Russkis will save the World (why do we have to do the dirty job?!!)

After learning about Russian Space Agency's plans to build a spacecraft that will change the trajectory of meteorite Apophis coming to Earth in 2036, Alyosha created a trilogy depicting this future action. My suggestion of possibility for Alyosha to be a pilot on that spaceship also served as a good motivation to learn "all the sciences there are and work really hard".

Here is the trilogy (Earth, Sun, Apophis with rockets all around him ready to burn the bastard)

and here is the story

ROSCOSMOS – the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation – launches the project to save the Earth from a clash with the asteroid Apophis, which can happen in 2036 according to forecasts of some scientists.

As the ROSCOSMOS head Anatoly Perminov stated on air of the Voice of Russia, one scientist had lately told him that the trajectory of the asteroid is constantly approaching the Earth. Also the astronomer told him that the asteroid is three times bigger than the Tunguska meteorite.

“Calculations show that within the time frames we can create a special space vehicle that will allow avoiding the collision, without annihilating the asteroid or blasting any nuclear explosions” – Mr. Perminov added. “Once the decision is taken, we will promulgate it. The threat of collision can be staved off” – the ROSCOSMOS head emphasized.

It should be mentioned, that NASA specialists consider this collision as quite a remote possibility. Earlier Russian scientists also stated that Apophis is not a Threat to Our Planet.

http://www.russia-ic.com/news/show/9484/

Kid Talk Overdue

Niki the red hot chili pepper eater. I guess I have to officially admit that his first words are 'no-no'. He does hear them a lot being the 3 child and a baby who loves to explore, taste and climb everything he can touch. He's really coordinated in that he can do something he shouldn't while saying no-no and shaking his head with exaggerated side to side 'NO' movements.
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Alyosha goes to school in the morning. I (Roma) tell him to zip up his jacket because it is cold. Alyosha mumbles something while trying to zip all the way up.

"What is it that you are saying? - I ask him.

"Oh, I am just saying that my touching buddies are going to be OK with that." "What touching buddies?", - I ask casually, trying not to have any alertness in my voice.

"You know, those touching buddies."

"No, I actually, don't know who are you talking about, but what is it
that they will be OK with?"

"With me having jacket zipped up all the way!". By now I am very interested in our conversation and thinking in my head of how to approach this subject carefully.

"So, are these buddies of your, do they go to your school?", - I ask again casually. "Well of course they do! How can they not?! Look, they are right here!" - Alyosha points to his chin.

"Oh, you mean taste buds on your chin?!!" - I exclaim after a few seconds of processing the intricate logic of a 5 year old thoughts.

"Well, yeah, I am saying that the taste buds on my chin are OK with me
having jacket zipped up all the way, because sometimes jacket rubs against it,
but right now they are fine with it!"

Phew... That was close!

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Yesterday we were walking from CHAP a block away and Alyosha was running the block and circles around me. It was sprinkling/almost raining and Alyosha squeezed in between breaths while still running circles around me that he is so fast that he isn't even getting wet! When we got home he said, "look how much I ran, I am soaked from sweat!"

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Ice Skating class began last week--the boys are in snow bunnies level. It will take some time to get balance down, but they are both closer to the ground and unaware of any kind of danger so that allows them to learn much faster. We (Jen and Rome) on the other hand put the skates on and skate smooth circles around the rink. I'm sure the kids will be spinning around us in a matter of weeks.

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Grandma took us to the airport in Texas by herself when we flew back to Portland after Christmas holidays because Grandpa still had the awful stomach bug we all went through the couple of days before we were set to leave. So, Grandma dropped us at the gate, we took our 4.5 hour flight and landed in rainy Portland. When we stepped off the plane to head for our taxi, Luka said "Where's Grandma?" fully expecting her to be still at the airport waiting for us after we had a day of just flying around in the air.

