Some Fun at the Baby House

Hi all-


I think we are done with taking Rinat to the baby house twice a day with us. Today he was so tired at 4:00 that he was horrible all the way home- our poor driver. Then he fell asleep 5 minutes after I put him in the bedroom for a rest. Then when we woke him at 5:15 so he wouldn’t be awake all night, he screamed for 20 minutes straight as I took a shower (have to shower while we have water, right?). Poor Peter. And poor Rinat too. He was just exhausted. So I think we need to start trading off afternoons staying home with him. I will be sad to miss out on time with Sumo but we need a break from Rin, he needs one from us, and he needs some time to himself to nap or play quietly. This has just been too much for him. We gave it a good try though.

But Rin is acclimatizing pretty darn well I have to say. He doesn’t seem too out of sorts really aside from having unfamiliar food. Every once in a while he asks about when we are going to our house in Washington but not all that often. What he misses most of all is school and spending time with friends (and so do I). It’s hard being with him all day every day. But good too. He’s a sweetie most of the time.

Rin understands and accepts that they speak a different language here but what he doesn’t get is that I don’t speak it. He sometimes gets upset when I don’t know how to say something in Russian but he does like looking words up with me in the dictionary and trying to say them. He’s already speaking some words and recognizing them when others say them. I can hear him telling the other kids in the ball pit “Neee-Yet” when they throw balls at him. He also says some of the other basics like “Privyet” and “Paka” to our driver Sasha (Hi and Bye). And I have heard him several times saying “Spasiba” to a waitress or sales lady somewhere. It’s so adorable coming out of his 3 year old mouth. And I even caught him playing ‘shashlyk’ with Bubby one day (making shish kabobs). So cute.

And as for our other little cutie? He’s good. After learning to crawl that day, he seemed to have forgotten again for a couple but today he was back to a little bit of crawling again. And he is taking the toys and rubbing his little mouth back and forth on them. Not sure if he’s still working on #2 on the bottom which is mostly out or if the top is soon to follow. And he’s still talking a lot and following Rin and Peter everywhere they go with his little eyes. And he ‘talks’ to them much more than he does to me. Peter did get some cute photos of me and my sweet sons. I sure wish I could put them on the blog.

This afternoon had sort of a festive feel to it. There is a holiday tomorrow, Kurban Ayt, and they spent the morning cleaning up to make it nice in Sumo’s room. And then in the afternoon Mr Baby (our friend D’s little girl) kept going over to the piano in her walker. One of the nannies (or Mommies as Rin called them yesterday) picked her up and let her bang away on it. Then Rin joined in for a little duet. And the French ladies’ translator came in and played actual music and the entire roomful of babies froze and stayed entranced for the duration of it. It was sort of moving in a sad way. Aside from some songs on the radio sometimes, that’s probably the only music they’ve ever heard. Overall, I really enjoy being able to be in the room with all of Sumo’s ‘brothers and sisters’ but sometimes it makes me really sad. I look at them and know that only a portion of them will ever have a family and it makes me sad. They are well taken care of and they are cared for at the baby house but it’s just not the same as a family. I just wish I had a magic wand.

Tomorrow, because of the holiday, we will not be visiting in the morning. Kurban Ayt is a Muslim holiday when they butcher a lamb and give the meat away to the needy. I guess it’s sort of like our traditional Easter celebration used to be according to Oxana. And guess where a lot of the stinky lamb will end up. That’s right, at the baby house. People will be bringing meat over all morning. And then it will, of course, end up all over my pants when Sumo barfs it up. Awesome- stinky lamb barf all over me. What a celebration.

Happy Kurban Ayt everyone!  And thanks to whoever left the brandy- I needed it last nigth after dealing with Rin.  Brandy and cherry juice is not bad at all I have to say. -m