Guests Galore

We’ve enjoyed having a lot of guests in the last few weeks:

Americans who live in Russia (Adam Richardson and his son Pasha)
Moldovans (Igor and Alyona) who actually live in Moldova!
Ukrainians who live in America (Anya Hopp, with daughters Stacia and Katya)

Our boys love having friends stay—even if they’ve never met the ‘friends’ before. They were very disappointed that the Moldovans didn’t bring their children. And terribly excited that Anya was bringing her girls for four days! When they didn’t stay home with us to play each day, Danya was very disappointed. He didn’t seem to appreciate that they were here for their Aunt’s wedding celebration, and were just incidentally staying with us. He moped for their last day with us, asking why they couldn’t stay just two more days. He also was frustrated that Stacia, age 8, didn’t want to play with him every moment. “I even told her we could play anything she wanted, even princess or house, but she just wants to read her book.” She was actually very patient with Danya, reading to him and playing his games more than I expected!

I also love having guests, but sometimes have trouble getting enough rest, with all the social time. We really enjoy the time together with people from our past lives. And, we feel we’re getting better at knowing when to keep our rhythms and when to flex to fit into a small apartment—figuring out when we need to trade rooms so that our guests aren’t sleeping in the living room/kitchen, or when to cancel our babysitter. At nap time, the boys love to sleep on the floor so that I can use one of their beds. (In fact, if the boys got their way, they would have slept on the floor at night so that the girls were with them in their room. But the girls preferred to be with their mother.)

Katya (who will turn three a few days after Tima turns four) played very well together with him. One day, she asked him, “Do you want to come to my house?” When he agreed, she led him to the balcony, and they would re-appear every few minutes to get more toys. When I photographed them, they were eating pretend M&Ms.

The Much Anticipated Snail Story

When it rains, big snails emerge onto the paths in the forest. I must say that I’ve never thought much about snails—but they’ve become quite interesting to us! One day, the boys and I saw about 10 of them as we walked through the woods, white, brown and black, swirled in various combinations on their shells. Their shells are 2-4 inches in diameter. We watched one move ever so slowly through a puddle, and could see its mouth parts fluttering over the dead leaves. We noticed the two sets of antennae-structures, and the tiny round eyes visible on top of one set.

The second day that we were looking for them, the paths had dried out a bit, so we started looking in the grass. Tima was walking along next to the path, and I spotted one…a second before Tima stepped on it. He reacted quickly, and the snail did too. It started to pull it’s slug-body back in the shell, but the weight of the little boy pressed the shell down onto its own body. It kept moving after Tima lifted his foot off. We hoped for a moment that it would be okay—and then awful foaming bubbles started hissing out of its shell. Danya started wailing. I felt like gagging. Eventually, we prayed and told God we were sorry we had killed it. I asked Tima if he wanted to apologize, and he said, “No.” Intrigued, I asked him if he felt sorry, and he said, “No.” Did he feel sad? “No.” Danya, meanwhile, is wailing inconsolably.

We walked on to meet our friends, and Danya took tiny steps the whole way, asking me over and over again to warn him if there were any snails on the path. I was wondering why Tima was so calloused about killing the snail, until he said to Danya, “But it’s not dead, because you can still see it.” I realized that death was not very real to Tima. If he could still see it, it must be okay.

Epilogue: The Spider Story

A few weeks later, Tima spotted a daddy-long-leg spider on the balcony. At first, he was scared. But then Danya told him that spiders ate mosquitoes. We watched him walk around a bit. Somehow, the spider walked onto a rag which we’d been using to wash windows. I shook him off. He took about 10 little spider steps, and then started to crumple. Danya cried out, “He’s sinking down!” And sure enough, his legs folded up. Danya began to cry. I held him against me. And then Tima started to wail, “He’s dead.” But as he sobbed, it sounded more like, “He-ee-ee-ee’s deh-eh-eh-ad.” At this point, I I was glad that they were clinging to my waist, and far away from my face, as I was trying not to laugh. Eventually, everyone calmed down. I proposed throwing him out the window, but we decided to bury him in the balcony planter instead.

Danya was sad for a long time. He drew a picture with a healthy spider, complete with 8 balloon-like legs and a little boy nearby. At the top of the picture, he drew a very realistic picture of the crumpled dead spider. On the back, he drew another picture—two boys and a dead snail.

Summertime

Yeah for warm weather, and a culture where little girls wear cute scarves in the summer... and yeah for having a little girl to wear one!

Thanks Grandma, for the bikes! The boys have saved their birthday and Christmas money from my grandmother, and were able to pay more than half of the cost of their bikes. We've been waiting and waiting, but finally had the energy and knowledge to find where to buy them. It was still exhausting

Logical Deduction

Today, while reading a rather detailed Russian childrens' book on navy vessels, Danya asked Eric the following questions:

Danya: What's a cruiser?

Eric: It's a big boat that shoots cruise missiles.

Danya: What's a cruise missile?

Eric: It's a missle with a computer that tells it where to go. It's kindof like a missile with a brain.

Danya: So it's like a robot?

Eric: Not really. A robot has arms and legs.

[five minutes later, interrupting a completely different conversation]

Danya: What about R2D2?

Eric: What do you mean?

Danya: R2D2 doesn't have arms and legs.

Eric: Well he has legs.

Danya: But he doesn't have arms. Isn't he a robot?

The Very Air

The conifer woods near our house held some surprises for us this spring. In February, I took the picture above. At the time, I described the forest as full of evergreens. The trees are strange, 10 stories tall, with naked trunks and green only starting from about 30 feet up.

