We just had a 2 hour nap after walking around the park at the river. Katya walked all the way from the hotel to the river - about .1 mile. Then we put her in the stroller and walked some more. She was pooped by the time we got back. The backpack stroller works great. We stopped at a grocery store right around the corner from the hotel and got coke, yogurt, and more water. I think we're going to get some cold cuts and call it dinner - maybe get some ice cream.

Joe

OK so I have been a parent less than 18 hours and a few (at least three times) I wasn't sure I was going to live through it. Everyone calls then the "terrible twos" for a reason. Katya's temper tantrums are bad but her and my language barrier adds to both of our frustration. She is very clever. She has picked up several words - "Book", "papa", "mama", "truck", and "big". Basically book is her favorite word, and "no". Last night Katya's worst tantrum happened when a chamber maid picked her up and after a few moments had to leave. There is no fury like a woman scorned. Katya freaked out. I guess Katya believed this was a care worker from the orphanage. She was a woman who wanted her and spoke Russian. This tantrum lasted 15 minutes, complete with screaming kicking and biting her own arms and left foot. (Don't ask me why) She does walk with her left foot outward - kind of bowlegged with her left foot kind of stiff. I will mention this to our pediatrician. Today we realized Katya is not a morning person. She was downright surly. Kind of like Linda. Showering was another traumatic experience. Last night I bathed her and we put lotion on for scabies. That was rough. The bath part. Lotion she didn't care about. She didn't like being washed. Didn't like the soap or the shampoo. The only part she did like was the baby duck (thanks girls it helped alot) and the bath puppets. Joe did the redressing part. I surveyed the bathroom damages, not bad. Today she did not like the shower. She didn't like water in her face, the soap or even sitting in the tub due to the fact that there is a small hot water tank here. When someone else turned on their hot water ours went cold, at any time which happened twice. She let Joe dry and redress her. Breakfast went well, she ate a cup of yogurt, 2 hot dogs, half a sippy of apple juice and nibbled on a piece of bread. I ate toast with cheese and butter and coffee. So far Katya is content to sit on the bed while I write and push her stroller with her toys and diapers in it. As ten we will meet with our translator and we will go to the park for two hours. Then lunch and a nap. Wish me luck!

Rain

Well, we survived our first night as parents. Katya slept the night through which is a good thing. One thing that I noticed is that whenever someone speaking Russian tries to entertain her, especially if she is picked up by them, she does not want them to leave. She throws a fit and won't really calm down until after she is alone with us again. Also she does not like being brought through doorways - I think to her this means we are going to be leaving her back at the hospital again. This should improve with time I would think. When she gets really upset she throws a temper tantrum and kicks and screams. She also bites her arms - I think it is frustration issue more than anything else. When she is calm she is obviously very intelligent and inquisitive. She loves to stack things up, instead of line them up like 4 months ago. She has already repeated 2 English words and understood what we meant them to be - 'Truck" and "Book". I have a feeling that she will speak a few English words regularly before we get home in 2 weeks. Time to wake Katya up, this should be fun.

Joe

We're parents! We had our court hearing this afternoon at 12:30. We have Katya with us in our hotel room. It is a wonderful feeling to finally be a parent. Now it gets fun. We're trying to get her to go to sleep.

Joe