Your Questions . . . Answered!

Thanks for playing along with the questions. They are great! Here I will attempt to do them all justice. Enjoy getting to know me a little better.

Q: What's your favorite indulgence?
A: Oh, I have such a hard time with "favorite" questions. I don't have a favorite movie, song, food . . . nada! I feel picking one favorite is so limiting. So, we'll go with what one of my most favorite indulgences is . . . getting a massage. But not at a massage parlor! At any of those little shops or massage chairs set up in malls or airports. It seems so spontaneous at those places, so self-indulgent.  Getting a massage at an official parlor seems too planned and formal. I love the feeling of spotting a massage chair somewhere and thinking, "Yes! I'm so doing that because I WANT it and I DESERVE it!" And then the pleasure of the massage is just multiplied by the feelings you get of delicious indulgence.

Q: What is the one baby item you are most looking forward to using again with the new babe?
A: I think I'll have to say my Moby wrap! I loved wearing baby girl in it when she was all itty-bitty, loved the feeling of freedom it gave me and the inherent snuggles it provided. I can't wait to have all that newborn sweetness wrapped up against me again.

Q: What is the one baby item you are Least looking forward to using again?
A: The baby tub. That thing was a royal PITA. Water all over the counter. Lugging it back and forth. We switched to co-bathing with baby girl pretty early on, and we'll likely do the same thing with Dos.

Q: What is your go-to way to unwind?
A: This one's easy--snuggled up on the couch, in my pjs, wrapped in a blanket, watching one of my DVR'd shows (seriously, does anyone watch live TV anymore???).

Q: What is your dream job?
A: Well, if we're talking dreams here, I'd love to be that chick who gets paid to travel the world and do shows on luxury resorts! I'd also love being a photographer or writer. Hmmmm . . . those would parlay well into my luxury resorts idea . . .

Q: What is your dream vacation?
A: This one was hard!! TH and I are (were?) avid travelers. It's our top way to spend any extra money we have (though that is suddenly a lot harder to come by than it was before having a kid!). We've backpacked across Europe, toured Ireland, seen China. There are so many places left on our list: Macchu Pichu, New Zealand, SE Asia, Egypt, Petra . . . . . But in the spirit of the question, I'd have to say that if I could put together a single dream vacation, it would be a cruise around the Mediterranean, with a focus on Greece but a foray into Russia so that I could see where he grew up.

Q: What is your favorite book?
A: Again, I hate the "favorite" questions! I'm an editor! An ex-English teacher! I have a thousand and one favorite books. I can say that I LOVE Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice is at the top of the list, but I also adored her lesser-known Persuasion) and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

Q: What's the biggest challenge to being married to someone from another culture/country? The best part? How do you think that it impacts your parenting?
A: Oh my. I can tell you that living with and raising a child with a "foreigner" is a constant source of amusement. He doesn't know the traditional American nursery rhymes. Remember this version of This Little Piggy? Animals made different sounds in Russia. Apparently roosters don't say "cocka-doodle-doo," they say "cooka-ri-coo!" And children's cartoons? Check out the Russian version of Winnie the Pooh, or TH's childhood favorite, Cheburashka.

I think the most challenging part is actually dealing with my in-laws. Especially when baby girl was an infant, they had SUCH different ideas about what we should be doing with her, how we should hold her, dress her, care for her, etc. I kept trying to explain to them that things have changed in the 30 years since they have had an infant, especially since their experience was in Soviet-era USSR. It took a long time for them to trust that we were competent doing things differently than they expected.

The best part is that baby girl will grow up having a much broader cultural exposure than she would have with two American parents. She'll speak some phrases in another language, she'll understand different cultures and practices, different foods, etc.

As far as an impact on our parenting, I just have to remember to make a concerted effort to continue to expose her to Russian language, stories, cartoons (eesh!), etc. TH actually does not really try and speak to her or read to her in Russian, so I try to do a little every week, just to make sure that she's getting some exposure.

Q: Do you have any gut feeling about the sex of Baby #2? Are you hoping for a boy or girl? If you have a preference, why?
A: Actually, I really, really, really, really, really think that Dos is another girl!! Maybe it's because having a girl is all I know, so that's where my mind goes. Maybe it's because I kinda want Dos to be a girl. At one point I wanted nothing more than one of each. But the more I think about it, the more awesome I think it would be to have sisters. (1) We can re-use all our stuff. Score. (2) We know what to do with a girl, how to care for her girly parts, what to be on the lookout for, etc. (3) I have an amazing relationship with my sister. Yes she drives me crazy sometimes, but she and I have something special that my brother and I, even though we are also very close, just don't share. I would LOVE for baby girl to experience the blessing of a sister relationship. And (4), even though I know this is a sweeping generalization and OF COURSE there are exceptions, in general, everyone I talk to agrees (can you tell I'm tiptoeing up to this?) that baby girls are, in general, "easier" than baby boys. They are calmer and quieter and more gentle. And quite frankly, having two kids this close together, the idea of a calmer, quieter and more gentle Dos is appealing to me. (The caveat to that is that boys start out harder but get easier as they age, whereas girls start out easier but when they reach the teen years . . . Lordhelpus.) So while one of each would be unbelievably amazing . . . there's something about the idea of two girls that just charms me.

