18 Months Old

Canaan turned 18 months old about two weeks ago. I am a little late getting this posted (as usual), but I still like to write it out, even if it serves only as a record for me of how much my little boy is growing!

Special Thought: When I think about having more kids, I always want to have one who is the same age as Canaan (whatever age he happens to be). I think it is so wonderful that we have such a good time with him in each stage of life he is in, and that we can't imagine how another stage or age could be so wonderful! I love being a Mommy~especially of a precious, bald boy!

Basic Stats
Height: 31.8 inches. He's grown almost an inch in the past month (as far as our home measurements show)! His growth chart here in in centimeters, and it shows a two centimeter growth, which seems more accurate than inches, and it seems like more growth- having grown two cm to the almost one inch!
Nothing Else New-We don't have a current weight. He still has 16 teeth, though I think I see a back molar starting to peek through, which might explain part of the moodiness of the past few days.

New Words
"ash"- trash
"hup"- help (previously he just signed help, now he signs and says!)
"too-tr"- rooster (it is a cross between choo-choo and tractor!)
"moo"- movie (he asks for them a lot- but we restrict his viewing to 30 minutes or one hour a day, depending on what Mommy and Daddy need to do or how he feels)
"me"- I ask him if he wants to come with me and he just repeats, "Me, me, me." Too cute!
"go"- He knows exactly what this means. If I ask him if he wants to go, he runs to the door to get his shoes. If I tell him to go to the kitchen, he starts running in there, saying "go, tichen."
"tichen"- kitchen
"woll"- roll- He uses this for both the bread and the verb (there are certain balls we only "woll" in our house)!
"tair"-stairs-He loves to go up and down stairs. He even calls playgrounds "tairs" because he associates them with the stairs on the slide!

Favorite Words:
For two months, Canaan renewed his interest in the word "uh-oh." He would purposely drop things and say "uh-oh" repeatedly, while laughing. For every tiny little thing, he would say "uh-oh" several times in a row.
Now, he is saying "Mo" (more) all the time! Let me explain. Canaan says "more" for everything there is two or more of. As we walk down the road, he points, saying, "More, More, More..." This means he sees several birds, several trees, several flowers, etc. I get to guess what he is talking about.

New Interests

• He has recently taken a keen interest in trains. I am not sure why. I would think it is because of the metro here, which we tell him is a train, but he still insists on calling it a truck! So, I am not sure why, but he does love trains.
• He is much more interested in airplanes, since our trip. He usually refers to them as "bye, bye." I think this is mainly because we saw a lot of planes taking off; he would watch them until he couldn't see them any more and then say, "bye, bye."
• Other little kids are also fascinating to Canaan. The older he gets, the more he is interested in watching them, playing around them, and at rare times, playing with them.
  

New Stuff
He is noticing what is on his clothes (the pictures). He pulled out his "uck" shirt today and was excited to put it on. Tonight we talked about his choo-choo pjs and the puppy pjs that he has. It is fun to see him noticing different things.

His imagination is growing! He loves cooking with me in the kitchen. I give him his own pots and bowls with wooden spoons. He also loves to pretend drink out of a cup. He is very dramatic and forceful, like he's throwing a glass back, when he does it. Then he will look over at us and grin mischievously. It is really quite amusing. He also just started to pretend to put his trucks "nigh night." He lays them on their side and says, "nigh night." I have no idea where that came from!

Canaan has also started working puzzles in the past two months. Three of the four puzzles he has have the picture of the same piece underneath it. So, it is really a matching game with the added bonus of situating it in the hole. Through these puzzling experiences, he's picked up a few meanings of words, like "turn that around" and "try another place." He does really well, but he doesn't show a lot of patience. We are working on that!

Canaan also has started counting things. He doesn't really say any numbers, but he lines things up and points to them. He likes it when I count, pointing to each thing as I say the number. Then he will say "again" and he will point while I count. I really like how he is growing up and we are doing more interactive play.

So, Canaan also has started giving us bad looks. It is hilarious and we have to try so hard not to laugh. (Dougle doesn't do well at trying not to laugh; he usually covers his mouth or face to try to hide it.) Half of the time, he looks at us with his "dirty look" and then laughs, but the other half of the time he is serious and I have to get onto him and tell him not to look at me like that. He even gave this look to Mila when we were at her house. She was telling Canaan not to touch the trashcan and he rolled his eyes up in his head and then stared at her with his eyes half closed. She laughed while I got onto him (and her for laughing)!

Also he is in the repetition phase. Anything that was fun or interesting, we do 3 or 5 or 10 or 20 times (basically until mommy gets tired of it)! Some things he wants to do over and over forever. Things like: counting cars after he lines them up, pouring water out of a cup into the bath, singing our favorite song, reading our favorite book, playing chase, etc. He will say "gg" or "ah-g" to mean again. It is just like he is sounding out a "g" sound. Too funny! He also repeats words over and over until we acknowledge what he is talking about.

