Day 7- Blue Jeans

Maria's View:

Morning visit-

This morning the skies were so gloomy but then the sun broke through and it was so beautiful and warm!  Did we still have to wear our jackets?  YUP.  That's just the way it is.  We arrived at the orphanage and had no run ins with the little ones today.  Walked by the kitchen and whatever they were cooking smelled good!  Are we starving or what?  haha.  Then on the left, we noticed that our facilitator was in the office so we stopped by and she needed us to sign some papers.  Then she told us that there is a paper missing from our dossier that has been removed from an appostilled packet.  It's a paper that explains our military status in Germany and it's pretty important.  Our facilitator is on it, though, and has called the Adoption Department in hopes that they will find it.  If they don't, I'm not exactly sure what will happen.  Yeah, I'm a little stressed.

We went on upstairs to get our sweetie and he was all bundled up and ready to go outside within minutes of ringing the buzzer.  We really like this nanny.  We took him outside and did our usual thing with him.  We did mix things up a bit and put him in the swing.  We put him there 2 days ago and he didn't hold himself up in it too well but today he did!  It seemed that he was enjoying it so we kept him in there for about 10 mins.  I really think he enjoys the wind in his face.  Afterward, Chris wanted to hold him for a bit so I took out a giraffe rattle that I made for him and he loved it!  It's perfect for him because when he hits himself in the face, it won't hurt him.  He even turned it on Chris and bopped him in the face a few times! haha.  I see a lot of soft toys in the future for him.  I'm sure it's just an orphanage behavior but he goes straight for his face with whatever is in his hands, whether it's a hat, shoe, car, blanket, anything.

We noticed that the door to "Finn's" groupa opened on the outside of the 2nd floor and the nannies brought down 3 little cuties all dressed the same way and led them to the play shed.  They played right next to us and they were so enjoyable.  We stretched our time outside to 30 mins because it was so pretty outside and then made our way very slowly indoors.  As we were leaving, I heard a little boy of "Finn's" groupa yell out "Finn's" real name.  It was so sweet.  I heard his name again from the response of the nanny in what I imagine was her explaining that his family was taking him inside.

We made our way through the main doors and he instantly leaned to the side to put that sweet little hand on the wall and kept it there all the way up to the 2nd floor.  We removed his coat.  He is so cute today in his little blue jeans.  We looked at the tag and they are size 9-12 months and were hanging down around his hips.  He needs the length though so anything smaller than 9 months would definitely be too short.  I hope that 12 month pants will work with the adjustable waist.  I brought along with me a pair of 18-24 month jeans and I know without even trying them on that they will swallow him.

I gave him his giraffe rattle and ball to play with but he was so, so tired.  I guess he is more comfortable around us, at least enough to rest when he needs to rest.  He popped his 2 little fingers in his mouth and put his other little hand over his eyes, laid down and was done.  I tickled him to revive him back up again, took him to the window to stand and it was there that he took 2 steps for us! Then I noticed that he had a dirty diaper.  We had about 30 minutes of time left and when you let the nannies know that he needs to be changed, your visit is over.  So we dealt with the stench as long as we could, haha, and we could tell that he was ready for a nap so we had to take him back to his nanny.  Our driver was no where near ready to pick us up so we sat outside the orphanage for about 45 mins until he arrived.

Evening-

It was still sunny and warm so the nanny had him dressed in the softest, fluffiest outfit.  He felt like a little cuddly bear cub.  We took him outside and it became clear to us that he was in a grumpy mood!  He still played pretty well.  We took him under one of the play sheds and let him cruise along the walls and gate.  When he was done with that, we headed back to the main entrance.  I was holding him to where his bottom was actually on my chest so that he was sitting pretty high and facing away from me.  I noticed him reach for a tree branch so Chris pulled it lower so that he could touch it and grab a leaf off of it.  I love his curiosity!

Once we got to the door, a little groupa was headed out to play.  We opened the door for them and watched as the nanny lined them up against the wall.  Then she gave them permission to make their way outside.  The nanny took the hand of one of the little girls and then screeched!  I saw her throw a huge bug into the air.  Apparently one of the little girls had picked up a huge beetle on her way out and the nanny had tried to hold her hand unknowingly!  This is the first time that I have ever seen one of the nannies laugh.  It was pretty funny!

