chapter 3

Good evening! Well, our Russian family left us this morning to start life in their new appartment. We keep wondering how they are getting on this evening! I remember the first night we spent in Redmond in our appartment there and how strange it all felt and it must be so much worse for them! Poor things! We are going to go and see them on Saturday for a couple of hours, just to help with anything they need or just to be a familiar face!

We have really enjoyed having them and they have enjoyed being with us I think. It helped them having someone to show them the sorts of places they might go to and to ask questions of. We have covered a lot in our few days! I started a book for them, in which I wrote down some of the useful things they may need to remember which M found helpful. She wrote the russian translation so she would know what the words meant. I hope they get on Ok for the next few days - I feel responsible for them, which is silly, I know, but...!

On Monday morning we went to the Supermarket. We went to one in Bellevue as it is the same brand as their nearest one in Kent. I gave them a brief explanation of the differences in prices and then took Naomi to the playland. Poor Naomi was having a bad day that day, due to an unsettled night and she would not have had the patience to come with me! Anyway, as I found them a few minutes after I dropped off Naomi, they looked in shock at all the choices that they could see! We then spent some time together looking at prices and brands etc and thenthey did a bit of shopping on their own as I had some things to get for us. They did very well and managed to buy some things within budget!

When we got back home all the children were asleep and so we had a quiet lunch! The parents offered to cook us supper that night and they cooked a delicious chicken soup meal with homemade bread! IT was yummy and it meant that they knew that their daughter would eat it! They cooked yesterday too, a meatball and rice dish and it was equally delicious! I liked not having to cook!!

On Monday afternoon we were in the garden and then on Tuesday the family went to sign papers etc in the office. They were out all day and were shattered when they came home. Naomi, Esther and I had a lovely time in Seattle with Becky, Darin and Eli and then we went to Issaquah to the park and to the library. Naomi, Esther and Eli also had a brief session in Eli's local park but it was cut short by a large holiday club group of children coming to play. We were frustrated that all the older children wanted to play on the little children's toys - why they couldn't pllay on their good facilities, we didn't know! However our children had a good play in Issaquah so that was good!

Esther really started to walk more confidently on Tuesday too; she is still preferring to crawl at the moment but I don't think it will be long before she is walking all of the time. Having 2 girls around her this week who were both walking really helped her to be motivated and she is now walking several steps before sitting on her bottom! She was funny in the library as, for the first time, she could walk and choose her own books! Most of hers weren't picked by mummy however!! Still, she enjoyed herself and enabled me to have a good look for some books for the children!

Yesterday we went to Costco with our family just so that they could experience that and then on to the post office to post some photos to their family back in Russia. In the after noon we went to the park! I had to smile, at the begginning of the week, their girls were wearing more in summer than my 2 do in winter and it was hot! But by yesterday the whole family were complaining because of the heat and I was being told off for letting the children play in the sun! It was 5pm by this time - I am not being negligent and it was pleasant - not too hot! They had gone from one extreme to the other! maybe it is the jet lag!

Today our family left us before 9:30 and so we have had the day to ourselves as normal. We went to the park with the East side mother's club this morning for a while and then onto the beach with Fritzi, which was great fun! the girls loved being in the shallow warm water and there was no current which was good! There was sand to play with and shade to keep them out of the strong sun, so all inall we had a good time. We came home and spent this afternoon at home or in the garden!

Last thursday, of course, Naomi was in school and I am pleased to report that after a shaky start, she had her best day so far I think. She came out smiling and telling me that she had been running with the children in the play ground. She has done well, I think and we hope to enrol her again for another short session when we return from our holiday!

The children are fine, althugh Esther is not sleeping too well - she has a very narrow margin for comfort and sleeping I think! Too hot and she can't sleep, too cold and the same! I hope she is better tonight - I am tired! she is very proud of herself when she is walking and we are too! Naomi has been a real star this week with being kind and sharing her toys with the Russian children. Esther has been too, but it was harder for Naomi. However Naomi has been really good and we are very proud of her too!

I was making a cherry pie the other day (Naomi loves, loves, loves fruit pie!) but it nearly didn't have any cherries in it! I was sitting down at the children's table to destone the fruit and Esther came up and started to make her "please feed me" noises. so I gave her a cherry and within seconds it was devoured and she wanted another one! Of course it didn't take Naomi too long to work out that she was missing something and so she came to join in! It was hard work keeping up with destoning the cherries for both the pie and the children! Esther got her fruit intake in one session that day, I think!

Anyway, I am falling asleep, sorry! I am afraid that there will not be any blogs for the next couple of weeks, We are on holiday in Oregon from Sunday through to the 6th August. I will write again when I get back!
Until then! Bye for now!!

