Making Sunday dinner

It rained yesterday; it snowed last night, snowed this morning and this afternoon. We could barely make it from a car to the church... slushy, mushy, cold and wet ;-) When we got home, Jeremy went to shovel five inches of the driveway before it could all freeze overnight. This snow is wet and slushy but there is a lot of it. Jeremy is seriously thinking about going up to Snowbird tomorrow morning if it is not too cold!

Sonia and I made a dinner. For a salad today I cut cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, olives and Parmesan cheese. Sonia was sitting on the counter, it's one of her favorite things to do, and she put all the veggies into a salad bowl all by herself.

She is turning into my little helper! Then after dinner, she decided to get something out of the fridge and had even a better idea...
Here is a little video I took because she was just way too cute hiding in there ;-)

Babulya's closet

Hide and seek is taken to a new level. While we watched The curious Case of Benjamin Button last Saturday, Sonia and Babulya had a ball taking turns and hiding in the closet.

They hid and looked for each other and played and played with a miniture shopping cart and a doll house untill we came back.

Found a pocket

Two days ago Sonia found her pockets. She shared this discovery with me and stuffed her pockets silly with paint brushes.

Today again she remembered about her pockets after we finished paiting.

Today she went for her nap with a tea set. She put it right next to her and fell asleep. I wondered about it. Then when she awoke, we had a tea party for all the bears and a white seal in her crib. I was invited too ;-)

we are into....

Sonia is really into reading books. By now she knows there are two kinds of books: some read by papa and mama and some by mama only. However the other day I caught Jeremy reading to Sonia "Telefon" and Sonia just absolutely loved it. She was hurrying him up a bit and in Russian talking about the pictures because she knew the story way too well.

Then there is a play dough.

It is huge right now.

We would take it with us wherever we go if we could.

While I was at my organ class last night, Jeremy couldn't quickly locate the dough. Sonia was deeply disappointed; with a 22 month old it looks like a huge fit accompanied by a deep cry "dough, dough, dough."

I can simply imagine Jeremy racing through the apartment and thinking "Honey, I know what you want; I just can not find it!!!!! Where can a person keep this dough!!! And where is your mother!!!" It was on the kitchen counter hidden away or we would spend our days, perhaps even life playing with it.

Then there is music and our Music Together class. Sonia loves dancing and she has an excellent ear, from her father or most likely Nana. Sonia can sing some parts of songs and also tonals even in class. Ms. Meika stopped in her tracks the other day when she heard Sonia repeat tonal patters right after her.

Library trips

We have a fun schedule and stop at nearby librares quite often. Orem library has volunteer moms who sign up and do it every day and some of them are real storytellers. It is a treat for me and a real fun time for Sonia. We go there every Tuesday.

On Wednesdays we drive to the Bean museum and enjoy a small group with no more than 15 kids. All books are focused on animals and their habitats. Last week we touched a tiger skin, a turtle and a real fifteen year-old iguana, Lizzie.

Then comes Provo library. It is the most sophisticated experience. It reminds me of a well run show with songs, puppets and even a Genie and lots and lots of kids. They focus on a letter each week. This week it was "P". Sonia shouted "P, Papa!" Sonia is in her pink hoodie on the right side.We also see our papa there because he works right across a street from the library.

An American... wait, it is a Utah thing

What does it entail to be an American? I was pondering this question a bit yesterday after one of the finest ladies (with about five kids looking still pretty good) in our new ward announced her thoughts on my origins. She even had to ask my husband even after I told her where I was born and brought up. That was her lovely way of introduction.

That is the funniest part of living in Utah. People here are still trying to figure out who they are and they label new comers accordingly. I ran into that before and to my chagrin sometimes I just don't really know what to say...
Here is a snap shop of our outing on the way to WallMart last week. By the way is shopping at WalMart an American thing? It all probably depends... In Utah it is most definitely is, in New York they hate WalMart.
Let's see going deeper into a discussion what it means to be an American to me.... first and foremost saying to my mom... I love you and I am proud that you can make such a change in your life and call this land of divided views your home.
My little LA-born Sonia is holding a baby in the purse that her aunt Heather gave her for Christmas. Is Christmas an American thing? Wait, Christ doesn't really have a nationality, right or is he Jewish? What does it mean to be Jewish again (is it a faith, line of blood determined by mother or nationality) and one can go on and on.
In our family we stop at Orem WalMart and fill out our carts with Chinese made stuff... wait those oranges are from California and we love it!!

Russian old New Year

Russia has two New Years. One falls on the January 1st and the other on the January 14. Russian Christmas comes on January 7. I grew up saying Happy New year and Merry Christmas. Such a discrepancy with the rest of Europe is due to late adaptation of Gregorian calendar.

