A Visit From Chris

Our friend, Chris Knutzen has been in Ulan-Ude for the last three days, and we are privileged to have him staying with us! Chris was the team leader for the summer project student team I was on when I first came to Ulan-Ude in 1999. And Chris was Leif's team leader for a year (and roommate) the first year he was in Ulan-Ude after college. We both really like Chris- he's funny and thoughtful and relational and wise. He would always think up the most fun games when we had to wait in long lines or had long layovers. And he is really good at meeting new people and making meaningful connections.

Chris is trying to see as many people as he can in his short visit here. Yesterday evening we had some friends over so that Chris could see them in one place. Anneka was such a cute and sweet helper. She loved taking the pizza and cookies and plates out to everyone and asking them what they'd like to drink. Chris called her the "social queen". It was nice because the people who came over are our friends, too... a benefit to us all!



Ella was also a "helper" earlier in the day as I was getting things ready. Here is how she helped in the bathroom. And here, too...


Lately she races for the toilet paper if we leave the door open and strings it all over the apartment. It's her new favorite hobby. She also started clapping this week. We discovered that her word for Anneka is "dih-deh", in other words- sister. And in the last 2.5 weeks she's gotten 4 new teeth.


Anneka has loved having Chris here. He plays with her dolls with her, hide-n-seek, and gives her a ride on his knee (pictured above).

Chris has a beautiful wife and little boy that weren't able to come with him on this trip. They live in Yekaterinburg. In a couple of weeks they will adopt a little Russian boy who has no hands and no feet. We're so excited for them, and I know they'd appreciate your prayers, as this is a HUGE life change for them! Here is one of their recent blog posts, if you want to read more and see pictures of their little guy.

Ella's Boyfriend

When Anneka was little, we posted a blog titled "Anneka's boyfriend", with a picture of her and Daniel. (you can click here to see back to that photo). Well, we had Chingis and Ksusha over last week and now they have little Andre (Ella's boyfriend!) He's actually over a year older than Ella, but they're practically the same size.

They showed each other affection...

hugs...
and kisses.

Spring Picnic

Visitors think we're nuts when we take them on picnics by the river and the temperatures are freezing. But to us, 28 degrees is a heat wave compared to -40. And as it's been above freezing a couple of times, the ground is actually showing through in some places! Last weekend, the Wickers had some things they needed to burn and they invited us to come with them to the river and have a picnic while they did this. After the winter, it's so nice to get outside!!




It did get cold enough to freeze our food. But we didn't mind. Anneka loved running around. Ella loved sleeping on Leif. We were all happy.



...And, of course, Anneka loved playing with Heidi.

The Super Dad and Berry Doctor

Anneka and Ella are so blessed to have Leif as their Papa! It's so cute to watch him playing with them or reading to them. This week I went on a women's retreat for a couple of days (Ella was with me) and Leif worked really hard earlier in the week to clear his schedule for some special times with Anneka. They slept in the living room in sleeping bags and roasted marshmallows (thanks to my aunt and uncle sending them) over a candle in the living room. I love that Leif enjoys our girls and they they enjoy him!



Life can get really busy here, but we guard a date every week, a rest day, and a family night. This past week we made gingerbread cookies together and then read the story about the gingerbread man. We had molasses stashed from our last trip to Mongolia.



We take turns getting up with the girls when they wake up early, but Leif takes more turns than me. =) I really appreciate this, as Ella still likes to wake up at night.



Ella loves to climb on Leif, and is content for a long time on his back. On this day, Leif was working (or trying to!) on his homework for his team leader course (or maybe he was translating his talk for church into Russian). Ella had just discovered that she could bang hard objects on his head, and Anneka was delighted to climb on him, too. I try to protect Leif so that he can get things done, but I'm not always successful, as our apartment is small, and they are both mobile girls now. Thankfully Leif is gracious. =)


And this last picture is morse. Morse is a juice made from berries. Our landlords often give us these orange berries that I think are called sea berries in English. I am sorry to say that I don't like them and they stress me out because I don't know what to do with them and I don't want to waste them. (they're orange and extremely sour). I told Leif that I wanted to throw them away, but he told me he'd make morse from them. And he did. And then Anneka got to stir. What a guy! =)

