Summer Fun

Since there seems to be a dearth of blogly interest in our continuing Russian efforts, I'll focus this blog on our enjoyment of the summer season. In Russia, the summers are actually quite a nice season. It's a little warm in the Moscow area, but it never gets too bad, and with the help of a fan at night, it's actually quite enjoyable weather-wise.

Here in North Carolina, things are a little different. It gets hot! Since we last wrote, we've had temperatures pushing 40° C (100° F) on a few days. Fortunately, folks here are ready, with pools, beaches, and air conditioning to keep things comfy.

The first few days it was really hot was something of a revelation for poor Steven. Most of his life has been spent in the cold, so he wasn't really ready for the splashing and sloshing fun most kids associate with summer. It didn't take too long, though, before he was enjoying his summer quite a bit.

One of the local towns had a summer festival, and Elvis showed up! Actually, he seems to have lost a bit in his singing voice, but I suppose for a dead guy he's doing all right.

One of the best things we've had happen in the past weeks was a visit from my brother Sam. We had such a good time chatting with him and catching up, and we're really glad he was able to come down. I think he also enjoyed playing with Steven as well, since he hadn't seen him since he was really little.

We took the family to the local park one day, and here we are enjoying the merry-go-round that my Mom used to take us to when we were really little. I don't know how much Steven enjoyed it, but he rode it, anyway.

Here's Sam with Matthew. I'm not sure that Matthew cares, but there you go.

B finds this picture amusing. She could never figure out why I seem to spend a good portion of the day with the laptop. I don't really use it for anything specific, but for some reason I like to have it around in case I want to look something up. This picture might explain it - maybe it's genetic? :)

By this time, Steven was fully enjoying his time in the pool. He might have lost his fear a little too quickly, since by the time we'd been there 10 minutes he was ready to jump in the deep end any time we took our eyes off him.

Last week, we went down to Florida for a combined business/visiting trip. While we were there, my parents hooked us up with some friends of theirs who own a boat. They took us out for a day, which was a great time.

We went out to a small tidal island that was pretty much deserted. Steven had a good time just being able to wander around and play in the sand.

Matthew might not be such a fan, but he did finally go to sleep. The rules said that he had to wear a life preserver, so we put one on him. Whether it fit or not, might be a different story!

OK, so here's this week's challenge: who are these people B's posing with? It's not a hard one for most of you, so no points are awarded this time, but I thought it'd be fun to see who recognizes them. Enjoy!

Hiking Around and Hanging About

Once again it's been a while since we posted a blog, and we're starting to get those "reminder" emails that people are waiting for an update. And so here you have it!

What have we been up to? Actually, we've had a good week and a half. Being back in the US has been a drain on our language study, for certain, but it has been nice to catch up with so many of our friends and family again, as I'm sure I've said before. It's always especially nice to be able to spend time with family, so when I heard that B's Dad was thinking of going on a hiking trip, I jumped at the chance to accompany him. Later Kellie, B's twin sister, decided to join us, and so the three of us headed up for the Tennessee mountains. Here we are at the beginning of the trip:

We parked the truck in the parking lot at a state-run campground, and headed out into the woods for an extensive hike to our final destination. Actually, even in between actually camping, we spent most of the weekend on hikes all around the valleys that we were in. Most of the trails followed along a river, with some spectacular scenery the whole way:

Of course, hiking that much makes you very hungry (I think we totalled around 30 km the whole weekend). To that end, we brought some steaks that we grilled over the campfire the first night, and enjoyed the food with the extra gusto that real hunger brings.

When we saw this log sticking out over the river a bit, we couldn't resist the chance for a photo op:

On our last morning, B's dad promised to buy us breakfast if we got to the truck in time. That sped up our hike out considerably, and here the two of them are revelling in their food. Actually the bread in the picture was stolen, after a discussion on how much food gets tossed prompted B's dad to reach over and take the toast off another diners' table after they left before the busboy could come to throw it away. :)

Warning - the rest of the blog is kind of child-centered, and doesn't have a lot of info about what we're up to. If you're wondering what that is, exactly, it's mostly studying Russian, taking care of the kids, and meeting up with our friends and supporters. I've been fortunate to have opportunities to speak in several meetings since we've been here, and I think we'll have another chance or two to present our work before we leave.

