It's Friday!

Hooray! One week after arriving in Kazakhstan, I finally slept for 8 (almost) straight hours last night! I felt like a million bucks all day. A victory over jet lag.

Since we’d bought food at the grocery yesterday, we had yogurt and granola this morning while Scott posted pictures. As you may have noticed, we focus on getting photos up on the website first, for all of those who can’t wait to see another day of Aidan. At the end of the day, I have a moment to write up the journal entry about the day’s events. Anyway, before our morning visit I packed up our things to get ready to move to the Pushkin tomorrow. We are excited about our pretty new hotel and are hopeful that we will be able to post and email online without the 4 minute time limit imposed by the Hotel Victoria.

Aidan was Mr. Happy Go Lucky all day today. When we got to the Baby House in the morning, he was in a walker in his room. As we first arrived, we were standing in the hallway area outside of his group’s room talking. Then I could see him in his room in a walker, leaning back so that he could see around the doorjamb at us. It seemed clear that he had recognized our voices! That made us feel so good. We went down to the playroom for our visit. He was so much fun. He loved to watch his dad blow up his beach ball, and was beating on it and playing with it before Scott could even get it fully inflated. Of course, he reached immediately for, and consistently chewed on his friend the Lobster. He also had fun with his Baby Einstein crinkle teether book. It’s a neat thing that does triple duty – makes noises, has teether/rattler ends and instructs its reader on colors and numbers. Aidan digs it! Then, he located the back pack we bring for our visits for the first time. Decided it would be fun to investigate and find out what else we pack to bring each day. First thing he found was our plastic container of cherry Gerber baby treats. We decided the other day that we weren’t going to give him any food until we were able to talk to the doctor and caregivers and find out more about what he eats and his feeding schedule. This, of course, didn’t stop him from grabbing the container, playing with it, rolling around with it, and using it as another teether toy. In fact, he was able to grab it, one handed, from the back pack! Needless to say, we found out today that his strength and motor skills are quite good. He reached for everything, manipulated toys and containers between hands, and just had a grand old time. At one point, when the treat container rolled out of reach, he crawled right after it. He definitely can crawl and it will be mere days before he figures out that he can crawl far and fast. That was so fun to watch. We also took a few new measurements, and he is 27” tall and his feet are 4.5” long! The kid has huge hands and feet! May end up being a challenge to find the right footwear.

At lunchtime we went to a little mall called the Atrium for lunch with Ann and the Costellos and had the Napoli pizza – salami, ground beef, onion and olives. We had watched an episode of the Gilmore Girls before our morning visit in which they were enjoying supreme pizza, and so of course we were craving it. It was really good and hit the spot. The manager at this restaurant is really nice and told us all that we are always welcome at his establishment. I think they get a fair amount of adoptive family business. The only fact that belied this assumption is that the waitresses stared at all of us the entire time we were eating. I don’t know, maybe we’re really freaking looking! Anyway, after lunch we went back to the hotel and finished packing before seeing the little guy in the afternoon.

For our second visit we were in the music room with Ann and the Costellos and their little girls. Aidan definitely loves to be the center of attention! He laughs, smiles, talks, coos, gurgles, makes faces, acts fussy to demand attention, and then starts the cycle all over again. He scooted/crawled for his treats and the Einstein book and the lobster and watched the other girls and their parents very intently. At one point the treats rolled out of reach onto Ann’s blanket, and her baby Clara crawled after them too and batted them out of Aidan’s reach. His face clearly read “I’m not worried, that’s but one source of entertainment” as he reached behind him, one-handed, for the Lobster. Then he was making noises and babbling so much that the other families were responding to him, and he thought that was the coolest. He laid on his stomach, head up, laughing and making his “wow, this is cool, I have an audience” face so much that we all were rolling. That in turn made him laugh more. He loves to read and respond to people’s faces. What a total crack up this kid is. We love it!

At 4:00 we decided to go with Ann the “big market” and shop around, partly for fun and partly to look for some gloves for me. I found a nice gray wool pair for about $3. I also couldn’t resist a purple monkey stuffed animal/mirror/rattle type toy for Aidan and a few other small items. Everything really is pretty inexpensive and it’s fun to look around for interesting clothes toys and other knick knacks that you can’t find in the US.

We all ate again the hotel restaurant for “old time’s sake” since we’ll be moving to the Pushkin tomorrow. We weren’t particularly hungry after our big pizza lunch so I had “greek salad” which actually was salted slices of tomatoes and cucumbers, and fries. Scott has stroganoff (good and easy to order) and we laughed and talked with our friends before heading back to the hotel room.

Today I also took a few pictures of buildings around the baby house to give you an idea of what the surroundings look like here. We will be taking more when we get the chance. I also took photos of the Baby House music room, to supplement everyone’s mental pictures!

Hope everyone is well! Talk to you tomorrow!