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!

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"

The Bible

I have been reading the Bible to Alyosha during nap times. We have a really good Children's Bible from 1965--the same one I remember Grandma having. I don't know if it was Daddy's or John John's originally, but I remember it myself. I found a never opened one at the thrift store a year or so ago and bought it for $2. Alyosha looks at the pictures all the time and recently asked me to read him some stories from the pictures. It tells the real stories, not all dumbed up like some newer children's bibles, but also not as complicated as the adult version. We just finished reading about the 10 plagues and are still reading the Exodus story with Moses and the Israelites.

Does anyone know what the 10th plague is? The plagues really interested Alyosha; we read them a week or so ago and he is still asking questions. The 10th plague is the one where God comes for all the 1st born of the Egyptians but passes over the homes of the Israelites. So that God knows the people who live in the house are faithful, he asked them to sacrifice a lamb and paint its blood on 3 spots of the doorway and the first born of that household will be saved. Guess what today is? Passover. I told Alyosha that today was passover and he got a very serious look on his face. He said we need to go get a lamb right now and paint blood on our doorway. He is the first born child in our household, I understand where his concerns come from. We haven't gotten to the Easter story yet!

*Speaking of things children say, while we were at the dentist Alyosha asked what they were going to put in the holes where the cavities were. The dentist said either white paint or silver paint. He told the dentist "My daddy's teeth are all painted silver!" *The kids were eating ice cream and it started dripping over the cones they made. Alyosha said "My ice cream is Kapping!" (kap kap kap is the sound drips make in Russian)




Happy Easter weekend to everyone!

Summer in the City

We are not so frantically but quite expensively trying to get things together for our unexpected trip to Estonia. Tickets are already a known high cost, and I don’t even get to fly first class! On top of that, we have to get Luka’s passport, and get it quick—which costs double as well as extra time in line for the entire family. All must be present to swear everything is true in the 5 month old baby's application--seriously, we put our right hands in the air and swore Luka is Luka and he is really 29 inches tall.

But the Post Office is a communal home for all people: rich and poor, old and young, clothed and unclothed (see picture if you dare). In front of us in line were Nigerian and Taiwanese and Mexican and Japanese yet all American, each holding their certificate of naturalization. Behind us in line were Gold Digger and Pimp Daddy. Pimp Daddy was getting Gold Digger a passport so he could take her to some far away land. Pimp Daddy, very annoyed, was giving a running commentary about the Nigerian, Taiwanese, Mexican and Japanese lame questions--and probably commenting under his breath about the 3 year old playing with spiderman and the infant babeling incessently.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, even though we were sixth in line to put our application to the postmaster’s test of approval—it went very quickly because those in front of us couldn’t quite read the instructions and each were missing a piece of identification or didn’t know where they were going or when or how they were going to get there—or their own place of employment. Luka is employed by us, so his job: baby. He is going to visit his Ded and Gala, so purpose of travel: concentrated Russian brainwashing (positive, of course). Never been married, check. Height, 29 inches (fortunately 42 inches and under can still apply). City of birth: Portland, Or. The only thing we didn’t know were the last 4 digits of our zip code 97209. No problem, we were at the post office—surely they would know. The post lady said “This is post office 97208. I know only our last 4 digits!” Bam, bam with her stamps—rip, tear and seal the envelope closed. “That will be one check for $62.15 and another for $95.12. Good luck and Good bye” she said—“Give this all to the man over there” (next to naked lady)

Thankfully this country doesn’t discriminate against race, profession, country of origin or even amount of clothes you wear so all of us left the Post Office successful in our ventures. Hopefully the lack of the 4 last zip code digits won’t leave us in Portland for the summer! They do discriminate against Romka—this was the post office he was banned for life from a couple years ago—a little incident about duct tape and flying boxes, but that is a story for another day.

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