Yes, its good Tim wrote yesterday because I was in no mood to do so. I just woke up annoyed. Annoyed that there is no grassy area outside where Ian can play, annoyed that the car exhaust is doing havoc on my eyes and Ian’s nose, annoyed that my second son is in desperate need of a bath and has to wipe his backside with newspaper vs. toilet paper. It was one of those mornings why I could see why so many people turned to alcohol or cigarettes to deal with their daily existence. Then our visit in the morning was a rough one. It’s really hard trying to bond with a new child to have him learn to trust us and enjoy our company and still make certain your own child feels safe and secure in his position with in his current family. It gets better each day, but with the mood I was having, the whole situation just annoyed me. By lunch all was well, I stopped being the spoiled American traveler and instead of being annoyed, was thankful, that I have a safe, clean, and friendly environment in which to raise our boys. We still can’t decide on his name. I think Samuel will be the winner, and we’ll simply call him Sam. I like the way Ian and Owen sounds, but he simply looks more like a Sam. It’s really hard to find something that flows well with Vitalik and McCaffery. Tim feels it’s really important to keep his given name his middle name. I’m just hoping he doesn’t have a negative association with it as it was from his birth mother who abandoned him. We meet with the lawyer tomorrow, so by Sunday’s post he’ll have his official name. So far so good as far as last night’s “organic” chicken is concerned. I think as “ethnic” as I’m willing to go is the pot-sticker type perogi looking things in the frozen food section of the grocery store. I found some nutella and feel like I’m in 7th heaven!!

Today’s morning visit went much better. Vitalik saw us coming down the hall and ran to us with a huge smile on his face. It’s great to see him ease up a bit. Life is very structured for him and he’s very cautious whenever he sees a caregiver or hears Russian. The children are so disciplined, a bit too much, and you know that’s saying a lot coming from me; as compared to most American families we rear Ian in a somewhat strict and discipline manner. We played ball as a group and then began coloring and doing Lego’s as a family. It was really nice. Vitalik loves being held more and more and seems to like soft little kisses on his super soft cheeks and neck. His shoes would fall off while we were dancing and it’s as if he was afraid someone would see that he didn’t have them on properly so we’d have to stop and then we’d start back up with more lovees. He’s becoming much better with signing and I think it will really take off once he starts “living” with us in the apartment vs. being in the orphanage. I’m going to try to take some photos of the Orphanage today. I feel like we’re whisked in and out quickly, but I’ll just take my camera along on my daily bathroom run!! Playing in the same room is becoming a bit old, but each visit is better for all of us.

Our interpreter took us to a DVD rental place today. I picked out a few from the pictures of the actors and could tell that one was the newish Herbie movie. Ian really enjoyed his afternoon movie between visits and keeps telling everyone he is Herbie the Love Bug. DVDs are only 1$ a piece. Eat your heart out Blockbuster! Ian did a great job initiating play with Vitalik during our afternoon visit. Vitalik seemed a little down or tired in the afternoon, but he is so disciplined to be agreeable, we couldn't determine what was wrong. We asked "are you happy?". He nodded yes. "Are you sad?"...yes again. He seemed to say yes to everything. I guess that is common with the children at the orphanage. We had a pizza dinner planned with another American family but that fell through. We were going to go anyway but our interpreter and driver are very nervous for us to be alone. The driver was going to wait outside while we ate our unplanned dinner, but he had other things to do. So we ate more pot-stickers in the apartment. Ian had fruit, oatmeal and cereal--his mainstay so far. Nell and I stayed up and watched "An Unfinished Life", picked for the picture of Morgan Freeman. It's tough to stay up since Ian's bedroom is the living room, so he got to sleep in our room until the movie was over. It is becoming a lot like groundhog day--we hope to be able to bring Vitalik to the apartment soon. Thanks for the emails and comments. We really enjoyed Grammy Mim's phone call in the morning. I guess the phone works!