Packages

We got a package from the Knight family a few weeks ago, and it was so fun to open! Each of their boys (except for the baby) made a nice card, and they thoughtfully sent things that we would all enjoy. Leif and I brought the package home after we'd been on a date, and Anneka was already in bed when we arrived (but not asleep) so we decided to let her get out of bed to open it. She was so happy. =)



Whenever we get a package I feel two things: 1) overwhelmed and unworthy (and even sometimes guilty), as it costs an exorbitant amount of money to send stuff overseas... and we don't really "need" anything. There are thousands of people here who survive just fine without peanut butter or taco seasoning or scented lotion. But I also feel... 2) so so loved! I am amazed that anyone would take time to write to us or assemble a package and go the post office and fill out forms, etc, etc. I feel so thought of and remembered. And each time we use anything from these packages, I remember who sent it to us, and I feel that they are behind us. Such a special thing.



Ella liked the play-doh containers. Anneka loves playing with the play-doh. I usually make it for Anneka from flour and salt and cream of tartar, and it works just fine. But it's amazing how soft and pliable (and less messy!) the store-bought play-doh is! It must be all of those good ole American preservatives.



In this package were special markers that you can use on windows and mirrors. Anneka loves them. And we love to watch her draw and create. She really seems have special interests and talents in the arts.

For Aunt Claudia

My aunt Claudia asked to see a clip of Ella crawling. Here she is!






I had to include a clip of her in her walker, too. It's time to put it away now that she's mobile on her own. It's just really cute to watch her in it. She can get going really fast and if you don't have socks on she can bang into you (quickly, before you have a chance to jump out of the way) and scrape your feet. Ella especially loves to ram the walker up against Anneka's door while she's napping. She is persistant until she gets the door open and then they both squeal with delight once she gets into the room. Then she plays with Anneka's toys.



Ella has started saying "nigh-night" when she's tired or when we go into Anneka's room (part of our nightly routine) to say goodnight to her sister.

Ella will stand up in her crib between sleep cycles and then she can't get back down to go back to sleep. Little stinker. But a cute little stinker. I sure love this little girl. I could kiss her little cheeks all day long!

Baking Together

Last Sunday the teenage girls from church came over the learn how to bake cookies and cupcakes. It was a lot of fun. It's funny to think of me teaching anything in the kitchen, but these are simple things. And interestingly, most Russians just buy cookies and cakes and don't do much baking. Everyone had their little notepads to write down the recipes.



Vera gave a devotional about being a fragrant aroma for Christ as we had tea and ate some of the goodies (and smelled the others bake). Anneka really likes these girls. Today at church she played a game with Marina (the one putting the cupcakes on the plate) where she would hide items and then make her go find them. And speaking of church today, Anneka knocked over the pastor's Bible and notebook during the songs and somehow ended up hiding his sermon in our diaper bag. It was a little awkward for the pastor for a few minutes until we discovered what had happened.



Anneka love to decorate cupcakes. I told her the first day it rains in 2011 we can celebrate by making cupcakes. It'll probably be a long time from now. But she's pretty excited about it. Every day she asks, "Will it rain today?"

Family Picture

Spring Is Here!

When you live in Siberia, it is spring by the calendar (March 1st), not by the weather. I realized this the other day in a conversation with a friend and then it's been confirmed as I've tried out my theory with other people. Speaking of calendars, this is the picture on ours, when I flipped it to March today. Yep, seems about right.



Even to me, my definition of spring has changed drastically from what it used to be. When I look out the window and see a guy shoveling snow off of his garage (see above), I know that it's spring, as there's a remote possibility it'll rise above freezing soon. When it's snowing outside (as it is today), not only am I overjoyed that the black snow is covered with pretty white snow, but I know that it's warm enough to snow now. When I can put potatoes and onions in my kitchen cupboard again without them freezing rock solid (it's more like a refrigerator now), it's another sign of spring. When I don't need to wear long johns indoors, when I slip and fall outside on the ice (I did this the other day while holding Ella. She slept right through it)... these are all signs of spring. And I'm sure I'll think of a few more right after I click "publish post".

