Oh, Grandma....

Luka saw Grandma driving around in her little red car the other day. We didn't know it but she was driving around Portland in her little red sports car with Oregon plates-specialized Oregon plates with Oh LaLa on them.

Grandma, we just have a couple of things to say to you: First, I know that when you drive a Ferrari you can probably get to Portland from Texas in a couple of hours, but it would still be nice to tell us you will be visiting for the day, we would invite you over. And second, if you think it is ok to drive around town, just having fun without your grandchildren, do you really need to do it in a car that costs the same as a house in NW Portland? Surely you could trade it in for a little red Miata and be just as happy and then we would have a WHOLE HOUSE. You might not be able to make it to Portland for lunch, but you didn't call anyway!

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.

Lukian Axel’s 3rd Birthday

The chili was made, sausages grilled, piñata lasted long enough for each kid to have a hit and there was an acceptable amount of tears-I say that the birthday party was enjoyed by all the kids, except Luka. He did warm up to the fun after everyone left and he sure talked about everyone and how they all came there for him. In Luka’s own words, he liked the piñata, the birthday cake and his presents. It takes a certain character to accept so much attention and love all at once. Even though Luka has the ability to appreciate it upon reflection, he isn’t ready to be in the spotlight. I am thinking that he pretends to be so tough because he is really delicate…..hmmmm, how to develop this potential weakness into a strength?

While we were waiting for all of the kids to show up, I set out little plastic Christmas sun catchers for the kids to paint. The 5 year olds went into detail while the 3 year olds went for a solid coat of one color.

The Mummy Races. The point of the game is to wrap your sibling in toilet paper Mummy Wrap then run around the basketball court until your wrap falls off. The sibling thing didn’t work out too well, it turned out to be a Mommy wrap, but the kids did get wrapped from head to toe and ran around like crazy creatures

Side note: Look! I finally fit into my really cool jacket that I found at a thrift store 2 years ago. It fits me and it is really warm!

Aftermath of the mummy wrap race. It was time for tp doll making, Alyosha was right on it.

It was REALLY cold. The sun peeked out at us and our December outside birthday party was cold, crisp and really nice.

Like I said, we had lunch. Roma’s fire pit grill worked like a charm, I think we are really going to enjoy for a long time. You know you’re wondering about the cool cake…well, does the shape look familiar? Airplane cake. Luka’s request was only for a green cake so we made a yummy carrot cake with a few green sparkles. He was totally happy.

It can’t be a birthday party if Papa doesn’t dress up as something and tell a good story. Roma was a magnificent flower and he was in search of the magic cloud with surprises for the kids. So many great friends came and even though Luka was overwhelmed he really did feel special. I felt special too, we have kind friends and I have a unique special little 3 year old.

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".

Lukian Axel

Luka is a middle child, 100%. I know there are some disadvantages, but I think that there are some advantages to it too...you get an older and a younger brother, that is great.You get to act up sometimes and not get in trouble for it either because everyone is too busy with soccer practice or the baby OR just because since you don't get attention as much as you need it, we can't punish you for having a fit since it is kind of our fault you are having the fit. Anyway, Luka is special and here are some of the tidbits he is sharing with us lately...

Every time we walk out of the elevator, into a grocery store with automatic doors or even out of our building that has a button to push that opens the door for you Luka says "Thank you, Robot." Because it is a robot is the one opening the doors for us and you don't want to make a robot mad by not being polite. He also looks down the crack between the elevator and the floor to try and glimpse the robot--he hasn't seen it yet but he knows it is down there.

Luka has to sit and listen to Alyosha's description of his day at school every evening at dinner time. After about 5 minutes of kindergarten drama Luka says "Alyosha, stop! I want to say something." We all look at him and invite him to join the conversation. The next words from his mouth are his own version of important news: "A moo cow says Moooooooo. A duck says quack quack"

When Roma is studying late at school, Luka cries in his bed with the most sincere and sad cry saying that he is scared because papa isn't home and he can't sleep unless we are all home together. He is so sweet, only when he wants to be though.

Not to be outdone, Alyosha also has his own interpretation of the world that is being open to him. 3rd and 5th grade have lice, already! We explained a little about what that is and the advice we were given is just to check his head after school everyday so we can get it early. So while were explaining why we have to look at his hair every day now I told him that they live on his head as their house and they just eat the dirt on your hair. With the great boy logic he has he said, "That's great! I won't have to wash my hair anymore, they will just eat all the dirt away!"