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While in Texas the kids got to watch some extra PBS TV because it is so easy to just turn on PBS and it worked! (I guess that is what you get when you pay for cable, or in this case satellite TV) Anyway, Sid the science kid is about a bunch of kids who do science experiments and ask the teacher a lot of questions to figure out whatever theory or mystery they are exploring. While we were eating dinner one evening, Alyosha asked me how old I thought Sid was. I said he may be 7 or 8 years old. Alyosha's reading buddy is 8 years old in the 3rd grade and Alyosha immediately responded to my answer that it wasn't possible for Sid to be 8 because that would mean that he is in 3rd grade and Sid doesn't know everything yet. He asks too many questions. To clarify, I asked him what he meant and he said "Third graders already know everything, they don't have to ask questions anymore. Sid couldn't be in 3rd grade yet because he asked too many science questions." I used it as an opportunity to tell Alyosha that he only has two and a half years left to learn everything there is in the world so he should keep studying hard!

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Back to weekly OMSI visits (Thank you Auntie Trish for the nice Christmas present). Niki loves it, he feels like it is his own place. Luka and Niki both love the sand area. Luka was sitting filling up the garbage truck with sand to recycle when he looks at me and asks "Mama, do I have Pampers on?" I said, "No, Luka, do you need to go potty?" He replied no, and went back to work. About 10 minutes later, the same question...and I gave him the same reply, he just went back to his play. He was just making sure, I guess. On a positive note, we are out of daytime diapers!! Yeah!!! AND no accidents yet.

Luka's world is special I think. He is really smart and he is even more determined. If he knows the answer to something, then his answer is the only correct one--when he doesn't know the answer he comes up with it himself and holds fast. Alyosha mentioned something about wearing his school shoes or his new cowboy boots, I don't remember the exact conversation. But Luka jumped in, not to be left out saying that we should also include his Music School Shoes because it is important to keep them nice and clean.

One more: Luka likes his green apples (favorite color green, by the way) NOT five-and-a-half. What does that mean, you might ask? Well, if you are Mama, you had better know, because if you give him an apple five and a half in any way he will fall on the ground and have a huge fit-HUGE. Does he mean not five and a half apples? No. Does he mean not five and a half pieces of apple? No. He means he wants his apple cored but not cut in half.

Official

Official Class photo. They don’t do it the old fashioned way anymore—a group picture. Instead they just do a composite to make sure each kid is picture perfect. It is cute, and you can see each face, but I kind of like the group picture because you get to see a little character.

Official temperature. LOOK at the temp here in Portland!! AAHH! The temp in Texas too!! But I saw the temperature for next week when we are supposed to be there: 71 and sunny. I know it can be 30 and Snowy the next day, but I saw 70 and sunny. (for our European family 13F is –10C, that just translates to freaking cold!)

Official Santa picture. The first one ever. Niki wasn’t in to it, but these two brothers are sweet.

Official love carrots. I just like this pic.

It will be a Texas Christmas

A couple of weeks ago we told Alyosha that we are going to Texas for Christmas. He is very excited about that, but I have to share the very first question and the resulting thought process he had after realizing that we are going to be away from home on Christmas morn. The obvious question is how will Santa Claus know where we are. That is easy, just write a letter, right? But, think about it, if we don’t write a letter and Santa leaves our Christmas wished presents at our home in Portland, then he sees some extra kids in Texas, he will have to leave presents there too—as long as there are cookies and milk set out— we will all get double presents! So, Alyosha asked if we could make cookies before we leave for Texas and put them in the window.

