Day #3 together

Slept all night beautifully! Yeah!!! At 7:30 I heard Maya start rocking, so I took her in bed with me. Tristan woke up soon after and Jeff brought him in with us. Breakfast and lunch went much better as they were familiar with the foods.

This morning I felt like a true Muscovite as I had to find my way alone to a children’s store, Dietsky Mir, via the metro. It was actually very easy! I love their metro system! The reason for the outing was that we needed a training potty. Maya was accustomed to using it and the big potty at the orphanage, and she was doing fine without the little one, but Tristan has not pooped since we picked him up. They had told us that he only wets his diapers and does the rest of his business in the little potty. They force his group to sit on the potty for a few minutes at regular intervals throughout the day. I was fine with him just doing it all in diapers, because I wasn’t about to force the potty on him, but now we are beginning to worry about him not doing it at all.

At any rate, we have one now, and hopefully it will help. While I was gone, Jeff hooked the strollers together and took both kids to the grocery store. He got a lot of looks at the store! J I guess most men here don’t go alone with two toddlers to the store.

Naptime was another battle as we did it on time today. We basically have to plan on an hour of cuddling and singing lullabies, otherwise they resort to their un-healthy self-comforting techniques. Thank heavens the hotel has blackout drapes!

In the afternoon both kids seemed to be trying to get in trouble. I think that all this change and craziness is finally catching up to them. One thing that happened that made us, and I’m sure Tristan, feel better is that he finally pooped in the little potty I bought!

We took the kids swimming again and although they are always scared when we first go in the pool area, they loosened up and swam a little with us. Maya still mostly sat on the side, but I got her to sit on the ladder this time.

For dinner we got take-out from a restaurant nearby, including “kid-friendly” foods. Tristan ate everything and loved it. Maya absolutely refused to try a single bite. Bedtime was another hour-long workout. J They were finally asleep by 10pm. It is hard getting them to sleep, but I’m just grateful that they stay asleep all night. Tristan did fall off the bed again in the middle of the night—this time the bottom of the bed, but went right back to sleep when we put him back in bed. I don’t know how they got him to stay in his tiny little bed in the orphanage. He moves around like crazy when he sleeps.