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.

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.

Pre-Halloween

Friday before Halloween and we went to the Halloween parade at Chapman. All the kids dressed up—and teachers too. Alyosha is D'artagnan and Luka is a construction worker.

Here is his teacher and the class on parade for the whole school and parents to see. It was a big day for everyone—so exciting.

Abe is a robot—he made the costume with silver duct tape. D'artagnan’s beard and mustache look real and really cute. Construction worker on a swing.

Alyosha made a black cat at school today with his special friend (that was me…) It had to have a D'artagnan hat and I was the helper friend. Then all the kids at Alyosha’s table wanted me to be their official cutter.

Niki the happy Russian.

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".

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!

Spending time in the beautiful outdoors

Well, this one isn't outdoors, but I just like this picture.

Our friend, Anna, let us come to her backyard orchard and pick pears from her trees. They are so delicious-even Niki is having a taste. It looks like he is sneaking one!

Here is our sweetheart! Sitting up on his own like a pro.

Alyosha is a great big brother, taking care of the other two. I can't believe that he is starting Kindergarten in a few weeks.

Chapman Elementary preformance of Alice In Wonderland

We went to Chapman Elementary, where Alyosha will go to kindergarten, yesterday to see their kids do the end of the year performance. I just can't believe that they pulled off such an elaborate presentation--all the art and costumes, not to mention the acting! I kind of overdid the video length--but I couldn't give the full effect of the live performance! It was about an hour long---Have a look. I am so excited for Alyosha to go to such a good school next year.

This is Jen as a flower in Alice in Wonderland with my 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Pettus.

A Day at the Park

Three boys in the swing, a little precarious for a moment, but I had to get the shot!

Alyosha doesn't even use the equipment how he is supposed to anymore, he is climbing over the tops and hanging from the bottom--any way except the the traditional one. He can do the entire length of the monkey bars! That is about 25 bars-He is determined to be prepared because this will be his playground next fall when he starts Kindergarten.

Luka can crawl up the cork screw himself! He is so proud he can do it he did it 25 times. Up the cork screw, down the spiral slide...up the cork screw, down the spiral slide.

Niki is looking out at all the fun, thinking about joining but perfectly comfortable where he is at. I think that he is in no big hurry, although he is totally rolling over already from his back to his tummy.

Making our Neighborhood beautiful

Today was an Oregon state wide day organized to clean up the neighborhoods. We live in a great neighborhood with wonderful maintenance workers who sweep the curbs every day-so luckily there wasn't too much to clean up. But the kids spotted every cigarette butt or stray gum wrapper and picked it up with their extended arms. Here is the group-Luka didn't want to wear the orange safety vest-OR his sun hat. He was a true pirate.

Luka is helping his brother make his Bobo feel better. Alyosha got a big scratch on his chin-you will see in future pictures how we decorated it with Zelonkia.

We also planted wild flowers in the field in front of our bridge. Hopefully they will all sprout-it will be beautiful.

I (Jen) carried Niki most of the time because Roma was carrying the big trash bag, but in the end I was releived by Roma and the Baby Bjorn--Niki isn't really supposed to face forward yet, but he likes to see the world.

In the afternoon we trecked over to Wallace Park beside the elementary school Alyosha will go to in September-It was a beautiful day. You can see where the scratch is hidden by the green paint.

Luka is a monkey robot. For some reason, he decided to talk like a robot all afternoon.

Alyosha thinks he never goes to sleep because he just lays down and then the sun comes up-like the night is only a minute long. When he got into bed he said that this was a really great day and he wanted to do it all again tomorrow!

What is going on

Back to Nature School. Alyosha had his first day of spring nature school today. Unfortunately they had to move it to Sellwood, which is a farther drive for us, but the park is great and with the better weather coming along we will enjoy it. The good part is that the class is bigger, 8 kids, so I think it is more fun. Alyosha is keeping a nature journal with a picture of what he learned for the day--that is what he is working on in the photo; they learned about leaves and veins and how the leaf turns its food into sugar.

I made the kids pose for a photo in front of the pink tulips at Sellwood park. Niki wasn't too happy.

Niki getting some rest and some sun. I think that he is the king.

The Easter Bunny found us even though we weren't in Texas--he hid clues in the whole building that the boys found together. BUT that silly Easter Bunny dropped Luka's airplane bubble blower so we had to ask the toy store if they would let us exchange it for a new one. Luckily they take Easter Bunny exchanges.

Alyosha is working on his music school homework for his piano class. He already knows what each of the types of notes are. I can't wait for him to start Kindergarten next year.

Kindergarden--the first experience

I can't believe that we have to pay $300 a month for Alyosha to go to full day kindergarten! For that, I would put him in half-day for sure, but there isn't a choice because the only curriculum they offer is full day. I can pull him out in the middle of class at 11:30, then he would miss reading and writing every day. It is crazy and unfair to families no matter how much they earn--it is a public school for goodness sake!

On the other hand, we just started a really great music school with the kids. Both kids go for 3 months for only $70. the teacher is very good--actually teaching Alyosha at 4 and Luka at 2 about music, pitch, tempo etc... not just shaking shakers and singing Old McDonald like other music classes I have been to. The school is a non-profit and the teachers are real musicians who just truly love music and want to share that love with the kids. There is real value in this music class in the time and money we spend. At Chapman Elementary school, I feel like we are cheated on what they are supposed to provide the children.

Well, kindergarten round-up is February 24th. That is Alyosha's first step into the classrooms to see what they are like and what he will be getting into. I hope I will find out better things than the first impressions I have been given. Although, Chapman Elementary is supposed to be one of the best elementary schools - they need to figure out how to provide that greatness without $300 per child per month.

The pictures are from decorating cupcakes from Cupcake Jones cupcake shop. It was just by messy luck that any of the icing made it onto the cupcakes because it is much easier to eat the icing straight from the tub with fingers than to take the time to decorate the cupcake---then eat it!