Photo Shoot...
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Finally Home!!
For Aliya!! We rode a CAMEL!!!!
We are finally Home!! Alex is now a US citizen!!!!!
Woohoo!!
We are finally Home!! Alex is now a US citizen!!!!!
Woohoo!!
We are HOME!!
November 11-20, 2006
Well, since we have gotten home, we have been having a blast with our new family member!! Once we all got sleep, there really was no "adjustment". It seems like he knew he was "home", he has just moved right in and made himself comfortable here! He has been so good, except for a few tantrums here and there...probably from tiredness, but he sleeps all night 10-12 hours and a couple naps a day, he eats almost anything... doesn't seem to care for green beans though. He is so happy; he laughs and giggles all the time! We are having a lot of fun around here!
My grandparents came to visit from Nebraska last week and we had so much fun, with them. Alex loves them! They love Alex, too!!! We also took Alex to the Doctor here and he got his USA check up, to make sure he is fine… silly people they had to take 3 vials of blood from my little blood curdling screaming baby!!! About 40 minutes of that and I was ready to pass out!! What a mess!!! Anyways, he is fine, as we already knew!!! The next day we celebrated Alex’s first birthday!!! We gave him that rocking horse that he loves so much and went to see Jerry on the jobsite in Grand Rapids! Alex was just taking it all in!!!! He can be very sober at times… but his “wheels” seem to be turning all the time… he just watches everything new with such seriousness!! It is rather funny!
Alex also turned 1 year old on November 8. Grandpa and grandma Nosal bought him a rocking horse, it is beautiful and while with a mane, tail, eyes and ears! He loves it! We went to dinner at Clementines in South Haven, with Heather, Ryliegh, Grandma and Grandpa Nosal, and G & G Cook. Alex tasted lemons for the first time… sour face. He also had Macaroni and cheese for the first time… it was ok. We are going to have a little birthday party for him on the 18th though, with cake and ice ream and all… So, we had the party… Tissiana and I found an accordion at world market the other day, considering that I wouldn’t let him play with the one at the baby house, we bought him his very own!! Ha!!! He was scared of it!! Poor kid!! But he liked the tambourine and percussion set that we found as well as the LeapFrog ABC set!! Bergmanns brought him a little John Deere farm set, and Bonnie (and her family) brought him bibs and a picture frame!!! We had a fun time!!! We made him a 2 layer Pomegranate cake and put a horse on top!!! He was such a mess!!! He loved the cake! But he got tired of sitting in his high chair. He feels confined in there! He hates that!!
Boy does he know who his parents are!!!? He will go to anyone, but they don’t have him but a couple seconds and he is looking to see where momma or papa went!! Then he is squirming to get to us!! It’s rather sweet!
At some point this week he decided that he LOVES his blankie!! I took away his one that we had at the babyhouse, so we could wash it… I pulled out a different one from Aunt Tissiana, made from fleece and he suddenly grabbed it and buried his face in it and made all kinds of happy noises! Now you can hand him almost any of his blankets and he will do that! It is adorable!
This week our friends, Travis and Tissiana came to visit us!!! We were so happy to see them! Alex loves them, he giggles like crazy when they play with him! He is just the perfect little baby!!! He loves them!!
Our little Julliette kitty has disappeared!! The last time we saw her was on Alex’s birthday. So she has been gone for a week!! We have looked for her everywhere and asked as many neighbors as we can find! Jerry walked the woods looking for her and I called the “pound” and the humane society as well as talked to the Vet’s office! No sign of her!! We think someone stole her!! She is so sweet and cute! None of the deer hunters have seen her out in the woods either. No sign of her anywhere!! She has just “poofed” into oblivion! It makes us very sad! We hope she is at the very least ok, and with someone who will love her, but really we would like her to come home! She was the one that would actually “play” with Alex. They would take turns chasing each other around the house.
Alex has been experiencing some falls! Poor kid, he tries to stand on his own quite a bit. This week he actually drew blood for the first time, he fell on his mouth and must have bit his little lip! He was so pitiful! He even looks cute when he is screaming! We actually think most of the “blood” was slobber! He seems to be teething too! Not sure what teeth are coming next but something!!
This week he has started saying “mama” it is the sweetest thing in the whole world!! I had been telling him our names… Alex… Mama… Dada. I came in the room from working in my office for about an hour… Uncle Travis was watching him upstairs, when I walked in, he went crazy and yelled “mama!!!” When I bent down to kiss him, he suctioned his little lips to my cheek!!! It was most amazing!! Also this week, one day when I was feeding him breakfast, I said “good job!!” and the next thing I know he is clapping away!! So I tried it again! Sure enough, he did it again! He has been doing it all week!! He will even drop stuff from his hands to do it!! We brought out the “walker”, that thing that he walks behind while holding on. Uncle Travis worked with him on that for a while too… He is getting better! He leans on it a little too much, so it goes too fast for his little legs! So he often ends up on his knees trying to crawls behind it… But we are working on it!! Everything is just so delightful!!
We are looking forward to a relaxing week ahead, we are staying home for thanksgiving, Jim and Ruth will be with us. We will have fun!!
Well, since we have gotten home, we have been having a blast with our new family member!! Once we all got sleep, there really was no "adjustment". It seems like he knew he was "home", he has just moved right in and made himself comfortable here! He has been so good, except for a few tantrums here and there...probably from tiredness, but he sleeps all night 10-12 hours and a couple naps a day, he eats almost anything... doesn't seem to care for green beans though. He is so happy; he laughs and giggles all the time! We are having a lot of fun around here!
