The Zoo

Hello again,

Today is Thursday morning. On Tuesday, we visited Nick again at the baby home. He seemed to be excited to see us and very playful. We had a great time and he clearly recognizes us. There is not a lot for us to do at the baby home but play in the playgrounds. We are mostly outside. There are three playgrounds where we can go and basically we rotate to all three of them.

We go to the baby home in the afternoons after Nick has had his nap, so we end up seeing the other kids that are outside playing in the afternoon as well. The kids tend to swarm over to see us, especially Kayla. We know the staff doesn't want Kayla mixed with the other kids, so we try to stay away as much as possible. The mesquitoes are horrendous. Little Nick looks like he is covered in bites and so does Dan.

Two things we wish we would have brought but forgot: Sunscreen and bug repellent. It is mid-70s in the daytime and be quite warm with the sun out. We've had beautiful days with the exception of Monday late afternoon where we had thunderstorms and heavy rain.

On Wednesday, we went to the zoo. Novosibirsk has a good and fairly large zoo. The cages are still very apparent which is different from the zoos now in the US, but it was a lot of fun and the animals appeared well cared for. I've included some pictures of the zoo including Kayla's beloved Puma. We saw many animals that we don't have at the MN or Como zoo which was kind of neat. There was a dinosaur park that K really loved. They had several kids' rides but asked Kayla to choose just one. She requested the boat ride where she and I got on this little thing that looked like an inner tube. We could drive around in the water and spin. She had a blast.

Afterwards, the taxi took us to New York Pizza for lunch. We were hoping for a little taste of home. The pizza definitely had a different taste, but Kayla didn't mind and enjoyed the experience. They had a kid's play area like McDonalds which Kayla loved. She did really well walking home - we are trying to wean her off of being carried by Daddy. She is getting better, but sometimes we end picking her up because she likes to play while she walks and sometimes we just want to get there.

Today, we see Nick again. Can't wait til we can bring him with us...Talk to you all soon,

Love,

Sue