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

We have had a very busy few days with our family and it is tiring for all of us to try and communicate explanations or questions. On Saturday we started to cover things like the washing machine! M is very happy about having a washing machine as she had to do it by hand in Russia! We also spent a long time talking about money, the cost of living and who works and who doesn't work here! They all went to sleep in the afternoon and Tim took our girls out to do a bit of shopping as they were very impatient to get out by this stage! Our friends, Chad and Melinda came over in the afternoon with another travel cot for the family and stayed for supper. I was glad of their advice as The older girl had a temperature and I needed to know what we did if there was a problem in the night! It is not so easy here as they don't have any insurance yet and so you can't just go to A&E like you would at home!

Yesterday we split up and Tim took the family into Seattle - to the top of the Space Needle actually and the girls and I went to church. The family had a wonderful time - their faces were smiling from ear to ear when we met them for lunch! They had really enjoyed going to the top and seeing a great view of Seattle! The children were fascinated by the street entertainers and all the girls were fascinated by the rollercoaster rides that were open! There was one that had the people swinging upside down - it made us all feel quite queer! When we came back from church we walked to our local park and let the girls have a swing and a bit of a play!

Russian Family Ch 1

Hello all!

Hope you are all well! I am not too sure how much I will get written this morning but I will try and type fast and will post what I have written, so you may end up with this blog in chapter form!! Sorry!

Well, our Russian family arrived at 12:30am on Friday night, the poor things. I can't even begin to imagine what they must have been feeling. their plane was delayed by 4 hours and they had travelled for 3 days to get here! Can you imagine!! Yuk!! Anyway, when they arrived there was an interpreter and the World Relief worker so we were able to establish some things (some more successfully than others!!) but we were finally in bed at 2:30. However, Esther woke up just as I was going to sleep and she took a good 2 house to go back to sleep so it was very late before I got to sleep! I have caught up now though!

So our family consist of Mum, Dad, and 2 girls, 2 and 10 months so as you can see they fit quite nicely into our family! The children have been fine. Naomi has been brilliant at sharing her toys with them and I have been very proud of her. Esther just takes it all in her stride of course!! The older daughter (L) made me smile as when she first arrived she went into the play room and in 10 minutes was feeing at home, pushing the babies in their prams!! Children never need a common language and so they all have been playing quite happily! Naomi just chatters away to them all and L's first English word was (Can you guess?!!) "No!!!"

Us adults on the other hand have been proving how little words you need to understand to get the message across if you have lots of patience and good will! It takes for ever though to explain something when you have to keep looking up words in the dictionary. I have been thankful (and they have too) that Tim knows some Russian but I am not sure how we will manage the next 3 days!! Ha Ha! It will be fine. The problem is that the scripts are so different that M cannot even work out what the things are. So we have explained things from which nappy to use to shampoo! Today we are letting them loose in a Supermarket! I will let you know how we are getting on.

Well, that is Chapter one!We are getting on fine; the family are really lovely and we are enjoying having them and they are ( I think) finding it helpful to stay with us these few days! Will wirte more soon!

School and Parks!

Hi there! Just a quick one tonight as there is not much news having only written on Monday! Hope you are all well and coping in the heat wave! WE are fine here! Our weather is not as nice as yours and has been wet and cloudy at times. It got better this afternoon and was quite warm in the end, so hopefully it will stay nice for a bit! I feel a bit cheated that we haven't had our "wall to wall sunshine" everyone promised me!!

Yesterday morning Esther and I had a lovely time at home whilst Naomi was at school. Poor Naomi didn't enjoy herself too much I don't think and I am a bit cross that they didn't ring me when she had obviously been crying most of the morning. She had been quite industrious though and soon settled when I picked her up. Her behaviour was dreadful yesterday - a combination of school and tiredness I think! not looking forward to tomorrow but we have had a lovely day today! In the afternoon we went to the park, with Fritzi and Ulrike which was great as we haven't seen them for ages! The girls played nicely together and we chatted!

Today I had a chiropractor appointment and then a lady from World Relief came round to chat about our refugees that are arriving on Friday night. WE are hosting a family of 4 - 2 parents and 2 girls about the same age as our 2 for a few nights until they are ready to move into their appartment. The organisation has a large number of families arriving over the weekend and were really desperate for host families. WE were asked by one of our friends here if we could host. WE are excited about having them to stay and are looking forward to getting to know them all! However it does mean that our week next week is looking vague to say the least as I have no idea what we will be doing with them. I will let you know!

