*Pictured is D playing in the ball pit in the playroom while we waited for baby V to come in.

Still Monday, March 6 -

We took Baby V out into the big playroom area and sat in the floor with her on a blanket. D showed her the Nick Jr. Face backpack we brought all her toys in and she was mesmerized by the face on front. It's a very small backpack that we got with some books we ordered for D a few years ago, but in the pictures next to V it looks big, so you can't really tell how very small she really is! She was just precious! D started taking all the toys out, one right after the other. I think baby V was rather overwhelmed with all the toys and all this attention focused just on her. But with big sister so excited to help her play, it was hard to stifle it. She played with all the toys and was developmentally doing what she should with them (switching hand to hand, coming to center etc.) but she wasn't smiling for the longest time. Finally hubby started doing "flying baby" and out came the smiles and giggles! She has a little dimple in her right cheek and a cleft in her chin just like D. We took lots of pictures and video and before we knew it the caregiver had come to get baby V and take her back to her room for nap time. We'd had about an hour with her. Then she was gone as quickly as she came in.

It was about 2:30 and we were starved, so we told our coordinator we wanted to go eat. We trudged our way back to the car and drove back to the city center and we went to a Czech restaurant and the food was delicious and very cheap.

We went back to the hotel and D got her (supplementary) oatmeal. We all had a shower or bath and we were all in bed about 8 p.m. We were exhausted. Around 9 p.m. our casemanager called from Dallas to check in with us. It was noon in Dallas.

Tuesday, March 7 -

We had a wonderful huge breakfast at the hotel and then we met back in the lobby at 10:30 with the driver, the Region Rep and our In Country Director/Translator. The driving was slow going again because of the snow. We stopped off at a super-market to get some chocolates and beautiful cakes for the caregivers in celebration of Women's Day. We bought 2 big boxes of chocolates and 2 cakes. One for baby V's orphanage and one for D's old orphanage which we would visit later in the day.

We arrived at baby V's orphanage and went right on into the playroom. There we unbundled from all our coats, scarves, gloves, boots, mittens and hats. What a pile we made! About 5 minutes passed and they brought baby V in to us. She had on a little lace bonnet. She had a sniffly nose so I guess they were bundling her up extra so she wouldn't catch a chill in the 85 degree room :o). She was teething a good bit, so that may have attributed to the runny nose. She wasn't rattly in the chest, it was just her nose.

This was the time to try on the outfit we brought to see what size she is and to tactfully "check her out." The size 6-9 month outfit fit her with still a bit of roominess. I whipped out my trusty measuring tape and checked her head circumference. It was almost 1/2 inch bigger than what they had reported on the medical. I think this is pretty common though, since I believe they measure differently. She didn't fuss at all when I was changing her outfit and believe me I did fumble around a lot! I am very out of practice in dressing a baby! I had made a cute little card to do her foot tracing on (for the scrapbook), so we traced her cute little foot. She flinched a bit near her big toe, so the drawing looks like she has a bunion :o). It looks like her foot was about a size 3. So, I'll take some size 3's and size 4's and whatever doesn't fit I'll leave for the orphanage. Poor D's scrapbook has her foot copied on a piece of ripped paper bag, Mommy didn't think far enough ahead on the first adoption.

We played some more with her toys. The biggest hit were these little clear balls with sound making devices in them. They are by Fisher Price and they're called Roll Arounds. They were intended to be of a two-fold purpose. One - just to play with because they're cool and Two - for us to test her hearing. She passed both with flying colors :o). There was a little gymnastic type ramp pad and I would roll a ball down the ramp and after a few times she imitated me and did it herself! I was so excited! It was during this play time that she seemed to either get comfortable enough with us, or she was just so into the playing that she forgot to be leary because she started babbling and cooing. At first I thought she was crying but quickly realized she was just "talking." Then before we knew it, the caregiver was back and ready to take her back to her room for nap-time. I could tell she was getting tired and she was probably hungry too. We were told we would get to see her living quarters on our next trip so all we saw this time around was this play room every day.

More to come!

Till later . . .