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.

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".

After School Rocket Ship

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!

Veloportation issue, Vol. 2

All right, you people do have some groundbreaking convincing ideas about transportation to school. Fine, bicycling will be postponed until Niki is capable of riding safely without the car seat. In stead they will walk, well sort of. But, to all of you suggesting walking option - walking with three little boys, despite their Russian-ness, is hard, actually, it is nearly impossible. Children of two and a half years old don't walk a mile each way two times a day, that's 4 miles - just to clear this right away. Children of 5 years old can do this, but they will be wasted by the time they get to school. Besides, Jen would
have to start walking at least an hour before school. Anyway, forget it - walking as you, guys, suggest is not going to work.

The thinking was on the right track, however.

Here is what we decided to do:
Jen will push the trailer.
Niki and Luka go into the trailer that we already have, while Alyosha would have to walk some. They will board the tram (streetcar) without bicycle right from our building. The tram would take them two thirds of the way and then Alyosha and Jen walk with the trailer to school. The same way home.

Thank you all for ideas.

Photo: Amy Vitale, National Geographic

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!

Kids and School

Our neighborhood has a pretty new children's community center. One woman got a grant from some place and now she has organized a community of over 200 people who have families in the Pearl District and we do all kinds of activities. Sometimes Roma takes them, sometimes I do. Roma has school on Monday afternoons and I take the kids to open gym play. Usually there are about 20 kids, 10 mom's and 1 Dad. The older kids swarm the dad because he is the only one kicking the soccer ball or shooting the basketball. Luka stays between me and the big kids because he wants to be with them, but can't quite keep up. Alyosha is so good at trying to include him--only until he forgets to because Jack (a 6 year old) wants to race him across the gym.

Between bobo's and potty breaks, I get a chance to talk to the other Moms because the kids are so occupied. The Pearl District was built with diversity in mind. There are million dollar condos alongside income restricted apartments and private organic grocerers down the street from the regular grocery store. Families idea of how to best educate your kid is just as diverse as the economics--except for one thing, all of these families are doing everything they think they should to make their kids outstanding. Some of the parents have their kids in $1,000 a month preschools where they are learning to speak Chinese. Others pay $700 for a child led preschool where the kid, individually, chooses what he wants to learn and the teacher facilitates. There are a few parents who do home preschooling like we do; OMSI, Nature and Music School, Zoo Scope and other activities that are going on around the city. We are lucky to have a great community to work with in Portland.

However, I definitely don't think that my kids are at a disadvantage because we don't send them to $1,000 preschools (or can't afford to!!) It is up to Roma and I and how creative we can be as parents. The most important thing I want my kids education to give is to have passion in their minds; who cares what they can or cant have or how many different private lessons they go to. If your children suffer because of what you financially cannot give them, then they will always suffer because money can't buy the most important things.