Roo at the Zoo

My friend Becky had the brilliant idea to take the kids to the zoo on Friday. I was all over this idea because (1) I'm all over any idea that gets us out of the house and (2) I love zoos. I get just as excited about going to the zoo now as I did when I was a kid. I get the biggest kick out of watching the animals. We took the kids to the Akron Zoo. My dad informs me that I've been there before, sometime way back in my youth, but I have no recollection of it. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I thought it was very nice. It wasn't the Cleveland Zoo but what do you expect from a city whose claim to fame is tires and sauerkraut balls. 

Riley loved the zoo. I was afraid the day was going to be a wash when Riley spent most of lunch either throwing herself on the floor or standing in time-out, but her mood greatly improved when we started walking around looking at animals. The sun bears provided a lot of entertainment. The male was pacing back and forth in his enclosure, and Riley thought he was chasing her from window to window. Meanwhile, the female bear was laying stretched out on her back in her artificial cave with one enormous paw thrown dramatically across her eyes. Becky and I speculated about her thoughts, probably something along the lines of, "Will you stop pacing and get a real job?" 

The zoo had several play areas for the kids so they were able to run off some additional energy. They seemed to prefer the monster truck and pirate ship play sets that are identical to the ones we have three blocks away at the local park except these didn't have nasty comments about high school girls written on them. The highlight of Riley's day was riding the train. She is completely fascinated with trains so the chance to ride one - even if it was only two times around a tiny loop on the slow-poke express- was a big thrill. 

Here's Riley and Ethan checking out a gibbon.

Dang, these guys are cute.

Miss Maddie is just along for the ride.

I asked Riley to pose for a photo with the tulips. I'm not sure how she came up with this interpretation but it's not exactly what I had in mind. Has she been been reading fashion magazines without my knowledge?

Hang on to you hats kids. It's a wild ride. . . Ok maybe not. 

The Crazy Lady at the Library

Riley and I were at the library yesterday making more copies of paperwork for Colin's adoption. I was letting Riley put the money in the machine and press the buttons when one of the librarians came over and asked if I needed any help. She had an odd expression on her face, and I thought, "What's up with that? Do I look like I don't know how to operate a copy machine?" She proceeded to walk around half wall we were standing behind and approach the copier. Now I'm feeling really insulted because it seems she doesn't believe me. She then looked down at Riley and started laughing. She explained that she didn't see that I had a little person with me, and she thought I was talking to myself. No wonder she thought I was crazy. I was saying things like, "Now let's put a quarter in. Good! Here's another quarter. Let's put a dime in. These little ones are dimes. They're worth ten pennies. Let's make a copy. Woohooo, here comes the paper."

The Watch Game

Riley has a new favorite game thanks to her Uncle Mike. She calls it, "hide da watch." She learned this game recently at my folks' house when we were celebrating my niece Maria's second birthday. Mike plays this game with Maria. He hides an object, usually his watch, and lets her search for it. Here's a video of Riley and Maria playing the game. They're looking for a treat that Memaw (my mom) got them.

The Adventures of Riley and Lil' Worm

Easter was a very quiet affair at our house this year, having just returned the day before from Russia. I did want to post a couple pictures of Riley's egg decorating. We sponge painted a couple of eggs before Jeff and I left. Riley was so proud of her work she actually ate one of the eggs. 
The other day Riley spotted a pint size shovel while we were grocery shopping. She loves digging in the dirt with her trowel and I'm happy to have the "help" while I'm pulling weeds so when she said, "Mommy, may I have da shuble please?" I splurged and spend a whole $2.50. That afternoon, she was very eager to try her new tool. I offered to show her how it was done but she insisted, "I do it mine own myself." She soon discovered a worm in the dirt and declared it was yucky. Now if you know me well, you know I take great pride in having no fear of little creepy crawly things. I once squashed a cockroach with my bare hand in front of a guy who mistakenly thought I needed to be protected from it just to prove a point. I can't have any daughter of mine afraid of a worm, so I picked him up and told her how cute he was and that he tickled my hand. Well that was it, she wanted that worm. I placed him in her hand and she giggled. She then took the worm on a tour of the yard before settling down on a rock. I heard her talking and asked what she had said. "I not talking to you. I talking to Lil' Worm," was her reply. She told the worm she loved him and then gave him a kiss. That's my girl. When it was time to go in, the trouble started. 