Today we went to a Russian old New Year celebration at UVU. I enjoyed the food. Jeremy convinced me to enter a dance contest where we held a balloon between us. We had such a good time but got eliminated first because the balloon fell. Sonia loved watching a couple doing ballroom dance. She also loved Russian puppets.She watched intently Kolobok and Repka; two stories she knows really well because we read them almost everyday and she loved the show.

Then Babulya sneakily showed Sonia how to peek behind the curtain. I wanted to shout: "Mom what are you doing!"

Snegurochka (Santa's grand daugther) and Ded Moroz came with games, Russian traditional songs, horovod, and little gifts "podarki."

Sonia's second picture with Santa is a little better than her first one last year.

Last year she really didn't want to be around a strange guy with a white beard.

perfect weekend; our Christmas gift from my mom

Going out is a new thing for us... in NY baby sitting fees prevented it (I still shiver at a thought of paying $15 an hour) and there is only so many places one can dare to go with a baby. That is why having my mom just an hour away is such a blessing. Plus she loves spending time with Sonia.

Last Friday we enjoyed dinner with my mom at our new home. It was quite an experience because our dinning table is not here yet. We do have chairs so we sort of perched onto them and held plates in our laps.

We said good byes and drove to Salt Lake City. I thought of all good places to have a desert in NYC and Jeremy was pondering a desert question as well. We walked out and stumbled onto a Melting Pot place. Stopping there was a must. They seemed busy, reservation only, but they eventually found a place for us at a bar. A dark chocolate fondue reminded me of Chocolate Room in Brooklyn. Restaurants in NY operate differently; they easily could have accommodated four times as many tables and people in the place of that size. It almost felt spooky sitting in such a spacious place because it was way too quiet and isolated. It did have its own charm.

It was getting late; we hurried to a Abravanel Hall. I have never heard Utah symphony before and I have to say I enjoyed that night, especially Jean Sibelius ~ Symphony No. 1. His music brought vivid pictures of history, Finland and echoed some Russian influence of the late nineteen century.

I loved the rectangular brass ladened concert hall better than the Lincoln Center in NY. These beaus looked liked big butterflies in the air. In fact they are suspended from the ceiling six 16 x 16 foot brass chandeliers with 18,000 hand cut beads and prisms of Bohemian crystals imported from Austria and Czechoslovakia.

More than 12,000 square feet of 24-karat gold leaf creates a feeling of light and brings special warmth.

I couldn't pass this column with inferno flames by... It signifies 2002 Winter Olympics Games but to me it is a sign of passion and love that might have gone wild.

Thank you, mom, for such a wonderful outing and for great tickets. The seats were excellent. We could see Gunilla Gussmann play each note on the piano and note every expression of her Norwegian style.

New Year 2009

We moved to Provo and reside now in a Dain's family basement. Our stuff won't get here for another five or so weeks but we are making best out of what we've got! It is a wonder how little stuff you can get by... we do need a few essentials or there will be very little variety to our menus.

By moving here we gained a spacious bedroom, super nice kitchen, a living room with a huge leather couch, two lovely dogs and much more... lots of new friends for Sonia to play with. Here is Nash (he's got a lab look with red hair) and Kenai (he is about three and loves playing trains with Sonia).

To welcome 2009 New Year we spent a night at the Provo Town mall listening to a nice jazzy orchestra, watching clowns and fireworks. It was a nice addition to our New Years traditions. Thanks to Jeremy for finding out about events in Provo.

I loved watching Sonia and Jeremy dance on the floor with some other couples. Sonia wanted to dance and dance so we all twirled in circles. Music was just wonderful with big life band orchestra.

Most things are catered to children here; we stepped outside to watch big fireworks at 9 pm.

Then we ran home and had fun with little fireworks on the patio outside. Sonia was afraid a little bit and was peeking through the kitchen window. Then poppers fun.

We drunk some Martinelli's and made New Years wishes. We lacked floating candles in chrystal vase and sparklers this year because sparklers were all sold out at Mayceys that day.

Christmas fire

We hoped to get our stuff, move to a new place in Provo and get settled today... But there are always a few surprises thrown in our way. We couldn't get hold of our movers until this morning because there is a Jewish Holiday. Today we found out that the storage unit was on fire on Christmas day therefore the Van Lines moved everything somewhere else. Our truck didn't set out for Utah on time and it is not here. Well, we aren't really sure if our stuff is not burned, damaged or lost but we hope for the best. It looks like we are still moving and Irina is kind to lend us some furniture. Horray!!!