A Chilly Day at the Park

Hi All-
I have to admit that I had forgotten what it felt like to be cold but today I was reminded. It was chilly when we headed out to the BH this morning and we had planned going outside this afternoon so as a sort of afterthought, brought along another layer to wear and thank goodness I did. We had a good morning with our little guy. He was a little cranky and he actually cried several times today when we put him down or when he got a slight bump from someone. I wonder if he might be getting sick. One of the little girls, Zh, has been sick and crying for days so I wonder if it might be headed Sumo’s way. But he was still lots of fun to be around and I didn’t mind a little bit of extra snuggle time. And I think it’s good that he knows we are there to offer comfort when he needs it which hasn’t been all that much since we started visiting him.

Some men came in today to put in shelving in his playroom so they asked if we could bundle the babies up and take them downstairs on a walk around the baby house or to the big room down there. They didn’t have to ask us twice! It’s nice to have a change of scenery. But our little man was mute again and out of sorts being out of his normal surroundings. We brought him down and put him on the floor in the big playroom and he immediately started crying. Poor guy. Sometimes I forget that his world consists of just two little rooms and maybe 10 adults right now. But we were enjoying talking to the other two couples who are adopting right now and Rin was having a grand old time. There is a couple here from Spain who is adopting a two and a half year old boy so he played ball with him. And there were some people visiting the cutest little girl- probably 3 or 4 years old. I am not sure it was a local woman adopting or if it was the bio mother and grandmother or some other relatives of the girl coming to visit but she was super cute and had tons of energy and Rin played with her too. I even offered to go with him to try and find the Baby House cat, Sonya, who usually stays near the kitchen (which is near the bathroom we use and near the room where we were) and he said no because he was having too much fun there. He loves Sonya- who looks like our MassieCat but smaller- and tells me he has to go to the bathroom almost every day just so he can look for her. And then it was time for lunch.

We headed to Assorti at the mall. Rin tucked into some fried eggs, me into my chicken farfalle, and Peter into his pizza. Rin likes it there because they have a tub of toys that they loan out to patrons- today it was a giant green plastic dinosaur and a stuffed bear with a little red plastic nose. Peter and I like it because it is familiar food, the menu is in English, and they play the 80’s flashback videos. I mean, Cyndi Lauper True Colors? Come on. After that we, of course, headed to the Jungle Park. Being Sunday and cold outside, it was overrun with kids. But it didn’t bother Rin in the least. He won lots of prizes and then we headed out and got him another giant cotton candy before bundling up and braving the cold. And cold it was.

The whole time we’ve been here- a month if you add it all up- we have never made it to the city park. Pathetic, I know. We had the afternoon off today, the sun was shining, and so we walked over to the park. Now I am from TX and have never lived anywhere truly cold (aside from 5 short months in Boston) so I am unfamiliar with frozen lakes. But have you ever heard the sound that a chunk of ice makes as it skids across a frozen lake? It made me stop in my tracks and yell to Rinat “Do it again, do it again!” It’s completely entrancing. It sounds sort of like the underwater sonar sound of whales on a National Geographic video (which we watch a lot of at our house). Rin was throwing little ice chunks and having a good old time and then a group of teenagers came past, breaking up the lake to get giant chunks of ice to toss, and it was just one after another as they went ‘wooooowaaaaahhh’ across the frozen surface one after another. Amazing. Who knew that sounds was so beautiful?

And then we headed toward the big Ferris wheel and the tiny houses that we pass every day on the way to the baby house. Rin was very disappointed that all of them were closed up for the season but it was fun to walk through and see anyway. There were twirly rides and kiddie rides of every description and Rin had to check them all out. We wandered around until about 4 when it was time to head back. Rin didn’t have any quiet time today so I knew our minutes were numbered and also the sun was beginning to set and I didn’t want to be caught out in the cold. So we walked the 15 minutes or so back to our apartment and I have never been happier to have heat. It was pure bliss. Now if only I could get the hot water to work, I would have also taken a steamy shower. But at least we had heat to warm up our chilly bones. And MacCaffe Irish Crème flavored coffee. Mmmmm. It was a good day.

I have a million photos to put up for today but you’ll have to live with just a couple for now. Love to all, -m