Fingerprinting...Fiasco?

One of our final steps for our Russian Dossier was to get re-fingerprinted by the Citizenship & Immigration Service. We did this once, but the fingerprints are only good for 15 months (how time flies). We really do not have a babysitter these days (daycare really was good for getting daytime errands done), so we optimistically decided to bring the kids along. Going to a CIS office is a bit like going to the DMV. It could go quickly, or you could sit in a room full of irritable people with questionable English skills (very similar to the DMV, I imagine.)

This time the wait was short. It didn't make much difference though, because Princess Natalie was in a MOOD. I'm not sure why I'm always optimistic when I drag her somewhere like this. She seems to have a keen radar for detecting the times I am desperately hoping she will behave. Desperation is the worst cologne (to quote my friend Steph M), and she can smell it.

So Jim took Liam and went to one fingerprint station, while I took Natalie and went to one far away (lucky Jim...). Natalie sat on a chair to wait...but the chair had wheels and that is against the CIS rules, because of the danger of a child falling on their head. I understood that. Natalie did not. I bet before we left, the CIS people were wishing they had let her fall on her head.

So...the CIS lady (originally from Thailand, with a heavy accent, and large purple flowers in her ears...perhaps they were earrings, but they certainly appeared to be IN her ears) had to get prints from all 10...all 10...of my fingers, while a certain 2 yr old wailed and flailed "I want to siiiiiiiit!"

CIS Lady (to me): "You too tense! Must relax! T-E-N-S-I-O-N (apparently worried I didn't understand her accent, she actually spelled it). Prints don't work if too tense!!"

Me: "Oh. Sorry. I'll relax" (maybe in 18 yrs)

CIS Lady: "Where you husband??"

Me: "Up there getting his prints taken, with my son."

CIS Lady: "Hmmm. You got two? And getting another?"

Me: "Yes. Maybe I'm crazy."

CIS Lady: "You stay home? If you stay home, it's OK Give you something to do."

Me: "Yes. I need something to do."

CIS Lady: "My son born same year as you. He has 3 sons. He has a nanny from Thailand on visa for a year. His wife work."

Me: "Your son sounds wise." (Why do I have the feeling everything she says is going to make me feel bad at this point...)

Natalie: "I want to siiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy Mo-o-o-o-ommy!"

CIS Lady, shaking my entire arm back and forth, "You too tense!! Look at tension in your hand! Must relax!"


And so it went....Jim did finish first and rescued me so that CIS Lady could re-do several of my tense prints. I am really hoping that they all work so I don't have to go back. And with any luck, we won't be getting these re-done in another 15 months!