I had explained to Riley that worms live in the dirt and that they are very happy there. Despite this, she kept insisting that Lil' Worm wanted to come live in the house with her. I said he would be sad in the house but we could make a nice blanket out of leaves to keep him warm while he crawled back into the dirt. She gave in but sobbed as she covered him with leaves. She continued to sob for another ten minutes after we came back in the house. Only a promise to look for him later calmed her down. 

Wednesday we were out in the yard again. The first thing Riley wanted to do was look for Lil' Worm. We soon dug one up. I think Riley assumed this was the same one. Unfortunately this worm was not a hearty as the last one. After a few trips down the slide with Riley, she came to tell me, "Lil' Worm not wiggling any more. I think he sleeping." I agreed that he was (may he rest in peace) and we put him back in the dirt for a little nap. 

Update

I'm finally getting around to posting about the end of our trip. In my last post, I mentioned that we would get to see Colin again the following day. Jeff was able to go see him, but I spent the day sick in out hotel room. I had been feeling a little crummy on Wednesday evening and then was awake all night with an upset stomach. By morning I knew I wasn't going to be able to make the two hour ride out to our son's baby home. Jeff went by himself while I tried to get some sleep and recover. When Jeff returned, he reported that Colin was still covered in chicken pox. He was not feeling well and just wanted Jeff to walk around the room holding him. I was so disappointed that I was not able to go that day. 

I was feeling better by the afternoon thanks to some medicine another adoptive mom sent with Jeff when she heard I wasn't feeling well (God bless Emily!) Jeff and I had dinner that night with Emily and her sister and another adoptive family, Michael and Carrie. These were the first Americans we had run into on our trip. This is quite a change from two years ago when there were so many more Americans adopting from Russia. It was such a blessing to have the opportunity to hang out with these guys. There is a special kind of fellowship among adoptive parents. 

We left the following day for home. Actually, it is probably more accurate to say we left that night. We had an early flight out of Moscow so we had to leave the hotel at 2:00AM. I didn't sleep again that night. There wasn't much point when we had to get up at 1:00AM. I didn't feel the greatest again when we left for the airport and deteriorated from there. Our flight to Frankfurt was uneventful. When we arrived in Frankfurt, we discovered our plane was delayed so our three hour layover turned into a five hour layover. That's when I went from feeling crummy to outright sick. I actually had a conversation (silently) with myself that went something like this: "Come on, just throw up. You'll feel better. - Oh no! I hate throwing up. - But you're already in the restroom. Better in here than out there in front of hundreds of people. - There's people in here too. Besides, who wants to throw up in a public toilet? That's just sick. - You are sick. - That's beside the point. - Hey, I think the restroom just cleared out now's your chance. - Oh alright. Here I go. One, two . . . nope, not gonna do it." Did I mention I was running a fever too. I managed to make it home without embarrassing myself in front of hundreds of other travels who probably would have just assumed that since we were in Germany, I had just had a few too many of the local beers. 

Because of the delay in Frankfurt, we missed our flight from D.C. to Cleveland but were fortunate enough to get another flight three hours later. There were many others on our transatlantic flight who could not get connecting flights until the following day. In all, it took us about 29 hours to get home. I slept perhaps an hour or  two in a 60 hour period. I think that and the irregular meals contributed to my getting sick. Right now, we are anxiously awaiting our court date so we can return for trip two. Please pray that all our paperwork would be in place and that the judge would find everything acceptable. We have discovered that they are extremely particular about every piece of paperwork being perfect. Our agency even had us redo some paperwork because it had an extra staple hole in it. We're hoping to get our little guy home soon.