St. Basil's, At Last!!!!!!!!!!!!

St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square

This is one of the many important milestones in the lives of adoptive families who adopt in or near Moscow. We went to Red Square late in the afternoon and finally got a picture of Cassi in front of St. Basil's!!!! It was about 32 degrees and snowing big flakes only occassionally, so that snowsuit came in very handy. The hat that came w/ it is way too big (as is the suit), so we substituted a smaller one and she was much happier with the whole "suit"uation.

We took the hotel shuttle to Pushkin Square and then walked down Tverskaya Street (about a 15 minute walk) to Red Square. It's pretty rugged terrain with a stroller because you have to carry them up and down many, many steps to go down to the tunnels that go under the streets (don't worry, they are very populated and well lite) and go over a lot of cobblestone type brick. There are rungs on some of the stairs for strollers and I'm assuming wheel chairs, but they don't fit American strollers. It was a workout, but so worth it!

Cassiana and I, at last!

Cassi and I (my cheeks are so red because it was a little cold!)

Mom, me and Cassiana the snowsuit baby

Bundled up, ready to go to Red Square

These shoes were made for walkin' (well, when I get a little more practice!)



Mom feeding Cassi, who is totally not impressed by the blueberry cereal combo meal. At least her food co-ordinates with her outfit.

Can anyone guess what these 2 food items are? Those who've been here before are not ineligible, sorry. :P

Well, today on the adoption front, Mom watched Cassi while I went to sign the passport paperwork. The family that had the same court date was there as well. That was pretty quick. Then, back to the hotel where we ate lunch and then napped until it was time to take the shuttle to Pushkin Square.

Tomorrow at 7, gulp, a.m. the doctor is coming over to the hotel for Cassiana's official medical exam. This is the same dr. who saw her in the orphanage before we accepted her as a referral who thought we were kind of nuts calling him over since she's so healthy. She screamed the whole exam, so I'm assuming we are in for more of the same unless she will be so sleepy (fingers crossed!) that she tolerates it and then gets on with her life.

She went right to sleep tonight, thanks to the Ibuprofen for her teething. She will love her nice quiet crib in her room at home. We turn the lights out in the hotel room, but after she goes to sleep, we turn the tv back on, which wakes her up some times. She is apparently used to a pretty quiet sleeping environment in pretty much total darkness. She takes her morning nap without a problem, but walks around the crib and tries to get us to laugh (making rasberry sounds, giggling, moving her head around in a silly way, putting both arms and legs thru the slats while sitting down and moving them up and down), so I lay her back down and we don't look at her and eventually she lays down and goes to sleep. At home, she will have her own space without all of these distractions.

That's all for now. Looks like our Embassy visit will be Wednesday or Friday (closed for Thanksgiving), then we leave for home on Saturday!