Machine guns...

Vlady was talking to a coordinator named Irina this afternoon. Irina told us that he told her that he is going to learn to speak English in America, and then he asked her if they have machine guns there!!! Rich said “not in our house.” I’ll need to add 1 machine gun to the Target baby registry when we get back….hehe. So today was a good day. Vlady is practicing snapping his fingers. Rich showed him how and ever since he has been practicing and he is almost getting it. 1 out of 4 attempts we’ll hear a slight snap. He’ll be snapping all the way home…which is fine with me…anything to keep him busy. He also is enjoying coloring in his coloring book. He takes his time and will color in one character in one color, and then the next character in another color. He is very proud and loves to show us his finished project. They love Pringles chips. They both know how to say chips…they say it like “cheaps.” It’s cute. Today we went out for a walk to the market to pick up some foods for a picnic down by the water. I got a poppyseed roll, two onion buns, cheese breadsticks, yogurt bars, and juice boxes and two ice teas. This was the only finger foods I could find there but we did enjoy everything. The poppyseed roll was dry and in no way compared to Mom’s famous rolls – Mom baked better nut/poppyseed rolls than anyone in the entire world- it’s a fact now! We didn’t get to eat much of the poppyseed roll anyway because a bee landed on my hand that I had the poppyseed roll in and I screamed and flung my hand to get the bee off and the roll went flying through the air…Vlady and Alex were startled and just stared at me – I said it was a bee!!! Later the bee came back and they realized why I acted like that! So we scattered the poppyseed roll on the ground for the birds (and ants). Our first attempt to eat in the picnic area gazebos by the bay was interrupted by a drunk Russian man that we think was asking us for money or trying to kick us out of the gazebo picnic thing. We couldn’t understand him and Rich kept saying “is it okay to eat here?” The man wouldn’t leave. Vlady was telling the man that he is five years old, that his brother is 3 and that his parents were really old…(he spreads out his hands to show how old we are kind of like “the fish was this big”). The man is amused by Vlady but still not leaving…now two other men are starting to walk toward us…I said Rich let’s leave and he agreed. We threw everything back into the bag and off we went in search of another picnic spot. We went next door to the old amusement park area and made our first family picnic on a bench near the old, rusty “cyclone” ride…(Becky and Josie it was like the ride that we went on at Idlewild that spins you and you stick to the back!). We then walked back to the hotel, and played in the front foyer area. Then went back to the room to have the boys lay down to sleep or play quietly for an hour in their room. When we got back to the room, Vlady asked us for a koset (for lunch/snack). Usually after our mid morning walk we come back and have lunch but this time we had a picnic lunch and Vlady couldn’t understand this…he is so structured. We tried to explain that we ate lunch down by the water! While the boys were playing in their room, I ran back out to walk again to the market to get some groceries that should carry us through to Friday. Tomorrow night we are going to the nice restaurant in the hotel (wish us luck). Tomorrow for lunch I think we are going to go on another picnic…it’s kind of nice to get out and do normal things. We may go and eat in a gazebo right by the hotel. We are still trying to get a good picture of the squirrel/rabbit…the one time we forgot the camera on our walk the beealki (squirrel) was putting on a show out front. Hopefully, we’ll see him again. Katie – yes, we got a matrushka doll for you yesterday!!! I’ll send it out when we get back. If you could email me your address at some point – thanks. Also, yes, I was very disturbed that the whales were captive. Rich thought that maybe they could swim out and back but no..they were captive. At first we thought they were dolphins from a distance and then got closer. The whales were soooo intelligent..just like dolphins. The man who was the trainer that took the pictures was giving them all kinds of hand signals and they would perform. I was quiet as we walked away and Rich knew I was really bothered by them having to spend their lives in an enclosed area just so we could see them up close and say “aw how cute” and then leave. I hope they have their freedom one day. Pano and Sperry, sounds like you had a great Easter – 4 a.m.!!! WOW – way to pull an Easter all nighter! We will definitely have to write down what we have been told already and a few things that Vlady told the coordinator. Good idea…they are fresh in our minds now but afer 6 months we will forget and that’s not fair to the boys. Nina and Gary any word yet? Cyndie – thanks for the invite to your pool- I’m sure the boys will love it! And to have Kobe and Jotsi running around too (minus the ka kat on your entry floor next time!). Okay, off to drink some seltzer water (I accidentally bought it rather than spring water). 2 ½ days to go – yippee !!!!! California here we come, right back where we started from!!! We love you !! Jayne, Rich, Vlady, Alex and Jotsi