Lets not miss a moment!

Hi everyone-thanks for all the great comments! I’m sorry I didn’t make it on the Blog yesterday; it appears that I had a bout of food poisoning and I’ve literally been in bed over the past 30 hours or so. I’m not exactly sure what I ate, but I doubt I’ll ever eat mushrooms again! I was so sick I missed one morning with Norah, this was the worst part, missing time with her.

Today, I feel much better-still working on re-hydrating myself. During the past 48 hours I’ve only eaten mashed potatoes, Fanta orange soda, sprite and tons of water-oh, and a few bites of lemon meringue pie (very different then ours, but very good)-thank goodness, I’m out of the woods.

Norah was wonderful today; she always has a big gummy smile for me and kicks her legs as if she’s eager to come to me. Every morning, my driver Andre drops me off outside of the baby house, after walking over a small man-made bridge; there is a short road/pathway that leads to the play yard of the baby house. (*see pictures of Larry above) Often, there is a small pack of what appears to be stray dogs at the entrance. Although nothing would keep me from Norah, I sometimes feel a bit nervous not being familiar with these dogs. The dogs never seem to have much interest in me or the children. The children often call out in Russian “sa-BA-ka, sa-BA-ka” this is the Russian word for dog. There are many cats and dogs (by themselves or in small packs) all over the city this is unusual for me to see, but it just appears to be part of the culture. The other word I often hear the kids call out is “ma-SHEE-na” which is the Russian word for car. The children watch for the cars to drive by on the road outside of the fence at the baby house and yell, “ma-SHEE-na, ma-SHEE-na!” Can you imagine what they would say if they could see Uncle John’s tractor collection!

As far as I can tell, the caregivers at the baby house speak almost no English and I of course speak only a very few words in Russian-we do our best with body language to communicate-it’s interesting, but not always successful! The caregivers are always trying to help me for instance by bringing a stroller to push Norah in when she and I are out walking. I of course do not want to put her down for one second. Sometimes, I’ll push her for a few moments to be courteous to show appreciation, but only moment later I scoop my girl up in my arms and hold on tight for our short time together. I believe touch is so important, and I am reassured at how well Norah is responding-she loves it when I touch her face lightly like a feather or tell her the story of the 5 little piggy’s who live at the end of her exquisite tiny feet. When we play these games, she becomes very still like she doesn’t want to miss a moment and neither do I!!