Moscow-Day 27

It's Monday but the days of the week have not really been relevant for a while now. It has been like we are lost in time, in another world. Today was the best day yet of sightseeing. Vladimir picked us up at 10:30am and we drove to the Moscow River where we boarded a sightseeing tour boat. The ride lasted about 90 minutes and gave us views of many of the important landmarks of the city. Vladimir told us yesterday that when Napoleon tried to conquer Moscow the Russian military had already burned the city and left so he did not have anything to conquer. Many French soldiers died in the fires and there was not any food left for the French army to eat so they left. The boys sat and enjoyed the boat ride. Today was the warmest day yet with a slight breeze. Chad and I were a bit warm but the boys insisted on wearing their spring Columbia coats Grandma Argyle bought them for the entire boat ride. Their Siberian roots hold strong. They are in for quite a surprise when we get home and they experience the temperatures of an Illinois summer. Chad took many pictures during the boat ride; I cannot wait until we get to a place where there is wifi and I will upload them for everyone to enjoy. After our boat ride Vladimir drove us to Red Square. It was amazing to see the walls of the Kremlin and Red Square and recognize both the history and also how long they had stood in that place. Vladimir gave us a nice brief history of each place. I did not realize that Ivan the Terrible had blinded the architects of Red Square as he did not want them to be able to go anywhere else and build something as magnificent. Also, people were actually living within the gates of the Kremlin in the 20th century. Now no one lives there and it houses mostly administrative offices for the government. We saw the President drive through today; the police did not barricade the streets they simply had traffic cops blow their whistles and stand in the middle of the big highway. The KGB (now called the RFB I think) came flying through first and then a couple minutes later several police cars and large Mercedes Benz SUVs came through. It was eerily quiet in comparison to the typical noise of traffice in that particular part of the city. While at Red Square we were going to try and eat at McDonald's but it was packed so we ate at the Sbarro next door. The food was good (better than the one on Old Arbat street) and the boys loved the butter and garlic noodles they got with their kids' meals. Another item that I can easily serve at home. As we were finishing up our lunch, Pasha again struck up a conversation with the woman who was clearing our table. She asked him his name and he replied, "Pasha Zasypkin". It was good to know he can answer such a question as people always ask little kids this and it is a question they will ask him at his preschool screening. Now if we can just get him to switch to Gipson we will be doing great! His birth last name does end with the same sound as Gipson and I know he can say the "g" sound so I am sure it will not be too tough for him. After leaving the Red Square we stopped by a Hello Kitty store I had found and Chad bought me a neat tote bag I can use to take the kids swimming. The girls would have loved the store but the prices were pretty high (my tote bag wasn't too expensive though). As we headed home after the full day, Pasha leaned in to me and said "you are my mama forever" in Russian. Boy, is he pretty amazing. Ruslan did not get scared or cry at all today. He did however show me how he likes to pick his nose! It was really hard for me not to carry on about it but I have found that the more I respond to things with heightened emotion the more he does it. Finally, we stopped at the market and went to the outdoor produce stand with the nice family that always enjoys speaking to the boys. Pasha kept picking up an egg while I was buying them some strawberries and the woman gave him the egg. We began to walk away and Pasha stopped, turned around, and asked the woman if his brother could have one too. Thank God they are together. I will leave you with this final story. During lunch I was speaking with Vladimir and I commented on how proud I have been with the boys overall behavior thus far. He stated that yes, they were more calm and better behaved than a lot of the children he sees driving for adoptive families. He really appreciated that they did not curse as a lot of children from orphanages have quite a vocabulary of curse words. I thought this was nice to hear but know both boys have probably cursed at us a few times when it was bedtime and their cars had to be put up on the shelf.
We are done sightseeing. Tomorrow we will clean and pack our things as we will leave at 2:30 in the morning from our apartment to head to the airport. I am strongly considering leaving the boys in their pajamas and just changing them later in the airplane. Our flight leaves for Amsterdam Wednesday morning at 5:30am, which is your Tuesday evening. Tomorrow may be my last post from Russia!