Baby's got a new pair of shoes!

Noelle was very intrigued by the look of her new shoes today (they are very cute, with pink flowers and butterflys), but she definitely did not like the feel of them! She would not stand in them, let alone take some steps. She was a bundle of energy today, and was actually walking (with assistance, of course) around the room all afternoon. She got a little cocky towards the end: she leaned back on my legs, then waved away my hands-- but it took her a second to realize that she hadn't really thought this plan out, 'cause now she wouldn't let me touch her but she really couldn't do it herself yet! Mom, look in the background of the photo-- that's her bottle of formula. I tried it for the first time today, and again, she was not impressed. We will keep working on it, though. My visits are now in the afternoon, from 4pm to 6pm, so the kids are getting tired by the time we are leaving-- Noelle took a little rest during our visit, but in the end there was too much going on for her to keep her head down for too long. I also took the opportunity today to show some pictures of my family and home to Noelle's caretakers-- they are all very nice and very interested in where she will spend the rest of her life. Our "conversations" are pretty funny-- each of us can usually muster one word in Russian, one word in English and there is a lot of pantomime to fill in the rest!