Monday, November 9, 2009

Just wanted to throw up these cute snapshots of Jane. This little orange dress is one of our acquisitions here in Poland. We would love to buy both kids whole new wardrobes here- European kids clothes are adorable (especially the girl baby clothes at Zara), but that is a little excessive.

The kids are enjoying the Nutella we recently purchased. Of course you can get it at home, but the sparseness of PB here made nutella seem like a good idea. Sue Anne pointed out that Feb. 5th (Carolyn Bond's birthday) is International Nutella Day. How will you celebrate?

More?

Posted by Posted by Ann at 4:41 PM
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I was able to make it to the premiere, thanks to a great babysitter. Living in the theater also made the babysitting easy, the sitter came here and then I just walked to a different part of the theater. A friend from church came to the opera with me but sadly, we could not get a ticket for her boyfriend. Anyhow, the opening went very well. Brian sounded great and has some of the more interesting things to sing in the opera (he is kind of the star of the show). A favorite of mine was when he was singing about "how all living things breathe" when his character is contemplating life and death with a dead crow. The director is very pleased with Brian and he played a great crazy/mentally ill. There are many visual aspects of the set with many projections to look at. I think I took the opera a little too literally and the next time I watch it I am going to look at the entire work as more of a dream/nightmare not connected to reality. I am kind of glad my mom did not travel to see this one as I am not sure how much she would have liked it. And so goes modern opera.

These three photos are from the actual nightmare scene in the opera. Brian plays a very depressed and disturbed Roderick Usher who has summoned his childhood friend William to his home to help him. Roderick's twin sister (who William did not know existed) is also ill and ends up dying. She is placed in the family tomb, but is not actually dead. There are extreme overtones of incest. I can't decide if it is better as a wife to watch my husband in a romantic opera situation or an implied incest situation. Neither is super ideal, but neither is real. It's a crazy life, but I am very proud of Brian's work and success. He only had about 2 weeks to learn this role.

To keep Brian's feet firmly on the ground, within a few hours of the opening, he had to clean up Colin's vomit due to late night illness. (I would have helped but was nursing Jane.) Although Brian is quite possibly the most normal musician ever, there is nothing like traveling with toddlers to combat possible opera big-headedness!

Posted by Posted by Ann at 5:17 AM
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Saturday, November 7, 2009

The opera opens tonight (the entire reason we are in Poland, The Fall of the House of Usher based on the short story by Edgar Allen Poe, opera by Philip Glass). Here is Brian in front of the poster, in front of the opera house. We (mainly me) were very annoyed because we only found out for sure Brian's perfomance dates this week and then found out the show has been sold out for more than 6 weeks. So much for getting tickets for friends we have made here. Good for the opera though. It is a chamber opera and they are staging it in a smaller theatre.

Here is a link to the trailer for the production on youtube where you can hear Brian's (or actually Roderick Usher's) crazy/mentally ill plea for his friend to come. It promises to be very creepy.

Posted by Posted by Ann at 8:30 AM
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Thursday, November 5, 2009

We got so carried away with All Saints Day, we neglected to post these images from our walk to the cemetery. This is a monument where over 300,000 people were loaded onto cattle cars and taken to the gas chambers of Treblinka. The design is to represent a freight car opening into a rectangular shape of a train. It is a beautiful monument to such a tragic history. (I can't help but cry as I write this.)

Colin was taking a little rest from the long walk. I also find it chilling to see my child in this place. How many children like him passed through here?

We also passed this monument dedicated to the Fallen and Murdered in the East.
This is dedicated to the deported populations of Eastern Poland by the Soviets. The monument includes a railroad car like those used for the deportation and in the car are different symbols representing a variety of ethnic groups who were targeted.

The explanation on warzsawa.com also states that the places of areas that were emptied of Poles are listed here.

How is that for a lovely, light post? The history is overwhelming.

Posted by Posted by Ann at 3:11 AM
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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Yesterday we spent Brian's day off at the Warsaw Zoo. It was a beautiful sunny day, but cold- probably just above freezing. The zoo seems pretty unpopular with Varsovites in the winter. Including workers, we probably saw just over a dozen other people there. It was fun to just have a private zoo day. The cold was no big deal, since most of the animals were in their indoor habitats anyway. The Zoo here has some great exhibits, and the newer habitats are especially nice. This chimp was using the stick to retreive something tasty from holes in the rock he was sitting on (ants? honey? We're not sure).