He hasn't started dropping things in the toilet, but he does like to stick his fingers in the water. He is very fascinated with anything "water" these days. He adores fountains and will start talking about the wa-wa when he knows we are getting close to a fountain. Then, of course, he talks about "wa-wa, wa-wa, wa-wa" for a minute or more after we can no longer see the fountain. He loves talking about water in his cup, in his bath, in a pond ,and I suspect this is the new fascination with the toilet. Now I am trying to keep the toilet lid closed, hoping that "out of sight/out of mind" will work; and when I forget, we are working on learning how to shut the lid on the toilet!

He is going through a shy/clingy stage. When other children are around, they can usually draw him out of his "mommy death-cling" and stop his crying when we enter new houses, etc. I think some of this is just his age, while the rest might be attributed to all the traveling we've done over the last month.

Though shy, it is interesting to note that Canaan LOVES to leave places. He loves leaving the house and when we say we are going "bye" but don't do it fast enough (Mommy is always having to run back in b/c I forgot two or three things), then he gets impatient and starts to whine. He loves leaving other people's houses, as well as arriving home. In addition, he loves getting in elevators and going down stairs out places. He smiles and giggles really silly when we get in the elevator that takes us up to our 12th story apartment and he gets impatient when we take too long wresting with the locks on one of the 3 doors we have to enter through in our building. I just think it is funny, how much he loves leaving and coming back!

He is still a picky eater. He still goes through days when he eats not much and days when he seems like all he does is eat. He prefers orange juice (I water it down) to drink, though he also drinks plain water. He also loves his morning and night milk.

Singing is still very interesting. He pays attention to and loves most of all those songs with motions. He tries to do some of them. It is very cute.

On just a more interesting note, we are going through fewer diapers. It has gradually gone down from the infant age. We hope that potty training will start in a few months.

Back in Russia

We're back in Russia. We are having some major Jet Lag! Wow. This is the worse jet lag I've experienced. I must say, it is much harder with a baby. (I keep calling him a baby, but he just turned 18 months old! I don't think he becomes a toddler, though, until he is two. So, I'm not sure what to classify him as now!) Anyway, we are going to bed after midnight and sleeping past noon. This is better than what we were doing, which was going to bed around 5am and sleeping until 3pm in the afternoon! Slowly we are backing up our schedule. Dougle stayed awake all last night (to make almost 24 hours awake), in hopes that would help him become sleepy during the night. He took a short nap this afternoon, and we all hope to be able to sleep tonight around 11pm and wake up at a more normal time!

I am posting a few pictures. We flew several times in the past few weeks (to the States and then from Houston to Dallas, then Dallas to Lubbock, then Lubbock back to Houston). Canaan really enjoyed watching all the vehicles at the airport. At first, he just noticed the luggage cars and little vehicles going to and fro all the time. He would watch them and watch them. It wasn't until we were flying out of Dallas Love that he started becoming really interested in the airplanes. We were there three hours before leaving, and we found a really great window where we could see the airplanes take off and fly into the sky. Canaan started referring to the window by saying "Bye, Bye!" because we said that the planes went "bye, bye" when they took off. It was so cute. After that experience, he started noticing the actual planes at the airports, though he still loved to watch all the "ucks" too.

One picture is of Canaan with his very own carry-on suitcase. His great-aunt Carol sent that to him. He was adorable with it, because he is VERY into pushing and pulling things. I think he thought he was a big boy pulling his very own suitcase around the airports. And everyone else in the airport thought he was just adorable too!

The other airport picture is of us standing around, putting off saying goodbye to family in the Lubbock airport. You can see Canaan in the background, pulling his suitcase around. Though goodbyes are never fun, we are so blessed at having the opportunity to see family again, sooner than we thought!

The last picture is of a play ground in a huge park near our house. The weather here is just amazing. It is in the high 60's/low 70's during the day. The sun is shining, everything is green, and the trees are starting to bloom. We walked there yesterday to help us stay awake. Canaan was one of about 50 kids (we counted) at the playground. There were tons of people everywhere in the park. It was great to be outside and enjoy the warming weather.

Pictures

So, this blog is just pictures mainly. I have a lot of pictures with Dougle's side of the family and some of Aspen (Guy and Nan's little girl) with Canaan. Unfortunately, I don't have hardly any with my side of the family. I was very sad when I discovered this. I think that it is because most of the time we spent with them, we were sick. Canaan ended up passing his sickness to 8 people! Needless to say, it was very contagious.

We are in Houston right now. Our plane leaves at 11:45pm Thursday night (tonight). I think we will be exhausted by the time we are in the air and able to lay back and sleep. We arrive in Moscow at 8:00pm Friday night (Moscow time). It is an 11 hour flight. We have had a great, but whirlwind trip. Canaan has had it with traveling; he is ready to be home. We are looking forward to getting back into routine and seeing what comes next with our adventure in Moscow!

