Day Two -Out of the Orphanage

The day started early for us, since I Skype with my kids at home at 5am - that makes it 7pm at home, just before the little kids go to bed. They got their first glimpse of their sister. She had slept through the night but woke up before me. When the alarm went off I opened my eyes not knowing immediately where I was and there was Maria with her head in her hand staring just inches from my face. Big brown eyes!
The first things she did when she got up was to get into the stroller in her pj's! So funny and so cute. So we skyped with my kids at home, then we skyped with Jesse at my grown son's house. Then it was time for a bath....she would have nothing to do with the big bathtub. And I do mean big. You have to climb up and over the side and it's deep. Even if you don't fill it with water you are sitting way down inside it. Imagine what that must look like when you are only 40" tall! Maybe like being down in a well!
So after I pried her off me, I just took her small orange bowl to the bed with some warm soapy water and washed her down on the bed. There's so much time for all the new stuff, that terrorizing her now with a bath, is not on my priority list.
I was going to just walk her downstairs to the breakfast buffet, but she insisted on the stroller so we took that. I sat her down in the closest booth to the food and went to get her a plate. For those who haven't travelled yet, the Budapest breakfast buffet is great! She had two pieces of french toast, two helpings of scrambled eggs, a big glass of milk, and topped it all off with watermelon, honey dew melon and peaches. This orphan ate like she had never eaten before. She puts her head right into the plate and she shovels it in as though she's afraid I'm going to take it away. Another thing on the to do list - slow down her eating- but again, in the big scheme of things that can wait. I'm just grateful she's eating -and she's definately not going to be a picky eater.
So many things she missed as an orphan with Down Syndrome. For example, a little feeding therapy to phase out the tongue thrusting when eating and the ever present food remaining behind after each swallow. She just hasn't learned to use her tongue and cheeks to move the food around to get it all out of her mouth. Same thing with drinking. She is drinking from an open cup, but she places her tongue inside the cup when she drinks. That's another thing on the to do list! Schedule a few visit with our old feeding therapist for a refresher course for mom! LOL
After breakfast we went back to the room to try to get her to use the toilet. Nope! She just doesn't like this big one. No big deal. When you have 3 in diapers and 5 in Good Nights, one more is not a problem.
At 8 am sharp, happily strapped back in the stroller, (Thanks again Aunt Mary!) we took off to explore. When I was here in October I had gone down to the main drag and turned right. There wasn't much there as far as hisotric sites, but it had been a nice walk. This time turning left was the jack pot. Beautiful old buildings, statues, churches, government buildings and an archeological dig!! I've always been fascinated with digs and watch every tv documentary I can find. This one is happening right downtown. See below for pictures. - or maybe it's above-I can't figure out what I did wrong with yesterday's post! LOL
On the way back I stopped at the same store that we were at yesterday across from the police station. We picked up a package of diapers for night time as the pull ups didn't quite do it for her last night.
She was facinated the entire morning just being in the stroller and watching people. There was a man playing the violin that we stopped and watched. And farther down the street there was a man playing the accordian and a blind man singing. She was captivated.
Back to the hotel around 11:30 and we had jelly sandwiches and apple juice. I decided to not put her down for a nap today just to see if she gets cranky. So far, I've not seen any crankiness or aggressiveness. She did slap me once on the arm, but I think it was just harder than she intended to get my attention.
This afternoon we stayed in the room, looked at books, played with coins - in the coin purse and dump them out, then back in the coin purse and dump them out. I think she's left handed. She using both hands, but her pincer grasp is more developed on the left side. I had brought those plastic rings that you can use to hang things on the crib with for the babies at Pleven and the orphans at the hospital, but didn't use them all. She spent a lot of time trying to hook one to the other to make a chain. Really good focus. By far her favorite activity was bubbles. She was pretty quick to learn how to blow. However, there was a Kodak moment that I missed the first time I blew them for her and a stream of bubbles came out! She was startled! We used up a whole bottle.
The only thing that I'm concerned about is she is chewing on her lower lip and it's looking pretty nasty. I keep trying to get her to stop, but it seems like it's a pretty ingrained habit. It looks so sore, but she keeps at it.
Then I got adventurous and took her down to the resturant at around 5pm. Dido met me at the elevator and said he was sorry but the resturant was closed tonight because they were remodeling the breakfast buffet room. He said we could have room service, but then he said, "or if you want to sit at the table nearest the kitchen you could eat there if you don't mind the noise of the workers. I chose to stay, thinking this would be a good opportunity to have her sit and wait for food. Not a good plan. That concept was foreign to her. So glad we were alone in the resturant. After trying to get her interested in the colored pencils and book (thank you Amanda!) we both gave up and she pointed to the stroller, waved and said, "chow". Ah-h no, we're not leaving, but I let her get down and she got into the stroller. (Have I said thank you, Aunt Mary???) She was content to just sit there until dinner came.
Ok, this girl has an appetite. I ordered the omlet for her and when it came it could have fed both of us. It was at least a 4 egg omlet and fried potatoes - she probably ate 3 of the 4 eggs and all the ham and cheese. Good grief where does she put it all?
When we got back to the room she walked straight to the bathroom, pulled down her pants, took off the diaper and pointed to the toilet. I held her on the seat and she went!!!!
Then we skyped with Grandpa and Grandma, and Adam, Jessica, Beth and Molly. What an amazing invention this Skype thing. What will they think of next? She's lying on the bed right now. It's 8:30pm and she's wide awake. Hopefully, it's not a bad omen!