Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Today is an early morning as Brooke gets up around 5:30am. This is not bad and I am excited that we slept through the night. She had a moment though that she let out one little wail and then went quiet. Still though, we both sat up in bed and were ready to rock and roll. We've got our "parent mojo" going on! We sit with her on the floor and play for awile until everyone else is up. We don't really have anything on tap for today. All I know is that we have to hit the passport office today to pick up both of the kids' passports. Somehow Kyle had his picture taken in Orsk. Andrei showed it to me while we were at the court house yesterday. I sort of freaked out because it didn't look like him. He turned the picture over and showed me the last name. I made Steve go out to the car and get his picture so we could compare. That's just what I wanted was for them to bring me the wrong kid! But the way things are going, who knows! Anyhow, Steve and I take shifts at breakfast. Nurija offers to hold the baby but we tell her it's fine. We can take shifts.

We spend the rest of the morning just sort of hanging out. Russlan and Nurija leave for work and Yena leaves because he has to drive someome somewhere. We have the house to ourself. Steve had asked Russlan if he could use his computer since it has the internet. Some type of civilization and a way to comunicate to the outside world. It's only dial up but that will have to do. We are concerned since we have to rearrange our hotel and flight home from our delay. I stay with Brooke while Steve is on the computer. She is getting tired and it's time for her nap. I am over the moon when she allows me to cradle her and rock her to sleep!!! May not sound like a big thing but when you go from her being afraid of you to letting you rock her to sleep, that was major for me.

The day sort of slides by and there isn't much to do. We are sort of couped up in the house. Plus, I don't really feel comfortable leaving and walking around the neighborhood. I have no idea what type of neighborhood we are in. Plus when they left, they told us not to answer the door. Yena comes back later in the afternoon to feed us lunch. I do have to admit, the food has been a pleasant surprise. We have had some soups for lunch, of course bread, and also this ravioli type of stuff called Permini. The only thing I really didn't eat was this red cabbage stuff. I haven't gone hungry that's for sure. I do think though that it might be awhile before I want to eat bread and cheese again for awhile.

Around 4ish, Yena tells us that we're off to the passport office. I am in the process of getting Brooke ready when Yena tells me, "only Steve." That's fine with me. I don't really feel like dragging Brooke out anyway plus we have to bundle her up so much. They leave and I am now at the house just me and my daughter. Again, nothing to do! We play on the floor but we don't really have that many toys. Just a pair of plastic keys, a stuffed Hippo and a chew toy which by the way, on her first night home, she didn't let go of it. We play and wait for Kyle to show up. Nurija comes home from work and I can hear her in there preparing dinner. After a bit, she goes to the TV room to watch TV when I hear her at our door and she says to me, "BABY." This must mean Kyle is here. I pick up Brooke and put her in her crib/bed/playpen. The nurse comes through the door and hands Kyle to me. Nurija and the nurse look at me and say, "clothes." This means I have to take off his clothes and give them back to the nurse. I already knew this. He is bundled 6 different ways from Sunday and is completely soaked in sweat and stink too from it. Poor little guy. He is 100 degrees. It literally takes me 5 minutes to undress him. He actually has on 2 hats! You would think that the way the bundle these kids up that it's 30 below 0. We have been walking around the entire time with sweatshirts on. It's just not that cold. There is still snow on the ground but it's all melting and fast and the street are lakes! So, I am almost done undressing Kyle when the nurse comes back and tells me, "eat." This means I have to feed him. Geez lady, give me a break. I'm still trying to get all of these clothes off of him. I get them off and get him dressed into the clothes I have for him. They are all WAY too big. All of the clothes I have for both kids are way to big. The measurements that they gave to me were off or just plain wrong. Kyle should be in 6 month clothes and Brooke should be in around 9 month clothes. Anyhow, I get his clothes on and get his bottle made. Once he sees the food, he goes nuts. He gulps his down the same way Brooke did when we feed her in the orphanage. It doesn't take me long to figure out that he needs a slower nipple on his bottle. We manage just fine though until it's gone. The nurse leaves and I am there by myself with TWO kids. EEKS! After about an hour or so, I am starting to wonder where the heck Steve and Yena are. I could really use some help/relief or just some moral support. Shortly thereafter, they both come walking through the dooor and daddy gets to see his little boy again! We play in the room for awhile until dinner is ready. When it's time to eat, we put both of them in their cribs and are able to sit down to eat. Of course I get up 10 different times to peek my head in to see how they are doing. Already the nervous nelly mom!! The rest of the evening slides by without much else going on besides us enjoying our children. Bedtime is pretty uneventful and they both go to sleep pretty easily. We are hoping both kids will sleep through the night again. More than that, Steve and I are hoping that WE will sleep through the night. The jet lag has hit us and we are waking up around 3am and are up from then on out. At least it's the jet lag and not a screaming child.

Well that's it for this day. Not much is on tap for tomorrow. The other couples that are traveling with us will leave tomorrow and head back to Moscow. I am very envious and wish it cold be us. We will stay here and wait for the blood test results to come back. We were told that Yena will take us shopping tomorrow so we can buy more diapers and formula since our trip will now be extended. So, we'll just keep rolling with the punches and see what tomorrow brings.