Off to Almaty!

October 27, 2006
We woke up early this morning; Alex slept perfectly all night and woke up smiling at us, when he saw us! I guess he likes us!! It was the most welcome sight, that little face smiling at us and bouncing up and down when he saw us in the morning!! We finished packing and left the apartment at about 8:30 for the airport. On the way to the airport we went by the maternity hospital again and the children’s hospital where Alex stayed for about 3 weeks. Alex actually fell asleep in the car on the way. Olga met us there with her brother, they checked us and we had to pay over weight fees again! Oh, well! We weren’t carrying as much on this time… since we were taking the paintings as one carry on. Our landscape painting that we had done was not even close to being dry so we left it at the apartment and one of the other families will bring it home for us. We are so glad that we have met all of these people and to have become friends! Alex was pretty good on the plane… he fussed for a little while and was mostly just restless. But he wouldn’t go to sleep, so Jerry kept him moving, so he couldn’t get real cranky. Finally about 2 hours into the flight he was fussing and then instantly fell over to sleep, so he got about an hour of sleep before we got off. Meanwhile we made friends with some folks from Hawaii, sitting across from us. We actually paid a little more for Business class seats on this ride. Oh my word!!! I wish we could fly all the way home like that! We had so much room and the staff was so nice! We were picked up by Keril, who took us to get a photo taken for the embassy and medical exam. Then we went to the office and signed a few documents, then off to the International Medical Clinic. Alex health is fine, he weighs almost 22 pounds and about 75 centimeters (I don’t remember what that is in inches) the doctor said he is in about the 50th percentile! So he is growing good and healthy!! Heavy little guy!!!!! Since he doesn’t even fit the 12 month clothes yet, we decided that he has a lot of muscle and most of his fat is in his big cheeks! He didn’t cry the whole time, until the HIV blood draw. He was fine until he realized that the nurse was holding his hand and he could not talk it away. Then he got mad and suddenly started screaming bloody murder!!! Finally she finished, he was so mad and red faced, we had to laugh. Then he realized that his finger hurt too, he was quite pitiful, he kept biting at the band aid until he got it off!! Basically he had a little fit all the way to our apartment. Our apartment is of course four floors up! But is beautiful!!! It is so nice inside!!! Our bed is so comfortable!!! There is a bed for Alex in our room too. We immediately put Alex for a nap since he was so cranky. We were all hungry too, so Jerry went looking for some food for us. When Alex woke we fed him and played for a little while and then we were all ready to go to bed early. We were all exhausted!

October 28, 2006
Again Alex slept all night, but kept whimpering all night.
We started out on a walk to locate where the Ramstore. We had picked up a map from the Hotel Kazakhstan and it is not very accurate, so we got lost. It was Alex’s first ride in the stroller, he was perfect and when we turned and walked into the sunshine, he closed his eyes and slept for about an hour as we walked and stuff. We found the store and went to get something to eat, neither Jerry nor I had eaten all day and we were getting pretty tired! Alex slept until we were finished eating a salad and baked potato. Then we gave him some puffs and went to the grocery store. We picked up a bunch of different baby foods and things so none of us would starve! Finally we headed back so we could feed him a proper dinner. We bought so many groceries that we had to put them in the stroller and carry Alex home… which he enjoyed, he was tired of sitting in the stroller!

Alex had multiple hissy fits today. We weren’t quite sure what to do with him during these fits. We tried the bed and when he calmed down we would go and get him, then he would start crying again… so today I just held him tight to me and laid down on the bed and would not let him throw his body around in his fit, he cried for a couple minutes, then stopped squirming, then he would try to get away again, thinking that I had relaxed my grip on him, then when he realized I was still holding him tight, he stopped, he tried this about 5 times. Finally he fell dead asleep! He has decided that he does not want to go to sleep with us. Maybe he is having orphan issues. Maybe he is afraid that he will wake up and we will be gone, he might be grieving. We don’t know, but we love him anyways.