Several friends have recommended 'The Zookeeper's Wife', as it is apparently about the Warsaw Zoo. We'll have to pick it up.

The Zoo closes at 5:00, but most of the habitats are lit with natural light, and it is dark for real shortly after 4:00. Here's Colin heading for the exit. I squatted down to take his picture, and he did the same.

Colin has become a very dedicated kicker of leaves. There is no shortage here. I like that the leaves seem to get left on the ground for a while. Brian and I were talking about how you could go a whole Autumn at BYU without ever seeing a leaf on the grass (thanks to the assiduous efforts of the grounds crew). I actually saw them sucking leaves off the branches of trees once. Die nature! Die!!

Posted by Posted by Ann at 3:07 AM
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Monday, November 2, 2009

Our very nice friends from Church who work for the Embassy invited us with their kids to trick or treat. There is a neighborhood where lots of Embassy folks live that observes an American style Halloween. Colin loved running around with the kids. Really, how can a kid not love trick or treating? Jane was not quite into yet but was happy to have some run around time out of the stroller.
We love Colin in both these pictures: His maniacal smile, his arm in the candy bag in the first shot, and unwrapping some loot in the second one.

On our way home, since we had not really eaten dinner and were starting to get Halloween gut rot, we got off the metro a couple of stops early to get some awesome kebabs. For Colin we have called the above building the Halloween Tower. Actually called The Palace of Culture, it was given as a "gift" to Warsaw from Stalin. It is also know as Stalin's Male Private Part (this is a family blog, so even though the word I should really use is an actual anatomy word, I'm trying to keep it clean). The building is a little creepy. I would expect to see Batman flying around it.

This is the park right by the opera house (where we posted the sunny morning photos the other day.) It was lovely to see it in the dark. Not too hard to see things in the dark these days with the 3:45 pm sun set.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is part of a palace ruined in WWII. It has been interesting teaching our 3 year old about WWII, and a little intense. We get asked lots of questions since we are in the never ending why stage. Colin's brain has concluded from our discussions about what happened in Warsaw that Heavenly Father has put Hitler in a VERY long time out for hitting and spitting (Colin's #1 and #2 reasons for time outs). It is also a good chance to talk about how we need to be nice to everyone and how wars really hurt people and make us sad.

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A couple more photos from the cemetery, including a photo of our friends the Lewis's. They have been great and strangely, our lives intersect in many ways. It just took Poland for us to find one another.

This tree was only lit up only by the candle light from the graves.

Memo to myself: hat makes head look like a cone head. Buy new hat.

Posted by Posted by Ann at 2:17 AM
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Sunday, November 1, 2009

We dress up in costumes, consume massive amounts of sweets, disembowel pumpkins. The Polish actually do something meaningful. Maybe it's not fair to compare Halloween with All Soul's day (Zaduski)- after all, Zaduski is actually Nov.1st. But these candles in the huge central cemetery of Warsaw do kind of kick Halloween's butt.

Some graves were clearly very celebrated people, but I honestly did not see a single grave without at least one candle on it.

There was some filming going on, so I took advantage of their floodlight to take this shot.

We enjoyed a wonderful evening with our friend's, the Lewis's. A big Gnocchi feed, long walk to the cemetery, and hot chocolate. Colin is not into complying with photography these days. Halloween photos to follow.

Posted by Posted by Ann at 7:02 PM
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Friday, October 30, 2009

For limited packing space, the kids Halloween costumes are basically pjs this year. We brought Colin's pirate hat so he can be a ghost pirate and Jane is just a cute 1 year old in Halloween jammies. While we were waiting for our laundry on Monday night and out of night clothes, we let the kids have a Halloween pj preview. I was finally able to peel Colin's skeleton off him on Thursday so it could be washed and ready for Saturday. (His skeleton glows in the dark and it is very fun.) We are excited because some friends we met at Church have invited us to an Embassy Halloween party and trick-or-treating. We are also excited for All Souls Day. We plan to head over to the big cemetery to see all the candles. We were at Carrefour (it is like a French Walmart, very big) and their seasonal section instead of being full of costumes and candy is all candles for the cemeteries. I love cemeteries anyway, it should be very cool.

