The end is in sight!

This morning Brian got up with Genya so I was able to sleep in a little – what a wonderful thing! Later in the morning I called Alex for an update to the passport office yesterday. He says "oh yes" (like, maybe I should have called her?!) But good news!! The passport was printed and mailed from Moscow on March 3^rd. So now it's on its way back to Irkutsk. Now Monday is a Russian Holiday (yep, we manage to hit two in two weeks!) so no official business will happen that day but Andrew and/or Alex will check Tuesday at the passport office to find out if it's in. It should be in either Tuesday or Wednesday latest. Once they confirm it's in they will come get us as we have to pick it up in person. Then we will head to the airline office to make ticket inquiries and once we find availability we can leave here the next day. Then we will be in Moscow for several days finishing up business (as well as hitting it on a weekend) so at this point it's looking like somewhere close to the 18^th we should be arriving in the USA. Mom N, a good birthday present?! So stay tuned for more detail to come.

Today we had a wonderful day. The Jacksons had invited us to come for lunch and the afternoon. Genya enjoyed playing with other kids and they enjoyed the visit also. Genya played quite nicely with them – just a few pushing of buttons and turning lights on/off and once turning off the DVD Melissa was watching but overall he was a very, very good boy! They played outside for over an hour and Genya got over some of his fear of dogs by playing with their smaller one, Mocha. The bigger one still scared him some but he told them "I like her, she just scares me!" I'm not sure Genya knew what to think when Tami would understand what he was saying in Russian – one time he was blowing bubbles in his hot chocolate and he said "they taught us to do that" and she replied in Russian "I don't think so!" He just looked at her, but stopped. He was not his normal chatterbox self today but when he did talk it was generally commenting on things around him or things he was observing – like about grapes – three times he said "they're still on the vine!" So we have to keep this in mind when he's talking – probably just verbalizing what he's seeing, often for the first time.

We accessed the Jackson's high speed internet so tried to update the laptop as best we could and also checked out some of the bigger attachments people have been sending to us. Brian enjoyed "surfing the net" for awhile without it being so painfully slow. I greatly enjoyed visiting with Tami. We had a delicious lunch of Hot Chicken Dumpling casserole and molasses cookies. We thank them so much for this wonderful day and for giving us the opportunity to again spend time with their family!

We returned to the apartment and I made a quick dinner of peelmeni and some pickles that Tami had given us (delicious!! We ate them all!). Now that I know better how many days we'll be here I can plan out meals for the next few days better. Tomorrow (hopefully things will be open due to Women's Day?) we can stock up on a few groceries and I'll make some meals from scratch and some from the deli these final days.

Genya got his bath and we watched some DVD and then he was ready for bed! Today he had his first ride in a car seat/seat belt and did well with it – almost dozed off on the way back to the apartment. We're watching another movie tonight – "The Cutting Edge" (I love that movie!) – last night, other than one brief spot, we were able to see "The Last of the Mohicans" that had aggravated us once before!

One thing I keep forgetting to comment about is Genya's "pointing" – here in Russia they use the "middle finger" to point like we just the index finger. Yes, we will break him of this habit but until then please realize what he's doing is what he was taught to do and not trying to insult you!

Also we have to tell about last night's walk – I think I forgot this before. On the way back to the apartment in the alley behind us Genya howled like a wolf (which he likes to do) – well he set off several of the neighborhood dogs and he had about 3 or 4 howling back at him! He was a little scared – we told him he had started it! LOL

So today again is a briefer update but full of wonderful things to report!

Also, while the USA is changing to daylight savings time tomorrow (Sunday), here in Russia they don't change until the last Sunday of the month so if I figure it correctly we'll be 13-hours ahead of you (WI time) after the change.