Thursday, December 29, 2005

Aidan's in the House!!!!

We made it back safe and sound...the flights were real long but Aidan was a champ. We landed in Cincy right after 2pm yesterday. We were greeted by lots of smiling faces. We will fill you in on the details and post a few pics later.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers...life is great!!!

Love,
Scott, Jeanette and Aidan

Monday, December 26, 2005

Good News

We got some great news today...we are scheduled to go to the US Embassy tomorrow at 3pm, which means we can leave on Wednesday the 28th. We changed our flights and we will be arriving back to Cincy at 2:20pm on Wednesday afternoon. We will be flying Northwest/KLM from Almaty to Amsterdam to Detroit to Cincinnati. If you were planning on meeting us at the airport sorry for the change...but we had to take the 2 day jump! We will be happy to see anyone who can make it on Wednesday afternoon!

Thanks for all the wonderful thoughts and messages...they all meant so much to us over the past few weeks. We feel extermely fortunate and very loved. We can't wait to see you all. Aidan can't wait to meet all of his family and friends.

We will try to periodically update the blog when we get back to let everyone know how we are doing.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year and we will see you all soon!

Love,
Scott, Jeanette, and Aidan

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Christmas Night

Out the Door To Xmas Dinner with our Friends
The whole gang (plus another WPA family)
Outside the German Restaurant
Good Night From Our Santa Baby!

Christmas in Kazakhstan

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL!!!


It’s Christmas night here in Almaty, Aidan just went down for the night (we hope!), we’ve sat down to watch a few DVD’s (Gilmore Girls, for those of you who want to know) and I have a minute to catch up on the posts!! We hope all of you are having a wonderful Christmas and we miss you all!!

We’ve had a terrific and amazing (and, yes, we’ll admit, at times challenging) first few days as new parents with Aidan. He is a beautiful, sweet, energetic, and full of life. He’s also teething and getting used to his new surroundings, so he’s been a little fussy and frustrated, no doubt also due in part to our loving inexperience. All in all, he is doing really well with his new life and we’re completely crazy about him.

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, Aidan again woke up happy (after a 3 a.m. bottle) and was happy to play on a comforter on the floor with his toys. We gave him a bath in a little red plastic tub in the shower stall (there’s no bathtub), and he liked it! I see swimming lessons in his near future. Anyway, we dressed him in a little red fleece outfit with a train on the front and decided to take a walk to the mall, the Ramstore. We called our travel partners and we all thought we’d meet for lunch at the food court. Before lunch, we stopped at the grocery and bought more formula (3 days, and one can already gone!) and bottled water and paper towels. Then we met up with Kris and Dan and Ann (and Shaylen and Clara) at the food court, near an indoor skating rink. We ate pizza and fruit salad while we watched little girls practice their figure 8’s. Aidan liked watching the little kids at the food court. We also took a few pictures by the BIG Christmas tree outside of the mall. Then we walked back to the apartment, and tried to put Aidan down for a nap. He would have none of it. We know that he’s still getting used to everything, and it’s likely causing him (among other things – i.e., teething, etc.) to not want to sleep, but then he gets very cranky and then it becomes impossible to put him down. We struggled with him all afternoon but he refused to take a nap, so we eventually gave up and let him play with his toys, but he obviously was very fussy. At 6:00, we met our friends out for Christmas Eve dinner at a restaurant called the Guinness Pub (yes, a friendly irish pub-like place), and I had chicken curry (yes, not irish) and Scott had chicken wings. We had a big cozy booth for all of us, and it was fun, but Aidan was not happy. He was tired and having a rough time with his teeth so we called it a little early night at 8:00 and went home and put him right to bed for the night.

Scott and I stayed up and wrapped the few little presents that we had brought from home for Aidan and put them under our little tree. It was a lot of fun- our first Christmas playing Santa, and it was great! We were exhausted so we wished each other a Merry Christmas and went to bed at 10:00.

Luckily, we all slept until 7:00 a.m.! Aidan woke up much happier, all smiles and ready for his very first Christmas!! We fed him a bottle, gave him a bath, and put him in his cute striped sleeper. Then, we turned on the Christmas music, lit our Home for the Holidays candle, showed him the tree and all the little presents! He seemed to know right away that the presents were for him, because he started reaching for them right away. We had fun opening the rattles, the stuffed animals, and the books. He liked all his presents, and christened everything but giving them a good chew! Pretty soon he was surrounded by paper and gifts, just like a little elf. He was happy to play with his presents and crawl after mom and dad as we were all getting ready for the day. Our friend, Ann, had located a Catholic church – the only one in Almaty - and we decided to carpool to the noon mass. Aidan looked so cute in his striped Santa hat and his red polartec snowsuit. We were a few minutes late because our driver underestimated how long it would take to get there – it was on the outskirts of the city, and it was a bumpy 25 minute ride, but we made it. We snuck in the back and took a back pew. Aidan was entertained for about 20 minutes, and then we gave him a bottle, let him play with Lobby, and tried to keep him from getting fussy. Eventually we took turns taking him to the back of church, and we think he liked the view better from there because he was in a better mood then.

After church, we went back to the apartment and tried again to put Aidan down for a nap, but he didn’t want to go so we didn’t force it. We had a nice afternoon though. He was a happy crawling boy, motoring all around the apartment and looking at everything. He’s so cute when he crawls, because his arms are really stiff and he slaps the floor hard with each hand, very deliberately. He smiles the whole time like he’s very proud of himself! He did end up falling asleep for about an hour, and Scott and I watched the Polar Express, which I thought was a very cute Christmas movie for a lazy Christmas afternoon. The apartment smelled like our Christmas candle and it was warm and cozy in here and if we blinked our eyes, it seemed like home.

