I'm still here!!

I know everyone's been waiting for some pictures...so here they are....a look back at our 2nd trip. We are doing well. Everyone is adjusting beautifully including Emily. She has finally slept through the night the past 2 nights so I finally have enough energy to sit down and blog.. :-)




Here we are outside of court and our first meal together...room service in our hotel in St Pete before we caught the midnight train to Moscow.




Here we are on the overnight train to Moscow. Emily did very well and slept the whole night right next to me on the cot. Ignore how horrible I look the next morning but it's the best one I have of the interior of the train. There's also a view of the countryside outside of Moscow.




Here we are at Starbucks having breakfast. We wanted to go to a Russian pancake house but we messed up the times and it wasn't open so we went across to Starbucks instead. It was nice to have a latte..I really missed them!! Emily was so cute toddling all over the place. She befriended an italian couple who kept trying to get her to say "chow".




Here we are...our first dinner out in Moscow at the Hard Rock Cafe on Arbat Street. Emily did beautifully. We forgot how loud HRC can be with the music but she did great. Hubby and I love HRC and try to hit every Hard Rock we can.




The three of us in front of the infamous St Basil's Cathedral in Red square. Here we are right outside the Kremlin.



Emily did pretty well during our stay in Moscow. She attached herself firmly to me that first day in Moscow and would not let me out of her sight. I think that was primarily because I took over the caregiving role and probably also out of fear as she was no longer in her familiar environment. For bedtime and naptime I would have to rock her to sleep and lay her in her pack n play as we only had a studio and she would not go to sleep if she could see us in the room. She also was afraid of the bathroom esp the tub and did not like taking a bath. She has since got over that fear here at home and loves her baths now. But it was a problem for the first couple of days everytime I wanted to take a shower or use the bathroom. She also would get upset if she saw you wash your hands and we figured out this was probably because she associated washing your hands to eating next. The pictures above are of cutie pie Emily toddling around our apt in Moscow on the day we were leaving for the airport. Check out her dress...it has little matryroshka dolls on it.




Emily did amazing on the long trek home. We flew out of Moscow in the afternoon and took a 3 hour plane ride to Munich, Germany. She sat on our laps and played the whole flight. We had a 2.5 hour layover in Munich and she walked all over the lounge we were hanging out in befriending two french ladies on a girls' trip to CA and another CA family on their way home from India. On our last flight...11.5 hours she fell asleep on the take off in my sling and I was able to later take her out and lay her across me. She slept the first 4.5 hours and then was up 4 hours eating and playing in my chair with me or on the floor in front of us and then slept next to me the last 3 hours. We were so impressed with how she handled that very long day. On our last leg 6.5 hours in...I was so ready to fall asleep and was having such a hard time staying awake. Hubby kept dozing off and I was so worried I would fall asleep while she was awake and playing so I asked her to climb up with me and I reclined the chair out and she played happily next to me while I had my arm around her waist while I tried so hard to keep my eyes open. What an easy baby she was!! We flew business class with her and really appreciated the extra room and reclining seats. Customs and immigration was a breeze. My dad picked us up from the airport. She sat in her carseat and I sat next to her. She fell asleep in the hour car ride and woke up to a small home gathering. The boys had made her a sign but they were asleep...it was 10:30pm. My sister had come over to help put the boys to bed while my dad came to pick us up. They had a few gifts for Emily and she had was quite a happy girl checking out her new home and opening gifts.