Seeing the world through little eyes

It's been an enjoyable week with my sister and her husband and 2 children. The children finally adjusted to the time change a few days ago (yay!) and are sleeping through the night at long last. Of course, I keep staying up late each night - either talking with my sister and her husband, or catching up on missed work (especially since internet has been down for the past 4 days!). Tomorrow is my last chance to get some real sleep before we're on the road again and missing a lot of sleep!

Anyway, back to the adventures with the kids... The first night, they were sleeping in my room and woke up screaming loudly a few hours after going to bed. While I was still half-asleep, I was trying to calm them down, only to realize after a few minutes of useless effort that I was speaking Russian and they didn't understand most of what I said! In the meantime, Mark was trying to come in to help, but in the dark, was pushing instead of pulling the door to open it. Finally, my sister came to the rescue and they both calmed down and went back to sleep...until 2 hours later, the same thing happened. So, we moved them in with their parents and a night light and they slept fitfully, but a little less loudly.

During the day, we've been seeing various sights (what there is to see around here - which isn't very touristy, but interesting enough for fresh eyes). Many of my friends have been able to drop by for lunch or dinner, although some are away from the city in camps or at work. I've also showed them around the city and the office. Wednesday, we celebrated my niece's 4th birthday at a friend's house. Yesterday, we went to a nearby castle (which is almost 1000 years old), my niece's and nephew's first real castle! They were excited and even enjoyed the bumpy ride on the mini-bus through the golden, rolling fields and forests of northwestern Ukraine. Today, we went ice skating at the city's new indoor ice rink (the first time my niece has ever ice skated). She was so excited and did a great job - by the end she was skating by herself with me just following her to catch her if she fell. Tomorrow is clean-up and packing day since we leave for Poland and Germany on Sunday.

It's been far too short a time with them and it will be hard to say goodbye! I'm praying that the rest of my family can come to visit me sometime next year (and stay for at least 3 weeks instead of only 1-2).