10 down, 21 to go....

10 down, 21 to go.....

Last night was fun.. Dad went out to provide for his wife and young son. Off to KFC!!! and you guessed it,, California Pizza Kitchen! I had decent directions so I ventured out. 15 minutes later and 4-5 blocks, I landed at KFC. I mission was easy, do not repeat what happenend at the Moscow KFC on trip 1. It was nightmare. Thomas was starving, it was 1000 degrees inside, and I had to fight through a crowd of Russians that don’t understand the concept of ORDER!! No one stands in line.. In their cars, in line, no where.so this time was better. I barged my way up to the register in true Ruskie fashion, and order a bucket of 25 pieces of chicken, nothing else. Piece up cake... as I left I knew T was pizza so I crossed the street and luckily no one was in line. I picked out what I thought was a cheese piece of pizza and attempted to pay. I assumed it would be maybe 40-50 rubles, (2-3 bucks) so I threw down a 100 rubles bill... (High roller am I) The lady said something I could not understand, it was probably in Russian, so I thought she meant, “Do you have something smaller” Russians hate making change. So I go into my very manly fanny pack and start lookin for smaller bills, and suddenly an older Russian lady comes out of now where takes my 100 and throws it down. The cashier obviously thought it was a different 100 than the one I had put down a few seconds earlier and gladly accepted it and gave me a receipt and change! Wonderful.. Well, it the few awkward seconds I had to wait for the “slice boy” to give me my slice, I gestured to the girl, and I said, “California” as I pointed to the sign, and then poiinted to myself. Like, “Hey, I am cool, I am from California, like the name of your restaurant!” HA! She laughed, the slice boy laughed, we all had a good laugh! It was funny... so I began walkiing back, thinking I am cool, and as I tried to navigate a large pond with small icebergs peaking out, and almost fell and lost all I had worked so hard to get.. That would’ve been tragic! Sidenote ; Since it is like 50 degrees here, everything, I mean everything is melting... all roads are wet and ponds are everywhere.. Go thing I brought my nike air running shoes!! :) When I got back to the room, Thomas said I was number one, and said “This is esciting 50 times, and that’s all that mattered. So....


The next day:
Not a bad day today... we got up at a normal time. 8am... had breakfast, and walked to a toy store with the Swingles.. This toy store was something else...3 stories, all toys, clothes, everything you would need for a kid. Tommy remembered what it was like to drive his Home Depot #20 car and took the Police motorcycle out for a spin. He tried to get some boots for Andrey, but the language barrier was too much to overcome... we will try again.. We did buy some legos and things for Andrey and tommy-boy to play with once we get him.

At 2pm we got picked up and traveled the usual hour long trip to Sosnoborsk to see Andrey. We def. Made some strides today, and began to see the real personality. He laughed he threw balls, and ran around, he threw a fit, it was great! He latched on to Jeanette more today, which was great, he just let his true little self come out.. It was fun. It helped that Jeanette had a steady stream of goldfish flowing into his mouth :)

At the end of the visit, I really wanted to see how Andrey played with his playmates, and find out how he was in his place, where he felt comfortable. So we toured his play area and his bedroom.. He lives with 17 other kids and they all play in one big room. They also sleep in one big room. It is really something to see, 17 cribs, very small cribs, all together. It’s amazing any of them actually sleeps. The 2 caregivers were great, they were eager to tell us about Andrey and what he does and says.. It was really nice to see. When he got into his room, with all his “peeps” he smiled and played like he was on top of the world. He def. Looked like he was top dog at least in this play group. He couldn’t wait to get out of his little dressy overalls that they put all the kids in when they go meet their “parents”. I love the little tank top he had on underneath everything, priceless!! We were sad after, because he looked so happy there, but we know we are giving him a lot, and he’ll be much better off, even though its pretty fun to play all day, and have some lady put you on the pot every few hours :)

So, we just had room service, and Jeanette and T had just gone to bed, I will be there in a few mysself... 8am, we go visit again....it’s 0900pm right now...

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and prayers, keep up the good work! We’re having fun!

By the way, Thoms has been great, checkout our exercise pic :)

Greg

PS, funny store from the other day.

Jeanette, Thomas and I are in a German restaurant and we have just ordered. For beverages we ordered a beer, a sprite, and a milk and water for Thomas.. Well, the server must have thought we didn’t actually want the milk, so we didn’t get it. So I walk downstairs and in front of 3 female servers ask, “Milk?” and they all give me a blank look, like I am speaking another language, well, I am, actually.. So I say “Milk?” as I am motioning like I am drinking something. Again , a blank stare. So I ask, “Menu?” And immediately nods like she understands and she runs to get me a menu. I feel like all I have to do is point to Milk on the menu and we’re home free. Meanwhile Thomas is nearing a meltdown because he has no “Milk from the fridge.” Well, there is no milk in the menu. So I try again, this time adding some actual cow milking motions to my word, “Milk”. And the russian waitress says, “Oh, would you like a glass of milk?” She said it in such plain English, it sounded like the queen herself had said it! I said, “yes!” but wondered why is was so hard in the first place to understand what I wanted! Eash.....