Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Josiah Wants Open Stomach Surgery

Josiah loves to play with his Legos Star Wars pieces!! He loves to put them in peculiar situations. Often times I hear Josiah screaming "MOM" and I come running into the room only to realize that his Storm Troopers are carrying on some sort of conversation with their mother. Often times the Storm Troopers take on Batman or the Transformers or any other toy Josiah can find. But, one of his favorite things to do is to take the Storm Troopers apart. Some parts of the Storm Troopers don't come off very easily so he often pulls them apart with his teeth.

Today we had a very tragic event take place in our home. As I was getting dinner ready I heard one of Josiah's infamous meltdowns. Now that he is older they don't happen as often but today was an exception. He was distraught and I could hear him coughing and crying and screaming about something. At first I thought that maybe Nathan did something to him but as I got to the room he was crouched over in utter despair. He kept mumbling something to me and I couldn't make it out. At first it sounded like he was saying "sharp". I got him to calm down enough to tell me what had happened and then he told me "I swallowed his arm..........bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa". He was totally inconsolable. I was trying really hard not to laugh. He then went on to tell me that we had to go to California so that he could go to the hospital and have his stomach cut open so that Dr. Tamashiro (his pediatrician) could take the arm out. Eventually he did calm down and I used the opportunity to tell him the consequences of our sin. You see, often times - well more like a million times- I tell him that it is not a good idea to bite the pieces off his Storm Troopers. I tell him that the pieces can get ruined or that his teeth can crack. I never thought of him actually swallowing a piece!!! What happened this afternoon in a sense was a consequence of his disobedience.

Tonight before going to bed he asked me to hit his back hard so that he could throw up the arm. Then he asked me if I could cut his stomach open to take the piece out. There is one possible way we can get the arm back but I haven't mentioned it because I'm not quite sure if I want to go there.

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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Temporarily Closed

Due to the Swine Flu this blog will be temporarily closed. Seriously the schools here are closing down and the boy's Russian School's director called me last night to notify me that they have cancelled the next two sessions and possibly more. We haven't been doing much of anything. I'm waiting for the snow to fall to get some snow pix of the boys. I'm thinking since Christmas is right around the corner I could do some posts of Christmas past. Or maybe I could "really" blog and post some meaningful stuff on here. We'll see, I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Meanwhile, this is a picture of a pig at Underwood Farms. We took the boys and my niece Madison there this summer. Madison said she didn't want to get close to the pig because she didn't want to get the Swine Flu.
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Saturday, November 21, 2009

Night Time Routine

Every night before going to bed Jon reads Josiah a book. Then we all take turns praying before brushing teeth and then off to bed. But........Nathan seems to go wild during these times. I try my best to keep him out of the room so that Jon and Josiah can have special time together but he sometimes manages to break free.
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He can be such a little MONKEY sometimes!!!!
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Sunday, November 15, 2009

Another Silly Answer

The other day I asked Josiah from his Bible Q and A book:
"How did God create Eve?".


He answered:
"From Adam's robes"!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

The Big Autumn Show

I posted before how we have Josiah and Nathan in a sort of Russian School through the central church here in Samara. On October 31 they had a big "prazdneek" or festival to celebrate Fall. The boys had to learn songs in Russian which Josiah only was able to learn the chorus of his song "dos vidanya osen" or good-bye Fall. The funny thing is that now whenever he says the formal good-bye to an adult he tells them "dos vidanya osen".........what a silly boy.

Here is Josiah performing his song. It cracks me up that every kid is doing a different motion. Above Josiah is Nahum, on the left is Isaac and on the right is Alisha (the children of the other missionary families we minister with).
Performers

I don't know this kid's name but I love his outfit....it's so retro!!!
Love his outfit

The teachers put on a play. It was really cute even though I didn't totally understand it. I think the fruits needed water.......whatever, it was just comical to see them all dressed up and the kids loved it.
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Here are my two cuties. Nathan was supposed to get on stage and "sing" his song but he was being super stubborn and chose to sit this one out. Oh well, maybe for the Christmas prazdneek he'll cooperate.
Jojo and Nathan

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Borscht Soup

As a part of Jon's homework he was supposed to make Borscht soup. It really turned out to be my "homework". He did help me chop some veggies. He also translated the recipe the teacher gave him. It turned out pretty good. It reminded me of a stew...although I'm not sure if that is what it was supposed to be like. I'm not a big fan of Russian cuisine and this was my first attempt.
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Monday, November 9, 2009

The Holy Spirit

Josiah is memorizing answers to Bible questions (sort of like a Catechism). As we were reviewing today I asked him "Who are the three persons in the One God?"
He answered: "The Father, the Son, and what's the name of that other guy?"

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Halloween

No trick or treating in Russia! This was our second annual get together with the Moorheads on Halloween. It is just fun to have something for the kids to look forward to.

Josiah as Spiderman
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Nathan as a lion.
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Decorating pumpkins before daddy and Uncle Jonathan arrive with dinner.
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Yummy, McDonalds!
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Myriam enjoying some Halloween sugar cookies.
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Jonas or Jesse enjoying a cookie........I never know who's who!
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Just in case you're wondering.....it's a Clone Trooper!!
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Wednesday, November 4, 2009