One more morsel that I can tell he has been dwelling on for a while now. He asked me straight out "Mama, when I get married and you and papa move out, how will I know where you guys go?" Good question, Alyosha--I think we will be on a beach in Mexico!

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.

The Launch - Luka's first film production

Let's just say Luka is potty training. It is fun to push the button on the remote while we are biding our time waiting for magic to happen. Stop animation can entertain just long enough to get the job done.

Click to see Luka's premier--hopefully we will move on to more interesting content... video

PS. Luka helped with set decoration pre-potty. The star houses, yellow monster and blue flowers and most of the clouds are all his!

PPS. Let us know if you have problems seeing the video, Roma is trying out new techie stuff that is supposed to make it easy.

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.

What Luka likes

This morning, Luka woke up and told me what he likes in this order:

#1 Clippord (Clifford the Big Red Dog) #2. W (D.W. from Arthur)

#3. Papa

#4. Monkey (Curious George)

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.

Three Little Angles

We had one of those mornings! But it all turned out good in the end.

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!

Niki the Laugher

Niki has so many emotions. Yesterday I was reading a story to Luka and there was a scary part where we both gasped. Niki was also listening to the story and when he heard us gasp his eyes filled with tears and his lower lip curled under down to his little chin. We quickly told him that it was ok and he squeezed out a smile while his eyes were full of tears. See the video...he is just starting to laugh all the time!

By the way, Luka doesn't have fifth disease. He had a bad reaction to the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. It gave him a slight measles rash and a cold, which he is now getting over. This was a vaccine that he was supposed to get when he was 1 year old, but I waited until two and a half because that is a serious one--I'm glad I did. I know the vaccines are good, but it is important to follow your own common sense rather than just depending on what others tell you. Doctors give advice for the general crowd, unfortunately, and each person is an individual.

Fifth Disease

From somewhere, Luka picked up fifth disease...or the slapped cheek disease. It is mostly harmless but highly contagious so here we go with the rounds of illness again! His little cheeks or bright red. I thought that he was just wiping his snots on his cheek and they were getting chapped, but no! Well, at least he doesn't feel too bad--but he is getting annoyed with skin rashes! He said "spots, spots, spots like chicken pox!"

Here comes the bride and there runs the groom! Run, Run Alyosha! I heard the girl say that she was going to have the most perfect princess wedding that is so beautiful, EVER. And she is going to marry Tom, if Alyosha isn't Tom then she will just change his name to Tom--there you go. I think it is time we start training Alyosha which girls are acceptable and which ones are to be avoided!

Niki isn't worried about fifth disease, he is under the immune protection of Mama's Milk. It's funny that these little infants are so vulnerable yet they have such a veil of protection.

It's a good thing that Niki has some special protection, because with two brothers that love him as much as Alyosha and Luka do--there is no way to prevent germ sharing!

Ta'i Chi

The other day we were walking in the park on a beautiful day and there were some ladies practicing their Ta'i Chi out in the grass beside the park. Luka looked at them, smiled, pointed and said "look Mama, Robots!"



AND...A lady was walking her puppy, this little cute poodle mix puppy, down the sidewalk right when we crossed the street. Luka SCREAMED and ran down the sidewalk all the way to the next corner, hiding himself behind a bike rack. When I finally walked up to his hiding place, he gave a slight smile and lifted his little shoulders while clasping his hands (his pretend frightened pose) and said "scary puppy!"

Kids talk, with 2 now...

Alyosha listens to the radio news, where they talk about swine flu outbreak and the how Egyptians are planning to eliminate all pigs in the country. With loud voice Alyosha gives his summary: Mama, mama, Pyramid People are going to kill the pigs!

Alyosha saying:
"Mama, look at this rock. It is cool, can I take it home and science it out?" (that means examine it at home with a magnifying glass and put it in his paleontology collection box)

Luka saying:
Every time we leave friends, Luka departs with "Bye, Bye, thrend"

Alyosha saying yesterday evening:
"Mama, now that I am growing up, I like to watch the news. Luka still likes cartoons."

