Great Day!

We had a jam-packed fun day! We did have a little bit of an unexpected early start though. Landon woke up at 4:30 or so crying. We waited a few minutes, and then decided he wasn't going to fall back asleep on his own, so we went over, and rubbed his back, and "shhhh" 'd him until he fell back asleep. That bought us about 1/2 hour more of sleep before he started crying again. This time, I rocked him in my arms for a few minutes, and then decided it was time to just bring him into bed with us. I was so tired, I just wanted to sleep. It seems as if the early morning hours are finally when my body lets itself sleep. This worked...and got us through til about 6:15. We then got up, and ready, and went downstairs for breakfast.

Boy does our boy love Porridge! (aka oatmeal)  He is so cute- he always opens his mouth wide open and sticks his chin out towards us letting us know he is ready for another bite. Usually this is barely by the time the spoon has made it's way back into the bowl. He is a super quick eater. We have been working on trying to get him to slow down! If we break something into pieces and put it on a plate, we have to limit how much we put on the plate at once, b/c no matter how much it is, it is gone in under a minute. We aren't sure exactly, and don't really like assuming "bad" orphanage habits, but we are thinking possibly their eating there is like the driving here? The bully gets the road/food! Who knows, really. Today we actually got him to put food that was in his hand down for a second to take a sip of his drink. This was a big deal- before, if we tried to give him his drink while he had food in his hand, he would first stuff that into his mouth, and then reach for the glass. I purposely made sure not to touch the food he put down, trying to show him that he can leave food out, and he will get it back... hopefully Dakota will follow this pattern of training too when we get home- NOT! :)

At 9 AM, our driver, Slava picked us up from the hotel. We were off to Red Square to capture some memories of our boy's birthplace culture with him so we can share the pictures and memories with him in years to come. We loved our site seeing, even though it was a high of 14 degrees! Landon didn't seem to mind the cold, and everytime we walked into a building, he fussed. We got to enjoy St. Basil's Cathedral together, the Kremlin tour (really neat!), the guard changing outside of the Kremlin, and part of an ice show in the middle of Red Square! Here are some pictures of our morning together!

We had to get a picture here! I am so excited to put this picture in a frame in Landon's room. Our dear and talented friend, Karen, painted a mural of this building on the wall in Landon's room for him. It was in the works when we left last week, so we can't wait to see the final product when we return- what a wonderful way to always remember our time together here in Moscow!

Daddy and Landon right after the changing of the guard.

We cracked up when we looked down and saw this! Landon tucked his little face into his scarf like a turtle going into his shell! It was cold!!  Take note of his hands- he has his daddy's gloves on! He wouldn't let us put his mittens on- he just wanted daddy's gloves! Poor Greg graciously gave them up for the happiness of his little boy. ;)

This is daddy holding Landon while we watched about 10 minutes of an ice skating show. It was all in Russian- it had the music of the nutcracker, but no characters that went with that music...it captured Landon's attention the whole time! I told Greg he probably enjoyed it more than us b/c he understood what the songs were! It almost brought tears to my eyes watching his eyes light up watching the ice dancers- he definitely hasn't experienced anything like this before, and we are looking forward to all these kinds of fun things we can do with him!

The afternoon we spent at the hotel. We came back, had lunch at a local pizza shop, and Landon did really well, especially since he had to sit in an adult chair! After lunch, we came back, and he went to sleep- for almost a full 2 hours! He had a big morning, so we weren't surprised! It was a lot easier to get him to nap today, too! Crying only lasted maybe 5 minutes, tops! After his nap...which we decided to wake him up from, so he would sleep tonight for us, we went over to the mall and walked around with him for a while. He was using daddy's glove to "wash" all the glass on the store fronts! Too funny.  Then, we walked out to that same Chinese restaurant. All went well...and we even decided to let him play in the ball pit tonight! Another first...he LOVED it!

Yes, he loved the ball pit- so much so that he screamed when we had to leave. We came back to the hotel, and got him all clean in the bathtub, and bedtime was the smoothest ever! I don't know whether it was that we had some Christmas music playing in the background that Greg rocked him to, or that he was more tired tonight than usual, or if he is just getting more used to us and the routine...maybe all 3? :)



I'm going to turn in for the night- we have our big embassy appointment tomorrow and his medical exam. Should be another packed day!

Paka Paka!