The party!

The party to say goodbye to winter worked! All of the snow is melting like crazy and it is a warmer outside. The streets are filled with water.

We took a video of the performance and it was definately cute. There were lots of doctors and nurses there to watch the kids. They were so excited and did a great job. Several of the kids recited poetry (including Maksim) and they were proud and did a great job. No one even got stage fright. We were amazed that the children had learned their parts. We have never been to a 3 year old performance before - so we have nothing to compare to but we think they were amazing. There was the cutest little dance with four boys and four girls. They knew their parts so well. At the end of the partnered dance, each boy returned his girl to her seat and bowed to her as she sat down. Here is a picture of Maksim's partner. She is adorable. Her Momma and Papa are coming soon we have heard. There were 4 or 5 kids that we wanted to sneak into our back pockets to take home. Just kidding, of course. But all of the kids were great! The children got chocolate and a pancake (a crepe). The adults got a pancake too! They were tasty.

Maksim was a very good boy who made good decision today. We went for walks in the morning and the afternoon visit. The caregivers said that Maksim was unhappy when he woke up from his nap. He snuggled into Momma and ate some cucumbers, and crackers. That cheered him up right away. He loves cucumbers. "I like it!" he says, "Yummm!" Momma always asks him, "Do you like it?" "Da," he says and nods. We love to feed him.

On our afternoon walk, we saw a sobaka (dog) Maksim really wanted to go check it out and we did, too. As we got closer, some ladies from the orphanage came out and scolded us about getting Maksim too close to the dog (we think - who knows they we speaking Russian). As the dog got closer, Maksim got really scared and wanted Papa to pick him up quick! Ah-Oh. Audry and Maksim will have to go through some bonding time, too.

He has also been doing this fake cry kind of thing. "Waa, waa". We are not sure of the meaning. Momma and Papa snuggle him, he resists, but stops crying. We are not able to comfort him as much as we would like. We are sure that it will come eventually. Hopefully we have figured it out by the time he comes home with us.
We will turn in our court papers on Monday. This means that we could have court on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday are a holiday - so we might not have court until Friday. After court, there is a 15 day waiting period. The next day we can go to the orphanage with our court decree and walk out of those gates. Maksim is ready, now.