Welcome Back to Happiness

Hi All!


I apologize for yesterday. I am much better today. Around midnight last night I got a shower and it did wonders for my outlook.

This morning started off pretty well. Rin was in good spirits and insisted we play several rounds of Musical Chairs using his rules which I never got a really good grip on. Then he was being really funny while we were waiting for Oxana to come pick us up (Zhenya is sick and Oxana is driving now). He kept asking me where we could find a girl hole (huh?). It wasn’t until later that I recalled him saying something about a manhole cover as we were walking to our meeting place and I put two and two together. But it’s a good question, isn’t it, for a three year old mind to ponder?

We were late getting to the BH and poor little Sumo was crying so hard. I could hear him as we walked up the stairs to his room. But he stopped immediately when I picked him up and he very anxiously waited for us to get him changed and dressed so he could get his chow on. It was one of those days that he whined a bit in between bites as if to say, “Come on already, can’t you see I’m ready for the next bite?” But he was pretty smiley today after he got his belly all full up with corn mush. Actually Oxana told me it’s not corn but these tiny little circles that are bright yellow and they cook them down into mush. Anyone know what they’re called? All this little boy wants to do the last few days is stand. No more sitting for him, still no real crawling, he wants to pull up and stand. Anytime I hold his little arms and pull him up, he just smiles and laughs. He loves it.

Rin got him to smile again today by giving him tickles and pats on the head. It makes me so happy to see them interact. While we’re at the Baby House, Rin sort of keeps to himself mostly. I mean, he is a rough and tumble boy and that doesn’t really mix well with babies all over the floor. So usually when we get there, we will all go get Sumo up and then Rin gets his snack and goes into the other room to watch his movies while we feed Sumo his breakfast. Then he’ll sort of come back and forth to see what we’re up to or to get one of us to come play with him or to come play where we are while we’re having playtime with Sumo. Then sometimes I will have Rin get dressed early to go outside and play for a little while with one of us while the other one puts Sumo down to bed. It’s been working out pretty well.

But the best part of the day aside from our smiley baby was after lunch. Rin and I came home and I went to check and see if we had enough water to wash the dishes that were piled in the sink, and WOW do we have water. Vadim had come over and checked on our water situation. He obviously changed something because now we have probably 100 times more water coming from the faucet in the bathroom and it is scalding hot. I was so excited that I almost broke into the choreography from Footloose. I felt like they must have felt when they hit oil at Spindletop, literally jumping up and down and saying “Rin! Rin! Come look at the water!” We celebrated with a cleaning frenzy of the apartment. This girl is sooooo happy. I can sleep soundly knowing that there will be a shower awaiting me in the morning.

Love to all, -m