If we had had the space to pack it, I would have put Jane in Colin's monkey costume from a couple years back. (and borrowing Jeanette's idea, I was going to have Colin dress as the Man in the Yellow Hat to trick-or-treat with his George sister). This was Colin trick-or-treating at the Kansas City Zoo in 2007. I think Brian and I have only been in our home for Halloween for 1 year of our 6 year marriage. (2004 Chicago I think, 2005 Seattle, 2006 Connecticut, 2007 Kansas City, 2008 California, 2009 Poland)

Here is Jane happily watching Dora. I got the a Dora Halloween DVD that has taught her how to say "Trick or treat". Both kids are Dora obsessed, but possibly more Jane than Colin. Dora brings her intense joy and allows me to wash dishes while she is occupied. Jane can count in Spanish and loves to yell "salta" and has a very sweet "de nada".

(In the background you can see our toy kitchen. It is really fine and quite a clever unit with a fridge under two heating elements, a sink and another cupboard. Very clever use of space. As much as Colin bounces off the walls in our two rooms here, the benefits of living in the theater and in this great park of town far outweigh a couple of inconvenient aspects. We are happy to be here. )

Posted by Posted by Ann at 6:01 AM
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Brian blends in well with the Fall colors.

Colin is always finding sticks that become guns and swords. Poor little guy, we can't travel with many toys. Hopefully it is good for his imagination. We had a major catastrophe on the metro the other day. The day before Brian was approached to make a donation to some charity (and since they did the whole approach in English, he felt they had earned a donation). As a thank you, the man gave a novelty dice that lit up when you would hit it hard. Both our kids loved it and had a lot of time playing with it. When we were getting on the train, Colin dropped it on the train tracks as we were boarding. He was soooo sad, it was really heart breaking. We did buy him a cheap little doctor set since he had lost his light up toy, but it was very, very sad.

If only we had more bright days, it would be a spectacular Fall! We spent nearly two months in Seattle earlier in the year and the gray did not bother me so much as it can here. We did have a more comfortable living situation. (Thanks Jeanie)

Jane found a puddle and cannot help herself but to get wet. She is also a fan or sticks from her brother's example. She was wearing jammies as clothes this morning because we forgot to pick up our laundry the day before. A lady washes for us in the theater because there are no laundromats in Warsaw. It is a fair bit more than we would pay to wash it ourselves, but she does do a lovely job and everything is ironed, even my socks.

Pigeons beware.

When given the chance, she is off everywhere at once. She is such a funny girl.

Colin is off too. We had a great morning and afternoon, but the early evening and bedtime brought some pretty serious misbehavior from this little 3 year old. Hmm. . .

Posted by Posted by Ann at 3:58 PM
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The last two mornings have been sunny. We only admired the sun from our window yesterday morning and then spent a gray and misty afternoon out, but thismorning we got ready quick and headed out before Brian had his morning rehearsal. We had been saving bread to feed the birds. It is so lovely to see some sun!

This is the park right next to the theatre. There are many lovely willows.

Posted by Posted by Ann at 6:22 AM
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Monday, October 26, 2009

I was thinking about our rooms with a view recently and looked back at some old photos. Above is our current view. We are near a bus stop and Colin likes to watch the busses. I heard him chatting to himself one day at the window about the good and bad busses. I suppose we should find out what the monument is at the end of the street that we can see from our window. (But we can't read the plaque.)

Here is our view from our third place we stayed in Paris. We had 4 different living situations in 4 weeks, which was a little intense. This was a great apartment at Cite Universitaire. Colin could watch trams from the window.

Our 4th place in Paris was a bit of a nightmare on some levels (former servant quarters although nicely re-done- very small with no kitchen table and a hot plate that did not even boil water and up 5 flights of little stairs when I was about 25 weeks pregnant with Jane). Good view though, Eiffel Tower and all. I also love chimney pots.

Here is our view in Mexico City from the high rise hotel we started out in. Protests were a nearly daily occurrence in the city center.

Oh Mexico City, why are you so big?

Our view from Tel Aviv. Our neighbors seem to need a jungle view.

