Warpspeed

October, a combination of light speed and stillness. I have been living very full days and watching the kids developing at such a speed its dizzying. (Note to self, insert bon-i-fidee photo of the most dangerous predator on the block, long overdue thanks to the Holtys)

"mi nnme iz iiingo umtoa, hu hilld mi fdr, retr ttta di!" shhe shouted.

what was that Tanya? she repeats with emphases, frustrated that I didn't get the joke. Urged on by her siblings, we repeats again (and again...) and at last it hits me.

Tanya, its "Prepare to die, pre-pair-too-die"

We had watched "the Princess Bride" over the weekend, and that, combined with a trip to the Maryland Renaissance Festival had inspired a few hours of daring doo and sword fights. We had three Inigo Montoyas running around challenging us to duels for over a week.

We made a short day of the Ren Festival but the kids did great and Masha enjoyed it too. Next year we shall try to put some costumes together for a longer adventure. I have found it easier to present them with the new experience like this, I had thought of building it up over days with picture books and the like, but the language is still a bit daunting and there are soo many obscure angles to try to explain it was easier to say, "yep, that's the way the dress 'round here" and give them a turkey leg.

Inigo Montoya, and his taste for revenge have only been out weighed by the impact of three Swedes and a Norwegian. We had a movie night a few weeks ago and watched ABBA's Momma Mia. They can now parrot all 16 tracks on the cast album I dug out of the closet from when Heidi and I saw the show in London on stage.

We also made a couple trips to Rock Creek Park for some creek playtime, rock hopping and boat floating before the ice sets in for the winter. (and for you NCIS fans, we did not see Ziva, DiNozzo, Abby or any scene tape.)

And last, but not least, the newest adoptee in the family, Chi Chi! she is a 9 year old terrier mix who is a hoot to watch bouncing up and down the stairs at the house. She puts up with the kids just fine and Masha took to her at first lick.

Wow, does time fly! School started and away we go! I have been a very bad blogger! Heidi has been getting complaints on Facebook about my slackerness! (Thanks Jana!)

Hardly a weekend goes by without a adventure, last weekend was face painting at the H Street Open House, this weekend it was petting zoo time at the Oktoberfest on Barracks Row (Marine Barracks Washington)

Update from Heidi:

If you haven't checked the blog lately - the kids are doing well. Still going through a lot of changes and developments on a daily basis but they are coming along and so are we as parents!

Sasha is in the 4th grade and participates in an after school dance class on M,W, and Fridays and is on the same soccer team that he played on last spring. The soccer team practices on Tues nights and plays games on Saturday mornings.

Christina is in the third grade and has soccer practices on Wednesday nights and games on Saturday mornings. She will also start to participate in Girl Scouts on every other Friday afternoon after school. Her and I are also starting to work together on Monday nights to serve a dinner meal to a church group of adults for a new beginner group called Alpha. We went to the training night of which was introductions for the leaders of all Alpha groups and the meal prep folks and we stayed the 1.5 hours of the meeting vs what I thought we might only stay for a half hour. She proved to enjoy it and our time walking there and back as it is near our home was very promising in a Mom and daughter outing that went well. This is a ten week class that I hope we will continue to do well at.

Tanya is in the 1st grade and enjoys it. Because she showed little interest in soccer practice last spring we are not gonna push getting to 3 practices and 3 games in different locations on Sat am so Tanya is not participating in Soccer. Unfortunately being the youngest she gets dragged along to the practices and someones game but there is a playground and other kids that often help that out. Tanya will also participate in Girl Scouts every other Friday after school starting soon. And we started her in on a pre-ballet class (it is a 5 year old class) but it is at her speed of learning and so far so good. We are getting ready to place her in a speech therapy class as her words were hard to understand in Russian and it is following over in to English too.

All in all the kids are doing well!

Erik and I are hopeful that they will continue to grow and develop well! Their care towards one another is good - with the occasional (ok daily) fights among one another that really is simply the whole sibling thing. They also tend to be jealous of one another but are sort of learning to get over that (ok, wishful thinking on my part)... We continue to have Masha (an official Au Pair last year with us from Dec 08 - June 09) and now we are sponsoring her as a student at our home. She provides help for us to listen for Russian phrases especially those that need to be watched (bad words and conversations of concern). She also has allowed Erik and I to get out weekly and be a couple and re-group to maintain our relationship strong. This has been very helpful. We lost our last elderly pet (Ajo, our 16 year old Aussie Shepherd) in August. It was a hard one for me as I had her for 15 plus years. The kids saw the loss and what Ajo meant to me and still to this day thank God for Ajo every night at our dinner prayer. We haven't gotten a new pet yet but may at some point (just hard to match the right pet to all of us) - and no hurry yet! Thanks for your time and support to our new family! Blessings to you all and to your families as well!

