Luda's arrival has meant Olga and I have had more time to get other things done at home, but we've been so successful at that that I've not had time to update the blog! I'll try to put that right tonight, whilst I listen to the Barcelona v Arsenal Champions League game (why can't you pick and choose to pay to watch games on Sky?).
So, what's happened?
Luda had a couple of quiet days on Wednesday and Thursday to settle in, then on Good Friday we met Sergei and Lucy at The Bird in Hand, where we had our wedding reception in 2006. This was the first time Luda had met Sergei, although she has spoken to him briefly on the telephone before. We stayed all afternoon, then returned to High Wycombe, but just went straight to the local pub to carry on the fun. I took Lara home at 8.15, but it was after 10pm before Olga brought her mum home!
Here are some photos from the Bird in Hand, Lara really does play the supermodel role whenever a camera appears!
The rest of the weekend focussed on clearing up the back garden. I hired a shredder / chipper to get rid of the huge pile of leaves and branches that we've accumulated over the past few weeks, and it took the best part of three days to get rid of most of it, although there is still some left! There were 16 binbags full of shredded laurel and holly leaves and branches that I took to the tip (surprisingly quiet considering it was a Bank Holiday weekend). I was very glad to be able to adjourn to the pub last night with Chris and Cara for a drink! I don't want to pick up a pair of secateurs for a long time yet.
Luda and Lara are getting on very well, the language barrier doesn't seem to be causing many problems, in fact they might be helping each other! I was victim of Lara's first new Russian word on Saturday, when she came up to me, pulling my trouser leg and saying "Galat, Papa, galat". It means "Walk", and she was excited because Olga was taking Lara to the park to play on the swings, and to show Luda where it was. Lara is still struggling with a cold, she's had it for a month now, but it seems to be getting better slowly. She's just come down with a high temperature in the past few days, maybe it's something related to this cold, but a couple of squirts of nurofen at the right moment seems to help her back to sleep. Potty training is also progressing well, with fewer accidents, and this should only get better and better whilst she has Luda on-hand for three days a week to make sure Lara goes to the potty when she needs to.
It is making a real difference to have an extra pair of hands around the place. Two of us can be working on chores whilst the other looks after Lara, and as soon as Lara's evening temperature wobbles stop, Olga and I will be off out for a drink or even a meal (maybe, if Olga's nice to me :-) )
Today was Luda's first day as our "child minder", and she has reported that everything went well. There was 5 minutes of crying just after we'd left for work, when Lara realised we weren't hiding, but after that Lara was very proactive, suggesting the games that she wanted to play, and the activities she wanted to do, and luckily the weather was nice, so they could play up on the decking for a long time. The summerhouse is full of toys, and we have the sandpit and trampoline up there, so that should make life easier for Luda and more fun for Lara as long as the weather is OK. We have given Luda one of my old phones with a free pay-as-you-go Tesco Mobile SIM card in it (just request one from their website, they post it to you free of charge - you don't even have to go to a Tesco store!), so Olga phoned up at lunchtime to make sure everything was going OK!
Olga's cooked enough food tonight for Lara's meals tomorrow, so that Luda doesn't need to worry about that, so everything is "so far, so good". It's early days, but if Lara didn't kick up a huge fuss today about being at home with Baba without us being there, then I think that's the hardest part over with.
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