warming up

 
(huddy 14 months)
Our colds are all going away and the cold outside is going away too. Just huddy is grumpy/feverish now. emma and me are still coughing a little and blowing our noses but i think we are on the mend. jo is all done with whatever he had. it wasn't really the stomach flu as all his food came out down where it should...just his juice was thrown up. maybe just too much mucous. anyway. fun stuff. but hopefully a few more days and we will be back to normal enjoying the warm weather. it should be about 7 C for the next few days.

Matt/Kayleah- sounds great. a few days in the mountains would be excellent. anytime later in june or in july at the moment will work unless something comes up. Hope Ben is feeling better soon too. 

my language helper

 
and here is anya. anya is such a blessing to me, she is smart, extremely beautiful and so fun to talk to. she has a great story too so i thought i'd post it. i look forward to getting to know anya better and better. She hopes to be an opera singer! Read about her background here. 

david's language helper

 
thought i would put a link on so anyone who is interested could learn more about Vanya. we are so thankful for vanya and all the hours he spends here each day helping David with his russian. Read more about him here 

still sick

 
we have been very lucky so i can't complain as this is the first time the kids have been sick since we have come here except for emma eating something bad the one night.. 10 months with 3 kids not being sick at all is pretty amazing. just reminding myself.. the last couple days the sickness just keeps spreading. emma gave it to huddy and now jo has it too.. josiah hasn't been sick at all since he was 3 months old. amy, sara and char will remember when the three little ones had that major flu. but it seems he is just scared of feeling bad. he cries when he coughs and has a big pout. huddy just has a normal cough and quite the boogery nose. emma just is still weak and tired and coughing. i have a bit of a cold but mostly probably just need rest. it was a rough night as i'd have about half an hour between kids waking for sips of drink for their throats which is just enough time to fall asleep to be waken again. i don't sleep much usually anyway so i can usually do this for a few days with no problem. right now jo and emma (picture) are taking a nap in our bed. david is at class and when he gets back i will go. so just be thinking about us today. sometimes i need three bodies to cuddle with them all but they are pretty good at taking turns. 

cough cough

well now we all (except david) have colds/coughs at least a little anyway. We brought our babushka across the hall flowers yesterday and she said that this is the season for colds. so we are trying to get lots of rest and drink lots of good stuff. Jo is doing fine with his glued cut:) doesn't seem to bother him at all.
we forgot to change our clocks on saturday night so david was very late on sunday. then we knew why the kids had slept in an extra hour:)

our russian friends Denise (man) and Yulia came over for supper before the meeting on friday and we had a great time together. They can eat a lot, i like that. And they gave us our first gift from russians too. they gave us the Book in the easier to read translation. Russians only have two choices. easy and hard. they think it is funny all our different versions and especially that my book is a women's one. we may be getting a little out of hand at home with all the versions and all. maybe russia will later. Anyway, they wrote in the front cover which makes it very special, even though we don't really know what it says:) And they invited us over to their place last night but we already had people coming over in the afternoon and we didn't think the kids were up to it but hopefully we will get another chance soon. Maybe we will finally get in a real russian apartment. though i think they live in student housing or something like that. well. gotta go rest somemore. bye

they are home! josiah was full of smiles when they came home, he had some grapes and got me to kiss his owies and is now falling asleep. and no stitches yay!!! 

oh boys!

 
well. this time david is taking josiah to the medical clinic. he fell into the corner of the bookshelf and has a deep cut. it stopped bleeding right away and he is happy and fine. we thought we'd send them to go get it stiched up properly. yucky. poor little guy.. it is 8:30pm now, the taxi just came. so glad david knows enough language to get a taxi cause it is a long trip by walking, bus and metro and more walking... Josiah was very excited when i told him he is going out with daddy. here he is putting on his jacket. now he'll have a scar. poor jo-jo.

emma is on the mend, still has a little cough but it otherwise back to normal. no fever and she is full of energy again. it was kinda nice though cause she was taking a nap in the afternoons with the boys again but not now.

so be thinking about jo and daddy. they should be back later tonight. hope josiah is brave and co-operative for the stiches. they are at the european medical clinic. it is a great place. they took great care of huddy when he was there. now they get to meet his big brother



update Only one hour later and david has called and they are already on their way home! Yay! They glued him back together instead of stitches which sounds good to me. David said jo sat completely still and didn't make a sound for the whole procedure. He will wear a bandage on top for 7 days and then they said he'll be fine. the glue just goes away on its own. Pretty cool. so maybe he'll get a bit of a headache or something they said but nothing more than a little tylenol (which we have) will be needed. Good news indeed.
 

