Katie's Birthday

Happy Birthday, Sweetie! I was up to see Sasha off at 7AM, so I’ve been thinking about it since before midnight back home. We waited until 3:30 PM (7:30 AM there) to call and sing “Happy Birthday” – in Russian first, of course. (Katie is my sister’s daughter, a double-digit girl today.)

We rode the Metro with Bill and Susan this morning. It was warm outside, but positively hot up in the area at the top of the stairs where we wait outside Dennis’ room. It took several minutes. We’ve noticed that the rest of his group doesn’t wear diapers outside. They put one on Dennis just for our convenience – same for Bill and Susan with Losha. He had a big humungous smile when he saw us this morning. He was ready to be carried to find Nick.


Nick was already outside, no music today for some reason. He also was happy to come with us. We let him choose the area – it has become sort of our “usual”. We don’t often see other groups settle there. Nick has been digging a hole next to the bench visit by visit. It measures about 16X8 inches and 4 -6 six inches in depth – depending on how quickly John can refill it when he isn’t looking. 
Dennis stumbled in it today – once by accidents and a few more times just because it was fun. It was a “continuous-testing-of-the-boundaries” session for Nick. We finally just put all the toys away and walked around at the end. Nick wanted John to hold him them (fortunately his back is feeling better now).



Bill and Susan were waiting for us. We ate lunch together at the cafeteria. It is fun to share common experiences, and give them a “heads-up” regarding the court appointment. We also talked about preparing the boys for the coming trips to Kyiv and home, getting them used to modified names, etc. Then they went to an Internet café and we went back to the apartment to crash for a bit. I did manage to do some medical reading while knitting, too. We had a brief rain with some good cracks of thunder and lightening.

This afternoon we bought some more phone minutes on the way back to the Metro. It wasn’t raining then, and in fact a lot of the ground had dried up. We took our umbrella just in case. Dennis appeared to be just up from a nap; his hair was wet and freshly combed. Nick got ready quickly when we came to his room. Because it was still wet in many areas we just wandered around for the first half-hour. We found a space, new for us, where it had mostly dried. Nick was still testy, but not nearly as bad. He was willing to repeat a lot more words in English today – mostly crayon colors. Both of the boys liked being “flown” through the air like airplanes. Our arms got tired of it much sooner than they. I spun with Dennis to see if he liked being dizzy: yes, if done slowly. We had to skip the juice this afternoon, because we allow Nick only one plastic cup per session, and he insisted on filing it with sand after a drink of water. We did all share a banana, though. Quite popular all around. The weather was threatening the whole time – clouds rolling through, distant thunder, the down-rush of wind that usually precedes rain. It didn’t amount to much until after we left, but we did take them inside a bit early and slowly walked the halls to each room.


It was raining a little as we headed to the Billa grocery store for a few (heavy) items. The storm really hit while we were inside. Many shoppers waited in the doorway for it to lift. We made a run for it to the Metro. Since it was still raining at our stop, we decided to have dinner at the next door McDonalds. Big Mac Menus for both (three sodas due to difficulties in communication). The timing worked out well – just tried to avoid the muddy dirt paths and huge street puddles on the way home. The mosquitoes will likely be awful next week!

Susan (who speaks Russian from her ten years in St. Petersburg and Kyiv) was able to get the details on the children’s program for Friday (National Children’s Day). All of the groups will be involved and it starts at 10:00 AM. John has the video camera all recharged and ready to go. The cable is out tonight, may just have to go to bed early.