House of Shrieks

Hi all! So the honeymoon is over and it only took one day. I knew it was just a matter of time before it all kicked in for him. Today has been a combo of fantastically happy giggly times and really miserable eardrum-busting bad times. Most of the bad seem to center around us either leaving the room and leaving him behind, daring to put him down on the floor, sitting down while holding him, not shoveling food in fast enough, taking away the bottle before he has sucked it dry, not understanding that he was hungry again already even though I had just fed him an hour ago, and not realizing that an hour and a half is an adequate amount of playtime before napping again. It's all a learning process we are slowly but surely learning. I have decided, however, that the Bjorn is my new best friend (Thanks, Mer!). After 20 minutes of the previously mentioned earth-shattering screaming, I found that sticking him in there and walking around the apartment worked wonders. He still wouldn't let me sit down or even stand still- except for the three minutes when he was mesmerized by some monkeys on the TV- but anything is better than the shrieking. I am going to be hearing it in my sleep. But really he is just so sweet that I can't be mad at him. Frustrated, yes. Mad, no. And and I have found that he is fantastic when we go out for walks. We went out last evening to the amusement park across the river and walked around for an hour and he absolutely loved it. We watched the roller coaster and the twirly rides and had fun just wandering around watching people eat cotton candy and ice cream and the popcorn lady making popcorn and people playing games. It was really nice and I think we may have some people join us tonight if they can make it. Anyway, I know it sounds like our day was kind of awful but it really wasn't. I was expecting the transition to be much worse than it is- maybe just not so loud. Oh and we made reservations flight reservations today to both Almaty (Tuesday) and home to DC (Saturday). I can't believe that we will be leaving in week. Both of us are really ready to get home and be in our own space, but I will still be sad. I hate goodbyes in general (Peter makes fun of me because I always get all vaklempt when saying goodbye to Carson or whoever when they visit us in DC) but I think that this goodbye will be especially hard. Of course, we are planning on returning in a couple of years for Rinat's sister so I guess it will just be 'til next time rather goodbye. And while we're on that subject, I'm outta here. I have to take advantage of Peter taking over Rinat duty and get something to eat. Bye! -m
Our internet is not working so great again and so this post didn't get added earlier when I wrote it. So I added the above photo from tonight. Two of the other couples met up with us at the park and strolled around until Rinat started telling us it was time for bed. He fell asleep about 1 minute after this was taken. Bye again -m

Naptime, Shmaptime

Hey everyone! We don't need no stinkin' naptime! That's what Rinat says anyway. Our sweet angel went to bed last night at 8:00 like normal and mostly slept though the night (unlike Mom) until he woke at 6:01 this morning right on schedule with big smiles on his face. And there has been nothing resembling a schedule since. He really really really didn't want to take his 8am nap and I spent 45 minutes in the bedroom with him crying. He had tears! I couldn't believe it. I think he finally realized he's not going back to the BH and he was just sad. Peter tried for another 20 minutes to get him to sleep and I knew it was time to give it up when I heard giggling coming from the bedroom. Peter's a sucker. Oh well, what's one nap gone? And we decided to go for a walk along the river at 11 to pay off Peter's haircut that he didn't have enough money for yesterday and he snoozed for maybe 20 minutes during our hour outing. His 12 o'clock nap? No way. But at about 2:15 he started sitting really still and chewing on his little bite cloth that he loves and we decided to strike while the iron was hot. I hear him in the other room right now but I think he slept for almost 3 hours. Peter and I slept for 2 of them. I think we were all just running on adrenaline and happiness and didn't want to miss a single second of our first full day together. I have never seen more smiles, laughter and contentedness from Rinat than I have today (despite the lack of sleep). It fills my heart to know that he is happy with us. Sorry for the lack of a photo with this post but we decided to just enjoy the day and forget about the camera for once. I may try to get a video of him getting ready for bed tonight though. Last night I wet a washcloth and gave him a good rubdown and he LOVED it. He was laughing and laughing. I can't even tell you how many times today that I have said to both myself and to Peter "God, do I adore him." Oh, and I will have to get a photo of the 'nest' I made for him. I put a folded up comforter and some blankets on the floor for him to sleep on. There is no crib and I don't want him in the bed so he is boxed in by a wall on one side, the bed on the other, the bedside table at his feet, and a suitcase at his head. He woke up once last night because he had somehow pushed the suitcase away and was on the floor stuck in between it and the comforter. Poor guy. Alright, time to get the little guy. God, I adore him. -m

Video Worked!

Hey everybody! I finally got the video to upload and put in a cute one of him with his fave toy- the stacking cups of course. Just push the 'play' button and it should start. I hope it works for you because he is absolutely adorable. And do you notice it is NOT in the BH? Yup, it is in our living room in our very own apartment. Well, after our last post, our sweet baby slept an entire 2 hours and then started making some noise that it was time to get up now. When we went in to get him, he gave us that 'oh hey, it's you guys!' look and was smiling more than I have ever seen. I think he likes us. And we of course adore him. Even his terydactle shrieks. :-) We have also discovered in these few short hours that he likes carrots with potatos and that he loves apples. Yum. And now that he is not eating some gross porrige thing, his spit up doesn't actually smell all that bad. We may wait for a couple of days to give him a bath until he is totally comfortable with us, but I can't wait for that too. He will be so cute! And you can guarantee there will be some nekkid photos posted for all to see. Keep commenting and I'll keep posting! Much love to all. Your comments are so sweet and they mirror everything that we are also feeling- happiness, excitement, and gratitude for everyone around us. Have a wonderful day! -m

He's Ours!

Hi there everyone! Aren't my two boys just precious reading together? I don't want to jinx it or anything but this has been way too easy so far. We went and picked out little angel up from the baby house around 12:30 today (he usually naps 12:00-2:00), made the rounds and saw the caretakers, doctors, and Dr. Alma one last time and then just came home to our apartment. He fell asleep in the car on the way here but then was wide awake the second we came through the door. New places are so exciting, aren't they? Well, I guess they are to 8 month olds anyway. Actually, he definitely was wide awake when we got on the elevator in our apt building with some other people and there was a man right next to him who he was absolutely terrified of. Sometimes I forget that they never see men at the BH. Gulsanna said that he was really scared of our driver Yurlan when they took him to the passport office that morning. Yurlan was supposed to hold him while they did paperwork. Gulsanna said "I have never seen him cry like that before but I think he was scared because Yurlan is a man. He was crying with tears down his face even!" Poor baby. But I think that Gulsanna was kind of touched when Baheet tried to hold him and he was having none of it and almost jumped into Gulsana's arms he was so eager for her to hold him. I told her that of course he loves her- he spends two hours a day staring at her in the playroom of the baby house. I think he is fascinated by her. Oh and our door lady at our apartment saw us bringing Rinat in the door today and she had a shocked expression on her face and asked something to the effect of "Is his yours?" and we nodded yes. I have a feeling that one is going to get around the apartment grapevine quickly. No one is actually supposed to see us with hm but oh well. Then we just hung out in our apt and played for a bit. He really likes Peter's calculator. It's so fun. I went into the kitchen to make come coffee for my sweet hubby (who has been sooooo nervous by the way) and when I heard one of those happy squeals that all babies make coming from the other room where they were playing together, I just started crying. Not just got misty-eyed but tears down my face crying. I'm sure Rinat thinks I am insane. I just couldn't believe that after all this time, it's finally MY child in the next room. OK so I teared up just a little at the Baby House as well when the caretakers were saying goodbye because they were starting to cry when they said goodbye to him- I guess it's just a happy crying kind of day today. So we played and we tried to feed him some lunch (mashed up noodles with chicken and veggies FYI) around his normal time but he wasn't really all that interested. I was a bit surprised too because the caretakers always say that he loves to eat and screeches when you don't shovel it in fast enough. Then we played some more until he started to get a bit crabby so I decided his afternoon nap might come a little bit earlier today since he didn't get one in the morning. So we made him a bottle, stuck in his binky, read some books, and put him down to sleep with a big grin on his face. He was snoozing within five minutes. I know because, like the nervous new parents that we are, Peter and I checked multiple times. And he's been asleep for almost an hour. Now, I know that our good luck will not last indefinitely but it's nice that he's letting us ease into things before the big freak out when he realizes we aren't taking him back home. I'm guessing it'll happen around 3:30am. What do you guys think? We'll be loving every minute of it though. I know that your day can't be even remotely as wonderful as ours, but I hope it's a good one. Much love to everyone- we would never have made it through everything without the support and encouragement of all of our family and friends. Love, (new parents) Maren & Peter