A Couple Of Babies

Anneka and Ella are such sweet sisters. Ella is (usually) content when Anneka is nearby. If she's all alone in a room then she crawls and kind of cries in search of company. But if Anneka is with her, then she's happy.




Our friend, Yulia, and her daughter Esphir (Russian form of Esther) stayed the night with us last week. Her husband was out of town and she didn't want to go back to her home after Bible study. Anneka was happy to have a "walking baby" around. (Esphir just turned a year old). But Esphir wasn't so happy to have Anneka hold her. It was a little too much.

A little difference between most Russian kids and most American kids: Anneka and Ella went to bed around 8:00 and Esphir went to bed at 11:00. There's a show that plays on a main t.v. channel called "Goodnight" for kids that starts at 10:00 every night.

Yesterday, a lady, Vera, was here, and she was horrified that I gave Anneka cold milk out of the refrigerator. "She'll get a sore throat and catch a cold!", she said. And I'm horrified when little babies drink black tea with sugar. That's a recipe for rotten teeth, I think. But somehow all of the kids grow up to be okay.

Here's a little clip from the "choreography" lesson from Anneka's preschool. All of the kids take off their pants beforehand and are just in their long johns so they don't get too hot. The teacher tucked in Anneka's shirt. So funny. The other three kids in this clip are all 6 (twice Anneka's age). Anneka loves dancing and she loves the dance teacher. When it was time to go home, she asked Vera (the teacher) to help her put on her coat, snowpants, boots, etc. Vera kept calling her a beautiful girl while she was helping. Then later that day, Anneka yelled really loudly in the stairwell, "I'm a beautiful girl!" over and over. In Russian. Usually she yells things really loudly in English. I'm not sure which is worse. =) Ella was content to play on the mats with toys during the dance time. She started crawling this week. A lady at church last Sunday told me that she's concerned Ella isn't walking yet. She's only eight months old! I think she'll be alright.

Puppies

We went to visit Inka last week... and her dog, Emma, with her 8 puppies!! It's much too cold for her to be outside, so Inka has had them all in her small kitchen for a few weeks now. She has to clean the floor about 100 times per day. We were thankful to get the benefit of seeing the cute puppies and not having to take care of them!



She's found homes for 4 of the puppies so far. Dogs have a hard life here in Siberia. Either they live in teeny tiny apartments or if they're lucky they live outside (in the freezing cold)of a little home... or they're stray and run around in packs. There is always a pack of dogs around the garbage bins when I take out the trash. I feel sorry for them. They're so hungry and cold. Our pastor, Sasha, went with us to pick out one of Inka's puppies. As we got into the car to leave, the puppy whimpered and Anneka started sobbing, as the realization sunk in that the puppy was going to be away from his mama and brothers and sisters. We prayed for the little dog and instantly he fell asleep in Sasha's arms, looking contented. Anneka felt better, too. She has such a sweet, thoughtful heart.






We're all more or less healthy and have been for a week!! (tiny traces of colds, but feeling well). This is the first time since the first week of October! We're counting our blessings.

As I type, I have a sleeping baby on me. It's so nice. I should be making dinner, but I couldn't possibly wake her up! She's been sleeping already for over 2 hours. And Anneka napped today, too. Anneka's been waking up bright-eyed and fluffy-tailed at 6-something most mornings lately. It doesn't matter when she's gone to bed the night before or how much sleep she's had. That's just her time to wake up. And I feel like 6:00 here is like 4:00 in North America. Because it's so dark and cold. But anyways, Anneka likes to go into the living room and read books in the rocking chair upon awakening. That's about all I feel like doing at that time, too (well, except for cuddling, but she's not too keen on that).



The schools are all still closed (for an extra week) for the flu quarantine. I didn't know that it was closed on the first day until I got there. It was puppet theatre day and the puppet teacher hadn't known either. She let us come in for awhile and made a little puppet with Anneka and read her a couple of books in Russian. Ella let her hold her, too, which was amazing because Ella pretty much only likes her Mama and Papa right now. I appreciated how nice and welcoming Raica Michaelovna (the teacher) was to Anneka when we weren't supposed to be there. Yesterday the quarantine was supposed to be over, but I called the head teacher, just in case. When I found out there was still no school, I told Anneka, "Let's do something exciting today". She likes all things exciting. She's been asking to go to the zoo ever since we've been reading the book "Goodnight, Gorilla". I'd seen a sign in our neighborhood for a tropical animal exhibit in the art museum downtown, so we went there. Hopefully I can get some pictures off of Rebecca's phone for a blog on that day. Yes, it was exciting.