For dinner we met our friends at the German restaurant. The atmosphere was terrific – the inside was designed as if you were walking in a little German village, complete with Christmas decorations. We had given Aidan a little baby Tylenol before dinner, and that helped a lot – he was happy to sit on our laps and bang on the table. We laughed a lot and ate good food (I had chicken and mushrooms and Scott had chicken shashlyk – Kazakh style shish kabab). We again are so glad for our lovely travel partners. They have made this trip, especially during the holiday, so so nice.

We really had a nice little holiday here in Kazakhstan, and feel so lucky to have Aidan, the best Christmas present ever.

We wish all of you the merriest of Christmases. Thanks to all of you for your warm Christmas wishes, and we send them back to you threefold.

With love,
The Dannenfelsers

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!



Christmas Eve


Our little tree in Almaty...Santa, the boy is here this year!

Aidan's been a very good boy this year.

Mom, I 'm a boy not an elf!



It's starting to look a little like Christmas in Kaz!
Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 23, 2005

December 22nd and 23rd

Ok, maybe it’s my first initiation as a new mother, but I’m already behind on my posts. MANY APOLOGIES to all of you!! It’s been such a crazy amazing two days that I finally have found a few minutes to fill everyone in.

Well, Thursday was the best day of our lives. We tried to enjoy what we knew may be a last lazy morning, sleeping in and then having breakfast and cappuccinos at the hotel restaurant, but we were so happy and excited that it didn’t matter. Our drivers picked us up at 10:10 to take us all to the baby house to get the babies. We stopped at a local bakery to get three cakes, one each for our babies’ caregivers (Aidan and Clara were in the same group) and one for the baby house director. I should mention that the cakes here are so beautiful. The decorations are so detailed and lovely - our cake for Aidan’s caregivers was yellow with beautiful flowers and butterflies, and the doctor’s cake looked like a big basket of strawberries, for example. Then we headed off to the baby house, for the final time. It already seemed like a dream! When we got there, we all gathered in the music room. Shaylen was brought down by her caregivers to Kris and Dan, but Scott and Ann and I had to go up to the babies’ group to get Aidan and Clara. Well, our interpreter had gone upstairs to the babies’ group ahead of us, and she said that when Aidan saw her he was excited at first, but when we he realized we weren’t with her, he started crying. So, the only day we saw him crying was the day we came to take him home for good!! That was a good thing, though, because that meant that he was upset when he thought we weren’t coming to see him. He settled down as soon as we scooped him up!!

We took all the babies back down to the music room to say goodbye to the caregivers and doctors. The doctors looked at our photo album and commented on what a beautiful home and family (and parents!) Aidan would have. The dads had to sign something, presumably releasing Aidan to us, and the baby house director then gave a speech, thanking all of us for adopting these children and for making the long journey here to become their parents, and wishing all of us much happiness and health in our lives. Aidan’s favorite caregiver came down to say goodbye – she hugged and squeezed him and pinched his cheeks and gave him a big kiss. It was very bittersweet for her, we could tell, and we felt for her and all the wonderful people who take such good care of these babies. They all took the cakes (and gifts we had brought) back to their offices and we all say goodbye. We then changed Aidan into his “big boy” striped shirt, overalls, shoes, and red polartec, and then stuffed him into his huge penguin snowsuit and hat (they are very particular here about having babies completely covered outside). We left the baby house and went right back to the hotel. Aidan slept the whole way back to the hotel, and once we got back to the hotel, we took off his snowsuit and he was drenched in sweat, head to toe!! So we changed his clothes and he was a happy man. We families had scheduled a thank you lunch to Olga, Assia and the drivers at 2:00 at the hotel, and of course he finally fell asleep in his crib 15 minutes before 2:00! I went to the lunch at 2:00, and Scott let him sleep for about half and hour, and then brought him down to the lunch with his bottle. The lunch was so nice – Olga, Assia, and Andrei, the driver with the best English, each gave a lovely t0ast, wishing all of us much health and happiness and expressing their gratitude for coming so far to adopt these beautiful kids. Ann and I each gave a little toast as well, for all of their kindness, and hard work, and patience for all of our (well, mostly my) silly questions. We had chicken and potatoes and chocolate pudding and wine and champagne, and it was a very special long lunch that we all enjoyed.

In the evening, we figured out how to make cereal (not too hard!) fed Aidan, gave him a little bath in the sink and put him to bed – all fun little victories. Scott is very good at getting the little guy to sleep. He has the special touch. He slept fine all night – from 9 to 630 – but Scott and I didn’t sleep at all! We kept waking up to make sure he was ok and was still breathing. I sort of felt like a zombie by the time we had to get up at 6 a.m. to get ready for our 8 pick-up for our 10 a.m. flight. Now I do know what everyone means when they say you never sleep again! :)

Aidan woke up happy to see us, which made us feel great! The rest of the trip to the airport and waiting for the plane became sort of tiring for all of us, though. Luckily, Olga and the drivers took care of getting our tickets and checking our baggage, so we really just had to wait, but Aidan was getting tired of his snowsuit and getting hungry and pretty fussy. I tried to wait to give him his bottle until take off, but about 5 minutes before we got on the plane he made clear that he wanted it, so I fed it to him then, as we’re standing in line to go to the plane and Scott’s having to mess with showing all of our tickets and passports and his birth certificate. So then we have to walk across the cold tarmac to the airplane, and a helicopter decides to land right then, and is whipping air at all of us as we’re making a mad dash for the plane! Once we got on the plane, we all sighed in relief. Aidan did very well on his first plane ride. He liked to look out the window, and smile at the little boy in the adjoining row, and play the seat back in front of us. He slept a little bit too. I gave him another bottle because he was acting hungry about halfway through the fligth, and then tried to give him some water to suck on as we were landing, but he didn’t want that. The flight was nice, we had calm sunny weather the whole way and there weren’t any unplanned stops in Atyrau or other cold remote location.

