Family picnic

As I said, we went on a picnic. Here is just. . .

One photo from Saturday
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Домики!

Наши домики!
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

"Come in, please"
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

We turned our big box into two little houses. Now it's looks like a new condo development sprung up in our living room. They do fold up and hide away, though.

Also. . .
Our second little frog crawled up out of the water yesterday.

We had a family picnic and roasted hot dogs in the forest today. It rained a little, but we had a great time anyway.

Again

Here's another illustration of what I wrote yesterday: I was showing Will the progress of Raia's new teeth, saying, "You can see this one right below the surface, and this one has just broken through. . . ." Jaan was watching and listening, and right away he asked, "Рот у Ляли сломался?" ("Baby's mouth is broken?")

The little eavesdropper

Last night Will and I were talking, while Jaan seemed to be playing and just minding his own business. All of a sudden Jaan yelled, "Нет! Нет! Собака не горячая!" ("No! No! The dog is not hot!") Huh? And then we realized that Will had just mentioned hot dogs, and we started laughing. So he does understand English! (By the way, one of Jaan's favorite books right now is Go, Dog, Go, which he calls "Go, Собака, Go.")

And as for Raia. . . I'm finding hair training to be much harder than potty training. She does not want to keep barrettes or anything in her hair, but her bangs are so long that I have to do something. The moment I look away from her, she has her hair loose. We're making progress, though. By the end of yesterday, she would reach for her head, then start to shake her finger like нельзя/no-no. She also started using that to say "no" to me, though! Last night she didn't want to go to bed, so as we approached her crib, so she told me "нельзя."

Pumpkin soup and other things

Yum-yum!
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Raia liked it, too
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

(This was after she had supposedly cleaned herself up. She was handing the rag back to me and saying that she was all done.)

Today we cooked one of our pumpkins and made a delicious pumpkin curry soup. If I were doing a Thanksgiving meal in America, I would start it with this soup! I don't think any of our Russian friends would like it, though. Jaan helped me with every step of making it, and then ate two bowls full.

Now Jaan and Will are at the orphanage. Raia and I stayed home tonight. It's been a long time since I've had such a nice chunk of time one-on-one with her. We played like crazy, and now she's in bed.

I'm really enjoying watching Jaan develop an understanding and compassion for the kids he's with tonight. Last week as we walked home in the cold, he had all kinds of questions about the children having enough blankets and warm socks. Then, he and Raia and I sat together at our kitchen table enjoying a special treat of hot chocolate before bed, and he asked the big question, "Do they have mamas?"

We enjoyed a beautiful fall day today. The weather has warmed back up again, and it was finally clear! We planted our tulip bulbs. As Jaan understands it, they're going to sleep all winter, so he wanted to cover them with a blanket.

We have a frog!

"Лягушка!"
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Remember we found frog eggs back in May? We enjoyed the tadpoles from them all summer. When it got cold outside, they still hadn't turned into frogs, so we brought them in off the balcony. Yesterday our first little frog crawled out of the water! It's been sitting on the rock, eating tiny little bugs and entertaining us since then. When we first saw it on dry land, it still had a long tail; already today there's just a tiny stump. It's amazing how from the same batch of eggs we have a frog, an almost-frog, a tadpole with little legs, and a plain tadpole right now. I wonder why they're developing at such different rates?

Beautiful!

My beauties
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Yesterday I decided to try fixing Raia's hair like Marina had done it last week. Raia didn't want to leave it, so in the process of teaching her to let it be, I made a big deal of how pretty she looked. Jaan started asking me to do his hair, because he wanted to be beautiful, too. I didn't really want to, since he is a boy, so I came up with putting a tie on him. He was thrilled!

The video

Thanks to Dad, you can see the video I mentioned yesterday:

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Raia's not talking yet, but she already makes me laugh. She's learned to fold her hands and babble "prayers" before meals. Usually it takes us a while to get settled, so I give her food, and then when we all sit down, she stops eating and prays with us. I noticed tonight that she "prays" every time I sit down at the table. If I get up for any reason, when I come back, she folds her hands and babbles.

If you want to read a conversation with Jaan, go to the comments we left on Shannon's blog.

Я and R

Spelling his name
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Jaan has finally learned the difference between Я and R! I have a cute little video clip that I was going to post here to celebrate, but I can't get it up. You'll have to do with this photo instead. When he looks at the backs of the these puzzle pieces, he sees his name in Russian. He's known that for a long time, but he insisted that R was the same as Я.

He has also been writing his name for a little while now. Or, actually, he writes Н--the second letter--because Я is too complicated. If he wants to write his whole name, he asks me to write the first letter, then he writes the second, and he's so proud of himself!

На даче

Saturday was a gathering for missionary families in Ivanovo and Vladimir regions. We went to a dacha owned by missionaries in Ivanovo and had a wonderful day of fellowship. We rode with the Petrashes from Viazniki, so even the long trip there and back was great fun. It was cold, but the weather in Ivanovo was beautiful. There were clouds here and all around, and on the way there we did pass through one area where snow had just fallen, but there was clear blue sky and sunshine at the dacha.


With Marina
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Raia is a fussy mess because of some molars working their way through, but she enjoyed playing with her friends and eating berries. She had a terrible time with the garden there. They had raised beds, and she was convinced that they were sandboxes, just for her. She would gather up all her "tools," place them in the garden, then try to climb in. I kept trying to explain it to her, but she would just cry. When it was time to eat, we all went into the house, and Raia made rounds eating a bite from each person's plate as she went around the room.