Leif was invited to a church service at the Lutheran Church last night and then afterwards he planned on meeting with several people for the planning of a Buryat Christian Celebration. Well, what he didn't know is that they had planned on him giving the main talk at the service. They sang songs and then called him up front. haha. He gave a short devotional. The meeting afterwards went well. We're looking forward to this Celebration in mid-March. The last few years we've had it in February and it's been really powerful.

Happy Birthday, Leif!

Leif turned 33 on the 6th! This is probably the age that Jesus was when He died. Kind of crazy to think about. Each of the girls got Leif a t-shirt (brought from the States a few months ago). Anneka loves wrapping gifts and making cards. She was so excited for Papa to try on the Superman shirt she got for him, and she put on the Cookie Monster shirt from Ella.



It's customary to bring a cake to church when it's your birthday, so we brought chocolate pumpkin brownies from some pumpkin that Yulia gave us from her uncle's greenhouse. Another lady, Vera's, birthday is just two days before Leif's and she brought a cake, too... as well as other food that others brought. It was a feast!



Then later we had the Wickers over for dinner. I made lasagna and German Chocolate cake- Leif's favorites. We had fun hanging out and playing games.



Ella is such a snuggly, sweet baby. I could just spend all day cuddling with her. She loves hanging out with her Papa. We love you, Leif! Happy Birthday!



And here's the pumpkin we got from Yulia. It's funny because I've never had a pumpkin in the 4+ years we've been here, and then in one week, we got TWO pumpkins from two different people!! I wanted the girls to have the experience of carving a jack-o-lantern, but I also wanted to utilize the pumpkin, so we did both. =) I made pumpkin cake, brownies, soup, and froze the rest for later. Anneka was very concerned about the jack-o-lantern getting old. Ella was just happy that I let her hold the pumpkin rind (is it called a rind for a pumpkin?)

I haven't blogged this last week because we've all been sick once AGAIN!! We haven't even had a chance to go and buy an air purifier! It's just a cold this time, and not a terrible one. But Ella has had some sort of G.I. virus... for 10 days. Today is the first day that she seems more normal (still not back to normal, but more normal than she has been).

Leif has had a lot of meetings this past week- with SEND leaders, church leaders, Russian pastors, etc, etc. He's started up an online course this week for team leaders, too. It's just a few weeks. The flu quarantine is supposed to be over tomorrow, so hopefully I can get the girls out of the apartment so that Leif can have some think time. =)

Neighbors

While the Brubachers are in Canada, Sasha and Katia and their two kids, Angelina(18 months) and Rastoslav (3 months) are living next door. I really like Katia (I like them all, of course!), and she's so patient with me and my Russian. It's good practice to talk with her and I learn all sorts of new "mom words"... like what a baby walker is called, etc. Yesterday it was all the way up to 12F! Katia called and asked if I wanted to go outside. It was sunny and felt so good to be out!



Ella loved being outside. She conked out right away in the baby carrier. And Anneka enjoyed playing and interacting with two girls who were out there. Here she is in the little playhouse. Sometmes there are a lot of broken beer bottles and garbage inside, but yesterday it was pretty clean.



Once when the guys had their weekly meeting, us girls got together, too. The following weeks everyone was sick. But we may resume this again soon now that we're better! I miss the Brubachers, but I'm thankful for this time to get to know Katia and her family better and to grow in these ways (language, culture)!

A side note: Anneka wants to have a baby boy and name him Rastoslav someday. I told her she'll have to run it by her husband.

A Couple Of Video Clips

Ella can say "Mama", "Papa", "Baba" (grandma), "Ella", and "Lya-lya" (the Russian word for baby)... and we think she has a word for Anneka, but it's not consistent enough for us to figure out what it is. My mom's birthday was last Sunday, and she was SO happy when Ella said "Baba" on the phone to her. =)






Anneka and I were trying to get Ella to talk, but Ella was more interested in playing with the objects around her. I told Anneka to tell a story (because Ella often starts talking OVER Anneka when she talks, but this time it didn't work). Anneka loves scary things and always wants us to read her scary books and tell her scary stories. Her favorite book is the Chinese version of the Big Bad Wolf. The illustrations really are scary, I think, but she just loves it. Anyways, here she is telling a scary story.

