She is ready for her close-up, Mr. DeMille!

Saturday was a busy day at the babyhouse. When we arrived, I gave Noelle a her breakfast—a yummy (not) combination of some kind of rice cereal, chopped up boiled egg and pieces of soggy bread all mixed together in a bowl. The bowl is huge, by the way—you would never believe that the little bitty thing in front of you could eat it all, but Noelle just wolfs it down, and woe to the mommy who is a little too slow with the spoon. They are also given a coffee mug to drink from, and at breakfast there is Chai tea in that cup. Once we got back to the playroom, it was announced that all of the kids would have their photos taken for their passports. They also took a “new family” shot, that I believe becomes part of our file for court. After that, it was just more play, play, play. Noelle is one of the more mobile kids in the room, so we often end up visiting other families’ play areas—usually because Noelle has spotted something that she wants to play with. Often it is a toy, but she is just as content (maybe more) with the things that she’s not supposed to play with like paper from my notebook or markers or the tag on the blanket we play on. At least Noelle is all smiles even when she is being told “nyet” (for now!)

Saturday afternoon was a lot more sedate. Noelle is a little sick, I think with something like bronchitis, and all she wanted to do was cuddle. That was fine with me ‘cause I was dragging by that point! The adoptive parents also get to feed the kids a snack in the afternoon—this consists of a coffee mug with orange juice and a second mug with some kind of broth or hot milk with crackers or bread broken up into it. Most of the kids are winding down by this point in the day, and the room is like a sauna, so there is a lot of just rocking or walking around the room with the kids. Every time I put Noelle down on the floor to play and gave her a toy, she would drop it to her right side and crawl right back into my lap. I could get used to this.