Passport photo day

We had a great morning at the baby house with Jenya today. When we go into her room to get her she recognizes us now and smiles hello, which is great. The daily morning routine is that I get her changed out of her diaper and into her clothes for the day. Then I spend about 20 minutes trying to get her to eat off a large tablespoon! The caregivers are so good at doing it quickly as they have so many mouths to feed, but I’m just starting to get the hang of it. At first I was too slow and they were quick to tell me to go faster. I can’t wait to get her home and feed her like we’re used to, at a normal pace. And the babies drink tea too! And it’s not a sippy cup like most toddlers use, but a regular cup that you hold up to their mouths to drink. When that process is finally completed, we get to bring Jenya to the play room for the next few hours for fun and bonding.

Today Jenya had her passport photo taken. I think it’s hysterical that babies need their pictures on the passport. I wonder if it’s good for 10 years like ours are? Can you imagine her trying to use it at 10 years old with her 1 year old photo on it? She was such a cutie for the cameraman, I can’t wait to see her little passport!

On a different note, a funny story for my pharmacist friends. I have been looking for bandaids here for a few days now and finally figured out where they’re kept. You can’t buy them in the supermarket. You must go to a pharmacy and ask the pharmacist behind the counter to sell them to you! They are sold individually for $0.07 each and of course I don’t know my numbers in Russian yet, so I made a gesture as one would to show how big a fish they caught. I spread my arms out wide and received 10 bandaids. That will do for now, but if it’s anything like buying Sudafed in the US, I might not be able to get more for a while! There are many things done differently here than back home, but we’re slowly getting the hang of communicating to get our point across. Most everyone is very helpful and patient with us.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Jenya has started “talking” a lot more! She tries to imitate what we are saying, but everything sounds like dada, which Rick loves. We’ve also gotten her to clap with us, bang on drums, and even make kissing sounds! I just love every minute we get to spend with her!!

For those of you who have been worried about Rick’s health, he’s doing just fine. I realized this when he had enough energy today to wash all of our clothes in a bucket in the bathtub and hang them all out to dry on a clothesline he constructed in our hotel room. He’s back to his old cleaning self. It’s great for me since I got to go out shopping for Jenya again!