This afternoon we went to a new park with our friend Jo, which was great fun! The new park looks great, with trails and a wonderful play area for the children. We will be going back!

Esther is gaining in confidence in her standing and was playing a game yesterday of standing on her own, clapping and then falling into me so that I would give her a big hug!! She thought that was great! She has learnt to say "shh" recently and was doing it this evening as I was trying to get her to go to sleep! It was funny but not very helpful! She is a real character!

Naomi is fine and is currently fascinated by parts of the body. She told me this morning that she couldn't do a wee wee like Daddy and that she had a bottom!! It was so funny! She has also decided to play at doctors today and was listening to my heart in very strange places!! She is very caring and looks after her imaginary friends very well! Honestly, only Naomi could have more than one!! Bless her!

That is about it from here. Will write on Sunday and let you know how our weekend has gone with our family!!

bye for now!

July 4th and onwards!

Hello again! I have returned to write the entry in full, it may be quite long, so you may want a cup of tea to hand! I know I have one!!

So, it has been an eventful week, both here and at home. We were so excited on Wednesday morning to hear that London had won the Olympic Bid for 2012. Our girls will be a good age to take them and it would be really great to be able to go and cheer on Team GB on home turf. Later on that morning, my sister rang to say that they had sold their house, so we had had 2 lots of nice news. However, we were so sickened and saddened on Thursday morning to wake up to the news of the London Bombings. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected. We were relieved that Mum and Dad returned safely on Saturday.

This time last week, however, was July 4th - American Independence day and we celebrated it in true American style! There were many parades going on on Monday but the Seattle Times suggested that the one in Kirkland was worth seeing and so we set off to watch it! The parade was fun! It started off with a children's parade but that was just children walking / riding the route, it seems; next there was a fly past by one of the Navy Helicopters. My legs went all weak watching them though! The crew were sitting with their legs hanging over the edge of the open door and the helicopter flew at a rather steep angle so that they could wave to the crowd. I am sure that they were strapped in but it did make me feel rather queer!!

Then came all the bands, the cars and the people! There were only one or two floats but it was colourful and fun to watch and the children really enjoyed all the sights! We enjoyed it too! We are not sure how long it all lasted because after about an hour the children had seen enough and it was lunch time so we left to find some lunch! It still seemed to be going on for quite some time after we left though! AFter lunch we found a great park for Naomi to play in for a while and then she was entertaining us under the shade! She was pretending to feed us some lunch with handfuls of grass! She was having a great time running backwards and forwards whilst we "ate!" She is so funny! We came home via the most wicked ice cream shop imaginable! I had seen one near us but had never gone in but we fancied trying it out! Oh my - the ice cream was delicious but definitely only a one off treat!

Back at home we got out the ball pool and added water so that the children could play in it and keep cool. They enjoyed splashing us and paddling for a while! Tim's Grandparents had given him some face paints for the girls and I was drawing pictures on their hands! Naomi decided that she wanted to draw too and spent ages drawing on Mum's hands and arms. She was very industrious and Mum ended up with very colourful arms!! It did come off, but not as easily as the box suggested. But, thankyou, GG's for a great hour's worth of entertainment!!

On tuesday morning, it was Naomi's first day at school. It was suggested to us that she enrolled for a summer session to become a bit more used to it before September came and she started properly. She is therefore going on a tuesday and thursday morning for a fortnight, like she will in September. I took her in and settled her off and after a while I left, knowing that they would ring me if there were any problems. Well, we didn't have any phone calls and so I picked her up at 11:15 as soon as the session ended. She had, I think, done quite well until the play time and then she had got upset when the children were noisy in the play ground. She was terribly upset in the car and took ages to calm down, but was cheerfully talking to Tim about school later on and was able to go on Thursday without being too worried. We will see how tomorrow goes!

On tuesday afternoon we went to the park and Naomi and Grandma had a great time rolling and running down the hill!! We have video footage to prove it!! It was funny! Naomi's imaginary friends were also at the park and needed pushing on the swings!! I am sure the people watching must have been wondering what was going on!!

On Tuesday night, Mum and I started to make some curtains for Naomi's bedroom. To be honest, Mum made them and I just sewed long straightish seams!! However, I do now have some idea what to do to make them!! We have not yet been able to put them up, which is really disappointing as they look good, but the pole that we had bought broke in two!! I took it back today!

