He Called Me, Papi

So today we went to the orphanage bright and early at 8 am. Not really that early for Carrie or I, but I think it is before rush hour in St. Petersburg. We had our drive and it is not really as long as Carrie said it was yesterday. I think the real problem is that is that it is a one lane road and the speed limit is not that fast.

We again stopped at the store and picked up some juice and a dominoes game. We arrived at orphanage around 10 am. The orphanage director told us that after we left yesterday that he was really excited and he was running around her asking when we were going to come back. He also told her that he was ready to get on the plane and then asked her when his flight home was.

After talking to the orphanage director for a minute, we saw Sam. And when he came upstairs he was really excited and and crouched down as he walked over to me, and he gave me a hug. The first game we played was the dominoes. The dominoes had cartoon characters in the same genre as Tom and Jerry only they were a wolf and rabbit. We asked him which character he liked more, and he said he liked the wolf. While we were playing the game, he said something to me and he ended the sentence with Papi. That made me really excited, because he had said it before, but it was only when he was prompted. We gave him a banana and I have never seen a child eat a banana so quickly.

We played a couple of more games and we took lots of pictures and video. During one of the other games, I had got up to grab some juice for him, and he told me (translated version), “Papi, come sit down you have a card.” That cracked up everyone up.

Next we played with his favorite toy. It is a shake 'n go car. Basically, when it is shook enough it will make the noise of an engine revving up and then when it is placed on the ground it will drive by itself. He loved that toy, and we moved to a larger room for him to play with it. He made these really funny faces when it shook it up and would chase it around. It really opened him up and he acted much less shy after we played with the car for a while.

We gave Sam a pullover sweatshirt, and a couple of shirts he got really excited, and Carrie took him over to the mirror so he could see his new sweatshirt. Then Carrie gave him a little hat with ear flaps and braided ties that she had knitted him. He wore both very proudly and made a Zoolander model face in the mirror.

After this our time with him was up and we had to leave. On the drive, back we talked about going to see the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood, but after exchaning money and walking to McDonald's for lunch (very very late lunch), we decided to just call it a day, and stopped by the store, and picked up some food for dinner and some juice and chocolate for Sam.

So that sums up our second day with Sam.

P.S. It stay light here until like 9:30.