Groundhog Day

My dad has been referring to each day as Groundhog Day, from the movie, because every day is so much like the day before. We get up at 7, get ready, go eat at 8, always the same food: scrambled eggs and potatoes with a strawberry danish thing, orange juice and coffee for me. Then we go back to the room to make sure we have everything for the morning visit. Next we leave for the orphanage at 10:00, then visit until her lunch at noon, come back, walk to lunch, walk around town, go back to the room and make sure we have everything ready for our afternoon visit, meet the driver at 4pm, go to our afternoon visit, visit until her dinner at 6, come back to the hotel and meet Mandy and Catherine in the lobby, walk to dinner, dinner here takes forever; about 2 hours, walk back, double check that we'll all meet up again at 8am tomorrow for breakfast, say goodbye, then I get online, update the blog, check e-mails and see if anyone is on IM. Then I go to bed about midnight and get up at 7 and do it all over again! But.....tomorrow we're getting up early to get to breakfast early to leave at 8:30 for the airport! Tomorrow mid-morning we'll be in Moscow again. We plan to go to Arbat Street which is famous for souvenir shopping.
We were inside for both visits today because it rained this morning. I think we could have gone out for the second visit because it had stopped raining and it was beautiful, but I suppose they thought it was too muddy, too damp, too chilly, too windy, or too something else. Anyone who has visited these orphanages will know what I mean by that.
Anyway, I can tell she enjoys being outside more than inside. She's so much more calm outside, and happier, but we did OK in the playroom. Before they brought her in I noticed the piano was open and there was a book of music opened up. I asked if I could play it and Vica and Galina said yes. I played the song the page was open to. They thought she would like it if I played it for her when she came in, so I did. She did like it, then she sat on my lap and played a little herself. She motioned for me to give her one of the maracas on top of the piano then when I gave it to her she played along with the piano. After a while she started to hit the piano with the maraca, and we had to tell her Nyet. I tried to get her interested in something else, but she kept going back to the piano. Eventually she got into the crayons instead. Mandy loaned us a pair of her son's size 3T jeans and a shirt to try on her to estimate her size. When she saw those jeans she got SO excited and immediately began to take her shoes off and pull those jeans on. They fit great (over a pair of tights and a pair of crocheted leggings)! The length was only a teensy bit long, and the waist was adjustable, so it worked. So I was right when I had guessed earlier in the week that she's a solid 3T who may wear 4T by the fall. She also let us measure her height which was 39inches. When it was time to go I had to take the jeans back to return them to Mandy, but she did NOT want to take those jeans off. It took both Vica and me to get them off of her through a pretty big tantrum. But afterwards I held her and she held onto me and quieted down and was fine.
So, on the second visit I wanted to measure her foot by tracing it onto a large piece of paper I had brought. She definitely didn't want us to take her shoes off. She also wouldn't let us trace her foot with her shoe on! So my dad traced my foot with my shoe on, then he traced my foot with my shoe off; she still wanted no part of this! Then he traced my hand. We tried to coax her into letting us trace her hand, but nyet. Then we traced the stuffed monkey's hand. That she thought was OK, she then picked up the monkey's other hand and wanted us to trace that. Then we traced one of the monkey's feet, and she picked up the monkey's other foot and wanted us to trace that. Then...she let us trace her hand! (as a fist, around her knuckles) then, she let us trace her foot with the shoe on. Then........she let us trace her foot with her shoe off!!! She whimpered and whined about it like she was kind of scared, but we did it, put the shoe quickly back on and then she sat in my lap and held on tight. We rocked and sat quietly for awhile until she got over the 'trauma' of having her shoe off and went back to playing. So, now we can shop for shoes!!!
She was still trying to get away with playing the piano the second visit today. The caretaker said, "She does not act in this way in the group!" "She must be getting spoiled already!" Vica said she did notice that if Vica or Galena tell her to do, or to not do something she does not listen, but when one of the caretakers tells her to do or not do something, it only takes one time. So, it sounds like she does listen well when she knows who the authority figure is. Now we just have to get it through to her that Wade and I are the authority figures and we'll be set!