Concensus

Linda here...

We have reached consensus. Mia Bayht Franke will be known as Bacha. I knew this would come together in time.

What a full day today. There was the celebration which included bumper tricycles, Baby House Olympics, and performed by the Americans (us) Itsy bitsy spider, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and Schaf Kindlein -the lullaby Mike wrote. We invited the Kazak adults to join in on the first two but got no takers.

At 3pm Shey, Sirka, Sasha (interpreter) and I took off for the green market in search of yarn and miscellaneous items. Sirka found diapers, Shey found tea I found shoe laces and we all found yarn. Lots of Russian yarn. The weather wasn't so good so the woman I had purchased yarn from before only had a couple of bundles hanging. I asked ( with the help of Sasha) if she had any that matched what I had bought previously and I showed her my a small piece I had cut. She started to walk across the street. Sasha asked if we could come with her and before we knew it we were peering into the closet in her apartment. It was full of yarn. What a treat. We left with Three Bags Full - humm that is the name of a yarn store in San Francisco.

I can't believe it. I have been missing my large Q size crochet hook, the one I bought here for .70 is really small. Mike surprised me and whittled, yes whittled, me a new crochet hook - it is about a size P. It is the most beautiful hook I have ever seen. How sweet! What a good husband.

Mike here...

As I'm posting this, I just wanted to add a note to say that "Bakka" (which is what Linda liked) seemed wrong to me. Linda liked it because she said it was "stronger" than "Bacca" -- true, but I guess I saw it as too masculine. It's completely irrational, of course, but I couldn't get over it. "Bacca" was OK to me, but Linda didn't like it. As it turns out, "Bacha," if you pronounce it with a bak-of-the-throat-clearing "ch" sound, is actually the correct procunciation of her nickname in Russian. Maybe even Kazakh. Of course, nobody will pronounce it that way the the States -- it'll sound like "Becca" with an "a" anyway. Oi... I'm making a big deal out of this. anyway, Bacha it is. (Perhaps she'll be a famous musician...)