Last Day of Freedom

Hey everybody! I tried to put up a video but it gave me an error message several times and I have to head to bed so I'll try again tomorrow. Sorry. So it was our last day ever without our little one. It's so crazy! But I am glad that we decided to wait and get him tomorrow because we spent the evening with all of our other buddies celebrating. There are two other couples, the Peruvians and Canadians, who are also picking up their sweeties tomorrow so everyone met up at the Biteryk (I have no idea how to spell that one but it is the tall spiky building near the capital) to see it at night and then we all walked down the 'mall' to the base of the oil building and had dinner together. There were 10 of us and it was a mix of people like us who are almost done with the process and who are excited to be on their way out and people who have just gotten here and are excited to be starting the process. It was really nice. And as always, Gulsanna came along with us. I just love her. She entertaining and fun and helpful and I just want to kidnap her and take her home with us. How exactly do we get her a visa to visit the US? We are still not sure exactly when we'll get getting our guy but you can bet that we will let you know the second he is permanently ours. We were supposed to go in the morning but there is some kind of 'special inspection' of course so they said they would let us know. "Probably the afternoon" is what we were told. We get to sleep in anyway. 'Til tomorrow... -m

Monday Could Have Been our Last Day of Visiting

Hi Everyone! So here is why most of our photos are ones of him not looking at the camera. When he notices me taking his picture, this is what happens. He's obsessed with the camera. Oh well. Anyway, today was good as well. We had lots of other families visiting at the same time so it was fun. And our guy wasn't the only one shrieking so that was good (except that we were supposed to be quiet because of the inspector). I told our friend from Cleveland that Rinat taught her boy how to do it. HaHa- I'm so proud. Then after visiting time we went to get some stuff notarized which took about 2 hours. In Kaz, when something gets notarized, they don't staple the documents together like in the states. No, they sew them together with two stitches along the side and then glue a signed piece of paper over the ends of the string to show it has not been tampered with. Interesting. After sitting at the bank for several hours, we then went to a souvenir shop across the street and Gulsanna helped us buy some small paintings for Rinat's room. By that time, it was just about time for dinner so Peter and I went again to our fave place, Ali Babba, and had piva, shashlyk, and broccoli (yum, a green veggie!). I think I may have described it before, but the restaurant is both cheap and really pretty. It is a tented outdoor restaurant with everything decorated beautifully with small secluded low tables at the sides and the servers in gorgeous costumes. I just love it. And they have a playground off to the side with dining tables near it and there are kids having meltdowns and playing so I thinking we may have to have one last dinner there before we head to Almaty when we have our shrieker with us. And, OK, I have something to admit. I am a bad mother already. As Yurlan was dropping us off at our apt yesterday afternoon, Baheet said that we were going to pick Rinat up Tues night. And what was my response at her saying we were getting him a day early? Nope, not me jumping up and down in joy, I said "But we are all going out to dinner one last time. We can't take him yet." Yes, we could have gotten him at 6:30 tonight (Tues) but instead, the horrible person that I am, we are going Wednesday morning to get him. I think that will be better anyway. Poor babies get picked up right before they are supposed to go to bed, are brought to a totally new place, and then they are supposed to go along with their regular schedule? Yeah, right. I hope that if we get him tomorrow morning, then he'll have a while to adjust and calm down before it's actually time to go to sleep at night. That and the fact that I don't have enough tissue paper for all of the caretakers gifts. And I still need to put a bunch of stuff away in the apt so he doesn't get into trouble. Bad mother? Maybe just a little. But I have to say, that Peter didn't protest either. As a matter of fact, we had both considered the stay-at-the-BH-until-Almaty option as well too. Anyway, our internet is kind of on the fritz so if we are behind in emailing or blogging, that's probably the reason. Oh, and I realized that Blogger will let us put in video now so be sure to use a fast connection next time you check our blog and hopefully we'll have a short video for you of our guy on our next post. Maybe he'll even shriek for you! -m

Our Last Day without Rinat

Hey all- This will be a short one since we have nothing really to report and also my goober husband needs the internet for his fantasy football league in 10 minutes. So today we did nothing. Literally. Peter read an entire book and I spent a long time looking at baby clothes online. I figure it's the last time we will be legally barred from spending time with our little one so we better get in all the rest and relaxation that we can. Also, I am tired of looking at souvenirs and baby clothes and we don't need anything from the grocery store so our choices were limited. But we did get together with all of the other families who are here with the exception of one who was under the weather. Our friend from Cleveland made beans & rice, Peter and I brought apps, someone else brought wine, salads, dessert. And we just hung out for a few hours. It was nice to have something to look forward to on the day that we don't get to see our sweet baby. Anyway, that was our day in a nutshell. Hope yours was good! -m

