Catechism and Kisses

Here's what you may or may not be able to hear on this video, but the pictures themselves are just too sweet to pass up sharing with everyone.

M:  Can you say hi?

I:  Hi!

M:  Say, Dada

I:  Dada

M:  Can you tell him who made you?

I:  God (Mama confirms this, "God")

M:  What else did God make?

I:  All things.

M:  Very good!  For what purpose did God make you and all things?

I:  All things.

M:  For

I:  Dor (for)

M:  His...say his....own.....glory

I:  Glory

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

To Help You Understand

Thomas wrote a great post about paperwork here in Russia.  To read it and have a good chuckle, check out siberiangrits, our family ministry website.

And thank you for all the suggestions so far about what to do with my material, keep them coming; I'll let you know when I start cutting!

I Need Your Help!

My sweet husband brought me some gorgeous silk from Tuva.   Now I'm itching to do something with this vibrant red material sewn with green, blue and gold embroidery, but I'm coming up empty.  I've looked at patterns online, but nothing is really striking me.  So here's where you come in!  Please give me suggestions for how to use this material!  The pictures below don't do it justice!

And, by the way, I have 4 meters, so don't be shy with your suggestions!

NOT HAPPY!

The majority of the time, Isaiah is an extremely happy little man.  Lately he's been showing his happiness by blowing kisses to anything that moves and some things that don't.  However, on occasion, he has been known to be quite not happy, as evidenced below.

Here he's reverting to behavior from the summer that we thought we had passed--baths are torture!

And here he's doing therapy, not the source of the current not happy state.  The source?  We were talking to Grandma on Skype and we lost our connection.  This expression is communicating something like, "Where's Grandma?  I want my Grandma!"

So, now you have verifiable proof; he's not happy 100% of the time, only about 97%.  Well, and in all honesty, he is beginning to realize the difference between getting what he wants and not getting what he wants, which has also produced some tears.  As one of my friends says, "It's hard to submit your will."

HAPPY!

But here he shows his happiness again, with the help of Bob and Larry.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What's The Hardest Thing?

That's another question that comes up a lot from people at home, "What's the hardest thing about living in St. Petersburg?".

So here's my somewhat convoluted answer:

At different times different things are hard.  Without doubt the whole language thing is a doozy (or however you spell that).  But other than that obvious one, which has plenty of stories on its own, there are a few other difficult things.  I don't know that I can narrow it down to THE HARDEST thing of all, but here are a few, in no particular order:

• Weather--when it's beautiful in St. P, it's really beautiful, but when it's not, it's really not!  This difficulty took me by surprise, which might have increased the trouble I had with it last year.  This year I have been more prepared mentally for the increased clouds and days and days without sun, but the weather still takes its toll.  For instance, already the sun isn't very visible until after 8am, and that's on a sunny day; if it's a cloudy day the sky just becomes a slightly lighter shade of gray until it returns to darkness that evening.  Getting up in that darkness is difficult because you think, "Surely it's not 6:30 already!".  And there's something about the pressure changes here that literally make your head swimmy and bring on more headaches than I recall having in the States.
• Loneliness--this one also isn't quite as bad as last year because now I have several more friends.  Those of you have have moved to a new place where you knew virtually no one can relate to this, I'm sure; but then add to that the inability to actually talk to anyone because you have no idea what they are saying and you can't be understood either, and you can more fully understand the loneliness that can occur here.  But as I said, it's much better now than last year!
• Church--yes, this might surprise you, but going to church has been hard for me.  Again the language factor plays a huge part here.  As my understanding of Russian increases, so does my desire to go to church; but this has been a big struggle for me.  Thank God for iTunes and podcasts!
• Transportation--in some ways this isn't too bad; I enjoy all the walking that we do; however, as Isaiah gets bigger and heavier, this has been a bit more of a challenge, so I thought I'd go ahead and add it to the list.  Russia has just about zero comprehension of what "handicap accessible" means, which also effects young children until they can walk.

So, there's a long answer to what might be thought a simple question.  And just so you know, the difficulties definitely don't outweigh the joy of living here with my family.  I get to learn a new language, provide my child with the knowledge of  a different culture, and best of all know that I'm following God's calling for my life as a wife and mother living in a foreign land.

And by the way, if you have any questions that you'd like answered, whether they're about Russia or anything else for that matter, please feel free to ask them in the comment section or to email me at theslawsons (at) siberiangrits (dot) com.

More Sewing Projects

Once again sewing has been helpful for me--seeing something completed can be very therapeutic!

Here is our devan with the new cover that I made for the back, seat area and arm covers.  Pillows from IKEA, actually the cover is a sheet from IKEA, too.

Isaiah's curtains made from material from Russia and America.  You just can't see the American material because it's the lining, but it's wonderful because it makes his room nice and dark!

The curtain rods here are a little different.  Since I didn't want to take these rods off the wall, I decided to make loops and button holes in order to hang his curtains.  There are 10 beautiful blue buttons that it took me weeks to find.  Apparently buying buttons in bulk isn't often done here.  But at last I prevailed!

'Til it Hurts

You can do lots of things that hurt, but this is my favorite thing to do until it hurts!

Winter Nights

Tonight felt like a winter night, only from Mississippi, not St. Petersburg.  Just thought I'd let you know.

