Day 11 - Some like it hot, some like it cold (double click for pics)

Saturday, July 8th--Day 11 Visitation

First, we would like to appologize for being so late posting today. We had a very busy day and the internet cafe was closed before we were able to post.

Hot water!!! Yes, the hot water is back on, and we thoroughly enjoyed our showers this morning! We have learned that there are many things we take for granted! Well, today was a fun packed day for all of us. One big announcement is that we finished our puzzle. We have worked and worked on this puzzle--it was a pretty hard one! We'll post a picture so that you can take a look at the finished product--we are trying to figure out how to take it back with us....Rylee wants to try to save it and frame it, because it looks like Scarlett. For those of you interested in Bobby's birds....we took a picture of them as well. There is a reflection off the window, but if you look closely at the picture you can see it! His birds must have sent an e-mail out to their friends, because it appears we have quite a few more to feed now!

With today being Saturday, we are only allowed one visit with Landen. Our visit today was probably one of the best yet. When I went upstairs to get him he was sitting in a swing, and when he saw me... he got a HUGE smile on his face!!! It melted my heart! We were in the big music room again. It was another beautiful day today, but with the wind blowing it was quite chilly. Therefore, with Landen's congestion, we opted to stay in the entire visit. Lena stayed with us during our visit, and disappeared for a while. When she returned she brought a walker for Landen. We put him in it and he was off. He zipped so quickly around the room that we had a really hard time taking pictures of him. We were rolling with laughter! None of us could keep up with him. I don't know if his walker in his playroom upstairs does not roll as fast, but he was having a blast racing around the room like he was in the Indy 500. After about 30 minutes of the walker, mommy wanted to hold her baby boy! Luckily, he was ready for some loving, too! He just wrapped his little arms around my neck and was content as can be. We all held him for a while, and then wanted to see him zip around the room again in the walker....BIG MISTAKE!!! After his 30 minutes of playtime at the beginning of each visit is over, he just wants to be cuddled and loved on...no more play! When we tried to put him in the walker he started to whine, because he just wanted to be held! He even shed a tear...it was only 1 tear, but it was his first with us! Needless to say we held him the rest of the visit! We did get a quick photo of this moment, so that you can all share in this sad moment. We were very sad when it was time to take him back up to his group, because we knew it would be Monday until we were going to be able to see him again. It's gonna be a long day and a half without him!

We knew we needed some cheering up, so we decided to go ice skating. We went the Lena and her daughter, Leeza, and the American family met us there. This was a lot of fun! Rylee has a new nickname...the Zambonie....I held her hand most of the time, and when she would fall I would end up dragging her a few feet...when this happened she would smooth out the ice for them! By the end of the hour, the ice was smooth as glass :-) !!! She did start to get the hang of it, but made the comment that she does not think she will become a professional ice skater...she will just stick with horseback riding and tennis. After skating, Lena had to go home to pack...she is going out of town with Svetlana on business until Tuesday evening. We tried to go out to eat at the Russian restaurant, but they were closed for some reason. We were in a dilemma...we did not know of another restaurant to eat at...none of them have menus in English. We could walk to another restaurant, but it would be a really long walk... we thought about getting a taxi, but were not sure we could explain ere we wanted to go. We opted to pull our resources together and just throw together dinner in our apartment. They had purchased a rotisserie chicken from the pastry shop earlier today, so we had that...green beans, mashed potatoes, and a tomato and cucumber salad. It was really good. The girls had a great time...it is so nice to have such a nice family to spend time with. They get their son on Wednesday and are leaving Pavlodar on Thursday, so we only have a few more days to spend with them.

We are going to explore the town tomorrow with the American family, so it should be another fun-filled day..we will try to update our post, but it may be another late one! But.....stay tuned!!! Poka, poka!