UPDATE 3: Pictures (but not what you think)

This isn't what you think because it's not about us taking pictures of Elena, it's about Elena looking at the pictures we took. We've taken a lot of pictures of her at different times: in the orphanage, in Moscow, and here at home with the idea of documenting things for her, as best we can.  The pictures tell her story--at least part of it.  We want her to remember her story, understand her story, and think about it when she needs to.

Like I said, we have a  lot of pictures; the best ones you've seen posted on the blog here.  So we collected the ones we thought would be most important for Elena and made them into a book:

Elena's book

We used Blurb to print the book--they have a downloadable program where you can drag-and-drop pictures into formatted pages, and the final product is pretty high-quality.  We tried to organize the pictures so that they tell the story from Elena's perspective.  We made four copies: one for Elena to look through now, one to keep for her for later, and two more for the grandparents (so if you know the grandparents, ask them for a peek!)

An interesting thing about the book is not just the pictures, but which ones Elena pays attention to.  We've paged through the book numerous times, and there are a handful of pictures Elena returns to.  First are the pictures at the very front that show her playroom in the orphanage.  Elena points out the toys in the room that are on the shelves behind the kids. A doll stroller, a little telephone, play spoons and teapot. There are not too many toys there for the kids to play with.  In that same section of the book she also asks to see the pictures we have of "snacktime" at the orphanage, with her and the other children at their little tables eating wafer cookies and pears.

Next are the handful of pictures at the very back that show her bedroom in our house.  I think Elena likes having a bedroom of her own, but she also likes the recursive nature of sitting in her bedroom chair and pointing out the picture of her bedroom chair, as well as the other objects in the room.

She usually looks at the picture of the small propeller airplane that flies from Kotlas to Arkhangelsk.  I like to think she recognizes that flight as an exciting, new point in her life.  But she repeats the droning propeller noise, so it may just be that she was favorably  impressed by how boneshakingly loud it was on that plane:)  RRRROWWWRRROOWWWRRROOWWW! 

She also likes the couple pictures of her in the bathtub  that were taken when we stayed in the fancy Moscow hotel.  For whatever reason, bathtime is one of her favorite times of the day, so seeing herself in the bath is a plus.  Those baths in Moscow were probably her very first to be enjoyable, where she could take time, feel relaxed and play with someone in the warm water.  I'm pretty sure the orphanage schedule and budget leave no room for bath fun and toys.

Over the years, the pictures she notices and feel most important to her will probably change as her outlook, emotions and knowledge grow and mature.