When we got off of the plane, we met Ann’s dad, who has flown here from New York to help her this last week and help her on the way home (Hi Poppa!) and our drivers. The traffic here is horrendous – everyone is on the roads for the upcoming holiday next weekend (New Year is just like Christmas here - tree, gifts, the whole works), at least that’s what Dima, our driver, says. A few people celebrate Christmas, too, so they are on the roads too. It took forever to get to our apartment due to the traffic, and because we had to stop and get Aidan’s picture taken for the Embassy (he did well posing, he's a natural). Our apartment, though, is very nice. A modern type kitchen, big living room with plenty of space to lay a blanket down for Aidan to play on, two bedrooms and a modern bathroom. We’re also within walking distance of the Ramstore – a mall that really is like a mall by our standards, plus it has a HUGE grocery story like home. The only downside of the apartment here in Almaty is that it is a 5 floor walk up with no elevator, so bringing our luggage (and groceries) up was sort of a trick.

Last night we put up our lovely Christmas tree (a foam wall sticker) and hung our 3 red velvet stockings underneath it with scotch tape. Then we decided to go on an outing to the Ramstore, and we bundled Aidan up and walked over there. We had pizza and Basken Robbins ice chocolate almond ice cream (delicious!) and then bought a few necessaries at the grocery store, along with some Christmas candy and a 2 foot tall fake Christmas tree. We put Aidan to bed when we got back without his bottle because he was so sleepy. For all of you people who may be worried out there, he did eat a whole bowl of cereal and a jar of carrots before we went shopping. And, we ended up giving him another bottle at 3:15 a.m.! So he’s eating plenty!! We also have had our first couple dirty diapers!! So I guess we’re parents now.

Well, we’re happy to be here in Almaty, one step closer to home!! It’s Christmas Eve morning here, and we miss all of you and wish each and every one of you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! When Aidan wakes up, we’ll decide which holiday (and later, we’re sure, mortifyingly embarrassing) outfit to put him up today and tomorrow! We're listening right now to our favorite Christmas CD, which, as I write, is playing "Oh There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays."

Love,
Scott, Jeanette and Aidan

We made to Almaty,again!

We made it back to Almaty...Aidan did great...we can't wait for next friday's flights!!!
Aidan getting his first bath.

The Group ready to go back to Almaty.

Aidan on his first flight.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

We got Him!

The Dannenfelsers and Assia (our interpreter)
Leaving the Babyhouse
Crashed out on the ride home

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

HOORAY!!!
TODAY WE OFFICIALLY BECAME THE PARENTS OF
AIDAN JACOB DANNENFELSER!!


We are so thrilled and excited! It’s a wonderful day! We can’t wait to pick our son up tomorrow from the baby house!!

Today, Wednesday, December 21st was a beautiful sunny day. We woke up a little anxious but confident that all would go well at court.

In the morning, we visited Aidan in the baby house for the last time, since tomorrow we’ll be taking him for good! He was happy to see us but again a little fussy once we took him down to the playroom with the other families. He settled down when we held and rocked him a little. We also tried him in the plastic ball pit, although I think he was unsure if he actually enjoyed it or not. He had that “am I having fun?” look and yawned a couple of times. Well, maybe we’ll give it another shot at Chuck E. Cheese (do they still have those any more?) in a year or two. We were very sad to hand him back to his caregiver at the end of the visit, but so excited by the thought that tomorrow we’d be with him for good!

We went back to the hotel to change and get ready for court. The judge we had prefers for the husband to respond to the majority of questions during court and to make a short speech about our hope to adopt and our feelings about Aidan. Scott wrote a great speech and practiced it while we waited for our driver to pick us up. We really felt good that all would go well, even if we had a few butterflies.

We were first of the families to have our hearing. Since we’d had pre-court, we felt pretty comfortable with the people and the process. That being said, it was still more nerve-wracking than we had expected, just because we’ve waited so long for this day! We were asked several questions, Scott did a wonderful job on his speech, the representatives from the baby house and the department of education spoke on our behalf, and 25 minutes later, the judge announced his decision, granting our application for the adoption of Aidan!! We are so happy!

Kris and Dan, and then Ann, had their hearings with the court after us, and thankfully they also are now the parents of Shaylen and Clara, respectively! It has been a great day for all of us! We then all went to the records office to get our adoption certificates and to the baby food store for rations for the little guy. We bought cereal, formula, some fruit baby food, that peach apple juice he likes and diapers.

Tonight we all went with Assia to Kazakh ballet performance. The dancers wore exquisite costumes and were very good, and performed several pieces from Carmen, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and more. The very funny part of the evening, though, was about 10 minutes into the program, when we all realized that Assia’s Russian accent (and our interpretation of it) had led us to believe all week that we were going to see “belly” dancers, when, of course, we were actually going to a “ballet” performance. That joint realization gave all of us big BELLY laughs for the rest of the evening.

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO (AUNT) SHELLY!! We miss you and hope you have a wonderful day!!

Tomorrow we pick up Aidan and family life begins!! Christmas has arrived early here in Kazakhstan! Have a wonderful evening!

We're Parents!

At 2:45 Kaz Time, Aidan Jacob Dannenfelser became our son. We are so excited!!!!

Our Last Visit Before Court

Almost there!!!

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Tuesday's Post

It’s Tuesday, the 20th of December, and sunny with blue skies, probably 40 degrees. It’s so nice to know that in two more days, the sun will be shining on a Dannenfelser family of three!

We had our second-to-last visit at the baby house today with Aidan! He was just a little fussy this morning, a little tired, we think. Not quite his usual jovial self, but still happy to see us and still in fine shape to sit in mommy’s lap and play with his Lobby lobster and to bang pieces of puzzle Ernie’s face together. He loves to make noise, however he can. He also, as I’ve said, really loves to watch other babies and other people. He babbles when he hears talking and performs his sucking/laughing act when everyone is laughing. He’s so much fun to watch. He really pays attention to everything around him and takes it all in. We gave him extra kisses goodbye since we won’t see him again until tomorrow morning.

