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October 29, 2003
***The early bird gets the worm***
Who is the [insert expletive of your choice here] who thought of turning the clocks back an hour? What an exquisitely stupid idea! And to do it between Saturday and Sunday, well, isn't that just the icing on the cake? Dima and I were foaming at the mouth around 5:15 in the morning on Sunday, having been awakened by our little early birds chirping loudly and merrily in their beds. Outside it was pitch black, not a lit window in sight. The entire city was asleep, probably even the WORMS were asleep, but not Anna and Andrei.
Anna and Andrei are usually up between 6:30 and 7:00, which is just fine Monday - Friday, since we all have to get ready for work and pre-school anyway. Well, with the time change, they have been waking up between 5:30 and 6:00, which is way too early, especially on a weekend. Why do we need to change the time every October? Can somebody else who lives in the far north (any readers from Alaska out there?) please give me a logical answer to this question? Our government (not renowned for logical thinking) maintains that it saves billions of rubles in electricity. How? I mean, it's already pitch black until 9:00 a.m. and from 5:00 p.m. anyway, so what is the difference (other than the fact that my kids woke me up at 5 a.m. on a Sunday)?
***Fires***
I can't believe the news I'm getting from Southern California! I graduated from UC San Diego, a friend of mine lives there, her mom here in St. Petersburg is wigging out. I can't imagine what it must feel like, with the fires and the heat and the smoke, and the whole scariness of it all. I'm not one to pray, but I've said prayers that the fires stop, and that no more people, nature, property is damaged.
Andrei is terrified of fires, a fear I share, but try not to show him.
This summer, the apartment of one of my best friends Olga, (Andrei's nanny from birth to 2.6 years old and Anna's godmother) was completely demolished in a fire. She was 5 months pregnant at the time and staying at her parent's place with her daughter. Her husband and cousin were at home and got out wearing their pyjamas. The fire was the result of old wiring, which hadn't been repaired since 1947. Absolutely nothing was left of their possessions.
Andrei loves Olga just about as much as he loves me, and since then he's worried about fires. Fires are the subject of countless conversations. I know 3-year olds who are afraid of monsters, Andrei is afraid of fires. Typical conversation:
"Mama, you're careful with matches, aren't you?"
"Yes Andrei"
"Mama, you're not going to burn in a fire."
"No, Andrei"
"And Anna's not going to burn in a fire."
"No"
"And papa won't get in a fire."
"No"
"And Babushka Galya"
"No"
"Uncle Andrei smokes, will he start a fire with his cigarette? He won't burn in a fire, will he?"
"No, Andrei, I'm sure Uncle Andrei is very careful to put out his cigarettes."
"I'm afraid of fires."
"Don't worry, we are very careful with gas and matches, we won't have a fire."
We try to confront Andrei's fear and defuse it (no pun intended), but we're probably not very convincing, since we live in a firetrap, and we're scared, too.
A few weeks after Andrei was born, there was a fire on the 8th floor of the building opposite ours. It happened at about 1:30 a.m. and we awakened to a man and his grandson (about 8 years old) hanging out the window, screaming "save us!". Smoke was billowing from many of the 8th floor windows. Fortunately, everyone in the building was saved. Two years ago, when I was 8 months pregnant, I smelled smoke. Dima, who thinks I am totally paranoid about fires, blew me off, but I made him check the staircase. He saw nothing. I went and checked myself, and smoke was seeping out from under the door of an apartment on the 2nd floor. It was around midnight. We called the fire department, and they had to go in through the window. A lit cigarette had ignited some blankets, which in turn ignited something else, etc. and nobody was at home in the apartment.
Many of the buildings in St. Petersburg are accidents waiting to happen. Ours, for example. We live on the 5th floor of a building with one central staircase and no fire escape. Not a week has gone by where I haven't thought of an emergency plan in a worst-case fire scenario. I still don't know how we'd get out if, G-D forbid ... Many buildings, including those built in the 1800's have NEVER been completely overhauled. There's no money to do it. The buildings of St. Petersburg are in such a decrepit condition that a German filmmaker, after searching Europe for appropriate site to film about the capture of Berlin in 1945, delighted in his discovery of St. Petersburg. "It looks just like Berlin in the last days of the war."
***Baby talk***
I don't know what it's called in English: when a parent or child talks incorrectly, intentionally mispronouncing words and using improper grammar. For example, if Andrei would usually say "I have to pee", and says instead "I want pee pee."
WELL, ever since he's been going to pre-school, Andrei's language has been degrading. The problem is as follows, and I could use some advice, because Dima's getting ready to pull him from pre-school because of this situation:
Andrei is VERY linguistically advanced. I don't know about for other countries, but for Russia, he's is considered to speak at the level of a 7-year old. I'm not bragging, this is objective. He has an enormous vocabulary, good grammar, and good pronounciation. Other kids his age are barely capable of stringing together more than 2 words, and often even those are incomprehensible. My boss, who recommended me this pre-school (his son went there), said it's totally normal, that boys often don't begin speaking until about ... get ready ... 3.5 YEARS!!!!! Well, that seems to be true, because the other kids in Andrei's group moo more than they speak. And when they do speak, it's like "Marek want oatsies" (Marek wants porridge).
OK, so now Andrei has begun to (occasionally, but more and more frequently) speak like his pre-school friends and Dima is just fuming. I think it's just a copycat/experimenting with language phase, but it IS really annoying to hear "Mama, look yewwow beep beep" from a kid who will say "mama, that car has a bad engine, look at all the carbon monoxide coming out of the tailpipe." I kid you not on both examples.
What should I do?
Warm regards from the North (while California is engulfed in fire, we have been issued a flood warning)
Lisa
p.s. Sorry I didn't proofread or spellcheck and all conversations have been badly translated from Russian.
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