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Who will go to the movies?

We had a unique conversation at dinner tonight. I felt the urge to go the movies, but Anne Marie had also been thinking about going out to catch a flick, so we had a little discussion about who should get to go and who should stay home and put the kids to bed. We didn't want Ben to hear what we were planning, though, so Anda and I spoke Russian, and Anne Marie and I spoke (broken) Spanish. Ben listened to us, and asked, "Mommy, why did you say 'perviy'? What is 'perviy'?" Clearly, he's a smart kid. Not only does he understand English and Latvian, but he understands what isn't English or Latvian.

PS: Anda and I won the argument. We saw Ocean's 13, and thought it was pretty good. Thanks, AM!

Līgo!

Happy John's Day! Last weekend we went to the West Coast Latvian Center near Shelton, WA to spend the biggest Latvian holiday of the year with a bunch of Latvians. The basic activities include: drinking beer from bottles, singing songs, giving beer to people named Jānis (John), jumping over the bonfire, and drinking beer from bucket-sized mugs. It was cool to hang out with some Latvians, but when it started smelling a bit too much like a brewery, we retired to our campsite and roasted some pork kabobs and chatted with Anda's Latvian friend who also doesn't drink. The boys enjoyed the chance to camp again, and Satus had fun running up to strangers and licking them. I'd like to post some pictures, but I'm not sure where the camera is, so you'll have to check back in a day or so.

A Ton of Bricks

Also over the weekend Anda found someone on Craigslist selling all of their paving stones for a good price. So I drove out to Auburn and loaded them in the back of our van. The guy selling the bricks generously offered to pump up the tires to max pressure, but as you can see from the first pic, the van was still riding pretty low (Neal's lawnmower wouldn't fit under the bumper). I have not yet seen any indication that I broke the van by carrying 3,500 pounds of bricks. Incidentally, we're planning to create a small patio for bbqs and picnics.

Miscellania

It's been a while since our last post. I was going to post over the weekend, but then we all got sick. I went to work yesterday and got diddly accomplished, so I stayed home for part of today. Here are a few tidbits of the last few days:

We had brownies for father's day. I had two on my plate at once (father's privilege). Ben chastised me, saying that if I ate both of them then I would die and my teeth would fall out. Apparently we've been stressing dental hygiene so much that Ben now equates tooth decay with death.

Ben drew me a card for father's day. There was a picture of me and him, and he was wearing his Ben 10 watch. (See Ben's post a bit further down to find out about Ben 10).

Neal woke us up in the morning a few days ago by playing Anne Marie's dancing Santa who sings Santa Claus is Coming to Town. (He had seen it in the attic previously and forced Anda to take it down). It was cute because he was trying to sing along. I have a video of the boys dancing together that I'll try to post--not sure if it will work. In case I can't figure out how to do it, it is a perfect example of Neal copying Ben 100%. He kept looking over his shoulder at Ben to make sure he was doing it right.

Neal woke up in the middle of the night recently, crying. I went in and asked what was wrong, and he replied, "Monsters!" I have never heard him say that word before (although he's certainly heard Ben say it a gazillion times, and he himself has pretended to be a monster many times). I asked Neal where the mosters were, and he said, "I don't know." I went to get him a drink, and while I was gone he cried about monsters again. He ended up sleeping with us. The event is more significant when you remember that Neal still doesn't like to talk, so it was quite an accomplishment for him to explain what the issue was.

This next story could be considered hearsay. However, since I'm not offering it to prove the truth of the matter asserted, I think it ought to be ok. Last week in Relief Society the lesson was on being self sufficient. One older sister (probably 70 or so) told about how her father had paid for her first year in school, but she had some fun and was not careful, so she had to get a job. She continued, "So I got a job as a stripper at ...." I imagine the collective gasp drowned out the rest of her sentence, and everyone turned to stare at her. Turns out she worked at a biscuit factory stripping the cardboard from the biscuits at some point in the production line.

Neal Squeaks

Neal wanted a drink and was getting a bit whiney about it, so I said "squeak squeak" in an imitation squeaky voice. Neal said, "No squeak, cry." I still wasn't moving fast enough for him, though, so he said, "Squeak!"

Bedtime

Ben was downstairs watching Stargate with Anne Marie. I told him to come upstairs to put his pajamas on, and said, "say goodnight to Anne Marie." Ben's response: "But Anne Marie isn't going to bed."

This reminds me of Ben's doctor visit a few months back. Ben was pretending to be asleep when the doctor came in, complete with fake snoring.

Doctor Coe: "Wow! You must wake the whole house."
Ben: "Houses don't sleep!"

Ben Wants to Post, Too

ben _________________ jhjnhkny

ben ten _________________ ten

1wertyuiop

gwen

kevin 11

Neal's TV Shows

I already mentioned that Neal loves the Pooh movie we borrowed from Mom and Dad. (Anda and I are getting quite sick of it. Half Price Books and Craigslist didn't have any other Pooh movies today, unfortunately.) Anyway, Anda was flipping channels today and saw "Lake Placid 2" (big crocodile, stupid humans). Neal stared wide-eyed and said "Croc!" with wonderment in his voice. When the commercial came on, though, Neal pleaded "Croc?" and glared at Anda.

Our Last Name

Anda's been teaching Ben how he has a middle name and a last name. Ben's friend, Daniel, knows his full name is Daniel Gatlin. When asked "what is Ben's full name?", Daniel replies: "Ben Jamin!"

Ben Tells the Truth

I left the boys alone for a moment while I was washing dishes today and (of course) it didn't take long for Neal to begin crying. I came back into the room and asked Ben what happened. He said, "I'm going to tell the truth." (You see, we've been talking about how he needs to tell the truth. He likes to conveniently leave out his own involvement in Neal's injuries.) He then told me how they were playing a game and putting their hands over their mouths. I asked if Ben had put his hand on Neal's mouth, and Ben began to tell his story that no, Neal had done it himself, and then he thought his hand had become stuck, and that's why he started crying. I asked Ben, "Is that the truth?" and before he thought about it he answered, "No. ... Oh! ... Well, I did it to Neal. And that's the truth, Daddy." So maybe he is learning the difference.

The finished product

This is the new color of our Power wheels car. I like it. I liked the pink too, but it was faded and old... And not all caracter is lost because Ben still calls it his "Barbie car"! :)

Uzbek Update

The Russian version finally loaded. I'll have to get Anda because there's a couple words I don't know, but it's definitely different than the English. Russian has the phrases "on some flights" and "both for one-way and round-trip flights" that I did not see in English. If you know anyone that can translate from Uzbek to English, I might know of an airline that has a job opening.

Anyone going to Uzbekistan?

Anda found out that Uzbekistan Airways has a nonstop flight from NYC to Riga for (relatively) cheap. In checking for terms and conditions, though, she found the following statement on their website:

"There is the special tariff of economy class of service for family not less than two person (the husband and-or the wife and their children from 2 till 18 years inclusive).
Change of date of a departure within the limits of validity of the ticket for flight is supposed. Thus gathering for rebooking places is raised. For untimely refusal of a place penal gathering is raised from passengers."

The sentences appear to be in English, but we can't make any sense out of it. Go ahead, read it again. We thought it was pretty hilarious.

After much thought, we determined that "gathering" must mean "fee." And there's a penalty fee for late cancellations. I would check the russian version, but the page won't load (and there's a good chance I wouldn't understand that, either).