Day 8!

Last night, we (meaning Andrew) gave the waitress quite the run around. So much so, that she laughingly handed him the phone and told him to call the front desk because she didn’t understand. He called there and they told him to go ahead and come up to the desk. With menu in hand, he headed up there with the waitress to figure out the front page/specials on the menu. All 3 of them returned shortly and the waitress and front desk clerk headed to the kitchen to talk to the chef because they could not agree on how it worked. :) Finally, they returned and told him how the meal worked and what it cost. Andrew ordered something else…just kidding! :) It was delicious – I tried it!

We visited Patrick this morning and followed our usual routine. We didn’t bundle him up quite so much – instead we brought out a blanket for his nap time. It only takes him about 5 minutes to fall asleep and we pretty much wake him up when it’s time to go inside. He was ready for his nap a little earlier than the past couple of days. We really enjoy this time to pray for him and to just talk and spend time outdoors. He almost came to me when I arrived today but there was a little bit of crying. :) He perked right up after we got him ready to go out. He loved the banana puffs again but doesn’t want anything to do with the sippy cup or bottle except to throw them. He buried his head in my lap while we were playing today and just laid there and let me rub his back – so sweet. When our time was up, Patrick wanted to go to the caregiver but turned around and gave me a big smile! So precious! Each day it is getting harder to leave him – I can’t wait until he is officially ours and we can bring him home with us. One and a half hours is not enough for Mommy and Daddy to see their boys!

We found out after visiting Patrick that we will need to only visit Calvin for 45 minutes today – talk about breaking our hearts. We have to go and see an apartment to move into next Friday and we must be there at a certain time. We are very sad to not spend more time with our clown but will make the best of the time we do have. He probably will spend most of that time eating banana puffs! :)

For lunch today, I made fried potatoes & onions with a little dried beef thrown in. It was so good! We also had yogurt, grapefruit juice, and a strange little bread thing (we didn’t really like it). We think we will cook something with carrots tonight. I wish I had brought some little beef bouillon cubes – they would be wonderful for flavoring boiled vegetables. We are trying hard not to take a nap this afternoon – sleeping at night is hard enough without that. :)

Later. Okay, so we lied about cooking tonight. :) We had dinner with one of the other adopting couples. The hotel restaurant is good, not too expensive, and we get a 25% discount. We sat and talked for awhile before dinner and then decided we were too tired and hungry to cook. We know we will only be here at the hotel for one more week and then will be cooking full time in our apartment – I’ll get to the apartment in a minute.

We only were able to visit with Calvin for about 40 minutes today…he looked so sad when we headed back inside. He practiced walking today and had snacks and juice water. He likes being outside except for the fact that we either have to hold him or he has to walk. He doesn’t like walking very much – only when there is something he really, really wants! He is in the throwing stage so he threw the book we were looking at and threw the bottle. He is always happy to see us! He seems to really liking touching noses & foreheads and looking into our eyes while we do that – so adorable! When they brought Calvin to me they asked if I had a diaper (I should have been warned!). I usually change him and said yes. His diaper was soaking wet and poopy (our first :) – I felt bad for him. Daddy tried to run away because of the smell. :) His diaper rash is looking better.

Now, the apartment. We went to approve a place for us to live when the presidents are here. It is a small place with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living/dining room. It will work but we have been spoiled here at the hotel having our laundry done, breakfast etc. There is no shower curtain – just a tub with a handheld shower head. There really aren’t beds just a futon type bed and sofa bed. The landlady currently lives there but will move out for us – she probably makes more off us than she would normally make in a couple months. She is a 67 year old red head (from a bottle) that loves to talk! She went on and on to us in Russian. Our translator was laughing so hard she had to turn away from the lady so as not to be rude. :) The landlady told us basically everything was new, she trusted us, she would move all the crystal so the boys won’t break it, that her son had a baccalaureate degree, she has 2 daughters, she has 4 grandchildren… She wanted to know if we liked the place and wanted us to know that it was safe, good, quiet, everything new… :) She flushed the toilet to show me how it worked and turned on the water in the bathroom. Very nice, very funny. She pointed to a mat written in Russian and said we are welcome. She said if her son was here he could speak English to us. She was very eager for our business. :) We think we maybe had 1/3 of what she said actually translated because she rarely stopped for our translator to tell us what she had said. Our translator almost fell on the ground laughing as we left and especially when we were out of earshot of the landlady.

So that, in a nutshell, was our day.