I might add that Vanya is wearing dress pants and a shirt with a tie even with these shoes. Something you can't pull off with our running shoes!!!!! 

David's shoes vs. Vanya's (his language helper). I wrote before about the interesting ladies shoes. Well. the men wear very pointy dress shoes or very sparkly fancy running shoes. You never see the kind of running shoes (sneakers) we wear unless they are actually running at the moment or whatever. You don't wear runners to the mall or to walk to get milk. You wear dress shoes. But I suspect Vanya's shoes are the stage before they get into our comfort shoes. 

A Walk In The Park! David is out taking Hudson to the hospital again just to see how things are healing up under our care. He went by bus and metro which will take a long time... So I took the older kids for a walk exploring our area. There are lots of green areas like this to walk and run and every once in a while there is one or two pieces of playground equipment. Some very old and rusty and some not soooo rusty. We had a fun time. The weather is beautiful. Just a little cool so you can exercise! 

I wonder what the writing on the pole says... Probably not something we need to know:) 

We have some new playground equipment right outside our apartment. Nice! 

Emma and some russians. The babushka didn't give us any advice which they are known for. Maybe I had the kids dressed warmly enough today! Another babushka talked quite a bit to us today. I like not knowing what they are saying. 

Josiah- 19 months old. Thanks for the outfit Poppy. It was Emma's first and now the boys share it. 

Our "new" elevator. There is a door on the outside that needs to be opened manually of course and then when you are in you close the two brown doors. It works great and smells great so we love it.  

Someone's bed last night. Were they looking at real beds in the Ikea catalogue this morning? 

Of all the days to learn to walk....well ok this isn't walking but it sure is impressive. Those big (James) knees are strong. He is so funny how active and strong he is. We are having the hardest time keeping his bandages on. The one on his leg came from somewhere up higher, there is no burn on his leg. He won't stop crawling and rolling which is making it impossible to keep bandages on. And his diaper. After rewrapping again I put on some tight pants on him to help reduce some of the wear and tear. These next few days are going to be very interesting. I wonder if they would reconsider keeping him at the hospital for a few days:) We are very glad to have you back Hudson but you sure are a lot of work. He can go from his tummy to sitting now too. Quite the recovery so far!!!! Muscle Man.  

Josiah was glad to get his little brother back. He gave him lots of kisses and brought him some toys. Hudson did his first poo and it was a doozer. It took all of us to change him: I took care of the mess:), Emma went to get a bag for it and some scissors for daddy to cut off the bandages and wraps and Josiah entertained Hudson so he would lie still. Hope that he doesn't do that too often. It looks like his whole arm is burnt because of the huge bandage but really it is only a tiny spot on his bicep. He looks like a little war hero which is kinda cute. He is doing great! And the spots on his face are just bug bites if you were wondering! 

Back to exploring the house. We'll keep a close eye on him....don't want anymore accidents:) The last pic was at the hospital by the way. Nice place. The nurses looked like fancy stewardesses. And the place was very neat and clean. 

Hudson says "Hi!". He is now at home!!! They decided that he could come home as he is fine and we can look after the bandages ourselves. He is in good spirits and we are sooooo thankful that he is ok and was well taken care of. Thanks for thinking about little Hudson and we hope he continues to heal well. 

Well, I'm off to take David's place at the hospital with Hudson. David says they are both doing great. Hudson was happy and playing when I called. David also said it is a great to practice language as the doctor speaks English but of course most of the staff are Russian. But it is nice to be somewhere where there is english available if needed. I'll update when I get back maybe tomorrow? Maybe David will figure out how to do this and update:) Thanks for your thoughts and comments.

Here is how you spell McDonalds in Russian. Though most places that are just like the english word (even other McDonald's) are just spelled using the english letters. They need to know English letters pretty well anyway because of the www. Their websites are in Russian but then the www. address has to be in english so they know how to spell it with english anyway. Notice that the H is an N. Of course these kinds of words we don't need to think about how to pronounce because we know them but when there is a word that isn't english and has all the not really H's, P's, B's and so on, that is when we get caught. 

We've had some interest in more russian print so here is a good one of the english on the plate and the russian on the cup. c is our english s, b is b, (but B is v) a is a, p is an r and o is o. These are the letters I forget the most though cause when I go to read it I'm thinking yay easy english letters but then they aren't....There is a sbarro in thunder bay isn't there? I know there are some in Calgary. 

Hudson Update:

David just called and said that Hudson just went back to sleep after playing in the crib for a long time. He seems completely normal so that is great news. The doctor said that he has 9% of his body burnt (which isn't as much as they thought at first) mostly just 1st degree burns but a few dime sized 2nd degree burns. (just first layer of skin.) So maybe he won't be in as long as they first said but there is no hurry to get him out. David is starting to get hungry though! Maybe me and the kids will head over in the morning on the metro to visit and bring snacks. Maybe I'll stay then and David can come home. We get tomorrow off classes! Maybe the next day too. I'm glad the burns are mostly on his bottom cause if it does scar, even hudson won't see it!:)

Poor Hudson, Poor Daddy!

