Raspberries and Giggles

Anelya was a total ham for time today. I mean this baby put on a SHOW! The pictures and video from today are all from this morning because I forgot my camera for the afternoon visit. I know, I know, but at least we got a couple of adorable pictures of my baby angel. All three shifts of caretakers have now told me how they can tell that Anelya knows I am her mother. She completely changes when I come in the room. From the second I saw her this morning she was beaming, until I left her with the caretaker and she resumed her Russian passport face.

The best way I can describe Anelya this morning is BUSY. She went from toy to toy, started rolling/pulling herself to toys she wanted to play with, and hamming it up for her Mama and Babushka (Russian for Grandmother). She played mostly with the new stacking cups which I had saved these two weeks for when she needed something new to play with. Boy does clanking two cups together make a great noise. It's also apparently great fun to stuff rattles in Mama's mouth and then burst out laughing.

My girl is so strong it's unbelievable. I think she is going to be a bruiser! She's really not far from starting the army crawl and today, for the first time her feet hit the ground in the walker and she was CRUISIN! There was no time for snuggling and singing today: it was ALL about the busy playtime!


I took her down to the baby room at 10 and on the way I was delighted to see that the doctor was coming to examine her and talk to me. So, I grabbed our translator and the doctor confirmed that her cough is much worse and has gone into her lungs. Because of this, she suggested that we not bond in the bonding room anymore because of her poor immunity right now, that he other babies in the room are passing their group's germs on to her etc. So, she asked us to please either take her outside or to play with her in the baby room, which we are happy to do.

I asked if there is anything I could get for her at the pharmacy. She told me a specific medicine and I asked if she wanted me to buy more than for just Anelya. She gave me the standard answer, "We have everything we need here, but yes of course please do." She also suggested that I feed Anelya during both bonding sessions no matter what and I happily promised I would. Well Anelya thought this would be a perfect time to mess with the Mama.

At lunch we went to the pharmacy and I bought 5 bottles of the stuff the doctor mentioned. I only needed one for Anelya, but I am unabashedly brown-nosing.

They wake the babies up at 6 a.m. and feed them a full 8 oz bottle of Kefir, which is fermented cow's milk and is packed with probiotics (my Swedish friends know this product as filmjolk). Then they go back to sleep. I pick Anelya up to play at 9a.m. and then bring her to eat her breakfast at 10a.m. which is always a HUGE bowl of porridge, I'd say 1.5 cups and some pureed fruits, along with about 1/2 cup of juice or compote. After they eat, they sleep again for a few hours. When I pick her up at 2p.m., I feed her right away. Lunch is usually about a cup of pureed root vegetables (potatoes or turnips and carrots usually) and sometimes some pureed meat. Anelya is not wild about the potatoes, I think because she is not used to the texture. She quite likes the turnips and carrots. I told Anelya that she is living in the WRONG COUNTRY to not like potatoes.

Anyway, when we got there at 2p.m. Anelya was just beaming the second she saw us. We found her crying in the playpen, but mostly because everyone had eaten except for her. When she saw us she turned that frown upside down and waited for me to pick her up. We went and sat down and immediately I knew she was going to have some fun with me today. So I started to feed her and what her response? RASPBERRY! Oh it was so funny and the caregivers were in stitches. She continued to do this repeatedly. It was so funny. I did manage to get about a half a bowl down, but all she wants to do with me is play, so she would do her back bend and let out her Baby Bacall scream, so I would stand her on my legs and she would give me that beaming smile and start jumping. What a little monkey. Then i would sit her down again, talk to her in Russian, get about 4 more bites in and BACK BEND! RASPBERRY! JUMPING JUMPING. This went on for a half an hour and finally I gave up when she had eaten half.

We bundled her up in 37 layers and took her for a 1/2 hour walk around the baby house in her carrier. She held her new favorite rattle the whole way. She is mezmerized by the leaves moving in the wind and loves to watch them for several minutes. At 3p.m. we went into the baby room to play for the final hour. Again, Miss Anelya was ALL smiles. We had her in the walker. She was TOOLING around - zoom zoom zoom. After a while I asked if we could play with Ella too. They said of course and I told them that Ella will be living close by in Boston, so the caregivers started singing an adorable song about lifelong friends Ella and Anelya and how they will know each other forever and ever. It was so sweet.

Now that the hooligan twins and Tate are with their families, three new babies were brought into the room. So now, all of a sudden Anelya is one of the oldest babies! Her boyfriend, Birzhan is 6 months old and his mother, who is Kazakh, visits him everyday. Anelya and Birzhan gaze at each other and flirt far too much for my liking ;-) The only other baby her age is Mailka, a sweet 11 month old baby girl with Down's Syndrome, whose mother also visits quite often. So, Anelya is now in the wrestling ring, the playpen with the big kids who move around a lot.

It was so fun to see Anelya with such a sense of humor today. I cannot imagine what a ham she will be once we get her home. We kissed her goodbye, she put on her passport face and I said, "Doe Zaftra". She knows I will come tomorrow and didn't cry.

When we were finished, a wonderful surprise was awaiting me. Today I signed the letter that will be submitted to the court as my formal petition to adopt Anelya. Today I got to actually write the full name I have chosen for her, which I will announce when the judge signs the adoption decree. I am thrilled with her name and it made me cry to actually write it down, as it will appear on her new birth certificate, with my name listed as her mother.

In the document was a letter explaining in Russian that I have always wanted a big traditional family, but that I have not yet found the right man to have that family with. It says that I hope to marry one day, but the right man, and that I expect he will accept and love me and my child as one. The letter stated that my mother has been here with me to represent my relatives and how much they support my decision to grown our family through adoption. It mentions how I have spent time in Ukraine and Russia, that I was a camper as a teenager at the prestigious Camp Artek on the Black Sea and that I had a Kazakh friend there. It says that I am a teacher of cultures and that I plan to continue my studies of the Kazakh culture and bring it into my home so Anelya will know about her heritage. This information was all compiled from what I have told the Baby House Director and Olga and was beautifully written. I am so very happy to be in such good hands.

Knock on wood, but all things seem to be moving along exactly as they should and I expect to have a court date early next week.

After the last visit we went on a walk with Tammy, Bob and Sarah in Central Park and then to the bakery to buy some rice and vegetables for dinner. Honestly, because we don't have a kitchen here at the hotel, we have basically been eating cheese and crackers, and knish type things way too often. It's basically all pastries all the time. Any of you who know my diet at home can imagine that I feel like a giant potato with legs right now. A couple of nights ago Mom and I lay in bed talking about Chicken Caesar Salad for ages. LOL. What's lettuce?