Put Your Pants Up

Days Spent in Riga:  18

Days to go in Riga:  5

Pout Count Since Last Blog:  4.7

Smile Count:  Many

Our pout count is way down!

Yahoo!

D is doing really well.  Ever since our few really tough days he has been doing great and seems to understand the boundaries.  Not to say it has been perfect by any means but we are making good progress.  

Very proud of him.

Just as it is a challenge jumping into parenting, it is equally challenging jumping into being parented.

It is new for all of us.

He really made us laugh the other morning.  We were out for breakfast, and we were finished eating but just sitting and enjoying the rest.  D was ready to rock and roll and kept on saying, "Come on…let's gooooo."

The times in the past that have been our biggest struggles have been when we are trying to get him to leave, and that is when we have had to be the sternest with him.  And in those moments we are usually always telling him to put on his pants so we can leave.  (He always wears shorts in the apartment.)

Which is why it was so funny when he abruptly stood up with a very stern look on his face and mimicked us while waving his finger and said, 

"LET'S GO.  WE ARE LEAVING.  PUT YOUR PANTS UP!  NOW!"

We cracked up.

Put your pants up!

Now!

So we put our pants up and we left.

On Wednesday we saw the movie Minuscule, which was really cute.  It's a full length animated movie with no words which was perfect for us.  Not sure if it's in the US, but it was great.  And in 3D which is always exciting for a kid.

The next day we went to the Latvijas Dabas Muzejs, otherwise known as the Natural History Museum of Latvia.  D loved it.  It was incredibly cheap and a great way to burn a few hours.  

And we found some other little seals.

We saw this place called Street Burgers so we stopped there for dinner because it looked fun.  It was.

Except D really does not like burgers.  Or hot dogs.

Wisconsin summer BBQ's are going to be killer for him.

The next morning we took another overnight trip, this time to a town called Sigulda.  It's supposed to be a beautiful place to visit in the spring and fall, but we thought, heh, why not.  With all these unstructured days to fill, it's nice to go somewhere new for two days.

Especially if that somewhere new has a hotel pool to swim in.

So we happily took the 70 minute train ride to Sigulda.

When we got off the train, we walked to our hotel.  The original part of the building dates back to 1880.  Everything is old here.  I love it.

D was very excited to be in another hotel room.  He immediately divided up the mini shampoos and told us which ones were his and which were ours.  Imagine the thrill when there were also free toothbrushes this time.  

And shower caps.  

He could barely contain himself.

Oh the joy.

There are moments where it amazes me just how "normal" of a kid he is.  He has the same little fits of boredom that I imagine any 11 year old has.  Like after we had unpacked in our hotel room and we made him actually leave the hotel to check out Sigulda.  He was hoping we had checked into the hotel just so we could sit and watch TV.  It took some coaxing to get him out the door.

"PUT YOUR PANTS UP.  NOW."

He started to pout as we walked down the street, and since his English is so limited, the only thing he could say is "Sigulda is number two!  Me no like!"

(Yes, that number two.)

I was like DUDE ARE YOU SERIOUS?!  It was only like fifteen days ago you were living in an orphanage!  AN ORPHANAGE.  I'm so sorry we took you on a fun train ride to a fun new town where you will get to swim in a pool and have unlimited access to a blow dryer attached to the wall.

ARE YOU FOR REAL POUTING RIGHT NOW?

But I feel like that's sort of a typical kid.  

Everything is boring.

Until...about 2 minutes later…we found ourselves walking behind this guy.

At first I thought, "Good for you guy.  Not afraid to wear a little color.  You go Glen Coco."

But as we looked closer, we noticed the word "Russia"on his back.

Wait a minute…is that a…Russian Olympian walking in front of us?

We of course started to follow him.

D wasn't afraid to straight up stalk him.

And the moral of this story is…when you find yourself behind a Russian Olympian, follow him wherever he goes.  You may just end up here.

It's a bobsled and luge Olympic training track.  It was really impressive.

We followed our Russian friend all the way to the starting gate, where he met up with the rest of his Russian friends.

The Russian Olympic luge team!

 Um…HELLO!  COOLEST THING EVER!

We talked a little to our Russian friend.  He didn't medal at Sochi but he did come in fifth.

We hung out for awhile and watched some lugers go down the track.  

Then the coolest thing of all happened.  

There were some people there doing bobsled runs, and the last run needed another person in the sled.

Fans was more than happy to offer his assistance.

I still am in awe that Fans got to do an actual bobsled run on an Olympic training track.  They made him sign a piece a paper quickly before he went.  

Like literally, a blank piece of paper.  

A last minute health release form.  Of sorts.