what is new? hmm

just another pic of huddy at 13 months
We sure enjoyed talking with char on the phone last night hearing about Andy's surprise birthday party. Sounds like Charlotte did an amazing job getting it all organized. And I told David that I thought Laura would post about it first and then Richard and then maybe someone in the family would eventually. And I was right! So if you want to see some pics of the event click on Laura or Richard on the right. Nothing under anyone else yet as I predicted:) We'll give you all a few more days to recover and then we expect some pics and/or stories:)
Spring went back to winter for a few days but now it isn't too bad out again. Very tricky to walk though. Sometimes all you want is running shoes, sometimes you need sorels, but most of the time you want rubber boots with spikes. Very messy and slippery outside. makes it very important not to slip on the ice because if you fall you land in a big muddy puddle.
Speaking of puddles, emma has a very runny nose today and a bit of a temperature and a cough. She is sweet and cuddly at times and the rest of the time is a little grumpy. I understand though. When you have a cold and you can't taste and you can't enjoy much it is normal to be grumpy I think. We hope it won't spread to the rest of us and that she is better soon.
We have our group coming tomorrow night again and this time we are pretty sure the russian couple will come early. It is so nice to have the meeting to look forward to each week. Oh. and speaking of language, David has another language check tomorrow!
That is all that is new I guess. How are things with all of you?

emma's stories

 
emma is working on her first novel- knotty girl. it is only written when she is getting the knots brushed out of her hair. it is coming along really good. david thought she was getting off track at one point but she has tied it back in to the plot and all is well. anyway. maybe they will be done the story soon. but today she was telling her lego pieces a story. any objects quickly become people for emma. pencils, lego anything. the yellow and red lego are women and the blue and green are boys. if they are married they get stuck together. so in her story today she made up a new word - infactually. i like it very much infactually. it isn't a word is it? 

sleepy huddy

now all three of our kids have fallen asleep in the highchair. funny. i wondered why he was so quiet.  

boring spaghetti

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thought huddy sleeping at lunch would be a good video:)

couples group session#1

tonight we had the first official couples meeting. We talked about things we don't understand about the opposite gender and the pros and cons of marriage. the one couple didn't come early though but they might next week. we had a great time together eating and talking and getting to know each other. we are soooo glad for this opportunity to get to know some real russians and to be able to understand the way they think a little more. they are very patient with us as we struggle with finding the right verbs, pronouns and vocab. when it was all over and they were leaving I (erin) got my first kiss from a russian woman. i didn't kiss her back, maybe i should have. it is so great having these couples over. we will have great fun together every friday night.

some of the couples...

  

and more...

  

They are almost here...

We just got a call that the completely russian couple are on their way over so it looks like we will have a good hour and a half together before the rest of the couples come over tonight. Yay! It is 7 degrees C outside!!! Yay! Tonight we will be discussing the pros and cons of getting married:) any thoughts? some things like having someone around falls into both pros and cons probably... what else....I am very excited. this is just what we have been hoping for! Though i still wish everyone would cancel at the last minute as fear creeps in. Anyone else do that? I love it once the people are here though and after they leave:) I learned the verbs for pouring, brushing, shaving and showering etc. this week so i guess I can tell them about when I shave my legs and stuff if I can't think of anything else to say!
that reminds me...I was acting out the different verbs for my russian teacher. she said brushing teeth so i acted it out. she said to arrive late and I acted out taking off my clothes. probably had to be there to get the full context but it was very funny at the time. I sometimes get arriving late and taking off clothes mixed up. I need to practice those verbs more I guess. wouldn't want to call ahead to a meeting and say "I'll be taking my clothes off a little" or something. language learning can be pretty funny. anyway. better go get things ready.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

 

I DID remember! Erin Go Braugh! 

С днём рождения!

 
Happy 60th Birthday Andy! We wish we could be there to celebrate your birthday with you.... He has used you greatly in the last 60 years...what will He do through you in the next 60?! Thank you for teaching David to see things differently than the world sees them. Thanks for teaching him the things that matter through your example. We love you Andy! 

chickens!

 
i just peeked around the corner to see what emma was doing, she loves it when the boys are asleep and she can do whatever she wants and bring out the markers etc. it amazes me that she can draw anything she sees now. nice little chicken family eh! 

Bathtime Fun!

 
huddy loves baths so whenever he is getting into things or we need time to pass it is a great time to stick him in the tub. He plays forever and also just likes to enjoy the water. if you take him in with you he lays back and hums as you pour water over his shoulders and belly.. he really enjoys it. josiah on the otherhand doesn't. he stands next to the tub with his clothes on and spoons water into containers etc. but he won't go in the tub without tears and screaming. the two boys are not of the same mold. but they still like eachother most of the time:) 

Looks like he's trying to smoke the ladle...

  

more russian encounters!

