Danya is Eight!

Can you believe it? Danya turned eight years old on Saturday. To celebrate, we went skiing for the first time! We rented cross-country skiis in the wooded park in our neighborhood (thank you Edings, for discovering it and communicating it!) and Trisha and Nick joined us for an hour-long tour.

The boys both did well, though I was pretty helpless to explain how to do anything! Especially problematic was how to get your skiis pointed in the same direction after falling. But though they fell a lot, neither boy was frustrated or discouraged.

Our only tears were at the end. Tima discovered that 'to rent' doesn't mean 'to own'. And he wailed that he wanted to take them home, or buy some new ones immediately. The owner gave the kids a free ride on the 'carousel' to stop Tima's tears. (Yes, the ski rental place is right with two swing-carousels, and a shooting stand, and who knows what else! In the summer they rent bikes and roller blades.)

And what better way to celebrate the first birthday in awhile with a car, then drive to McDonalds!

The biggest part of the celebration was actually having Nate and Nick stay the night. Next weekend (when we have more energy) we're planning to do something with some friends from school!

This birthday was noteworthy because it is the first one in four years when Danya has celebrated in the same city as the previous years. The last 'stable' birthday was his fourth, in Irkutsk, where he had celebrated every year. Then, 5 was in Colorado, 6 in Kiev, and 7 in St. Pete. In fact, we hadn't moved to our own apartment yet; we celebrated while living with the Huddlestons.

Winter Images

Star Wars Lego Olympics

"One revel is a biathlont." (That's Danya's phrase for a rebel is a biathlete.) "Two rebels are snow-crossers. The captain clone is a cross-country skiier. Annikan is a snowboarder-crosser. The pilot storm trooper is a snowboarder...crosser. A storm trooper is a bobsledder. Another rebel is a speed skater. A clone trooper is a speed skater."

There are advantages to being legos. They can easily clip back in if they lose their snowboards. And Tima even showed me how Annikan 'used force' to get his back when it fell off. (There are advantages to being Star Wars guys, too.)

When watching the Olympics, Ella definitely likes the female figure skaters. Even when watching the pairs, she comments, "I like the girl." And whenever hockey comes on (which is often!) she comments, "I don't like pockey." Or, complains, "Pockey, again!" She claims her favorite is 'kee-gwumping.' And more than anything, she asks, "Mama, can we wat' de commer-tal?" since commercials are a novel thing in our household!

Tima claims his favorite sports are ski jumping (which we see a lot of here) and bobsled, both short and longtrack speed skating, and snowboarding cross. When I asked Danya to choose three (from the list of 10 he first told me) he finally decided on speed skating, half-pipe and the crosses.

Ella is Three!

Ella enjoyed a very special day yesterday! We kept it very simple, since in our opinion a three year old doesn't need much to make the day special. She enjoyed her gifts, got a lot of attention from her daddy, and enjoyed a party with our teammates. Although we were disappointed that the Skoks couldn't come, we enjoyed the Huddlestons, Cheryl and Lena. Ella chose pelmeni for dinner and a pink cake. (No surprise on either count!)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3999097&l=6fb870558c&id=593736915
Here are a few more photos!

Olympic Fun

We are having another week of geography and sports science.

Ella notices the letter "E" in everything, including results lists of the competition. "That's my letter!" she exclaims.

The boys are very interested in the different countries. The US and Russia are favorites... sometimes Danya cries when they lose. But they are passionate for Korea as well. And this mroning, watching speed skating, they were all for the Japanese because of their shiny gold 'super hero' outfits.

Danya has a week off of Russian school, since all first graders get four vacations each year. He thinks it is for the Olympics. My goal is to do extra American homeschool. We're doing a medal chart and some geography to go along with the Olympics. And we found a list of apporopriate spelling words. But the weather here is warmer, and we're trying to spend more time outside doing our own winter 'sports'.

There are huge piles of snow in front of our building, and the boys love to scale them and slide down the 'cliffs'. On the southern side, where the business entrances are, they have piled all the snow in the ramps, and the boys love to tunnel through them.

