Earthquake?

We were enjoying one of the Monkeys' favorite activities, watching machinas and buses out the bedroom window, when Angel came in and asked why were were jumping up and down. I said I wasn't. A few minutes later, Anne Morin called and asked if we felt the earthquake. What earthquake? Marina called a little later to say she saw it on the local news. It was a 3 or 4 point earthquake on the kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan border. I've been googling "earthquake+kazakhstan" ever since. Nothing. Oh well.

That was the highlight of our day. It is cool and rainy here, which makes good sprints down to the playground until it rains again, but other than that, not much to do. Of course, as I type this, Lena and Dub are perfecting their rendition of the "Oookah-Bookah!" dance. Lena's got the arms working, but Dub sticks with the basic hands-on-knees-funny-walk.

Yesterday, Dub had a hard day. Today was Lena's turn. They were both congested and a little feverish last night, so we gave them some medicine (yes, with sleep aid) and they were toast at 845 and slept all night. First time for us. Somehow Lena maneuvered her way to the bottom of her bed, and then did a header into the space between the bed and the wall. This is the same space Dub got stuck in the first night, but he didn't go head first. So Mama hears the screams, and runs in to see 2 feet and a little white butt wiggling uncontrollably over the side of the bed. The rest of the day saw many frustrating moments for poor Lena. There were many tissues used on the little girl today, bless her heart.

The odd thing about Lena is that, when she gets a little discipline (and I DO mean a little, like being told "no" to something), she pouts first. When she doesn't get her way, she starts screaming with tears. Then she sits down, legs straight out, arms by her side, head hung over her chest, and sobs. The more she sobs, the lower her head goes, and the more, uh, "stuff" comes out of her face. Next thing you know, her head is literally resting on her legs, her shirt and pants are soaked from tears and other facially-emanated fluids, and she's still sobbing over being told "no" to something usually very simple. I guess it's the little things.

We talked a long time tonite about which of these kinds of battles to fight, and agreed that "no" means "no", but to temper that with overwhelming love at the same time. What that translates into is letting her have her little (or big!) sobbing times, but then hugging her and reassuring her for as long as it takes to get Lena to come back and "Susie" to leave.

"Susie" is the Ballenger little girls' alter ego, who only does bad things. "Jamie" is the boys' bad side. So, we love Lena, but sometimes, like today, Susie comes around a LOT! We still love her, even when she's having a hard day. We love her even more when she's crying, because that's when we all need the most love, right? Right.

We're headed to the mountains tomorrow with the Morin family (Happy belated birthday, Anne!), and have begun a serious countdown of single digits until we go home. Not sure if we'll be able to get on a flight out of Moscow earlier than July 3rd, but our friend at Delta is working on that for us.

Blessings,
5@ndl1n4