The IceShow/Circus- a full day

Hey everybody! Today was a pretty good day too. We got up and had visitation from 10-12 since there is only one visitation time on Saturdays. It was chaos. But in a good way of course. Let's see, there was Me/Peter/Rinat/Gulsanna, our Canadian friend/her sis/her son, our friend from Cleveland/her son/their translator Malika, our friends from Peru/their daughter/their translator Aliya, a new friend from Manhattan/her daughter, our new friends from Michigan/their 2 year old son/translator. Like I said- chaos. But it's so fun to have the kids play together, share their toys, and beat each other over the head with them. Kidding. Sort of. Rinat was his usual sweet self and I finally made a point to get some photos of him smiling just in case anyone didn't think that he ever did. It seems like whenever he is smiling and giggling, I just forget all about the camera and enjoy playing with him. I can't believe I have a whole day before we can see him again. Argh! But on Wednesday, he'll be ours forever. It's kind of unbelievable and I just don't know that it will sink in until it actually happens. Peter kept obsessing over when exactly the 15 day waiting was up and I finally figured out that he is wanting to know when the mother is no longer allowed to come back and reclaim him. Someone told us about a mother who came back on the 14th day. But we're not going to think about that- cancel, cancel. I kind of got a kick out of the new couple from Michigan who, after me saying my name, they said "Oh, we know who you are, and that your son is Rinat, and that you get him next week- we've been reading your blog." It was kind of weird but also kind of great that we could actually meet one of the people who were are helping to prepare for their trip. It was nice. So, after visiting with our little hellfire, we went to lunch at this Uzbeck place that we have been once before and loved it. It's so good. The menu is pretty much the same (lagman, manty, mongolian chicken), but the restaurant is prettier and the service better, and the food is soooo good. Yum. Then we went back to the apt where Peter slept off his piva for a bit, then off to the ice show/circus. First of all, we went with Gulsanna and her cousin's two kids- aged 2 and 10. The older one was sooooooo excited about meeting Americans. It was so cute. She even made sure to get a photo with us before it was over. And I gave her some little pencils that I brought from America. She was just the sweetest ever. But back to the show. It was really kind of fun. It's been a while since I've gone to any kind of event where children outnumber the adults 3 to 1 and I forgot how crazy it is. The show included everything from regular figure skating on a rink that was all of 25 feet across, to animal tricks, unicycles, double dutch, magic, juggling, these cool spinning shapes, people hanging from ropes (with no tether), clowns, trapeze, and, best of all, rocking out to 'Back in the USSR'. It was so fun. And it was really nice to do something out of the ordinary here. I am looking forward to next Thursday, Friday, Saturday which is a holiday (Consitution Day). I am hoping that there might be some cultural stuff going on. Of course it might be a struggle to get out on the first day after we get our feisty little guy (I'm a little apprehensive about that first night- can you tell? I hope he can't), but I am really hoping we can manage it for at least a little while. They have left the stage up from the Nur Aton (Homeland) celebrations prior to the parliament elections on the 18th so I am guessing there might be something going on there next weekend. And it's only a few minutes from our place. Anyhow, we will let you know what we find. Until then, enjoy the quiet of DC (and everywhere else) because Rinat the Shrieker is coming soon! Have a great Saturday! -m

The Museum

Hi all- Here's our post for Friday even though I know you'll be reading it on Saturday. This morning, we went to the museum across the Ramstore and it was really nice. They had a lot of gifts given by different world leaders including something from the President of Tatarstan where our little guy is perhaps from. And there was the Ethnographic Hall with beautiful rugs and a big yurt in the middle. On the second floor they had lots of replicas of the amazing mausoleums around Kazakhstan and a room full of decorations with gold and gems including a full suit made of gold. And there was an area that talked a bit about the pagan religions that existed before either Islam or Christianity came to Kazakhstan. By then we'd been there for a couple hours and we decided to go back and eat some lunch. We'll check out floors 3, 4, 5 & the museum store (with rugs) later and let you know how they were. Our visit with Rinat was, of course, fantastic as always. He was really sleepy when we got there (I think they woke him up, fed him, and handed him over) and he just sat still with me for a about 30 minutes and then was raring to go as always. He is just loving the fact that he can get around so quickly. We are not loving it so much but at least in the playroom, we know there is limited trouble he can get into. We'll have to figure out how much to babyproof at home so we can feel the same there. Then we ran and got Baheet's gift (some perfume) and some Russian baby books at the bookstore next door. Then we hung out at home, made dinner, went to bed. I can't believe that pretty soon our life will be completely different. I can't wait. -m

Our Little Drooler

Hi- Yes, I am a slacker and am behind on blogging yet again. And I really should not be because our little sweetie was an absolute angel today (Thursday) and I should have told you. He had not one single complaint so apparently whatever it was that was the problem was not repeated. I have been watching what they feed him for the last day or so and there was no buckwheat involved in today's lunch so maybe that helped? I dunno. But he was laughing and smiling the whole entire two hours. We were so happy that our guy didn't have any more problems. The only time we heard a peep from him in the screaming department was when he thought I was taking Peter's sunglasses from him- he loves to chew on them- he let out one of his shrieks and I loved it. He's so spunky! And I love that he is letting out a big grin when he realizes that we are there to see him. And that he crawls into my lap when he's tired and needs to snuggle. And that he chuckles when Peter attacks his belly. And that he has the biggest, toothless grin whenever he sees himself in the mirror. God, does he love to look at himself. I think he might be kinda vain. I have to admit, thought, that I think he's really good looking too. And I have found myself trying to find his father in the crowd here. Before, I kept looking at the kids trying to figure out what he might look like when he's school aged, but I have started trying to find someone with his same chin. For some reason, I feel like his chin comes from his dad. It seems like a strong chin. And I think his eyes come from his mom- they seem intelligent and kind. Maybe that's weird but for some reason I just have it in my head. Of course everyone here tells us he looks like Peter. I had always thought it would bother me for people to say he looks like one of us when we both know he doesn't share any of our genes, but it doesn't. It makes me happy. Although I wouldn't have cared if he didn't look even remotely like us either. I would have adored him just the same. Anyway, it was a great day. I hope yours was too! -m

Same Old, Same Old

Hey everyone! So babycakes was a little bit better today but still had some issues. Gulsanna even went to try and find the doctor and see if she could offer any guidance but she was out of the building. It's so sad! I am wondering if they gave him some new food or something that maybe doesn't agree with him. Gulsanna said it looked like mashed potatoes (which he has had before) and buckwheat. But since we have no idea what they feed him the rest of the time, it's kind of hard to know. Oh well, he's ours soon enough and we can do whatever we want, feed him whenever we want, and give him water if we want. I guess it's kind of good that we are alone for visitation these days because I'm afraid it might have scared the bejeezus out of the others. But aside from that he was happy and smiling and active as always. And, as you can see, he enjoyed reading his photo album again today. Other than that, our day was pretty uneventful. Get up, drink coffee, read, internet, lunch, grocery store, walk to Astana Bakery to get dinner (roast chicken, rice, green beans, cabbage salad- Yum!), TV. Groundhog Day all over again. The only slightly exciting thing that happened today was our landlord came by to collect rent. She is just the sweetest ever. Her name is Larissa and she is so sweet and I just want to hug her for some reason. Gulsanna told me, however, that I was supposed to clean the apartment before she got there so it was a mad rush to pick all our junk up (I had actually just vacuumed and dusted a few days prior if you can believe it). Anyone who knows us knows that there was stuff everywhere- dirty dishes in the sink, dirty clothes on the floor, piles of books that we have read, piles of Rinat's clothes to take with us to the Baby House. I asked Gulsanna if every one's landlord came by every month to collect and inspect the apartment and she said 'yes' in her way that kind of means more like 'of course, how else would they do it?' I was telling her that in the states, we just mail the landlord a check and the only time we see them is when we sign the contract and when we move out. And she said that they don't use checks because of forgery and that most people don't even put their money in the bank because it costs too much to open an account. Interesting. I think some smart person that we know should open a bank with no fee to open an account and get rich. Any takers? Then maybe next time we come we can just use a check instead of hauling a bunch of cash around- although our stack of cash is rapidly dwindling. Well, that's all I can think of for now. I think we may go to the museum tomorrow so maybe I will have something a bit more interesting to talk about. Have a good day! -m

