protestors in mid-January.
Here is Enzo in front of the barricades on Kreshatik. For those of you in the US, this would be like having barricades blocking Pennsylvania Avenue in DC.
The barricades are made of wood, bags of rocks, tires and many other materials.
These barricades are blocking one of the fanciest streets in Kyiv- behind this pile are many very pricey shops.
Trash has clearly not been collected in ages in downtown Kyiv.
Enzo strolling along Kreshatik.
A tent city now occupies much of this 6-lane road.
One tent had two ping-pong tables. While the protestors are in real danger and are here for a very serious purpose, I can imagine much of their day is quite dull, so why not have a bit of fun?
More barricade shots of the new father.
A video of the barricade crossing all of Kreshatik.
This side of the protest site is an 8-minute walk from our apartment.
Meanwhile, back at #7 Gorkogo, Maria discovered crusty bread.
Another big hit. What is she going to try next week? Tune in soon to see!
Happy 6 months to our sweet Maria. Hard to believe you are 1/2 a year old!
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