She Does The Twist!

Well, the good news turned out to be true! We bought our tickets today for our return flight to Moscow on October 1st, the same day as originally planned. If all goes as planned, that means that our flights back to the U.S. won’t need to be changed at all! We should be home on October 4th. We’re really happy about this because it means that we will be able to celebrate our little one’s first birthday at home, rather than on a plane or in an airport somewhere. Four weeks in Russia is long enough, we really weren’t looking forward to a fifth week.

This morning was very overcast and rainy, so we just hung out at the hotel. At 1:00 we were picked up and taken to the Aeroflot office to buy the tickets. After that, we dropped Monica back at the hotel and went right to the baby home for our visit with you-know-who. She was great today. Kyley sang “Let’s twist again” (Chubby Checker) while twisting her waist back and forth. When she would stop, our little one would bounce her knees a little like she was dancing. Too cute! Even one of the caregivers started doing the twist!

They don’t let us play with her on the floor, I think because they feel the floor is drafty and cold. So we were limited to holding her, or playing with her on a little kid-sized couch they have there. It was a bit awkward, and we could tell she wanted a little more freedom to move around. So we held her hands and had her walk around the room, like we do on most visits. She really seems to enjoy that. It’s where we get the biggest smiles. Since the cold season is coming around, they told us we might have to wear surgical masks when we visit starting tomorrow. Not sure why, as long as we’re not sick. But we’ll be happy to comply for the last few visits. The last time someone with a mask tried to pick up our little one while we were there though, she wanted nothing to do with her. It must bring back memories of immunizations or something like that. Hopefully, they won’t make us wear them.

After our visit, we met back up with Monica, Andy, and Kathy at the hotel. We all walked down by the Kremlin to the little souvenir shop again since Andy and Kathy hadn’t been there yet. We bought a cute framed picture of Astrakhan, done in sort of a cartoon style that we thought would look great in our little one’s room. When we got back to the hotel though, we realized that it is just barely too big to fit in our largest suitcase. I’m going to have to figure something out to get that home somehow.

We went to the Chocolate Café for dinner, since its right down the street from the Kremlin. The food was really good as usual. I think they may have the best food of all the restaurants we have tried here. It also seems to be completely non-smoking, which believe me, is the exception, rather than the rule. If they had wi-fi, it would be the perfect place!

Only five more days until Monday, when we leave the baby home for the last time, but as a family for the first time!