Home Sweet Home

We've been home for nine days and it feels so good to be in our own surroundings again! Dasha is very busy learning about her "dom" (home) and she is learning English quicker than I expected. She says no (big surprise, huh?), shoes (her first English word!), puppy, yum, Noel (our cat), more, apple, please, banana, hello, bye-bye, turtle, fish, night-night, potty, here you go, bunny, mama, papa (guess technically those last two are also Russian but I think they count too), cookie, twinkle twinkle little star (she sings this, it's very cute), and I'm sure there are others that I'm just not remembering right now.
She's adjusting pretty well, still having trouble sleeping though, she screams when we leave the room if she is still awake and then also if she wakes up during the night (last night at 10:30, 1:00, and 4:30, ugh...). She gets pretty overstimulated by too many toys or going out for too long. We are trying to get her on a good schedule. We find that she doesn't nap as long as the orphanage said, though two hours seemed a little long anyway. She eats almost anything that we give her, but she doesn't like many veggies, peanut butter, or jello. She loves pancakes, chinese food rice, chicken, mashed potatoes, chicken noodle soup, spaghettios, water and apple juice!
We are working on helping her with frustration at us not understanding what she needs and when we don't give her what she wants. She can be quite aggressive when she gets mad (bites, scratches, kicks, etc.), Chris and I both have some battle scars from the airports (the 3 hours at JFK seemed like 3 days!). The doctor at the orphanage said that they usually just gave Dasha what she wanted because she threw such a fit when she didn't get her way. Boy, are we reaping the consequences of that now. (Oh, just an aside, if you are at the US Embassy in Moscow, there is a playroom downstairs just past the bathrooms. It was very crowded in the waiting room when we were there and we were there for about an hour.)
Overall, we are doing well. Dasha seems happy in her new home, she loves to dance and sing, and she loves baths! I'll try to update the blog as often as I can now that we're home, but needless to say there's not much free time anymore to get on the computer:0) (Oh, yeah, sorry there won't be any more pictures for a little while. When we got home, we found that the mother board in our computer had gone bad so we just had to get another computer today. So it might be a while before we get it set up and download our pics from the camera to the new computer. Am typing on a laptop that we were given right now, and don't have the right program to download the pics to the laptop.)

Back in Moscow

We are back in Moscow at the Marriot Renaissance, so much better (and closer to home)! Dasha had her medical exam in the hotel Thursday right after we checked in, then we went to have visa photos done, then to the Embassy to drop off paperwork and pay. Yesterday we went to have our visa interview and pick up her visa packet to give to immigration in the US when we land. Today we are being lazy in our pjs, having room service breakfast and might venture out for a walk and then maybe a trip to Red Square for pictures. Monday we'll drop off paperwork to the Russian Consulate and then Tuesday pick up her registration. Then Wednesday it's back HOME! Hurray!

Here she is!

Here she is, our beautiful baby girl! We picked her up Saturday morning and she has kept us on our toes since then! Can't wait to get her home!

Last visit

We had our last visit today at the orphanage. Dasha played outside in the snow. She loves to go down the slide and play on the seesaw with her Papa! She looks like a little penguin the way she walks all bundled up in her snowsuit. So cute! We get to pick her up on Saturday morning at 10:00am (so it will be 10:00pm Friday night at home when we go). I can't wait! I'll try to post some photos (of her adorable little face!) Saturday or Sunday. Only thirteen more days til we are home forever!