Passing the Babooska Test!

Our first full day together!! It's been a pretty great day all in all. Tania is a serious rocker at night. It's really amazing to me to see all these children (and hear from other adoptive parents) that spent the first few years in an orphanage and how common the "soothing" rocking is. It must be a primal need in the soothing department. Maybe it's soothing to the child, but it sure isn't soothing to witness! Thank goodness for the bumpers in the crib at home.

Little T really get to sleep fully until around midnight last night. Part of it was MY fault. When she rocks she gets all tangled in her blanket - and I try to uncover her face. I know you can breathe through a light blanket -- but silly mom tries to remove it. It wakes her up and the rocking commences again. Even though the rocking is hard to watch, she's really sweet while she'd falling asleep - she makes up little songs and talks to herself in baby Russian gibberish.

Her normal schedule is to bed around 8pm and wake up at 7am. Institutional children are BIG on their schedule - and if they wake up before someone comes for them, they'll typically lay in their bed and entertain themselves or try to go back to sleep. I heard her around 6:15am - and my bad, I tried to get her to come and lay with me. Apparently if you were taken from your crib at night it meant you were doing something wrong - because it scares her to pieces. She'd rather rock it out herself.

She had a brief nap this afternoon - about 1.5 hours. This isn't much for her. She was in a groupa of much younger kids at the Artem baby home. I think she would have "graduated" to the next groupa up if I wouldn't have come along, but I think to minimize the interruptions, they left her in the smaller kids group. The little kids take TWO naps a day (10am-noon + 3:30-5:30pm) but her caretakers suggested I go back to 1 from noon to 3pm. We didn't quite hit that -- but we're on the right track. There's so much going on -- she doesn't want to miss it! I mean how would you feel if you got sprung from an orphange??

She also ate much better later today. Breakfast not so much - she didn't like the "baby oatmeal" they said she eats, but she did have bread (that's typical for them) and baby yogurt. Bananas are also a NYET - spits them right back out. Lunch was more bread and then some chunky style baby food (think a chicken based stew with tiny potatoes and veggies). She REALLY liked the baby food. However dinner was a whole other story. I ordered her the soup - a Russian soup with veggies and "beef" (alleged beef as I saw NONE) and for me spaghetti with meat sauce. She ate a bit of soup but as soon as she saw my spaghetti she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue and went "aaaaaa" like "me me me". Needless to say, she liked the pasta. Oh yes - and more bread! She's a TINY bite eater though. I bought her "baby" type cookies and it seriously takes her about 1 hour to eat one. She takes TINY bites and makes it last. Andrew (of the now semi-famous Andrew and Lisa!) theorized that this could also be an institutional behavior similar to eating fast and wanting more and more -- but instead trying to make it last.

The big event of the day was a trip with Lisa to the local "market". This is the small market just around the corner from the hotel. Andrew and Lisa bought a stroller at the baby store on Thursday, so we used it with Tania until Madam Rhonda gets here (2 days, not that I am counting!!). One of the women who works (owns??) the store is an older lady aka "babooska" (Russian word for gramma but also used for generic older woman). Most families from North American that come to Russia report back that at least at one time or another a babooka "tsked" them for not covering their child enough. While Lisa paid and Tania and I waited I saw the babooska sizing T up. The snowsuit that Angie sent has the built in hand/foot covers - and I had uncovered T's hands while we were in the store (it was at least 80 degrees in there!!). Babooska had apparently not seen this magical new snowsuit trick and she watched in amazement while I covered her hands. Then she pointed to Tania's neck (it would be exposed) just as I was connecting her hat and zipping her coat all the way up. She told Tania "hadasho" (worst phonetic translation ever) - which means "fine/good". Then she patted me on the back and said hadasho mama. HOLY CRUD! I passed the babooska test!!

Here is the tiny one sleeping. Yes - I am living on the wild side -- I dared snap a picture while she was sleeping EVEN with the flash!!