Citak boys: September 2008

hi everyone!

After a nice long hiatus, i finally decided to get back on here and give a little update on what's new in Saro & Ari's (and Mom & Dad's) life. Given that it's been about 6 months, the boys have grown up a lot! They are running around everywhere and are such a joy to be around. We had such a wonderful summer together, enjoying the neighborhood parks (slides and swings! yai!), the backyard (it's small but so are they!), the front yard... pretty much anywhere they can run around. I'm so glad I took the extra 6 months off work - it was great advice from my sister. I truly enjoyed these last few months as they've grown to be more independent and easier to care for.

Having said that, I am scheduled to go back to work in just 1.5 weeks. Times sure does fly by! I'm sure everyone else is thinking - get off your lazy butt and go to work already!! but to me, it seems like just yesterday when i casually left the office for a regular doctor checkup and was told to check myself into the hospital for early labour... never to return again! Sapient has been wonderful and I'm lucky that they are allowing me to go back to work part-time. I will be working 30 hours/week, which works out to about 3 days in the office and 6 hours from home in the evenings or during my "off" days. I figure that will help me transition into what will become our new life...

Figuring out what the boys will be doing when i go back to work has really been weighing on my mind. We love Lenny (our nanny) who has been with us since last November. She really helped save my sanity when i was struggling with finding the time and energy to feed both these demanding boys. The boys trust and adore her, as do Serdal and I. However, we also want Saro & Ari to experience daycare and the strengths that brings... mostly the socialization and social eating aspects. They are both very shy and we think that daycare will help them become a little more independent. They may also eat more! from what i hear, that's been the case with many kids who don't eat well at home... So we came up with a wonderful compromise that works for our family. Saro and Ari will be going to daycare 3 days a week and staying home with Lenny 2 days a week. Lenny will also stay with us for a 3rd day while the boys are in school so that she can help out around the house. (It will be harder for her to do any chores when I'm no longer at home.) For the other 2 days, we're looking to find another family to share her with.

Today was Saro & Ari's first day at daycare. I dropped them off at garderie and they pretty much started crying immediately. I could hear them from the hallway. I went outside to wait for Aline because i couldn't stand to hear it anymore. (She would be dropping Sasha off to the same classroom.) By the time we left, the boys had been crying for about 30 minutes on and off. Poor Sasha had a rough start too... She threw up shortly after arriving - we figure it is a little bit of separation anxiety. But, I am told that things quickly improved. Saro & Ari started to play when they went outside (mostly with each other). Then when they came inside, they started causing some trouble throwing cars behind a shelf... something they thought was hilarious so the teachers let them. They were having so much fun that Sasha dropped her bunny and joined them and the three of them played together. How comforting it is to know that they have each other.

enough talk... here are some recent pictures. I will try to post on a more regular basis again.

July 6 - On our way to Michael & Matthew's house

July 6 - At the park near Michael & Matthew's house

July 15 - Playing in our backyard. Ari loves to throw his hat off! Saro loves to spot the planes flying by and scream "nana! bye bye!" (nana is for otanav which means plane in armenian)