Stay As Long As You Can

We have had a very busy long weekend here; Ian flew into town Friday afternoon and Matt met him at the airport, helped him get his things to the workers' bach and then brought him to our place for supper. Saturday morning Matt, Martin and Roman had their English Conversation class and then the rest of us (Ian, myself and the kids, and Larry and Judy, an American couple that were spending the weekend in town on their way to Kazakhstan) met them at the tram stop and headed to Nadya and Aleksei's for Matvei's 2nd Birthday Party. Nadya went all out with decorations and delicious traditional Russian foods, cakes and chocolate. It was quite the event!

Sunday morning was a large meeting by Russian standards; 3 workers, 6 additional adults, and 3 children! Ian stayed at Aleksei and Nadya's for lunch and Martin, Roman, Larry and Judy came back to our place for a simple lunch of chicken soup and Pelmeni (a traditional Russian dish, somewhat like Ravioli or Tortellini, with a meat mixture inside a pasta of sorts). After lunch we all dispersed for our afternoon naps, and then reconvened at the workers' bach for another meeting followed by tea and cookies.

Monday we had one last quick visit with Ian

before he departed for Almaty, and then we met up with Larry and Judy for some exploring the town. We braved the very crowded metro to downtown and found an awesome family restaurant complete with an extensive play area for children! Imagine a McDonald's play area combined with your local Children's Museum. They even had a live video feed so we could (theoretically) enjoy a meal in peace all the while keeping an eye on our children. After lunch we took a stroll through Central Park, where there are rickety old amusement park rides. It was a gorgeous 70 degree day, with the leaves golden on the birch trees. Finn and Lev earned a ride on their first Carousel, which they loved, and then we headed back to the metro and home. Finn fell asleep on Judy's lap in the metro!

This morning was our weekly study with Martin and Roman, and Larry and Judy were able to join us as well. Everyone stayed for more visiting and then lunch

and the long awaited apple pie and ice cream. The apple pie was even enough leverage to coax some proper nutrition into Finn. It was definitely worth all the effort! Shortly before 1pm a taxi arrived to take Larry and Judy to the airport. As they were leaving Larry said "We're so glad you are here. Stay as long as you can." Larry and Judy have been coming to Russia and Kazakhstan for 3 months every year to help out for the last 11 years. They are getting up in age and don't know if this might be their last time.

We are still trying to determine how long we will stay, and really, we don't have to decide now, but it would make it a lot easier to figure out what makes sense for trips home. Although the trip over here went better in some ways than I had expected, some aspects of it were terrible. Like Finn not sleeping really at all. And meals (getting thrown everywhere) on the airplane. And the how long it took for the kids to adjust to the time change. And then there is the expense; we budgeted 35% of our annual income just for plane tickets home every year! That's ridiculous! So anyway, if we stay for three years we probably should visit at least once, but if we are only staying for a year or two than it doesn't really make sense. And so, you can see why it would be nice to settle how long we plan to stay, but there are also so many variables (our health, our parents' and grandparents' health, job opportunities when we return, how well renting out our house goes, etc...) that even if we set a goal,

there is a good chance the plan will change. BUT, hearing Larry say what he did was still really good for me. All of the changes, particularly on the full-time mom front, have been hard. I know I should really appreciate having so much time with my family, but I just want some peace and quiet once in awhile. A clean kitchen would be really nice too. Oh, how I miss our kitchen in Duluth.

We do seem to be making some headway with Finn. He continues to test boundaries and we continue to be very firm with him, and I think it is getting a little bit better everyday. We are also getting somewhat of a routine established. Finn and Lev wake me around 7 and I brew a pot of coffee (we bought a coffeemaker!) and as soon as one of them gets unhappy they both go into the bathtub. That is when I get my 20 minutes of relative calm to drink my coffee and read. After that we have some breakfast, Matt usually gets up, and at the next sign of distress we head out to the playground. It is usually vacant at that time of the morning so the boys can each have a toddler swing and I can have a little bit more calm and relative quiet. Sometime between 10 and 11 Lev is ready for a nap so we head inside to put him down and then have some lunch. After lunch we fight with Finn until he naps, or if it is nice out we just go for a walk and keep him strapped into the stroller until he falls asleep. Lev seems to really enjoy some Finn-free time (we all do!) either pushing him around in the stroller outside, or playing independently with all the toys Finn won't share

with him. If we're lucky Finn will nap for an hour and a half and then it is back down to the playground to burn off more energy. Around 4 Lev is ready for a second nap so we head back inside to put him down and then get dinner started. We eat, play outside, and then the boys have another bath around 7 for as long as I can keep them contained in there. After baths we read a couple books and then fight with Finn to get him to sleep. This past week Matt has been experimenting with working from 8:30 until midnight every night and it has been really nice fore me anyway! Previously Matt was working 5 hours during the day every weekday so I tried to keep the boys busy and quiet any time we were inside, which just isn't easy to do. The new schedule seems to work much better; Matt can work in bed next to Finn while he falls asleep, so that takes a lot of pressure off how much time we "waste" trying to get him to sleep (he has mastered all of the typically toddler delay tactics, of course), also, Matt's coworkers are in the office during that time so they can all work a bit more efficiently, exchanging files and whatnot. I definitely appreciate having an extra adult around during the day as the cooking, cleaning, and keeping the kids alive tasks are all much easier accomplished.

So now, back to the topic; there is so much work to be done here and although we are still just getting accustomed to filling a more useful place, we are also in the business of recruiting visitors! We would love for any of you to come visit, and with any luck, Russia will find its way into your heart, and we can be the ones to say to you "We are so glad you are here. Stay as long as you can." Seriously, Americans have very easy access to the tourist visa, and we are the only country that can get visas for 3 years. So if you do come visit there is no excuse to not come back another time or two, and stay awhile!