Teething and sleeping...not

Well Lucas WAS sleeping well...the first day anyway. Yesterday he slept well at naptimes but took 1.5 hrs to go to sleep last night, finally falling asleep around 9:30 and waking before 6am. He was pretty tired this morning but only slept for an hour and did not go down for his afternoon nap. I finally got a clue that he was seriously teething...and found his two top 1st molars peeking through! Oy. New environment, strangers, overstimulated, overtired and teething - poor kiddo. But for ALL that he is being pretty darn good.

As far as his development, he is walking on his own now...it had been just a couple tentative steps 2 weeks ago when we were here for court. His height is up a couple cm and his head circumference is a wee bit larger. He has also gained some weight since trip 1 - he's now 19 lbs YAY! But I'm still fattening him up :) He is eating almost everything we put in front of him..last night he had a huge portion of mashed potatoes (w/ lots of butter) and mashed up chicken and then had some applesauce. The first day we had him he sucked down formula and yesterday as well, however today he only drank a little but it was during a time he was really in pain so who knows. He doesn't know how to feed himself though did get the idea having a cookie in one hand coming home from the Kremlin today....most of it was gone by the time we got back. He's very anxious when he sees us preparing food or smells it..he'll come waddling into the kitchen and whimper...it's SO sad. He eats fairly quickly but if I don't get it in quick enough he'll put his two first fingers of his right hand into his mouth and suck (which is also what does when I rock him to sleep). I *think* this might be from meals at the baby home when all the kids are fed at once and you have to wait your turn for the next bite. I sort of threw his meal schedule of 8, 12, 4 and 6:30 out the window as I'm feeding him something every couple hours. It seemed to work well today and he didn't eat as much at the big meals. Also if we're still eating he fusses and expects that there's more food for him even if he's full. So today at lunch and dinner we gave him a cookie and he was fine to walk around and gnaw at it occasionally. I also tried giving him a pacifier this evening when he was really uncomfortable and he really liked it...might be a lifesaver on the plane.

Speaking of the Kremlin, we ventured today from our apartment onto the Moscow Metro for a trip to Red Square. Luckily the metro stop is only 5 minutes from our apartment and only 2 stops to Red Square. However we got out at the wrong exit and needed to walk a bit above ground...and it was hot and windy. 75F is usually pretty nice, but when you have a little bundle strapped to your chest it gets warm quick. We walked around a bit, took a few photos and then Lucas started getting cranky so we headed back. It was a bit confusing on the way back but we figured it out and made it back easily. Kali and I treated ourselves to these ice cream bars from a sidewalk cart - yummy - and Lucas got his first taste of ice cream! Loved it :)

Well that's it for now...just got Lucas to bed and Kali and I need some down time. Tomorrow we're off to the Embassy to get his visa. If all goes well we might be looking into coming home early (Friday) but likely it will be too expensive and we'll come home as planned on Saturday.

A few parting photos....

Paka,

Laura, Kali and Lucas