Photos from the week

Brothers

He always wants to practice, you know, in case of an emergency.

Five minutes before this, in the bath, her hair reached well below the middle of her back.  And then... Sprong!  Sprang!  Spring!  Ringlets!

Happy cooking... like MamA, like BebEs (I believe that the Rubix Cube represented a muffin.)

Tightening up my form

And so, so tasty!

It's scarf weather!

What I've been hearing

Ty (to me this morning):  "Are you Tati?"  (That's my sister.)
Me: a confused look
Ty:  "No?  Are you MamA?  Tati's cute."
Me:  Yes, yes she is.

Girumy was making dinner conversation... talking about how he'd like to go to Colectivo with Tita and her friends (Boo and Ali).  "Tita will decide in which car we'll go."  Well, Ty chimed in, saying that he'd like to go as well.  G retorted, "Maybe when you're four and a half, I can let (!!!) Tita make a plan for you."

These are the lyrics to G's newest praise song, which I heard him singing during children-only play-time.  Mita was totally singing with him... somehow:

Praise he the Lord.
We want to obey you.
God is a beautiful Go-o-o-o-od.
We love Go-od!
He's alive!
Hallelujah!  Praise he the Lord!
He tells us what to do-oo, He tells us what to do-oo.
Go-o-o-o-o-o-od!  (Hitting every imaginable note, and some, while singing that last word.)

Upon taking a drink of the most delicious green tea kombucha, Ty said, "Oh, esto es la vida!"  I was astounded.  Where had he learned that?  "Jacinto!" said Ty.  Oh yes.  Jacinto, of the book Una vaca en el tejado. 

G's little striped foot against my back said, "I'll protect you, MamA.  I'll protect you from dying."  My sweet, sweet baby.

Five Minutes of Peace

We have a favorite book.  There is a mother elephant with three children.  The children are unruly and the poor mother wants five minutes' peace.  In the book the children are named... hm, I can't remember... because when I read, I change their names to Girum, Mita and Ty.

The mother tries to take her breakfast of toast and tea up to a calming bath, but the children follow her and say: 

"... I'm not a baby," said Ty.

Practicing my pasta...

... not because Africa needs me, but because I SERIOUSLY need Africa.

Bowties are my best form so far.  I will try penne this week.

Farrotto with mizuna pesto

And this is what they thought of it:

Ty had to finish his for breakfast this morning.  I think that it'll go over better next time.

Art?

Twin Love

G

G makes his grocery list: He went to the fridge, sounded and picked out the letters and then copied them.

Like all guitarists, or so it seems to me, the non-guitarist, he is very concerned about his cords and pedals.

Proud PapA

He began with the table, moved on to the chairs (which he declared were "disgusting") and kept going with the floor.  "Wahoo!" say I.

Mita

She ALWAYS pushes her sleeves up!  Early onset hot flashes, I guess.

She's in a "hair trance."

The Pilgrim's Progress

"For if at any time the pilgrims meet with any brunt, it is when they forget what favours they have received, and how unworthy they are of them."

The She-Rooster

So, somehow, one of our two remaining hens has learned to crow, although not clearly, thankfully, like the best of the Ethiopian roosters.  We can't handle it anymore.  Consequently, tonight Katelyn will don her green flannel and begin the preparations (ahem) for chicken soup... or chicken and slicks... or chicken whatever.  "So long, Ymo and Dotte!  And let this be a lesson to you, little Rhoda, Orpa, Ilka and Golda!"

Every autumn, I really miss Ukraine.

I arrived in Ukraine on the second or third of October in 2002.  Whoa!  So long ago.  Yet, every autumn, especially on mornings like this:

I really, really miss it.  I'll never forget those first chilly mornings.

I remember our first breakfast of bread, cucumbers, some cheese and an assortment of meats for those so inclined.  I was so happy to have hot tea after my freezing, but oh-so-necessary, pre-breakfast shower.  The dining room was exactly like the one in Everything is Illuminated, when the main kid asks for a potato without meat, only to be told that that was "impossible."  (I can't count the number of times that I was told the same.)

I remember walking to the library where our trainings were held, excited about and scared of the Russian language... happy to have my tall, warm boots and my pink leather gloves.  (Oh, so sad... I had a beautiful hot pink velvet bag to match; however a Lada, speeding through one of the ubiquitous mud puddles, shortly put an end to that bit of cheeriness in an otherwise drearier than dreary world.)

Hm... what a little chilly morning fog won't do, huh?

School-time

G has been interested in this activity only since he has figured out how to button a shirt that he is wearing.  I thought that it would be the other way around.

Thick fingers and dainty work

This is going SO SLOWLY... and we are only working with "a."  AH!! 

Matching.  Ordering.  And fine motoring.

He insists that rojo is "ga-ween."  Ay!

This is Mita's favorite activity lately.  I'm now extending it so that she learns the shapes' names now too.

Counting as high as today's date by moving the beads over with a chopstick.  So much fun!

"Would you like this carrot cake? Well, then..."

Tita, using her degree in Communications

Showering Mama LeighLeigh

 

Quiz time

"The little Dicky birds are named Val and Richie!  Ha!  Ha!  Ha!"



Gum-baby station



Yikes!

Hand-made hats!

What?

Getting a feel for the materials.

Uh... Mama LeighLeigh is in trouble.

And done!

So, Kelleigh, this is how...

Welcome Baby Dunham!

A study on Ty