Garrett's playtime and big kid lunch

Day 16

It's amazing how a little time with Garrett melts away the troubles of the days. After a morning of attempting to solve issues at work from across the ocean, Tim and I were both a bit frazzled on the trip to Schuchinsk. The moment we saw Garrett, however, none of that seemed matter.

Our sweet baby was in fine spirits today and wanted to play with everything in sight. He is a mover and a shaker, just like his big brother. I think he is going to be crawling in no time at all. We have seen him reach and roll to try to get to toys that are out of his grasp. Today he took it a step further.

When we got into the "activity room" (the french couple is in the music room) he was obviously excited to see his favorite toy: the bowling pin bears, and he practically climbed over Tim's shoulder to get to them. Later he spotted a basket of balls in the corner of the room and, though I was holding him, he leaned with all his might towards them until I finally walked him over. He did that over and over today, leaning and reaching for toys he wanted to play with until we finally walked him over. He's putting Mommy and Daddy to work already. By the end of the day he had explored almost everything in the room, including the balls, the rings, the rocking horse, and the swing.

We got lots of great cuddles and happy noises and smiles. When we returned him at the end of our time together, he was worn out! It's funny, really, how easily we've adjusted to the routine at the babyhouse. What is mean is that when Garrett is with us, he feels totally and completely like our own. The rest of the world just sort of recedes and all that is important is this little moment with our baby. When we have to give him back, I have moment of wrenching sadness, but at the same time, giving him back to the caregivers seems natural enough too, because it's what we have to do. You know that you are in a strange moment of total limbo in your family life, when returning your child at the end of the day feels normal.

After we gave back Garrett for his nap, we waited outside the staff doctor's office for our appointment time. We have one meeting with him while we are here to address any questions we have. While we were waiting, the door to one of the older children groups opened and out came two of the little pumpkins wearing white puffy baker hats and ruffly aprons. It was Sasha (our favorite available cutie) and an absolute little pie named Keilier. They were helping the caregivers serve lunch to their group and were on their way down to the kitchen to pick up bread and salad. It was Keilier's first day helping and he was carrying an empty black kettle for the kid's hot compote drink. He didn't quite know where to go and the sudden presence of Giant Americans in the hallway had definately surprised him. He stood there for a moment in his floppy puffy hat looking cute and bewildered until the caregivers called him away. When he and Sasha returned a moment ago with their foodstuffs we clapped for them...and Keilien nearly fell over with surprise. Sasha straightened up and walked proudly into the playroom, where, relieved of his duty he did a little skipping dance around the room.

We were allowed to follow the kiddos into their playroom and we saw the other six cuties sitting in a row of chairs, each with a cloth napkin tucked under his chin waiting for the food. In the middle of the room, three small tables had been set. The rule at mealtime is that every child has to be present for anyone to eat, so the rest of the kiddos were waiting anxiously for Keilien and Sasha to return. All of the little ones were bewildered by our arrival and stared at us with undisguised curiousity... all except for the older Ruslan, who upon seeing Tim sunk as deep into his chair as he could. You might remember that we had happened upon Ruslan earlier in the week and Ruslan was absolutely terrified of Tim, so terrified in fact that he back up to the wall and couldn't stop crying even after we had left. Poor little pumpkin. Anyway, supressing an instinct to scoop them all up and kiss them, we left them to their meal. There are cute kids swarming all over this place. Cute. Cute. Cute.

Paka,

Becca