This is our first full day with Netta Polina.
She slept the whole night easily in the hotel crib and had breakfast with us at the dining room. Again we saw that solid foods were out, we will need to work on that. She did accept the sippy cup nicely and uses it for drinking all the time.
We are discovering things about her that are a direct result of the way they do things at the orphanage. Netta does not like to be undressed. In fact the more layers you cover her with, the better. An overall, coat, gloves, scarf and hat… The best.
We suspect she didn’t get many chances to get to know her body. When we leave her with no socks on, she examines her toes intently.
She was in high spirits most of the day and a pleasure to be with. I think she is starting to enjoy all of this attention. One on One is not something abundant in the orphanage. Two on one, non existent.
We finished our formal business quickly and said goodbye to Katya. Tomorrow we are on our own, no driver or translator. (no fees either).
We walked around some of Moscow’s many parks and memorial statues and headed back to the hotel.
We decided to see how Netta would react to the pool. I sat with her on the side of the pool. She made her reaction quite clear. It translates into ‘are you completely nuts?’ . We learned that Netta needs time to absorb and adapt. Michelle swam around a bit, then I did. Netta watching intently. After a while Michelle was able to sit her with her feet dangling in the water. Fifteen minutes later I was holding a smiling Netta in the water. She agreed, the textbooks were right. Splashing IS fun. When we took her out of the water there was unmistakable pride in the fact that she did it. She was grunting happily to let everyone know the extent of her bravery.
We are discovering that Netta’s verbal skills are quite basic. Besides grunts, the only thing we have heard from her is ‘da da da’.
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