Anneka's First Day of Preschool!

Anneka started Russian preschool yesterday! She has been asking for a long time to go to school. (this was before we even talked about school or had even decided we would send her!) I'll do little preschool lessons with her and call it "school", but she says, "No, this is not school. I want to go TO school". A lady from our church told us about this new preschool and it seems like the perfect fit for Anneka. Leif and I checked it out before we took Anneka there, and I stayed with her the first day to check it out even more. And we're all really excited about it!



I took a few pictures, but they were on a setting without flash, and I didn't want to call attention to myself, so they're not the best. This first picture was when the kids had just gotten little lumps of clay to make snowmen. The clay is really hard, so the teacher was showing the kids how to blow into their hands to warm it up and soften it a bit. It probably took 5-10 minutes just to get the clay warm! They have little organized lessons and different teachers- art, P.E., music, storytelling, puppet theatre, dancing, proper Russian diction, and a psychologist comes in (I'm not sure what that part is, but I'll find out soon!). In between the kids have relaxed playtime and a snack time. It's for 3 hours, and we're just going to have Anneka go for 2 days a week (but it's open all 5 days).



So far there are only 6 kids (one wasn't there yesterday), ranging from ages 3-6.
In this little song, the kids danced around the one in the middle and then after the song, the middle child has to do a little dance and then choose someone else to go in the middle.



The head teacher seemed really sensitive to the fact that Anneka doesn't speak Russian and was very encouraging. Here, she was teaching different colors of blocks. When Anneka got home, she started saying "maladietz", which means "good job". She'd heard it enough all morning to know it. =) The teacher thought that Anneka understood a lot. I asked Anneka later if she understood and she didn't, but she was good at faking it! At one point, Anneka and Dasha (the only other girl) were drawing on the chalkboard together. It was during a time that the teacher was teaching the kids a song, so I was curious how she would handle the girls. She looked at me and said, "it's good for them to play together. That's how Anneka will really learn the language". And I think it's true! I was really happy, as often teachers here use shame as a motivator or are really rigid and strict. And I've heard of a lot of preschools that are really academic and the kids sit and work a lot. But this one is fun and varied and encouraging!




Anneka's FAVORITE part of preschool was when the "choreographer" came and taught them to dance to songs. She was super cute, following all of the moves. They had little exercises and then danced through 8 songs. The teacher told me that Anneka is a special little girl. I agree!

Today Anneka was more brave in playing with other kids outside at our neighborhood playground and at a cafe this afternoon. She also spoke in Russian a little to our neighbors. It's like the first day of school helped her to be more brave in other contexts, too! Today is a holiday and tomorrow is our team's day of prayer in the morning so Anneka won't go back until next week. When I told her she seemed disappointed. We prayed a lot about whether we should do any kind of school with Anneka here, and we feel such peace and excitement about this answer! And I'm looking forward to getting to know some of the other parents, too.

A Mix of Cultures

Our friends from Switzerland have a little girl who's five and a baby who's 3 months older than Ella. It's neat to think of these girls developing friendships with each other through the years! Right now Lina speaks Swiss German and Russian and Anneka only speaks English, so it's a bit challenging for them to play together. But tomorrow Anneka will start preschool two days a week and hopefully that'll help with her Russian! Leif and I checked it out today and it seems really ideal for our situation... just what we're looking for. It's close by. There are only 5 or 6 kids there now, all about Anneka's age. It's just three hours in the morning. Different specialists come in (music teacher, dance teacher, storyteller, exercise leader, etc). And it isn't expensive. I'm hoping to get to know other parents through this preschool, too. Today I told Anneka all about the school and that we'd go tomorrow and I'd stay with her the whole time. She was very excited to go but very adamant that I don't stay with her the whole time. We'll see if she changes her tune tomorrow, but she's such a funny little independent girl!



And here are the two babies eating their porridge. Elianne and Ella. Similar names. Both so cute.