He said it was absolutely incredible to experience the speed of a bobsled.  He said it gave him a brand new respect for the sport.  When you see it on TV, obviously you know that it's fast.  But he said the G force is so intense, he could barely even lift his head up to see where they were going.

Truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Unfortunately, D was not allowed to go as he was too little.  We couldn't explain that to him in Latvian, so he pouted.

At the luge track.

For a record 46.970 seconds.

I quickly found the nearest English speaking Latvian so they could explain to him why he wasn't allowed to go.  When he found out that it was not in fact the mean Americans saying no, that it was the track rules, he was a little better.

Still bummed, but better.

From the bobsled track we walked across town to ride a cable car.  It was really high and went across a big river.

D was scared at first and did not want to do it.  But after going across, he wanted to do it again.  And the lady was nice enough to let us go back across.

It's kind of funny, but the three of us seem to draw lots of attention.   I think people hear us speaking English and D is obviously Latvian and they are so confused.  We get a lot of weird looks.  They see a little Latvian boy calling us mom and dad but we are not speaking the same language and people just stare.  It's funny.  

And in this case, it got us a free ride back across the river on a cable car.

Fans and I have started to call that "pulling the orphan card".  We were super bummed when we found out our hotel pool was actually closed all night, but when Fans said, "Aw, that's too bad.  We just adopted an 11 year old boy and he was really excited to swim at the hotel."  The lady then said, "Oh, well in that case, we'll open it up just for you three to use for an hour!"

No shame in our game.

In fact, the orphan card was pulled again when we got out of the cable car.  As we were walking out of the parking lot, a Russian couple came up and asked if we wanted a ride to the nearby castle.  

We thought, "Hmmm…strange Russians wanting us to get in their car?  SURE!"

They were actually really nice and had heard us talking about finding a taxi to the castle, so they offered to take us.  And of course they asked, "Why are you American and he is Latvian?"

Orphans.  They get you places.  Gotta love em.

The castle was actually really, really cool.

You can see it way far off in this pic from the cable car.

It was called Turaida and it dated back to the 1200's.  We were the only ones there at the time, which made it feel even cooler.  

We decided that stockades should return as a form of punishment for pouty kids.  Actually, the real punishment should be to put them in the stocks and then put an iPad in front of them.

Oh the horror.

The next day we headed back to the bobsled track because we heard there were some special events going on there all day.  It was much more crowded than the day before.

We got to see a lot of bobsledders in action.  

This is actually at the end of the run.  Not sure if you can see it, but there is a very steep uphill at the end to get the sleds to slow down.  Even going up this hill they are still pretty quick.

At the top of the hill is where they get out.

There were quite a few Latvian Olympians there taking pictures and giving autographs.

And some not so famous ones too.

The coolest thing was that D met Martins Dukurs, the Latvian skeleton racer that won the silver medal at Sochi.  He is a huge star in Latvia.

We got to hold his medal.  I was surprised how heavy it is.

And D got his autograph on numerous things.

There was a band there playing Johnny Cash of all things.  If you haven't heard Ring of Fire with a solid Latvian accent, I highly recommend it.

The whole thing was really fun.

After a little more sightseeing in Sigulda, it was time to take the train back to Riga.

Outside the train station in Riga, they had set up a photo exhibit showcasing the Latvian Olympians.  For being a small country, Latvia really rocked the Olympics this year.  It is a great source of pride for the country that their athletes did so well.

We found a picture of Dukars, which excited D since he had just met him.

Which brings us to today, which was relatively low key compared to hanging out with Russian lugers and meeting Martins Dukars.

We went to church, then hung out at the Tea House, then tried to fly a kite.

The kite did not fly.

But it was a valiant effort.

Tomorrow we are going to take the train to Jelgava to visit D's orphanage.  I am excited for D to show us around the only city he has ever known and where he has spent the last 11 years.  Our first time to Jelgava was the day we met D, and there was so much emotion in that day that it was all sort of a blur.  It will be good to be there and see it in less of a frenzied state.

It's hard to believe we only have five days left in Riga.  

In some ways, we can't wait to be back home.  

So many things we are looking forward to.  

Our own bed.

Our dog.

Ice cubes.

I never thought I would be so excited to see ice cubes again.

In other ways, it will be so sad to leave.

When I look around this apartment, I see three weeks of memories that have been made.  

I see dance parties in the dark.

I see games of tag played up and down the hallways.

I see us sitting at the table sharing our first meals together.

I see us snuggled on the couch watching Swiss Family Robinson.

We have become a family in this place.

It is sacred ground to me.

I have become a mother here.

In apartment No. 16 on Gertrudes Street.

It will be hard to leave.

But a new life awaits.

New family.

New hope.

New adventure.

God is good.