Houston-Dallas-Lubbock

Our trip so far has been fast! We had an awesome experience flying on Singapore Air, which I am sure most of you have read about on Dougle's blog. The day after we arrived, the first thing we did was drop off our passports and visa applications at the consulate in Houston. It is supposed to take 7-10 working days to process, but we just received confirmation that they have been processed. We will pick them up as soon as we arrive back in Houston. We are still praying for a year long visa with no restrictions.

We spent our first few days with Guy, Nancy and Aspen Stover. They are close friends of ours who graciously took care of us while we went through some jet lag. We all woke up at 4am the first morning. Of course, by 7pm that night, we were wondering just how late we really needed to stay up!! We did pretty good about not taking a nap, except for day two- which was by far the worst as far as jet lag was concerned. But we had a good time hanging out with the Stover family and look forward to spending more conscious time with them on our way out of the country!

The next stop was Dallas. Because of our trip dates, we were able to attend a missions dinner and mini seminar with Missions Resource Network (MRN). Our team was able to be together, with Livia and David coming in from Lubbock, as well as Rob and Denyce and their boys from Phoenix. On Sunday, we attended Prestoncrest church of Christ. They have given our team some one time support and are looking into the possibilities of supporting David and Olivia. We had a great day there, and were even able to meet a Russian couple who had come into the States to speak at a lectureship. Who knew that we'd have an opportunity to learn our newfound Russian language (faltering as it is) in the United States?!

On Sunday evening we flew into Lubbock. Canaan recognized familiar sites when we arrived at my parent's house. He loved being able to play in a familiar environment and around familiar people. My mom calls these familiar people his "fan club," because we all just sit around, watching him play, applauding his good behavior and smart antics, etc. He is enjoying it immensely! However, just before leaving Dallas, Canaan fell sick with a nasty little bug. He had three runny diapers in three hours. The next day, it was coming from both ends. Unlike most toddlers, he graciously shared; therefore, my mom, Dougle, David, and now Beth have all been sick with the same thing. Our last few days have been filled with laundry and disinfectant! Thankfully, it seems like everyone is on the up-swing (except Beth, who just contracted this) and we hope to have the house sick-free in a few days. Keep our health in your prayers.

Overall, our trip so far has gone fast and furious, as expected. We were unexpectedly out a few days with the sickness, but hope to get caught up on seeing those people and doing those things we want to get done before heading back to Moscow. We head to Houston on Monday evening, and back to Russia on Thursday, May 1st. We hope to see those of you we can at some point, but hope the rest of you are doing well. We love you all!

Ornery Boy

I added a pole today on the right side of this blog. It goes with this post. Cast your votes!

As Canaan gets older, he is more of a joy every day! OK, he is also more of a challenge too! It all started about two weeks before his first birthday. He started figuring out this 'choice' thing. He finally got old enough that he was able to start turning the pages on the books faster, play with the particular toys he was interested in, and not do everything Mommy and Daddy asked. So, here we are, 5 months later, and he is just choosing to exercise his way more than ours.

I guess that is just part of growing up. Mommy and Daddy are having to find ways to convince him that he must do what we say, or else. I think the hardest part about being a parent is being consistent. I am learning that is the only way that he will know I mean what I say. Everyday I feel like it just gets more challenging in this area. I am sure most of you understand what I am saying.

However, no matter how challenging some days can be, each day is a joy. In ways he is permitted to choose how he wants to do things, it is cool to see what he chooses. It is funny to see his favorite book change, his favorite toys become different favorites, his speech develop, etc. You can see little bits of Mommy, Daddy, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc in his personality. It is great!

One thing it all does is make me develop more of an understanding and respect for God. He IS consistent: I can always count on what He says. He loves us, no matter how many wrong choices we make. I also have learned that saying sorry and asking for forgiveness is a necessary step in changing my attitude so that I don't make those same mistakes over and over. It also shows Him that I am serious about my sin and desire to change. There are many more things too. I love how having a kid is growing my relationship with God. I pray that I may always grow closer to Him as I strive to follow in the steps of Jesus, no matter where they lead!

On a lighter note: Canaan ate a whole handful of dirt the other day for the first time. Yuk! Thankfully, it didn't kill him, so no worries!

My Classmates

I thought I would introduce you to a few of my classmates.

The first picture from left to right:
Dulce (from Brazil-she is working here as a missionary with the Catholic church)
Alicia (from Texas- she helps train Russian preachers in jobs that will help them be able to preach and support themselves; she also wants to work with Russian street children)
Me
Yulker (from Turkey- she is married to a Turkish man who works here with grocery store chains)
Jung-Ki (from Korea- he is learning Russian so he can work with his uncle in his construction business here in Moscow)
Terry (from France- he recently moved here with his Russian wife and daughter)

The second picture is of Jung-Ki, Jin-Kiong (she is from Korea and wants to be a translator), and I. They came over one night for dinner. They are both classmates of mine.