Once we got to our play area, I took off all of his fuzzy clothes and before I was done, he had already put his fingers in his mouth and was about to call it a day!  I tickled him and he was pretty much done.  UNTIL our facilitator called us.  He saw that cellphone and had to have it.  Chris handed it over and he put it right up to his ear.  It was ADORABLE!  The nannies are always on the phone so there is no telling how long he has wanted to hold one and play with it!  So we will be going out tomorrow to look for a toy phone for him.  We let him play with the phone (shhhh!  don't tell our facilitator!) until it was time to say goodbye.  As we handed him off to the nanny, he leaned back in to Chris and acted like he didn't want to go with this particular nanny.  She is new to us but she seemed pretty nice.  So maybe our little boy is beginning to bond a bit with us.

Until tomorrow!!  This boy is too stinkin' cute!!!!













Chris's View:

Okay, sorry for not having many pictures on yesterday's blog, but I will make up for it today.  Let's start with a quiz:

What is black, round and has an enormous amount of uses in this country?

TIRES

We all know tires help us get from point A to point B, keep us safe in the rain on slick roads and heck, the MythBusters just did an episode on square tires.  Here, they take tires to new heights though.  They are not just for cars anymore!

On a side note about our visit this morning, when we arrived and took the little one outside, we rounded the corner & there was a lady sweeping the ground... with her witch's broom!  Talk about straight out of Wizard of Oz!  Maria looked at me and said she sweeps, then flies away on the broom!  Lol!  The rest of the morning was filled with sayings like, "And your little dog too!"  It was too much!

After our morning visit, which was beautiful due to the sunshine, fresh air, and our little man's willingness to try new things, we had our driver take us to Karavan for lunch and relaxation time.  We had this little counter service that had a ham panini and baked potato, choice of cold salad (like cole slaw, beet salad, etc) & a coke for like $6... (THIS IS JUST FOR YOU LUIS!)  So we split it and it was really good!  We have been lucky the last couple days on the food frontier, but we haven't really been adventurous!

After lunch, we walked around the shopping center a bit before we headed back to the apartment.  We usually take one of a couple different routes home... my military folks will understand for the force protection aspects about making us hard targets.  Yeah, it may be "safe", but let's not tempt our luck.  We have noticed since we arrived here that they love using their old tires for things. 





There's planters for plants.

There's blockades to prevent parking.

There's markers to denote areas like playgrounds.

There's garden boundaries (I think these may also be property lines)

Then, right in front of our apartment, there's this creative use!

Oh yeah, they can be used on cars too!  Lol!  I guess when you live in a marginalized economic system, you make due with whatever you can get your hands on.  It is really eye opening since we are so used to the American way of life, which has become a disposable way of life.  You get new tires, you have the tire store recycle the old (for a nominal service fee of course), when we could be taking them home and burying them in our yards to make all sorts of benches and playgrounds, and cemetery fences.

Speaking of cemeteries, our driver took us a new route to the Karavan today.  Today is actually the continuation of "Father's Day" that I spoke on yesterday.  He took us by, what we can only imagine, is the main cemetery in the city.  It was monstrous!  I think it could probably match up to the size of Arlington National Cemetery.  For those of you who have been there, you will understand the size of this place.  For those of you who haven't I really cannot describe the sheer size of the place.  There are roads criss-crossing it.  This one was a more modern place than the other cemetery we pass.  Yes, it still has many old metal crosses marking the grave sites, but this one also has massive marble headstones, many with amazing laser engraved photos of loved ones lost.  Each familial grave site seems to be marked off by low, heavy iron fences, and many families were sitting inside the fences eating and spending time together.  I don't like cemeteries, and never have, so this would be a rough custom for me.

I am running out of things locally to highlight on the culture side of the house.  Hopefully we can get out and explore our surroundings a little bit this week and I can keep these write ups fresh so ya'll can get a glimpse into the culture and life of our little guy.

See ya'll tomorrow!