Anyway, here goes. This is Steven "enjoying" a haircut - his first from a professional barber. He wiggled so much it turned out a bit crooked, but you certainly couldn't blame the barber, who had his work cut out for him from the start!

Couldn't resist putting a few videos in, and here's a short one of Steven playing in the hose outside. It's been really hot lately, so he's enjoyed the chance to get wet when he gets it!

I don't think this is supposed to be a riding lawn mower, but you couldn't tell Steven that.


We finagled an invite to our friends' Martha and Mike the other day, and so we got to play with all their animals for a while. Of course, M & M couldn't make it (sorry we missed you!), but I think Steven still had a good time. He's not been around animals much in Russia, since most of our lives are in our apartment, but he's enjoyed it since we've been back.

More of the same, pretty much, this time with their dogs:

So that's about it. This weekend my brother Sam is coming into town, and then next week we head to Florida to visit family and straighten some things out with our financial guys (taxes get complicated when you move overseas, in case you're wondering). We'll try to post on those topics in the weeks to come!

Finally!

OK, so it's been a while, so I figure I should get on this and update before I let it go for another week feeling guilty. We've kept ourselves fairly busy in the interim, so let's get straight into it. I thought you might like this little vid of Steven enjoying his little rocking horse.

We haven't really posted much of anything since Matthew's birth, but we have had quite a bit going on. One of the biggest was B's family gathering for her Mom's, um, well, her 32nd birthday! ;-) All 4 of her kids were there, their spouses and children, and a good selection of cousins and other relatives as well. They stayed the whole weekend and we had lots of good times to chat and play, and I was once again reminded of the many ways I am not really culturally an American (the story of how we collected honey from an in-use casket when I was a kid always gets such a weird reaction here!).

It really was a good time, and we managed to get our cameras out for the gathering, so I'll just walk you through the festivities bit by bit. First, though, a picture of Steven playing with his friend Noah at a recent visit to his house (well, his grandparents' house, but close enough).

The weather here has been as close to perfect as imaginable for the past few weeks, so we decided to take a family trip to a local park one day while everyone was here. Here, Katy (I hope I spelled that right) takes Steven down the slide. The slides here are a bit higher and it seemed to scare him at first, but after a while he liked it.

B's cousin Tara also had a baby recently - exactly 26 hours after Matthew, as it turned out, and here's a picture of her with baby Natalie at the park.

Matthew was also able to meet his great-grandmother for the first time, which was nice:

The nice weather continued the whole time everyone was here, and the kids really enjoyed their time outdoors. Here Steven enjoys a wagon ride with his two cousins, pulled by B's cousin's husband Wes.

One of the most interesting events of the weekend was the "Un-Talent Show." Each one of us arranged to do something, centered around the guest of honor, to display our lack of talents. Here, Janice's sister Patti pretended to be a boisterous and rather garish "character," who came bearing some lovely clothing for the birthday girl so she could be as stylish as she. I wish I could show you the video, but I've been sworn to a non-disclosure agreement on that particular part of the act.

Anyway, I don't have time or energy to get into the various acts, but had to include this picture of Wes rocking a pastel blue wool scarf. Work it, sir, if I may be so bold!

Of course, my (J's) family are here in town as well. It's been fun to see my parents interacting with their grandsons and refresh my memory of some things about my childhood I had forgotten. One of those things was my mother's creativity. She spotted a large box that no one was using, and turned it into a sort of fort for Steven, who loves it!

Since I haven't posted in so long, I'm trying to make up for lost time by making this an extra-long post. Hope it doesn't feel like just filler, but I know some of you will like this video. It's funny to see kid's develop and grow in their understanding of the world, but I don't think Steven totally understands what a chair is really for yet:

OK, so that should about do it. Tomorrow morning I'm heading out to the mountains for a camping/hiking trip with B's dad and sister. I'll try to take some photos of what promises to be a fun weekend for next post. For now, I'll leave you with a picture I like - Daddy just enjoying being around his new little boy.

