Chippin' Away at "The List"

OK, so I was sorely not prepared for our court date. I was really thinking I would have a good month to get everything bought for our little boy, have all the time in the world to peruse websites and talk to travel agencies about the cheapest, most convenient flight, and get our girls prepared to be without their mommy and daddy for three weeks. So much for thinking...

Our flights are booked--sort of. The international part is at least. We have the honor of flying to Frankfurt this time; I've heard it is a pretty nice airport. The domestic flight from Krasnoyarsk to Moscow got cancelled, so our travel agency had to find us an alternate flight. Now we're landing at Vnukovo Airport to do our 3 day stint in Moscow before heading home. Never hearing of the "V" airport, I had in my mind some back woods heavily ladened with smoke "rustic" airport, so I got online and checked it out. It is the 3rd largest airport in Russia, and although it is primarily a domestic airport, they have plans to make it a fancy, smazzy international airport in the future. So, I'm OK with it. Just adds to our adventure. We'll get the domestic flights booked on Monday. Our whole flight schedule is so much nicer this time around. We are missing out on the 9 hour layover in Moscow--aw shucks! We are missing out on having to transfer from Newark to JFK airport, and we have no overnight stays. Yeah!

Our visas should be here on Wednesday, February 2. I was not feeling like living on the edge this time around. I could have opted for the much cheaper 6-8 day processing time, but they would have been expected to be at our house the day before we leave. After our home study sat in Austin for 38 hours before FedEx got it to Wyoming, I was not exuding 100% confidence in Fed Ex, so I chose the 3-5 day processing which costs $150 more per visa. Is $300 worth the peace of mind? Maybe...maybe not. I've been so busy with other things I haven't been able to give it a thought.

Our home study update/addendum/orphanage visit run down (nobody was exactly sure what to call it) has been written. It should be notarized and in the mail to us Monday or Tuesday. I'll have to get it apostilled, and then we'll hand carry it with us to court.

We're trying to decide whether to go with the apartment or stay in Hotel Krasnoyarsk this time. I think we've pretty much decided on the apartment just so we'll have more room. Our hotel room was about the size of my kitchen. Doug's having a hard time thinking about doing without the Hotel Kras's breakfast every morning though. I can't believe he'd scoff at my microwavable oatmeal and instant coffee!

It's been a long time since we've had an infant in the house. How quickly you forget about all the little stuff that you need! And as I was walking through Babies R Us tonight, I am amazed at all the new fun stuff they've created since my girls were babies. I've got a slew of sippy cups ordered. Soft spots, hard spots, straws, with handles, without handles... The girls' old sippy cups need to be condemned, and since our little boy has not had the experience of a sippy cup, how do you know which one he'll like? They were working on him drinking out of a China tea cup when we were there--at 9 months old. It was even put on his medical like it was an important milestone. That about brings tears to my eyes thinking how the orphanages (out of sheer necessity I'm sure) try to make them as independent as possible as early as possible. We're going to be doing our darndest to "back up the clock" with him (back on the bottle if at all possible--I understand that it is great for attachment if it can be done--sippy cups--and of course, lots of eye contact play!!) I'm really hoping he'll dig the straw sippy cups as that will be the best for mouth/speech development, but any sippy cup will be better than a tea cup any day. Can you say MESS?

On schedule for Monday: book domestic part of the trip and get bloodwork taken in anticipation of our 8 doctor medical!