Last Tuesday

We woke up to a rainy and cold day in Moscow. It was the perfect day to stay inside and just focus on Ana. She doesn't agree. She constantly points to the stroller and takes me to the front door- although going out our door may be about something else. a) she is terrified of the elevator and may be just trying to come to terms with it or b) the stair well looks a lot like the one in Fryazino so she may think, "If I just go up those stairs, I will be back home!" Did you know people would rather sit on a subway next to someone the know and hate rather than someone they don't know? I think her orphanage situation was good, but life with me is better. Still, it is natural to miss the familiar-even if it could be lonely or neglectful at times.

Ana is eating much much better. She woke up and pointed to the kitchen. She also does this ALL day and night. She ate a bowl of oatmeal porridge, a full container of applesauce and a bottle of mango juice! Of course the rest of the day we play, "guess what I want to eat" and I make all kinds of things from soups to mashed potatoes...I open up baby food canisters, I make what she has eaten before and she rejects me...until I figure out the mystery combination. The kitchen looks like a disaster in the meantime! For today she has decided she LOVES sour cream and onion pringles, plain gold fish, and baby cookies. She used to just feed them to me, then she began to eat a little too. Fortunately, she is feeding me less and less and eating more and more on her own. She likes her carbs. Protein is my challenge. She HATES all baby formula and milk. She wont eat cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese or keifer mixed with anything at any temperature. And she has very weak muscle tone. She really needs lots of protein. I know they snuck it into her food at the orphanage. I watched. But she is on to me here and rejects it. Ana loves to play with food. She thinks it is so much fun to drop food on the floor and watch it break. She also loves to break chips and crackers into tiny tiny specks.

We have been Skyping with Papa. She reaches for him to pick her up and she tries to hand things to him. She is happier when he is alone. She is less animated when Aidan is in his lap and she totally moved away when Corbin appeared.. Soon enough he will be her servant. Just watch. He is a sucker for little kids with cute eyes.

Ana loves her car seat. We feed her in it and she will watch Baby TV in it. She has even copied some of the words they have said. She can obey most of my requests now, which is amazing.

Ok, here is one. When Ana feels at ease, she is ticklish. When she is nervous, lonely or in some other unsafe spot, she is NOT ticklish.. I am always ticklish.. I can't fathom how she goes numb...

The first day she eventually wandered around without us- even at her best she has low muscle tone and she is wobbly standing and walking.....then on Sunday and Monday she needed to be held, I think she was so weak from refusing food, she couldn't stand. Now she wont step without holding my hand. She wants me to hold her, which I do a lot, but I am actually worried about muscle atrophy since she literally wouldn't use them. So I hold her hand and walk with her to the room she wants to go to.

Ana sucks her right pointer finger and her left thumb at the same time. She does it throughout the day and Russians don't like it. I on the other hand adore it. It really helped my boys be independent soothers. Which goodness knows she has had to do. Interestingly, not one of my boys should need braces.

Well, only 3 more nights in Moscow. Take the fact that leaving the apartment sets us back and add in this nasty weather and after 20 days here his month alone, I am ready to go home and jump face first into our family transition. It is probably great that I got a whole week with just her before facing 3 big brothers... but I am ready to go home.