Puppies are 6 weeks old!

We are back in Kiev and nearly over jet lag. I cannot say that the trip back here was easy but somehow we (and our mostly-patient fellow travelers) survived.  Gio slept 18 hours his first night home- a preview of his teenage years, perhaps. As for Kiev, it remains cold with only a few glimpses of spring. We are still in hats and heavy coats. Precipitation is as likely to be snow as rain. In fact, on Sunday we had rain, sun, snow, sleet AND hail. In typical fashion, I managed to be out in all of the inclement weather without a hat or umbrella.

We continue our excited wait for our puppy. We will head to Italy at the beginning of May and visit the 17 little beasts. Below is a link to the older litter (The "Q"s). You might be amused at our breeder's creative attempts to name all 10 puppies with "Q" names...

http://www.torredovarda.com/Qpups.html


I am also happy to report that Kiev has finally turned off the Christmas music. My sanity has been restored.

Here are a few photos- I am ashamed to report that I have been a terrible photographer lately, both in quantity and quality.....

My favorite photo in a long time.  Gio and Nonno (aka, my dad).  I cannot take credit.  Our dear nanny Hedvig took this!

While Gio and I were still in DC, Paolo went to Italy to visit the site of our future house!

We will all go to see the house-building in May.  Gio is going to be thrilled with all of the construction!

The view from our (future) front porch

For some reason that has NOTHING to do with my technical savy, this photo will not rotate.  Anyway, here is Gio drinking a double espresso.

Gio gazing at our airplane, thinking of the many naughty ways he can keep fellow passengers awake on the 8 hour flight to Frankfurt....all while kneeling on his Potbelly sandwich.

Apparently the thinking session was fruitful.  He managed to stay awake (and be loud) right up until a half hour before we landed when he, of course, fell asleep.

Back home in Kiev, time to read Richard Scarry's "A Day at the Airport", a must for world-traveling toddlers. Oh, and by the way, for those of you concerned about my mothering sense.....that "double espresso" in the earlier photo was actually just steamed milk.  Had you fretting, didn't I??