Good Monday Morning

These pictures were taking at the park on Tuesday the 16th. I won't be posting any photos of MLM as he isn't my son, and it would be inappropriate to do so. We'll have to wait until he is really my son for those to be posted. When I arrived at the baby house today, I went into MLM's area to collect him. From the hallway you enter an L shaped area with a table for staff and a fridge and cupboards for the children's clothing. A door in this room leads into the play/eating room. The play/eating room is a lovely room with large ceiling to waist height windows on both the east side and the west side. When I opened the door the children in the room, all between 1 and 1/2 and 3 years of age saw me and started saying 'MLM's momma' and they looked around for MLM. He wasn't in the room, he was still in the sleeping room which is further inside. One little girl went running into the room saying "MLM, your mamma, your mamma." She took MLM and more or less dragged him into the play room. Ah, the smile he gave me when he saw me. The little girl didn't let go of his hand. She was pulling him and he was anxious to get to me so he began to pull away from her and towards me. In the process the two of them almost went through another child (oops). As soon as he was free of the little girl (thanks to one of the nurses), he came running and put his arms up to get a hug. I don't think there is a better feeling in the world than a pair of little arms wrapped around your neck in welcome. MLM and I went out into the hallway for our bonding time. He drank his milk - okay, MLM has discovered when using a sippy cup that if you suck really hard and then open your mouth the cup makes a neat noise. He REALLY likes that and laughs and laughs. He is learning a lot incredibly quickly. I bring his snacks in snack size ziplock bags. Already he knows where in my knapsack to find the ziplock bag. He also knows how to open the bag. Now, he doesn't quite have the strength in his little fingers to break the seal, but he tries with each bag. With his milk I give him a Farley cookie, 1/2 a banana and 1/4 of an apple. (Not long after I leave he has his lunch, so I don't want to totally over feed him as I do want him to eat his lunch too). When I first gave him the sippy cup on Thursday last week, he didn't know how to suck. I'd played with the cup to see how to make the liquid come out. It drips if you turn it upside down, and the liquid will flow if you put pressure on the cup. So on Thursday, I would put pressure on the cup, and then relax it. It took MLM maybe 40 minutes to drink the 1/2 cup of milk. Today, sucking on his own, it only took him  less than 10 minutes. Of course, we did have to have many breaks to both make the cup make that funny noise and to make the 'AHHHHH" sound that I taught him. You cannot drink a nice cup of milk without saying 'ahhhh'. When our visit time was over, oh my poor little man began to cry and cry. He tried to stop me from going into his L shaped hallway. I had to take off his shoes and his jacket (it is much cooler in hallway where we visit than in the baby room) he struggled to keep that jacket on with all his might. After I took off his jacket, I picked him up to say goodbye. MLM put his hands on my cheeks and looked at me, I told him it was time to go back to his room, and I said "Paka, paka" (goodbye), he threw his arms around my neck and cried. My translator and I kept telling him that I would see him tomorrow. Then we took him into his play room, It breaks my heart to see him cry like that.  After I returned to my apartment, I went out to purchase groceries. I've been going to a little supermarket just across the street and down from my apartment. It is so neat when the staff see me and say 'hello'. They already know that I speak English, they also know that I bring my black "President Choice" cloth shopping bags to carry home my purchases (it is hard to leave that Toronto life style behind) I bought a jar of stewed tomatoes to use with my tomato paste, and some sour cream. I'd bought some Mantee (a Kazakh meat dumpling) which L said tastes great with a little sour cream (boy was she right, I had a delightful lunch) I also bought the green apple juice on Diane's recommendation, and I also bought a mayonnaise that looked flavourable. It is a delicious dill flavoured mayo. Hmm, now to find some nice fish  (Ya, I heard that yuck from here Diane ) Well, the sun is beginning to go down on another day. Tomorrow L and A go to court. I hope everything goes well for them.