Well, we were hoping that our sleep pattern the last trip was because of court nerves but maybe not. All 3 of us woke up at 5:00am :( After an hour of trying to get back to sleep, John took Andrew into the "living room" part of our suite so Laurie could get a little more sleep since she's been suffering from a cold and not feeling great. On a side note, the hotel very nicely upgraded us (John, Laurie & Andrew) into a 2 bedroom suite with a living room and 3 bathrooms since we were coming for an adoption (would eventually have 2 children with us) and it was over the holidays. We ended up going down for breakfast around 9am with Laurie's parents to get "fueled up" for the day.
After breakfast, we came back to our room(s) to hang out and Andrew played with the iPad (it seemed at this point that he had caught Laurie's cold as his nose turned into a faucet). He was acting very tired (which makes sense because he was up for 27+ hours with only a 2 1/2 hour nap and then only slept for about 7 hours) so Laurie encouraged him to take a nap. He finally fell asleep around 1:00 and we were able to let him sleep for about an hour and 15 minutes before we had to meet Val. While he was asleep, John and Laurie's dad walked over to the grocery store to get some baby food & diapers (that we didn't want to have to pack). When it was time to wake Andrew up, he was not very happy to need to get up and it was quite a struggle to get him ready. We all needed to bundle up because we were doing some outside things and it was -7 degrees F but the "feels like" was -24 degrees F!
Val picked us up at 2:30 and we went to see the ice village that they were setting up at the center of the city. It was quite a sight but not complete yet so we couldn't walk through it, just around it. Val told us that it gets set up for New Years and remains up for about a month. We didn't make it much more than 20 minutes or so before we returned to Val's car as we decided that we wanted the feeling back in our cheeks. After that, he took us to a very pretty Russian Orthodox church to look around and then back to the military museum that we visited on our first trip.
We didn't last very long at any of the sights as they were mostly outside (other than a short visit inside the church) and it was just too cold out. We then went to the orphanage for a short visit. Since Andrew & Laurie's parents were with us and they aren't allowed in the orphanage, we told Val we only wanted to visit for 30-40 minutes (the heat was on of course and they had the iPad for entertainment but we still didn't want them out there for too long).
Baby Girl hasn't changed too much. She has a tiny bit more hair and her belly looked a little bigger but basically the same. She didn't seem to be feeling well. She only wanted to be held and had really no interest in playing with any of the toys. We heard her cry for the first time and had to wipe away the tears. She seemed a little hesitant toward John and was just over all not very happy for the whole visit.
When we left, we asked Val if he would drop us off at the Ukranian restuarant near our hotel for dinner. Andrew fell asleep on the way to the restaurant and then proceded to sleep on Laurie's lap at the restaurant. He woke up at one point crying that he wanted to go back to the hotel and go to bed (it seemed like jet lag had set in). John decided to leave and carry him back to the hotel. The rest of us hurried to eat our dinner, got John's wrapped up to go (we had gotten Andrew soup that he had no interest in because he just wanted to sleep) and headed back to the hotel. It was only about a 10 minute walk, but it was a painfully cold one. When we got back to the room, Andrew was full of pep and eating a peanut butter sandwich and oranges. John said as soon as the cold air hit him outside he woke up and talked the entire walk back. He was full of energy all evening long after that - we think it was maybe because he was so bundled up and it was really hot in the car and restaurant that he just couldn't stay awake.
We aren't quite sure what the plan is yet for getting Baby Girl but it is still happening on Tuesday. We also haven't been given an explanation as to why. Laurie was upset/sad about another thing happening on December 25 and feeling bad that Baby Girl wouldn't get the special "Gotcha Day" attention that Andrew does on his day (simply because it's also Christmas and Andrew's birthday). That was until Grammy made the point that if we get her in the morning, with the 11 hr time difference, that would still be Dec 24 at home and we could really say that is her "Gotcha Day". So, we are now hoping that is the case. The day changing doesn't affect any of our other plans, we will be able to pick up her passport on Wednesday, head for Moscow later that day and then leave Moscow as scheduled. Val said he would call us tomorrow with the plans but that we have nothing to do tomorrow. With the even colder forcast for tomorrow, it sounds like we will be most likely just hanging around the hotel for the day but might risk a walk over to the mall for something to do :)
After breakfast, we came back to our room(s) to hang out and Andrew played with the iPad (it seemed at this point that he had caught Laurie's cold as his nose turned into a faucet). He was acting very tired (which makes sense because he was up for 27+ hours with only a 2 1/2 hour nap and then only slept for about 7 hours) so Laurie encouraged him to take a nap. He finally fell asleep around 1:00 and we were able to let him sleep for about an hour and 15 minutes before we had to meet Val. While he was asleep, John and Laurie's dad walked over to the grocery store to get some baby food & diapers (that we didn't want to have to pack). When it was time to wake Andrew up, he was not very happy to need to get up and it was quite a struggle to get him ready. We all needed to bundle up because we were doing some outside things and it was -7 degrees F but the "feels like" was -24 degrees F!
Val picked us up at 2:30 and we went to see the ice village that they were setting up at the center of the city. It was quite a sight but not complete yet so we couldn't walk through it, just around it. Val told us that it gets set up for New Years and remains up for about a month. We didn't make it much more than 20 minutes or so before we returned to Val's car as we decided that we wanted the feeling back in our cheeks. After that, he took us to a very pretty Russian Orthodox church to look around and then back to the military museum that we visited on our first trip.
Baby Girl hasn't changed too much. She has a tiny bit more hair and her belly looked a little bigger but basically the same. She didn't seem to be feeling well. She only wanted to be held and had really no interest in playing with any of the toys. We heard her cry for the first time and had to wipe away the tears. She seemed a little hesitant toward John and was just over all not very happy for the whole visit.
When we left, we asked Val if he would drop us off at the Ukranian restuarant near our hotel for dinner. Andrew fell asleep on the way to the restaurant and then proceded to sleep on Laurie's lap at the restaurant. He woke up at one point crying that he wanted to go back to the hotel and go to bed (it seemed like jet lag had set in). John decided to leave and carry him back to the hotel. The rest of us hurried to eat our dinner, got John's wrapped up to go (we had gotten Andrew soup that he had no interest in because he just wanted to sleep) and headed back to the hotel. It was only about a 10 minute walk, but it was a painfully cold one. When we got back to the room, Andrew was full of pep and eating a peanut butter sandwich and oranges. John said as soon as the cold air hit him outside he woke up and talked the entire walk back. He was full of energy all evening long after that - we think it was maybe because he was so bundled up and it was really hot in the car and restaurant that he just couldn't stay awake.
We aren't quite sure what the plan is yet for getting Baby Girl but it is still happening on Tuesday. We also haven't been given an explanation as to why. Laurie was upset/sad about another thing happening on December 25 and feeling bad that Baby Girl wouldn't get the special "Gotcha Day" attention that Andrew does on his day (simply because it's also Christmas and Andrew's birthday). That was until Grammy made the point that if we get her in the morning, with the 11 hr time difference, that would still be Dec 24 at home and we could really say that is her "Gotcha Day". So, we are now hoping that is the case. The day changing doesn't affect any of our other plans, we will be able to pick up her passport on Wednesday, head for Moscow later that day and then leave Moscow as scheduled. Val said he would call us tomorrow with the plans but that we have nothing to do tomorrow. With the even colder forcast for tomorrow, it sounds like we will be most likely just hanging around the hotel for the day but might risk a walk over to the mall for something to do :)
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