Another day closer
Today we once again went to play with Dasha. We arrived about 9:45am. Her play group was already outside and she was playing with one of her favorite toys, the hula-hoop. She wasn't as excited to see us as she had been. I think she is just expecting us to come now. That's o.k. too, because I expect us to go see her too! She did come directly to us to show off her hula-hooping skills again though. Today she "allowed" us to get a bit closer to the other kids, or maybe she "allowed" them to get close to us, I'm not sure. Either way, we were surrounded by other kids most of the time we were there.
After about an hour, Dasha started looking for cookies. I had been wearing cargo pants, and the cookies had always been in my leg pocket. Today I had on jeans, and she couldn't find the pocket where the cookies were supposed to be. She really had a puzzled look on her face, then started asking for "pachernya" again. The cookies actually were in the small backpack that we have been bringing. I told her "cookie" a few times and she got excited and started saying "cookie" over and over again instead of "pachernya". I broke down and gave her a cookie, at which time she told me the usual "dva", or two while holding up two fingers. I told her "nyet" and "odim" saying "no" and "one". She was disappointed, but her disappointment soon changed to smiles as she devoured the cookie.
After a bit, she started again asking for "pachernya" over and over again. Other kids were all around us, so I didn't want to get the cookies out if I didn't have enough or permission from the care takers. So, I tried to get her mind off the cookies and on to something else. She had no part of it and kept trying to get in the backpack. Didn't matter how many times I said "no" or "nyet", she would continue. I had to be the bad guy today for the first time. Boy she didn't like that. She went off in a huff and started to pout. She was fine with Kendra, but would have nothing to do with me for about 20 minutes. I ended the pouting with an M&M. I had to give in. We have limited time to visit her during this week, so "tough love" is going to have to wait I guess.
I did record some more small videos and took more photos today, but my internet time is very limited until I can recharge my account. I don't have the online time to post them yet, but I will as soon as I can.
At a bit after noon, her group was rounded up to go in to eat their lunch. We said our goodbyes and waited for our driver to pick us up. He was going to get some documents delivered and an oil change in his van. But, that was to change. Our translator called us and said that he had to go to the bank to pay for the court costs then deliver a receipt to the court secretary. We weren't sure how long this was going to take, but he showed up at about 3:45! Apparently the lines were long to get this done. He apologized for being so late, but explained the long waits. We then all 3 (Us and the driver) went to a little cafe for lunch. We had been to this one before here in Kharkiv. It's part of a supermarket called Target. No, not the same Target... I bought a pretty full lunch for the three of us for 63 UAH, or just over $12 US.
We then came back to the apartment and watched an hour or so of COPS that we had recorded digitally on the computer, and then watched "Gone in 60 Seconds". We brought about 35 movies, and have seen all of them at least once already. We wished we had recorded more of what we would normally watch instead of just movies. Thanks to the Mazzaferros, we have 5 DVDs of "Everybody Loves Raymond", which we have watched multiple times also.
I hope everyone had (or will have, I guess) a safe and fun Holiday today. No fireworks are going off here.