It Was An Awesome Day

Today we took the marshootka (bus) to the baby house. Our friend came with us to show us the right buses to get on there and back. My arms got quite the workout holding onto the upper bar while the bus crazily made turns. Just in case you are wondering, there is no maximum capacity on the bus. They just let people continue to squeeze in until your armpit is in someone elses face and vice versa.   "How do they say it?  Fooh!"

We got to the baby house and were given "baheely" which are shoe covers.  Our missionary friend already knew that they would do that so he brought a pair of house slippers to change into.

We went into the playroom to wait for them to bring our boys.

Immediately our big boy recognized us and couldn't wait to see what we brought in the bag to play with.

Since we were a little early, one of the caretakers brought in his snack for us to feed him.  It was warm milk and a sweet roll.  John had the pleasure of helping our big boy drink his warm milk.  Big Boy kept getting up to come over to us to see what we were doing.  John would take his roll out of his hand and set it back on the table as he told him to eat at the table.  Big Boy is very smart, and when he was nearly finished and had run away with his roll in his hand yet again and saw John coming to take him back to the table, Big Boy quickly shoved the rest of the roll in his mouth to show that he was done.

Little One is so content.  He allowed me to hold and snuggle him as long as I wanted.
He loved Rachel snuggling with him too.

Little One is precious.  At this time he has very little core strength but we can already see that he is trying to sit up more.  When I tried to get him to bear some weight on his legs he could not at first.  By the end of our visit today he was kicking and showing strength.   He is so sweet, loving, and cuddly that all we wanted to do was snuggle with him.  He was content doing this but also wanted to make eye contact and play with my necklace.  He drools a lot and loves to suck on his fingers.  If he sees a toy, he always reaches for it.  Note to self: Buy teething ring, pacifier, and rattle. :)

By the end of our visit today I actually heard Little One coo.  It was priceless.

Big Boy already adores his Daddy.

Safe in Mama's arms.

Big Boy giggles more than any boy on the planet.  Seriously, he is the happiest boy on earth!  Did I mention that he has a mischievous bone too?  He loves to be a little feisty in a playful way, but when our tone becomes serious he listens very well.

Rachel and Big Boy bonding.

Gosh, I love this boy.

He is very smart.  He took all these rings off and put them back on.  He did a pretty good job if you ask me.

In an attempt to calm our Big Boy down, John put him on his shoulders so he had nowhere to run.  Surprisingly, it worked.

Our Big Boy loved the walk on Daddy's shoulders back to his groupa. 
He melts my heart in this picture-- so proud looking.

When the caretaker went to take our Big Boy back, he began to cry.  It broke our hearts.  I am so thankful that they told him we would be back.  I kissed him and whispered into his ear that I love him.  He smiled as they got him to blow kisses to us as we left.

Dropping off our Little One was much easier as far as crying goes.  I was asked to take him over to the big playpen where 5 or 6 other very small children from his groupa were.  The playpen had a wood bottom with a blanket laid over the top.  It was so hard to leave our little boy there.

It was so hard seeing all the other babies there too.  We wanted to pick each of them up to give them a big hug, but instead I made a few of them cry with my big smile and American "hello".

I felt bad.  Maybe tomorrow might be better.

Since we hardly spent any money on breakfast or lunch today, we went back to the Chinese restaurant for dinner.  Once again, it was very good (and only $25 for drinks, dinner, and tip).

Tomorrow we are supposed to change apartments.   I hope so.

Our documents will be in Kiev tomorrow.  Please pray that things continue on the pace they are on.  As things stand right now, we could be having court mid next week.  That would be awesome!

Blessings to you all and hope you are having a great week!