Day 5

We think we found a pattern. Hannah starts off our morning visit full of smiles and is easily entertained.

By around 11am, she starts getting fussy. She no longer wants to play. We took turns walking around the room with her. She really likes looking out the window. Unfortunately, the weather is cooler today and is drizzling so we can’t take her outside for a walk. Finally she calmed down and cuddled with me. By 1130a she was fast asleep. I handed her off to Daddy for a while. She woke up (from the noise) right when we were getting ready to take her back to her room. And there were the smiles again. Funny thing, this morning, we had to give Olga Hannah’s official name. Turns out we spelled her birth name wrong, It is Alina, not Ailina. It was all such a blur in the beginning. So officially she will be Hannah Alina Molon.

Lunch at home and grocery shopping again today during our break. But before the grocery store we bartered with our neighbors. We got sugar and pepper from them and gave them some balsamic vinegar and rice in return. It works out well living next door to other Americans.

Last night, I tried my hand at laundry. Someone had written the cycles in English above the Russian so that was helpful. The loads are VERY small. Coming from Amsterdam, I thought I was used to small loads but our washer could only fit about 10 items per load. We also found out why people don’t wear white here. Our load of whites turned into our load of peach-ish clothes. We do get rusty cold water from time to time because the water was completely turned off the other day. Thinking ahead, I used the hot water setting. 3 hours later and the laundry still going, I turned off the machine but because it was front loading, I couldn’t open it. Another “rapid” cycle and we were done for the night. I tried Vanish (like OxyClean) today but I fear they will never be “white” again.

While we were thinking we found a pattern in Hannah, we are now thinking she might be getting sick. Again this afternoon, smiles in the beginning, but by the end of the first hour she was fast asleep. One of the other babies is sick and ended up going into “quarantine” (she couldn’t be in the play room with everyone else and had to stay in her room) but not before she possibly spread it around. It helps that our friend, “the pediatrician”, is nearby and watching over little Hannah. She thinks she might be coming down with something since she’s sleeping so much. She also gave us some tips to help with Hannah’s development. She actually sat up on her own today, which was a big step, but could only do it for a minute or two. We need to help her strengthen her muscles (which is where the pediatrician comes in handy). Either way, she’s sleeping and we’re getting in lots of good cuddle time! We even heard her snoring softly today (and of course took some video to share with future dates).


After our afternoon visit, we had our driver drop us off at Johnnie Walker Pub for dinner with our neighbors and another mom here. We had a fun time and a nice walk home afterwards.