Haircut

Summer and warmer weather are approaching so we are all going for the short styles. I really like the kid's hair when it is long a crazy/wild, but I didn't even bother washing Luka's hair before cutting it; I just cut out all the big chunks of dirt and knots. Alyosha uses his head as a sand bucket, instead of the cool yellow bucket that the Easter bunny brought--so with shorter hair it will be more difficult for the big pieces of dirt to get lodged in and create a penthouse for the bugs of summer.

But, I will have to admit, the kids are beautiful with their long crazy hair--at least eye catching.


They are pretty cute with their short buzzes too though.

Nature School Tuesdays

Sellwood park again for Tuesday Nature School. This past Tuesday was the most beautiful Tuesday of the year. Roma studied in the park while everyone else attended their own duties, then we had a picnic lunch and stayed the rest of the day, lured in by the sun to forget any other responsibilites we may have.

Luka likes the see-saw, but I get a work out doing squats so he can go up and down. I noticed that in all newer parks that have see-saws, they have springs so the kids can do it themselves--I'm not sure which ones I like better.

Alyosha is a good tree-climber. We will work on this all summer so we can go apple pickng in the fall. Now he just climbs to shake the flowers down from the tree. Thank goodness it wasn't an apple tree--even the flowers fall pretty hard. That's gravity for ya.

The boys climb on Papa whenever they get a chance. It is great that he has the chance to spend so much time with them--but, even school takes up a lot of time so they take advantage of every minute.

Papa running with 2 boys. Look how long their hair is--tomorrow it will be all gone. :-(

Jamison Park 2009

Well, it seems like it is almost summer time and that means Jamison park in the afternoon. One of the interesting things about living in the city is the people watching.

No matter where we are, Alyosha is always looking for bugs--they are seeing how the ant swims.

Luka likes to do the same things that Alyosha does.

Green Frog Toy Store...the place we must pass almost everytime we leave our place. The boys never get tired of looking in the window.

A day at the Park

Saturday marked the first day of beautiful, beautiful warm sunny weather. We went to the farmers market (see video) and played at the park. It feels a little like we have been living in a cave, really hibernating for the past few months. It's great!

Alyosha can do the entire length of the monkeybars now..that means he is ready for kindergarden.

Even Niki enjoys the sun.

Family picture.

Keri Russel is in town filming a movie...Crowley. She spent her beautiful Saturday with her family at the farmers market and playground too. Luka and her son were staring each other down on the slide at the playground.

The Boys

Luka the Pirate

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.

Teeth

The big boys were playing on the playground with a thousand other kids on the sunny Monday afternoon. They took time out to entertain their brother who can't climb on the ladders and slide the slides yet.
Niki showing off his toothless smile. He is lucky enough that he doesn't have to go to the dentist yet; he doesn't really feel left out of the bunch because of that. In fact, it looks like he is pretty happy about it.
Luka is getting an x-ray of his front teeth. He was amazing, just letting the dentist do anything and everything she needed. He even held the film between his teeth like a pro.
Alyosha did great with the dentist too. He whispered that he was a little afraid , but the dentists were so great with kids that he is counting down until the next time he has to go. He doesn't know the difference between getting a cleaning and a filling though! (The dentist said he would get laughing gas--so he will be happy and floating in space)

They found 4! cavities. One I knew of, but the other 3 were a surprise. They are tiny little cavities between his teeth. The dentist said we probably didn't need to do anything about them because he should be losing his teeth in a year or so, but it would be a good idea to get rid of them just to make sure. On his x-rays we could see his adult teeth just waiting to come out. She said if he flosses every day- he wouldn't have any cavities at all.

The pediatric dentists at OHSU are great. They made the kids feel comfortable and somehow hypnotised them into doing everything and anything they asked. Luka didn't have any cavities, but he has a little dent in a front tooth that he got when he fell down once, so he will have a filling put in just to keep everything healthy for the future. I like it when we find good doctors and dentists :-)

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

We had a Friday Nature Walk with friends at the Rhododendron Garden--which might as well be called the duck and goose playground. Along the entire walk we had a company of ducks waddling along behind us. Luka was afraid of the ducks, and geese (the geese I don't blame him for, they are bigger than he is!). Alyosha put on a very brave face around his friends--but once he was surrounded and we were ahead of him on the trail; when I looked back to see if he was catching up there was sheer terror on his face because the gaggle of geese and ducks encircled him and his bag of bird seed, a full zip lock bag. I saw him pour the entire bag out, then he made a run for it. By the time he reached us you could still see the wet, blotched tears on his cheeks and the redness in his cheeks, but he was trying to smile.

