Today is a wonderful day! We got up at 6:30am this morning, took showers, finished packing up, ate a Nutrigrain bar and went outside to meet Sergei at 7:30am. We were then on our way to the Orphanage to see Maks and Vika again. The 3 hour drive was cut down to 2 1/2 by Sergei's world famous-hair raising driving. :) We waited in Dr. Ludmilla's office for the children and for Natasha, our translator from Novokuznetsk. She arrived around 10:30am.
A few minutes later the door opened and in walked Vika, followed by the most handsome man ever. Maks was dressed in a long-sleeve polo shirt today with a white collar, jeans and those Winnie the Pooh tennis shoes. He looked ADORABLE! As usual!
This time we were able to separate and Jason & I took Maks into the play room while Sandra 1 &2 went with Vika into the music room. It was wonderful to have 2 hours with him by ourselves. Tuesday he was a little bit reserved, almost tired and seemed somewhat anxious. He must have had his Wheaties today because he was ready to play! He was giggling, running, throwing the ball, dunking the basketball with Mommy and Daddy and of course eating anything he could get his hands on. I let him drink out of my water bottle today. He drinks just like my nephew Rylan. He covers the opening with his whole mouth and all of the water goes into his mouth and then comes right back out into the bottle. But he loved it! Sometimes he would keep the water in his mouth and then when I took the bottle, he would open his mouth and let it just run out. :)
We brought him a few new toys today. A teddy bear and a few books. Maks loves books! He loves to look at them, carry them, turn them all around, sit on my lap and read them... He wasn't quite sure what to do with the pop-up book, he ripped all of the pop-outs out. So much for the pop-up books!
When our time was over, we headed back to Novokuznetsk to check into the new hotel. We're not staying at the Guest House this time, we're staying at Hotel Novokuznetsk. From the outside it looks very plain, but when we got to our room we were very happy! We have a desk, king sized bed, nice bathroom, great view, arm chair, refrigerator, towel warmer, etc...Its lovely! The best news is that we have wireless internet in our room for free!! YEAH! And a few English-speaking channels. Thanks to Monica, we found the Travelers Coffee! Absolutely no complaints here today! WHAT A GREAT DAY! :) We'll be here for 7 nights and then headed back to Kemerovo next Thursday after we pick up Maks for good! We're still on track to leave Russia on March 7th. Keep your fingers crossed!
We decided to post a few photos of the hotel.
I'm loving all the updates and photos - keep them coming. Love, Aunt Judy
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ReplyDeleteHappy that things are good at hotel and with Maks. It was a really nice, sunny day here today and I just got to thinking how much fun it is going to be on Easter (and spring in general) with both Maks and Ry all dressed up in their easter clothes and easter baskets at brunch! Oh the trouble those two are going to get into because of this aunt :) Chocolate bunnies here we come! Ang
Yay! Your room looks great. We did enjoy that hotel and it's very convenient to the TC. If you get a chance walk over to that big building across the from the hotel the one in your photo that you posted. Natasha told us there are shops in there almost like a mall but we didn't have time on the first trip to explore it. I'd love to know what kind of stores are there.
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