And then, in April, the bushes and trees in the neighborhood started budding, which was beautiful, of course. The forest floor was covered with a carpet of fern-like leaves. Then, suddenly, the very air exploded in green leaves. They decorate the empty space between all of those big dark tree trunks.

Well, I admit, if you look closely, you will see branches from the many trees and bushes supporting and feeding all of those leaves. It seems our coniferous forest is actually full of decidous trees! (And looking at the old pictures, there are a lot of dead leaves that I never noticed.)

The effect is spectacular. We've had a lot of rain, and the wood is dark, the leaves are shockingly fresh green. The birds make it sound like a jungle, with their twittering, singing and cawing. And the snails, well, that's a story (with some gross parts) for another day!

Windowsill Action

Good morning, world!

(This favorite lookout post is but one reason why I've been trying to require my boys to wear more than underwear around the house.)

One minute Ella was standing on the couch, I was happily typing on the computer--about 12 inches away. Then, I looked up and she was sitting on the windowsill. So, I put her back on the couch and tried to capture the action. She was so quick that I missed half of it! (I tried to adjust the exposure of the pictures, but trust me, it's that bright in the afternoons. I have no idea how the kids can sit up there very long.) That shelf is where the boys' tiny lego's are. And Danya often spends an hour or more playing there during nap time.

Wake up Happy!

We finally have a wake-up-happy baby. After a year of not knowing how to fix the wake-up-crying problem, Ella has suddenly turned the corner and now is happy! This corresponds with longer naps (two naps, totaling 3-4 hours a day) and better night-time sleep (no middle-of-the-night feeding for 7 of the last 8 days). Which comes first, longer naps or happy baby? Hard to say… Or is it the new acid-reflux meds? Hmmm.

I have felt a big difference in my energy levels, with this new sleep-through-the-night routine. Even though Eric has been gone this week, I’m not desperate for my nap in the afternoon! (Although I still take one.) Ella did have one awful night, when she woke up five times between midnight and 2am. It was a lot like her behavior in January…so now we don’t know if it was my diet, her diet, sickness (I have swollen glands..) or that new eyetooth pushing in (the last two didn’t bother her, though. Ahh, the deep mysteries of life!

In the mornings, Ella often wakes up around 7am. She calls out “Daah-daah.” Until the boys wake up. (If they wake up first, they know to stay in bed until she wakes up.) Once all are awake, the boys can get up and play in their room. They put Ella’s box of toys in her crib, and they usually set up trains or cars. Or they have sword fights. I’m not sure how much Ella watches and how much she sits and plays with her own toys. The moment I poke my head in, the magic is broken.

So, most mornings, Eric and I have time to pray, get dressed, make breakfast, read email… and then around 8 we start to feel like we should get our kids up. Sometimes Ella gets a little fussy and starts crying or calling “Maa-maa.” But a lot of mornings we just feel like it’s time to get the morning started! How long would they stay happy in there if we didn’t disturb them, I don’t know! But we’re not complaining.

This has also resulted from/in later bedtimes for everyone. We’re still the first family to leave the playground in the evenings, usually around 6:00. (I know one family with preschoolers who wake up from their nap at six!) Then we make dinner, eat, clean up and watch a video. Ella is usually getting to bed at 8:00, and the boys around 8:30. They don’t usually fall asleep until 9:00 or 9:30. When Danya doesn’t nap, he falls asleep quickly. But about half the days, he wants to nap, so I let him sleep an hour.

Tima still has to be woken up from his nap everyday. I don’t let him sleep more than two hours (and if I was more disciplined, I would make it only 1 ½ hours!) because then he’s not sleepy at bedtime. It’s strange that he’s so tired in the afternoons—in the States he only slept 1 ½ to 2 hours. But ever since we’ve moved here, he’ll sleep three hours if I let him. Somehow, the results of the time change still hang on.

So, that’s the sleep-update from Kiev. You’ve been warned that these updates contain a lot of details, right? Probably too many, unless you’re our kids’ grandparents! I hope we haven’t even worn them out.

With the Edges

We are the beneficiaries of Russia's strict new visa law. Many foreigners are now having to leave the country for 90 days, and where better to go, but friendly, Russian-speaking Kiev? Of course, this is not so good for them, due to the expense and time away from their ministries. But we enjoy getting to see some friends.

One family from Irkutsk, the Edges, arrived here a few weeks ago. We are grateful that for the first month, they will be living on our side of the city--about 30 minutes drive from us. Last night, we enjoyed having them over. It's been almost exactly two years since we've seen them, and of course, everyone has grown up!

Ooooh- oooh

Ella is full of sound effects these days. When she's spinning slowly around in circles, she puckers her lips into a tight 'o' and sings, "Oooh-oooh".

All animals are greeted with a quick sharp, "ooh-ooh," that was originally her dog-bark. Why do our children all bark before they speak? When we read Brown Bear or Where Does Maisy Live she does attempt some of the other animal noises. Her chicken clucks are usually on target, and her sheep "baa's" are coming along.

She still says, "mmm" for milk, or yummy. And she now usually follows the milk request with a sign and lisped attempt at 'please' which just sounds like, "th".

"Ma-Ma", (said with the 'a' as in act-ually, not aw-ful) is used when she's looking for me. Eric is greated with exuberant, "Da-Da". (With the same a.) But Danya and Tima are addressed as "Dah-dah".