Had a #1 on Day #1, Got #2 Today!

Yep, it is what you think. The first day we saw Maks after court he was a little nervous/anxious. I was holding him in Dr. Ludmilla's office and all of the sudden felt something warm run down my side. He had peed. The poor little man is in the early stages of potty-training and didn't really know how to say he had to go pee-pee. He was breaking Mommy in right away. They took him back to change his clothes and put on a diaper. Apparently in the orphanage they start potty-training early out of necessity. Diapers are very expensive and they cannot afford them for 1/2 of the orphanage. Maks is only 20 months and is no longer wearing a diaper.

Today he was in a feistier mood. They put us in the "medical room" because there was a music show going on in the playroom and music room. This weekend is a holiday when they celebrate men. Kind of like Fathers Day, but really just men in general. (Women get the same thing on March 8th) Some of the kids were putting on a musical/skit show for the men who have helped the orphanage in any way. Vika was in the show, but we didn't get to watch. Anyhow, the medical room had a lot of glass bottles, beds he wasn't supposed to touch, a cactus (a big one) and some tubing connected to some machines. Basically a potential house of terrors for a little almost-2 year old. Luckily Daddy is very fast and could catch him before he got into too much! (no, there were no children in the medical room)

When we went back into the playroom, Jason picked up Maks to play and smelled something a little off. He handed Maks to me and YEP he had pooped. Poor little guy was again not wearing a diaper, so we had to have someone come in and take him to be changed. We would of course do it ourselves but they don't let you wander the orphanage. I think I'll bring some diapers for him for the next few days so he doesn't have to worry, or hold it very long. Basically the way they potty train is by putting the kids on the potty before and after everything they do. They wake up, go to the potty, eat breakfast, go to the potty, go for a walk, go to the potty, etc... So taking him out of his routine is probably really confusing him. We're going to transition back to diapers for a while when we pick him up. I don't think 3 flights, one of them being trans-atlantic are the best time for him to be potty trained! Although we will have Grandma and Grandpa's help! :)

He was really talking today! Lots of gibberish (or Russian, its hard to tell) but he got close to saying Mom. It came out as Ma. I'm not sure if he was trying to say Mom, or "fix this" in Russian. Every time he said it, he was handing me something to fix, take apart, put together... Either way, I'll take it!

As far as non-Maks time, we have been spending our time watching movies, on the computer or eating. Yesterday was 0 degrees Celsius, which is 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It felt like a heat wave after the weather we experienced last week! Today its -10 Celsius and windier, so walking around is no good. We ate at a Russian restaurant yesterday for lunch that is down the street. I had some beef/mushroom thing with a potato pancake and Jason had a Turkey-Kabob. Both were very good. For dinner we went to the hotel restaurant. We get 150 rubles per day each to spend at the hotel restaurants. They have 2. Right now 30 rubles equal 1 dollar, so basically 5 dollars each. Not too much, but it still helps. I honestly don't know what I ordered for dinner. I thought I ordered chicken, but it was not chicken. It was some type of meatloaf. Jason thought he ordered beef, and it came out a beef stew. So we switched dinners! We had found a little grocery store yesterday and bought some milk (at least we hoped it was milk), some chocolate, and some bananas. We're going to save some $ by eating breakfast in the room every morning. Mine is the Russian version of Frosted Cheerios with milk and bananas. Sort of like home!

Note to the Future Maks- Sorry buddy that I had to post about this, but it was a big part of the 10 day wait. Your first potty times with Mom and Dad. :)