Posted by Posted by Ann at 6:22 AM
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Friday, October 23, 2009

We went on a walk yesterday across the Vistula River, accidentally stumbled upon the Zoo and this new park to play in (new to us, actually quite an old park). I got Jane this cute little jacket and think she looks very darling. I would buy the kids all new clothes here since I love the European kids clothes, but they do not need much. (Just a few souvenirs).

Going, going, gone. The parks here have a lot of sand that always comes home with us.

This spinning toy left my head spinning for quite awhile. I can't spin like I used to.

I kind of gave Colin a bowl cut yesterday, but we are working on it.

Posted by Posted by Ann at 7:40 AM
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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Here is the gate to Wilanow, where many of the other recent photos have come from. It really was a beautiful day, it has been gray and rainy ever since.

Richard and Asia were our tour guides. It was very fun to meet up with them and amazing to have people who could communicate with other people in Polish and read signs. We exist so simply on our 5 word Polish vocab.

I got one shot inside the castle before a very grumpy lady told me not to take photos. She was really quite rude about it and said there was a sign posted when we came in (which was a very small sign, easy to over-look when you have two kids). At first I thought she was going to follow us all through to make sure I did not take any photos. What I really wanted to do was take a photo of her as she was a piece of work. All through France we could take photos in galleries without flash, and I think even Versailles allowed flash photos. Come on grumpy lady! We got lots of glares with our kids in the castle from other workers and only one lady smiled at us.

There are many other photos I will have Brian post because he took most of them. And Jane is up. She likes to see and touch the computer a little too much.

Posted by Posted by Ann at 4:57 AM
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Some of Colin's photos at the castle. Granted we are a little biased, but we think they both are very beautiful children.

Posted by Posted by Ann at 4:35 AM
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Some quick examples of why Jane is hard to photograph right now. She is either grabbing for the camera (she LOVES the camera and wants it for her own) or she is running away, trying to throw herself in anything that has water, or laying on the ground. The other day at a playground she kept laying down and making gravel angels in the rocks. So charming, especially when washing our clothes is difficult.

We loved the leaf hands and her over-sized coat.

I also enjoyed the purple-legged woman going into church.

Posted by Posted by Ann at 4:28 AM
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Colin and Jane (but mostly Colin) cannot get enough broccoli these days. This was his lunch on Sunday. He did not let us put any cheese on it, just wanted a plate of cooked broccoli. They both also went crazy for green beans the other night when some friends had us over to dinner. Guess we are not getting enough green things.

Jane ate the broccoli soup Brian made, and that is some broccoli on her nose.

Posted by Posted by Ann at 5:19 AM
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After about a week of very gray weather, we had a beautiful Fall day yesterday. We met some friends from church and went to Wilanow, a lovely castle. (I will need to do a seperate post of the castle, too many photos). Jane always had two leaves in her hands. I can't believe how big she is getting! She is hard to take photos of these days because she is either running away or trying to grab the camera.

Today is rainy with a chance of snow. It was so nice to see the sun as it may be awhile until we see it again. The grounds at Wilanow were perfect for a sunny Fall day.

Colin stole his Daddy's hat. He has taken to calling Daddy "Bri" and it is naughty and funny.

Posted by Posted by Ann at 4:45 AM
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Sunday, October 18, 2009

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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Lazienki Park (pronounced Wah-zhayng-kee, hence the witty title for this post) is one of the larger parks in Warsaw and it contains the palace pictured above along with a lot of other monuments and historic structures. We caught it on a nice fall day before the snow. We dedicate this post to James Nuttall, who loved Lazienki (he's still alive, by the way.)

Look at Jane's cuteness.

Thought this proto-greek amphitheatre was very cool. It would be fun to see a production here in the summer months.

Colin loved running all over the seating in the amphitheatre, and tried to make slides out of cement ramps- not so successful. The world is his playground, until he falls down and hits his head hard enough that you can feel the reverberation in the concrete from several yards away. Then 2 minutes later, he's running and jumping again. Maybe he needs a little helmet. (We better not let him hear us say that, or we'll never get out of buying one for him. He is very attuned to shopping opportunities these days.)

Posted by Posted by Ann at 4:06 PM
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