thursday

Wow. It’s been an amazing 24 hours. We have a daughter who is currently ripping around the apartment playing with everything from our tea towel to theraband to her teddy bear. Pretty much everything she finds becomes a toy. It’s so incredible to watch her delight in everything. She has come so much out of her quiet shell in the last day, it’s amazing. Last night we went for a walk and ended up in the at a play park in one half of the botanical gardens. She of course had the required swing time and just watched all the kids and people. We have discovered she absolutely loves animals (we knew of course she likes creepy chickens) but every animal she saw any (pigeons, other birds, a cat, many dogs) she would point and vocalize something (woof for the dogs) and have this look of absolute delight and awe. She managed to get her first pony ride (I am a sucker). She saw a little pony in the park that a fellow was taking kids for rides. He obviously saw a customer because he indicated she could have a ride. I said ‘no, she’s too little’. He then indicated she could just pet the pony, which led to him indicating that she should just sit on the pony, which as soon as I sat her on there, he started the pony going and had me hold her leg (she held onto the little handle on the saddle). We walked a short loop, which she loved and he earned a few dollars. We then headed to Mario’s to meet the Andrews for dessert. We were a little early so we walked around the block first so Ivanna wouldn’t have to sit for too long. By the end of the block she was rocking side to side and singing a little song – it was great. She did really well in the restaurant, playing for about an hour with some papers and sharing a little of my dessert. She was pretty content and not concerned at all with the strangers – they even got to see a couple of smiles. We are thrilled as hopefully if things continue to go well, we won’t have to hermit too much in the next weeks. She went to bed well, with only about 5 seconds of crying before she settled in to snuggle with me and then was asleep in about 10 minutes. She slept through the night except for briefly waking up when she rolled off the cushion she was sleeping on. I just put her back on the cushion and she went right to sleep again until 7:00am. Fantastic! I slept better than I expected considering there was this little alien on the floor beside me! We had a great morning and managed to get ready and out the door around 9 (Ivanna was ready, having brought us her shoes and hat around 8!). We walked to pick up the Andrews and then walked down to Kreschatik to meet another Canadian couple. We had a great time visiting and getting to know everyone. It is nice for the two couples to meet as they are both now waiting for second appointments at the SDA – they can be good supports and company for each other – especially while they are both in Kyiv. Darren and Ivanna and I headed back to the apartment after a little shopping in Independence Square. We had a little lunch (which Ivanna devoured) and then she and I attempted to lay down for a nap. I’ll give you the short version and say that things didn’t go as smoothly as yesterday. After an hour of various attempts on and off and much crying (mostly on Ivanna’s part) we (she and I) decided enough was enough and gave up on the nap. She’s been going strong ever since (it’s now 5:45) so she either didn’t need the nap and/or she’s (hopefully) going to crash well tonight. Darren just got back after a long and tiring afternoon of waiting and driving – getting her passport and legalizing documents. Tomorrow we get her visa and then we leave Saturday. CRAZY!! We are heading to Mario’s for supper with the Andrews and hopefully the wi-fi will work tonight.