Terrible Two's - Moscow Trip 2, Day 8

Day 8? Is that all? It feels like we've been here forever, yet not long at all if that makes any sense! We are having a great time!

Today started out with a trip to the orphanage. We left around 8:30 and got there pretty quickly - about 9:45. The Peanut was outside with his group again so we waited for the head director's permission to go outside. He saw us walked over and slowly got off the little carousel to come greet us. He didn't seem hesitant until he got close and then began the waterworks. Thankfully, he only shed about 3 real tears and then he fake cried for the next 5 minutes.

Keith had him giggling in no time. Aunt Mandy opened the bubbles, we all slid down the slide, we played on the swing and Keith even got him to sit down and read a book - "Go, Dog Go!". It was a hit especially since he was eating his animal crackers. :-) We brought a sippy cup with us this time and I ended up having to take the valve out (which I expected) because he wasn't sure how to get the water out. We'll work on that a little bit more once he's with us.

We took some great pictures. The little guy was decked out in blue and pink striped socks with sandals, teal and yellow shorts, a panda bear t-shirt and his red train conductor's hat. :-) What a stud! I thought it was surprising that he was allowed out in shorts. It was a nice day, but just Tuesday he was in 3 layers. No sense to be had...

So, then we hit our first real good look at the Terrible Two's. I have a feeling the Terrible Two's will be quickly converted into the Terrible Three's once he turns 3 in August. Boy oh boy. Alex was opening a new bottle of bubbles and the Peanut was getting very, very irked. He started with his pout face and then took the bubble wand and threw it. After that, he threw himself onto the ground - right in the biggest dirt patch available. He rolled and wound up face down in the dirt.

We chose to ignore him for as long as possible. The caregivers were none to happy with our tactics. The head director yelled at him to get up off the ground because it is cold and he will get sick. Nope. Or should I say "Nyet!" - the word I heard for the next 30 minutes? We pretended to leave, we had fun amongst ourselves... nothing. The kid was still laying face down in the dirt. I finally picked him up and tried a "time in" kind of thing and oh yeah.... that didn't work. I finally carried him over to his caregiver with our translator to ask them what they do when he acts like this. So what happened??

The caregiver took him from me and coddled him and soothed him and told him it was okay. I told her I thought he might need his diaper changed so she asked him if he pooped and he said yes. I asked if we could take him inside to change him and she said that she would just keep him. So, here we have a child throwing a temper trantrum in a poopy diaper and I can do nothing about it. Helpless is the only word to describe it.

On one hand, I felt like I had "given up" by going over to the caregiver. One another, I felt like my hands were tied behind my back because there was only so much I could do under their watchful eyes. The third and most dreadful feeling was when we walked away to go inside and he started balling and yelling for mama and papa. This time it wasn't a good feeling. I just kept thinking "My boy needs his freaking diaper changed and he needs to be comforted and what are we doing?!?! We're leaving him. What kind of parents do that??" Well, the kind the don't get custody for another week! I had a teary eyed kind of moment and then got over it. It is what it is, right??

So, we went inside and talked to the psychologist for a little bit. If you remember, she grilled us on the first day we met the Peanut and now we love her. She gave me a big hug and kiss on the cheek and told us how happy she was for us. She answered a lot of our questions and told us that the Peanut might be mimicking a very sick boy in his group. This little boy had just been in the mental hospital for a few weeks and was never going to be able to get better. He, apparently, throws himself on the ground when he doesn't get his way and the caregivers immediately go pick him up. Hmmmmm.... sounds familiar. She also lectured us about the terrible 2's and 3's and how this is a really rough time for the peanut too.

Enough about that... onto some fun stuff! We had dinner at Ron and Dinia's tonight and got to meet Ondrea, Brian and Meg! I felt like I already knew Ondrea from emails, blogging and instant message. She's just as sweet in person as I imagined she would be. Little Meg is cute as a button too. She was overwhelmed with all of us (who wouldn't be!) so she was quiet but just oh, so cute!

Tomorrow we're heading to Sergey Possad (I hope I spelled that right - I'm too tired to go look!) - about an hour and a 1/2 outside of Moscow with Ron and Dinia. We're very excited to be escaping the scenery and heading to the country so we can see a different side of Russia. I love cities - absolutely love them - but I love the country as well so it should be fun! We're going to have a real homemade Russian feast, tour a monastery and the monastery caves and go see the waterfalls!

On Saturday, Mandy and Alex go home. We're going to miss them but are so glad they were able to come and experience this with us. I'm sure it's made a lasting impression on them and they've been such good sports through the temper tantrums, traffic and running around.

Well, it's 12:11 - guess I should go to bed, huh? I hope you enjoy the teaser of the boy in the dirt. Pretty soon you can see pics of his frown face and happy face. :-)

Paka! Dobre Dien!

Becky