Adventures in town and Court tomorrow!

I am not a very adventurous person. I'm just not. I like familiarity and routine.
Ukraine is waaay out of my routine!
I've been having a blast though. It helps that I have my brave husband with me! Lol! On Saturday we went on an adventure. After visiting Charlie, we took the bus all the way down to the middle of town, to Sovetskaya - the shopping street. No cars are allowed on this street and it is lined with shops. In the middle is a park, and if you keep walking down you will get to the river. We walked down to the river before and did a little shopping. We found Cat in the Hat in Russian! This time, Ken wanted to eat at a restaurant. For him, that's no big deal, because he will eat whatever the waitress brings him! But for me - yikes. My Russian is not good enough to say, "I don't like pepperstomatoessaladsourcreamonionsredsauceketchup and not too many spices, please." But, we went anyway. We had a hard time actually getting INTO the restaurant (there were 4 different doors!) and the hostess already thought we were nuts. When we got the menus, I didn't recognize anything except a page of salads - which I don't like! I probably would have found something, but the waitress came and I couldn't explain to her that I needed more time. She spoke enough English to ask us "Meat? Fish? Salad?" We said meat, and she pointed to something that sounded like steak kabob. So we went with that, even though I don't like 98% of kabobs. Turns out it was NOT a kabob! It was some sort of steak (we assume) coated in onions and something green, and wrapped in a thin tortilla. I ate most of it, and it was pretty good! On the way home we bought a bunch of pastries from 2 stands. At one of them, Ken bought something that he thought was a sweet pastry, but it actually had meat inside! We also got some delicious apple pastries. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday, all in all. (There you go, Mom ;) )

Charlie has been very tired the last two days! Sunday was daylight savings time over here, and I think Charlie is tired from adjusting to the time change. We take time out from playing to relax, but Charlie doesn't relax well. He's interested in every little thing that he can see or hear! Just like another little boy I know! (Brennan!) I hope he sleeps on the plane. I can see this going poorly, lol!
We brought a few toys with us from home for Charlie. His favorites were the touch-and-feel book, a ball, and a plastic book that talks. He loves slamming the pages of the plastic book; it makes such a satisfying noise! A few days ago we had the book lying next to us on the bench, and Charlie discovered that if he kicked it, it made noise! He thought it was hysterical. He's very interested in his feet, and we encourage him using them. You can tell they haven't gotten much use. His legs are mostly limp noodles, although his toys wiggle when he's excited! The ball has been a lot of fun because Charlie is fascinated by the fact that when he drops something, Mama picks it up! We cheer for him when he throws it down to the ground, and he likes that too. It's hard to play with the ball in the hallway, where there's always people walking by, so we took our measuring tape and made a loop through the ball. Now we just sit on the bench and pull the ball back to us! Some may call that lazy, I call it ingenious. :)

Tomorrow we have court. It is scheduled for 2pm, but they always run late. Today we signed some paperwork in preparation for leaving (since Ken won't be coming back with me), and tomorrow our translator will go through everything with us and tell us what to expect in court. Our facilitator asked the judge today if everything was prepared for tomorrow for a smooth process, and the judge replied, "If I don't die!" So we should have a smooth day! After that, we will say goodbye to Charlie, then hop on a train to Kiev! Our flight leaves around noon. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed then wake up and see my little boy. :)