The kids and Nikolai staring each other down to find out what they are made of.

In front of the waterfalls. I don't know how, but we made it over the steping stones without falling in... Niki on my chest in the sling and Luka dangling from my hand--Alyosha was on his own.

The Canadian goose that was chansing the others away from his food--there were also mallards, wood ducks, scaups, red head ducks, northern pintail, shovler, cinnamon teal, chinese swan geese, and more....

Busy Kids

The kids had a Jackson Pollock art class today--an American artist famous for his action painting. Action painting is the best style for the 5 and under artists--and can even be fun for the adult artist! Alyosha is pointing to their section of the canvas--the brown back ground was created by 'skiing' with brown toes and feet--then the splatters are the ones that were lucky enough to land on the canvas rather than the ceiling, walls, my hair etc...



Luka is a good big brother





Luka is a monkey on the bunk beds.





Thank you Gala and Ded for the welcome gift for Nikolai!



The kids concentrate when there is any kind of important work to do--like coloring frogs and dogs.

A chicken pox: Part 2

Exactly 14 days after Alyosha's chicken pox appeared--and right when we thought little Luka had super immunity--he broke out. He is super strong, but the virus has taken its opportunity to live on every part of his skin that it could find. Alyosha had about 70-80 spots all together, whereas Luka is probably holding about 200 spots from the tip top of the head to the point of his toe. It is like we timed the virus to come at just the right time--Luka shouldn't be contagious anymore after Wednesday, and if it was up to me, the baby would come on Wednesday!

OMSI

We spent a day at OMSI this week--it is an easy place for me to take the kids right now because they can get involved in lots of great activities and I don't have to run around or worry about them because we are in an enclosed space. There is a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit going on right now teaching the kids all about inventions; since getting back from exploring that exhibit, Alyosha has invented a few things. My favorite invention is the machine that picks up all the toys for Alyosha and Luka, cleans the bathroom and kitchen and does everything we need to do so we can sit and watch cartoons all the time while the machine is working. He already has the first part to build the machine, an egg carton. He wants me to guide him where to go from there...

Alyosha is letting a walking stick walk along his hands and dinosaur shirt in the top picture; he said that he was very brave because he knew the bug was alive and even though it was 'freaky' to let the bug poke on his hands, he had to be brave because if he dropped it it would hurt the bug.

The flying hair pics are from a discovery that the kids made while floating balls on the air

Unsere neue Bürger

Парочку дней назад, самый младший из нас (хотя это утверждение уже спорное на сегодняшний день) стал полноправным гражданином Германии.

Да, Германия может гордится очередным бюргером Lukian Von Kultajev! Вышел немец из тумана... вынул Луку из кармана.

Пролетарии всего мира соединяйтесь!

Правда, на фото в паспорте свойм европейском, выглядит этот новоиспечённый бюргер, как обыкновенный Лука Романыч из села Подсолнухово, Ростовской губернии. Причём, беднота босоногая, даже без одежонки на пачпорт сфоткался, стыд-то какой, господи, прости ты его душу грешную и родителей евоных, если такие вообще есть.



Так много хочется помпезного сказать на немецком по случаю, но из уст выходит сплошной хендехох, какой-то. Ладно, когда на "родину" поедем, вспомним чё-нить. Брудершафт какой-нить.

What a day! --- Ну и денёк!

Сегодня были на званом обеде у Даницы и Миланы, родители славно покушали, обсудили политику, книги, народы и обычаи, а также кто -где хочет жить (дружно решили, что Алтай - самое место).



А детишки наши, разных возрастов, самодостаточно и мирно играли где-то там, совершенно не донимая нас. Неужели мы дожили до этого времени?!

Лукашка пропустил свой полуденный сон и, как стойкий оловянный солдатик, продержался до самого вечера.Вот видео, снятое уже за ужином.

Download video

Lots of stuff...no time to speak!

Well, the end of 2007 is here. And it seems like the end of the year goes by faster than any other time--not that time is ever slow. I am trying to get pictures backed up and printed out and want to share some I found.

The snow pics are from Dec 26th--we braved Mt. Hood and it was beautiful.


