A BABY AND A MONSTER

     For a couple of days, the gods of happy coincidences  are with me. Somehow, when I get an idea, life provides me with an opportunity to follow up on it. Nothing big, mind you, but - interesting enough!
     Doris and I talked about making a baby shower for Sveta, the Little Red Headed Monster's mother, and this morning Sveta called and invited me to come over to her house! 
     Because it's impossible for me to just bring a small treat, I went to a trendy store and lugged a bunch of things with me when I finally showed up at Sveta's. 
     Actually, I showed up at a different house than Sveta's. The yard looked very similar, but, for some reason, on top of the porch and  right in front of the door lay a small overturned table, and paper plates with cat food were scattered all over. I slowly turned in one place, my mouth opened, trying to comprehend where Sveta's house went, when I saw her gazing at me with a puzzled look on her face from her own yard next door.
     I lugged the Poinsettia flower and my other offerings of good neighborliness to her house. Katya, the Little Monster, catapulted at me and immediately laid claim to my new scarf. In the house her brother, Hyosha, took a bag from me and poked his cute nose in. "What's that?" - he asked, holding up my wallet and scattering all the little cards and receipts from it. Sveta hurriedly took it away from him. 
     Accompanied by Katya's repeated requests for my lipstick (last time I babysat them, she ended up covered head to toe in it), we tried to have a conversation going. It was hard because every minute kids demanded our attention. 
     Sveta is on her last month or so of pregnancy. It must be so hard to take care of those two little fire-crackers at that time in her life!

Russian alphabet

     Today, Katya kept calling me "toti". I realized that she was trying to say "tyotya" - auntie. As a result, I wrote a few words in Russian for them, including their own names. They were amused at how some letters were exactly like in English and others weren't. Katya's name in Russian looks like that: Катя. The last letter that looks like backward 'R' sounds like 'ya'. Mama is: 'мама', papa is: 'папа'. Small cat is: 'котик'.                  Kids were laughing and trying to copy the words that I wrote for them. I am always grateful for how easy it is to entertain them!
     In one of the few quiet moments I brought up the question of a baby shower. When my friends made me mine, two small girls were charged with a task of bringing me presents to open. When the littlest one brought me the last gift, she said with exasperation: 
                                                        "Good, maybe, the shower is in this one!" For some reason, not many people laugh at that story!
     Sveta was moved but felt shy to receive such attention from others. She asked me about my experience (I had to tell her that story too!) and what she would be required to do. I, of course, assured her that we would be glad to take responsibility for it, and she had to just sit and look pretty.
     At that point we were sitting in the kitchen with cups of tea and the most delicious apple pirozhkis that Sveta baked. Kids were all over us. Hyosha asked for an apple, and when mother pealed it for him, he proceded to cut it into small pieces. Katya felt "apple deprived" and let us know her feelings by loudly bawling on the floor under the table. Even though she finally had more apple pieces, she still had to grab some from her brother. She also began to cut them smaller while snorting the snot and licking it off her upper lip.
     When the candy made appearance, Katya was the first to grab a bag of M&Ms. I gave her a plate for them, but she first dropped them into my tea. With her pudgy, grubby hand she scooped them out and onto the plate. M&Ms made colorful smears, so Katya began to experiment painting with them. She then offered me some of them as well as some of the minced apple, but after watching her creative process, I was not at all sure that should put those things in my mouth!
     It was time for me to leave go to an appointment with Mr. P. I first had to extract my scarf from the Monster's grip, but managed to escape unscathed. Although the Monster tried to follow me to the car,  she was in the end tempted away by a children's video,
     All in all, it was a good visit! It's so nice to be invited to someone's house! I hope that we can arrange the baby shower for Sveta soon: she is going to have that baby any time now!