For lunch we went back to the hotel to get ready for our pre-court at 2:00. The traffic on the road was especially heavy today, I suppose because everyone was returning to work after the holiday. I must note that we are continually surprised how many pedestrians are out and about, at all hours of the day. Even though we’ve been told that many people can’t afford cars (which, by the way, is “machine” in Russian), we still understand that most have 9 to 5 work days. So all the foot traffic in Uralsk – men and women, young, middle-aged, and old – throughout the day – begs the question, what is everybody doing? Where is everyone going?

Anyway, back to the day’s events. We just grabbed some granola bars again for lunch and changed into our suits and waited for our driver to pick us up for court. No afternoon visit with Aidan today, which was tough. As far as pre-court, we really weren’t particularly nervous, because we had some idea of what to expect. We arrived at court a few minutes early and waited our turn to meet with the judge. I was a little surprised that the courthouse is very similar to those at home – several courtrooms with lists of the day’s pending cases on bulletin boards out front, a security guard in the lobby, and an assistant similar to a judge’s bailiff. Our pre-court was held in the judge’s chambers, was brief, and gave us a very good idea of what to expect tomorrow. We are continually grateful for everything that Olga and our interpreter (and WPA!) have done throughout this process. We really have the best people here on our side.

We met with Olga and Assia (and Kris and Dan and Ann) afterwards at the hotel to discuss court tomorrow. If all goes well, we’ll be parents by this time tomorrow! The big day has almost arrived!

We’ll see you then!

PreCourt

Our PreCourt hearing went off without a hitch. Our Final Court hearing will be tomorrow at 2pm...that's 4am EST. Jeanette will fill you all in on the details later...wish us luck tomorrow!

Scott

Tuesday Morning

Maxin' and Relaxin'

Aidan loves his Lobster!

Aidan loves his mom!

Monday, December 19, 2005

Monday's Post

Happy Monday, our last Monday here in Uralsk. We’ve really enjoyed our time here. Today is the last day of the Independence Day holiday, and rainy and foggy.

Aidan was in high spirits today, his usually smiley self and happy to play with us during the morning visit. He likes his baby photo albums, and we were again showing him all the pictures of his grandparents and cousins and, this time he really seemed to focus on each of the photographs for a little while. Before he started chewing on them, that is. He also really likes to practice walking. Shaylen is older and is very good at holding on to little chairs in the music room and walking around; he watches her closely and often likes to try himself. He’s not ready yet, of course, but he becomes really proud of himself when he takes some steps with our help! Of course at the end of each visit, it has become very hard to say goodbye. We wave and say “bye bye” about 20 times; usually he watches over the caregivers shoulder as she walks him back to his crib room.

Today after our morning visit with the babies, we all met with Olga and Assia to discuss pre-court tomorrow. Basically, pre-court is like a trial run for court. We know that the judge and the representatives from the baby house and department of education will be there; everyone but the prosecutor. We feel pretty comfortable with how everything will go and the questions that are likely to be asked, and we aren’t too anxious. Official court will be held on Wednesday and we’ll be glad once it’s all over and Aidan is legally ours.
We also talked to Assia about ordering a cake for the caregivers for our final tea party on Thursday, when we’ll be able to pick up the kids. What an exciting week!

We ate a light lunch (granola bars!) and headed back to the baby house for our last afternoon visit! Pre-court and court are in the afternoon, so we’ll only see the babies in the mornings or the next two days. We were able to take a mini-video of Aidan today as we came to pick him up for the visit. We wanted to capture how excited he gets when we arrive. As usual, he squealed and motored over to us in his walker, going backwards at one point, getting stuck on another stroller at another, and finally making it over to the doorway for me to pick him up. He’s really something.

During our afternoon visit, we noticed a new development – Aidan has started to shake his head back and forth, like when saying “no.” It doesn’t really have a context yet, but he definitely is deliberately shaking his head like mom and dad do. It’s so cool to see how quickly they pick up on things, and that he imitates us. We noticed that he also makes some deliberate movements to music – his first “dancing.” He’s developed so much in just the two weeks we’ve been with him. It’s amazing at this age how much they learn.

This evening we went back to the hotel to put our gift bags together for the caregivers, Assia, Olga, our driver and the baby house director. We’ll give them their gifts on Thursday, our final day in Uralsk. We leave for Almaty on Friday morning!

THANKS again for all of the great emails and posts that we’ve been receiving from so many of you during our stay. We read all of them, and are so appreciative for everyone’s updates and well wishes. We really hope that all of you are enjoying the holiday season! Christmas is next weekend already!!
See you tomorrow

Monday Morning


Aidan gets so proud of himself when he walks.


Sunday's Post

It’s Sunday here and quiet in the hotel. From what we can tell, there may be 3 or 4 other guests here besides the three of us. I’m sure it is “low season” for travelers to be in Uralsk. The weather has been fairly warm though, in the upper 30’s, I’d guess. The snow is melting and has made slushy puddles everywhere.

For part of our morning visit today, I was able to feed Aidan. That was terrific. He didn’t seem too confused that I was feeding him, and he ate a whole big bowl of wheat cereal. And I mean a big cereal bowl full. He loves to eat and when I didn’t move the spoon fast enough, he made little breathy ‘huh huh’ sounds until he had another bite of cereal. To wash it down, he had a mug, maybe one quarter full, of what apple peach juice. He loved that and, although I spilled a little, he did really well drinking from a cup. Scott was able to watch him eat and also visit his crib while I was feeding him. The babies’ crib room is big, clean, and bright, with several wooden cribs lining the walls and each baby’s name on the crib. Aidan has a corner crib. Scott liked seeing where he has slept the past several months. Also, we gave the caregivers a leather bound notebook to jot down their well wishes to Aidan, as a keepsake. For the rest of our visit in the music room, Aidan was content to play with toys in our laps or on the blanket. He likes to sit on our laps and lean back like we are some sort of super deluxe Lazy Boys.