Someone Has Issues

So today was not all fun and games. *If you are not interested in the bathroom habits of our child, stop reading immediately. This is for parental eyes only* Not that it's ever an entire two hours of fun but for the first time I could understand how sad it is when you little one is in pain. He was fine for the first half hour or so and then he started grunting with his face turning all red and I kind of laughed and joked "Hmm. Somebody might get to change a dirty diaper today- Peter it's all you." Then he did it again and again and again and got louder and louder and louder. He would be fine and play for a couple of minutes and then he would go stiff and it would happen again. And he got to the point where he was just panting in between and sweating constantly. And then his whole body would go rigid and he screamed, then relaxed and caught his breath again and whimpered and we saw actual tears for the first time. I didn't know what to do for him to make him feel better and I felt terrible. And it's not like I could strip him down and see what's going on down there with all of the caretakers and people around, and I didn't have any meds to give him. So we got him some chamomile tea (which he threw up) and tried to massage his belly and finally after an hour we took him to his room to ask them about it and ask what they fed him (so we don't give it to him) and they put him on a little potty to see if it would help him go. Honestly I was also kind of afraid someone would come in to find out what the screaming was about. But nope, no luck with the little potty (and he was screaming while sitting on it too). But by then it was time to go and we just put him down for nap. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm sure he's fine and we know he is in good hands (there are 3 doctors there if he needs anything) but it's just kind of sad to see. Anyway, he was really great today aside from that issue. It's just sort of frustrating when he's ours but not really ours so we can't do anything for him. But we are supposed to get him a week from today (the 29th) so that's good. And they said we would likely be going to Almaty on the 3rd and home to the States on the 6th even though there is a three day holiday (Constitution Day) next Thurs/Fri/Sat. We were worried it might hold us up but it doesn't sound like it. We will let you know for sure when we know! Have a great Tuesday! -m

It's Been One Month Today

OK so this post is for yesterday (Monday). What can I say. I'm a slacker. Sorry but you'll just have to pretend it is yesterday.
Hi All! So as of today we have known our little poopsie for an entire month and we are amazed at how much he has changed already. He has gone from scooting to crawling, from having short spiky hair to having hair almost long enough to lay down, and most importantly from having no idea of who we are to coming to us for comfort and playtime. And it's amazing that in all of this time, we've only gotten to see him for 53 hours. I know because I counted. So we have known him only for a little over two days and we are already so attached to him. I can't even imagine how we'll feel when he is ours forever (quick, find some wood to knock on!). We have one more week to go and then I guess we'll find out. I can't wait. In other news, we have found that our little Rinat likes to sit in my lap while I read him a book. I'm so happy. I thought he would just grab it to chew on instead of actually listening to the story. I tried to rush through the book before he could wriggle away but he just sat there listening. As a matter of fact, I read our book to him twice and then got out our photo album (Thanks Carse!) and he looked at that for another few minutes before he started with the chewing. We only brought one book with us but it looks like we may have to invest in some more. We have started looking for board books in Russian but they are kind of hard to find. I know for sure that I can't read a book with any kind of story in it but I figure I can handle the Russian in a board book. I would love to find one of those books with a picture and word on each page. I can probably handle sounding out yablakah and konyeega (the words for 'apple' and 'book' by the way). We'll see. Alright, I'm going to work on today (Tuesday)'s post now. -m

Food for Rinat and Food for Us

Hi all- So our big outing today (Sunday- I'm posting late) was to buy baby food for when our little one comes home next week. We bought a lot. You'll notice there is formula (instructions in Russian of course), chamomile and fennel tea (in case his belly bothers him when we give him totally different food than he is used to), some little biter biscuits (which he has never had but we think he'll enjoy- and do you notice the name? BabyCakes. Cute, huh?), and lots of jars of stuff. They even have cereal in jars so we don't have to figure out how to mix it when we can't read the instructions. Hopefully it'll tide us over until we get home to the states.

I have also been meaning to tell you a little about what we have been eating for the last month or so. They loooove meat here, especially lamb since they grow well here on the steppe. One of the other translators tells us they eat so much meat because they need the protein to get through the long winters. My theory is that they have long winters when veggies and fruits don't grow so therefore they don't eat them. And one of the others was telling us that they asked their translator what she ate for a snack and her response was "I am Kazakh. I like meat." We can't wait to get home and go to Whole Foods and buy out the entire produce section. Some of the food here is really good but there is very little variety- or maybe it's just that I don't know how to read the menu and just keep ordering the same thing. Here are some highlights:

Soup: Goulash (beef and veggies), Borsh (veggies), Kazakh (little meatballs and noodles in chicken broth), Lagman (beef/lamb and onions/redpeppers with homemade noodles in broth)

Main: Shashlyk (kebabs- chicken, lamb, beef, ground beef, fish), Plov (rice with meat and other stuff like carrots, raisins, chickpeas), Manty (big steamed meat dumplings), Pelmeni (small meat ravioli), Vareniki (small potato ravioli with sour cream or butter on top), Beliashi (big fried pastries with ground meat), Chicken puff pastry things, Fried Lagman

Bread: Baursakis/Kazakh Bread (small fried doughball like donut holes without the sugar), Khleb/Russian bread (regular white bread), small rounds breads with different things in the middle, brown German bread

Snack for beer: pistacios, dried out salty tring cheese, Pringles, croutons (yes, like we put on salad), chunks of meat and sausage (imagine that)

And that about covers it. *For those who are on their way to Astana, the best place in the entire city to get dinner is the bakery in the basement of the Astana Grocery. They have all kinds of prepared foods like manty and plov and they have pastries galore like the beliashi thing (which looks like a semicircle as big as half a plate and gets all crunchy like a big wonton when you heat it up in the oven) and the chicken pastries (little triangles of puff pastry). And it has a ton of cakes and eclairs and breads. It's fantastic. And there is one guy there who speaks English and always says either "Mazeltov!" or "Bon Apetit!" when we check out. He's funny and always talks us into buying something that we haven't tried yet and it's always good. He'll probably hear you speaking English and come talk to you so he can practice. And now I'm hungry. And I miss my little pumpkin. Today, I took over the computer and looked at every single photo we've taken so far since we don't get to visit him on Sundays. He's so cute! -m

Full House Today

Hi! So on Saturdays all of the families have visitation at the same time and it's kind of like a party. We go from 10-12 and it is so much fun with everyone in the same room playing with their kids and everyone else's kids and sharing toys and chatting about things. And we had our friend from Buffalo come to visit with her little girl who she brought home on Monday. I think her little sweetie was really happy to be in a familiar place and see familiar people. And it was nice to talk to her and just kind of get an idea of how things are going now that she has her full time. Apparently these kids can eat. They can eat a whole lot. Our friends from Michigan said the same thing of their tiny little one who also came home with them on Monday. I guess this will be the first time they have been able to eat as much as they want rather than as much as they are allotted or how much time it takes them to eat it. So we are going to stock up at the store tomorrow. And we are getting ready for the screamfest that is going to take place when we take him from the BH (although our Buffalo friend said her little one has been OK). Gulsanna today said she thinks that Rinat will have a tough time and she said we are welcome to keep him at the BH until we go to Almaty. I said thanks for the offer but I think we'll take him as soon as they'll let us. Now would be fine as a matter of fact. After visiting, Peter was in the mood for lagman (that reminds me- I need to write about the food. maybe tomorrow) so we went to a really good restaurant by the capital. We were talking about how quickly the time has flown by and Baheet told us that we'll only be here for a week and a half/2 weeks at the most. Oh my gosh! And then she said she thinks we'll be flying home around the 6th. Oh my gosh again! And I have to admit I am a little sad. Don't get me wrong, I am dying to get home and be back in my familiar life but I think I might miss this place a little bit. It has come to mean so much to Peter and I and we'll do our best to remember every second that we have spent here. Peter even said to me that he couldn't even imagine having a family the normal way now, it seems so boring. I don't know that labor is boring exactly but the excitement of us building our family has been great. And now we are off to our friend's house to hang out for a while before the Michigan couple leaves for Almaty tomorrow. See ya! -m

