Merry Christmas!

Celebrating Jesus' birth!

Notice the traditional bananas and oranges. And the non-traditional hammers!

Ella received a tea set. And we were surprised that the boys had as much fun with it as she did! Eric joined them for a tea party. (Ella poured 'coffee' for him.

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with Chris and Trisha, Nate and Nick Huddleston. It was a wonderful, low-key dinner. As always, I'm amazed at my husband, who was in charge of the ham and the broccoli-chesse casserole (for which he made homemade cream of chicken soup!)

We enjoyed our last night of Advent, with all the candles lit. And sang Christmas carols, with the requests being, "Little Drummer Boy," "Angels We Have Heard on High," and "something fun..." A tradition we started last year is reading through the What God Wants for Christmas book with its little nativity scene. (on the spot quiz: Which angel in the Bible has one broken wing?)

Afterward, Danya said, "I think I'm happier than I've ever been in my whole life." The source? We think it was 10 straight games of Monopoly Deal with Nate. Danya said that Christmas Eve was the worst night of the year. "I just can't make myself go to sleep!"

A few days ago, we decorated cookies. This year we haven't had as much time to make things in advance, but managed to make one batch of cookies! (Despite the mix-up of baking soda and powder, it all tasted good.) We also made sugar-snow candy, like in Little House in the Big Woods except ours was made with sugar-water instead of maple and molasses! Only one burn later, and several candy-coated spoons, we had some sniglets of hard candy that got stuck in everyone's teeth!

Hopefully, more decorating to come this week. We get to celebrate for two weeks, since Russians' main holiday is new year's eve, and the Orthodox calendar places Christmas on Jan 7th. So there's a chance to finish up the gifts which didn't get done!

Мороз и Сольнце, день чудесный!

We've had two days of clear skies! To you Coloradans, it may not seem so unusual. But none of us can really remember the last time we saw the sun, let alone had a whole sunny day. A few days this past week, I saw sunlit clouds--evidence of a break somewhere in the grey covering us. And I was amazed at the beauty of the yellow, bright light which proved the continued existence of the sun.

Despite the lack of daylight hours, and the lack of sunshine even during those short hours, we are doing okay. The closer we get to the solstice, the more of an adventure it feels. It's really helpful to know that it will get better and better from now. (My attitude has improved since October, when my thought was, "Four more months until it's even this sunny?")

Eric and I sometimes speculate, would we trade the cloudy skies ande 10 degrees farther north for the much colder temps of Irkutsk? Yesterday, with the thermometer at -10C and sunshine, we decided that we much prefer the weather of Irkutsk. (In our opinion, -10 feels like -20 with the 90% humidity! And most of the winter, Irkutsk is around -20C.) Of course, Irkutsk is at -35 right now, I think! It's funny that we even talk about what we would prefer. If we chose our calling by the weather, we probably would never even think about Siberia!

Texan Blood

Not ag-ay-yan!

They-yer my oat-me-yeel.

He-yer my underwe-yer!

Is it genetic? The subtle influence of Papa Coe ? Or Nick, or six-year-old teammate who himself hasn't been in Texas a whole year of his life? Nobody knows, but Ella has a definite Texan accent when saying some words. It's very cute, especially the "Not ag-ay-yan!" when said with great drama about ordinary things like eating breakfast.

(translation:
Not again!
There's my oatmeal.
Here's my underwear.)

Tima's Terms

I unholded the toy and it fell.

[dropped]



Looking out the window on a snowy day, "Look, it's a breeze!"

[blizzard]



I remember that book! Tomorrow, when we were in Colorado, we read that!

[yesterday]



And then Obi-wan said, "I wanted to science that."
And Annikan stuck out his boot and said, "Science my boot!"
[study] This one was a mystery to me until Danya retold the same movie quote.



Of course, we also have the typical terms like "I catched; she swimmed; they go-ed." I've realized lately that I need to be correcting him more, since he doesn't seem to be naturally figuring them out. And he talks a lot.



Tima can spend the whole morning telling me stories. In the last few weeks, he's been pretending to be puppies. Each day, he chooses a new name and new characteristics for the new dog. We play the 'package game' to receive it. (The puppies are sent by relatives in the States, remarkably alive after being shipped for weeks.) And then Tima constantly corrects me, whenever I say his name:

"You mean Speedy?"

"Yes, Speedy, go get your clothes on."

Then there is a constant commentary about how each dog compares to the others. For example, how big he was when he was born, how tall he is now, how fast he can run, how high he can jump. And so on, to infinity, apparently! I've decided not to worry about all the 'imaginative' games in his homeschool curriculum.He plays that all day!

Солнце

13 December 2009

Sunrise 09:53
Sunset 15:52
Total Sunlight 05:59

Sunrise, Sunset

Today
Sunrise 09:31
Sunset 16:03
Total hours of sun 6:32

In one week
09:44
15:56
total 6:12
00:20 shorter than this week

In two weeks
09:54
15:53
total 5:59
00:33 shorter than this week

and then we're almost done with the getting darker part.

BTW, in six months, we'll have 11:28 more hours of sunlight than now!
http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/saint-petersburg.html

Baby Horse

"Mama horse?"
"Yes, baby horse."
"I a baby horse. You my Mama Horse. I suppo'd be under your 'kin [chin]
'Neeeeigh' [nuzzle, nuzzle]"

[I must say that my nuzzling baby horse is one of the most pleasant things I've experienced in motherhood. She loves to snuggle, rub cheeks and noses, and cling tightly to me. I just soak it in, hoping that this affection keeps coming for many more years!]