Well, things are starting to happen! You guys must be thinking about us a lot, well Someone is! Emma and I went on Sunday without the men as there was so much snow that I even had to carry emma at times. Emma went off to her russian sunday school class and i went to the russian service. Lucky for me the speaker was English and david's language helper Vanya was the translator. So I could understand both men. You do get used to hearing particular speakers and it is surprising how much easier it is for me to understand Vanya than other russians.
But then we had to gather in groups of 4 and share requests and pray! Yikes! I think i did ok but only the other 3 know how bad it was:) I got the gist of what the others were wanting help with too. I was very thankful that only one in the group did the praying, I wouldn't know how to do that at all. Except at the end I joined in with amean! (not amen).
Then after the service I chatted with the lady next to me who again couldn't believe I had 3 kids. She was very friendly. But then a lady who I've chatted with before invited me and emma over for her 6year old daughters birthday party. So Emma and me headed off to buy a gift and then took the 3 different metro's and walked and walked and found the party. We had a great time. The husband is from Alabama or something like that but he wasn't home. There was 4 of us ladies and though the other three all speak a bit of english they all spoke completely in russian the whole 3 hours. They talked about babies (2 were pregnant), food, decorating, parties, cultures, discipline, nannies and all kinds of things that women normally talk about. It was another event where I sooo much wanted to be able to talk more. Emma learned some more russian I'm sure and had a great time playing with the 8 kids that were there. The kids all had a funny mix of german, russian and english. Emma didn't seem too confused though. Anyway. Yay. Good stuff.

It happened!

Last night we had our first home group (young couples group). It was soooo fun. We had 3 couples (there are two more couples that may come in the future) and only 1 of the husbands was american! We have been hoping for this to get going for a long time as we just don't know many russians except our teachers. We thought we'd host a group (someone else will do the teaching in russian but they will use our home so we can listen and learn and meet people). At one point it seemed it would be in English unfortunately because only the wives were really russian with foreign husbands. But turns out some of the wives only speak russian and the foreign guys understand russian and speak well enough that we are able to do the whole thing in russian! This is sooo exciting for us as we now have more motivation to learn russian and somewhere to practice what we have learned.
The best part of the evening was when a completely russian couple (who speak only russian I mean) showed up 1/2 hour before the meeting was to start. It was perfect because we had to speak only in russian and they were so easy to understand and just so friendly. They are the kind of russians that make you like russia. They have only lived in Moscow for one month and are not liking the atmosphere very much. They are from a smaller town where people are more open and friendly. This is nice to know that all of russia is not like moscow. Anyway. David is amazing in russian. I didn't know all the things he could talk about. The whole half hour was constant conversation with no awkward pauses or anything. It was soooo encouraging for both of us to see how much we have learned. Even though I can't speak too much I could understand enough that I didn't feel strange sitting, nodding and agreeing with what was being said.
Anyway, we agreed to meet every friday here and it just seems we all hit it off great and will have lots of good times together. So... yay. Just what we have been wanting:)

little boy

 
thought this was a pretty cute pic of huddy.. sometimes he looks like a little baby but other times he looks pretty old for being only 13 months. he is lots of work lately but also lots of fun. he has a bit of a cold right which is making him very gooby. i wiped his nose and chin before this picture...we all have yuckies on our shoulders from cuddling with him. 

emma's rose

 
emma wanted to show you all her rose so i took a picture of her. it turned out pretty weird, doesn't she look like Paula Abdul?!? anyway.. daddy got her a rose for women's day, well done david. and he even got our friend to come and watch the kids while he took me out for lunch and a bit of shopping.. i do like women's day. no mother's day here but that doesn't excuse you david... we are picking up the new holidays and keeping the others too- the more the better:) 

all 5 of us!

 
it is rare indeed to get a picture of all 5 of us so when our friend Kathy was here with her camera we gladly posed for a pic even though we weren't in our finest. 

unicorns!

 
I really like this picture emma drew this morning. when i asked her what they were she said "unicorns of course!" The strange thing is I didn't know she knew about unicorns. She said she watched a movie about unicorns in canada. She obviously has a good memory. To have seen an object a year ago and then draw it for the first time now is very cool i think. She loves the markers Rianna, Heidi, Peter, Ben and Kyla sent. Thanks! 

winter fun in spring

 
It is spring here but you wouldn't know it. Today is nice and sunny though and david is doing a great job with the women's day thing. I got dressed to go out with them but emma said "please don't come out, you need to have time to yourself because that is what this day is for and if you want you can even play with my narnia toys!" david has meatballs simmering on the stove (jelly balls yum!) and i've heard rumours that he is sending me out shopping later. not bad. and the blini and tim horton's coffee (thanks to robin and carla) this morning were very yummy. Anyway, you'll see in the pic that emma seems to have found a boy friend to play with down there- hope she uses some of her russian, i can hear her laughing when i am by the window. Jo is in the red and white suit and huddy in the yellow and red one. 

