A Trip to Zaigraeva

We drove out to Zaigraeva today to see Inka and to pick up Katia and her babies and bring them back to Ulan-Ude. It was really good to see everyone, and we hope to make frequent trips there. I can't remember how much I shared before but Valery and Tasia and Inka are starting a church there... the first! They're already reaching out to their neighbors and living well in the community. It's exciting. Today Inka made us delicious soup for lunch. Ella is a grabber, so I had to keep my bowl far away from her little hands. Speaking of which, last night we had some guests over and Ella was hanging out in the kitchen with me. While I was preparing dinner, I had a bowl of cookie dough on the table. It was originally pretty far away from Ella. When I turned around, this is where the bowl was:


Ella is now 6 months old! We started her on solid foods this week, but she doesn't quite have the hang of it yet. I'll have to take pictures soon. I weighed her at Inka's (she has a digital scale), and Ella is now almost 19 pounds!! I'm SO happy. For her age of baby, this is huge. Even so, she's only gained the minimum of what a baby should gain the past three months. Still, she's in the normal range of growth, so I'm thrilled. And I've decided to officially stop worrying about this. Back to Inka's...



Anneka wanted to hold Katia's new baby, Rastoslav. He's six weeks old and very cute. Anneka is also growing! Yesterday she peeled her own boiled egg at breakfast and her own orange at dinner. She asked me if I knew how she could do it. "How?" I asked. "Because I'm getting big!" She's actually been peeling eggs and oranges for awhile now, but she definitely does it with more confidence and less mess than before. She's very aware of the new things she's able to do.



Lyena came over this week, too. I feel like I'm starting to feel a bit more normalcy in life (don't get me wrong, our apartment is usually messy and it still takes forever to do things, but we've rounded a corner).

Leif has had a lot of responsibilities lately (when doesn't he?) Tonight some of his Russian friends invited him to play basketball. I'm so happy for him. He's been wanting to do that for awhile now! Oh, and speaking of basketballs, I bought a new one for Leif for Christmas. I took both Anneka and Ella shopping (no small feat on public transportation), and I told Anneka to keep it a secret. About 10 minutes after we got home, Anneka said to Leif, "We got you a volleyball for your birthday". We'll have to work on keeping our lips sealed.