Update (and the cold, dead body...)

We're doing well here. Looks like we'll be moving back to the States in the summer, so that should be nice. :) Closer to the fam and all that. Henry is growing so quickly that I can't keep track of how old he is! (six months as of yesterday!) He has two teeth, a quick smile and the sweetest little voice ever.

Those of you with more than one: are you just awed over again with the second/third/fourth one? I imagine so, but I just can't see how it gets more amazing than this.... :)

We love him to pieces and we've only known him for six months! ;)

Photos at www.robandmel2001.myphotoalbum.com

Now, a quick note about Lenin's cold, dead body... you aren't allowed to take cameras into the pit which is Lenin's tomb. BUT, because they are so concerned with phototakers, you must have your hands where the guards can see them at all times. Not that I figured this out before I put my hands in my pockets. Noooooo...I had to have a guard come out of the shadows and touch me on the arm before I understood. Nothing like looking at a dead body and having some unseen person reach out for you. I almost wet my pants....

Hi everyone! Jessica is three months old, already. She rolled over on Sunday, onto her tummy. Can y'all believe that? She is growing up so fast, just like all the rest of us. Katharine is 2, and is fully potty-trained. She doesn't even wet in the bed. Thankfully! She tries to dance like a ballerina, so when she turns 3, we are going to put her in a dance class. David just turned 4, on March 21. He can't wait to go to school. He already knows how to write all the letters, and is learning numbers now. He can write his name and Noah's name by himself. He is also very artistic. Which he must have inherited from Josh, because he didn't get it from me. Noah is 5 already. He is doing really good at school. He is playing soccer now. He had his very first game on Saturday. He scored one goal, and was in the action, being aggressive the whole time he played.

Template Change

Hey everybody who still visits but doesn't post anything, including me, hehe. I have changed the template on the blog so we could be able to do some additional stuff, like move elements on the page around and such.

It's not like anyone is gonna read this anytime soon anyway, so I don't know why I write this, ho-hum.

Oh and Mel/Rob, where are the pics of Lenin's cold dead body?

I See Dead People (aka Our Visit to Lenin's Tomb)

Yesterday marked the beginning of our last weekend here in Moscow. Since we hadn't hit the major sights, we set out at 9:30 in the morning with two of Rob's colleagues. The weather was glorious: 37 whole degrees. Farenheit. It's amazing how quickly our perspective on warm has changed. What, no snow? It's toasty out!

Back to our outing. First stop: Lenin's tomb.

Karl and Petra watched Henry while Rob and I saw one of Moscow's most unique attractions. Kindly enough, there is no admission charged for this creepy activity. Instead, you progress single file down stairs into the marble mausoleum. The entire structure is red and black marble, and as you enter the chamber where he lies in-state, you find yourself in a room illuminated only by the red highlighting and the lights on his body. It's like something out of a movie. Very surreal.

There are questions about whether or not Lenin will be buried at some point. At the moment, they have to touch up his make-up every few days. But then, when a man's been dead for eighty years, a little touch-up now and then is never a bad thing.

From there we went to the Arbat, an historical part of Moscow with many small shops and booths. The weather turned then while we were having lunch, and we decided to head to a museum and then home again. The museum is actually quite close to our apartment, and I have passed it on numerous occasions without knowing what it was. It was a nice detour, and I found a new artist to love: Vereshchagin. His paintings are so exact many truly look like photographs.

After the museum, it was time to head back to our apartment and talk to the folks at home. We had had a full day of walking this enormous city centre, and our families? They were just waking up....

February 22, 2007

Houston, we have a .... tooth?

Go figure. We are watching for red gums, swollen gums, a grouchy child....Not really happening here. For the last day, Henry's been a little out of sorts, but no typical signs. Today, I gave him one of those freezable caterpillars that babies chew when they are teething, and he was happy. I thought, "Good! Maybe he's starting to teethe." He took it out of his mouth and I noticed a tiny bit of blood--I think Henry's cutting his first tooth! :) Unless he was able to find something to cut his gums in the same way a tooth would, I think we'll being seeing at least one pearly white sometime soon!

Photo on the way, if we can manage to get one!

March 3, 2007

Toothwatch Update:

We spent last weekend in St. Petersburg and this weekend touring around Moscow, and now it looks like instead of one tooth, Henry is cutting both of his lower middle teeth! Not full teeth yet, but edges like razor--yeow!

At any rate, he is doing well. He's starting to sleep better and isn't fussy as much. Sniff, he's growing up so fast.... :S

That's about it from here. We'll post some tourist stuff in a bit, but right now, Henry's dental developments are our top story!

Still working on the photos... :)