Warning: Details Below (The B Perspective)

Note: This is for the more detailed-oriented audience who are interested in knowing more of what happened at the delivery of our son Matthew (by now I have probably lost about 90% of the male readers) from the perspective of the one who did all the work! Let me first say both Matthew and I are recovering well. Matthew is back up to his birth weight of 8 lbs 5 oz. My staples are out and I can actually walk around now but still am quite slow because of the pain. They say it I will have pain for another few weeks. Yea!

I also have to take more rest breaks during the day since Matthew seems to think nights are when you are suppose to eat most often (about every 2-3 hours at night compared to every 3-4 hours during the day). Anyway, we are adjusting well thanks to all the support and help given to us by our friends and family (thanks y'all).

Well, enough babbling about the present and let me take you back to April 28, 2008. I was scheduled to be induced that day as the doctor thought the baby might be around 9-10 lbs and didn't want him growing any bigger. Since I didn't mind being induced, we went ahead with the plan. We checked in around 5:30am and I started labor around 7:00am. At this point Matthew had not dropped yet into position to be ready for birth. The medicine they gave me (Pitocin) basically jumpstarts labor but it is hard to adjust it because it is different for every woman. As with Steven (I was given this same medication with Steven as well), they were having a hard time getting my contractions regular. Then about 1:30pm I decided to get an epidural (which turned out to be a blessing in disguise).

The labor was not bad but I had torn my groin muscles the previous night and it was very painful . Anyway, the labor continued and I felt great once the epidural kicked in. Then around 2:00pm the nurse came in a told us that the baby's heart rate didn't look so good. She tried to turn me into different positions which worked only briefly. They turned the Pitocin down to see if that helped. Although Matthew's heart rate was doing better my contractions had stopped so they tried again to start me on a low dose of Pitocin. However, as soon as the contractions started again, Matthew's heart rate started dropping. Not only this, he still had not dropped.

This went on for a few hours until the doctor came in around 5:00pm to check me (see above - a wonderful doctor; not a very formal sense of dress :). Although I was at 10 cm dilated Matthew was not dropping and was now showing signs of distress. He suggested that a C-section was looking more and more likely if Matthew's heart rate didn't improve. It was about 20 minutes later when the doctor and whole team came rushing in and told me I needed an emergency C-section as Matthew's heart rate was dangerously low and not coming back up. Within 10 minutes they had me in the OR prepping me for the surgery.

They did not put me all the way under but gave me enough drugs to make me feel like I was dreaming. As they were doing this J was putting on his garments. It turned out to be a good thing that I already had the epidural, since that sped the process up quite a bit. By the time J came into the room, they were already opening me up. A few minutes later Matthew came into this world screaming. They found two problems that were causing Matthew's heart rate to drop. The first was the cord was wrapped around his neck three times and was very tight. If he had dropped into the birth canal, he might have strangled to death. The second problem was that his head was turned in such a way that he would not fit into the birth canal (thankfully). Matthew checked out to be a very healthy baby.

Headed Home!

And so here we are, healthy and well. Thank you for all of your thoughts! We're actually adjusting to life with two kids OK, but it is a bigger adjustment than both of us thought, I think. So far we've had it fairly easy, since we took the first week after the delivery off from our lessons and just sort of recovered for a while. Now, however, we're getting back into our routine of classes and studying, which is proving a challenge with the new addition and with my limitations. We'll post more on our adventures with the two kids in the days to come, but I'll just leave you with a picture of the newcomer with his paternal grandmother.

Introducing ...

Matthew Alexander (Мэттью Александр)

Weight: 8 lbs. 5 oz. (3.78 kg.)

Length: 20.5 in. (52 cm.)

Born: 5:41 pm April 28th by emergency C-section (see below post for more info)

Hair: Blondish red

Eyes: Seem to be a very dark blue, almost purple. Steven's were a similar color when he was born, and are now more of an deep sky blue, so this could change.

