Russian Time

You would think, this being our third trip to Russia and being here 5 weeks this time now, that we'd be more tuned in to "Russian Time". Like when Andrew says "I'll call you in the morning…" that doesn't necessarily mean before noon – or even before 2pm! We waited around until 2pm but then headed outside for some outside time at the park as it was a warmer, sunny day… but more on that in a bit.

We all slept late this morning – I slept until after 8am and Brian and Nathan until almost 9am. So the whole day was a little behind schedule – not that that is bad tho! For breakfast I made "Dutch Pancake", otherwise known in our family as Krupsea. Nathan Genya liked it – ate it with apple jam today. A lot easier than regular pancakes also! We just fiddled around the morning, finally getting dressed about 11am. Then Genya and I made a "countdown chain" to when we'll get home. As we are on such an uncertain timeframe I didn't know how long to make it but decided longer than shorter – or else I might start getting really depressed! So there are 30-chains on it but we hope we don't need them all (can pull some off early as needed). He did very well with the scissors when I was having him cut some shapes out and enjoyed using the glue stick a lot. It was a fun activity to do together!

We ate lunch around 1pm – Genya had "3" hot dogs today, but no ketchup this time. We were eating leftovers so I had some of my "fried" chicken and the beef stew from the other night. I offered him the chicken but he emphatically said no to that! Maybe that was the food he was complaining about! LOL But he had an American lunch of hot dogs, chips and banana. The chips are a great bargaining tool – "drink your milk" or "no chips" – he gets that! Like I mentioned at 2pm we headed across the street to the park. There were two kids playing there with their grandmother and Genya told her something about going to America… he and the kids didn't really interact but when they were leaving I said to him "say da svidania" and he said it and started walking off with them! Talk about a learning moment…be careful what you say as he really isn't "aware" of what's happening I don't think… So then we told him in mixture of Russian and English to "stay with mama and papa!" Then an older man came by with a dog on a leash. Genya had to go tell him about going to America also and something about the dog… the man wanted him to hold the leash but he kept saying "no" but finally did. Genya likes dogs at a distance but as soon as they come close he gets scared and clings to one of us. Ah, too bad no dogs for now – LOL! We stopped at the store on the way back to the apartment to get ice cream…but once at the apt Genya wanted the one Brian had chosen so he willingly swapped. Apparently the one on the stick was more appealing to Genya!

Funny thing before going to the park… I had brought along a full face mask for him to wear if it was really cold. (Sidenote, yesterday when I put my scarf around my face Nathan called me a "bandit"). So today I showed him the facemask but he didn't want to put it on at first – but then did – and thought he was funny and called himself a bandit. So he wanted to wear that to the park but Brian took his regular hat along too. Once Genya saw there were kids at the park he wanted to change from the facemask to the hat! And later when we did leave the house for passport pictures he told Brian emphatically he didn't want the face mask but his regular hat! At night we figured out that "bandit" means "burglar" as he was telling us some story about bandits outside the window… we assured him that his daddy is very strong and will protect us…and that was the end of that fear for the night anyway.

So we had been back at the apt for a short time when Andrew finally did call. He and Alex came to take us to get Nathan Genya's passport picture. This was quite a ways away at a regular photography studio (like a Sears but tiny, tiny and up steep and slippery steps!). Much easier back home to get it done at any Walgreens! It didn't take long and his picture turned out really cute – he was able to smile for it! Then we went back home – Found out the citizenship stamp place was closed today and would be closed Monday also due to the holiday (Kate, thanks for all that info on it!) so we will be doing that stamping and the passport application all together on Wednesday. The passport office is only open on Mondays and Wednesday. Nathan Genya will get another picture taken Wednesday at the passport office – that is for the biometric chip in the international passport. No one has said anything about him being fingerprinted tho – isn't that what biometrics means? Well, we'll see I guess. I also found out that with these biometric passports Nathan Genya is actually the one making the application for it – not like the "old" ones where a parent makes the request for the passport… So Judy, we didn't have to get a pix taken today and that's why! Back at the apt Genya reluctantly took off his jeans again – but I keep telling him that's for when we go away (and he even got some mud on them today somehow in those 30-minutes but that should dry and brush off).

Brian then headed out to find some more Russian language DVDs for Nathan Genya to watch – there is no pattern to cartoons on TV and our other planned activities don't always take the time they should so he's watching way more TV than he should but he's in a "honeymoon period" until we get back to America! Brian got a Disney DVD and Madagascar 1 and 2 DVD.

Supper tonight was successful again. I made pork steaks in the oven – just plain, no seasonings. I had also made the Russian "New Year Salad" this morning – peas, carrots, potatoes, boiled egg, onion, apple all in mayonnaise… Genya ate it all along with MANY cooked carrots again. He eats them every chance he gets, and I gave him a few raw pieces today and he liked those too. Throughout the day he had enough yogurts also – those and bananas he could eat all day!

But the language thing, the "juice please"? -- whenever he wants anything he says "juice, please!. But I think it's starting to come a little bit – whenever he burps or toots now he'll say "enz-vee-neet-e" (excuse me) and when we do something for him he says "spasiba" – so it's not English but it's manners… We've been doing our "common table prayer" (come lord jesus…) at every meal at the table and do a break before the AMEN. Last night we paused and looked at him and he said something that started with an "A" but then said "nyet"… so we said "amen"… Tonight at dinner we did the pause, looked at him, and he said "AMEN"! And then, after we applauded him, said it again and again. So we'll see if he remembers it tomorrow! Tonight we played a few games of "War" with a deck of cards… Brian, Genya and I all were separate – we think he's played cards somewhere along the line as he knew the K,Q,J were worth more… (so we'd say – what are we going to play, Blackjack? Poker? Lol). Anyway when we were counting the cards after the game to see who had the most I was having Genya count with me – he said, "1, 2, 3, 4, 9" – well, you know where that comes from??? That play telephone of his, that's where!! He has that going all the time and it has a feature to learn your phone number and some other peoples – so I have our home number and Grandma/Grandpa's home number programmed – so the machine talks and says "here is your phone number…finish the number… 3,4,9…" – he's listening but just doesn't realize what he's saying! He also played with the letter/number toy we bought along today – where it says "find the letter "X" – then he and I would work on it. If he could see the letter he could match it up quite well. He played that for a long time today!

Bedtime was late for Genya again tonight but then he'll sleep longer in the morning! We watched the new Disney dvd and then did his rocking/singing again and he willingly went to sleep. That's going quite well now. We try to hold his bath off until after dinner each night – it's hard when it's "koo-pasa?" (take a bath) every 10-minutes it seems! Once we really start getting out of things to do he might be in there all day! Ha, ha

I told Brian tonight I'm going to have to start taking notes throughout the day so we remember everything to type about at night! At the time during the day we'll often say "we have to blog this!" but by 10pm I often forget those little things! They may come to me later.

So we have a few more days before we can do the passport application and then we have the wait for that to come back. We already decided we'll take the next plane out of here once we have that passport but of course we can't make those arrangements until we know when it's coming! Not certain how that all works but we know it will all work out…