Another wonderful visit

We started today off with a lovely walk - was only about zero degrees outside. We were able to take some nice pictures but could only stay out for about an hour and 15 minutes because it was simply too cold. We then returned to the hotel to get ready for Sasha to pick us up for our third visit.

The traffic wasn't that bad today so we made it to the baby home in only 45 minutes. We met Galina (our translator) and found out that because we were a little early, the baby was still sleeping. We were taken into yet a different room and had some time to get to know Galina while we waited. She was very friendly and kind. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for him to wake up and be brought into us.

When he was brought in, Laurie held him for a bit as he seemed a little sleepy still. It wasn't long until he was ready to play though. He sat on the floor and played with the toys for a little bit and then he wanted to move. He was off crawling and walking (with assistance still) around the room and over to the rocking horses that were there. John put him on one and pushed him for a few minutes. He seemed much more at ease and animated today and let us know when he was ready to move on to the next toy :) He even got a little fussy for the first time when he was ready to stop looking at a book (and climb off of John's lap) but was slowed down because we had to re-tie his shoe. We have been showing him every day how to roll and toss a ball back and forth - today he actually tossed the ball back to John on his own without any help! He seemed to take pleasure in us taking turns kissing his cheeks - once John would do it, he would turn to Laurie for her turn and then back to John...he seems to be feeling the love. He was babbling more today and smiled several times for us. We still have yet to see him cry! He is very calm and serious most of the time but lets us see him smile and have fun too. Tomorrow will be a very difficult day as we say goodbye and have to wait for our second trip to Russia to see him again.

Once we returned to the hotel, we decided to brave the cold again (not much of a choice about that if you are hungry) and tried McDonalds for the first time here. It was actually amusing because there did not seem to be anyone there speaking English except for us. In the end, we pointed to pictures on a plastic menu and actually got what we wanted!! When we returned to the hotel, the temperature was 3 degrees with a wind chill of -9 degrees! We will be off to the hotel gym in a little bit to work off some of that lovely food and warm up :)

Tomorrow will be a big/long day. Sasha is going to pick us up around noon and first take us to see a couple of cathedrals. We will then meet Natasha at a notary for the completion of some documents and visit the European medical building to have our Russian medical exams completed (this only consists of blood work). Then it is off to our final visit of this trip :(