All Smiles Today

Hi! So babycakes was all smiles today. Well, mostly anyway. He was raring to go from the second we picked him up from his room and didn't really stop for 2 hours. BTW- his room is the Matryoshka Room (someone commented that the guy she adopted was in that room as well). It's what the nesting dolls are called. Anyway, he was a total sweetie and we had a great 2 hours with him. I think he is finally getting attached to us the way we are to him. Today he was whining about something (who knows what) and crawled straight over to me and climbed into my lap. My little heart was happy and I think maybe Peter was a little bit jealous. And Peter got quite a few belly laughs out of him by making googley noises and tickling his stomach. It was really cute and I was definitely jealous. And oh my gosh is he crawling! No more of this tentative, shaky crawling. He has got it down pat and he's getting really fast. He can now make it across the entire playroom without stopping except to pause for a couple seconds to eat a piece of lint along the way. And I was telling Carson that when I stand him up now, he starts taking steps. I'm nipping that in the bud. I don't think I can deal with him walking anytime soon. I mean, I can hardly deal with the fact that he's crawling. He seemed to master it a little too quickly for my liking. Today brought the IPOD to visitation to give Gulsanna something to do while we we play and she put the music to his ear and was laughing when he started nodding to the music. Apparently he likes Cat Stevens and Gladys Knight & the Pips. He also really liked it when Peter decided to drown him in the ball pit. Peter stuck him in there and squished him down until all we could see was his little head. It was really funny- guess you had to be there. After visitation Peter and I went to the Baby Mall (aka Pucha) and looked for some footie pj's for when he comes home to the apartment with us. It's been a bit chilly and the heat doesn't get turned on until Oct I think. We didn't find any footies but we did find a little outfit with elephants (we needed something warm to put him in when his blue hoodie is in the wash) and this funny outfit that Peter picked out that has a cat dressed like a pirate and it says Yo-Ho-Ho and has matching pants with anchors on them. I'm sure you'll see them in upcoming photos. (PS if you want the shutterfly photos you have to give me your email address and I'll add you to future emails). Then we went to dinner at Vaquero. Yes, there is a Mexican restaurant here. It's more like KazMex than TexMex but it's as close comfort food as we get here. And now it's time for some real comfort food- morozhinaye (ice cream!). They sell Baskin Robbins here although I don't know that it's actually the real thing but whatever. It's still good. Real good. Have a great day and weekend! -m

Better Today

Hey- So he was a feeling a little better today as you can see. A little whiny for the first hour but then we gave him some tea and he had a burst of energy and was crawling all over the place. They give them something that they call fruit tea here. The one that they usually use is a powder mixed with water (made by the British organic baby food company Hipp) but sometimes they make it from scratch and as I understand it they take a bunch of dried fruit, pour boiling water over it, let it steep for a while, add a little sugar and let it cool. Then they puree the fruit to feed them and use the fruitywater as 'tea'. They had some homemade stuff one time and so there was a bunch of lumps floating in his bottle. He kept sucking them up into the nipple which then, of course, clogged it up and he got so frustrated. In retrospect, I guess I could have fished the big lumps out but I know he would have been screaming thinking I was taking his bottle away. He loooooves his tea. And now we are off for today (Friday)'s visit. -m

Sleepy Baby

Hi All- Something was wrong with the little pumpkin today and he was EXHAUSTED. He had a runny nose yesterday so I am wondering if he might have a little cold or something. Or maybe one of the other kids cried all night long and kept him up. Or maybe there was a keg party at the Baby House. I don't know but the boy was tired. But the caretakers made sure we had a sweatshirt to put on him so I think they noticed that he didn't seem quite himself also. Or maybe it's just that it's cold here today- so cold I could actually see my breath! Anyway, he was fine for the first hour but then he got all whiny, which is unusual for him, and he actually cried when we didn't pick him up right away. I thought maybe he was doing it just for fun because he has been doing the thing where he whines until I pick him up and then has this triumphant 'Ha! I got her!' half smile on his face. But it turns out that he honestly was tired and just wanted soothing. Peter happily held him as he fell asleep. Anyone notice that Peter's the sucker that lets him break the rules (we are not supposed to let him sleep outside of nap time)?But after a while we got bored and we actually did the transfer from Peter's shoulder to the floor just to see if he would wake up. We had to do something to entertain ourselves for the 45 minutes that he was asleep since it was just Gulsanna, Peter, and I in there staring at each other. But he was completely sacked out. Anyone think that'll work at home? Yeah, I'm not counting on it either. And now it's time for me to sack out. Goodnight! -m

So Where Do We Go from Here?

Hey everyone- So I know you are all wondering what's next in the process with our little one. First, there is the 15 day appeals period. I thought I would really be sweating it out at this point but I'm not. Our coordinator and everyone here are so confident that it makes me feel as if we are done with the hard part. As a matter of fact, we went to lunch after court and our coordinator gave a toast and said something to the effect of "August 13th will live forever in your memory. Today is the day that you are parents." It was really sweet and I figured that if she is no longer worried about anything that could go wrong, then I need to not worry about it. And honestly, I think she might tear the head off of anyone who stood in our way- she's very protective. OK so 15 days and then we are hoping that we can pick our guy up on or around the 28th but it depends on if Dr. Alma is free to meet with us because, of course, there are a million papers to sign- we are taking a living person out of her care after all. Then we will have him with us forever. Yay!!! We will stay in Astana for as long as it takes to get him his Kazakh passport (between 2 and 10 days). Then we'll catch a flight to Almaty where we have 2 days of appointments. The first day we go to the SOS International Health Clinic and we have to get him an HIV test and the Once Over to make sure he's healthy. He's already already had all of these tests before but they want them done again by the US approved doctor there before he is allowed to immigrate to the US. Then the following day after all of the results are in, we have an interview at the US embassy to get all of his paperwork on that end done. We have to agree to take care of him and not abandon him to be a ward of the government and all of that. Then we get to come home- as soon as we can get a flight out. We bought the changeable tickets so we can change them no big deal, but we just have to find a flight with room for us. We are hoping to be home around the 12th of September. That sounds like it's a long way off, but we have been here a month already and it has just flown by. Hopefully the next month will too. Our friends from Michigan and our friend from Buffalo got their kids on Monday and let me just tell all of those people who said "It'll be great, you kid will already be sleeping through the night" that this is most definitely not the case. Their little girl slept about an hour the first night and I think about the same last night. Poor thing is so confused and scared. They said she shook the whole day long because she was terrified. And in the 10 minute car ride with us to the BH to sign some more papers, she yawned probably 5 times. She must be just exhausted. I am going to be so sad for Rinat because I know he'll be feeling the same thing when we steal him away from everything he knows. And just when he's getting comfortable with the apartment, we're going to fly to Almaty, and just when he's comfortable with Almaty, we're going to fly home. Peter and I are going to try to be camels and store up our sleep for when we get the little guy. Anyway, have a great day! -m