In summary - healthy baby, healthy Mom, which is pretty much the important part. I'll let B post a more detailed report sometime in the near future, since I was accused by more than one female reader yesterday of leaving out "details." Since I know that I can never include enough of this essential ingredient to satisfy, I'll just leave it to her to take care of. :)

In the meantime, she's recovering fairly well and hasn't shown any complicated aftereffects from the surgery. Thanks again to all of you who thought about us during this time! A few more pics, for those interested:

Above: Proud papa, exhausted mama, and confused baby.
Below: Baby Matthew with his grandmothers

Steven meets his new little brother for the first time and seems to warm to him almost immediately:

Of course, you have to have at least one "Aaaaaaawwwww!" shot of a new baby, so here it is:

Thanks again for thinking of us! We give thanks for the amazing blessing He's given, so please rejoice with us.

Cometh the Hour, Cometh the ... Little Baby?

NOTE: Scroll down for updates at the bottom of the post as they occur! Current update: #6 - Matthew has arrived!

Well, the title might miss some of you, but I thought it was funny at least! With a resounding ding the oven timer has gone off, so this baby is fully prepared. In fact, if you asked B, she might say it was a little "overdone," having been ready to get the enormous lump off her poor bladder for a couple of weeks, but at any rate, we're finally here.

Anyway, it is that time. The MD got tired of waiting for the baby to show up on his own (due date is tomorrow), and so he wanted to go ahead and jumpstart things with some chemical assistance. Apparently, he thinks the baby is on the large side, which is bad news for B. Here we are, though, having left the house at about 5:30 this morning. It's now 6:30 as I type this, and they've just started the Pitocin drip, which should see the contractions get more regular as it kicks in. I'll follow with updates as we have more news.

How can you tell we're just getting started? B's still smiling! Ha, ha. No, seriously honey, it was a joke. You look wonderful. What's that? I'm not going to print things like that on the blog!! For the rest of you, rest assured that in reality, B is a sweet-tempered woman and would never do any of those hateful things to me. At least, not while she's strapped to a hospital bed and I'm across the room. If she managed to catch me, now that might be another story ... ;)

In this gratuitous Steven shot, he's practicing his "Welcome home, baby Matthew!" pose with his grandmother.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll put updates below so that the three or four of you who are that interested can follow along.

UPDATE #1: 9:15 AM
MD has just been here, and reports that B is now 2-3 cm dilated, and the Pitocin is kicking in seriously. Poor B is having contractions almost on top of each other, and even though they aren't incredibly strong yet they're backing off the dosage just a bit. The main thing the MD did was to break B's water, which should speed things up as well.

In short, so far, so good! The only bad (?) news was the size of the baby, which he thought might be 9 lbs./3.9 kg plus! Thanks for all of you who are thinking of us, and I'll try to post another update around lunchtime.

UPDATE #2: 11:30 AM
B's been hanging out on the birthing ball for the past couple of hours, and has made some progress. Nurse just checked and reports that we're up to 5 cm, and the baby has dropped a bit deeper.

At any rate, B's back in bed, and I think she's leaning towards getting an epidural this time. One heroic delivery was enough for her, apparently. I'll check back in when we find out more about when that might happen.

UPDATE #3: 2:30 PM
So, not much has happened since last report. B did go ahead and get the epidural, since she was really struggling with the muscle pain from her groin tear (she did the splits last night. Accidentally.) We're still stuck at 5 cm, and the baby seems to be higher up than he should be.

All in all, things are still going OK, but they're starting to worry that the baby needs to move down the birth canal at some point. His heart rate keeps dipping between contractions, so he needs to get his act together and start heading for home!

Oh, and we're going to add a contest to this post as well (why skip the contest just because we're having a baby?): who knows the real conclusion to the quote in the title? "Cometh the hour, cometh the ..." First person to post the correct answer in the comments section wins the point.

UPDATE #4: 5:15 PM
OK, so we're finally making some progress. After a long afternoon, B is finally at 9 cm and we're about to start pushing!

During the afternoon, the medical folks had a toughish time getting the Pitocin dosage lined up right, and either the contractions would fade or Matthew's heart rate would drop. Long story short, eventually B got to 9 and now the MD thinks we might get it done still.

UPDATE #5: 5:23 PM
Scratch that. After a few pushes, Matthew's heart rate is falling too fast for being as far in as he still is. MD thinks the baby is quite big, so we're headed for the OR to do a C-section.

