Ghostbusters

Monday’s are supposed to be a downer of a day, aren’t they? Well, I certainly can’t complain – at least not the past few Mondays! I met Maia for the first time on a Monday, four week ago today. My bonding period ended on a Monday, two weeks ago today. One week ago today, we had court and the ruling was in my favor! Today, we got to visit Maia after not being able to on Sunday. So, from where I stand right now, Mondays are looking pretty good to me!

Today I also got to meet Maia’s ‘mother’. Although all the caregivers take care of all the children, certain caregivers are assigned to certain children as ‘theirs’. They are the ones to bathe them, cut their finger nails, etc. while they are at the baby house. She has only worked one other day since I’ve been here, and that was the day I was sick and Mom visited alone. So, I didn't get to meet her until today. We did take some pictures with her and video her playing a few games with Maia. (Like pat-a-cake, but the Russian version.) They had great fun. Maia has seemed close to many of her caregivers, but I definitely saw a bond between Katya (the ‘mother’) and Maia today as well. That was neat. Sneak peek:

This is Masha, Me, Maia and Katya. Not my favorite picture of myself, but I thought it was funny that Maia turned around right when Mom snapped the picture. So, you get a full body sneak peek today. :)

We did get to visit with Catalina and Calin again for a little while while our visiting times overlapped. Maia was quite taken with a toy of Alina’s (Yulia’s), a toy cell phone. At first she didn’t understand that you push the buttons to get it to make noise, but once I showed her how it worked, she understood a little better. I did take the phone, and hold it to my ear, and say “Hello, hello”. Then I held it to Maia’s ear and said, “Hello, hello”. So later when I just said, “Hello” she put the phone up against my ear!! That was cool!! She never put it to her own ear, but that was still cute that she put it to mine. I’m sure she’ll figure out how to really use the phone in no time at all – then she’ll really fit in to the family!!

Catalina was sweet enough to bring a few clothes with her to me for Maia. They really don’t have onesies here (not that we can find anywhere) so she brought some of those for me. They will definitely help me when it’s time for me to clothe Maia full time! (Next week!!) The clothes are very cute – I can’t wait to get home and start buying her some more, or just dress her in the ones I have already purchased in anticipation of her. I think that’s what Mom is most excited about too – besides the obvious family that we miss – to get home and shop for Maia, and the rest of the grandchildren as well!! I’m sure Maia will be well dressed, if Grandma has ANYTHING to do with it, just like all Maia’s cousins, and her brother, Matthew! If Maia turns out to be anything like her cousin Marie, she will love to shop and love to change her clothes… I think I heard that Marie changed her clothes 6 times one day, just because. I may be misremembering the exact number, but you get the idea!

Mom and I went adventuring again yesterday. There was a celebration on Constitution street, which is just pedestrian traffic, for the 8th of March celebration as well as the Beginning of Spring celebration. I believe that holiday is actually on March 22, but I think they combined the festivities into one grand extravaganza. We got to see singers and dancers, street vendors grilling, pony rides, horse and buggy rides, and carnival rides! I’ve never seen carnival rides in the middle of winter with snow on the ground! It didn’t seem to stop anyone though – the rides certainly had riders on them. We enjoyed people watching. Looking at the beautiful coats people wear here, their pretty (warm) hats, boots, and little kids being pulled on little sleds that have ‘backs’ on them so the kids (some of them quite young) can lean back when they are pulled. As you can imagine, strollers don’t work real well here in the winter, with ice packed streets and sidewalks. On the way home, we stopped by the coffee shop again, BlackJack and got another café latte. Ah… not too much longer before I can get a “grande skim extra-hot with whip toffee nut latte”. Matthew I miss you, sweetie, but I miss my Starbucks too!! How sweet it will be…. I think (hope and pray) we’re talking less than 3 weeks until we are home… so the countdown is ON.

The plan at this time is that we will ‘get’ Maia after lunch on Thursday, March 20! She becomes ‘mine’, legally, on Wednesday, March 19! Oh, what a special day! There will be some paperwork to complete however, etc., etc. before we can remove her from the baby house. Hopefully, everything will be able to stay as planned, at this point, and we will be able to have her on Thursday! Wow, how our lives will change in just over one week. I can’t wait!

We have blown 7 light bulbs in a week here. I’ve never had so many light bulbs blow at the same time before. Almost every time we turn on the living room light, (which has five light bulbs), another one bites the dust. Luckily, only the first one of those exploded and fell out. The one last night exploded, but is being held in there by one ‘wire’. I tried to pull it out (like a loose tooth) so that it wouldn’t come crashing down in the night on to the table below, but it took some real pulling, and I didn’t want to get electrocuted, so as it stands, it is dangling in there now, above my head, by a single wire. Also, one of my bedside lights went berserk the other night. It was about 4 a.m. and I was sound asleep with the lights out. I woke to flickering bright lights… When I stirred enough to figure anything out, I realized that my light had come on by itself and was flickering light and then brighter, light, and then brighter, then totally off and then back on again. I turned it off (it’s one of those lights you touch to turn it brighter, or off), and it promptly came back on, in all its flickering glory. I made sure nothing was touching the base, since it’s touch sensitive, and nothing was. Then, I couldn’t decide what to do. How do I get it to stop blinking like a Christmas tree? I turned it off and it didn’t work… then it dawned on me! UNPLUG IT FOOL! So, I did and I went back to bed. It still cracks me up. It was very strange. I plugged it in the next day to see if it was still possessed, and it was, so it remains unplugged. Interesting. I just hope the ghosts don’t attack my other beside lamp, or I’ll have to unplug it as well. If we keep up this pace, we will be sitting in the dark by the end of the week. We’d better buy some more candles – we are down to just half of one left now. (Actually, the cleaning people come on Tuesdays and they will be here tomorrow and change the bulbs for us. We won’t know what to do with all the extra light!!) I’m not sure what they’ll do about the possessed lamp.

And, for those of you wondering. Mom’s puzzle hasn’t any more done than before. It’s the stupidest puzzle ever. It’s impossible to tell what goes where, and the patterns repeat – every third piece is the same size/shape, or so, on one row, etc. So, you may have similar colors and pieces, but nothing really matches. I think she’s given up, but won’t put it away yet… I think she believes she’ll conquer it yet. She was going to take it all apart and start over. I said, WHY? Just throw it away. Then she talked about bringing it home and trying again there sometime. NO WAY. We are not lugging that all the way back home. It’s a piece of crap puzzle and you need to throw it away. I think she’s thinking about it…