Although, he informed me today that he has way too many toys and he does not want any for Christmas. He only wants real science equipment-like a tele-microscope to look at fossils and he wants a dinosaur claw and/or tooth (real). Alyosha made sure that we know that LUKA wants a racecar with a track and extra train tracks. But, no toys for Alyosha. In fact he wants to go ask the homeless people who have built a camp a couple of blocks away if they have any kids so he can give his extra toys to them. (We ride our bikes by the camp every day-no kids though)

Other than just scheming for Christmas presents we have been busy little bees. Luka and Niki and I did the fall Polish the Pearl, picking up what little trash there was laying around our Tanner Springs and Jamison Parks. Roma and Alyosha were at Emanuel donating blood-we get the good citizen of the day award for that Saturday. (Alyosha doesn’t donate blood, by the way. He just goes with Roman once a month as support.)

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We also attended the Portland Art Museum’s free Family day that showcased the China Design Now exhibition. There was Chinese dance, music, food, art-making, and cultural activities. The kids really did have a good time, despite the looks on their face in the picture!

Luka and Claudia enjoying a walk on a beautiful Saturday morning. This was how we chose to wear the kids out before going to the Symphony in the evening. It worked for Luka, but Alyosha is too old for resting and naps now.

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Here we are walking to the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Yes, we walked all the way to the Schnitzer (basically across downtown) pushing the kids in strollers. Classy! I love living downtown! The kids earned the tickets from the library during summer reading—No parking, no problem! But, speaking of Luka’s nap earlier-he fell asleep during the performance. The sleeping part would have been ok, but he snores. Not just a cute baby snore; Luka snores a full blown hipposnore. Alyosha always tries to fall asleep first so he isn’t bothered by our little hippo. When Roma stepped out with Luka so we didn’t disturb the adagio, Alyosha said that it was ok because it was boring anyway. “Not the whole thing, just the music part” We thought about our time leading up to the symphony: reading this summer and talking the kids into taking symphony tickets rather than another water squirt gun as a prize; waking early for a full breakfast so we could hike just enough to wear them out for a good nap; cleaning up and dressing up for a fancy night out; walk across the whole town (in heels); patience waiting for the thing to start; snoring during the performance; the kids waiting in lines during intermission to try out each instrument (Alyosha has perfect ‘mouth pucker’ for the French horn and Luka rocks on the harp); 10 pm pizza because everyone is starving; bed at 11 only to still wake up at 7am the next day….is this cultural experience worth it? 110 percent.

We had a pre-visit from Cheryl. She is coming to have Thanksgiving with us next week, fun! She doesn’t give small kisses—only really, really big ones.

P.S. on this post….Roma has an interview! Yeah! I don’t believe in bad luck sharing this before it happens. In fact I believe in good luck because now all of you will pray and think positive things for Roma and if he is meant to get this job he will and if not, we will wait for the right one to come along! (Don’t bother him with questions though-it is an interview for a job he will like and that is enough for you nosey people. We will share more at the right time- patience is a virtue :-))

Yoka and other Fiction

This morning I drove Alyosha to school. He usually rides his bike with Roman, but Rome was up late working so I took the car. It was raining…Anyway, Ms. Ansell, Alyosha’s teacher, sends out a letter every Monday saying what they will be doing during the week. This week’s focus is real versus fantasy stories. I told Alyosha about fiction and non-fiction and he thought about his interests for a moment. Then he said that he couldn’t read fiction yet because he didn’t know enough facts. He is a scientist and facts are important! Thinking about the books he has chosen on his own at library time from school—they are all the same type: Snakes, Fossils, and this week Eagles. He said we should go through our books at home and arrange them into fiction and non-fiction—putting the fiction on the lower shelves because those are the kind of books Luka likes. Kindergarten has taught him so much but obviously not enough. The other day he asked me if he thought OMSI would want him to come in and talk to the other scientists and paleontologists. He said that he knows that he still has a lot to learn, but he is a scientist already and they might need the help. I told him it wouldn’t hurt to ask.This is the picture that Alyosha drew in school today. The purple is his heart—a purple heart is very special and Alyosha knows all about it. We told him how important purple was when he refused to use a purple toothbrush. Now either purple hearts or purple rain, Luka’s favorite, come up anytime you say the color purple. Try it out on Luka next time, just say the word and he will start singing “Purple Rain, Purple rain” You might not be able to read but the words are “time stone” Alyosha told me he learned what that was from the Halloween Arthur book—it is the stone that is in the cemetery that says your name after you die. The person in the picture is Pra, Roma’s Babushka. It is actually a picture of her spirit.

