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.

Cute Girls

This is an old picture, too... Anneka and Kristina at K's birthday party in December. They're such cute girls.

Speaking of cute girls, we have a couple of cute and funny ones! I had a realization the other day that it's not just Anneka who makes big messses... it's Ella, too! I'd just picked up the kitchen and put Anneka down for her nap. After about 20 minutes, I looked around and most of the magnets were off of the refrigerator and scattered around the floor, there were slippers and shoes all over, and a few other odds and ends. And it was Ella who'd done it! She still seems like such a baby, but put her in her walker and she's like a little toddler! =)

Right now Ella and I are sick with the coughing crud. It's not as horrible as Anneka's, but it's no picnic. A doctor from the conference Leif was at suggested we buy an air purifier for our apartment, as we've been constantly sick this fall/winter. The outdoor pollution is bad, and inside we're just recirculating these germs. We'll be looking into that!

A LONG 10 DAYS!

The title says "a long 10 days", but technically it's been eleven full days that Leif has been gone and I've been with the girls. He just called from the bus saying he'll be home any minute. HOORAY!!!


Leif's been in Thailand for a conference about sharing Christ in the Tibetan Buddhist world. I thought I'd blog a lot this past week with all of my extra time after the girls went to bed. Ha! The first couple of days went without a hitch. I had to go to the immigration office to finish up some things with our registration... no small feat with two little girls (pictured above outside)! But God was gracious and it went really fast (Leif had spent HOURS there the day before).



Then the next day Lena came over and taught me how to make Russian soup. The ladies at church take turns making lunch for everyone on Sundays, and it was my turn. Last time I made minestrone soup, but this time I decided I needed to learn how to do a typical Russian soup to expand my horizons (and be sure that people would like it). Anneka loved helping out and even began speaking little bits in Russian. I was so proud of her!



And then the next day, Anneka got a TERRIBLE cough! I was really worried, too, because in the night her lips were blue. I talked with a doctor in the States, and thankfully she was breathing okay, but it was scary (especially with Leif gone).

Anneka's cough got worse and worse and then she got a pretty high fever. She still had the remnants of her cold since Christmas, so I was worried about some sort of bacterial infection or pnemonia. My friend, Katia, encouraged me to call the ambulance on Tuesday night. In the States you only do that for extreme emergencies, and I think they pretty much always take you to the hospital. But here, if kids have fevers people don't take them outside (too cold) and the doctor comes to you. I was really afraid that they'd whisk Anneka away to the hospital and she'd be scared, but Katia assured me that they'd let me be with her. So anyways, we called the ambulance.

Katia and Rebecca came to be with me and both doctors were women and really nice. It turns out it wasn't pnemonia (as far as they could hear anyways) and they prescribed about 10 different things. I ran everything by our doctor in the States and he agreed with the antibiotic since Anneka had been sick for so long. He said that sometimes pnemonia will show up on a chest x-ray even when you can't hear it.

Anyways, one of the prescribed things was this blue stuff for under Anneka's nose. She wipes it so often that it gets red and raw, and the blue stuff is to protect it(see picture above). Anneka loved her mustache and was concerned when it started to wear off.

I have been up most of the night most of the nights (does that make since?) since Leif's been gone with one or the other girl. Anneka would often wake Ella up when she needed me, and it's been a viscious cycle. And now Ella and I are sick. =( And a few days into being sick, Anneka turned into a monster-like-girl. She's never been that naughty and it was really difficult... especially as se was still not feeling well and we're couped up in the apartment.

But the happy part about this whole story is that my worst fear with Leif being gone is that one of the girls (or all of us!) would be sick... and worst-worst case that I'd have to do something like call an ambulance! But now once it happened, my heart was flooded with peace. God showed me that he's present with me always and he didn't want me to live in fear of such things. He was gracious to give me just what I needed each day, even running on empty. And he provided wonderful people to show me His love and care in the midst of it. I'm so thankful!

And I'll be really thankful, too, to give Leif a BIG HUG in just a few minutes!!

Too Cold To Play In The Snow

I had these pictures saved on the computer from a couple of months ago. There's just a short time when it's warm enough to play out in the snow, and the snow is usually too dry to make anything out of it. So we cherish the times we can be outside. We've been couped up in the apartment with sickness, and even if we were well, it's been -35 outside... too cold to take kids out.




In a month or so, we look forward to playing outside again! Maybe we can go sledding! =)

Hauling Water

Last week we went to see Inka in Zaigraeva. Below is a common sight in the village and even in Ulan-Ude.... people walking to the well to get water. I really wanted to catch a picture of a babyshka (grandmother) hauling water. I never seem to have my camera when I do. It's certainly not fun... getting bundled to go out in the cold with a big water jug. Sometimes we see people hauling things with sleds. I'm thankful for running water! Even when they shut it off, it's usually just for a few hours at a time.

