Strawberries! (B&W)

It’s become more and more common for these monthly reports to be a) late b) hastily and shabbily put together and c) nothing more than extended photo captions. This month’s report strains the envelope on all three counts.

The final hour of August is ticking by as I type this, and I was this close to blowing off the August monthly report entirely, figuring that it wouldn’t be possible to capture the excitement and upheaval of the last month. Then there was some other part of my brain that was trying to rationalize away the need for posting by going in the complete opposite direction, saying essentially “there’s nothing to report, keep moving, nothing to see here.” It turns out that both parts of my brain just wanted to watch “Mad Men” and drink Thracian rosé unmolested by self-imposed deadlines.

Adam, Teta Rada, Stric Bojan

A month ago we bade farewell to the people who meant more to us than any others in Slovenia, Rada and Bojan, who evolved from babysitters into surrogate grandparents. It was very hard to leave them. SMSes continue to fly between Slovenia and Sofia.

Baba Sofija

One of the first orders of business on arriving here was to arrange a meeting with Baba Sofii, who will be taking care of Alek when we return to work. Though this picture may not show it, you both are already very fond of Sofii. We have great faith in her ability to not kill you, Alek, just as we have somehow managed, tempted though this long August has made us.

Alek riding his new rad trike

Alek graduated from voziček (now koличka) to a trike. Go, Ike, Go!

Best piece of rubbish ever found at a playground

You both have evinced an astonishing interest in the bits of flotsam that can be found on the playgrounds of Sofia. You have also noticed that there is a playground every 50 meters here, and beg to fing on the fings and fide on the fides of all of them, beating sun or not.

Sandpit boys

But the sandpit, aka ‘pit of gravél has to be your favorite recreation of all.

Alek plus kaczka

Bathing facilities are sufficient to counteract the quantities of filth you manage to collect in the course of the day. ONLY JUST.

Adam BW

Adam has not yet noticed that he is the only child in Bulgaria wearing a helmet. Also: he can’t yet understand the taunting.

Adam and the drilling cow

Papa spent the first few weeks in the new place using diamond bits to drill holes in the super-hardened, bunker-grade Bulgarian concrete walls in order to hang pictures of duckies. Adam aspires also to drill.

In addition to the trike, Alek moved up to a Big Boy Bed this month, acquired through much hardship in the fastnesses of Bucharest. I guess there will never be a post about that trip to the land of Vlad the Impaler/IKEA, nor about the fact that all the boys have added three countries to their visited list since the last report: Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania. MY STURDY BALKAN BABIES.

The Boys and the Lions

Now go to sleep, for god’s sake, both of you.