Alyosha has a spirit house night light in his room that he made at art camp over the summer. Now, we have been talking to him about spirits for a long time and he said many times that he knows that the spirits of Big Fish and Stop and Go and Pra come to the spirit house and he is really glad that he has it. Sometimes it seems like he knows more than me, I hope I can get him to talk more about what he is thinking.

Meanwhile both kids are on a ‘yoka’ fit. They want to do yoga every day, and honestly so do I. Luka’s favorite is the tree pose and Alyosha loves Warrior III, or he calls it flamingo pose. I think that we are going to do some Yoga videos soon. I hope that will make it easy for us to fit it into our schedule.

Active Kids

Alyosha had his last soccer practice on Tuesday and we have the Soccer party on Sunday. All in all I think all of my boys enjoyed playing soccer—Papa included. Alyosha is so active and very competitive. He was always right in there when it came to playing the games, not just picking flowers like some kids might do.

Luka wasn’t much of a sideline cheerleader. He preferred hanging out at the playground playing with the other younger siblings.

The hardest thing about soccer practice was dealing with the kids utter exhaustion after a full day with no naps then such vigorous outdoor play so late. The kids bedtime is pretty much 6:30—we put them to bed at 6 today!

Niki was just interested in seeing everything and eating the grass. Well, we all have our own interests

Soccer is over, now Alyosha asked if he could just take one Wu-Shu class. (Wu-Shu is the new Kung-Fu for those of you who don’t know your martial arts terminology.)

Alyosha’s School Picture

Isn’t he so sweet that you want to cry? Roma thinks he looks like he is fake smiling but I think it looks like he is laughing.

Here are some ‘kid talk’ tidbits from the past week:

Sorry for the potty talk, but Luka was hilarious! He runs out of his room desperately saying where is the potty, I have to poop! Then he makes a little Luka toot, and says “oh, it’s just toots!” and he goes back to his room to play.

Luka “Mama, it is clocked—can you please open the door, it’s clocked.”

Alyosha came in scratching his leg: “Mama, something is porcupining me in my leg.”

The best: Occasionally when Luka looks in the mirror at himself he says. “Look, I’m happy!”

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Перевод:

Он на фото такой милый, что хочется плакать, правда?! Рома думает что он фальшиво улыбается, но мне кажется, что он просто смеётся.

Вот несколько последних высказываний наших деток:

Извиняюсь заранее за "туалетную тему", но Лука очень рассмешил нас. Выбегая из своей комнаты, Лука в отчаянии пытается спешно найти свой горшок: "Где горшок?? Мне надо покакать!!!" Бегая в поисках по дому, он вдруг останавливается и пукает. Поняв что тревога ложная, он говорит: " А, это только газики", и спокойно удаляется дальше играть в свою комнату.

Идёт Алёша и чешет свою ногу: "Мама, что-то дикообразит меня в ногу".

Лука смотрит на себя в зеркало: "Смотри, я счастлив".

Mandala of Compassion

The Buddhist monk with the kids is Venerable Ngawang Chojor and we got a special viewing of him building the Mandala of Compassion here in Portland a few weeks ago. The kids were great at such a quiet event, they were so interested in what he was doing they just sat and watched for 15 minutes. The message of the Mandala of Compassion is supposed to give us the important elements that can make us a happy and a caring person. The fact that he built the mandala here is supposed to give a special blessing for the area and for the people who live where it is constructed. Through the power of the Mandala the negative energy of the area is removed and positive energy established.