Bundling

When Anneka was a baby, I did a bundling blog. So it's only fair that ELla gets one, too. Of course, bundling two girls now to go anywhere takes forever. On this day, I was in a hurry, so I had to redo a couple of things after I took the pictures. You'll see! =)

Layer 1 (Diaper):




Layer 2 (onesie):


Layer 3 (long sleeved shirt and tights):


Layer 4 (dress, bloomers, and thick tights... of course if she doesn't have a dress it could be another shirt and some stretch pants):


Layer 5 (hat and warm booties... or really thick socks):


Layer 6 (sweater and more pants... I realized I forgot to put on warm pants over her tights so I added those and just packed the booties which I just put on once we were at church. Anneka took Ella's hat off before I snapped this picture and I didn't realize it right away, so I added it later, but kids wear 2 hats):



Layer 7 (wool hat to cover head and neck, fleece suit... sometimes we use a fur hat, but always a fleece snowsuit) This is when Ella becomes really unhappy. And because we have another little girl who can be pokey in getting ready, Ella is often in all of her clothes much longer than she'd like before we go outside. She gets so hot! As Anneka said yesterday, "I'm all sweaty because I have my outside clothes on":



Layer 8 (we call it the "puff mama" snowsuit. This is size 2T. Anneka wore it when she was walking. Ella already grew out of her other nice snowsuit. Our friend, Lena, sewed up the legs so that no air can get in. Toasty, toasty:



Layer 9 (scarf! Now she's really tortured. As soon as we walk outside, all is okay. But the waiting is torture. Poor girl!)


I didn't fully zip her snowsuits for the pictures as I was hurrying, and ths scarf is on haphazardly. But you get the picture! =) This is why it's a big deal to go anywhere with both girls and why it takes 40 minutes to take out the garbags.

Oh, and Russians bundle their kids far more than we do!!

This week we went to a "Spektakle" (or dramatic production) at the central church. Anneka got dressed up in one of her very princessy dresses, as this is common for little girls to do here. Above, we took her picture with a girl who was dressed very similarly. =)



A bunch of little girls wanted to come and sit with us for the program. It was really cute.



The lighting wasn't very good for pictures, so I didn't get a lot of good shots. But it was very fun because we knew a lot of people in the program. Every time a new person came out, I'd ask Anneka, "Do you know who that is?" It was really fun to see some of her favorite people dressed up as animals and strange creatures. =)

Above was a neat ending scene of the Christ child and the main character bowing to Him.



Ella and Anneka both sat nicely through the whole performance. Here's Anneka with Matthew afterwards. He and Heather Ann flew back to Canada today. =(




Later that evening Anneka helped Leif and I deliver cookies and gifts from the church to neighbors. I was a little nervous, but people responded so well. Anneka loved this and now always wants to go and visit neighbors. At one apartment that Anneka and Leif went to they gave her chocolate and a stuffed bunny and there were two other kids (grandchildren visiting) to play with.

Speaking of neighbors, we miss the Brubachers, but we're also enjoying having Katia and Sasha living there while they're in Canada. It's been really good for my Russian language and really fun to have another mom around who has a baby. I'm learning all sorts of things about Russian culture this way, too. One interesting thing is that doctors tell parents they must take their babies outside every day. I said to her, "But it's so cold! Are you even supposed to do it when it's cold?" And she said that it's good to do it until it's 30 below. The benefits: fresh air to breathe and the child adapts to the climate better. You're supposed to gradually work them up to the cold, starting with 15 minutes until a couple of hours. It makes it so that it's not so dangerous for them to be outside in freezing temperatures. But Katia doesn't do this everyday. She has two little ones, too. How many moms with two little ones have it together enough to tromp around in -30 weather for a couple of hours a day?? I figure houseplants make our air nicer to breathe inside. I should just get a couple more of those.

С Рождеством Христовым!

January 7th is Christmas in Russia! We celebrated today by going to church for a service. Anneka enjoyed holding the church cat for part of the time.





These girls/ladies prepared several special songs and skits about Christmas.




After the service we enjoyed a feast togehter as a church. I didn't' get everyone in the picture. This one's a little blurry, but Anneka is in it (we're teaching her to cough into her arm, as you can see evidenced here).



We didn't have plates or napkins, and some of us shared forks, but it didn't matter. We enjoyed the time together, the homemade foods that people made (including different fish pastries and meat gelatin) and celebrating Christ's birth!






Here's one of the fun songs that was sung... the tune of "Jingle Bells", but the message about God. =)

Something funny has happened over these few years of living in Russia. Things that I once dropped my jaw at now seem normal. I find myself wanting to take pictures of "new" things like us riding in our van or the of grocery stores with aisles and carts that are popping up in the city... which is so funny because that is normal life in America. What I should be doing is taking pictures of us when we're on public transportation or of the outdoor market!

I also haven't written about our daily life much, as it also seems so normal. I feel like there's nothing interesting to share. I, of course share about our daughters because they're SUCH a big part of our life (and grandparents want to hear it all), but I will try to be better at this.

