And I am back

World News:

• Russia starts an experiment : several men are going to be confined to a small space mimicking a space station for almost 18 months to test if humans can withstand the amount of isolation and closed space that it will take to make an actual expedition to Mars.
• an experimental vaccine has been developed that has been very effective in preventing breast cancer in mice. Studies are due to start on women but even if they are successful, the actual vaccine won't be available to public until at least ten years from now.
• Oil is still leaking into Louisiana waters.

Anastasia is sleeping a lot today. She is getting over another bout with teething/stomach flu/whatever it is. She gets high fever and nausea/vomiting for about 48 hours and then feels better, and both times she had it coincided with her cutting teeth. She still refuses to eat today but at least she is keeping down what I was able to get into her. The key is keeping her entertained and distracted because she gets very cranky if we just sit at home.

WARNING: do not read this part of the post if you are easily grossed out.
Occasionally, I get these stubborn pimples that start deep under the skin and take forever to heal. Well, I got one of those this week and it's been driving me crazy, but I guess I didn't realise exactly how conspicuous it was until Anastasia asked me "Chto eto?" ("What is this?") and pointed at it. See, we have this game where she points to my eyes, nose, mouth, etc., and I name it. My daughter in her innocence thought that I had grown a new body part overnight!

Now for the cuter, non-gross Anastasia stuff.  Her adventures are too many to recount, but here are a couple recent ones. The other day we were at Grandma's house sitting in the living room, and Anastasia went to her diaper bag, got out two diapers, a package of wipes and gave them to me. Then she brought over her life-size baby doll. She wanted me to change its diaper! I must say, my baby really digs this diaper-changing stuff. Sometimes she lets me know that she needs changed. She calls clean diapers "la-la-la-la" (Elmo's song - there are Sesame Street characters on her Pampers), and the dirty ones are "kaka" (Russian vernacular for "poop"). After I change her, I ask her to throw away the dirty diaper and she goes and puts it in the trash. She is only 13 months! I enjoy being able to communicate with her and see how well she understands!

And just one more cute thing she did the other day:
I was going to give Harley some water and was explaining to Anastasia that the kitty was very, very thirsty. She went and got her sippy cup and put it in front of the cat. Then she thought about it, turned around, and brought over her other sippy cup! She assessed the situation and decided that one cup might not be enough since the kitty was VERY thirsty.

ONLY ONE MONTH LEFT UNTIL ANASTASIA AND ME LEAVE FOR RUSSIA! I am extremely happy but also have a lot of anxiety about this trip, for reasons I might write about later. The daughter is up and it's tie to go to the Zoo!