Quiz time! What is it?

Below you will find pictures of 5 items. If you want to take a guess at what they are, put your guess in the comments section if you know how (basically click on the word comments and follow the directions) or send me an email with your answers for items 1-5. I will try to make these quizzes once a month or so and they will get harder. These ones are pretty easy...

ok, Item # 5 is really easy but beware the next quiz will be harder... 

Where is Hudson?????besides in the stroller.... Item #4 

What are those? Item # 3 

What is this? Item #2  

Thought I'd start a little quiz kind of thing with interesting objects from moscow. So under comments take a guess at what each thing is and we'll see who is the "smartest". item #1 - what are those brown things? be as specific as you can.  

Ok, I'll stop with the Hudson pictures. He is just so goofy looking I have to show. He really is a funny little guy. When he laughs out loud and giggles he sounds exactly like Josiah, I often have to go in the room to see which one it is although most of the time they are laughing together. 

Yay! Hudson has been able to sit for short periods of time with his hands spotting for a few weeks. Emma and Josiah couldn't do this till 6 months. But then they both had a couple of teeth by now. I like Hudsons babygum smile though:) 

Hudson is now 5 months old! most people guess 8-9 months so at least I won't have to respond with a mere 4 months anymore. He is very long and strong, not so chubby anymore but he sure is bigger that Josiah was at this stage. He got a little mosquito bite by his eye there:) He is learning to sit now, his hair is turning blonde and he now eats a bit of baby food. He is such a sweet baby, we all can't get enough cuddles with him. 

For those of you who are interested in the map we look at frequently and where we live.... Dad, you'll like it anyway:) We are located on the orange line south end 5 stops down from the brown. novie cheremushki is the name of the stop. The brown line connects us to the others most of the time which means 3 different trains to most places but it is pretty fun. They have a very efficient system. The most we have ever waited for a train is probably 30 seconds! There is usually only standing room once on the brown or going into the center but I tend to be offered a seat with Hudson or Josiah. To go to Ikea I take the orange line down to Yasenevo? and then the free bus takes us to the Mega Mall. The crowd carries you onto the bus, my legs were not touching the ground there were so many waiting to get on the ikea bus. it is quite the experience. 

So here is another shot of the two. David says he expects me to look like that when he starts looking like THAT. I'll need bigger high heels and hair and smaller everything else:) This really is not uncommon. The ladies wear the highest heels even when they have to walk all day. And they don't wear too much else. 

Here is a picture my friend Tracy Kmet sent me. We were best friends from Kindergarten through High School. It was great to spend a little time with her in Thunder Bay after not seeing her for years and years. I think she found it quite funny to see me with 3 kids and a handsome husband after just being two silly girls before:) Thanks for the picture Tracy! 

This is why people can pick us out as foreigners. I sure don't look like that, David sure doesn't look like that and we definetly have a different child configuration. Most the women as Jon and Pete will agree, are extremely beautiful, slim and shockingly dazzling? they are all models and the men are not so. There are few women in between this stage and the babushka stage. I don't know if they age overnight or what... 

Metro station. Some are more basic and some are more elaborate like this one. This is the platform between the two trains. 

Victory Park(park pobedi) Family Photo. We just finished our ice creams (see emma's evidence) Ice Cream is a huge part of the culture, really cheap, really good- those drumsticks, big ice cream sandwiches etc. At least one a day! 

Park Pobedi 

We carried the kids a whole lot today. Decided to try the journey without the stroller. See...we have a big walk to the metro and once we get where we want where the stroller is very appreciated but then once you get to the metro station the stroller is not appreciated, it must be folded up and then we carry the kids and the stroller. Today's journey required 3 different metro lines (trains) so we carried them... Always a toss-up. Emma is a great walker:) 

Potty time! David just gave the lady 10 rubles so emma could go to the bathroom. Emma said david used it while he was in with her too....Should have given her 20 rubles...hee hee. Bathrooms are very different here, no toilet paper in the stalls so you (well if you are a girl) need to decide what you will do before you go in. And you need to pay extra for the tp too. Sometimes the sinks are joined with the guys and then just separate toilets which usually do not have seats, just rims. You try to squat without touching cause they are very dirty but that of course is impossible for emma... 

Hi!  

I've got my brother and my milk...what else could I need? Jo and Hud resting in the park. They love holding hands, very funny. 

Two russian ladies getting the shashlik off the skewer for David. It is kinda like satay I figure. Very yummy. This was at the conference we had. The ladies cooked all the meals for us. We even had chicken and rice for breakfast! I loved it cause I'm not really into cereal or toast. Lots and Lots of cabbage. One meal we had cabbage/beet salad and then cabbage borsht and then cabbage on the side of our plate with the meat. Yikes, kinda like beans sometimes:) 

We had a couple of really cold days here but late last night we had this beautiful sunset and it looks like it will be a beautiful day today. I like it staying light so long at night, gives David and I a daytime to ourselves after the kids go to bed and by the time the sun sets it is really time for us to go to bed too:) 

Sierra, Ocean and Emma oops I mean Karina, Lydia and Emma:) This picture was from the conference we went to. Karina is Irish and lives in the next apartment building so Emma gets to play with her and her siblings very often. Lydia is out in Siberia. They were all 3 at the time:) Karina will be 4 soon too. 

This was taken at about 11pm? at night. There is only a few hours of darkness now which is a little tricky to get used to. When I wake up at 4am I feel like I slept in. There is also construction work/building going on all night. And the noise really travels. If I knew Russian I could know what all the workers are talking about at 4am. I guess they might as well work as there is so much light. They work when it is dark too though. Those cranes are everywhere. 

"our" bird Patrick 

"Our" cat Sasha.