A Day of Firsts

Today was a big day for Katie. We went to the zoo this morning, and Katie saw all sorts of animals. At first she would look at them rather skeptically, but after awhile she started running up to the fence to see what the animal was and to tell me all about it. Often there was a Russian mom nearby with her child, and Katie would take that opportunity to talk to her. She loves us to pieces, but she can't quite talk to us just yet. After her lunch and nap, Katie rode the Metro for the first time to Old Arbat street, a shopping area. She thought the trains were pretty cool, and she would laugh and giggle everytime one of them came into the station. We were a little disappointed with Arbat Street this time because there weren't any vendors out today. It was a pretty hot day today so they probably didn't want to stand in the heat. At the end of Arbat Street there is a McDonald's so we stopped there for Katie's first fast-food meal. She was so enthralled with all the people, that it took her forever to eat just 2 Chicken McNuggets! We then took the Metro to Kievskaya to buy some toilet paper and to look for some sunglasses for Katie. She was squinting something terrible all day today, and I felt so bad for her that I gave her my sunglasses to wear. I had to put the ends of the ear pieces through her pigtails to keep them on, but they seemed to help a little bit. She looked so cute with them on, too. After going through store after store, we finally found some children's sunglasses, but the cheapest ones were almost $40! I don't even spend that on mine! We found some more at a different store, and they were on sale for about $90. Needless to say, Katie will just have to do without until we get back to the States and we can go to WalMart or Target and get some for about $3. Actually, I guess I'll be the one who does without!

While we were at Kievskaya, Katie also rode her first escalator. She still doesn't quite have it mastered, but at least she's not losing her balance every time she gets on and off. Also while we were there, I put Katie in time out briefly, and a young Russian woman saw what happened and talked to Katie. I don't know what she said, but I got the feeling that she was telling Katie that she needs to obey her Mama. It was awfully sweet of that lady to take the time to talk to Katie in her own language. However, I guess it is also possible that she was telling Katie all sorts of terrible things, too. I doubt it, though.

When we got home from Kievskaya, we gave Katie her first bath with us. She wasn't bothered at all by it, and in fact seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. In fact, the whole time that Steve was washing her hair, she was flicking herself with water. It was very cute! Tonight, is another first in that Steve will be sleeping with her in the bed with me on the sofabed. I've been kicked in the head enough times that I'm choosing the sofabed with the questionable smell and the boulder-like feel. I'm not sure which is better, but I've been averaging 2-3 hours of sleep each night so hopefully this will be better. Steve hasn't been sleeping much better so it's probably a wash.

We also had Katie's first cry tonight. We're pretty sure it was just a sleepy cry. As Steve was putting her to bed, she got all teary. Shortly after, we heard her cry so I went in and talked to her (as if she could understand me) and ran my fingers through her hair. She stopped crying but never said anything so I left once she was better. Soon after, we heard her sucking on her fingers, and she was asleep about 20 minutes later.

We have some great pictures comemorating this day of firsts, but we didn't get them in the computer today so I'll send some later. Steve will go with Andrei to pick up Katie's passport tomorrow morning, and then we're planning on going to Red Square after her nap.