Honeymoon's Over :)

We had a great 1st night of sleep. He did so well! He was eating great and playing so well. We knew it had to be a dream... and it was.

I think he's getting more comfortable with us now. He's still a good little sleeper. He sleeps from 9pm-8am. Naps are a little bit more iffy. Today we really messed him up by getting him up at 6am and then getting on a big scary plane to Moscow. The flight was about 5 hours and about 90F. Jason and I were sweating! He certainly DID NOT like being on an airplane. About 10 minutes before take off he realized he was tethered to me and a seat. WOW, he was not happy. When the pilot revved the engines to take off, it scared the begeebees out of him so he was all of the sudden very quiet and loved being tethered to Mom. He fell asleep then for the first hour of the flight. After that it was touch and go. Needless to say we were thrilled when the plane landed. We made it to baggage claim, got our bags quickly, found the driver quickly and got to the Sandras apartment relatively quickly. Basically it was 11:30am Moscow time when we stepped into their apartment or 3:30pm Kemerovo time. So the journey took a little over 8 hours. With only a 1 hour nap and not much to eat, Maks had a really rough afternoon. Combination of lots of things I suppose. Little sleep, not feeling well, another new place, a scary plane ride, a scary new city... he has a lot working against him.

I won't lie. This is really tough. Tougher than I thought it would be. We feel like we are on the other side of the world (we are) and are in isolation. With phone call costs so expensive we haven't spoken to our families much at all. When he's sick, we don't know what the right thing to do is. The medicine here is very different, we can't be sure we're picking the right things at the grocery store because we can't read anything in Russian, we can't get in a car and drive anywhere and Maks HATES wearing his hat and mittens outside. The other day we took a quick walk to Travelers Coffee with him and he kept pulling his hat and gloves off. People were giving Jason dirty looks and one lady stopped to try to take Maks from Jason! What the heck? Tip for families traveling, make sure you bring boots, scarf, hat, mittens, another hat in case the child doesn't like the one your brought, snowpants, a winter jacket with a hood (much easier to keep the hat on that way it seems) and anything else you can think of to not infuriate the locals (oh and keep your child warm) :)

I did get to call my Mom and Dad earlier and Jason got to talk to his Mom. Its funny how important parents are in our lives. Even when we are struggling with becoming parents ourselves. As always they listened and gave good advice. It was just nice getting to talk to someone other than people who have no idea what I'm saying. The poor coordinators are hearing way too much about our issues. They just look at us and smile and try to be interested! :) Thanks Anna and Katya!

Maks is having some medical distresses. I thought I'd actually post some of them on here in case anyone has run into this before and has thoughts or ideas. If you've been in Russia when you've run into this it would be even more helpful, but we'll take all suggestions.

1. Maks is going poop a lot. 4-5 big poops a day. I am not a poop expert, but that seems like a lot. I wouldn't say they're all diarrhea. But sort of? Mom, I could email you a picture if it would help. :)

2. He has a goofy rash looking thing on his face in a half crescent under is eye. It looks like a fungal infection and seems to be getting worse.

3. He has a perpetual fountain of green goobly-gob coming out of his nose. And a lot of it crusts up under is nose which is clogging his nose. I could use that aspirator thing 4-5 times a day if he'd let me. Right now we're down to 1 time since we picked him up.

I'll stop with that for now. Some of the other stuff might be a little person for him when he gets older. And considering all of the personal stuff I've shared on here over the past year or so, that's saying something.

We got into our apartment at 2pm today. We're staying at the Old Arbat City Side Residence in Moscow from apartmentsmoscow.com. You can look it up. Its actually pretty nice. Its a 2 bedroom with a kitchen and a bathroom. It has a washer but no dryer. The kitchen and bathroom look recently renovated and we have lots of space. They brought Maks a crib so it will be the first night we try that angle. Apartmentsmoscow.com is a great company. They've been really easy to work with. I've attached a few pictures of the street outside. Will take more tomorrow in the daylight. Jason just got back from getting McDonalds. I'm so happy to have McDonalds!!! A cheeseburger was lovely. Old Arbat street is interesting. Its an old street that has been closed to cars and is only for walking. Apparently its very touristy, with lots of cafes and American style restaurants (Hard Rock Cafe, McDonalds, Sbarro, Starbucks). There are musicians outside on the street and a bunch of souvenir places. Maks will like not having to go far with a hat on. It will give us a few places to go explore. Tomorrow we have a Doctor coming to the apartment early, between 6:30-7:00am. And then we have to wait here for Katya to set our American Embassy appointment for Tuesday. We're free to leave after 11:30am so hopefully we'll get to the grocery store and save ourselves some money and calories this week.

One nice highlight of the day, we were giving Maks a bath tonight (first night with an actual bathtub) and he loved it! Leslie had bought him some bath toys before we left and I brought a little set with. Instead of just washing him and his hair and getting him out, we let him play for a while. I think he would have stayed in that bathtub for hours if we let him. Jason looked at me and said, "you know, I bet no one has ever let him sit in a bathtub and play before." That really hit home hard with both of us. With 15 other little kids in his group and 150 kids in the orphanage there is no way they let the kids sit in the bathtub and play with toys. A great way to end the tough day. Oh, and he went to sleep tonight in 10 minutes. Lets hope the new apartment doesn't freak him out during the night and he has a great nights sleep and can adjust to the time zone change well. The big one is coming in a week!