On Wednesday, Mum and Dad bravely took the children on the bus into Seattle! Naomi was good but Esther was a shocker I am told! They went to the Aquarium, which they all enjoyed! I went to SEATAC (airport) to meet some friends who had been visiting family in Minnesota. AFter dropping them back at their home I went to meet everyone at the Aquarium with the hope that we could communicate our whereabouts using our mobile phones! Well, unfortunately and for different reasons, niether of our phones would work and so I was really panicking that we wouldn't find each other! The Aquarium staff were really helpful and put messages out on the tannoy which Dad finally heard! When we finally had found each other we went for lunch - to eat some of the fish they had just seen! After that we did a little bit of shopping and caught the monorail (or "onorail" as Naomi calls it!) back to the car!

In the evening, Tim and I went out to dinner, which was great and then onto a bookshop to wander round and find some books for my holiday! I was banned from entering the children's section for a change!! I chose some different books that I hope will be good holiday reading!

Thursday morning, Naomi was back at school and this time we were able to see her via their webcam. She was doing fine when they were working. We could see her busy with things and talking to the children and teacher. We went to the library before going to pick her up but, again she had been unsettled by the playtime. She didn't take too long to settle this time. I hope that tomorrow is better for her. Mum suggested that she stood by the teacher and I think she has taken this on board.

Mum and DAd took the children to do a bit of shopping on Thursday afternoon and to the park whilst I did some cooking! It was great to have an uninterrupted hour to prepare thursday and friday supper! Mum and I carried on with the sewing in the evening.

It was pouring with rain on Friday and we thought we would go shopping as there are some things that I wanted to buy. Unfortunately and unusually we had to abandon our shopping trip because Naomi was so badly behaved. I have no idea what the matter was but she was dreadful! She yelled and yelled and whinged and it was "I want...." all the time. In the end we gave up and came home but she was banned from going to the park and watching TV in the afternoon! We went for a wet walk instead! She was terrible!

On Saturday we had a quiet morning before going out for some lunch. We had originally planned that I would take Tim and the girls to a first birthday party and then I would take Mum and DAd to the airport. However, for a variety of reasons Naomi suffered from one of her rare bouts of motion sickness and we had to stop to let her calm down. By the time she was fit to travel we didn't have time to get to the party and then get to the airport and so we all ended up seeing Mum and DAd off. Naomi was so upset that she didn't get to the party - so were we! But she was fine in the end and we went in the garden instead!

Tim and I were in the nursery on Sunday morning again and this time had a much calmer morning than a month ago! After church we had a wonderful afternoon with some friends! We went to the harbour and wandered around the very posh boats! We had also wandered around the fishermen's harbour and were comparing the boats!! We had a great time with them and took some fun photos. These can be found on: http://spaces.msn.com/sneathspace if you are interested!

Today we took back our broken pole and then went to the park in the afternoon! It felt so quiet today with it just being the girls and me! I never thought my parents were noisy people but.....!

Esther has really developed in both her stability on her feet and in her language over the last 2 weeks. She took her first proper steps on Saturday morning before mum and DAd left - Mum was delighted!! she could do it I think but just lacks confidence which is strange when you see her climbing! She can stand on her own for a while now especially if she doesn't realise it!
She is also very vocal and is making lots of sounds that are her words for things so she can say juice, spoon, ball, book, bye, hiya, gone, dada and many more. However you do have to know the context as many of the words sound the same!! But she is trying which is great!

Naomi's "little boy" and/ or Ally is with us all the time! Tonight she was resisting going to bed as "Little boy was 'leeping"! She is very funny and very serious about him. She was telling me that she had a baby in her tummy but the little boy had it now! We know too many pregnant people I think!

Anyway, I had better end it here! Keep well and I will write on Wednesday as usual!

Can you wait another day?

Hello! This is just a very quick note to say that we are all well and that we have had a wonderful time with Mum and Dad! They went home yesterday and we were very sorry to see them go! However, Esther was a real shocker in bed last night and I was awake with her for about 3 hours! So I am afraid that I am not going to write tonight but will write tomorrow instead! I am sorry because I didn't write on WEdnesday either but it can't be helped! I have had
lots of emails to send this evening in order to arrange our week! Sorry!

So, I hope that you are all well and that you can wait another day for the next installment of "The Sneath's Abroad!"

Until then, night night!

The Orcas Islands!

Hello all! Hope you are all well! We are fine here and have enjoyed a lovely warm sunny day today. It is a bank holiday tomorrow to celebrate American Independence and so we are hoping for another good day tomorrow!

Well, it has been a busy week since I last wrote! We set off for the Orcas Islands last monday morning and had a good but wet journey across to the Island. We were staying in a resort that was ideal for us; it was near the main village on the island and within a few minutes walk from the beach. We were self catering so we were able to either cook for ourselves or eat out, depending on what we could find! The little cabin was next to the Orcas Island Airfield which was surprisingly busy but not too intrusive! In fact, Esther loved to watch the planes take off and land and so they provided fairly continuous entertainment for her! THere were also some wild but very tame rabbits that lived outside which Naomi loved and she was really excited about seeing them each day. She could also feed them carrots so she was very pleased with herself!

