The Kazakh Circus

Hi All!

This morning started as usual- wake up, breakfast, get dressed, BH. Little Sumo continues to only want to be held. The second I put him down to practice crawling or play with toys he just crawls right back over to me and lifts up his tiny little arm for me to pick him up again and goes from grunting to whining to crying until I do. Peter has been making fun of me for giving in every time but at this point I just feel like our days together are numbered and before we know it, we’ll be headed back home and he will be here wondering where his Mama and Dada went. I feel like I have to just soak up every single second. And once we leave, I don’t think that there will be anyone in his room who will be able to send me photos or report what he’s up to for me. We’ll just be sitting over there in DC wishing he was with us or that someone would tell him that we’re coming back soon and wondering how he is. I’m sure the time will fly because of the holidays and all but I sure wish it was less than the 4 weeks or so that they are guessing it will be before I can come back. Sigh. But I will just do my best to take in and remember every little thing about him until we leave.

This week we finally bought tickets to go to the circus that is in town. Rinat has been asking and asking (and asking) if we can go since way back in October and finally there was a show in town and Oxana helped to buy us tickets. He was so excited about it. And it did not disappoint.

First of all, Rinat has never actually been to the circus before and he was unsure what I expect. I think he thought it was sort of like the zoo and so before we went, he kept asking “After we sit in our seats and watch, can we walk around and see the animals?” I did my best to explain how it was all going to go. But one thing I forgot to tell him was exactly how loud it would be. After jostling our way through the doors (Kazakhs are not big on personal space and pushing to get where you want to go is how it’s done), and begging the help of the very nice usher to help us find our seats, and watching the people selling all sorts of light-up toys and balloons, and waiting for it to start (“I’m ready for it Mama,” he kept telling me), he spent the first 10 minutes with his hands over his ears and a look of bewilderment on his little face. Not excitement, not happy, just confused. But after the first act or so, he got the jist of it and started to enjoy himself. There were dancing princesses, a silly man that we called Mr Noodle, poodles doing tricks, gymnastics in the air, vaulting on horses to the theme song of the TV show Dallas (you know when they do gymnastics-type moves while riding a galloping horse), trained bears, very risqué dancing done for the benefit of any fathers out there. And during the intermission, Rinat got his obligatory glow-in-the-dark sword and got to hold a giant snake in the circus ring. And after the show, he got to ride the pony while brandishing said sword and he pretended to be a cavalier (University of VA’s mascot). All in all, it was a good time. By the time we got out of there, Rin and I were sweating to death (he sat on my lap for free along with all of our coats), hungry (2 hours past dinner), and our little man was tired. So we walked across the street to the City Mall and got some dinner (and a giant beer). But I think that Rinat’s favorite part of the whole night might have been walking home. He lit the way through the Creepy Cave (alley behind our apartment building) with his sword and enjoyed being out past dark. It was very exciting. And it was a great change from our everyday life.

Love to all, -m
I have a ton of photos but this is all your getting until I have better internet