Saturday Evening Already

We had a relaxing, lazy kind of day. Gabriela and I were up pretty early so we were ready for breakfast but Miss Hailee was still sleeping ..... it was after 9:30; time for Hailee to get her hiney out of bed -- this is what Gabi and I saw when we opened up the door .....Gabi hung back unsure of what was happening - I started pulling the covers off Hailee and Gabriela joined right in --- but tentatively, she was watching the whole time to see what Hailee was going to do .....

And then, of course, you have to jump on the bed and tickle and make all kinds of noise to get Hailee up -- here's Gabriela's reaction to the silliness -- she still wasn't ready to join me. Then again; maybe she's never had to do this before - another important thing to learn!
And then Hailee jumped up and grabbed Gabriela for a big hug!

Right after that I left to get breakfast ready. I could hear the two of them giggling and laughing and then all went quiet -- returned to find them like this .......


Our objective for the day -- you've got have some type of objective when you're heading out -- otherwise why go, right? Those of you who have been in this situation know what I'm talking about -- there's not much on the agenda so you create something. Anyway our mission was to pick up juice, milk and fruit at the market -- our special mission was to find a spatula of some type ..... we were off ................

It was a busy day on the streets today -- see Hailee's shoulder in the picture? She's taken to walking a few steps in front of me, do you think it has anything to do with that tripping problem I have??? This way she can look back and pretend she has no idea who I am .......

Periodically when you're walking you'll find these little park like areas. There are usually a lot of benches and flowers -- kind of like the rest spots you find along our highways, no porta-potties though -- we took a break from our little hike here. Most days there is some type of entertainment happening at each stop -- today there was a gentlemen playing the clarinet -- quite beautifully, Hailee wanted his picture but as soon as she put up the camera he stopped playing and shook his finger at her just like Gabi does.

And then ..... shortly after the rest stop we found it, a store that carries kitchen items ..... Hailee and I were so excited! She took a picture as we were walking in. By the way what you're looking at is pretty much the size of the store -- there is another wall where the utensils were hanging. And then we saw it ------- A spatula .... Whoo-hoo, we'll be able to turn over pancakes and eggs. The owner brought it over - we asked the price -------- 21 lev for a spatula -- what, you've got to be kidding .... I don't have my calculator with but thinking that's about $15 for a SPATULA -- I don't think so, thank you very much! We'll keep looking ....
Along our walk we saw these circular balconies -- guessing they are the fancier apartments in the area. There were about 15 floors and each balcony area had different color flowers -- very impressive.
Off of the streets are little alleyways that lead to a separate little shopping area -- most of the alleys we've found have had a restaurant and several little shops. We headed down this alley because Gabi kept pointing to it -- as we got closer she continued to point and started to pull gently on my arm. When we stopped just inside the shop area I looked up and this is what she was pointing at .............I'm so glad the sign was in English ....... can you imagine if we had gone in????? There was a toy store next to the sex shop and I asked if thats what she wanted, NO, she wanted the store with the red flashing sign ...... she asked me "yes or no?" -- definitely a NO!

Which reminds me -- she's beginning to learn to communicate better with us. She brings something to me -- a snack, juice, camera, etc and says "yes or no?" Today she called Hailee two or three times when she wanted her. Hailee even called me from the bedroom and I didn't hear her -- Gabi said "Mama, Hailee" and pointed to the bedroom. It's coming along!!!
Here's the entrance to our apartment -- it is a locked door but the first time we saw it I think Hailee was a little scared about where we were -- there is graffitti everywhere in the city.
And then once you're inside the door and have gone up the flight of stairs to our apartment this greets you .... And here are the girls at the door of the apartment (not today's picture-different clothes). The door is pretty thick and once we're inside it has a locking system that they asssure us prevents others from getting in. You turn the key in the opposite direction of what you do to get out -- I checked today to see what it does. There are these 4 bolts that come out and lodge into the door frame -- the down side of doing this means that we can't get out of the door without the key either.
You have an idea of what the apartment looks like inside but thought it might be interesting to see for yourself what we see when we step out onto our balcony ....



During todays excursion we found hot dogs -- Gabi was really excited about them so she must have had them before. We cooked them up and tried to eat them .... yes tried .....

We learned pretty quickly that you have to peel your hot dogs in Bulgaria .....


Also today for the first time there was emotion shown -- I've been a little worried about that. Ganka and her family prepared an amazing video for Gabriela -- it's taped at their church service and then Gabi's birthday party in June. It looks as if the service was devoted to saying goodbye to Gabi ..... at the birthday party too everyone presented her a gift and gave a little speech. There was a little English explanation of how good a girl Gabi is and how America is getting a special girl ..... we watched it for the second time today. The other day Gabi laughed and pointed to everyone -- today it was a somber time. I just sat with her rubbing her back as she watched .....

Oh, and here's our little princess in the tub last night -- she was in there until the water was icy and her lips were blue. Guess where she is right now .... yep, back in the tub .......

Hope you have a great Saturday. I'd like to thank everyone that's commenting or e-mailing -- it's helping me hang in there; it gets pretty lonely when the girls go to bed. I love reading about what's happening with you. And if I haven't answered your question, please ask again ......

Lastly -- someone asked how others are seeing so much in the pictures -- double click on the picture and it should open up to the full size of your screen -- hit your back button to get back to the blog.