On each of the mornings we were there, we had a cloudy start so we either had a wonder round Eastsound or explored a different part of the island. We found a couple of little coves that were good for throwing stones into and Naomi and Esther enjoyed this! After the children had had their rest, we went to the beach in the afternoon and it was great! Both the girls loved the water and the tiny patch of sand that we found! Naomi was very pleased because Grandad made her a boat, which she loved playing in and finding things for and Esther just loved to sit at the water's edge and feel the stones and the sea weed! She is a shocker for putting stones in her mouth though - I think she must be deficient in some sort of mineral as she was always sucking them! IT was a full time job just to stop her from putting them in her mouth!!

On one of the afternoons that we were there, Naomi and Dad were very creative and made some animals out of the driftwood that was around. They made a horse, a dog and a bird and Naomi really enjoyed finding a stone for a nose or for some teeth. Mum and I asked her what she was doing at one point and she said "I am looking for a nose!!" It sounded so funny! We were all impressed that they were still there the next day! We mostly had the beach to ourselves which was great and stopped Dad wanting to walk 400 miles to find an appropriate spot!!

We all loved our afternoons on the beach and it was great that our cabin was so close as it took no time to get there and we didn't have to cart much in the way of stuff with us! The girls had had enough after about an hour and a half and so we were able to go home and have some tea once we had finished! Naomi slept in a single bed in the same room as Mum and Dad and was pleased that they didn't 'turb her! Grandma had to poke Grandad once or twice if the snoring got too bad but Naomi just thought this was funny! Esther was in with me and she slept very well really, which was great!

Once the children were in bed we were able to either read or knit (Mum) and I was able to read a book from start to finish! It was a real luxuary! I have to confess that it was a really easy read novel but who cares!! I enjoyed it and it would take me weeks to read in normal circumstances! There was a video in the cabin and I rented cinderella and Jungle book to watch whilst we were there, which they both loved!! Esther loved the music in them especially and was dancing away!

I have discovered that both my little daughters enjoy ice lollies! There are some really lovely, fruity ones with no-added-sugar that we have found and they are a big hit! Esther was a little bird this afternoon, just sitting there opening her mouth for someone to give her some! She was funny!

We had a good journey back home on Friday and it was lovely to see Tim again! Esther wouldn't let go when he first came home!

Yesterday, we went to a Milk Carton Derby on recommendation from Tim's boss and it was great fun! Each year, on one of the lakes, there are a series of boat races but the boats all have to be made from Milk Cartons - ordinary, everyday milk cartons! - and it was so funny to watch!! We had a really great afternoon! The boats also had wooden frames and there are different categories, so some had been made in 45 minutes, some had never been tested and some were really extraordinary in their design!! We were especially taken with one that looked like a gigantic hamster wheel only to see in the paper this morning that it had sunk!!! Naomi liked one that had a bear's bottom sticking out (it was called "bearly afloat"!) We saw some of them racing and it looked jolly hard work but there was also a carnival atmosphere and the children enjoyed seeing what was around. You could go and look at the boats when they had been raced so that was fun too!

Today we left Mum and Dad in the garden, working hard, whilst we went to church!! After church we found a great park to wander through the pine trees! The park actually also has wonderful access to the beach but after last week we didn't need to go to the sand and there was no shade, so we stayed in the park bit instead. Naomi was disappointed that there wasn't a playground so we came home and went to our little one instead!

Esther has become much much stronger on her legs this last week and can now stand on her own for a good few seconds. She can also take a few steps before falling down and so she is doing really well! I hope that she will be walking soon! She is getting so frustrated! Her language is also coming along and she was saying "gone, gone, gone" (or her sound for it, anyway!) when we left Mum and Dad this morning! Naomi continues to describe to us the antics of her imaginary friend "little boy" and he seems to be quite an active, cheeky little soul if you ask me!! She is funny; she was talking about a "bear bottom" this morning on the way to church but Tim and I thought she was talking about a "bare bottom" as she had been running around with no clothes on last night just before she went in the bath. anyway, it transpired that she was talking about the bear's bottom on the boat and not on her! WE all got a bit confused! Well, Tim and I did, Naomi knew what she meant! Naomi is getting good at singing and is very good at singing in the car - the wheels on the bus is a great favourite at the moment!!

well, that is about it for now and so I will write again on Wednesday! Take care for now!!