So much to do...So little time

I have so much to write...Just never seems I have enough time to sit down and do it all at once! So, this is for all of you who have been 'demanding' I update my blog ( I hope you know I'm giving up study time for YOU!) LOL

Women's Day
Last Wednesday was "Women's Day"- it's only the the biggest holiday here, outside of New Years! I even heard fireworks going off that night! So, since we didn't have classes on Wednesday we brought chocolate for our teacher on Tuesday. I bought flowers for Inna and found her a beautiful cake plate. I wanted to get her incredibly beautiful one I found, but my Russian friend who was with me went on and on about how I can't give that to her- it's too much. She warned me how she would feel obligated to give me a 'big' gift, or she would feel badly that her gift wasn't as big as mine. I wanted so badly to give the other plate to her, but it's that constant struggle over whether or not it's "culturally appropriate" and the last thing I want to do is cause anything between Inna and I... so I wrote her a nice card (to the best of my abilities!), gave her a very nice cake plate, and a bouquet of narcissus. She is always so appreciative- it doesn't matter what I do for her. I just want to make sure she knows how special she is to me. In the end, after talking with my language helpers, it was a good decision not to spend as much as I wanted to- and I'm glad that I had my friend shopping with me! Oh, one more thing...Wednesday morning, Stas, Stasik, and Zhenya show up at my front door with flowers and a little gift! To wish me a Happy Women's Day! I love it! Not to mention the free drink and dessert I got when we went out to lunch that day...

Gavin
If only he could slow down a little! He is changing so fast I can barely keep up! I can hardly stand it! Every day he's doing so much more...He's mastered the art of waving- he's like your own personal fan...Anytime you say "Paka, paka" (bye) he starts waving like a mad man. He is "roaring" at every animal he can find. It started with this little 'game' JB started...Every time he gets up from a nap they peak around the door and "roar" in attempts of trying to "scare" Mommy...Then it progressed to roaring at this little lion he has. Every day he plays with this lion when he sits in his high chair- JB will make it peek out from under his tray and Gavin with roar...Now he crawls up to the cat and roars (before he tackles him!)...He roars at his duck and frog bath toys, he roars at his teddy bears and his giraffe toy...So cute, I just can't get enough of it! Especially when wrinkles up his nose and whispers "roar"! It's amazing to see the little boy in him come out more and more each day. Yesterday he was making "engine noises" while pushing his car around the play room... He has learned to throw his little size 1 Nike soccer ball - so now he'll sit for a half and hour and just throw it to you if you keep rolling it back to him... He loves to read books- We have read to him since he was just days old, but he's finally starting to love it- it's moved from tearing the books off the shelf to sitting and looking at them, to pushing one over to Mommy, and I'll read to him 8 or 10 times...He loves to turn the pages. It amazes me that he knows when I'm finished reading a page- he always knows when to turn them! Right now his favorites are "Moo, Baa, La, La, La" by Sandra Boynton, "Good Morning, Good Night", and "Tails".

New Hobby
Okay...Thanks Andrea and Melissa for making me fall in love with all your digital scrapbook pages...I've given in- and gave it a shot- only 3 layouts into it and I'm already addicted! I'll get you all a link to my gallery as soon as I post a few more LO's! It's been so hard getting paper scrapbooking materials to us(mostly b/c they're so heavy to mail!) and I didn't bring too many with me b/c i didn't have the extra weight in our suit cases... (I have a whole tupperware trunk of them sitting in Ohio!) not to mention all our photos are pretty much digital now- I'm so pumped! The only down side is that we have to pay for our DSL by Megabyte and the files I download are very big...So it has the potential to run our budget into the ground- so I'll have to show a little self control!


Thanks so much to all of you who have been sending us encouraging emails lately- you have no idea how much it means to us that we haven't been forgotten since we moved half way around the world- and it's especially comforting to know that you love us and have been praying for us. Please know we feel your prayers and we miss you all very much! Also, we have plenty of room if you ever feel the urge to come visit! I keep the guest room all made up for any one who feels like "surprising" us with a visit! Next week would be great~! Spring has most definately arrived here and the flowers are in bloom! Summer is just around the corner!...the Black Sea is beautiful this time of year... (*hint, hint*)