September 20, 2006
Finally! We made it to the Classic Café
Today was kind of a short day with the girls. Our coordinator made the trip to Tschuchinsk with us today, and we spent quite a bit of time preparing for our court date. It’s still a couple of weeks away, but apparently there was some paperwork and such that had to be submitted just to get the appointment confirmed. As part of that process we had to submit at least 10 pictures of my new family (me and the girls) as well as pictures of our whole family and our home. As the coordinator was looking through the pictures, she was the second person to comment on how cute Mimi is and how nice she looks. Of course, my standard response is “yep – she’s adorable!” I like to say that Mom is my proof that in 20 years I’m STILL going to be cute!
I’ve decided that Maggie-Vera is without a doubt the most stubborn child I’ve ever met. At some point that’s going to be a good quality, but right now I’m not so sure! She’d rather do without juice than have to say please. And, of course, if ZhaZha Dae Dae is there she doesn’t have to! The thing that I find so odd though is that she’s such a sweet, well-behaved little girl for her caregivers. I love to watch her with her class! She’s such a good helper and is so sweet to the other children. I guess she’s just trying to figure out how much she can get away with when it comes to Mommy. Guess what kiddo? Mimi says you’re going up against the champion of stubbornness. Bring it on!!
The girls had their first typical sister fight today. I had kind of thought they’d be on their best behavior at least until we’d been home for a couple of weeks, but, no… my children got comfortable with each other quickly. Oh goody! They were both coloring in the coloring book and Ryn was ready to turn the page sooner than Maggie was. Everything was fine, then suddenly one was shoving and the other was swatting, and the next thing you know I was saying “nyet, nyet” and taking the crayons away. (Ah, Cathy – doesn’t that bring back memories?) I’m trying to convince myself that it’s a good sign that they trust me enough to show me their natural sister selves this early in our relationship, but I was hoping we’d have at least a little more of a honeymoon period before the normal stuff started.
Even though we didn’t get to spend that much time with the girls today, we still had a pretty awesome day. Fourth time is charm! We finally made it to the Classic Café today, and it’s our new favorite place. The food was amazing, and they treated us like royalty. It’s a beautiful place, and we can definitely understand why so many people would want to have their wedding parties there. I think Dave’s decided he could eat there every day – well, of course other than Saturday since we have NO luck getting in then.
After lunch Dave decided he had to have chocolate cake, so we made our way back to this great little dessert shoppe across from the Tsum. I think he got one of anything that looked like it might be chocolate cake. Oh yeah – any illusions I might have had about dieting while we were here are completely shot. The food is wonderful, and I keep telling myself that it’s important that I truly experience Kazakhstan. Yep – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
