Happy Birthday Romka!

The is a lot of stuff going on! The Baby has successfully passed his due date, without a hint of final action--just like those kids who don't want to leave their parents house. He is just not willing to leave the womb-yet. At the same time, today is the 32nd anniversary of when Romka left his Mama's womb; though, right now, since he is going crazy with work and school and family--he would probably be willing to return to that calm place. Everything is almost at the stage of delivery--work, school and at home.

In the midst of all the business, family and friends are calling to congratulate and question all the goings on. Even Radio 4, Estonian national radio (in Russian), was brought into the congratulations--Galina gave Romka birthday wishes.
(To hear it click: here To hear the whole hour cast click: here).

We love you all! I hope that tomorrow I (Jen) will be able to bring a screaming present into Romka's arms...

Just waiting for someone to make an appearance...

Thanksgiving Dinner at Anna and Peter's. I was hoping to go into labor on this day! Well, I didn't, but thank you to Peter and Anna for inviting us over and sharing this day.
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The day after Thanksgiving shopping. We didn't really have anything that we wanted, but we followed the masses and went around to people watch--hoping that a full day of fake shopping would bring on labor....It didn't.
click for more pictures Disney on Ice---we went to this last weekend when Romka had an all day Saturday class. Aleks watched the whole thing with great attention
click for more picturesCenter for Women's Health. My midwife center just opened a new office--beautiful and totally modern and very fancy. Here is a little tour of the place we are going to every week--waiting on the baby to make his appearance.
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Rudolf's Book Presentation

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Rudolf and family celebrated the publication of his latest work on Sunday afternoon at the Sillamae Library. Family and friends gathered for congratulations and celebration of his book Рельефные стихи (translated to Vivid Poetry).

Oleg shared his report of what happened at the celebration (see below). Congratulations to Rudolf Kultajev and thank you for opening your heart and soul and sharing it with all of us.

От Олега

Вчера, 19 ноября сего года состоялось долгожданное событие - представление сборника стихов "Рельефные стихи", Рудольфа Култаева, нашего Мужа, Папы, Дедушки, Прадедушки (я ничего не забыл?). Представление было организовано работниками силламяэской городской библиотеки Ириной и Татьяной, принимал участие и ваш покорный слуга. Всё было не просто замечательно - сверхзамечательно! Собрались поклонники творчества Папы (про родню молчу, мы НЕ могли НЕ прийти), давние друзья по поэтическому творчеству из Усть-Нарвы, вобщем, кто хотел, тот был. Читали стихи, смотрели фотографии под музыку, всё было очень душевно и трогательно!
Ирина и Татьяна прошлись по всему жизненному пути и творчеству Поэта, чередуя рассказ стихами, на экране в это время под узыку шли фотографии его жизненного пути.

Потом был банкет, на котором велись задушевные разговоры, пили чаёк-кофиёк с тортиком, некоторые, наиболее сознательные, согревали душу водочкой, а некоторым и так было хорошо! Удалось ли мероприятие, спросите вы? Конечно, наше волнение могло спровоцировать расстройство желудка, но только не срыв мероприятия, тем более, что ожидалось оно с нетерпением! Многие не хотели уходить и только севшее солнце и жуткий туман на улице заставляли их искать уже путь домой, впрочем, некоторым помогали его найти......ну, то есть подвозили на машине. :))

Как-то в 19 веке, Гюстав Флобер сказал: Поэзия - совершенно не нужна, вышла из моды.
Ну, не повезло парню, не читал он стихов нашего Патриарха Рудольфа Култаева! Очередь за автографом была как в Мавзолей Ленина! К Поэту было не протиснуться даже по блату! А желающих с ним сфотографироваться было больше, чем возможностей у Генерального фотографа Бориса Николаевича Синицова, потому как в определённый момент карта памяти разбухла до неприличия и пришлось делать снимки на видеокамеру, благо там карта памяти была девственно чиста.

Закончилось всё очень прилично - уставшие, но весьма довольные, виновник торжества и его свита отправились домой к сыну Олегу, так как там можно было, развалившись на диване, просмотреть отснятое на видео- и фотокамеру. Результатами все остались довольны и в 22,00 разошлись по домам. Чуть позднее фото и видео будет опубликовано на нашем сайте! Всем огромное спасибо за помощь и участие!

WSC Baby Shower

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Romka's office gave us a surprise baby shower yesterday at lunch. They are all so wonderful and generous! Pizza, cake, champagne and I even got a 30 minute back massage. Officially there are 11 more days until the due date---but my midwife said the baby will be here any day (before or after the 28th) So, my request for everyone who enjoys visiting our page--please, please think positive for November 22nd! That sounds like a good date for me and maybe with all the good vibes our little boy will arrive.

Thank you WSC for all your wishes.

The ABC's

Yesterday we went to baby class like we have been almost every Tuesday since Aleks was 6 weeks old. There are still a few of the older babies (our class is from 9 months+ so you can imagine that usually by the time the kids are as old as ours the Moms have moved on--not us!) Monica has had her second already--and her second, Carter is 10 months old--and Riley is a couple of months older than Aleks. Yesterday, Riley was rolling around enjoying herself on the yellow mats singing the alphabet song. It is amazing what the kids can surprise you with! Aleks has never sung the song himself--that evening he asked to sing the song with me, and he actually sang along for the first time! Who knew?

This evening at bed time we recorded his singing debut for all the world to hear!

Raining in Oregon, no way!

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I think that it is really true that little things add up and can cause something big to happen, good and bad. Right now, with the weather and environment—it seems like a lot of little (or not so little) examples of the weather change is showing its nasty little head. In Estonia, the summer was so hot that the whole country was on fire, literally. Recently we have had 20-35 inches (63.5-88.9 cm) of rain in 5 days and another storm is supposed to come in on Friday!

I am usually a little skeptical when some documentary comes out that seems like it has a certain agenda—like the Michael Moore 911 documentary. I am sure that some things were true in that one, but there was a lot left unsaid so certain conclusions would be made. Roma and I finally watched Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth documentary. It was very good, and I suggest that everyone see it and start thinking about their little contribution to this big planet. I know that for years and even decades people have been talking about the “end of the world” if we don’t take care of it…but this documentary isn’t a doomsday prediction. It is really good about giving the facts and statistics that show us how the earth has changed dramatically in the past 100 years. Explaining what has already occurred-facts without debate. Just see it yourself, and decide yourself. After about 200 years of each person contributing their personal pollution, I think it has finally added up to being something very big and very bad for our future—to be seen in our lifetime and defiantly in my kids lifetime.