(Sean's Post)
Well, despite our best efforts, Maureen's stomach wasn't happy. She went down for the count today. Bob and Jodi offered to let her sleep in their room while we all went to move our "stuff" out of the hotel and into the apartment. They are such a great couple for helping us out, and I hope they let us reciprocate tomorrow when it's their turn to move into their apartment. The best part is that theirs is also near the cottage which is near our apartment. We only have a 5 minute walk from our apartment to the store and the same distance to the cottage and Mechem's. The Kurtz's are going to stay at the hotel. We hope that they can make the 20 minute walk often to join us all.

Despite how badly she felt, Maureen jumped up and we went on the daily drive to the hospital. That's no surprise to any of you, is it? We went a little earlier this time - about 1:15 PM. It was a much better visit today. We still don't know what the babies' schedules are yet, but James was much more energetic today. Maybe it's because we were in a different room this time since there was work being done in his room. He spent a lot of the visit looking around the new room. They told us that he had eaten at noon when we first got there so we were really surprised when another bottle arrived at 2:00 PM! It was my turn to stuff his face today and it made no difference to him who it was as long as the food was there and that it was hot. It was too early, though. He started to fall asleep in my arms about half-way through the bottle. Also, since our first visit, I have intentionally tried to cradle him at times in my left arm to try to free up and get more animation out of his left arm. We were pretty sure that all of his care-givers are right-handed so he had the tendancy to just leave his left arm straight most of the time, as it would be if they cradled him with their right arms. It worked fast. He's now started to move his left arm and hand a lot more often. Another small victory for James.

He did go to sleep without finishing his bottle. I'm sure that the caregivers are not happy with us for that. He was way too full, though, which was evident in my initiation into the spit-up club. He fought sleep some but did go to sleep fairly quickly. I didn't even bother trying to put him on the mat after what we learned yesterday. He didn't sleep very long though which was great! It was good for him to learn that Mama and Daddy won't always "run away" (i.e. be told it was time to go) when he sleeps. After his catnap, he opened his little eyes and there we were - in his face as always! He let out that big toothless grin of his and we knew that he wasn't done playing. Good thing that we weren't either. I captured it on DVD but, unfortunately, I don't have the right software to transfer it to the laptop to put on the web. I'll check with Darryl Kurtz and see if he can help (did I mention yet how great it is to be a part of such a large group?). If not, you'll have to wait on the movie premiere when we get back. Just as the fun was peaking, Inna comes in and says, "You guys, Oleg is downstairs." That's our signal that the two hours have gone by faster than we wanted. No drama this time, though. A care-giver came into the room just as we had finished putting our stuff up and James went out willingly. I like it much better when they get to be the "bad guys" who put him back down by himself. No worries though, I have the feeling that, like the daily two hour visits, the two weeks will go by very quickly and he won't have to have anymore worries about that. We also gave the caregiver a Pooh Bear blanket buddy to stay with him in his crib.

After the visit we dropped Maureen off at the apartment so she could lie down, and the rest of us went to the Tsum store for essentials. Bob and Jodi Mechem were going to wait for us outside the store but we didn't see them when we got there. As it turns out, they were in their car in the parking lot waiting. They said that they saw us pull in, pile out, and race in. They had thought that they would catch us inside, but no dice. The Tsum store is actually a mini-mall. It has four levels and is full of tiny shops. I couldn't find a female to female phone line connector. That's a big hint for you guys traveling after us!!! Most of the phone lines here come from some mysterious place inside the walls. Here in the apartment, the phone cord enters the room from between the floor and the wall. There is no plug. Luckily for us there is a power receptacle next to the shoe cabinet that the phone is on so I can have the phone cord plugged into the Eurosurge and our 50' phone cord plugged on the other side. Right now we don't have Internet access yet, which is why this post is delayed. So, hopefully, it will work. The power cord for the laptop is barely long enough to reach the desk in the family room so everything has worked out so far on the computer. In addition to the lack of Internet, we don't have cable anymore like at the hotel (no more Russian MTV) or any working TV channels, for that matter, or hot water. Oleg will be back tomorrow with someone to work on the water heater. We also bought a shower curtain that I may have to mount using the duct tape we brought since the shower doors are missing. Knew the duct tape would be good for something!

Above we included a pic of the typical double exterior door. The outermost door is steel. The inner door is solid wood. Talk about keeping out the riffraff. It's not any more unsafe of a neighborhood than any city apartment back home. They're just all built this way here - reminiscent of the Soviet era. Oh, and no elevator here. So, we climb four flights of stairs daily. That's fun when carrying backpacks, groceries, and 5-liter jugs of water!

That's all for now! See you tomorrow!