The Heat Is ON!

Not only is the heat on, but it's roasty toasty in our apartment. We had the windows open today and are sporting our t-shirts. Ahhh, it's so nice. I don't think I mentioned it before, but when our apartment was so cold, Anneka would wake up in the night and she was like a little popsicle. (Thankfully, it was only once a night, but I felt so badly that she was so cold!) Now she sleeps 11 or 12 hours and her naps have been much longer, too. This is a picture of our little blooming cactus. I'm ashamed to say that I'm a "brown thumb" (especially since I come from a "green thumb" family), but cacti seem to like me okay because they don't really need water very much. Anyone know what kind of cactus this is?



Anneka's been doing so many cute and funny things lately, but whenever we pull out the video camera, she becomes so interested in the camera, that all else is lost. We need a third party to come and hide in the corner and film when she's not looking. On the last day of September, she officially took her first steps (four in a row). She takes a few each day but is still not walking as a form of transportation (crawling is much faster).



Anneka loves to play the guitar with her papa.



The other night we had Tanya over for dinner. Our friends, Ryan and Diana sent gifts for a few of their friends here in Ulan Ude and it was a great way for us to distribute the gifts and meet them.



The day their packages came, Leif brought them home from the post office on public transportation (vans that go in circuits). When he walked in the door, I laughed at him and couldn't believe that 1) we got three packages and 2) that he carried them all onto the van! haha. He's amazing.