The Nitty Gritty on Court

Hey- So some people were asking for more details about court. I'll give you the play-by-play both for our families who are curious and for those soon-to-be adopters out there reading this. Our appointment time was 9:30 so we got there a few minutes before with Gulsanna, Baheet, and our Ministry of Education representative in tow. At 9:20 I was really nervous sitting on the bench outside the courtroom and the butterflies in my stomach were going insane. At 9:30 I started going over my speech in my head. At 9:45 I started going over Peter's speech in my head. At 9:50 I started going over my grocery list in my head. At 9:55 I asked Gulsanna what we were doing and she informed me that we were waiting for the prosecutor who then walked by us on his way to the courtroom. At 10:10 I asked Gulsanna what we were doing now. She said we were waiting for the court secretary who then walked past us into the courtroom. Game On. We went into the room and sat on the front bench and Baheet told me to stop smiling. It is bad to smile- I should cry instead. Well, let me just say I was not the first of our family to break down. We stood as the judge read our petition to adopt Rinat. Then it was Peter's turn to give his speech and my sweet, strong hubbie got about 2 sentences into his speech and his voice started to crack and he got all choked up. Which of course made me cry and Baheet had to give me a tissue. Peter talked about us, about our families, jobs, marriage, why we wanted to adopt, why we chose KStan, and most of all how happy we are that we came here and that we met Rinat and that we just want to give him a good home. And when we come home we will tell everyone what a wonderful place Kaz is and how they should come here. And that we want to come back for another child. Then the judge asked him a couple of questions about why we did not adopt from US and if we knew about all of the rules and regulations of adoption in Kaz. Then it was my turn. I was already crying from Peter's speech and then I had to get up and talk with my face all red. Embarrassing. Oh, and I was shaking like a leaf. You know how sometimes in a book it describes how some one's knees were knocking together? Well, I never really knew what that meant until today. My entire body was going into spasms and I really couldn't help it no matter how hard I tried. I couldn't even really read the notes I had written out and I had to sort of wing it. I talked about how we had waited a long time to have a baby (sob) and we were so happy to have met Rinat (sob) and we adored him and wanted to have him with us forever (sob). And how we would make sure that he was healthy and happy (OK I am getting myself together at this point). And I would make sure he had a good education. And our family and friends are very happy for us and there will be a link for all of us to Kaz forever and we would be thankful forever to Kazakhstan for the opportunity (I had finally gotten myself together by this point). And how we looked forward to sending all of the post placement reports that we have to send for the next 18 years so they can see how happy he is. Then the prosecutor asked me who was going to take care of Rinat and judge asked if I thought that raising him would be difficult (aren't all kids difficult?). Then the Ministry of Ed rep got up and read this big four page document with all kinds of attachments and papers with stamps on them that Gulsanna translated as she read. It was all about how they had attempted to find the mother and were unable to. I'll give you the short version: Rinat was born in the Maternity Hospital in Astana. The mother left him there and when they tried to locate her they found she had give the wrong address. They also tried to find her by tracing her by her name but there is no one by that name in Astana or the surrounding areas. There was a whole lot more but I didn't really catch or remember all of it. The prosecutor and judge asked some questions but she seemed to be able to show the correct documentation and they were satisfied that every attempt had been made to find her. We then all left the courtroom for approximately 1 and a half minutes and then came in and the judge read her 2 page decision that came down to "he's yours as long as no one contests it in the next 15 days". And then we were almost-parents. Whew! It was such a relief. We went out into the hallway and chatted (and waited some more for the next couple to go so we could then give everyone their gifts- they are very big on gifts here). Gulsanna told us the judge said we sounded like political advisers for Kaz tourism because we mentioned many times how much we loved it and how much we wanted to come back. And she said the judge must have liked us because she smiled at the end and she never smiles for anyone. Yay us! So that is the very abbreviated version of our court experience. I know some of you out there are wondering what version of the truth we are going to tell Rinat about his parents. We are going to tell him the absolute truth. I cannot fathom how hard it would be for a mother to give up her child and I can only imagine that it must have been the most difficult decision that she has ever made. The only reason I can think of to do that is that she thought that he would have a better life with someone else than she could have given him herself. I'm sure it will be hard for him not knowing where he came from but I know we will give him a loving home and I hope that we can give him all that his mother wished for him to have. I would like to imagine his mother out there somewhere thinking about the family he might have gone to and seeing a family like us. Alright, I think my adrenaline is finally wearing off and I am getting tired. Peter, Mr. I'm-not-nervous-at-all, didn't sleep a wink last night and went to bed hours ago so I am off to join him. Have a great day! -m

Photos!

Photos!

He's (almost) Ours!

Rinat Armstrong Leggett

Born- December 26, 2006


Most adorable baby in the world :-)


About his name: Over here in Kazakhstan they have the rolling R's like in Spanish so the people here say his name like this (rrree-not) with a little empahsis on the 'Ri' but we're guessing it'll turn into something more like (rin-not) with no emphasis on either syllable when we get home. Actually Peter's version sounds something like that already. They tried to get him to roll the R for a couple of weeks and then gave up on him. They did inform us of a nickname, Riko (ree-koe) but it makes me think of 'rico suave'- that song from the early 90's so that's out. They also told us that the English version is Ryan so he may want to use it when he gets older. But we just figured he is a Kazakh boy and he should have a Kazakh name. It will be a link to his country that he will carry with him every day.


And now on to what I know everyone wants- pictures. Here is a taste of what he have taken over the last month. I am also going to share the albums that I have uploaded to Shutterfly to whoever wants them. There are between 10 and 40 for each day and I don't expect anyone to look at them all, but I just thought I would offer. Feel free to just delete them if you want or let me know and I will take you off the email list. I'll probably share a few albums every day until we are caught up. Check your email to see if I sent an invition from Shutterfly and if you didn't get it and you want to see more, just shoot me an email. And we will, of course, continue to add a few photos daily to the blog. Here you go...

Court Tomorrow

Hey everyone- I know you are excitedly awaiting photos of our guy so I am not even posting any photos until I can post ones of him. OK that and the fact that I want to head to bed in a few minutes and putting in photos takes forever. So tomorrow is our court day. I am really happy that we are the first ones of the day so we can get it over with. Baheet and Gulsanna came over this afternoon and prepped us on what we will be asked, what we should say and I don't think either of us is really nervous. Of course I may change my mind tomorrow at 9:20 but I'm good for now. Baheet made a point of telling Peter not to talk too long which I thought was really funny. And we have all of our gifts ready to give the judge and ministry of ed people so we're set with that. We still have to finish our photo documentation showing that we have actually seen him the last few weeks but that's something we can do in the morning. Other than that, all we have to do is sleep, get up, get ready, and go. Thank goodness for ambien because I know there is no way I would sleep otherwise. Our court appt is at 9:30 but I am not sure when we will get a chance to post so please don't stay up late tonight to get the update. I'm sure we will not get the chance to come straight home afterwards to post. It seems we always get shuffled around and have to go run a million errands and do paperwork and things so we may not even get a chance to post until later so don't assume that there is something wrong. It may just be that we ran to the grocery store with M&T to get formula and diapers for their girl that they take out of the BH tomorrow. Also, I know that we have visitation 2-4 tomorrow so we really may not have a chance until after that. So don't stress if we don't post right away- you've waited 4 years so you can wait just a few more little hours, right?