Sand painting is an ancient Tibetan art form. Until 1989, the creation of Mandalas was a secret practice. Then the Dali Lama opened the practice to teach all people the main message behind the Mandala itself. The creation of a sand mandala begins with an opening ceremony. Monks consecrate the site and call forth the forces of goodness through chanting mantras accompanied by flutes, drums and cymbals. The construction of the mandala begins with the drawing of the design on the base. The artists measure out and draw the architectural lines using a straight-edged ruler, compass and ink pen. Once the diagram is drawn, in the following days you see millions of grains of colored sand painstakingly laid into place. The sand, colored with vegetable dyes, is poured onto the mandala platform with a narrow metal funnel which is scraped by another metal rod to cause vibration for the grains of sand to trickle out of the end. The two funnels symbolize the union of wisdom and compassion. The mandalas are created whenever a need for healing of the environment and living beings is felt. When finished, to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists, the colored sands are swept up and poured into a nearby river or stream where the waters carry healing energies throughout the world.

This is the really special part. Lama Chojor saw the boys watching quietly and interested in what he was creating. He drew! them into the Mandala. Have a close look at the white sand on the red line close to the bottom of the Mandala. The one on the left is Alyosha and the one on the right is Luka. The Mandala of Compassion is made to inspire people to live with a compassionate spirit for the sake of all beings and to help end suffering for all. I think my boys are on the road to being compassionate. It was beautiful.

Soccer time

Alyosha is playing on his first organized team sport. Hillside Soccer Club has teams for kindergartners through Jr. High (5-13). The little kids only play scrimmages and they don't really keep score, but they play serious ball. I think the kids are having a great time...when they aren't breaking down because someone stole their ball. It is great to see the boys play together and tell secrets and work as a team.

Coach Roman and his team--pretending to be cheetahs

The crowd watching the soccer players in action

Coach Roman giving advice--"kick the ball and keep your tongue in your mouth"

Look who is about to get wet!

What a sport; Roma was dunked by his team.

Playground talk

Who knew seven kids could fit on one tire swing?

The other day Alyosha woke up in the morning and the first thing he announced was that he didn't sleep all night long. I said that was too bad because his body won't be able to run and play so much because it needs to sleep every day. After that, he amended what he said to say "My body was sleeping, actually, just my brain was awake all night. And in the morning (at 6 am--the new normal) my brain started screaming at my body to wake up."

Luka always defends me to say that my eyes are blue while Alyosha and Roma make fun and say they are grey/green. Luka was mad at me for some reason or another the other day and he said with a squished angry little face that " Your eyes are NOT blue!"

On the slide after school today I heard Alyosha say "I am so tough I beat up a seven year old and now he is afraid of me" The friend he was playing with on the slide said he was 5 and a half and he is the oldest and toughest in his family (he has a 2 year old sister and a 10 month old sister). Alyosha said he was 5 and a half and the biggest and oldest brother in the family too. Why do little lion cubs have to prove who is the toughest?

Luka came up crying and saying "my elbow, my elbow!" I looked at both of his elbows and there was nothing there. He continued to cry and say he got a bobo on his elbow. Finally he pointed down to his knee and with a sly smile and tears still running down his face he said "my elbow has a bobo!" He calls his legs his 'arms' and apparently his knees are 'elbows'. But, with the smile, I know he knows the difference, it is just his joke. I tell you though, he can keep it pretty straight because he consistently calls them his 'arms' and now, 'elbows'.

Alyosha got in a wrestling fight today--it was playful but his necklace broke. He has gotten into a habit of fighting on the side of his friend Amelia against an other team of boys. They wrestle at soccer practice and, as I learned today, at recess too. When his necklace broke, the participants helped him pick up the beads and they are all friends now; especially Amelia, she might even be his best friend right now he said. On the bike ride home Alyosha had a question that he almost didn't ask me because he thought it was too funny. I got him to ask and he said "Mama, do you think it would be funny to marry your best friend?" I said that I thought it would be a great thing to marry your best friend--but asked him what if his best friend was a boy. He said, no that isn't possible then started naming off the names of all the girls he knows. "Amelia, Hailey, Sofie, Milana, Danicia--I have five girlfriends!" He was so happy that he ran into a parked car--no damage done, physical damage that is!

