Another Day and Russian Orthodox Church

You should have SEEN the smile that greeted us this morning. Anelya now looks for us right away when they put her on the changing table in the morning. She gave us that wonderful mega-dimple smile and started kicking her legs and laughing. There is a new day shift of caregivers. I have figured out that they work their shift for 3 days and then they must switch to night shift for three days. The current shift is the one that doesn't let me feed her, but that lets me put barrettes in her hair.

When we met Anelya, she was a happy, but serious baby. She was very quiet and observant. In the past 2.5 weeks her confidence as grown incredibly and developmentally I cannot tell you the difference in what we see. She's also starting to attach to me even more. This morning when she was playing, I was holding her facing her Baba. Every few minutes she would do a back bend into me and just look into my eyes for a little check in and a kiss. Those of you who are not familiar with the process of adoption attachment may not get why this is such a big deal, but it means that she is starting to know who her Mama is and that she is checking to make sure I am still there. It's excellent for emotional, mental, and physical development.

She seems to be much better now. There were a few coughs, but they were very loose ones, so that's good. Looks like the medicine I bought her has done it's job. I didn't have to wipe her nose once today, although she loves it when I wipe her face and neck with baby wipes, so I did that. Mom got to see them wash her toosh under the faucet this morning. So cute how she pushes her little butt out so they can clean her off.

At first when we sat down we kind of just sat there together and then she started reaching for my magic bag of toys like, "Get with the program, mama". So we took them all out. She LOVES her new flower toy that we bought last week and today was all about the new monkey rattle which I saved to introduce something new.

Anleya also loves to look at and drool on her photo album of her new family.

This rattle has been a consistent hit.

She seems to be all set with the lion rattle now. Too babyish, I guess.

After the visit we went to the Russian Orthodox Church. It is just breathtakingly beautiful.

The gardens were just as beautiful as he structure itself.

We still don't know anything about our court date. We know they know, but it's kind of a game to them about when they decide to tell us. Maybe there is some logic behind not telling us, but we just want to know. This afternoon we will visit with Anelya again and then we will go to the Art Museum, which is supposed to be very nice. I will, of course, fill you in later. Until then...