- 2/21/2008 10:00:00 PMMoscow Trip - Day 11Today we planned to go to Yuri's medical exam. It was scheduled for 12:15 this afternoon. Marina's mother made us a nice breakfast of cheese cakes, sausages that looked like a fat hot-dog, and some cheese. After breakfast, Marina's brother came over and helped get a children's movie set up on Marina's X-Box game system. No one here knows how to actually run the system. It belongs to Marina's son who is not around. So Yuri watched this movie that was on the caliber of some Hanna-Barbara cartoon. It was a well made movie but perhaps a little bloody for a children's cartoon. I have no idea what it was about other than it was some Russian hero battling the forces of evil in the dark ages.
While Yuri watched his movie, I had a chance to speak briefly with Marina's brother. He needed to borrow our electric plug converter. He must have seen me writing my journal on my laptop because he came up to me and asked, "Do you know much about computers?". Everyone who has ever worked in computer technology knows what follows next. "Can you help me with my computer?". I said "ok". He wants to transfer some email files from one computer to another. This is not something I do regularly so I told him that and said, "If you are patient, we will get through this." He will stop by tonight and we'll work on it together.
Dima picked us up for the Doctor appointment at 10:30 AM. We got into his war-wagon and headed out. Dima, Yuri and I in the front seats and Peggy got the middle bench to herself. I had told Yuri that I would make up a special name for him like I did for all my other kids. As Dima, Yuri and I were were sitting all packed together, it came to me. Yuri has a little butt, however he seems to take up a lot of space. Therefore, I have decided to call him - Little Big-Butt.
Before I continue, I have to hammer a point I've brought up before before - Moscow traffic is INSANE. Again today, Dima brought us through some traffic situations that would have given me cardiac arrest if I were behind the wheel. I have video clips of some of them. In one situation, there were four lanes of traffic - two going each direction. When we approached the intersection, we were in the right lane. In such scenarios in America, the left lane can turn left or go straight and the right lane can turn right or go straight. There we were, with people in the left lane making right turns in front of us and cutting us off. It happened time and time again. Dima was a cool cat through all of it. He drove and talked, talked and drove. At times I wanted him to shut up and pay closer attention to what was going on. He knew exactly what he was doing and navigated us through situations that would make most people cringe. He earns every penny (or Ruble) for what he does. If I had a choice of driving or walking - I would walk. No matter what the distance.
We went to the bank and I exchanged $200 for 4890 Rubles. The clinic where Yuri's doctor appointment only takes Rubles. Shortly after we arrived, the other adopting family arrived. They had taken the public metro to get there. This is their fourth visit to Moscow and they are a little more adventurous than we are. We went inside and discovered there were two other families ahead of us. One was an American family from South Dakota and the other was an American family from Maryland. Both families had three children to get checked out. We waited for nearly two hours to see the doctor.
While we were waiting in the doctor's office, I saw Yuri do something to another of the orphan children that goes back in my family to at least my grandfather. Yuri gave the other boy, "the Cobra". The Cobra is the hand gesture that you make right before you tickle someone. Generally, you form your hand into the same shape as you would if you were going to make rabbit ears behind someone's head while they were getting their picture taken. In the case of the "Cobra", your index and middle fingers are not rabbit ears but the hood of the snake. Then you slowly waive your hand back and forth chanting the magic words, "Cobra" and "I'm going to get you". After that, you pounce on your victim and tickle them.
After the other families went in, it was our turn. The doctor spoke English and I got to ask him some specific questions about Yuri. He said that Yuri has an umbilical hernia and flat feet. He also said that our dentist is going to be rich. While I didn't like the last comment, the second one was encouraging.
The doctor asked me if I had seen how the women around here where such high heal shoes. He said that they must keep their knees bent a little and it affects their posture a great deal. It is the same with Yuri and his flat feet. The doctor asked if I had observed how Yuri walks, leaning forward a little, head hung, shoulders up. These are all reactions to a lack of spring action in the arches of Yuri's feet. He said there were some exercises Yuri could do and that we can get some special arch supports that he will wear for the rest of his life. We are hoping that this is all it is. Either way, he will see the doctor when we return.
By the time we left the doctor's office it was well past lunch time. I had heard about pizza in Russia and I was curious and very hungry. I suggested it to the group and they were all ready. Dima asked if we wanted McDonald's instead but the Conner's had eaten their fill of that and were ready to try something different.
We went to some pizza restaurant and Dima decided to wait outside. That seemed a little odd but Dima said that there were no legal parking spots outside so he would just wait until we finished. We went in and it smelled very good. We took a seat in the back and browsed through the English version of the menu. While the pictures of the pizza looked very tasty, it was definately not like the Americanized pizza that I have grown up eating. They are all measured in centimeters of diameter and grams of total weight. Our pizza's were 30 cm and 500 grams. It was a thin crust with a minimal amount of sauce. One was a meat lovers. It had 5 or 6 larger pieces of steak, some cherry tomatoes and a few pieces of broccoli. The other pizza had some vapor thin green pepper slices and mushrooms. Normally we drink root beer when we go out for pizza. They had no soda at all. Yuri got a glass of apple juice and Peggy and I had water.
Everyone seemed excited about eating Pizza. Yuri had a slice with broccoli on it and he didn't want to eat it but we made him. It was small and we made a judgment call that it would not kill him to try it. I was a little angry about the fuss he made and I made a second judgment call. I put another small piece of broccoli on his plate. This led to some very unpleasant moments at the restaurant.
While I understand that Yuri has had a tough life so far, one of the things I do know is that structure and order in life - especially family life - is essential. In this case, we are covering the early ground work of good habits and discipline. At our home, we have taught our children that trying new foods is not only a part of life, it is a good thing. There are millions of different foods in the world. Some you will like and some you won't. You will never know unless you try them - so get used to trying them.
Another thing we teach them is that you eat what is served whether you like it or not. It is impolite to go to a guests house and tell them you don't like or care for the meal that they have taken the time to prepare. It is not like your host has evil intentions when they serve you food. I guess the bottom line is that picky eating is generally not tolerated at our home. As I mentioned earlier, we are in the early stages of setting the foundation of what family life will be like.
We had been mulling over going to Red Square today but due to the scene at the restaurant, being a little upset with Yuri and the time of day, we decided to go on Saturday. Dima drove us back to Marina's house where her mother had already prepared dinner. I wasn't totally full from the vapor pizza but I knew I would be hungry in a short while. We told Yuri that there would be no treats or sweet things for him at dinner. As it turns out, ice cream and these very rich and sweet chocolate wafers were served. Yuri didn't like being left out of that part of the meal. In the end, this kind of disappointment is a small price to pay for getting a family and reaping the benefits from it.