Roma putting the chains on the tires so we don't fall off the mountain!

The attempt at skiing while sledding--didn't quite work.

But we all enjoyed the snow!
Stark contrast--hiking from last month--pictures I found.


AND--a couple more Christmas morning pictures

Aleks with his camera (he is a photographer) and Luka with the red tunnel
Men at work
It snowed on Christmas Day!

Just two handsome boys

Photo Ops

Merry Christmas....

Luka's First Birthday





Playing in the fountain in winter is a little different experience







And a Thanksgiving picture that was left out! We made the pecan and apple pies...

Женька с детишками отправились в Эстонию

Сегодня утром первыми словами заспанного Алёши были: "А где мои билеты?"

Хорошо, когда все путешественники встают с правильной ноги и вообще в курсе происходящего.

В Портленде шёл дождь, в который так хорошо уезжать, настроение было на подъеме, вещи были заранее упакованы накануне, поэтому отъезжающие не спеша позавтракали, проверили наличие паспортов и пелёнок и отправились в аэропорт.

Когда Алёша заносил в машину свой маленький чемоданчик на колёсах, то попросил, чтобы его (чемоданчик) кроме Алёши никто не трогал. Мы как-то не обратили внимание на эти слова, о чём немного пожалели в аэропорту. Уже проходя перед кассами авиалиний Алёша остановился и тихо сказал, глядя на чемоданы, которые забирала служба безопасности для досмотра и отправкой как багажа: "Я не отдам свой чемодан им". Мы его успокоили, что мол его чемоданчик это ручная кладь и он всегда будет с ним. Однако при регистрации на рейс всю ручную кладь нужно было взвесить и прицепить наклейку, то бишь чемоданчик надо было отдать тёте, причём с подозрительным немецким акцентом. Неожиданно для всех, включая весь персонал Люфтганзы и пассажиров, Алёша, вцепившись в свой чемодан, дико заорал во всё горло и бросился бежать из зала регистрации.

В конце концов Алёшу вернули с чемоданом, но наклейку так и не смогли поставить.

Ну, будем надеяться, что полёт пройдёт удачно: 9 часов до Франкфурта, 6 часов во Франкфурте, пару часов до Таллинна и потом ещё часика 3 до Силламяэ.

Спасибо Олежке за встречу моих цыганят в Таллинне.

Big Developments

Congratulations to people in our family for all the crazy things that are going on!!

In no paticular order of importance....

First: Stacy got a job! A 8th grade English teacher--watch out 13 year olds!

Second: Trisha got a house! A real first house--watch out neighbors!

Third: Luka has a tooth! Just breaking through, but loudly announcing itself--watch out Mama!

Yeah to everyone!

Luka got his passport!

Everything came in the mail the same day. Luka is an official citizen--he has his first passport and his first international-multi layover-tickets to visit Estonia. We are leaving the 19th of July and will spend our summer relaxing on the Baltic~ it is all official and government approved.

Can you believe they didn't let this beautiful picture be in his passport? You aren't allowed to smile! Click on the picture for a little video

News, lots of News

To start off, we have bought our plane tickets to Estonia. The opportunity came up quick, and we got the tickets and now we are off--on July 19th. That is the first big news. Yeah!! Estonia in the summer, I am looking forward to it.

Second, the Secret. To date, still no waiting for the street car. AND on top of that, this evening when I went to the grocery store, I didn't have to stop at any red lights--all green! (and there are about 10 between here and the store) Don't worry, I know that I will have to stop at red lights once in a while, and I will have to wait longer than 2 mintues for the street car. But, there really is something to positive thinking. Through positive thoughts and faith that something greater than you is keeping this world together, life is very different and much better. Like that Italian movie, "Life is Beautiful"

Here is the actual second news: Luka is starting to crawl. His little positive attitude that he can do anything that his big brother can do--and an intense stare at the dump truck, led him right there! See the video: click here (9MB streaming, Windows Media)

AND the third news is the actual Channel 2 KATU news here in Portland. Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far. They interviewed the kids down at the Park, and Aleksei-our star- went up the the camera guy and shared his own thoughts. He got the last words in the news spot! "Splish, Splash, Splish" We have it recorded and will insert it here in this blog--but tomorrow, because it's not converted yet for the internet.

Ok, here is a copy of Aleks' news interview. (21MB streaming, Windows Media)