The last picture is of me with Navar. She is my Syrian friend from school. She is here with her parents (her father works at the Syrian embassy). We walk to the metro together most days since we are going the same general direction.

Hope you enjoy. I have a lot of fun with my classmates. We've gotten to know each other well. A new classmate named Camella from Romania is not pictured. There are two others who are 'in' our class, but don't come very often. We've had others come in and out as well. It is an ever-changing environment; we have new teachers and new classmates periodically. But, there are a few of us who've been there since the beginning. Anyway, this is my life Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9:30 to 2:50. I'll be in classes for a while longer. During the summer Dougle and I will both be using a private tutor (since the prices for language classes in the summer jumps, since that is when a lot of people come in and take). Then, we hope that Dougle can start up classes in the Fall to help finish up some of his grammar learning, while I continue with the private tutor.

Keep my classmates and I in your prayers!

17 Months

17 Months
Current Height: 79 cm/31.1 inches tall
No of Teeth: 16
ORNERY!!
Yes, he is still pretty bald! When my parents visited, my mom thought he looked more bald than before when she first arrived. After being here for almost two weeks, she had decided he'd grown a lot of hair while they were here. I think he is probably just holding steady with the same amount that he's had for a while!
Current Favorite Books: Old MacDonald Had a Farm and My Little People Farm (lift the flap book)
New Words: No, cup (pup), water (wawr), people (pepo), belly button (bee-boh), off (ahh), knee, bib, hat (haaa), A (the letter), O (also in reference to the letter)
Favorite No-No's: not coming when called and touching the computer (we are really cracking down on these!)

New Stunts: He is starting to get a little more adventurous. As you can see in the photo, he thinks the tricycle is great for standing and balancing acts. He also loves to climb up the playground stairs (a little plastic slide) and slide down, though I still have to sit him down at the top of the slide or he'd dive head first! He runs around the house a lot too, still loves to throw balls, and love to get into everything!

New Fun Things:

• He is getting more interested in singing. We try to do the motions if the song has them. This is fun. He loves reading books that we sing with (like his Old MacDonald Book or a 12 Apostles book that I sing to instead of read the words).
  
• His Aunite Livia sent him a puzzle recently; it is one that has the picture of the piece on the board to help kids learn how to do them. Canaan loves doing this puzzle. One big draw is that it is a puzzle about different types of transportation and they make noise when you put the piece in the puzzle!! Dougle has decided he will buy Auntie Livi's kids lots of noisy toys when she has them!
  
• Canaan also loves to help Mommy around the house. When I sweep, he follows me around begging for the broom. When I start to mop, he goes around sweeping everything and tries to put the broom in the bucket! He still doesn't like the vacuum- so we don't do that very often when he's around!
  
• Canaan loves to look out our kitchen window. He stands below it, looks up and says, "Truck!" He always likes to watch the little patch of road you can see, as well as the kids and animals below. The other day he was saying "cycle" but I didn't see one. I thought he was talking about something else until Dougle came over and spotted it too! He has such good EYESIGHT and is very observant- to notice dogs and bicycles from 12 stories up!
• Canaan is learning so much. He hasn't had a whole lot of new words since we moved (which to be expected a bit), but it is amazing how much he understands! He can identify many parts of his body, some in Russian too. He also can identify many animals and a few shapes. He loves to point to different objects in his word book when we ask him where they are. He can follow many simple commands and chimes in when we say words that he knows and likes to say. It is just so amazing how much he is absorbing from his surroundings. It also makes us remember just how much we have to be extra careful about what we are saying in front of him!
• One funny thing: everything that can be opened is a door. He seems to know that actual doors are a little different from drawers (they do sound similar) and lids. Yes, he comes over to us with containers and says 'door' so that we will open them for him. It is so cute!
  

Eating: I think I talked about this in a previous blog, but it is still happening: at times he will forget that he likes certain foods we eat. Just at the sight of certain new foods (or foods we've eaten), he will turn away. I have made a point to make him at least TRY ONE BITE of something before he decides not to eat it. Well, getting this first bite down is often a very difficult battle; since Canaan has realized that Mommy always wins these battles, he is getting a little less resistent about trying new things- which is nice for Mommy! Anyway, most of the time, he will gladly eat what he at first turned his nose up at, after chewing the first bite. The only thing he consistently won't eat is cheese. Oh, and it is very cool to me that he eats SOUP! I didn't know kids his age would even eat it, but he does and loves it!

There is much more I could write. Life is just so fun and challenging with a little one year old running around. But, I'll leave you with all that for now. Blessings to everyone!