At lunchtime Ann and Scott and I went to the Atrium to a restaurant called the Dixie Pub. It looks a lot like a typical pub restaurant at home, with casual booths and wood furniture, and a bar in the middle with a flat screen tv playing MTV videos. Scott and I shared a burger and fries. The food was fine but we particularly liked the warm, cozy feel. It even had little Christmas trees on every table and some Santa decorations.

In the afternoon, Aidan was happy as usual to see us. He is so cute now when we come to get him, as soon as he sees us, he smiles and laughs and finds his way over to us. If he’s in the crib, he crawls to the edge. In a walker, he “walks” all the way to us in the doorway. It feels so good. The caregivers asked us how to pronounce Aidan and were practicing it with him, which was so nice. He again was satisfied to play with his teether and his smart key toy, the electronic key with a teether ring that plays different versions of “wheels on the bus.” Shaylen, who’s a little older, loves that toy. She dances to it every time Aidan turns it on. Kris said that she’s definitely going to have to buy one for Shaylen when they all get home.

Since we’d had a big lunch, we decided to head back to the hotel for the evening after our visit with Aidan. Scott made pasta and sauce and some toasted raisin bread, which, all in all, tasted pretty good. We were able to buy Coke Light at the grocery, so we had that to drink. For entertainment, we watched “Never Been Kissed,” a Drew Barrymore/Michael Vartan movie, at my request, and Scott was a good sport about it.

Tomorrow, the families will meet with Olga, the agency’s director here in Uralsk, to discuss what will happen in pre-court tomorrow and court on Wednesday. We can’t believe that, if all goes well, Aidan will officially be ours in three days!

See you tomorrow!

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Sunday Morning Pics

Jeanette fed Aidan cereal this morning!
Aidan drinks peach and apple juice every morning.
Aidan's serious look
Aidan tells Mom that he prefers chew toys over stuffed ones!

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Saturday's Happenings

It’s Saturday of a 4 -day Independence Day holiday weekend here in Kazakhstan, and the streets seem less crowded with cars, but the malls and stores are packed. Just like home!

We’ve been eating breakfast at the hotel, because it’s good and also because it’s free. Scott has discovered that he can order an egg soft boiled, and eat it with toasted bread. Just like his Dad used to make when he was little. Every day there is a little something different at the buffet, and it might not last, so it’s like a little surprise. Yesterday there was butter. We haven’t had butter since we left home, so that was a treat on our toast.

Aidan is still a cutie, and a card. He loves having his clothes changed but starts to cry if it takes too long for us to snap his sleeper up. Of course as soon as we pick him up, he smiles and stops crying. He happily comes to us in the morning, and loves to play with my hair, Scott’s face and all of his toys. He seems more relaxed now. He is happy to sit in our laps and chew on the Lobster and watch what’s going on, or lay on his stomach and play with the Ernie puzzle, or lay down on our shoulders. He’s less antsy and acts like he doesn’t have to entertain us all the time, although we’re also happy when he does. This morning we also received his schedule, and learned he eats mostly formula and wheat cereal, plus a little mashed potatoes/pureed meat at lunchtime. He naps twice a day and sleeps about 9 hours at night. Hopefully when he adjusts to our timeframe he’ll still enjoy sleeping through the night!

Today at lunchtime we went to the Kazakhstan history museum. It isn’t a large museum, but was very nice, and had displays discussing Kazakhstan’s roots as a settling ground for escaped feudal peasants and a place fought over by various warring tribes, including the Kahns. In the 1700’s Kazakhstan acceded to Russia for protection from the tribes, and at that point its history fuses with Russia’s. We saw beautiful tribal frocks and jewelry, tapestries and ancient pottery, and a lot of history about Kazakhstan’s participation in WWII. We enjoyed it and took lots of pictures to share when we get home.

In the afternoon visit, Aidan was happy to crawl around and explore and practice “walking” between mom and dad. He loves to be tossed up and down and to pretend to “fly.” By the end of this visit, he’s always yawning, and as we learned he has a nap right afterwards, from 4 to 6. He likes for us to hold him while he settles down. We can’t wait until we get to actually feed him, give him a bath, and take care of him. Tomorrow we will observe a feeding and will bring a book for his caregivers to write well wishes to him.

For dinner, Ann and Scott and I went to a Chinese style restaurant recommended by Aliya, called the Golden Dragon. The food wasn’t quite Chinese, but tasty all the same. We were the only people in the whole restaurant the entire time we were there, and it was a Saturday night. We discussed this, as we’ve noticed that many restaurants (and the museum, for example) are empty, and decided that Uralsk is a summer “resort” town, where people come to relax and swim and fish. In the winter, there probably just aren’t enough people to fill every restaurant. It is definitely odd to be in a beautiful restaurant with no one else but the wait staff. But we enjoyed ourselves anyway!

Tomorrow is Sunday already and our 14th day of visits with Aidan! It seems like we’ve always known him!

See you tomorrow!

Saturday Morning

Hmm...could I actually get any cuter?
Alright Dad, I get it, you like me...enough already!


Aidan sitting like a big boy!

Friday, December 16, 2005

Friday

It’s Friday the 16th today, and the halfway mark for our stay in Kazakhstan! Next Friday we’ll be headed back to Almaty, and then home the following Friday! We’ve really enjoyed our time here in Uralsk. Everyone, from the hotel staff to the drivers to the baby house staff, has been so great to us.

Today is Kazakhstan’s Independence Day, a national holiday celebrating Kaz’s separation from the Soviet Union and a day off of work for most. The city is decorated with colored flags and lights (the lights also double as holiday decorations) and there are many people out and about. I think there was a parade this morning, because we had to circumvent several road closures on the way to the baby house. We also saw several people who had decorated their cars with silk flowers, honking their horns in celebration. Even though it’s an official holiday, though, we were still able to visit Aidan at the baby house.

