December 8

Today when we arrived at the baby house, Olesya had not yet eaten. They offered to let us feed her which we accepted. This was the first time we were able to see what she was eating. They called it porridge and it seemed like a plain baby cereal with a sprinkling of bleu cheese on top. We would give her a bite and as soon as she swallowed it, she would scream bloody murder until the next bite was in her mouth. This continued until she was about half way through and then she didn't scream anymore. She ate and drank well, which probably explains her good size. One lady commented that she is not a fast eater, but is a good eater. Our visitation time seemed to go faster than normal since we had the added activity of feeding on the front end. I doubt that this will become part of the daily routine, but it was nice to do it once. She still has a little bit of a cough, though it is improving from previous days. The doctor came in and checked her out while we were there and gave us a list of three medications which we bought at the chemist on the way back to the hotel.
Today was probably our coldest day, topping out at about 30. We check the weather on the internet and saw that it was only supposed to get up to 8 in Denver and generally it has been warmer here than in Denver on a daily basis. For the next week, it looks like clear and temperatures steadily rising into the mid/upper 40's. If I had realized that this adoption gig would land us in a far off locale for over a month in the winter, I would have investigated places like French Polynesia instead...
For his first time feeding a baby, Joe did pretty well. I just held her on my lap while he did the feeding. We were using a table spoon, so it was not the ideal size, but that is what they gave us. The juice that she drank was pink, some kind of blend probably and they warmed it a bit. At the end of our visit, we also got to feed Olesya a bottle of milk. It was about 12-16oz I think, and she chugged that too. She was very playful and happy during her "tummy time" on the floor today and started to get tired toward the end of the visit, but didn't fall asleep.