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