This morning we all were in the music room because the person with the key to the playroom was likely off for the holiday. That was fine because the music room has a little more space for us to spread out. Shaylen had a fever today though and her doctor said that she should have a day of rest without a visit, so the driver took Kris and Dan to do a little shopping. Aidan was hilarious today as we changed his clothes – he put his hands behind his head, content and relaxed. Luckily we caught that pose and have posted it. He’s always making us laugh. He’s fascinated now with the straps on our backpack, the straps on the roll up blanket we have, Scott’s zipper, etc. He wants to put everything in his mouth to explore it and when we say “no,” he looks at us with his big eyes and just grabs on tighter. He’s got a heck of a grip! We distract him with other toys and he’s ok with that, but he is very interested in all that fun stringy strappy stuff.

During our lunchtime break we went to the Atrium and had pizza at MacJohn’s. I actually tried a chicken burger and while it didn’t taste bad I stuck mostly with my Coke Light and fries because my stomach felt just a little funky. We walked around the shops and I bought a stacking toy/puzzle for Aidan that looks like Ernie from Sesame Street’s face. He likes to bang things and make noise and we figured he’d like to bang the pieces together and also learn how to put the pieces together to make his face.

We were back at the hotel long enough to post a few pictures from the morning’s visit and then we headed back to the baby house. Aidan was in a particularly good mood for the afternoon. Scott had him belly laughing several times; first he found a tickle spot on Aidan’s leg, and then Scott rubbed his nose on Aidan’s stomach and Aidan thought that was hysterical. He laughed and laughed. He was so much fun. When we brought him back to the caregiver, who is so so nice, he kept turning away from her and she took him and pretended to shake her fist at him and tease him. She is so sweet and so nice and we know that they love these babies very much and take very good care of them.

Because of all the pretty lights that have been hung around town, we and Ann and Kris and Dan decided to take a long walk this evening to take pictures. It wasn’t too cold, and we were able to get some good shots of the parks with lights, the lit up buildings and the streetscapes. At the main plaza, there was a guy dressed up sort of in a Santa suit and some cartoon like characters posing for pictures with families, which was fun to watch. There were a lot of people out, I’m sure because of the holiday and because it is Friday night. We also walked up to the new Russian Orthodox church, which is really beautiful with huge gold globed spires. The door was open, so we were able to go inside, and as luck would have it, they were having choir practice it seemed so we were able to listen to them sing for a few minutes. The singing was so beautiful and the acoustics in there just amplified it all. It was really cool. Then, we decided to walk a few more blocks to the Chagala, another hotel, because it has a cozy bar/restaurant and we had heard that they have good burgers. We all had a nice dinner, burgers and fries and soft drinks. We were the only people in there but it was warm and cozy. We decided to take taxis back to the hotel. It was a fun evening!

Tomorrow is Saturday and we are going to the Kazakhstan history museum after our morning visit!

Have a nice weekend! Until tomorrow!

Just Another Crazy Friday

Can someone please tend to my every waking need?

My Two Favorite People ( I said people, elliot)

Aidan meet Elliot...your new best friend (we hope)

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Thursday

It’s Thursday already! It was sunny most of the day, and then fog rolled in late afternoon from the three rivers that converge here in Uralsk – the Ural, the Chagan, and the Derkul.

We are all so surprised how quickly time is flying here. In town, they are putting up holiday decorations in some of the public areas and plazas– lights on the pine trees, lit swags, and colorful lit balls in trees on and posts. We’re told they are primarily for New Year’s, but also for the Russian Orthodox Christmas too, which is in early January.

I’ve meant to address the language issue in my posts, so I’ll do it today. Kazakhs speak Russian and Kazakh. I understand that Kazakh has several more letters in its alphabet than Russian and is harder to learn, but that the country is moving towards adopting Kazakh as its official language, as another step in developing the Republic. Written Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which is really odd to our eyes at first because it uses what looks like Roman letters in, but surprisingly it’s not too hard to pick up on. For example, a “C” has an “S” sound to us, a “P” has an “R, and “H” has an “N.” The Target type store in Almaty is RAMCTOP, pronounced Ramstor(e). I haven’t figured out all the letters yet (and some don’t have any Roman counterparts) but it’s fun to try to read some of the store signs – “HAH” is “Nan” or a bread store. When listening to Russian, it sounds very easy and smooth, like French. Most people know a couple of English words, not a lot, but we’re surprised to see that many ads and signs are also in English. We have our interpreter with us most of the time, but we try to say at least the basics in Russian. “Drast –vee- teye” is hello. “Pa –zhalsta” – is please. “Paka paka” is see you later. We try. Anyway, there’s a little taste of how we communicate here.

Aidan was subdued this morning when we first picked him up today, sucking his thumb and relaxing, but got happy and excited as usual when we changed his clothes. He just loves to be naked. Scott was changing him, and he looked up at him laughing and smiling and happy as a clam, as if to say “Thanks Dad! This is great!” We’ve brought enough sleepers for him that we haven’t repeated one yet, and he looks cute in all of them, we think. Also, during our morning visit we were able to talk to the doctor about Aidan. In a nutshell, he’s in good shape and developing normally, which is great to hear! The whole time we were talking to the doctor, I was taking notes and Scott had Aidan. Well, Aidan realized he wasn’t the center of attention so he started blowing raspberries, and kept it up the whole conversation. All of us we’re laughing at him by the end. Also, at one point he decided that Scott’s shirt pocket was the perfect place to store Lobby the lobster teether, unbeknownst to Scott. Hilarious! The doctor said that the caregivers had told her that he has started making noises and sounds that they had never heard him make before. We thought that was cool. Maybe he’s trying to imitate our speech. Also, we found out that today that our pre-court practice session is next Tuesday, the 20th, and court is Wednesday the 21st. If all goes well, we’ll get to pick up the kids on Thursday the 22nd! Only one week away!!

