week sixteen

I can't decide this week.

This one gets the sentimental vote.
I wish we could take the doorjamb with us when we eventually move.

This one cracks me up--especially considering we're in RUSSIA
where on-street parking is just as likely to be on-sidewalk parking.

The little man says, "YOU are correctly parked?"

week fifteen

Star Wars flashback! (If you even thought "Which Star Wars?" I have no idea why you read my blogs. There's only one.)

Here's my little jawa at the Vienna zoo.

It was so cold and rainy she put on my grey poncho over her raincoat...and her own grey hooded sweater. Two hoods, during lunch, at least, were better than one.

week fourteen

This is a contented girl.

She's in a cami because we had spaghetti for dinner, which is her current favorite. She's wearing a twirly skirt sent from a friend in England and boots from a friend in the US. Both of them are new to her and still a little big--but great for being a cowgirl.

On her lap is the last last, huge, piece of carrot cake from Easter.

She's enjoying the nearly-unheard-of treat of eating in the living room. She asked for a picnic and then settled herself in our monster of a couch--which is incredibly comfortable.

(My camera with no flash is always blurry despite breath-holding and bracing.)

After eating all that cake she looked at me and asked, "Is your tummy a little sick? Do you have to bleh?" I admit to laughing at her and saying that my tummy was fine. I asked if she needed to throw up and she indignantly told me, "No! I don't need to throw up!...Maybe I need to lie down." She proceeded to carefully do so and then asked, "Will you get the bowl?" When I informed her that if she was feeling like throwing up we should go to the toilet, she decided she was fine, but continued to lie down.

She scoffed at the idea that she felt bad from too much cake. Clearly, she thinks too much cake is an oxymoron.

week thirteen

Signs of mud season:

The fruit stand across the canal has re-opened. It's convenient, but not always reliable. This is where they hid moldy strawberries under my nice ones. And, I try not to think about all the pollution landing on these as they sit next to passing cars with no emission standards.


See our playground? Mud. See the naval academy behind the fence? Snow. The only reason we have mud is that snow was trucked away (for the first time since I've been here).

And, the drinking outside my window has increased tremendously. You can't park your car, open the door, and extract your six-year-old without a group of young drinkers peering in and breathing down.

The group pictured got started early. This is early afternoon. They're watching chunks of ice float past.

And, below are more pictures of the ice floating by in the canal. No, they're not the prettiest shots. Yes, I did get put out with the passersby who stared at us (as if we were in the zoo...or on tv...or were blind) in the window.

Knowing big chunks of ice in the canal is photo-worthy (from yesterday's photographing of the group above) Lexi came skittering into the kitchen shouting, "Mama! Come SEE!" Good eye, little one.



This might be ice coming down from Ladoga (I'd have to see the Neva to know for sure.). If so, that's a SURE sign that mud season is upon us.