When we picked him up this morning, the nanny stopped us at the door, took our passport, and took us to the main office where all the paperwork was initially done. She told us to sit in the chairs and wait, went into the office, said some things in Russian, and then went back to Griffin's room down the hall... Then within about 2 mins, she came back from Griffin's room with our passport and told us to come with her. So why did we have to go to the office?! I'm so confused. It's probably over that little piece of paper that we still don't have. BUT ANYWAY. She motioned us to walk with her to Griffin's living area. We hesitated because we know this is a "no no", but she motioned for us to follow again. I was thrilled to see his new living area! It looked much like the other room that he was moved from, except that this one indeed has a bathroom in the wide hallway like I thought I caught a glimpse of before. Next to that bathtub is 2 tiny toilets, 1 regular size toilet, all of the cubbies that contain the potty chairs, etc. Then in the wide open living area is a huge play pen that I'm sure contains the entire groupa most of the time and to the side of the room are small tables. Then she ushered us through the sleep area where all of the cribs are. No kids were there so we realized she was allowing us to pass through the back way to get outside to where he was. I'm trying to remember if I saw toys or any other details but I can't remember seeing anything that stands out to me. Maybe I will get the chance to walk through there again!
We were excited to see how he would react to us as we walked up to the play shed where his groupa was hanging out. We slowly walked up, still out of sight to him, and just tried to see how he reacts with his groupa and how the nanny reacts with him as well. We noticed that all of the kids were gathered around her and Griffin was in the middle on a riding toy he was strapped onto. We walked up and he definitely made eye contact with us and gave a small smile. The nanny looked almost scared. I guess she thought we were about to take him and run. She said, "passport?" and we motioned that we left it with in the room. She still didn't seem 100% about the situation but she scooped him up anyway and handed him over. He felt so good in my arms. He laid his little head on my shoulder and he lets me squeeze him just as tight as I want! After a bit I put him in the swing and let him do that for about 25 mins or so while he read his Mickey Mouse book. Occasionally, I would rough him up a little bit with tickles. He seemed to be in a great mood!
When we could tell that he was getting bored, we walked him to another area with the slide that he likes to play on. He cruised along the walls of it but didn't take it upon himself to slide. We played peek-a-boo a lot and then once he got bored with that, I put him down on the ground to walk. I was really surprised at his stamina today! He walked a good long ways, holding my hands of course, but this is the most he has ever attempted to walk. We were very proud of him. We made our way to the bridge play area and let him relax there after such a long stretch! Then we headed over to an empty play shed and let him wind down and cruise the walls like I believe he really enjoys doing. He's always so content just cruising alone. His nanny from the other groupa, the one we like the most, came over and said "privyet" which is "hello" and Griffin reached out to shake her hand. So cute! When time was up, the nanny motioned that we could just take him back inside through the way that we came out and we placed him in the huge play pen, roughed his hair up and said our goodbyes. The kitchen had something brewing that smelled pretty good today so I really hoped he enjoyed his lunch!
Between visits, we had to get the owners of the apartment to come over and fix the tub and a light. While they were here, I finally had my opportunity to ask the landlady how to work the oven! I motioned to her that I didn't know how to turn it on and she went to the sink, opened up the cabinet, and was trying to plug it in! haha. I motioned for her to stop and that it was okay, no worries. I guess they don't bake here?
She also had what seemed to be very heated discussions with one of our facilitators about the tub and light. It seems that every phone call that I hear from anyone in this country is heated. They talk very loudly and to the point so it makes it seem that they are always on the rampage. Just a culture thing, I suppose! It doesn't help that I can only understand a word here and there.
I'm very proud of him. I think my little talk with him has paid off (not really, but you know)! He is has been walking longer distances while holding our hands this evening as well! Other than the usual stuff, our evening visit was pretty uneventful.... However, the little paper that we have been bugged about for the past 2 days was finally given to us this evening. YAY!
Oh...and something funny that he did this evening... He acted like he wanted to actually walk by himself over to the curb so we let him. He took 2 steps and then put his hands on the curb. Before I could stop him, he stuck the top of his head right down into the mud on the other side of the curb just like a little ostrich! We cleaned him up so that the nannies wouldn't get upset with us! haha. He's so cute!
Until tomorrow!
(ALSO, we finally got our comment section fixed on our blog!! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them on here and I'll answer them.)
Chris's View:
So Maria & I have been in an all out war! We have been assaulted on a daily basis... nature is attacking us! Everything is in bloom, so the pollen is crazy bad! Pine, cottonwood, shrubs, flowers, weeds, trees, you name it. Maria has been fighting the sinus stuff, while today, and this may sound weird, I could feel the smell of the blooms in my eyes. Yes, I told you it was going to sound weird!
There are all sorts of things in bloom around the orphanage, and we think our little dude may have allergies too. He has had this phlemmy sound in his throat and his eyes have been watering. He also sneezed... it was only once, but it could have woke the dead! LOL! Maybe that one sneeze got the majority out of his system.
While not him, this is how I felt when he sneezed!
His little eyes are all gunky and he has red rings around them. Like Maria said, if he gets any worse, we fear they may cancel our visitation until they can get him to feeling better.
It's not that the hanging out of the sheets are really going to help him if it is allergies. Not to mention, you'd think they'd kind of dose all of these kids to help them get through these times. While they do go outside a good bit, Griffin's last groupa of kids, we haven't seen them in several days outside now.
On a side note, I did see something really cool yesterday. Due to the name blog, I just didn't get to post about it, so I will today. We were going to put Griffin in his normal swing, the one where he usually passes out, and we saw a little ball caught in a spider web explode! It was thousands of little tan baby spiders! I really wish we could have gotten a picture of the balled up baby spiders, but we had to settle for a shot as they were scurrying about the web. Maria thinks I am nuts, but it is one of the coolest things I think I have seen in my life. When we were stationed at Travis, every year we would come out to tons of spider webs clinging to everything. They would get blown down out of the mountains and the long webs would stick to light poles, stop signs, car antennas, you name it. They were from the baby spiders spreading. They release web that catches in the wind and they ride the wind and webs. Where they end up is where they end up, God puts them exactly where he wants them. Seeing this instantly took me back to those days and it was really neat to see the beginning of these little spider lives! Now, where's my shoe... I need to go spider hunting! LOL!See ya'll tomorrow!
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