Talk to you tomorrow -m

Poor Baby

Hey guys- Here's a photo from a while ago that I thought was cute. It's basically everything but the part you most want to see, right? Soon enough, soon enough... So our poor boy was sick today. We were waiting in the anteroom for the caretakers to get him up, feed him and change him (nice, huh?) and we heard this really sad crying. We've never actually heard real crying from him but we could tell it sounded like his voice and sure enough it was. The caretaker told us to go to the playroom and she would bring him there. When she came in (wearing a Michael Jackson surgical face mask no less) she told us that he had been really sick since yesterday and we were to bundle him up in a sweatshirt and sweatpants in the 80 degree room and to keep the windows closed so there was no draft (too bad for the other couple there with their healthy girl- they had to sweat along with us). He did seem a little pale and his face was all blotchy but the second that Peter went to get him out of her arms, his little face broke into a smile. It was really sweet. And, all considered, we actually had a nice visit with him. There was a little puke involved and he was a little subdued- no crawling, no shrieking- but overall it was good. Apparently there has been something making the rounds with our group (maybe because they just introduced a new kid to the mix for the single woman who came two days ago) and some of the kids have been feeling pretty bad. But our guy seems alright with the boot-and-rally. Better now than in college, right? Anyway, we- and you all- only have 1 whole day left until court. Can you believe it? Tomorrow, Baheet and Gulsanna are coming over for the pre-court prep session. I have a feeling it is going to make me feel more nervous rather than less. Oh well, I'm sure we'll meet up with the others for beers or something at night to calm our nerves before the big day. And maybe some souvenir shopping. Alright, it's midnight so I'm off to bed. Arrivaderci. -m
And I have to give mad props to Jolie who made a really sweet slide show and posted the link under the comments for the "He's a maniac" post. Thanks Jolie! Check it out!

He's a Maniac...Maniac...on the floor (flashdance song is in my head)

Hey there everyone! Here is our guy with one of his little friends during an outing a while ago. He's the one on the left in blue... So today was a really rough day. OK not really- We slept in 'til 9:00, ate some breakfast, surfed the net and read, Peter went to lunch with friends while I showered, we saw our boy (who was a total maniac), had a facial, went out to a nice dinner. I know, rough life right? HaHa you suckers who are taking care of our house and cat. We're really just on one big long vacay. So speaking of our maniac child. He was totally out of control today. It was good to see. A lot of times he is kind of quiet and just observes what's going on around him (there is usually a lot going on with maybe 10 adults and 4 babies in the smallish playroom- it's about the size of our living room). Well, not today. Today he was crawling all over the place, "BaBaBa" and "MaMaMa"-ing, and shrieking just as loud as his lungs would allow- just for kicks. Wow. That plane ride is going to be AWESOME. Our fellow fliers are going to hate us with a passion. I kind of wonder however if he got the 'mom and dad are out of town and we can do whatever we want' vibe from me and decided to celebrate. We had another couple come to Astana en route to another city so instead of hanging out with us at the BH, Gulsanna and Baheet took them sightseeing. It was the first time that it's been just us parents and our kids and no one else in the playroom (except for the Michigan couple). I just love everyone that we work with but it was so incredibly nice not to have anyone watching over us for the first time ever. I finally have a feel for what it will be like when we get home. And it will be fantastic. I really can't wait. And speaking of getting our boy home- we are really looking forward to our next step on Monday. Our appt for court is at 9:30 and then the Peruvians are scheduled for 10:00 so it they can't possibly grill us too badly in 30 minutes, right? The Canadians aren't until 5:30 that evening which sucks because they have to sweat it out all day long. And then the Michigan couple and the Buffalo couple should hopefully get their children on Monday because they are two weeks ahead of us. And there is a new single woman from Ohio who got here today and should have everything set and should be in the groove by Monday. So it will be a day of celebration for us all. We'll be going crazy over here in KStan! Oh my gosh it's late and I have to get some sleep. Later. -m

Our Apartment

Hello all! Here's little guy's cute booty. I thought you would like it. Oh, and yesterday he we had regular 2-4 visitation in the playroom so he was totally happy to be in his element and he was a maniac and full of energy and we noticed two new things. #1 He sat by himself without falling over for several minutes #2 He full-on crawled. Not just took at couple of knees forward, but crawled probably 2 feet across the mat several times during the visit. Super exciting!... So I am sorry for the lame posts the last few days but I was not exactly feeling myself. Anyone who knows me well, will be shocked when I say that I finally caved after being sick for two weeks and started taking my antibiotics. I know, can you believe I am taking meds? ME? So anyway, I am feeling much better now so I am trying to think of something exciting to tell you about KStan. Let me look through some of your comments. Fabulous Jen commented several times on how happy we look and I have to say that she is entirely correct. Life here is very different than we are used to of course, but there is no place we would rather be. We don't even care that we are totally clueless and confused half the time and are covered in itchy bites and wear the same clothes day after day. Oh yeah, and I have to ask Gulsanna who wins the Twixel prize for guessing all of the languages. Mmmmm...Twixels. So good. I'll get back to you on that one, Aunt Deborah and Nancy. Someone else was asking about our apartment. It's huge. Probably about the same size as 2 floors of our house- about 800-1000ft.- and we have a anteroom (for shoe removal of course!), a kitchen to the left, and then along the hallway to the left there are a dining/living room, a bedroom, and a living/TV room at the end. The TV gets a couple of interesting channels. My fave, of course, is Fashion TV followed by World Fashion, and then the French music video channel. And sometimes the Travel Channel or Discovery or Animal Planet has things in English- you just have to catch them at the right time. The only thing Peter watches is FoxNews. The kitchen is about 3 times the size of ours at home. Not that we have used it to do anything but cook pasta and store our Twixels but it is nice. Peter even tried to have corn as a snack yesterday (yes, it's weird but we are really missing veggies here) and we couldn't figure out which contraption was a can opener. And we've been using a tea stainer to scoop pasta out of the boiling water because there is no colander but we are making do. We don't have AC but we haven't really needed it because we have a cross breeze and we're on the 8th floor- although Peter is absolutely covered in mosquito bites because of the open windows. But it's cooling down a whole lot so hopefully that means the end of mosquito season. Our apt is about 2 blocks from the river which is nice and a 15 minute walk down the pretty riverwalk from all of the shops, restaurants, and the other 2 couples. We have a playground and listen to the kids playing outside our window until midnight. We have a washing machine but have to hangdry our clothes on a rack on the porch and we don't have a dishwasher so we will have a new appreciation of these things when we get home. And for some reason the washing machine is in German so we just push buttons until it starts washing and hope for the best. I did turn an entire load of wash purple somehow so obviously we're doing something wrong. Oh well. And gosh do I miss Bounce dryer sheets. I could hold my jeans sideways and they would still lay flat after laying them on the dryer rack to dry. And let me tell you, Lynden, that your theory of cheap sheets being like nightly exfoliation is totally untrue. Scratchy sheets are just scratchy sheets- not a spa treatment. But overall the apartment has been really great. We have had no problems with power, internet, or water like some others have which is much apprectiated. Oh and we are in one of those buildings with a door lady and she is just supersweet and she always smiles and says hello (zdrast vutye) when we come and go. And there is a minimarket underneath which is nice when we need more water or TP. Anyway, below are some photos. The building with the blue balconies on the other side of the playground is where the Michiganites live. I will blog about food and clothes in upcoming posts- any requests or questions are welcome! Have a good Friday! -m

