Cozy Winter Days

While playing in the snow is a winter highlight, this season is also good for staying inside and doing "projects" - and Christmas lends itself to a lot of traditions. We recently put up our tree and decorated it with lights, tinsel, a few photos, and some clay snowmen who survived from last year. (We have since started making new clay figurines but they're not painted yet.) The tree is small, but all the same it gives off a good holiday vibe, and the kids (and cats) love it. 

A week ago, I put one present each for Misha and Sebby under the tree. Amusingly, Sebby is convinced that the presents are for Santa to open for himself! He caught me wrapping one up, and he said, "I just want to see, one time! And Santa's gonna open it, yeah?" He put it under the tree for me and told Josh that it was for Santa. I pointed out the nametags, and now he's excited trying to read which one says "Sebby" and which one "Misha." He said, "Maybe there's krujki in there, or maybe some toys or balls!" (Maybe he saw more of it than I thought, because it is little cups for the bath.) Misha also put a gift under the tree - it's something he made for his cat. This weekend, I added two more small gifts with suckers taped on top. Sebby's sucker has long since disappeared from the package! (But at least he didn't unwrap anything, like last year.)

Misha and his constant companion.

A sweet smile from Sebby

A cozy glow. I almost deleted this one, and then I realized I rather liked it. 

Misha and I make a Christmas Countdown Calendar tree every year. Each door has a picture behind it, which Misha drew. He still loves waking up in the morning just to go open up the next door! 

So, let's look back through the years ....

2009 - age 4 - Brookings, SD

2010 - age 5 - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

2011 - age 6 - Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

2012 - ages 7 and 3 - Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Here is an up-close look at our fourth annual tree. Misha did almost the whole thing by himself this year. (When I asked him why the numbers run from left to right, he explained that when he taped the pictures on the back, he forgot to put them "backwards" relative to the front, and he really wanted the snowman picture to be the second day. So he numbered the snowman with a 2 anyway.)

Little doors opening up ....

We'll have to make another small calendar to countdown until New Year, because everyone here - Russian and Kyrgyz people alike -  open all of their presents on Dec. 31. The school holidays don't start until a few days before New Year's Eve, and so we also intend to celebrate on the 31st. This time, Sebby will have to help us with the calendar!

Another fun project is the hand-and-foot reindeer. The child's foot traced onto paper is the reindeer head, and the two hands become the antlers. "These are ants?" Sebby asked, as we traced his hands. 

"No, Sebby. They're ANT-EARS," Misha corrected knowingly. 

"Not ant-ears!" I explained. "Antlers!"

Big brother and little brother reindeer.

We also recently made a Clue game, looking online at the pictures of the board to guide us. I drew out a blueprint and added some furniture, and then Misha colored the whole thing beautifully. We made cards for the suspects, weapons, and rooms, printed out some detective sheets for taking notes, and were ready to play. Misha is now old enough to start to figure it out (though I remember how hard he tried even when he was 4 and 5).

Not too shabby!

Mr. Green, in the Library, with the Candlestick.

Making treats is always a great way to warm up the kitchen in winter. We have been making ....

peanut butter cookies

cream puffs

"pinwheel" cookies that don't look very spiraly

but they still taste good

and sushi!

We didn't use raw fish, though. Instead, we used our homemade salted salmon, along with carrots, cucumbers, scrambled egg, and sweet sushi rice that turned out great thanks to an internet recipe. I found the seaweed wraps in the store for a good price. We rolled them up, sliced them, and indulged with soy sauce. Misha immediately exclaimed, "Mom, these taste, like, REAL!"

Sebby was not a huge sushi fan, BUT, let me tell you, he is a banana-and-peanut-butter connoisseur.

More pictures of hanging out at home:

Misha made a blindfold-choose-your-prize game for me, Josh, and Sebby.

Pillow pose

Skyping with Grandma and Grandpa

Misha giving Sebby a Rubix cube lesson.

 And, of course, reading books. Sebby loves Where the Wild Things Are, and he can even "read" the book himself, getting the words almost perfectly right. He starts out perfectly: "The night Max wore his wolf suit and made MISCHIEF of one kind ... and another ...." (I doubt he knows what mischief is.) His voice drops to a whisper when he says, "In Max's room a forest grew ... and grew ... and grew .... and the ceiling all around!" (He just missed a couple of words!) He sounds so cute when he clearly pronounces, "He sailed off through night and day." Then he yells at the top of his lungs when he reaches: "Let the wild rumpus STAAAAART!" Sometimes we read this book four times a day. We also let the boys watch the Wild Things movie, which, to my surprise, they love. Sebby likes to tell me all about the movie with great dramatic detail.

All set with his Wild Things shirt and book.

Rumpus, rumpus, rumpus ...

More rumpusing

That very night in Max's room a forest grew....

Kid Talk: Sebby

Some more cute things that Sebby has said lately:

Sebby is still on his three-of-everything kick, even though he's pretty sure he's going to be four any time now. Just before Halloween, he said,  "Just three chips, OK? Because I'm not this one. (holding up four fingers) I'm three. (holding up 3) And then there's gonna be spring, and Santa Claus, and Halloween ... and then I'm gonna be four!"

