Day 8

This morning was crazy.  Valentin picked us up outside our apartment like normal, but then we had to go and meet Tatiana at the notary office downtown.  There was a bunch of traffic, and we were late, so the ride was a little, um, motion-sicky.  I have a weak stomach on car rides to begin with...ah, well.  We made it with no accidents :)

The only notary that can do international notaries is in a huge public office building that is very old, and very interesting.  The history here is so rich.  The elevator in the building I think is from 1917- the original one.  It was very creaky, and behind metal gates, with an elevator operator that rides it all day long with you.  We went into a hallway and waited, and then our official translator arrived (I guess you have to have someone who is licensed for official paperwork like this) and we sat at a desk in an office and signed 3 papers, then signed a ledger book like 4 different places, and then that was it.

We went on another Mr. Toad's Wild Ride to somewhere where I think Tatiana was mailing the documents to the state department...but not sure.  Bryan and I waited in the car while Valentin and Tatiana took the documents in, and then only Valentin came out.  He doesn't speak much English, so I assume Tatiana found another way home..? LOL.

Then he took us to the orphanage, where we had an abbreviated visit.  Danila was outside with his groupa, so we walked up and he cautiously came over to us- he definitely recognized us when we got out of the car, and was happy to see us.  I just wonder if he is not sure if he was allowed to approach us or leave his nanny.  They told us (I think) that we could walk around the grounds, but he could not play on the playground right now...?  So we found the bench we were on before and Danila started unloading our backpack.

We brought the ball this time, and played catch for a bit- and either Bryan has really good aim, or he's got pretty good hand-eye coordination.  That was fun for a bit, and then we moved on to the new crayons.  He liked those a little less than the markers that make a giant mess on his hands and clothes.  THEN we found his favorite thing to do:  eat.  He drained a juice box in no time flat, then inhaled 1/2 a banana, a few handfuls of Cheerios, and 3 small animal cracker-ish type cookies.  I didn't want to ruin his lunch, so I put the bag of snacks away...and next time I will only bring a small amount of snacks with me so that I don't have to take them away from him!

The best part of today's visit was that Danila is starting to get comfortable enough with us that he is showing his true colors.  Sure, he is adorable and sweet and inquisitive and playful...but he also is a total stinker just like Chase is (which, I think we knew in our hearts from the beginning!)  He took his baseball hat off today and ran over and shoved it under this big metal cover that was over a giant hole- like an old well- in the ground.  He thought this was totally funny, especially when Bryan had to take the cover off and climb down into this pit to retrieve the hat.  We were so hoping that no one noticed him doing this...it doesn't seem to be normal visitor behavior, climbing down into old pits.  He got it back (my hero!) and put the cover back on.

...and then guess who was obsessed with sneaking away and trying to throw things down the pit every chance he got after that?

Yeah.

Stinker!

He's gonna fit in just fine.