WEll, I just wrote about Hudson getting into things... well today he had an accident. He was sitting in his highchair and somehow (I can't imagine how) managed to reach the tea kettle cord and yanked it so that it spilled on him and burnt him. It burned his arm and bum the worst but it isn't too bad. He was very content while I was calling over our friend who is a nurse to come tell me what to do. Emma or Josiah have never had any burn never mind a 2nd degree burn. So I put him in the tub and waited for her to run over (she doesn't live too far) She put gauze on him, gave him some painkillers and suggested that we bring him into the European Med. Clinic to be checked. I knew it wasn't too bad cause he was still happy and content so I suggested David bring him in and I'd look after the other two. WEll. The clinic wants him to stay there for a couple of days to make sure that he doesn't get an infection etc. But that means that David is stuck at the hospital as we can't leave Hudson alone. I am the one who gets up with Hudson in the night so I will have a restful night while poor david will be at the hospital looking after Hudson all night and maybe all day tomorrow. I am not too worried but I do miss them both. It is nice to have full medical coverage so that we can go to a place like that. Anyway. I'm going to enjoy my undisturbed night of rest (hopefully) and David can be the mommy/nurse:) I'll keep you posted as I find out how the boys are doing:) David does have a bed in the room. But I don't think he gets food or anything:( Poor hudson is the first in our family to need to go to the hospital... Glad it isn't for something serious.

Emma and Josiah sitting on their bunkbed. I'll put one of the whole room later. They have a nice view of the trees and through the trees they can sort of see the park. 

Growing up fast!

Hudson is now 7 months old! He gets around the house and into everything and plays so good with Emma and Josiah. He practically talks just as much as jo which is easy as Josiah doesn't say much. Josiah says hi, bye, paka (bye) and a combination word of pakaye which is kinda cute and fitting. He says a few other words too. But the two of them are seen as twins, people probably think that Hudson didn't thrive as good in the womb or something. We are enjoying living in our apartment. David is gone off to Ikea to get some dishes as we've been using a little kids set for the whole week. But we don't have the stove hooked up yet so it's just been cold lunch style anyway:) We have been living on Kolbassa and cream cheese and bread and tomatoes and dill pickles. But it is yummy. Anyway, thanks for all your comments. It is fun not having anything cause each time David brings things home we are so excited to see what we own:) 

Trivia Question? What is the name of this place???? And what do they deliver???? Frequently to our house lately..... 

Another request from Andy. We love your demands Andy. Here is the picture of the tub. It is wonderfully deep and there is plenty of hot water! It has the russian tap, separate room for toilet and the only really bad part is the carpet which doesn't smell too good which I'm afraid of pulling up for fear of what may lie underneath! Anyway. Quite nice. There is a wand to do a shower thing if you like but we are bath people. Oh. And andy, the samovar probably doesn't work, it is an electric one but haven't seen a cord for it. but the piano is definetely not to be played, sounds awful! :) and we are on the 3rd floor and are wonderfully surrounded by trees out all of our windows. Can't see any buildings which is sooo different from the last place. Doesn't give me anyone to stare at or gather culture from though. I actually have to go outside to make cultural observations!!! What else did you want? Oh. The oven will have to stay we figure but it is very cheap. It has high and low setting:) So we won't mind getting a new one eventually. And yes it is fine to get rid of things cause we were told we could, except the books and other things. This is not usual though -we are very fortunate:) 

Do you remember the stove that came with the place (brownish/yellow and very dirty) well David got me a new one. It has a lid so that i have a kitchen counter and then we joined the 30% of the pop. that have a washing machine. No dryer but I am very glad not to be washing clothes in the tub. And it too gives me a counter. The place is losing some of its charm with the new things that don't quite fit into the scheme but that's ok... I even got a new vacuum. I have never owned things like these before so it is quite exciting. These appliances are soooo cheap here in comparison to Canada. But then the oven only has high and low setting so I better get an oven thermometer! 

This apartment is a great example of the Russian culture. Here we have our very own samovar (which came with the apt) This is a russian teapot basically. It is displayed on top of our piano which doesn't work. But as russia is changing and becoming very technologically advanced we added in a few new things... 

We have moved!

We are connected and living in our new apartment. It has been quite the adjustment from our other place. This place has a unique smell and style but both are improving the longer we are in here. David moved in 3 days ago and the kids and I moved in 2 days ago. David bought us some beds and stayed up till 3am putting them together so that when we came it would be more comfy for us. I love our new bed even though it takes up our whole room! You really have to squeeze by to get to Hudson and the balcony. We are going to throw out the shkhaff's (wardrobes) because they don't really open/close etc. so are not very useful. Then we should be able to turn the bed. 

We're Packing! We got the apartment so we are very excited to be done searching and move into our new home. Tomorrow we will be getting a van to take us and our bags to our new home. I got to go see the place today with david and it actually is kinda cozy. Small, a little tacky but homey. I think we will like it very much. So I gotta go pack and set this place up for the owners again. It will be a busy couple of days. Got to get some beds and dishes and stuff like that so maybe we'll be off to Ikea tomorrow too. Fun! 

This is our room which is kinda nice with the balcony and piano. There is another wardrobe thing to the left. Not sure where we will fit a bed and Hudson's crib too but we can figure something out. Maybe we'll have the bed placed as the piano stool seeing as we'll need that chair in the kitchen with the other green? chairs. I really am hoping we get the place now, really wanting to just move and start setting it up etc. We are just waiting for the lady to call.... Thanks for your comments, they are very encouraging:)  

This picture is just for Paula so she know's what I'm talking about. The other side has holes for the 3 prongs.