Dogs

Today was really just a beautiful day in Vladivostok! The sun was shining, lots of people out and about. We walked to the beach this morning after saying goodbye to Amy, Randy (Amy’s dad) and Walker. Amy is a second grade teacher in North Carolina. She is also a foster parent of a little boy back home, that we enjoyed hearing so much about.  She in now the parent of Walker, a 20 month old. They are now headed to Moscow to finish paperwork and then finally head home next Saturday. The people I have met and connected with on this trip have been amazing and I am grateful for that.

We walked down to the beach, parked the stroller and walked. We had a pretty long walk for a little pair of short skinny legs, but of course she was an active participant. We came back, had lunch, played for a bit at the hotel and walked again. This time to the beach and the store. Victoria certainly has no fear of dogs at all! This is good, as I have two. I was a bit worried about the dog thing. Now I am just worried about her approaching a dog that I know nothing about. At the beach, a girl was throwing a stick to her dog and of course joining in was Victoria, chasing the dog. The dog was lucky enough to just miss her grasp each time she reached for it….Ugh!! Sounds cute, but for the rest of the walk, I made sure when we were approaching a dog she was holding my hand or I was holding her. I guess I did not expect her to go after them. Lots of people bring dogs to the beach here, which is great! Honestly though, no leashes and such. They all seem pretty well behaved, but that is observing them without the threat of a 3 year old yanking on a tail. Trust me, she has no fear and really goes after them. I just felt I did not want her to develop any sort of fear, if possibly one (dog) decided they did not like the attention she wanted to give, before she even got home to meet Lucky and Charm. Oh yes, and meeting all the other dogs in the family!

We had 10 or 15 minutes of thunder and lightening tonight. No rain as of yet though. Victoria was already asleep when this happened. She sleeps very well. I cut out the nap altogether and she seems to be doing just fine without one. She goes to bed around 8:30 or 9:00 and gets up at 8:00 or so. She usually wants to have a big drink of milk or water in the morning and then has been crawling in bed with me cuddling. =)

I pray all goes well tomorrow (Monday here) at the US Embassy with my paperwork. I am really eager to get home and don’t want anything to hold that up. I miss Dylan, my dogs, my bed and just want to get Victoria home too! Oh and by the way, I call her Tori when I speak to her, just Victoria when writing here….I suppose I can change that….

She loves having a bath!

Oooops! Right on the "living room" floor.

Hotel playground, yesterday...

Happy Girl!

I really have been blessed with a very happy girl! She just seems to have a good time no matter what! That works for me. She gets up in the morning and is ready to go. Today we could not get out of here fast enough to suit her. She got up, got dressed and was ready. She let us know by getting her jacket, hat, pale, and shovel. I guess we were heading to the beach again. We had a nice walk on the beach and collected treasures. She accidentally backed up into the water, but that was Ok with her, just her shoes were wet. Of course we made a visit to the little market to get some juice boxes. She has mastered a straw. The first night at dinner she did not know how to use one, now she wants a straw in everything she drinks.


















We played in the hotel room for most of the afternoon, while working on changing our flights. Yes, we succeeded! Then out for another walk. Again, when she figured out what we were doing, we could not go fast enough. She got her stuff on and even got Babushka's sweater for her. We headed out the front of the hotel and it was raining. Oh well! I was not staying inside anymore and neither was Victoria. We headed to the playground and she tried all the playground things she tried yesterday. After a little play at the playground, we walked. It sprinkled pretty much the whole time and no body was bothered by it…well at least it did not bother Victoria and me. =)

We were scheduled to come home next Saturday, the 9th. All paperwork will be back in Vladivostok on the morning of the 6th, Wednesday! We changed our flight to Wednesday evening. We are ready to go home. I have been away for too long to suit me that is for sure! We leave here at 5:30 in the evening on Wednesday and arrive at LAX at three in the afternoon on Wednesday….talk about our internal clocks being messed up!









I have had Victoria with me since Tuesday and so far things have been just great! My niece wrote me today and asked about the “3 Day Meltdown” I wrote about on an earlier blog……nothing’, knock on wood. I really should not be knocking on wood, she is really just an amazing little girl with such an easy going personality. She talks and sings all day long. It is so sweet to hear her just sing away! I continue to get hugs and kisses all day too! I am so blessed to have her as a daughter!!!!







































Good thing we have lots more bubbles at home that Grandpa and Grandma Jones gave Victoria at Easter, she even slept with the bubble bottle last night!

