Sheeps Head

Maksim is learning some songs! He will sing Itsy Bitsy Spider - he knows many of the words, all of the actions, but "lalalalas" along sometimes. He will also sing "eieio" when we use the Old Macdonald puppet. He has also tried to sing some of the songs from the party that is coming up. I think that he feels frustrated that we do not know the words.

We went to a very interesting "mall" today during lunch. We didn't get any pictures because our batteries were dead. It is basically a farmer's type market except the vendors are middle men. They had PRODUCE!!! We bought lettuce (kinda sad lettuce), fresh parsley, good quality onions, green onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, pomegranates and garlic. We were told by the health department in the US that we should not eat such food because of the diseases in the water that is used to wash and grow the veges. But I can't help it! I need some vegetables. I am going to cook much of what we eat and peel the stuff to try to cut down my chances for getting sick. The cucumbers, bell peppers and tomatoes are the fruits we will have to watch the most, I guess. We found some honey. Since honey is made from the pollen of flowers, this honey was very different from the US honey I like. The honey Jason and I get from our local farmer's market is usually avocado or orange blossom. I really like to get it in those sticks. This honey though has such a unique flavor. We bought a little in a plastic container. We weren't used to the fact that containers are sealed and weren't careful enough so we had honey all over the bag it came in. lol Lena and Simone thought we were funny! The people in the mall haven't seen many tourists and they loved to hawk(?) there wares. The meat is laying on concrete slabs around the market. Underneath one of the tables was a large cows or sheeps head with fur and everything. Just the head. Brains and blood. Yup! Jason bought a "chop" and we are going to cook it tomorrow. I really wish we had. a BBQ. That is the only way I like meat, really. I will probably try a bit. Jason also got some horse sausage. I probably will not try it because I do not like sausage at all. I would try some horse chops if they had them BBQ. It seems we will not find this, though.

In the afternoon, we took Maksim and his Sobaka for a walk. We like to get him out of that little room. We saw all of the translators out there and Maksim fell in love with Alfia. He just stared at her with a coy little smile. He is a ladies man! He got in the car with them for a while. And just sat without saying a word. We came back to the room and read 4 stories all the way through. Maksim threw a little temper tantrum when Momma wanted him to listen to the story and began hitting the book and grunting. I wish I knew Russian!! So I turned him around to face Momma and tried to explain that we are nice to books and have to listen and be good when Momma and Daddy are reading. It was first try at scolding - sort of scolding - is it scolding if you don't understand a word? I know that he understood my tone of voice. It seemed to work and we finished the book sitting comfortably and making the noises with us and turning the page when it was time. He is a good boy. Good boy, Maksim. He repeated it.

Now I am going to make some dinner and a CD for Simone of some of our favorite musica. Paka Paka!