Day 5/10

I can’t wait until we can post pictures of Blake on here. We have some real cute ones from yesterday. We brought shoes and clothes with us to try them on him so we could see if they fit. He can fit in 24 month/2T pants length wise, but he is a skinny minnie. I don’t think his little legs and bottom even fill out his silly tights. He does have long arms though so 2T and 3T seemed ok. I’m guessing it won’t take long to get some meat on his bones. Irina brought two chocolate Easter eggs for him and Victoria to enjoy. In the middle of the egg is a little toy. They both really enjoyed the chocolate! Today we also brought a water bottle. Blake really enjoys the fresh water maybe even more than the chocolate. It was kind of rainy outside so we were stuck in the brown couch room for the whole visit. We are holding out hope that during today’s visit we can go outside. There really isn’t much more to report. The ride back to the Vlad Inn was awful. It usually takes like 45 minutes, but today it took 2 hours. And that was two hours at a snail’s pace with diesel fumes coming back in the van. We are all becoming a bit nauseated. It turns out there was a pedestrian/bus accident that was causing the hold up. We did take a walk across the railroad tracks for a bit. Below is a picture of us today on the beach. You would think that with all of the strolls we are taking we would feel healthy, but it feels like the only thing we do is sit and eat meals. I think we have already gained like 10 pounds - partially because we are eating out of boredom and partially because we are eating things that we wouldn’t typically eat at home. Ok so I have completely digressed in this entry. We hope all is well with everyone back home. We love little updates about ANYTHING… family, friends, weather, work, what you ate for dinner last night… you name it – we are interested!

Dasvidanya (Goodbye!)

Oh I almost forgot. Today they gave us back the album that we left for him on the first visit and the album that Amy took to him. They also gave us back the disposable camera, but they didn’t take any pictures because there were afraid they would have broken it :o(. I asked about the blanket and pillow that my mom had made for him. We fully expected not to get it back. They said that the children really enjoy playing with them and asked if we would mind if they kept them. Of course we said that that was fine. My mom can always make him another one, but it warms our heart to know that such simple things can bring pleasure to the children. In a way it is somewhat sad. In another way, it is a nice reminder to enjoy the simple things in life. Now I just wish we had about 100 more of the blanket/pillow combos so that each child could have their own!