Monday, June 29 --We have a court date...

It looks like three more weeks of bonding. Our court date is going to be July 21. Our judge is a stickler for the rules so this was somewhat expected. But, we are here, we have Maya, and we are all having a pretty good time.

Today, we explored a bit more of the town and found a market (with just picked strawberries, blueberries), and a great natural park area with a river and children's playground. The weather was great, so we had a nice time outside walking around. We got some brochures from the local tourist information office (which isn't really used to tourists.) I got some slightly helpful english brochures that at a minimum can go in Maya's scrapbook.

We have given up on the afternoon naptime for a few days to see how it goes. It took an hour of rocking to get her down for a nap and then double that for night time. Instead we are having some quiet time in the afternoon and then going to bed earlier. This seemed to work better tonight (20 minutes of singing and rocking.) We will see if we still feel that way in the morning!

Maya's new english words are, "tickle, hi, uh oh, choo choo, and up". Her newest Polish word is "duzey" which is big. We have been getting through the language barrier by speaking Polish intermixed with English. Mason and Maya spent some time together during "quiet time" learning their languages. Mason decided he could use the Polish dictionary and started looking up words and saying them to Maya. They had such a blast when Mason was asking "where is nose?, where is ear, where is foot, etc". It definitely helped with bonding between the two of them. Plus, Mason was reading Polish.

I can't wait to stay in a place with a bathtub. I don't think she has ever played during bathtime and has always had very quick showers. We only have a shower in the apartment but I let her play in the water after she was all washed up. She would slowly stick her face directly in the water and then let it roll down her back - laughing the entire time. She thought the water spraying on her tongue was very ticklish. We even practiced hitting the puddles of water on the bottom of the shower, which was also great fun. At the end, I wrapped her up in a big towel and held her on my lap keeping her nice and toasty. She smiled and laughed through that as well.

After getting her ready for bed tonight, she decided to brush my hair for me. Now, for those that don't know, I have curly hair that just frizzes when brushed. But, this seemed like the time to just go with the flow. She brushed out every curl and tangle for about 10 minutes, smiling and making sure it was okay. Then she was ready for bedtime. Pretty cute.

Tomorrow, we are going to attempt to follow the directions of the Director and go to the Beach via a 30 minute bus ride. I did get a map of the town from the information office so once we get to the town it shouldn't be too bad. I'm sure the water is way to cold for swimming, but we can play in the sand, look for shells, and just get our feet wet running away from the waves. We picked up a bucket and two shovels at the local grocery store, so we are ready to go!