Happy Women's Day!

 
Today is a huge holiday in Russia, bigger than valentines. In fact even though we have had so many holidays since New Year's here (including Men's Day and Orthodox Christmas) this is the next biggest. The flower kiosks have been very busy the past few days as women will get flowers from their employers, sons, husbands and/or lovers. We have the day off school and david is in the kitchen making some of his famous blini. I have beautiful purple tulips on the table (like the ones in the pic) and am enjoying the day very much. It is an international holiday though mostly just the ukraine and russia really celebrate it. Love is in the air here and spring feelings too. even though it is still cold and there is lots of snow, just because it is technically spring here it feels a little like it:) So men reading this why not show your appreciation for the women in your lives, go buy them some flowers or chocolates (they aren't as expensive as they were on Feb.14th) and relieve them of their duties like changing diapers or doing the dishes and laundry... Happy Women's Day! 

long lines and friendliness

Nothing too exciting happening lately which is good I guess. I had a great language session today with one of my helpers (anya). We were discussing a bit of culture- specifically whether american/canadians are more friendly? The major thing we noticed is that we americans (canada is part of north america right?) say hi more often and even to strangers. But russians would hold your hand and help you cross the street or pick up your little kid if they fall and they are closer. anyway. things like that. we have more friendly words perhaps and they have sometimes unfriendly words but friendly actions maybe. still learning all this. could be completely wrong. we aren't as touchy for sure though. we have big personal spaces boundaries but here they just can't, their apartments are crowded and if you press your body up against some stranger the whole way to work riding the metro... it ain't so strange to put your arm around your buddy later. she also mentioned in passing that when you buy a guy (yes a guy) flowers here his favorite colour to get is pink. strange. i was thinking she might say yellow or white. pink!?
If you want to see more videos there are two more below though they aren't too exciting. if they had sound they would be more interesting cause Jo was talking in both, you'll be able to pick out his hi's. and huddy does do some funny faces in both.
David did go to the maslenitsa festival though it wasn't as big or as exciting as he thought it might be. another thing about russians is they love long lines. or at least they don't detest them like we do. David waited to sample (not for free, no free stampede breakfasts here- that would be a really long line) some blini at the festival in an incredibly long and slow line. It comes from the harder days here. If there was a long line it meant there was something available. a common joke around here is that you can start a fake line and everyone will line up behind you really fast. We haven't tried it yet:)
anyway.... videos:
click on a video to see it i think:)

good little ukrainians

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all 3 kids love pickles, especially hudson. so i thought i'd try another little clip while they were having a pickle break. huddy also likes kisses and kissing. he learned it from jo who kisses us all day long. josiah even pretends to have owwies so he will get kisses from everyone. though this kiss seems to have been a little to slobbery for jo's liking:) at the end of the clip a pickle falls out of huddys mouth making a big noise and that is why jo and huddy look down. the lighting makes it hard to see them but i think it is stil pretty sweet.
i like taking videos. i think the next camera will have to have a good movie mode..

go emma go

i thought i'd hold in the batteries and see if the movie mode is something we would like on our next camera.. so i filmed emma doing a little dance. jo was not in the mood for dancing. huddy is a good dancer too but he just wanted to sit and bop a little. anyway. i think that it would be fun to put little clips like this on. but we only have a few more free trial ones with this dropshots. anyone know of a free unlimited video sharing deal? though it is cheap to subscribe. it sure is easy to do..
sorry no sound. our camera doesn't have sound with it. but that may be something we will look for.

emma's style isn't quite ballerinaish is it...

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Blini!

 
Found this photo of blini which shows how they fold the circles up into wedges and then either dip them in the caviar or maybe they spoon it on it or something. we had caviar with viola (our teacher). extremely salty. tolerable in small amounts. 

It's Maslenitsa!!!

Maslenitsa is blini week! blini are like finnish pancakes, really thin circles often sweet that represent the sun. it is now spring here (started march 1st) and the whole week there are maslenitsa events on all over. downtown there is a street or something sectioned off with lots of activities. people try to make a record number of blini. the winter scarecrow is burnt (probably not the one in the picture, not sure). David will probably head down there and see some of the festivities first hand. everyday has a different theme sort of and if you look on the maslenitsa website you will be able to read about the traditions. look under history,rituals,weddings and read what the ritual for unmarried women is!!!! yikes.
here is the site: Maslenitsa check it out, it is in english:) don't skip the intro! turn up the volume, great music! leave it on for a while and do some dancing!