It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.... Yes, this morning while we were waiting for Vladimir to drive us to our morning visit, the snow started and it's been snowing ever since. Funny how everyone slows down when it starts snowing like this. We saw our first real fender benders. Dad says they're the same here as they are in Minnesota, first snowfall and you have to retrain all the drivers :)

Yesterday on our way home from the I-Cafe, I took a header on the sidewalk. Thankfully, no permanent damage but I did have visions of some Kazakh doctor trying to reset my wrist! Not a pretty sight :)

Today when we went for the morning visit, Sasha was waiting for us and holding her little "Koshka" pillow. I still insist it's a cat. Asia calls it a mouse. The other kids think it's a pig. Oh well, it'll always be "Koshka" to me and Sasha. It's obviously been carried around a lot, it's a bit dirty but that's good. It means she likes it.

Also, one of the doctors came by today and said that she was very surprised that Sasha had taken to us so quickly, that she was usually very leery of new people. Guess we showed her :) I think Sasha knows that I'm her Mommy and Grandpa is her Grandpa and she's trying to make a good impression :)

She got her passport photo taken today, that sound promising, doesn't it? :) They said she was a good girl for it.

I got the pictures for the judge (mad rush to get them by pre-court on Monday) but they forgot to crop me and Grandpa out of the pictures. Oh well, if they're not good enough we'll have to have more done. They're very cheap.

Went shopping today. Sasha needs a new coat for next Friday when she leaves the babyhouse (can you believe it's less than a week away?!?) We went to the "big market" which is a kind of shopping mall but not what you'd expect in the US. After much searching (and some severely ugly coats and jackets!) we found a cute, little coat with a detachable hood. It's made of goatskin (sorry, Kyra!) with the furry side inside and a pair of sheepskin mittens. They're so cute!

Since I only need them long enough to get her to Texas and again to Minnesota where it's rumored Grandma has bought her a new jacket in Grandpa's least favorite color, I didn't want to spend too much. And believe me, I didn't. Amazing how cheap it was!

There's a performance of an ice show from St. Petersburg (no, not the one in Florida!) next week so Olga's going to get us tickets. It's all in Russian but it should be interesting and something fun to do.

Also, tomorrow we have our pre-pre-court followed by the "excursion" as they keep calling it. It'll be fun to tour the city with someone who knows what they're talking about :)

We met up with two more Peace Corps volunteers today. It seems they run this Internet Cafe, among other things. Nice people. The girl was from Fargo :) but I can't remember her name.

Sorry, no pictures today. Battery problems and no blog tomorrow because the I-Cafe is closed. More on Monday after pre-court, though. Wish us luck!

Paka-paka!
- posted by Jaime's Mommy @ 3:45 AM