Wednesday's Deets

Hello again! Time is going by pretty quickly here. Today we had our second full day of visits. When we got to the baby house and went up to Aidan’s room, his caregiver told our interpreter that he had a little bit of a fever. We were concerned about him and also worried that we wouldn’t be able to stay and visit with him, but our interpreter said he was ok and it was ok to stay, but that we would need to stay up in that wing in a little play room instead of downstairs in the playroom with our travel partners and their babies. That was absolutely fine with us, since we were still able to see him. I held him while the caregiver gave him a big spoonful of some kind of green liquid medicine. He drank it down without any fuss or trouble, and then she gave me a bottle with water (glass with old fashioned nipple) to wash it down with. I could feel that he was a little warm, but we could tell he wasn’t that sick, because he kept chewing on the bottle and playing with it instead of drinking the water! He likes to look around and kept looking at everything and both of us until he finally finished his bottle.

The rest of the visit he was in good spirits. The caregiver brought him to us in the same outfit we had put him in yesterday. The day before the caregiver had asked for another outfit and diapers but didn’t today. We didn’t know why, but figured we’d go ahead and change him because if we were feeling a little under the weather we’d want a clean new outfit on! So Scott changed his diaper (he’s excited that he got to be the first one to do it!) and we put on a new onesie and sleeper. He absolutely loved having his clothes and diaper changed, even though he wasn’t even wet! He gurgled and babbled and kicked his legs and waved his arms the whole time. It cracked us up! He definitely has a big personality and we love it. The rest of the visit he played with his favorite photo albums and chewed on his toys, and smiled a lot for mom and dad. What could be better.

After the visit, our drivers took us to the Hotel Chagala. The Chagala is the hotel that hosts many WPA families while they are in Uralsk. All of the rooms were booked when we first arrived because of the presidential elections, but it has openings starting the 10th so our travel partners and we wanted to check it out to see if we want to move in a few days. It’s nice; a lot like a Days’ Inn. It has a lounge/bar area with a t.v. with English channels, a breakfast buffet, and English speaking staff. The rooms are pretty typical hotel rooms, double beds with a tv and desk, microwave, mini bar and small bathroom. I didn’t like the rooms as well though as the room we have now at the Hotel Victoria. Right now we have a suite – a full entrance room, a living room, a bedroom, a half bath and a full bath (without toilet). It’s an older building with 10 foot ceilings and huge windows, and it’s close to the baby house. See the pictures of our hotel room attached. Problem is, the Victoria is far from the center of town, so we have to rely on the drivers for everything. At the Chagala, we could walk to the grocery, restaurants, etc. The Chagala has two suites available – bedroom plus living area and bath, so we are going to decide in the next few days whether to move or not. Either way, really, it’ll be fine. What we care most about is our visits with Aidan!

From the Chagala we all went to lunch at a local Kazakh restaurant called the Kamelot. It was decorated inside like a medieval castle. We forget to take pictures but I’m sure we’ll be back! The food was good – almost everything is some sort of meat with potatoes, carrots, peas, onions. I had beef chops with onions and Scott had beef a la burgundia, but they basically looked like the same thing. We all, including our interpreter, were cracking up at the names of the dishes on the “English” menu. There were dishes such as “Evening of Comfort,” “Love Letter,” and “Espionage Passions.” The names aside, the food was really good and we all had a fun time.

Because we had a long lunch, we all headed straight to the baby house for our afternoon visit. Aidan was no longer warm and was obviously feeling better again. We still had to stay up in his wing by ourselves but that was fine with all of us. Aidan had some more fun grabbing Scott’s nose and pulling on my hair. We played the “get real close to Aidan’s face and say “aahhh booo” and kiss his cheek” game, and he adored that. We had him giving some big belly laughs with that one. Clearly a big hit. He does seem sleepier at times in the afternoon, so we both held him and rocked him too. He sucked his thumb and didn’t seem to mind the extra attention at all. I forgot to mention that after both visits today, when we handed him back to his caregiver, we waved and smiled, and we laughed and smiled and kicked and waved back! That made us feel really good. Obviously, he’s getting to know us.

We went back to the hotel after the visit and Scott managed to get a lot of pictures posted to the site, which was part skill and part luck!! We were glad we got to post the cute shots we had gotten of him. Then we and Ann and Kris and Dan (travel partners) all met the other three families here in Uralsk for dinner again, at a place called the Restaurant Almaty. We had our own private room and shared several plates of a Kazakh dish called “Five Fingers.” Apparently traditionally it is supposed to be eaten without utensils, hence the name. We all decided knives and forks were appropriate though . It was made up of stewed beef, boiled potatoes, carrots, dill, and lots of big buttered noodles. It was delicious! Back at the hotel we helped Ann get some pictures of her beautiful little girl emailed to her folks and watched a few DVD’s and read our emails and comments!

THANKS SO MUCH to everyone for all of the great comments and emails!!! We REALLY appreciate it and we love to read them every day. We’re really happy that all of you are sharing in this great experience with us!! The internet connection is so bad that it’s hard to respond to you individually, but please know that we LOVE the comments and are so happy to hear from all of you.

See you tomorrow!!