Moscow - Day 4

It's Shannon, here for another daily installment.

We had another great visit with Kristina this morning.  We first played with her in the "music room" where the kids get music "lessons."  It was a fun room with lots of musical instruments, piano, etc.  There was also one wall with a floor to ceiling mirror on it and Kristina LOVED looking at herself in the mirror.  She was very animated this morning (until about 11:40 when she started getting sleepy again), made lots of noises and we even saw her crawl!  It is not a true belly-off-the-floor crawl, but more of what I call an "army-man" crawl.  She did it every time we would put her on her stomach and she was FAST!   She also rolled over easily from her stomach to back and back to stomach. It was really great to see how close she is to her actual age developmentally.

We took her outside again for about the last 30 minutes of our morning visit.  The weather here is amazing again today with a high of 72 and not a cloud in the sky.  Of course, they bundled her up like it was time for her to go snow-skiing!  Her hat kept covering her eyes but I think that she really likes being outside - like most babies.

We got back to the hotel around 12:30 and went downstairs to the American bar & grill and grabbed some lunch.  Ted took a nap after lunch since he didn't sleep very well last night.  I had a good night's sleep last night thanks to some Simply Sleep so I watched Mad Men on iTunes.  There is a TV in the room with about 6 channels in English but they are all news channels (CNN, BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg) and there is only so much bad news that I can take.

We went back to the orphanage this afternoon around 3:30 for another visit.  Unfortunately this one was a little short - only about 30 minutes - but I was happy to get any time with her that I could.  We were in the same playroom where we initially met her.  It is a small room with age-appropriate toys (it even has a pit of balls that Sam would LOVE).  The short visit was great again - many smiles and giggles although she seemed a little more serious this afternoon than she was this morning.  But to our surprise she showed us a BIG TRICK -  she pulled up!  She crawled over to a dollhouse in the playroom and pulled herself up on her short little legs.  I could not believe it and got a few pictures.  She is even more developmentally close to her age than I would have ever thought.  It is very nice to see that her motor skills are very strong!

Ted is working out at the hotel gym right now and then we are going to venture out and find a place to eat dinner.  We have been eating at places close to Red Square but tonight we are going to walk in the other direction and be a little more adventuresome.  Well, maybe not THAT adventuresome as Ted said he saw a Chili's where we might eat.  We have not gone to a Russian eating establishment yet, and I am not sure that we will.  Our favorite place so far is the Italian place that makes the best pizza. Maybe on the next trip we will try Russian food!

Tomorrow is our last day with Kristina.  I am already growing attached and get tears in my eyes thinking about saying goodbye to her tomorrow.  Our time has been too short, but very memorable and I think that there has been some bonding.  This afternoon she smiled as soon as she saw me and didn't want to go directly to her caretaker when she walked in the room to get her, as she has in the two days past.  

And tomorrow is our 10 year anniversary!  Hard to believe that we have been married 10 years.  Doesn't seem like nearly that long.  Off to get ready for our fancy dinner at Chili's!  Hope that everyone has a great day!!