New words for today:car, dog, cat, flower, ball, duck, yes, hello...she counts a lot, in Russian....
This morning she also said, “Brush your teeth!” Sometimes it sounds like she is repeating phrases that she hears. I am sure she is doing that some, but this phrase came out very clearly. She does loves to brush her teeth and can’t get undressed for a bath soon enough. She just starts tearing off her clothes and plays for a very long time in the water. I am amazed by how much she understands and I suppose how much I understand...haha! =)

Apparently, someone has taught her to bring reading material to the restroom with her.

Another Farewell....

Today we had no set plans except to go on a few walks, which we did. This morning we walked to the water. Victoria played with a pail and shovel in the sand and really enjoyed this. She also had a good time chasing a bird and watching a few dogs pass. I have yet to come across anything she is afraid of. Always curious, but never afraid.


While we were down at the water there was a large group of kids walking around, taking pictures, playing on the broken rides, and just enjoying themselves. They noticed that we spoke English and finally came over to us, asked if they could talk to us and ask questions. It was really sweet. They did speak English, somewhat broken, but we all managed. We learned they were there for some sort of camp that lasted 21 days. They have already been here 10 days, but have just now started to enjoy the beach because the sun has come out. Actually, it was a beautiful day here today. It seemed they ranged from the ages of 11 to 14. We told them we are from California and they mentioned (the girls of course) that they hope to meet Brad Pitt someday…..haha! They asked several questions and we asked questions of them too. Finally, they said that they had a special present for us, they gathered together and sang to us! It was awesome! I really loved it! They reconvened again then gave us some Russian chocolate, a coin and a shell from the beach. What a great group of kids!




















We came back to the hotel to find that Ryan and Sandy finally received word that their paperwork was back from Moscow. They made flight reservations and got a plane going out tonight. We will miss them and Bodi very much. Another great family. Bodi is such a cute little guy. Both parents and Bodi are blessed to now be a family. Ryan and Sandy are both involved with the Air Force and just a really fun couple with interesting experiences under their belts. Now, we are down to three families here and no sign of any new ones on the horizon!

So here is how this goes, when a family leaves they start passing out all of their food. That happened when the Overstreet’s left and again with the True’s today. Justin even left a pretty nice knife! Both of those families acquired stuff when others have left. Today one of the items acquired was a can of kipper snacks (canned fish in an oval tin, like sardines). Mom opened them, started eating them and of course, who did not want to be left out of any sort of eating that was going on….yes, Victoria! She enjoyed them and kept going back for more. Honestly, she has not shown any dislike to a food yet! Funny, her caregiver at the orphanage was sure to tell me she was a picky eater! I have to admit, in her defense, she has slowed down a bit.


After snacking on canned fish (no, not me), we headed to the playground here at the hotel. Just as soon as we got out there, I noticed I had forgotten my camera. I wanted to get it because we were heading back down to the water, knowing lots of people would be there because today is a holiday here. I swear I was only gone for maybe 4 minutes and when I returned my mom says to me that I most likely will not want to leave my daughter with babushka (grandma) again. She managed to fall face first while I was gone! Mom decided to teach her how to swing on her tummy and she toppled head first over the swing into the dirt (I told mom I was telling). I wanted to know of course how she reacted. I was told that she got up, looked at grandma, brushed herself off and moved on to something else….crazy little girl! That really goes along with her personality, she is pretty resilient. We played on the swings (with mommy!), she went down the different slides, talked to the other kids in Russian, and we moved on.




















We headed down to the water and had a nice walk. Like I had predicted, there were many people. It seems the warmest part of the day here is around 4 or 5 in the evening. Sun sets late, it is not dark yet and it is 9:05 pm. On our way back to the hotel, Irina drove up to tell us goodbye. We are not leaving yet, but she will be out of town for a bit on business. We are now in the care of Lana, though we don’t have much else to do here. We actually spent part of the afternoon looking into changing our flight. I will have the paperwork I need to bring Victoria back to the US by Wednesday and we are now scheduled to fly home on Saturday the 9th. We will know for sure tomorrow if we can change the flight, that will be nice! I am ready for home!!!