Back in Moscow - End of Day 4

Gavin slept for almost 10 straight hours last night...going to bed at 8pm, waking up at 6am. We did our normal breakfast routine around 7, then went straight to the playroom for an hour. Today was a beautiful day in Moscow. The sun was shining for the first time this week, it felt like it was in the upper 60's or so. Gavin was in a great mood all day. After the playroom we gave him a bath, and he splashed and played this time. After that, we decided we were going to get outside. We were going to just go to the bookstore and back, but when we realized how nice it was we thought we better take advantage. So, we walked down to where the Red Square, The Kremlin & St Basil's cathedral is. We took some pictures with Gavin in front of various tourist things then decided to go shopping at GUM. GUM is a huge indoor mall near the Red Square that has high-end European stores. Mid way through Gavin had fallen asleep in the stroller for about an hour. Most of the stores were way out of our price range, but we window shopped and found a gift shop to get some souvenir's and we bought a little pink dress for Gavin's sister...and out of desperation for quick food we ate at Sbarro's pizza. We went back to the hotel to meet the driver to go to the US Embassy. We got picked up and hit some heavy traffic, and then we realized we had forgotten the money in the safe in the room. The driver doesn't speak English but we were able to communicate using 'no' and rubbing our fingers together for $$$. He was NOT happy...and we were upset with ourselves. We had plenty of Rubles to cover the cost, but the Embassy needed dollars. Because of the one way streets and heavy traffic it took us 20 minutes to get back to the hotel, even though we had been gone for less than 5 minutes. We ended up only being 10 minutes late and it didn't matter anyway because the Embassy is not busy with adoptions theses days because of the Russian requirement of all the adoption agencies to become re-accredited. The Embassy was uneventful. Basically we went through some security checks, had a 5 minute interview, gave Gavin a US Visa stamped on his Russian passport. They also gave us packet of immigration papers that is to remain sealed until we land in Atlanta. In Atlanta we will have to go through a secondary immigration line to have those papers processed for his citizenship. But, he explained that when the plane lands in Atlanta, Gavin will become a US citizen at that point. We came back and walked immediately to the bookstore to shop. Shannon had been craving a Mcflurry so we walked to dinner at McDonald's. It was very large, had a big screen tv, a McCafe (like a Starbucks) and was packed with people. They didn't speak English but we managed to fumble through the order. We got Gavin a Maloko (Milk). Shannon had him drinking through a straw in seconds. I'm told by Shannon this is no small feat for children his age. We're pretty sure now that he is the smartest boy in Russia, if not the world. He is also imitating the sign for milk. We just got done feeding and playing with him, and just put him down at 7pm. We had a blast playing, cause he is imitating a lot of things and to quote my mom, he is at such a cute stage right now. Awesome, Shannon just walked back in the room and handed me a glass of champagne from the lobby...this place is great. A good way to end the night.


Debbie-my diaper bag is from http://www.zagbag.com/ -my friends Heather and Brooke sell them for a local company in Missouri. Each back is custom made from fabrics you pick out. Get Aunt Janet in the business and she'll make a fortune!

A video for the day, shortly after feeding him dinner: