StanwardBound

Birthday at the Baby House


Hi All!

Nope, it wasn’t our little one’s BDay- not quite yet. There is a little girl here in Sumo’s room bonding with her family and it was her first birthday today. We celebrated this afternoon with cake, chai, and a gift for the birthday girl. So sweet. It made me just a tiny bit sad because I realized that we will miss the day our little Sumo turns one. I mean, we will absolutely make up for it once we get him home, but I had hoped to be back here in Kaz before it happened. But Little Sumo did have his first taste of cake today, and wow did he like it. I gave him a little nibble of mine as he sat in my lap and then he began watching as each spoonful went past his open mouth and into mine. He started grunting and squirming to make sure that I was aware he really would like another bite please. I was afraid he was going to squirm all the way onto the floor or knock into my scalding hot cup of tea so I went and put him down on the other side of the room (away from the circle of babies in walkers that were hovering around our table) so I could finish my cake. And, oy vey, the wails that came out of that boy. He was soooo sad. So of course I had to pick him up and give him some more- how could I not? So for the record, this boy really liked the milk mouse cake here in Kaz.

And for the third day in a row, our little Sumo was all smiles. He did a little bit of crawling, a little bit of talking, some dancing, and now he is starting to blow raspberries in response to ours. I think Mr Baby taught him that one too. This morning, there was a lady in the room drawing blood from some of the babies. This, of course, led to a fair amount of screaming from some of them. I could not pry little Sumo’s attention from the table where they were sitting. He literally wouldn’t take his eyes off of the lady and her sad little victims. And his sweet eyes followed her as she left as if to make sure that she wasn’t going to come back for him.

And as for our other little boy, he’s doing well. Rin too was so interested in what she was doing and why and told me about the times he remembered having shots at the Dr and how he didn’t like it AT ALL. He was pretty good this morning. He sat in my lap for a good long while and we played the IPad together. I called to Peter and had him sit next to us with Sumo and we tried to get some family photos but it’s hard to get a three year old’s photo much less when you include a squirmy little 10 month old. We tried. I might have to give in and hire someone to take formal portraits at some point because I am not sure if the Republic of Kazakhstan will actually believe we all live together otherwise.

For lunch today we tried a new place called Pivavaroff. It’s a German type place with rock walls and German furnishings and old stuff everywhere- phones, laundry rollers, wagon wheels, scythes. Rin decided that it was a castle and he went exploring several times. There was literally no one else in the restaurant so I just let him roam and he had a blast. And everywhere we go, people look at him with a little smile on their face. I mean, he is an adorable boy when he wants to be- which is most of the time. He does have his less than great moments but don’t we all?

And you can add a thermostat to list of things I won’t take for granted again. The heat here is controlled centrally by the government via hot water pipes. They decide when to turn it on in the fall and off in the spring. For the most part, if the hot water is out, it’s out for the whole city. And our place is so small that the radiators just crank up the heat to blazing hot. Most of the time, we end up with the windows open from the second we walk in the door ‘til the second we walk back out again. It is getting colder here, however, and last night I had to get up and shut the door to the porch because I was cold. Then, of course, I woke up a while later because I was sweating and Rin was thrashing around and I had to open it again. I am in love with our thermostat at home. Just thought you should know.

It just tugs at your heartstrings to see all of these cribs lined up in rows filled with babies. Some of them will have a home eventually and some won’t. And they are all so cute in different ways. There are the blond haired blue eyed Russians/Germans, the ones who look Roma or Spanish, the Korean/Kazakh/Chinese looking ones. It’s like a model UN in the baby house. I totally understand why people adopt a million kids. Once you see them and think about a single one not having a family it just makes you desperate to do something about it. To fix it- like that’s possible. I have been thinking about what I am going to do once I no longer have little ones to take care of all day every day and there is a part of me who would love to do non-profit work to help kids around the world. And, to be honest, a part of me that would really miss the school vacations you get when you teach. We’ll see. I’ve got a few years to figure it out.

I hope you all are enjoying your temperature-controlled lives over there in the US! Love to all, -m
Oh and that tree is the one outside our kitchen window that I look at every morning wondering what the day before us holds.  Will our Sumo be smiley?  Or will he need some love?  Will Rinat want to try something new today?  And will he be happy?  I just had to include it.