Hi All,

Today at 1030am US Central time our baby was born.  At 18 days ahead of schedule we are having difficulty with the name and even a spare 6 hours in the car driving up from Monterrey today didn’t change anything.  Anyway, he came in at 49cm and 2.98kg.  Elena is doing well, she just went in for another dopler on her leg to see if there is any remaining clot from the DVT. Results will be in tomorrow.

Here are the first few photos.

another 3 seconds. . . OK, I'm getting tired now.

the final 3 seconds of the process. . . OK, u missed your chance and I'll nap instead.

I found these helpful hints from Focus on the Family on a tag stuck to some clothes.  I liked it a lot so put it up here to share with you.  I didn’t ask the authors, James Dobson, Inc. for permission but I’m guessing they will be ok with me sharing thier thoughts amoungst my friends.  I had a look for thier website too but couldn’t find it.  Maybe they will contact me if they get upset with the reproduction???

1. Children thrive best in an atmosphere of guenuine love and undergirded by reasonable, consistent discipline.
2. Heredity does not equip a child with proper attitudes: children learn only what they are taught!
3. The footsteps a child follows are most likely to be the ones his parents thought they covered up.
4. Praise and criticism at home should be distributed as evenly as possible.
5. It is through loving control that parents ecpress personal worth to a child.
6. If you never allow a child to want something, he’ll never enjoy the plreasure of receiving it.
7. There are so many necessary “no’s” in life that we should say “yes” whenever we can.
8. Grandparents can be invaluable to the world of little people. For one thing, “They are the only grown-ups who have time.”
9. trying to control children by yelling is as utterly futile as trying to steer a car by honking the horn.
10. Loving discipline cncourages a child to respect other epople and live as a responsible, constructive citizen.

I can’t remember so far back but I don’t think that 7-8 year olds were doing such complicated dictation at school. Maybe someone who supervised me at school can can correct me?

Anyway Richard had a difficult time about
a week ago and achieved a 3- out of 5
for his dictation at school.

I can’t go into the details of what the mistakes were because I really have no idea.  My Russian reading is OKish with the big letters but the little ones get confusing.  I mean take a look at the last word in the picture below right, what the hell is that?  Well I can tell you, it says ‘mishi’ which means many mice!

So getting back to the dictation, after getting in trouble from Mum and Grandma Richard put in a fantastic effort and proudly brought home a 5 for signing! Now not only was there a proud kid but also an even prouder Mum and Grandma.

We had a prett long day today. The day started out with three early school lessons to catch up on the four days that we missed last week after our car tour around the Golden Ring.  The lessons when down well enough that he earnt himself to a trip to the movies to catch the latest Mr. Bean.  For dinner we had a massive bowl of Spag Bol which took a bit longer to make than expected.  So by the time it and the strawberry ice cream desert (unusual treat) were gone we had one tired kid on our hands.  Unfortunately our tired kid had trouble getting to sleep.  

To isolate him from the sound of the TV and my tapping on the computer we put him down in our room.  About an hour later we crept in to check on him and straigt away he rolled over and said “counting sheep doesn’t help!”  What a sweet kid!  Mum advised him to try with his eyes closed and within 3 minutes it did the trick.

Nigh-night Richard.

This morning Elena walked Richard to school. The usual way it goes is that whoever walks him to school carries his bag until they get close to the school grounds. Then there is a pit stop where he takes of his hat and gloves and puts on his school bag to look ‘cool’ when he arrives.

Today went just as planned except during the pit stop a cute little girl from his class poked her head inbetween Elena and Ricahrd smiling at Richard without saying a word. She then turned and hopped off to school.

Richard with his usual little boy vs little girl aggression said something under his breath. When Elena questioned him about why he isn’t nice to the little girl he said he said “nothing, I’ve just had enough of her and her chocolates and candies every day!”

Aparently her name is Dina and he has complained to Babuliya before that she isn’t a girl she is just Dina.

Let’s wait to see how he likes Dina in 10-12 years!

Well it is that time in life to leave the comfort of home and the easy life in pre-school and head off to school. For Mum and Dad this was a major process. After deciding against the English school options in Moscow (after negative feedback from various sources) we settled on Russian schools with English as a second language from the early years. We found school Arbat 1234 which has English from the 2nd grade. They even have kids who started there with no Russian skills at all!

After a scary interview with the director where Richard clammed up only managing to wisper a few answers to the easiest of questions we took a look at the sports hall. The director was searching for other skills in the kid which may make up for his apparent lack of speaking skills and then we found English. As soon as this was known we were in, with only the medical exams to go!

So off to the clinic to get a battery of tests done not unlike the ones recently done in Baku for his citizenship although in Moscow the surrounds were much more inviting. Passing the tests in flying colours we moved on to see the psychiatrist to get an all clear on his preparedness for shchool. This is a mandetory step for kids under 6.5yo in Moscow even though the kids can go to shchool from 5yo here.

New shoes, uniform, books, bag, and suit for the first big day!

Just a matter of waiting now. Roll on September 1st!