Of course, every other minute, she doesn't want to be a baby horse, rather:

"You a Mama Horse, I a baby leopa'd."

And she has a very exact definition of words, apparently without understanding catagories. Many things I say, she 'corrects':

"I not a big gi'l. I a little gi'l."

"Them not pants, them tights."

"Them not pants, them 'geens [jeans]

"Not my arm, my elbow."

"Not my finger, my 'tumb."

"Not a video, a D V D."

Some of her favorite books in the last few months:
A Pocket for Corduroy,
Ten Little Ladybugs,
Old Hat, New Hat,
Cooking with The Cat [in the Hat]
Ten Apples up on Top
Bears on Wheels

She is delighting all of us by reading books to us. Even Tima commented, "Ella hears a book read, and she learns it and reads it back to us." I think she especially likes the melody, since she reads them with exagerated intonation.

[Now, she's pushed her way on to my lap. When I said I was writing about her, she said, "I can't see myse'f. A little gi'l wif pon-y-tay-els?"]

Oh, and movie quotes. She started quoting lines from movies. Some favorites:

"I go, you 'tay, no follow" [from the Iron Giant]
"Sooo-saaan. Ooh, I 'cared myse'f." [Monsters vs. Aliens] This one is delivered with great drama and accuracy.

Long Nights, Dim Days

Since the temp went back above freezing a few weeks ago, it's been raining A LOT. We've gone out in a few pounding rain storms, but usually the rain is light and off and on. We played American football with some other staff members on Thanksgiving morning, and got completely soaked!

The clouds are very low, and the sun is even lower. It's hard to explain the dimness of the day, except to say it's like a lightbulb burned out in the sky. Ella cries when we go running in the woods in the afternoon, because it's too scary. It really is dark, even in the early afternoon.

The sun rises this week about 9:30... Right now, in fact, I can actually see a strip of orange sky at the horizon. It's pretty unusual to even see that strip of sky. I'm not sure what time it sets these days, but by 4:30 it's fairly dark. We walk home from soccer practice in the dark.

But I'm feeling more hopeful about surviving the winter emotionally. Somehow, with less than a month until the solstice, it feels like it should be dark. A few weeks ago, it felt hopeless. The pessimistic view is the 'It won't even be this light again for two months!'

Our big question is why our kids don't need more sleep! Seven a.m. they're up, every morning. (Though to us it still feels like midnight.) At night, the boys aren't going to sleep for about an hour after bedtime. We put up a brighter night-light so that they can read in bed, instead of getting up and complaining that they're not tired. Eric and I are trying to go to bed earlier, since it seems we need more than 8 hours of sleep.

School Days

We are amazed when we think of our prayers this summer for Danya’s school experience. We are so grateful for how positive it has been.

There's been no bullying, little teasing, increasingly positive relationships with the kids in the class. Good relationships with parents—especially two families. We have been blessed largely through our need for help. When Eric has been travelling, or I have an unexpected delay, we need help getting Danya to school or picking him up. Three different families have helped on different days. And other mothers and grandmothers are very friendly. I’m looking for culturally appropriate ways to get to know them better. One family is Sasha’s (who was at the desk with Danya the first day). On the fall vacation, he and his mother came over one evening to play. And yesterday, he declared that Danya was his best friend. (Maybe because Danya brought him a present for his birthday?) Another is Elya, (Eleanor) a girl with a brother, Eric (Ernest) in the second grade. Strange names for Russian kids—their mother is ethnically German, and the father is a sailor who will leave this week for a six month trip to South America. They live in our building, and walk past our entrance, so it’s not difficult for them to help.

Cultural Differences

Russian schools value beauty and perfection. The first graders learn cursive letters by practicing, and practicing, and practicing. Special-lined graph paper teaches them the ‘slant’, and they are expected to make the letters well! This contrasts with our experience in American kindergarten, where kids were pretty much encouraged to write any way they could, with pretty poor results. One day, Danya filled a sheet of paper with random math problems—addition and subtraction. When I asked if it was for homework, he said he wanted to show his teacher that he could do math well. “She says that if I don’t make my numbers well, that I can’t do math. But I wanted to show her that even if I don’t make the little curl on the ‘2’ or ‘5’ t hat I can still do math.” We talked a little about cultural differences, and a lot about the fact that his worth is based on her opinion of him. We see that he internalizes the Russian appreciation for beauty and quality, and want him to learn to work hard to do well… but also understand that he doesn’t have to be perfect.

Mushroom Poem

One place where Danya’s intelligence is apparent is his ability to memorize. And that is highly valued in Russian schools. A few weeks ago, he recited his mushroom poem for the fall festival. He and two other kids memorized the same ‘Opyatka’ poem, and presented it together at an assembly. (Tima and Ella recite parts of it all the time, too!)

And now, each weekend, he is sent home with a poem to memorize—about eight lines, and not too easy by my standards. Even the first weekend, we only started it Sunday night. But after Eric talked him through it at dinner and breakfast the next morning, he had it down. A week later, he still knew it!

Imaginative Play

Tima:
We had a short break so that Ella could meet the other kids. Their names are Magazine and Dean, and Migsy. That was the first game, called Pass the Ball. The second game is called Hit Wall, because you get points for throwing the ball up on the wall. Now, I have 70 points, and Ella has three.
.. 90...92...94.

Ella!

...96..98..100!

Momma, I just 100. And I won that game!

Mom, you know how I got 100 in lots of shots? Because I got good ones. And remember what good ones are? You get more and more turns. And that's how I won the game.