Berries!
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Jaan loved the grass. The lawn really was beautiful (and incredibly rare here). We had been hearing about the amazing yard for over a year now. ("They just planted grass, nothing else. Can you imagine?") Jaan showed his appreciation by rolling in it. Inside, the very first thing he noticed was the lawn mower. He dragged me straight over to it, babbling about "some kind of machine," and had to carefully inspect it, before we could do anything else. By the way, Jaan really must have played hard, because at lunch he ate more sausages than his Papa did!


"Как хорошо!"
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

On the way home our children each experienced something new:

Raia's first hair style
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

and

Jaan's first driving lesson
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

I'll close with a. . .

Scenic view
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

That grass really was worthy of an American golf course!

Recent days

Raia "helping" her friends
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Both Monday and Tuesday we went to the orphanage. In some ways it's easier than last year with two lessons per night twice a week, but now the evenings go too late for Raia. It was sweet to see her interacting with the children when I had to take her out of the Bible lessons, though. One boy was upset and hiding under his bed, so the caretaker asked me to watch him while she took the other children somewhere else. Raia was so worried about him! She kept getting down on her hands and knees and trying to feed her half-eaten apple to Sasha. And Jaan just loves being there in general.

It's starting to get cooler here, but we're finally having some clear days once again. I think the fall colors are just past their peak, but we're still enjoying them and lots of outside time. Yesterday we went to the woods and got to look at a woodpecker through our binoculars. Now that was exciting!

The latest excitement indoors has been a huge cardboard box. It makes a great tunnel, house, and whatever else Jaan and Raia want it to be. I can even play in it with them. It folds up and hides away under the couch when we're done.

Drumstick?

Last night we had chicken for supper. Jaan ate his drumstick and then asked for more. I just gave him a few pieces, already cut up. He said, "Нет, не так! Я хотел курицу на палке." ("No, not like that! I wanted chicken on a stick.")

Other news: the weather forecast says snow tomorrow!

Recent days

Both Monday and Tuesday we went to the orphanage. In some ways it's easier than last year with two lessons per night twice a week, but now the evenings go too late for Raia. It was sweet to see her interacting with the children when I had to take her out of the Bible lessons, though. One boy was upset and hiding under his bed, so the caretaker asked me to watch him while she took the other children somewhere else. Raia was so worried about him! She kept getting down on her hands and knees and trying to feed her half-eaten apple to Sasha. And Jaan just loves being there in general.

It's starting to get cooler here, but we're finally having some clear days once again. I think the fall colors are just past their peak, but we're still enjoying them and lots of outside time. Yesterday we went to the woods and got to look at a woodpecker through our binoculars. Now that was exciting!

The latest excitement indoors has been a huge cardboard box. It makes a great tunnel, house, and whatever else Jaan and Raia want it to be. I can even play in it with them. It folds up and hides away under the couch when we're done.

Technical note

After hearing that subscribing to our blog updates by email didn't
work, I switched to a new service to send them. Is it working now?
Also, when I imported the old settings, I was surprised to see that I
didn't recognize some of the email addresses. Who are you all?

Part 2

This is the second part of what I was going to post on Friday. I got that first photo up, and then our internet card ran out.

Here are two recent fall photos. I wish I could post the apple butter smell from our kitchen, too!

Raia and her leaves
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Nathan and Masha should arrive soon; they're spending the weekend with us. Fun!

By now, of course, Nathan and Masha are gone. It was great to see them! We've had such fun with guests lately. Who wants to come visit us next?

Today was a crazy day. Several weeks ago we had an electrical problem: some wires burned up somewhere in the kitchen. That morning the official building electrician was at work, and when he's not at work, he's drunk. So, Will found someone else through a newspaper ad. That electrician got us to where our refrigerator worked, and promised to come back to finish. . . then disappeared. Everything just sat like he had rigged it.

This morning, before Will was even up, the building electrician stumbled up here, and started telling me that he had a revelation last night while he was drunk. Now he knew exactly what was wrong, and how to fix it. Will got up, and he and Kolya set to work. They worked all day, until it was time for us to leave for the orphanage this evening, and they made tons of progress. Now everything is pretty much fixed. They just need some supplies and time to hide the wires away, and they'll be completely done.

I was really glad they could fix the problem, and that we could have Kolya here all day. Sadly, he's drunk now, because we paid him. At least he's not offended anymore. He was very unhappy that we had called in an outside electrician. Oh, would you believe that he's constantly drunk on doctor's orders? A while ago he was in the hospital, and they were worried about his blood pressure. He came back later to have it checked after he'd been drinking. Everything was fine, so the doctor just told him to stay drunk. True story!

(By the way, Jaan's pumpkins are a green variety. I find that the green ones taste better.)

Autumn!

Jaan and his pumpkins
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

A note to Caleb's grandparents

Pizza face!
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

You have a really cute, sweet grandson! Oh, but you already knew that, right? So, I'll just say, feed that boy pizza! He loves it. It was great fun to watch him eat it last night. We had been commenting on how Raia eats more than Caleb, but he certainly outdid her on pizza.

Everyone, please pray for Jon, Carrie and Caleb today. It's a really long day of travel for them. They left here at 5:00 this morning, and they won't get to Charlotte until late tonight.

Now, something for Jaan and Raia's grandparents. . . .
Playing dress up was one of the favorite entertainments while Caleb was here. At this stage that means putting on and taking off lots of hats.

Helping Caleb
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Cowgirl Raia
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Jaan's hat
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

Friends

Raia and Caleb
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

We're having a great time with Jon, Carrie and Caleb, who are stopping by on their way to Charlotte!

All three
Originally uploaded by fylliska.

I just had to add another photo here.