Another Short One

Hey everybody- Yes, he has arms. Here's one of them. Enjoy... So I don't really have all that much to say today either. Sorry to be so unbelievable boring but we really haven't been up to much. Oh, did I tell you we had girls and boys night on Tuesday? Yup, the girls watched Music & Lyrics, which is a cute chick flick, while the boys went and played basketball with some Kazakh teens. Our translators joined us for the movie and I am always surprised when they want to hang out with us- don't they get tired of the weirdo foreigners? We never get tired of them, though, because they are so darn sweet. And they are young too- 22 and 18 I think- so they are fun to hang out with. Gulsanna and I spend forever looking at purses and shoes at the malls. After the movie we went down and watched our men get schooled by the Kstan boys and Gulsanna and Malika kept whispering to each other in Russian. I am guessing they were talking about the cute guys. But we do actually hang out with the translators a lot. On Monday after our late visitation (6-8pm), we all went to dinner together at the Mexican place, Vaquero, and Gulsanna and the translator of the Canadians came with us then too. They are really a great source of info about Kaz. Of course, most of our questions go something like this, "Do girls here think Justin Timberlake is cute? What about Brad Pitt? What do you think of Paris Hilton?" OK so the last question was one I asked Gulsanna early on and her response "I hate her, she's trash" was a good indication of how well we'd get along. But it has also been really great to be able to talk to her about the history of Kaz and how people feel about the soviet years and what they think of the current president- stuff like that. Holy smokes, I just looked at my watch and it's almost 2am. Gotta go. Have a great day! -m

Short Post

Hi all- Someone requested more body parts so here's an ear. I tried to get hair but it't kinda hard to get the hair without the face- especially since he won't sit still for more than 4 seconds... Sorry I didn't get to post again yesterday. We actually ended up going to visitation from 6-8pm last night and then to dinner afterwards. We didn't get home until almost midnight. And today was pretty uneventful except for the fact that there are some people doing inspections at the BH so our regular visit schedule is all outta whack. And I apologize yet again but it's time for tired people like me to hit the sack. It's after 1am here and I am exhausted. Goodnight! -m Oh, and anyone who can name all of the languages found on the back of this candy bar box wins a box of Twixels. Mmmm... I'll give you a hint, one of the languages is Russian. :-)

Our Escape from the Everyday

Hi everyone! Sorry I didn't get a chance to blog before I sacked out last night. I thought I'd do 2 posts today to make up for it. For anyone who has been wondering what Kazakhstan is like outside of Astana, I have one word for you. That word is Texas. Yup, just like middle-of-nowhere-Texas, there is a lot of wide open space with short brown grass and shrub brush. And that's about it until you drive for maybe 2 hours north and then it turns into waist high brown grass (or maybe it was kasha?). Then you go another hour and it becomes waist high green grass with random pine trees thrown in so maybe we're nearing Nebraska-like vegetation now? I don't know since I've never been there but I am just guessing. Then when you have finally driven about 3 and a half hours, you finally have pine forests, windy roads, and hill/mountains. And there has only been one single village along this highway until you near the lake. The lake, Lake Balasomething, is at the foot of one of these mountains and I have to say it was really honestly beautiful. The mountains are not high but they rise out of the middle of the steppe like Kilimanjaro out of the African grasslands- like God dropped them there by mistake when he was creating the topography of the world and said "Oh well, they can have a few mountains I guess. I'll leave 'em." So we drove around for a while exploring some beautiful monuments (they love their monuments and statues here) and meandering around in the forest. We stopped off at this one monument and there was a hawk there that you could pay 200 tenge to have your photo taken holding it on your arm. I'll give you one guess as to who insisted on doing it- that's right, my Kazakh warrior of a husband Peter. That's him you see above of course. We also went for a chilly swim in the murky lake water with about a million Kazakh children. No matter where we go, we get stared at. Especially when they hear us talk. And, as we found out yesterday, especially, when we are walking around in our bathing suits. Although I don't know why they would be staring at us when there were so many fat men in speedos. That's who we were staring at. Peter, however, refused to swim and instead he got a paddle boat for Gulsanna and himself and they paddled around harassing the three of us in the water (the crazy Michigan couple and me). Baheet spent her time up at the restaurant and we joined her after changing back into our clothes. I don't know what she was doing while we swam but I'm guessing there was piva involved however because she slept most of the four hours home. That is when we weren't stopping at the side of the road in search of roadside farm potatoes. Apparently they are better than city potatoes. Oh, and she also bought some dried fish to munch on the way home. And as we drove (and drove and drove) home, we were treated to the kind of sunset that they only have in places where the sky goes on forever. It slowly sank lower and turned an amazing fire-y red just about the time our trip was done. All in all, a really nice day. Check for another post later today- we don't have visitation until 6pm because of some kind of inspection. And check out photos of the lake below. -m

Go Nursultan!!!

Hi all! Today's picture is to show that big plastic toys suck and little plastic toys rule. These are his favorite stacking cups that he loves to knock down and chew on. They're hours of fun- well 2 hours anyway. That and a foam number 8 that he chews on. It's disgustingly dirty, but oh well he loves it... So we had a really fun night tonight. We met up with everyone for dinner at this place called Ali Babba. They, of course, have shashlyk (kabobs) just like everywhere else. But the restaurant itself is really nice. It is outdoors and is decorated all beautifully and the waiters are dressed up in what I guess are Kazakh clothes. Our waitress was super sweet and was very patient with us non-Russian-speaking idiots. Around the perimeter they have these low tables for lounging with smushy seats and pillows all around it. They also have hookahs although we decided against polluting our lungs any more than the exhaust fumes already do. But the boys did have Sambuca shots. Gross. The ladies instead decided to gorge on Kazakh chocolate. Yum. Then we heard music and decided to wander and figure out what was going on. We had seen the big stage being erected in the plaza for the last few days and were wondering if it could be coming from there. There was a nice crowd and fabulous Kstan pop music- pop is just as cheesy in any language. And there were people everywhere flying the Kaz flag along with some other one with writing on it in Kazakh (which we don't see too often). We watched for a while wondering what it was all about until some boys asked us in English what we were doing here. We chatted for a second and it turns out it was a rally and concert in support of the current president, Nursultan Nazarbaev. It was kind of nice. There were lots of families there with kids running around and teenagers. The crowd was relatively subdued but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Especially the kids. And Peter and I had a contest to spot which our kid would be- the one being fairly calm and staying by his mom's side or the one running around like a maniac? We're guessing he'll tend more towards maniac. And speaking of the little guy, he hit not one but two milestones today. Firstly, we swear that he took a few crawls today. He also did his army crawl, frog hop, and one footed nosedive, but we swear he took about 3 or 4 crawls several times today. And even more important to me, when I put him down for nap today he started to whine and give me the sad eyes and reach for me. I think he knew it'd be until Monday afternoon until he saw us again. Either that or he's just practicing up on his manipulation skills. But naptime is naptime, right? Alright, off to bed. We'll let you know how the lake is tomorrow! Have a great Saturday! -m