We Love You, Papa!

Leif left this morning for a conference in Michigan. Right now we have houseguests, but after they leave, I'm sure our apartment will feel very empty (especially on the heels of my parents leaving). It's hard to explain these things to an 18 month old! I love this picture of Leif and Anneka. She just LOVES her Papa. I think he's great, too. We love you, Papa!

I had this great idea that while Leif was gone I would just live off of the small amount of money in my wallet (about $30). I don't eat as much when he's gone, and I thought it would be a fun challenge. Well, I lasted about two hours! Anneka and I made an excursion to a big store that's kind of like a Sears (but smaller) and bought a freezer! I'm so excited about this. It will make life so much easier. Now, when we find things like green beans, peas, broccoli, and french fries we can stock up (these are hit and miss at the stores... can be here for a couple of months and then gone for a few). Also, I can store more things like berries and zucchini when they're ripe this summer. Mmmm. And I can make double the meals when I cook (lasagna, soup, enchiladas, etc.) and it'll make life tons easier when we have guests. And Leif likes to make quadruple batches of waffles so that we can pop them in the toaster later. Anyways, our old freezer (above the refrigerator) is teeny-tiny and is always crammed, but now we can have more space. Yippee!!




There's a Russian family from Chita (next big city to the east) staying with us for a Conference. Anneka LOVES Pasha, their 5-year-old boy. Yesterday, when they left for the day she cried these huge sobs and didn't stop for like 5 minutes. Then she kept talking about the "boy" all day. She was SO happy to wake up this morning and see him!!



I love meeting new people and hearing their stories. Every person is unique!

We thought we'd be having two other guests, too, so Leif and I moved into Anneka's room to free up our bedroom and the living room. When we realized the living room was available, we offered for Pasha to sleep in there but his parents thought he wouldn't be comfortable away from them. I offered to set up a bed on the floor of their room for him and the conversation went something like this:
Me: Would you like a mattress for the floor for Pasha?
Yulia: What?
Me: A mattress. For the floor. For Pasha.
Yulia: On the FLOOR? No, he'll sleep in the bed with us.
Me: Is that comfortable for you?
Yulia: Yes, of course, the bed is big.

It was then that I realized that it is kind of an American thing to want lots of space for sleeping. Leif and I can't even sleep with a 1 1/2 year old in our bed! She takes up as much room as Leif does!! Even staying in the same room with her has been a challenge. The last two mornings she's woken up before 6:00 and as soon as she spotted us, she got SO excited and wanted out of her crib immediately to play. Silly girl.