First Day of School

A traditional First day of School video

Well, Alyosha went to school--kindergarten-- we are about to go pick him up--He was excited, nervous and I think he loved it...we will see!

Kids Talk

Alyosha has completely worn out 2 pairs of shoes in the past 2 weeks. I made him say goodbye to them and that was where the mourning began. He cried giant tears of sadness because he had to say goodbye to his beloved fast shoes. Then he got the idea to take pictures to be able to remember them forever. He does not let go easily!

Here are the boys looking over every inch of the shoes--Luka has a micro view.

The photo montage of his beautiful tennis shoes. From top to bottom, inside and out, not an inch was missed.

Photo attempt for the passport photo--Niki doesn't know you aren't supposed to smile!

Other kid sayings:

Alyosha called me into his room to look at the castles he built with the blocks and said "Mama, look how I have just gone wild with my imagination!

Luka asked me for a drink of water before bed so I brought him one. Before I handed it over Alyosha announced that he should get a drink first because he asked me inside his brain first for a drink, he just didn't say it out loud.

Britney Spears song came on the stereo "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman" And Luka began to sing "I am just a boy. That is just Nikolai and that is just Mama and just Papa and just Alyosha. I am just a boy"

Art Camp at CHAP

This is Alyosha's first masterpiece--first of many now! I will give you his description:
Once there was a bird on a big rock. The bird saw all of the salmon in the ocean and decided two of them needed to be big. So the bird said Peeee Caw Pee Caw and the Salmon in the ocean got to be huge! They were sad that they couldn't go into the rivers because they were so big. So the big salmon told the other regular salmon to swim up the river. They became the spirit of the salmon that gave the direction for the salmon to go to help them reach the start of the river. On the way there were bears and many dangers, but the strongest and smartest salmon survived and make it to the top of the river.

Here is Frank holding Niki.

The kids after their first day of Art Camp. The camp is a mixture of kids from the community and kids who got to know CHAP through the hospital program. There are great kids from ages 5-10, in wheelchairs, without arms and all excited about art. All doing the same projects and working together to have fun and experiment with their creativity. I think that kids are just amazing.

They have been so great to us letting Alyosha and Luka and myself work on the garlands for their Christmas project in exchange for the kids painting and playing in the art factory. They are learning a great lesson--Alyosha says he is doing the work so Frank can go teach in the hospital. I am so thankful for the Art camp, it has been great. The kids are making spirit lamps and hula hoops. They are doing yoga and ti chi. Alyosha loves it.

Israel Called On To Stop Settlements

Alyosha overheard the news this morning about Obama's Cairo Speech and Israel:

June 4, 2009 · President Obama was addressing Muslims Thursday, but his speech in Cairo was closely followed by others. One of his most pointed messages was directed at U.S. ally, Israel. Obama called on Israel to halt all construction in West Bank settlements as a step toward reaching peace with the Palestinians. Obama also addressed Palestinians, saying they need to abandon violence.

Alyosha said "Mama, can you believe it, the Israelites are still walking! Where are they going, to Estonia?"

Kids and their thoughts

I was telling Alyosha that the books I was reading to him were the books I had when I was a kid. And this house is the place I lived when I was a kid. And he said "yeah, it is sooooo old"

Every time Luka sits on his potty or stands in front of a tree he announces "it's coming, it's coming!"

On the way walking home, Alyosha asked me out of the blue if he looked brave. I said why? And he said because he was making his brave face.



Swinging in the swing while waiting for the hot dogs to be hot!
We picked Turnips from our the neighbor Elmer's garden. Nothing fresher than that!