A really great day

Wed. 1st visit - There was a TV crew at the baby home. They filmed us playing with the girls; they were fascinated by the cameras, and Alyssa was a little wound up by all the confusion. The news crew asked Serguey if they could interview us and the Wells because of the situation that has arouse from the little girls murder in NC; we said 'no' as we were afraid they would edit the interview so that we looked bad.
We got to have lunch with our girls, they are so cute with the large spoons. Alyssa ate everything- soup, chicken and potatoes. Vicka ate most, but not all. Alyssa is much more affectionate this trip; she comes to me and motions for me to pick her up. I tried to teach her to say "up" when she does this, but she just gets upset and stomps her foot if I don't pick her up and then starts crying. She has changed so much from that little girl that would not let me hold her on the first trip.

2nd visit - Today we found out the orphanage is really in need of a dryer. We (and the Wells) are going to give the director money so she can make a down payment on one; she said other families will help pay it off. It is the least we could do, besides what is $100 compared to the care and love they give our children. We are so very pleased with Galina, the new director; she has done so much already-new wallpaper, new flooring, new washing machine. She has also closed the baby room (the room where they put all the babies and left them for hours without toys.) Also, now all the workers go outside with the children instead of just 2 or three, and they play with them. Serguey said she has also bought a lot of educational toys and has started play therapy with the children, everything is so much better than when Victor was director.
This afternoon we worked on English with the girls. Rich held out crayons to Vicka and said "crayon", her response every time was "Wala". Serguey said this is not a Russian word and we don't know why she says "Wala", but is it pretty funny the way she looks so satisfied when she says it. The social worker told us that she did not talk at all until after our first trip. Both girls repeated back to us colors as we said them and every now and then one of them will spontaneously repeat something we said. Vicka started a little 'catch me if you can' game this afternoon, running down the hall, yelling mama and motioning for me to chase her; she is so adorable.
In the bathroom, the girls can potty by themselves, but what is weird is they take the pee or poop and dump it in the tub when they are done. We will definitely not have a little potty for them at home. When washing hands, ......... ......... .........(Bathtubs at the Orphange)
they like to play with the soap and try to blow bubbles with it and became upset when I took soap away.When we left Vicka was standing in the playground crying, it broke my heart to see her do this.
Serguey came back from meeting with the Guardian with a surprise for us- WE HAVE BABY PICTURES OF THE GIRLS! It looks like they are about one and half years old.

After dinner tonight, we went into the bakery.(They have the most beautiful cakes I have ever seen) This skinny little guy comes up to Steve and grabs his arm, saying "Big American" and starts babbling in Russian; I told Steve to just say "Da" (yes, but he thought it meant no), which he did. So this guy kept trying to grab his arm and drag him to the table; we thought he wanted arm wrestle; that definitely would have been no contest because Steve is a tall, big guy. Serguey just stood to the side laughing. Finally when we got away; Serguey told us the guy kept trying to give Steve his phone number so they could get together later and go have a drink. It was quite funny.