A few days ago he was sitting down in the kitchen and he cried out,  “Mommy! It's tomato sauce!” I thought: oh no, he's discovered a bunch of dried sauce on the floor. But when we looked over, he was showing me how he was sitting, cross-legged style. "Oh, you mean criss-cross apple-sauce," I said, remembering how Misha had been teaching him that the past few days. :)

Watching the steam rise from our electric teapot, Sebby pointed and said, “Look! The wind is going up!” 

He knows what it means to be allowed to do something, or not allowed. He says it like this: "He doesn't loud to do that!"

Kid Talk: Russian and English

I bring to you more sayings I have collected where the kids use Russian words in their English sentences:

One morning, I asked Sebby if he wanted tea. He immediately replied, "I don't like tea!" I was surprised, and I asked, "But you drink tea every day at school, don't you?" Sebby said, "No, at school I only drink chai and compot!" Chai is, of course, the word for tea (in Russian, Kyrgyz, and many other languages) and compot is a diluted juice made from boiling dried fruit.

“Zapravitsa for the zanyatia!” - (tuck in your shirt for the lesson) Seb

“Where is my fonarik?” - (flashlight) Seb

“They're going to dratsa, they're going to show how to zashishatsa.” - (fight, defend) Misha, talking about his Ushu classes. Since the teacher uses martial arts vocab for certain moves and body parts (fist, heel, etc) these words come to Misha's mind first in Russian.

“I'm gonna be healthy from this yablaka!” - (apple) Sebby

“Apple! Carrot! Potato! That's angliski.” - (English) Sebby. I thought this was so funny. In their English lesson at school, they have been learning fruits and vegetables. Of course, these words are incredibly easy for Sebby, but since he studied them in school, he tells me proudly that these words are "angliski" words.

“At school we have such a sduti myach that you can step on it and your foot goes to the ground.” - (deflated ball) Misha. Misha's Russian is quite amazing! When he talks or sings songs or recites poems, other people tell me that he speaks chista - cleanly, without a hint of an accent.

“Zaftra can I have another chocolate prize?” - (Tomorrow) Sebby

“All of the dieti will have a chocolate toy!” - (children) Sebby

“First it goes to this storonu, and then it goes to the other storonu!” - (side) Sebby talking about a computer game, I think.

“Can you pull up my bruki and my kalgotki and my underwear?” (pants, tights) – Sebby

“Ni kak ni rabotaet!” - (It doesn't work at all!) Sebby fiddling with his toilet-paper-roll extending telescope.

Picking Sebby up from school recently, his teacher called out, “Sebby, ti vzyal perchatki?” (Did you take your gloves?"  Sebby answered immediately, "Da!" (yes), holding them up to show her.

One evening while collecting the pillows he had strewn around for his tent making, Sebby narrated, almost to himself: “Ya padushki podnimal, i palajil na kravatik!” (I picked up the pillows and put them on the bed) 

“I have to put on my mittens so they didn't got zamiorzli.” - (frozen) Sebby

Instead of the word "if," Sebby almost always uses the Russian word "ili," which means "either/or." (As in, Either you put your snowpants on, or you stay inside.)

“Ili I don't have a maika, my teacher says 'Ti chto golinki!'” - (or, undershirt, why are you naked!)  Sebby 

“Ili we don't say our stikh gromka, my teacher says Dyed Moroz won't bring us any padarki.” - (or, poem, loudly, Father Frost, presents) Sebby. When Sebby told me this, I said, "Your teacher said WHAT?"

All in all, despite some of their odd techniques for motivation, their  school is really wonderful. This past month all the classes offered "otkriti uroki," or open lessons in which the parents were invited to come and watch. It was fun to see Sebby doing shapes, numbers, and colors in his lesson:

Choo choo train: Sebby kept looking over and smiling at me.

Matching the shapes.

And Josh and I even learned something in Misha's lesson, which celebrated all they had learned about letters, as now they are moving onto reading real material. The lesson was called "Proshai, bukvar" - goodbye, letters. Misha and his classmates had to solve various puzzles about vowels, consonants, hard and soft sounds, and syllable-breakdowns, as well as recite skoro-gavorki (tonuge-twisters), proverbs, poems,  and demonstrate their reading ability of short texts. (By the end of first grade, they should be able to take any random never-before-seen text and read about 60 words a minute in Russian. From watching the children, Misha seems to be at the level of most of the others, which is quite satisfying!)

Proshai bukvar - goodbye, letters!

Misha with his classmates

Language puzzles completed!

Here is Misha and some other classmates reciting their poems at the end of the lesson. Misha's poem is something along the lines of: "Azbuka (ABC Book), first book of mine. How can I not love you? To stack together letters you taught me, pure happiness you gave me."

I love looking out the window to see snowflakes drifting down, as is the case right now. Happy holidays!