Q: Describe your feelings when you first met your husband.
A: LOL! Oh if only I had been blogging back then. The short version is this: I thought he was someone else. We met the first day of 11th grade, and I had met another guy, a football player, earlier in the morning who had gorgeous eyes--deep brown, almond shaped, dark lashes. Lo and behold I turned around in my Pre-Cal class to pass back some first-day paperwork and the same gorgeous eyes were staring into mine--deep brown, almond shaped, dark lashes. I'm normally a pretty socially shy person, but I was smitten, so I took a deep breath, turned back around, and asked him  if he played football. He laughed in my face. I kid you not. I blinked a couple of times and took another look, a look beyond the gorgeous eyes. He was skinny. He was wearing a comic-book T-shirt, purple-and-black striped jeans, and Doc Martins that he had sprayed painted silver and gold. So. Not. A. Football. Player. But he was charming. And smart. And funny. And friendly. And, let's face it, foreign and alluring. We immediately became best friends and it just kind of went from there!


Q: Any name ideas for the new baby on the way?
A: NONE! Isn't that awful? Well, that's not entirely true. We still kind of remember our "maybes" from the first name-choice round with baby girl. We learned our lesson, though, and likely won't start talking names until we find out if Dos is a he or a she. Boy names are SO much harder for us than girl names! What we do know is that if Dos IS a boy, his middle name will be Alexander. It's a Russian tradition for the son to take the father's first name as his middle name.

Q: How did you choose Ali's beautiful name?
A: That one is all thanks to TH! His name is Alex and the Russian version of my name is Kalina. Put them together and you get Alina! And she goes by Ali, a combination of Alex and Kelly. It works. And it's pretty. And unique-but-not-weird. Perfect.

Q: If you could do anything right this very moment (not including the obvious spend time with your beautiful little girl or husband) what would you do if you could just drop everything? Just for you!
A: I would go on a girl's trip with my friends to a resort in Mexico and spend a week sipping non-alcoholic drinks and gossiping and talking sex and relationships and parenting and friendships and jobs and all the other wonderful things girlfriends talk about. Of course, this would only work if my girlfriends could also drop everything and come with. ;-)

Q: How many brothers and sisters do you have? Does Ali get to see them often?
A: I have a truly "All American" family. I have one "full" brother, one "step" brother, and one "half"sister. (I'll spare you the history of how we got there.) My two brothers are both older than me, and my sister is the baby of the family. Ali gets to see my sister pretty frequently since she only lives about 3 hours away. Unfortunately, both of my brothers and their families live on the east coast, so Ali has only gotten to meet them a couple of times.

Q: Is there anything you are going to do differently with baby #2? If so, why?
A: We are pretty pleased with how we did everything with baby girl. If anything changes with Dos, it will change out of necessity, not choice. For example, we probably won't be able to be as structured about Dos's schedule as we were with baby girl's. But for the most part, I'm treating pregnancy the same and I really hope to treat the first year the same as well. I would hate for Dos to get shafted on anything simply for the uncontrollable fact of being "dos!" 

Q: Now that you have another little one on the way, do you have any dreams of how you want to see your children interact as siblings?
A: We always knew we wanted our kids close in age. My brother and I are 20 months apart and grew up as best friends, never lacking a playmate, never being bored. TH and his brother grew up 7 years apart (!!), and though they are still amazingly close, I can't help but think about how different it must have been for TH to not have any siblings as playmates as a young child. So, I guess my dreams are just of them playing together, interacting with each other, entertaining each other. I cannot wait to hear the sound of their laughter mingled together, mixed inextricably from each other. I know there will be fights and tears and anger . . . but I also know that they can be best friends, and what a gift to live with a sibling so close to your age and your heart.

Phew! Thank you for all the great questions and for following this blog. I am humbled and delighted that there are so many out there who enjoy taking part in this ride!! You are always welcome to keep the questions coming. If ever you are reading and are curious about anything, just let me know and I'll do my best to satisfy your curiosity!


THANK YOU!!