Tuesday's Lowdown

Today was a great day. Scott and I are still struggling some with jet lag, so although we went to bed at 10, we woke up bright and early at 3 a.m. Instead of trying to fight it, we just decided to get up and work on the website. The internet connection here is really dicey – it’s pretty easy to get on the internet, but it disconnects itself randomly and often. That, of course, makes posting pictures on the website sort of a challenge. After a few hours of persistence, though, we managed to post three great pictures of us with Aidan. We were thrilled because we want all of you to be able to see just what a great kid he is!!

After that success, it was still early so we took a little cat nap before getting ready to go to the baby house for our morning visit. Today we brought Aidan a bib and some teething toys, because it looks like he has two little teeth coming in on the bottom and he is drooling a lot. He hasn’t cried or fussed at all though, so he’s a tough little guy. We also brought him his plastic baby photo albums, so he could chew on pictures of Granna and Pops, Collie and Granddan, and the whole family! At the baby house, we were able to visit with him in the play room. It’s sort of a neat place – lots of foam mats and a rubber ball pit for all the kids to play in. We kept it simple, and just played with him on our blanket, letting him play with his teethers and baby books. He really took to the photo album – if chewing on pictures is any indication, he likes all of you already! Of course either Scott or I held him most of the time – I think even this early his getting a little used to us. I think he really likes his Dad. He holds on to Scott’s shirt and likes to play with his nose. (Who doesn’t??) Honestly we just hug him and kiss him and can’t put him down. He’s just so wonderful.

After our morning visit, Assia, our interpreter, took all of us to the supermarket. It’s an interesting place – the first floor is a grocery, and the second floor has many different little stores, like glassed-in booths. We went upstairs first and walked around looking at everything. Each booth is pretty small and has something different – a shoe store, a baby clothes store, a makeup store, a stationery store. I, for one, loved looking at the shoes. For those other fashionistas out there, the women here dress really well. Everyone has really high heeled sleek leather or suede boots, with fur or other fancy detailing, sleek black pants or skirts, and gorgeous coats. Red, pink, leopard – every type of fur and leather coat you can think of – often with big fur lined hoods. Everyone looks like they’ve stepped out of a fashion magazine. I’ve forgotten to mention, although you’ve probably guessed, that it’s pretty cold here. Maybe 20 degrees, with a layer of snow on the ground. All of the buildings are very warm though, so it often feels good to step outside for some crisp fresh air. Anyway, back to the market - I managed to hold back on the suede boots and only bought a few really cute Kazakh Holiday (Christmas) cards.

Downstairs, we were all able to pick up a few things for lunch. It is set up similarly to the upstairs – each vendor sells something different, such as bread, candy, drinks, meats - and you tell them what you want and they pick it out and bag it for you. We bought a gorgeous bread filled with beef and cabbage and some diet coke. There was also a woman selling delicious looking little chocolate cookies and pastries, so we bought a couple of those. We then headed back to the hotel and ate – the cabbage pastry was really good – tasted sort of like sweet bread with sauerkraut.

Around three o’clock we went back to the baby house for the afternoon visit. The caretakers at the baby house are very nice. Each time we arrive, we put our stuff down and then are able to go up to our babies’ rooms to pick them up for our visit. From what we understand, this isn’t typical and we feel very lucky to get to see where he spends most of his time. This afternoon, we played in the music room. This is a nice size carpeted space with a few chairs and a piano – plenty of room to spread out. This afternoon, we could tell Aidan was a little sleepy, although he was fighting it because he wanted to play with his fun toys and with us. We don’t yet know his nap and eating schedule but we’ll find out in the next few days. He loves to play airplane and jumping jack, that’s when we get the biggest smiles! He hasn’t babbled a lot yet, but he makes excited “oh oh” noises, so I think we’ll hear some more from him soon! He is very curious and likes to look around at everyone and everything! We could tell he was getting kind of overstimulated and every excited with us and all the new things, so we also just carried him around a little to calm him down. He likes to be held facing out though so he can still see what’s going on. We also learned today that he sucks his thumb, which of course was very cute. I forgot to mention yesterday that when we arrived for our first visit, the staff doctor told us that Aidan “loves to be the center of attention!” We loved that, and Scott said that sure sounds like someone else we know.

For dinner, we met up with two other families from WPA who are here in Uralsk adopting children from the other baby house. We went to a restaurant that served great American style pizza and had a very nice time. Tomorrow, we are meeting them again for dinner at Restaurant Almaty, which we understand is the true Kazakh gourmet experience. We are looking forward to it (and mostly to our visits with Aidan tomorrow)!!

Until then!