For lunch we ate with Ann at the hotel so we could post pictures. I had a traditional Kazakh/Russian rice dish, which tasted like curry rice with carrots and meat. Wasn’t sure if it was beef, could have been horse, which is a very common meat here. Really, it was good. Scott had pasta. The food here at the hotel is very good.

In the afternoon, Aidan was a little sleepy. He fussed a little to be picked up and to be put down. He’s never really cried, he just gets irritable, probably because he’s tired and wants to sleep but also wants to play. He always settles down when we stand up and walk around with him on our shoulder. He probably likes that because he can lay his head down but still watch what’s going on the room.

We went to a Kazakh souvenir shop on our way back to the hotel and bought some remembrances from Uralsk for Aidan. Assia helped us make our purchases. It was a small shop but had many cute things. We’re deciding on a few other things so we’ll probably go back there before we leave Uralsk.

Tomorrow we’ll be halfway home! Hard to believe!

See you!

New pics

Aidan loves beeing naked!
Aidan loves to get changed!
Aidan and Clara...they share the same birthdate!
They have also been group mates at the babyhouse...
they go way back!

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Wednesday's Post

Today is Wednesday, and, considering the pretty but brutal snow yesterday, warm (maybe 38 degrees?) and partly sunny. The snow is melting which makes road travel easier but icy sidewalks and steps a little treacherous.

We had an uneventful day in the good sort of way. Aidan is used to us and we think looks forward to our visits. Typically, he is in his walker each morning when we arrive for our visit. Once he sees us, after a second of recognition, smiles and waves his arms and scoots over to us to be picked up. If he starts moving backwards or sideways out of excitement his caregivers laugh and push him towards us. He’s definitely a pretty happy kid. After we pick him up, we carry him downstairs to the playroom. He grabs on to our shirts but looks around to see everything he can see as we’re carrying him. He particularly likes to be carried facing front, like a football, so he’s not missing out on any of the action.

This morning he again played with his favorite toys, but despite the many objects of entertainment we bring each day, he has decided the past few days that he’d really like to play with the cameras. Our digital has a hand strap that dangles, and he loves to reach for that and also look around for it on the blanket. The 35 mm has a longer string, and he thinks that’s fun to try to put it in his mouth (mom and dad don’t let him, which of course is a bummer). When we put him down on the blanket to crawl around, he beelines for the cameras, wherever they are. That makes us laugh, of course – why bother with all the fancy stuff? It’s mom and dad’s things that are the most interesting. Aidan also played on the hanging rings again today. Scott held his body weight while he grabbed the rings, and Scott “swung” him back and forth. He thought that was neat and pedaled his legs in the air for effect. The playroom crowd thought that was funny so he decided to up the attention factor by making his sucking/talking “look at me” noises. He sure knows how to play a crowd.

We hit the self-service grocery at lunchtime and bought some ramen noodle soups and instant mashed potatoes. They tasted pretty good and hit the spot for a little light lunch. Our interpreter had some dental work done yesterday so wasn’t feeling well enough to escort us for some souvenir shopping, but we’ll find time in the next few days.

The afternoon visit in the music room was crazy baby time. All 3 of the kids were happy crawlers and thought that everything on everyone else’s blanket looked the most attractive. Aidan made a move for Clara’s rainbow ring toy, Shaylen beelined for Aidan’s crinkle book and Clara motored over to Shaylen’s musical piano. It was a riot. We all thought that probably because they are comfortable with each of us now that they feel relaxed enough to explore. Near the end of each afternoon visit, though, we can tell Aidan gets sleepy. He fusses just a little, yawns, and lets me walk around with him on my shoulder. Hopefully by the end of the week we’ll find out exactly what his day’s schedule is.

For dinner, we all decided to go to another Kazakh restaurant, and chose the “Golden Century” which was recommended by Aliya, Assia’s sister, our interpreter yesterday. While we had a very nice time, and talked a lot and each had a few Kazakh beers, we realized after the fact that we had made two mistakes: 1) we had gone into the restaurant’s bar area, which had a separate entrance, not the actual restaurant, and 2) an hour and 45 minutes (which is what we had told our drivers) is not sufficient time for dinner. We don’t know if it was the particular food we had ordered, if the restaurant was busy (the bar wasn’t particularly) or if it’s just the Kazakh way of preparing and serving food, but it took 2 hours and 15 minutes for our food to arrive. Once we finally ate, the food was good – I had “tabak chicken” which tasted like marinated rotisserie chicken, curry rice and stewed vegetables. Scott had a beef and potato dish (although he’d ordered a pork and banana dish, but that’s ok) and everyone enjoyed their meals, but we ate quickly so as to not to make the drivers wait in the cold any longer than necessary. I think at the next restaurant we may call and order our food ahead of time, just so we can manage our driver’s schedules a little better.

When we got back to the hotel, after the beers (which are stronger here!) we read a little and then had an early night. I started a new book today that I am really enjoying called “The Center of Everything” which is about a ten year old girl and her mom in the early eighties. She’s already talked about friendship pins on sneakers and her science fair triptych posters, which brings me back. Scott’s on puzzle #6 on Sudoku – he says, crossword puzzle lovers, you should check it out!

Tomorrow’s Thursday and the 15th! Hard to believe! See you then!

Wednesday Aidan Pics


Uralsk Pics

The very frozen Chagan River
The Atrium a.k.a "the mall"
Government Building
The Theater
Assia and Jeanette at the Soccer Stadium
The University near our Apartment


Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Tuesday's Happenings

It’s Tuesday the 13th of December! It snowed all day today and it’s 12 days until Christmas. Today we burned our “Home for the Holidays” travel candle, and finished the 146th song on the ipod’s holiday play list. We’re not homesick, but rather happy this Christmas season because Aidan, well, he’s just great.

