Suitcases!!!!!!!

YAY!!!! I woke up at 4 a.m. to tend to Cassi (that's not the yay part) and went by the door to our room and this is what I saw. A note saying our suitcases were downstairs!!!!!!! Notice the envelope is addressed to Mr. Patterson (Dan, your luggage is here--LOL!):

I was so excited to finally have our stuff that I couldn't go back to sleep! :) It was like Christmas opening the suitcases because I packed them almost a week ago. There were all kinds of marvelous treasures in there like multiple pairs of underwear AND socks, conditioner, Proactiv, the medical kit that Tamara packs off to all parents on their pick up trip, snacks, clothes for Cassi and me, baby lotion and much, much more! I took a shower when Cassi took her morning nap and it's the first time I've felt really clean since we got here. A camper, I am not!

So, it was very windy, cloudy and somewhat rainy today. Cassi was taking a nice long morning nap and we needed to get some things at the grocery store up the block. Instead of packing her into her snowsuit, which she hates, I went by myself and Mom stayed to watch over Cassi. Some one on the frua.org chat room posted that there is a grocery store about a 5 minute walk from here and gave directions. So, I set out into the unknown! LOL! I just proceeded down the sidewalk and didn't smile or make eye contact so that everyone would know I'm a "local."

Once there, it was about 15 steps downstairs and was a pretty decent sized market for here. I found everything I was looking for, being careful not to get so much I couldn't carry it back (see, that's why they are skinny here). I couldn't figure out which coffee was decaf., so Mom will have to make due. I'm pretty sure that the baby food I got Cassi is beef w/ veggies, though our driver did tell us that horse and rabbit meat are common. What we don't know, won't hurt us! It has a picture of various veggies and brown meat. She loved it! It was like being illiterate trying to figure out what to buy since it's impossible to decipher Russian unless you have a fair grasp of the Cyrillic alphabet, which I do not.

We made sandwhiches in the room for lunch. The mini-bar has been cleared out and replaced w/ food and stuff for us. The housekeeper, so far, hasn't said anything about us moving stuff around. I started teaching Cassi some signs yesterday and already today she mimiced "finished" at lunch! She also claps and chants "Ma, ma, ma" when she wants more! Too cute!

Cassi is teething. She's getting a second top tooth in addition to her two bottom teeth. She didn't sleep well at all in her crib last night that I'm pretty sure has been recalled at some point, but they just keep using it. It's safer than the one w/ the moveable slants that they tried to give us the first time, though! Anyway, Cassi was up on and off all last night and we couldn't figure out what the problem was. Then, this morning, she smiled and I saw the new top tooth starting to come though. We had nothing to give her since the suitcase w/ the medical kit wasn't here yet, so I guess it was better we didn't know. She is sleeping soundly now, thanks to some baby ibuprofen (Kim, cover your ears!).

After lunch, we played some more. Cassi will sit on the bed and play for hours at a time! Kai would have thrown every toy off of the bed in a different direction and have slid down to scurry off in 5 seconds flat. Perhaps there is a difference between boys and girls? Cassi loves to snuggle, too. So, we lazed around and played and snuggled in the bed all day in our p.j.'s. We did get her up to walk around and cruise. Can't go having a lazy baby! Here's a video of me walking her around. She looks so proud! Don't worry, Dan. She won't be walking before we leave for home!

One of the many treasures in our suitcases were the shoes that I packed for Cassi. Luckily, one pair made it in the snowsuit bag, so she's been wearing those when we are out and about. They are fur trimmed boots. I think she has high arches like me, because we couldn't get them all the way on her feet, but they were definitely long enough. Today as I was about to change her diaper, I remembered the shoes and that I hadn't gotten to see her in them yet, having waited all these months. I put one of each on her feet and she LOVED them! So much better than the navy blue boot things that she had her feet stuffed into in the orphanage. The shoes we got her, according to the foot tracings (which were w/ her wearing footie pjs while still in the orphanage on trip 1), showed she should wear a size 3. Well, the size 3's are a good two finger widths too long for her! Guess that means one thing: Shoe shopping when we get back! YAY!

The shoes look really giant from this view.

That's all from hibernation central. It is blowing like all get out and snowing from time to time. People are still out there walking around, going where they go. Tomorrow, the driver is picking just me up (Mom will watch Cassi) so that I can get Cassi's Russian passport and American visa. YAY!!!!!! One more step towards bringing her home this Saturday!