Another Good Day!

We had another good day! First off, great weather again, so we got to go outside for our first visit. That made 3 in a row outside! We went for a walk around the building. I had to learn the word 'walk' in Russian because she wants me to carry her and she's SO heavy! But when I tell her to walk, she takes my hand and stops asking to be picked up. She colored some; yes she came to me carrying the coloring book again. She played with her doll, the ring toss, pretty much played a little with each thing I had brought. I showed her the little photo album I had made for her. She really liked it; flipped through it over and over, then, as usual, put it back in the backpack when she was finished.
The visit started earlier than usual today, so it ended earlier than usual today, so we had more time to do things inbetween visits. The two other moms and one little boy went with us to Banana Mama, a store similar to Babies R Us. I bought a Russian Nursery Rhyme/Fairy tale book (made for younger kids) and a fairy tale book (for a little older kids) by Pushkin, a famous Russian writer (think Hans Christian Anderson). I also picked up a Disney princess book all in Russian that says "I am a Princess" in Russian on the cover. Inside it has places to put age, height, weight, handprints, pictures, etc. It's SO cool! It's like a baby book for an older child AND written in her native language! I LOVE it! I also got these alphabet cards, big, sturdy cards with one letter of the Cryllic alphabet on each card, decorated with something that starts with that letter. I'm going to get a little ledge like shelf to put the letters of her Russian name on to display in her room. My dad got Cryllic alphabet blocks, a cute crocheted pink hat, and a book about Yellow Lab puppies. I would have liked to look longer, but little boy needed to go back to the hotel for a nap. Maybe we'll go again sometime.
We went to the grocery store for lunch. We bought American cheese slices (packaged, just like we'd get at home), a box of crackers, a tangerine, a Coke, a Pepsi, and a bag of sunflower seeds, all for 5 American dollars! Then we walked to this outdoor market where vendors were selling produce, fish, meat, cheese, eggs, candy, clothing, books, etc. It was like a flea market with each booth selling its own thing. We took pictures of all the raw meat hanging around, and fish, we bought some candy. The lady was so nice and helpful and picked out some she thought we'd like.
At 4:00 we went for the afternoon visit. We opted to stay inside this time. I think she spent an hour of the hour and a half visit playing with these puzzle cards I had brought along. She like to take each one out and look at it, then put each one back in. The first time she had trouble putting them back in, so I held the bag for her. Every once in a while I'd shake the bag so the pieces would fit right in the bag. When we finished she dumped them all out, looked at them a little, then started to pick them up and put them in the bag one by one, shaking the bag each time, just like I had!! She wouldn't share with me or my dad, so we got out some other puzzle cards. They are very similar, but a tiny bit bigger and of animals instead of everyday objects; they're also more cartoon like and the ones she was playing with were photographs. She grabbed these from us, and we let her, they got all mixed up and then....I suppose she noticed they were different because she took a few out and put them in a different pile. She continued to look at each one and when she found one that didn't belong tossed it into the other pile! I was really amazed by that. My dad tried to sneak one of the animal cards back into her pile, but she saw him and yelled, "Nyet!" and threw it back into the animal pile.
Oh, another funny thing she did during the first visit... Galina said something to her, then she ran and put the coloring book back in the backpack! I was amazed, I asked the translator, Vica, what Galina said to get her to finally, after two days, put the book back. She said, "Galina asked if she could see the book, so she ran and put it in there probably so Galina wouldn't be able to take it." When Galina went to talk to some other people, she ran and got it back out again and never let it go. She still has it! Oh, she's so T. They will get along super well, I can tell!
We also let her listen to my dad's ipod today to the Russian children's songs he downloaded. She liked them. She didn't sing along, but she did say an animal name or two during Old McDonald, and she looked at her hands during Simon Says when they said to clap your hands. She probably would have clapped if she hadn't been holding onto the coloring book.
The first day we met, she cried both times she left me; yesterday she didn't cry, but today, she whined and sorta cried/complained, tried to run back to me. I'll feel so bad leaving her after Friday. I think by then she'll be expecting me to come back Saturday and I won't, for like a month or even two!
For dinner we went back to the French restaurant we went to our first night here. It was really good again, and inexpensive too. We got dessert this time too! And now it's Update the Blog time! Then it's bedtime. Tomorrow we visit early again so we're going to try to go to the big mall between visits with our friend Catherine who is here waiting out the 10 days before picking up her new son Monday!
Bye for now!