We haven't made it to the woods to sled or skate much. The weather was too cold for awhile, especially for Ella. And the paths packed by walkers down are a too skinny for the baby jogger, which means I'm either carrying Ella or she's crying on the sled. THe last week it's been warmer (about -5 to -10C) but Tima and Ella have been quite sick with croup-like illness. Now, they're getting better, but Eric and I are fighting something off. So it goes, I guess! But even home-bound, we are enjoying more sunshine and longer hours of daylight.

Winter Student Conference

Tima and Ella, along with our friend Sam, spent hours each day playing with the little animals. Their babysitter started bringing a book when she watched them because they were so engaged with their play.

Beauty.

Today I talked with a friend in Krasnoyarsk. Ella and Tima are coughing and feverish, but did well for most of the conversation. Ella wanted to see who I was talking to and showed Tima their family's photo.

Quick update

We are spending the week together with staff and students from about ten cultures across the Russian-speaking world, plus our traditional group of Korean students! Ella and Tima are having a great time with the one other child-Sam McFadden. Their babysitter started bringing a book since the kids only want to play with their little animals and Snow White. Right now they are having a feast …some of the Jedi and dwarves are in the pile to be eaten by the tigers.

Danya is having a good time staying with our teammates in St. Petersburg. Trisha was so gracious to take him in for the week, though her husband is with us at the conference. And Danya’s definition of heaven is Nate and Nicks’ home! He’s playing Wii, Monopoly Deal, and Legos. Just like I have three kids of similar interests who are intensely playing with one another, Trisha says the three at her house are just as intense, though of course at a different developmental level!

It’s been great for me to watch Eric in action, leading the staff and students of Russia. I sat in on his vision casting meeting with the Korean students, and my own vision for Russia was renewed. And for the first time I experienced Korean style prayer at its most intense- with us in the center, hearing the many shouted prayers poured out with literal tears. And though I worried I would have no common ground with students (in my old age, having missed this conference for 5 years!) I have been blessed by the 45 students who live in cities without staff members, who are looking for mentors and friends. The atmosphere among our staff and students is very hopeful, as we all trust God together!

Tima and His Dolphin

Tima is crying himself to sleep, sucking his thumb, with his 'burpie' rolled up under his hand. Yes, a little regression is going on! The cause? He just realized that we gave away his dolphin, "Emma".

Last week after Christmas we celebrated Boxing Day with our own tradition of boxing up old toys. The boys have out grown a lot of their toys, and Ella's interests are diverging. So it was a fun year of giving away a lot! We pruned the stuffed-animals by about half. Meaning, we kept one dolphin and gave the other away. (I think they get played with once a month or less.) Tima didn't say anything at the time, but it turns out the boys can tell the dolphins apart, and Tima is now very sad.

(By the way, the dolphins were hard to give away, because we got them at the dolphin show in Odessa, when we were there with many good friends from Russia. Emma is named after a young friend who lives in Moscow!)

Beautiful Day!

After recovering from New Year's festivities, it seems most of Peter had the same impulse as I did to get outside and enjoy the snowy woods. It was so worth the cold (-15C and 90% humidity) to see piles of untouched snow and the almost-clear sky covered with pink clouds as the sun set in blazing orange (at 3:15). Why don't I do this every day?

I think I've mentioned before that I am amazed at the athleticism of Peterburgese. The wooded park has tractors plowing the paths! (There has been a lot of snow the last week or so--they say the most in 130 years. I haven't heard how much, but it seems to be around 18".) And the paths were full of people walking. The skiiers had to weave through them in places. I saw two men running, and dozens of kids trying out skiis, perhaps for the first time!

C Новым Годом!

A rousing family train game, gingerbread house eating, Oklahoma-Stanford game live at 11pm, good friends and good times to ring in the new year!

It never occured to me to take pictures of the fireworks. They started later than usual--not much till 1am. And then most buildings had a display in their courtyards.
We went out to our courtyard then for champagne, mandarin oranges, and fireworks. Some of our kids loved it, some were pretty spooked by the (uncoordinated) rockets shooting up allaround and the coordinated loud big ones shot up just about 100m away. After half an hour, we came back home so Tima could go to bed! Danya and I watched more from our stairwell balcony. Nice to be on the 13th floor where we can see across miles of the city!

The kids did sleep in a little this morning. Danya got up after 8:00, and Tima dn Ella after 9:00. Everyone's a little fussy! No surprise there, I guess!

Wishing you a joy-filled 2010!