UPDATE #6: 7:00 PM
Matthew is here! After an extremely quick C-section, prompted by the MD's perception that the baby was in trouble due to a dropping heart rate, he has arrived!

I was impressed by how fast they move when they think the baby is in trouble. From the time the decision was made to do a C-section, around 5:23, to the birth was less than 20 minutes.

Anyway, I suited up and scurried in just in time to see them slice B wide open. Within seconds, they plucked Matthew out, crying from the second he came out. He had apparently gotten his head slightly crooked, and wrapped the cord around his neck, which was what made his heart rate drop with each contraction. Thankfully, all went well, and both Mom and baby are safe and sound. More details on this whole thing at a later point.

Currently, B is trying to recover, feeling quite woozy and a bit nauseated. Matthew's in the nursery, where they're making sure everything's OK with him. Everything seems to be normal, and he weighed 8 lbs 5 oz/3.78 kg at birth. Length was 20.5 inches, I think, although I have yet to confirm that one. At any rate, I'll put some more pics and details on here when I get them.

As with most newborns, they're not that cute in the first few minutes of life, but here his head has started to return to a normal-looking shape and he's getting pink. I'll definitely get some more pictures when he gets to the room and we can get some more.

You can't see much of him here, but this is Mom, still with belly in twain, Dad, and little Matthew, curled up in a ball. Thanks for everyone who thought of us during this time, and please continue to remember B in her recovery!

Fun in the Sun

An apology to all of our faithful readers, but J put the responsibility on me to do this blog and since I procrastinate in everything else I couldn't disappoint in this assignment. But here I am with nothing to write about.

We have now been in the US for about two weeks. We're still doing our Russian lessons via Skype (an internet videoconference program) with our teacher in Moscow which works most of the time. However, our commitment to doing full-time Russian study is difficult to maintain here. I (B) usually can do about 1-2 hours in the morning but by the afternoon usually will need a nice long nap.

Our evenings are usually booked with dinners or just hanging out with friends which has been very nice. I can't do too much anymore since I feel like I'm carrying around an elephant but we have been able to do several things we have missed doing while in Moscow. The biggest new thing for me has been going to yard sales:

For our non-American readers, this is where a person collects all the unwanted items in their house, places them in their yard, and tries to sell them. The prices can range from 10 cents to $20. I love buying things there because everything is so cheap but you usually have to drive around to find them which can take some time. Since I enjoy it so much I don't mind.

The other thing we have been catching up on is eating our favorite foods. We have been to several restaurants stacking on the weight in order to stay warm for the next winter (yeah, I don't really believe it either but it sounds good). For those of you who know me (B), knows how much I love to eat. Unfortunately, I can't eat much these days since my stomach is the size of a pea. So watch out Cracker Barrel, Bojangles, and Fiesta Mexicana - once I have this baby I coming to clean you out!

My family met at one of my favorite restaurants, Cracker Barrel, soon after we got here. Not only do I love the food but the atmosphere is fun and unique. They have a lot of antiques (American country-style stuff) hanging on the walls and a country store with all kinds of goodies in the front of the restaurant. Here are some pictures from that night:

We have also been enjoying some beautiful weather. When we first got here everyone commented on how yellow we looked. Since then we have been trying to get outside as much as possible. The scenery is so beautiful here. After living in an apartment and not being around a lot of nature, I have to say that it's easier on the eyes.

Well, that is about it. Hopefully the next post will include our new baby. I have 1 1/2 more weeks to go. We will keep you updated. Here's a little video of Steven enjoying some of the sunshine and warmth in a local park to leave you with:

OK, so this is J, and I'm adding a What Is It™, but with the caveat that anyone from the southern US is not eligible. The below picture is one of the foods B mentioned earlier in the post, and if you're not from the south, you might not know what it is. If you can guess the name of this vegetable, and you are from somewhere north of the Mason-Dixon line or outside the US, enter your guess in the comments. For you Southerners, you'll have to just comment about something else, or I won't publish your comments!

Для наших дорогих русских читателей, мы приглашаем вас также угадать, чем называют этот овощ. Напишите ваши догадки в секции комментариев. Я надеюсь, что я написал этому правильно, чтобы наша учительница не рассердилась на меня! :)