Regards! -Heidi

Shout out!

A quick shout out to Mikes & Sarah's mom out west! always Glad to have a fan out there!

Well, I think the kids dentist is from New Jersey.... she sent one of Christina's molars "to the tooth fairy" today. What a little trooper she is (with rotten teeth). More to follow...

Ahoy Matey!

So after Sasha and Christina's trips with Pa and Ma, Tanya was not feeling the Love. so Heidi came up with a clever solution. She took Tanya on a special half day escape to Annapolis and a Harbor Cruise to make her feel special too. Of course she dominated the scene.

Sanity Break for three please....

So, big kid sanity has been an objective in August. Masha took advantage of the tennis courts at Turkey Thicket rec center where the kids had their last summer camps to brush up her skills and challenge Heidi to a grudge match.

Well, Heidi and I snuck out this last weekend to go to a scooter rally in Harrisburg PA. So the responsible adult in the household (Masha) took the kids back to Baltimore to adventure at Port Discovery. The kids played with, in around ad in a world of carefully designed educational experiences.

Us grown ups rode 388 miles on our scooters and participated in age appropriate experiences like paint ball jousting and Heidi unsuccessfully defended her Gymkhana title from last year. She was quite a celebrity on the day of the big match. She did a great job and we had a great time. the kids where happy to see us when we puttered into the back yard on Sunday. thanks Masha, for the moments of sanity.

Erik

Bowling and Bolling for Happy Birthday-day

Wow, where did the summer go! The chips are working to an amusing degree. It was all funny funny 'till we counted out the chips at the end of the week and and passed out the awards and Tanya failed to have enough blue chips. What an early life crisis!

The Birthday weekend weekend was a great success, or Happy birthday-day as the kids say. Sasha and Christina had make up birthdays ( their American Birthdays have been adjusted to July). July was a bizzy month so we exercised a parental prerogative and picked a more convenient date for us big kids, in August.

We rounded up several kids of the their acquaintance and convoyed over to Bolling Air Force Base bowing center. We descended on them like locusts on wheat. Three lanes of ball rolling excitement. Chase and Christina pause between frames and Sasha and Tanya confer over balls with fellow revelers.

Let the chips fall where they may!

Well, when I looked it up, the line is actually referring to chopping wood, but...

We have started a little experiment, the poker chip game. Good job, the old ata boy/girl, you get a blue Chip. You can guess that the red chips serve as the Ahhh Sh*t chip. It amazes me what a 8 year old will do to get a blue chip or avoid the dreaded red chip.

We have already established a Monday change over on chores and seat assignments in the car. So Sunday night is the final tally for the week. Sasha and Tanya ended up with one more blue than red ones. Christina had her own economy going with Heidi, so we did not have a accurate exchange rate to compare. We shall see how this behavior modification/economics lesson will go.

And what a weekend it was. This weekend was Heidi's trip to the Minnesota with Christina for Gam's Birthday (Heidi's grandmother). A group photo shows the get together with Ben, Heidi's Brother Harry's son; Stephine, Heidi's Brother Jerry's Daughter; Dawn, Heidi's Mom; Mellisa, Heidi's late brother Ed's daughter; in the front row Ed (EJ) Mellisa's brother; Christina our Daughter; Gam, and Maxim Jerry and Karen's new son.

Christina and Maxim had a great time exploring the Minnesota at the lake shore with an afternoon of canoes, paddle boats, jet skis and party games. of course there was the cake part, always a plus. Their parting was a good one, their second time together since their arrival in the States. This was a great opportunity to meet more family than they have had in the last three years. maxim returned to his new home with Jerry and Karen. Christina returned with Mama to Minneapolis to her Grandmothers house (Not Babushka as much these days).

Now us here in DC, the rest of us have to keep ourselves busy, so it was off to the new "National Harbor" development. think a mall/hotel with a place to park your 50 foot yacht. Today we packed Masha into the car after church and headed off to Baltimore to explore Pory Discovery on Market street including a three story climbing playground. We wrapped up the day with a Dragon Paddle Cruise of the inner harbor. Pedal, pedal pedal (by the way, 30 min is plenty of time with kids aboard, matey)

In bed by 1000, and Heidi is due Monday night, thank God!

Love to all,

Papa, pedal, Papa!