And on this Mississippish wintry night, Thomas, Isaiah and I saw something we've never seen before in Russia--a tent sale.  Yes, that's right, there was an actual tent and everything!  The sale was at Санта Хаус, which incidentally is the Russian equivalent of Bed Bath and Beyond.  The store just lacks some of the appliances and such.  But being the wannabe bargain hunters that we are, we bought a little something that gives us hope of spring--a picnic backpack complete with cooler compartment and plates and utensils and cups and cloth napkins and everything!  Yea!  With the weather getting grayer and grayer, we felt excited to think about sun and picnics and being outdoors.  What can I say, we're dreamers!

While Thomas Was Away...

...how we did play!

Isaiah sat up on his bottom all by himself while playing with these drums!  This is something we've been working on for a while--getting from tummy to bottom--so naturally I grabbed the camera as quickly as I could!

Oksana and Slava came to play on Tuesday.

Slava played the piano for the first time.

He also ate a peanut puff by himself--his first time to feed himself something!  My apartment is good for him.

Wednesday Isaiah and I had an outing to IKEA where I found some great markers.  We went home and had a little art lesson.

Isaiah decided that paper wasn't his only medium, faces work well too.  (don't worry, it does wash off, eventually)

Since he needed a bath anyway after all that fantastic drawing, I decided he should have a hair cut, too.  And I really like this picture; he looks so grown up to me!

Then Thursday I had my lesson, so Isaiah got to play with Julia.  Friday we cleaned and cleaned and got to spend the evening with our friend Deanna.  Saturday we went to a Bible study, yes a Russian study!  And Sunday morning our guests arrived, and then Thomas arrived that evening.  We were really, really glad to see him!

Come Sail Away

Hardly anyone I know has fond memories of the "coil" toys in the parks of their childhood.  I don't even really remember them actually.  Isaiah however really likes them.  And now I like them, too because it's something that he can do all by himself!  There's a small play area not far from our apartment that has a little ship that Isaiah enjoys playing on.

Watching a little boy go down the nearby slide

Looking longingly at a passing car.  I think he misses riding in cars from this summer.

Feeding the Ducks

Our park has a good size lake where ducks like to swim and be fed.  I finally remembered to bring bread with us one day so Isaiah and I could feed them, too.  Isaiah even enjoyed throwing some bread around.  It was a bright, sunny day, so the pictures are a little washed out, but you get the general idea.  I like moments like this, so I wanted to share it.

I think here he was actually laughing at a little girl nearby.  Actually, he was much more interested in her than in feeding the ducks--oh boy!

Summer Garden

Isaiah and I had the great pleasure of spending an afternoon with our friend Deanna.  She introduced us to the Summer Garden where Peter the Great had his little house built.  I forgot to take a picture of the house, but it really isn't anything special.  I plan on going back to this beautiful place, and then I'll do my best to remember to get a picture.

Anyway, this is now one of my favorite places in St. P!

The trees were beautiful and still so full that you really had the feeling of not being in a big city.

Here's Deanna snapping some shots of Isaiah

The custom here in the fall is for people to collect leaves and make a wreath to wear or to just carry them around.  Isaiah doesn't like this tradition.  He might look like he's smiling here, but he's not.  The expression was actually communicating, "What are these things?"

"Get these things off of me!"

"Yuck!"

But I still think that they're pretty.

Happy minus the leaves

My Brave Little Man

Praise God, it's been a long time since Isaiah has had any blood drawn, until last week, that is.  We all had to have AIDS/HIV tests for our official student visas that we're supposed to get by next month, and that "we" included Isaiah this time.

For some reason I didn't even think to "prepare" Isaiah for getting blood drawn, probably because I kept forgetting we were going.  But he did great!  He started to look a little concerned, and his legs jerked slightly when the nurse put the needle in his arm, but that was it.  No tears or even whimpers!  And he proudly wore his band-aid the rest of the day.

We Will Find a Way!

Isaiah loves going to the playground, as you've already seen no doubt.  For a while he wanted to watch the other kids play, or he contented himself playing in the sandbox.  Now however, he wants in on the action more and more. This has been an interesting stage for us in many ways.  I've tried to find ways to help Isaiah do as much as possible on his own.  

I've been working with Isaiah to try to do a few specific new things, and at last he decided he was ready.  Here's Isaiah doing something all by himself!  (it's only about 5 seconds, so maybe it won't take too long to load, WN--we love you!)

In case it's not as clear to you as it is to me, since I was there and taking the video, what Isaiah's doing is holding himself in place until he's ready, and then he pushes himself down the slide.  The arm you see is simply my friend, Oksana keeping him in place so I would have time to run around to the top of the slide in order to take the video.

Beautiful Fall Day

Every day Isaiah and I enjoy spending some time in our park.  I was so excited to see the trees beginning to wear their new colors recently.  The weather can change in a moment in St. P, so I was thankful that we had good weather to do a little Fall Photo Shoot to capture the beauty that we get to enjoy and then share it with you all.

I'm not sure why, but Isaiah really enjoys getting out of the stroller and sitting on these benches throughout the park.

Of course I don't do these trees justice in pictures.  In person the sunshine makes the golden leaves glow.

Red leaves are rare in St. P for some reason, so this tree is my favorite.

And it makes the perfect backdrop for my Little Man.

And he likes to pose...

Happy Fall my friends!

Fall Returns

When we first returned, we thought that we had missed out on the "Grandmother's Summer" often enjoyed in Russia, but we did get to experience a few of those fairly warm, sunny days after all.

Now it's definitely fall with a little bit of winter thrown in every now and then.  I hesitated to change the header of the amazing McDorman Photo of Isaiah, but I wanted to show everyone the prettiness of fall in St. Petersburg for a little while.  More to come, since Isaiah and I did a little "fall photo shoot", I just don't have time right now.