The screaming is the worse though. He starts crying about something, usually it is something he shouldn’t be doing and he gets in minor trouble and then he just escalates to screaming…It is a mad cry, hard to explain, but we are getting his different cries figured out. He does not like to be laid down on his back… he freaks out and starts crying for some reason, but… uh, he has to get his diaper changed so… I don’t know why? We just have to change his diaper. He will have to deal. :)

We went to eat Thai tonight with our friends from Hawaii and their new baby, he is a cute one too. His birthday is like, October 18 or something so he is the same age as Alex. The babies were both very good. Alex had a 45 minute nap just before we left and was perfect for the whole evening. He also got to sit in his first high chair, he did really well, I think he actually enjoyed it. We can hardly wait to get home and put him in his very own chair! They finally started getting restless about 9 pm though. But we were about ready to go by then anyways. The food was really good, we ordered spring rolls, geang curry, pad thai, water, white rice, and desserts. Yes you have to order plain rice here if you want it with your curry… and it was all expensive but we wanted to experience Thai in Kazakhstan since it is our favorite type of food! We paid about $85. Everyone keeps telling us how expensive it is, but no one actually tells us how expensive, so we thought we would inform you all! :)

Not like any of you need to know this but he had a dirty diaper about 7 times today… which might explain why he had been in such a bad mood all day. Lu, our friend from Hawaii, is a nurse practitioner, and thought that is probably why too. Poor baby! Hopefully he will be better tomorrow, he exhausted us today!

We are having a great time here, Almaty is pretty nice, lots of people speak English here! We are going to try to get a camel ride before we leave, I guess we can get those at the zoo in Gorky park.

October 29, 2006
Last night Alex slept like a log all night, we didn’t hear one whimper; of course maybe we were so tired too that we just didn’t hear anything! He slept until about 8 am which is about an hour and a half past when he usually wakes up! But when he woke up he was our baby boy we know. He was so happy today. We hung around the apartment for the morning, we decided to go out and meet the Poston family down the street at the park around 11. Well, Alex fell to sleep around 10:30, so needless to say we were late; we tried to let him sleep as long as possible. We had to dress him while he was sleeping! It actually worked, he didn’t even wake up!!! So we took him out and put him in the stroller and he slept almost all the way to the park!! So we met the whole Poston family (they have two 6 year-olds that are originally from Kazakhstan about 6 years ago) then we walked through the park and looked at a memorial that is there. Then we were all hungry, so we went to Mad Murphy’s for lunch, we had such a nice time with them. We came home and he took another nap and then played for quite a while, he was laughing and giggling and attacking us… yeah I was having a hard time getting my journaling done! He is so darn irresistible when he smiles at you!!!

He was really testing us tonight… He finds out what is a “no” and then does it while looking at us!! He knows what it means! Little turkey!! And he only threw one little hissy fit today. So we set him in the little foot tall playpen so he could scream it out. He did… he was so pitiful in there looking at us while screaming. We picked up his toys and ignored him… it actually only lasted about 3 minutes and then he stopped… as soon as I picked him up he started screaming again, so I set him back down, in about 30 seconds he was smiling at us with tears coming out of his beautiful eyes!!! He is such a mess. We really think he just is grieving all of the stuff that he knows and doesn’t have anymore. We read that they just need to cry about that sometimes. We are unable to console him during these outbursts and is just unreasonable, but we have read that putting them in another room and leaving them to cry by themselves makes them feel abandonment. He seemed much happier after letting him cry it out with us in the room next to him. So strange that this little baby that never cried for 3 weeks for us, is suddenly having these bouts. It makes us feel sad for him, and we think that as he gets more used to us and knows we are here to care for him and he doesn’t have to worry if he is going to get enough food, these strange behaviors will change! :) Poor little guy!! He is going to have a bunch more changes coming up soon!!!

About 11:30 tonight we heard him in the bedroom shaking his favorite rattle, we looked and he just had a hold of it in his sleep, and when he rolled it shook and then he would move some more because he was disturbed! It was kind of funny, and we were ready with his late night bottle, and we changed his diaper and he never even woke up!!!! We couldn’t believe it! He is so cute!!! So sweet when he is sleeping! So innocent! Who knew he could have such issues! :)
All I know for sure is that we are so blessed to be given such a precious baby! And can you believe it? Clear over here in Kazakhstan!!!