I used to love sunsets...

Good morning -- Thankfully, when he wakes up, he is happy, he smiles, and he is jabbering more and more after each nap and overnight --- Now, if we could just get the overnight down for even just more than a few hours, that would be great. LOL.

He woke up at 4am today -- which allowed he and I to enjoy a beautiful sunrise together -- it truly was exquisite... I have always always been a sunset girl... Jeff knows this, and he has been so sweet over the years to always help us find sunsets on every possible occassion... This morning, sunrise over Moscow was beautiful, and to enjoy it with our son was just a dream...Sunrise in Moscow
from our Cathedral Apartment

And, of course, as any good California wanna be boy would do, we went for an early am surf... Ok, I mean bath -- bath #2 went well -- played on the edge of the tub with never seen before tub toys -- then sat on the edge and poured water over each other's hands, then into the tub in standing -- yup -- perfect surfer form -- standing on a small surface in water -- (the tub base is a wee narrow!)

Yo Dude (I mean Uncle Brian)... How's the wind blowin'?

Next, we went into the bedroom... because, of course, as any good parent would do, we have started teaching Little Man that chores are an important way to earn your keep... and we must never leave a house without first making the bed.... He seems to enjoy the toil and elbow grease.. You should see him wash his own dishes after dinner, too...

Making the bed with Papa

We got dressed, and groomed ourselves -- even our nails!! He was fascinated by the clippers and, of course, nurse Papa was on duty for that one!!Getting nails clean to go see the MD!

And off we went to see Dr. Boris -- Dr. Boris is the Embassy approved Russian MD who sees all the kids -- from what I've heard, he says the same thing to every family and adds in some personalized joke... He is a nice guy, did a thorough check of Little Man, and his joke for LM as that he was like George Clooney -- big brown eyes, dark hair, suave look, and a good actor... As soon as Dr. Boris told Little Man to stand up and stop crying -- you know what? he did. Holy cow. We knew he was smart, and his receptive skills for English are already amazingly good -- but, now we know he really understood a lot in Russian, too!!

Waiting for Dr. Boris -- Having the "worry face" on

He is doing GREAT with us in the apartment -- playful, engaging, lots of checking in, and then we are also giving him time to play quietly and on his own -- We know how hard it is for him -- while he enjoys all the attention, it is also exhausting for him -- He's basically been in "kid only/limited adult interaction" lock-down for the last 16 months, and so while the 1:1 and 2:1 attention from us is cool, it's like being on a first date 16 hours/day for days on end -- good heavens, can you imagine the pressure he must feel?? We can tell we've pushed him too long for "conversation" when he starts to tantrum, so we work him out of the tantrum then give him a break to re-group, and play quietly on his own.. But, when we leave the house, he is big eyed and really watchful and when in range of Russian speakers and not on his hip hugger, the finger goes into his mouth and he gets his "worried look" on... Our friend Oleg came to our apartment the other night and that really confused him -- It's understandable, really, so we try to keep him in the apartment or when we go out, in the hip hugger, close to us... After Dr. Boris, we came home, ate some grub, tried to nap, refused to nap, so we took a nice long walk down to Gorky Park......Looking at the Fountains...

When we go out, we keep him close to us -- We have a side hip hugger (Thanks, Gamma!!!) that works pretty well!! Although he's getting bigger already (gained 2 pounds, we think, since trip 1 per Dr. Boris' weigh station), the hip hugger is part of our attachment plan -- That he is either on lock down with the 2 of us in the apartment alternating direct, relationship building play (lots of back and forth between mama and papa and rough house, sensory play to re-enforce his engagement efforts with us),

It was a wonderful day... And, as we enjoyed the sunset walking home, as much as I dreaded bedtime....I looked forward to the sunrise...