Saturday, May 20, 2006

It is a very cold blustery day here. The locals are back in their fur hats and heavy jackets. We just have to endure being a bit chilly, as we have neither a fur hat nor a heavy jacket. This morning we had some photos developed for the baby house. Dr. Rimma wanted to use some prints from our trip two years ago to decorate for Children’s Day on the 1st of June. Then we went on a search for the elusive doughnut. No luck today. The children had to make do with crackers and a juice box. Of course, a juice box is amazing enough for them. We had Valentina explain to them that they will be going to court with us. They tried on the clothes we brought for them to wear for the occasion. Everything fit well enough, if not perfectly. They gasped in awe when the dresses came out of the bag. Rinat looked a bit panicked when I held up one of the dresses to him! He was glad to see a polo shirt was in the bottom of the bag. Uno was the game of choice for the first half of our visit and then we moved on to Yahtzee. It is not the easiest of games to try to explain in a foreign language! We took our snack break and then finished the day with a few rounds of Hearts. Mama and Sholpan ruled the game today. Zarina and Sholpan are developing coughs. We are hoping they do not get really sick. Valentina told them to go visit the doctor, but they insisted they are fine. The truth came out when they admitted that they can’t stand the cough medicine that they know they will get if they visit the doctor! I guess some things are universal.