The above picture is something that works similarly to baking powder (it doesn't work as well, but it gets the job done). I had to buy 13 packets to fill this small can. When I buy 13 packets of baking powder or 20 packets of powdered suger (to equal 3 cups), I am very self conscious. I feel like everyone at the store is staring at me- especially if I have to ask for it behind the counter. Sometimes I give into this "peer pressure" and make two or three trips over time. For the advent calendar this Christmas, I needed to buy 3 little packs of paper to have enough red and green. The lady told me that I shouldn't buy 3 because it was too expensive. So I only bought 2... and even then I felt the need to explain to her that it was for a special Christmas calendar that we would use year after year. (And I went back later sneakily to buy the third pack.) Is this silly or what?! The total came to about $6. I'm constantly aware of how little people have here. It makes me want to live more simply, content with what we have. But it's also hard sometimes.

Yesterday I wanted to steam our apartment because we're all sick and our humidifier is broken. I ended up flooding the downstairs neighbors' apartment. I guess there's a crack between the tiles and our bathtub that goes down to their bathroom. We've flooded them several times from different rooms. Today we will take them cookies.

Christmas

I'm finally posting our Christmas pictures! We've all been sick (again!). Anneka is on her fourth cold since October. Our apartment is so cold, I think it makes our immune systems weaker. Anyways, blogging has not been at the top of the list, but hopefully things will pick up soon as we get better.



Anneka awoke to her cold, saying "Christmas is sick". But she soon forgot her woes as she found baby Jesus in "Bethlehem" (the nativity set), and we opened our stockings. The girls had these fun headbands inside.



After our traditional Swedish pancake breakfast and talking with grandparents on skype, we opened gifts.



As you can see, Ella was very interested in watching her sister!



We got a strawberry shortcake house and dolls in the States last summer, and Anneka was delighted to open it. It's hard to find wrapping paper here, so we used some plastic bags, too... but nobody minded.




We got this little chair for Ella. It has suction cups on the bottom, so I can bathe her while she sits without her sliding around. It's also nice because I can set her in front of a box of toys and she happily plays. She's pretty good at sitting on her own, but she still needs a little help.



In the evening we went to the Wickers for Christmas dinner. After a wonderful feast we acted out the Christmas story. Anneka was Mary and Ella was Jesus. Anneka LOVED this and still wants to do it days later at home. She remembers a lot of the details, too (like what the angel says). It's pretty amazing.



We had to show a picture of Ella playing with her tongue. She did this as a tiny baby and has recently had a renewed interest in playing with her mouth. She loves drinking out of an adult glass, too. It's pretty cute.



The Wickers gave Anneka these traditional Russian "puff balls" for her hair. All little Russian girls wear them. I love them.



This lone present was frozen to our window. It's a present that Anneka picked out and wrapped for Matty. She has such joy in giving... I love that about her. She likes to give gifts to others. We got the gift down after blowing it with my new hair dryer. =)

Now we're preparing for Russian Christmas! Tomorrow we will go to a performance that some of our friends are in at the church. This evening Leif and I are making little gift packages for neighbors and store workers of cookies, calendars, and testimonies, the gospel of Luke, and the story of Christmas. We hope to pass those out tomorrow- "Christmas Eve".

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve, we had three families join us for fondue. There were 17 of us in all. We started this fondue tradition the first Christmas after we came to Ulan-Ude with Shannon and have kept it ever since. It was pretty funny, as Kandid and Daniella are from the country where fondue originated (Switzerland) and traditionally it just bread and cheese sauce. We had meatballs, chicken, kolbasa, bread, homeade pretzels, veggies, etc... in cheese and barbeque sauce as well as chocolate and peanut butter sauces for fruits, cookies, and fudge. Of course Americans would take something and blow it out of proportion. =)



I didn't take many pictures that evening. My friend, Gina, sent us a baby carrier that arrived that day, and it was PERFECT for getting things done with a baby on my back and not hurting my back. I was so thankful!!



You can't see it very well, but Ella is holding the dog that little Matty got her for Christmas. He has a special dog that he's had since he was a baby, and he wanted her to have one, too! The sweet thing is that we can tell she really likes it! Ella wore the Christmas dress that Anneka wore when she was 14 months old... 8 months older than she is now!



It's been so nice having Heather Ann and Matthew here with us for their college break. We all played a game that's kind of like charades (but more fun). And we sang carols together, lit the advent candles, and read the Christmas story. Then that night, Leif, Anneka, Ella, and I all slept in the living room underneath the Christmas tree. We all slept until 8:30 the next morning (this NEVER happens). Before we went to bed Mary and Joseph had arrived in Bethlehem. As Leif put out baby Jesus for Anneka to find the next morning, I was in awe about how miraculous it truly is that God sent His son to earth- as a tiny baby!