Good morning Saturday (Friday's Post)

Hello all. I (Shona) am sitting in our kitchen writiing our update while Jonathan cooks our supper. I think I would like having him for a full-time cook. Tanis you are a very lucky woman! I am definitely taking full advantage of him while he is here – I haven’t stepped near the stove, other than to heat water for coffee or tea (I do realize I am spoiled – but I have washed the dishes). Anyway, we have had another good day. We took the ‘elektrichka’ out to Boyarka today (Jonathan was a big help, but really other than the language barrier – apparently most train systems are pretty similar so I felt pretty good about using the train). The train was quite busy and the interesting thing was there was a relatively constant stream of people coming through the train to sell stuff – everything from the newspaper to hand cream to pens to ice cream – certainly not something we’d see back home. Other than getting off at the wrong stop initially, realizing it, and having to rapidly hop back on the train – we made it fine. It is about a 10 minute brisk walk from the train station to the orphanage. And it only costs 4.27 Greevny – RETURN, per person – so for those of you who don’t know the value of the Greevny – that’s essentially $1. Their public transportation system here is really cheap and is well used. We haven’t decided if we’ll continue to use the train when we don’t have Slava with us or if we’ll just pay our driver to take us. It’s definitely more of an adventure to take the train (other than getting to be amused in the car by the traffic). We had a lovely visit with Ivanna that started out without her pouting or crying when she saw us waiting for her. That was nice. It was a gorgeous day today so we played outside. She is definitely feeling more comfortable with us – she was more active (though still sedate compared to some of the hyper-active kids we observe) and certainly letting us know what she wanted to do today. She led us around on a bit of a walk first then back to the swings. Big surprise. We may have to get a swing set in the back yard! We managed to bribe her off with a snack before she fell asleep this time. She then went for a little walk with her Daddy – it was pretty wonderful to watch her holding his hand, leading him where she wanted to go. They found a rickety stroller that she started pushing her teddy bear around in and then eventually we (her slow parents) figured out (with her wise uncle’s help) that she wanted to go IN the stroller and be pushed around. Her Daddy complied and pushed her around for most of the rest of our time with her – it was quite a challenge as a rear wheel kept falling off and the frame wasn’t exactly solid either. She threw her first minor temper tantrum with us as we took her out of the stroller when it was time to go. Who would think we’d be happy to have her kicking and crying – definitely letting us know what she did and didn’t want! She settled pretty quickly when we let her push the stoller toward the door (but still wasn’t happy to let GO of the stroller – we had to pry her little fingers off!). It’s quite lovely to have her being a little more active and directive in her play. We’ve been told by Slava that we get to go out again on Saturday but that the 4 days after that are holidays. She’s going to try to arrange for us to go out anyway- 4 days away is a little much time apart – especially right now.
This afternoon we wandered back to the artisans district and bought some art. It was a gorgeous afternoon. The blog site wouldn’t let me post anything new so I came home after checking email (the boys had gone to the store for supper fixin’s). We are now relaxing after a great supper. Hopefully we’ll be able to post this tomorrow.
yup.