We’ve been dining each breakfast at the hotel because the cost is included in our room, and they have a nice continental buffet of pastries and cereal and toast, plus made to order eggs. Scott likes to get espresso with his bacon and cheese omelet while I prefer green tea and toast with ham and cheese (and some nutella-filled mini croissants now and then). There usually isn’t anyone in the dining room except one or two other adoptive families, and the waitstaff is very friendly and attentive. Except for the Christmas tree with racing colored lights the room is kept pretty dim. It doesn’t get light here until about 10:00 a.m. (and dark about 5:30) so our 8:45 breakfasts have a lot of mood lighting.

It’s our 9th day at the baby house and time really is flying. Aidan is such a good boy. When we first arrived in the morning, he was in his walker in his group’s play room. As soon as he saw us, he started smiling and laughing and motored halfway across the room to the doorway where we were standing. He’s so cute that we want to eat him up. Today we were allowed back downstairs in the playroom with the other families, because the caregivers feel the playroom is warm enough even if he has some sort of cold still. There really is no evidence of any illness but the caregivers are just being cautious, which is fine with us. We found a new spot in the corner of the playroom to lay out our blanket today. Each family has their own blanket which does double duty of defining each child’s play area and protects them from any dirt which might be on the floor. Back in our spot, we were near the gymnast rings hanging from the ceiling. Scott decided a while back that with his motor skills and strength, Aidan might give Olympic gymnasts a run for their money. Scott put that theory to the test today by letting Aidan play on the hanging rings. He loved it. He grabbed on and wouldn’t let go. And even though Scott was holding Aidan’s body weight, he could tell that Aidan was pulling up on the rings. Quite the gymnastic prodigy at 7 months, we think. Per the usual, he also had a grand time with Lobby the lobster and his crinkle book. He still loves to look around at the other families and laugh when they look at him, ever the people person. We can tell that he has become more and more comfortable with us, recognizing our voices, looking around when we leave for just a moment (to go to the corner of the room to take a picture, for example), and relaxing enough to let us hold and cuddle him for extended periods. The hour visits really fly and before we know it, it’s lunchtime again.

Today was our driving tour of Uralsk. Assia asked us if we wanted to go ahead with the tour today despite the snow, and we all said sure. We didn’t know if another opportunity would present itself, so we thought we should grab it when we could. Although we didn’t have to go really far, our drivers navigated the snowy roads (we had maybe three or four inches) very well; we’re pretty sure they have snow tires, and the city’s snow plows do a decent job of clearing the stuff away. We were able to get out and take pictures at every site. On the way we learned that Uralsk was founded in 1613 by Cossocks, traveling tribesmen, who settled here. Most of Uralsk is actually in Europe, not Asia. It is one of 4 cities in the world which sits on a continental split. Kazakhstan became part of the Soviet Union in 1775.

Anyway, our first stop was the statue of a 17 year old Soviet woman who fought for the USSR in WWII much like a modern day Joan of Arc. She was a gun runner who lied about her age because she was so patriotic that she wanted to serve her country. Although she did live in Uralsk for 2 years, she wasn’t from the area. Assia told us that many statutes in Uralsk and Kaz in general are left from the Soviets, and are peppered across the country (not necessarily relating to a certain city or area). Regardless, it was a beautiful statue and neat to see.

I should mention before I go any further that it was cold today, and I mean cold as in “are my legs still there, I’m not sure” cold. That combined with blowing winds and falling snow made for quite an experience! We all pretended to ice skate on the many icy spots without falling on our behinds and laughed while we covered our faces with our scarves pulled our hats down over our ears like we did when we used to sled ride. It was so cold that it was really funny, if that makes sense.

Our next stop was a Russian Orthodox Church built in 1751. The women had to keep our heads covered and the men had to take their hats off to go inside. The inside was beautiful but we weren’t allowed to take pictures. There was a large entryway with a small bookstore selling religious books and prayer candles. Inside the church, there were gold plated and framed pictures of saints and the holy family over the front wall, maybe 6 rows of 12 (icons), and then columns with similar iconic pictures. The other walls and ceiling were covered with beautiful religious murals. There isn’t an altar or pews – Assia said mass is held daily while the people and priest stand. During the time of the Soviets, the Kazaks were told to paint over the icons but instead they were hidden. Luckily for posterity they were saved.

Next we saw a huge plaza type memorial in remembrance of the Kazakhs who died in WWII. There is a huge concrete obelisk and a granite wall listing all of the soldiers. We walked all around and decided it was time to go back to the cars when our noses felt like ice.

Last we went to an old Uralsk mosque. We weren’t allowed inside so took pictures of the brick exterior with very tall brick spires. Our interpreter said that since Kazakhstan has become independent, more and more people have found religion.

By this time we were snowmen so we went back to hotel for some lunch and cappuccino. We didn’t have time to go to a Kazakh restaurant (it generally takes a while to get served) before our afternoon baby house visit.

In the afternoon, Aidan was happy to chew on the baby treat container and listen to “wheels on the bus.” He laid on his back on the blanket and sucked his thumb and watched the other babies too. For a while he decided that Scott made a fine Lazy Boy and half sat, half leaned on him for a better view of the whole room. We had Aliya, Assia’s sister, for our interpreter for the tour and for the afternoon, and Aidan found a new person to entertain with his smile and laugh. He does this thing when he builds up to a laugh, he makes his mouth into an “o” and does squeal that’s half talking/half sucking in air. He cracks everyone up. Again, time flew and it was 4:00 already. Day 9 under our belts!

We went to the market to buy diapers (we have to bring 5 a day to the baby house) and back to the hotel. We had planned to try the “Golden Century,” a restaurant recommended by Aliya for dinner, but the roads were pretty snowy so we figured we’d try it out tomorrow night. Our lunch was big so we’ve had oranges and grapes and raisin rye bread and a little cheese in our room for dinner.

As I write, Scott’s on puzzle #4 of Sudoku, a new addict. I’m going to talk him into watching a movie before we head off to bed. We found out that we’ll be going to the theater to see Kaz belly dancers next week, so we’re looking forward to that.

We’ll see you tomorrow!

Tuesday's Pics