My grandparents came to visit from Nebraska last week and we had so much fun, with them. Alex loves them! They love Alex, too!!! We also took Alex to the Doctor here and he got his USA check up, to make sure he is fine… silly people they had to take 3 vials of blood from my little blood curdling screaming baby!!! About 40 minutes of that and I was ready to pass out!! What a mess!!! Anyways, he is fine, as we already knew!!! The next day we celebrated Alex’s first birthday!!! We gave him that rocking horse that he loves so much and went to see Jerry on the jobsite in Grand Rapids! Alex was just taking it all in!!!! He can be very sober at times… but his “wheels” seem to be turning all the time… he just watches everything new with such seriousness!! It is rather funny!
Alex also turned 1 year old on November 8. Grandpa and grandma Nosal bought him a rocking horse, it is beautiful and while with a mane, tail, eyes and ears! He loves it! We went to dinner at Clementines in South Haven, with Heather, Ryliegh, Grandma and Grandpa Nosal, and G & G Cook. Alex tasted lemons for the first time… sour face. He also had Macaroni and cheese for the first time… it was ok. We are going to have a little birthday party for him on the 18th though, with cake and ice ream and all… So, we had the party… Tissiana and I found an accordion at world market the other day, considering that I wouldn’t let him play with the one at the baby house, we bought him his very own!! Ha!!! He was scared of it!! Poor kid!! But he liked the tambourine and percussion set that we found as well as the LeapFrog ABC set!! Bergmanns brought him a little John Deere farm set, and Bonnie (and her family) brought him bibs and a picture frame!!! We had a fun time!!! We made him a 2 layer Pomegranate cake and put a horse on top!!! He was such a mess!!! He loved the cake! But he got tired of sitting in his high chair. He feels confined in there! He hates that!!
Boy does he know who his parents are!!!? He will go to anyone, but they don’t have him but a couple seconds and he is looking to see where momma or papa went!! Then he is squirming to get to us!! It’s rather sweet!
At some point this week he decided that he LOVES his blankie!! I took away his one that we had at the babyhouse, so we could wash it… I pulled out a different one from Aunt Tissiana, made from fleece and he suddenly grabbed it and buried his face in it and made all kinds of happy noises! Now you can hand him almost any of his blankets and he will do that! It is adorable!
This week our friends, Travis and Tissiana came to visit us!!! We were so happy to see them! Alex loves them, he giggles like crazy when they play with him! He is just the perfect little baby!!! He loves them!!
Our little Julliette kitty has disappeared!! The last time we saw her was on Alex’s birthday. So she has been gone for a week!! We have looked for her everywhere and asked as many neighbors as we can find! Jerry walked the woods looking for her and I called the “pound” and the humane society as well as talked to the Vet’s office! No sign of her!! We think someone stole her!! She is so sweet and cute! None of the deer hunters have seen her out in the woods either. No sign of her anywhere!! She has just “poofed” into oblivion! It makes us very sad! We hope she is at the very least ok, and with someone who will love her, but really we would like her to come home! She was the one that would actually “play” with Alex. They would take turns chasing each other around the house.
Alex has been experiencing some falls! Poor kid, he tries to stand on his own quite a bit. This week he actually drew blood for the first time, he fell on his mouth and must have bit his little lip! He was so pitiful! He even looks cute when he is screaming! We actually think most of the “blood” was slobber! He seems to be teething too! Not sure what teeth are coming next but something!!
This week he has started saying “mama” it is the sweetest thing in the whole world!! I had been telling him our names… Alex… Mama… Dada. I came in the room from working in my office for about an hour… Uncle Travis was watching him upstairs, when I walked in, he went crazy and yelled “mama!!!” When I bent down to kiss him, he suctioned his little lips to my cheek!!! It was most amazing!! Also this week, one day when I was feeding him breakfast, I said “good job!!” and the next thing I know he is clapping away!! So I tried it again! Sure enough, he did it again! He has been doing it all week!! He will even drop stuff from his hands to do it!! We brought out the “walker”, that thing that he walks behind while holding on. Uncle Travis worked with him on that for a while too… He is getting better! He leans on it a little too much, so it goes too fast for his little legs! So he often ends up on his knees trying to crawls behind it… But we are working on it!! Everything is just so delightful!!
We are looking forward to a relaxing week ahead, we are staying home for thanksgiving, Jim and Ruth will be with us. We will have fun!!
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Last Day!!!
October 31, 2006
We leave at 12:30 in the morning! We will be home to Kalamazoo, November 1st! About 3pm!!
Woo Hoo!!!! We will post the last day from Home... no time!
We leave at 12:30 in the morning! We will be home to Kalamazoo, November 1st! About 3pm!!
Woo Hoo!!!! We will post the last day from Home... no time!
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!!!
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!!!
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!!!
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!!!
After Court!
If you enlarge this photo of Jerry and Alex looking in the window, you will see the little girl that we would love to adopt, she is the one on the left side that you can clearly see! She would wave and smile at us everytime we would see her on the playground! She also would come up and grab Jerry's hand and say mama and papa to us! It broke our hearts that we could not take her home with us! As far as i can tell she is available for adoption, she was shown to the German families... they did not choose her though... We are praying for her... to find a family, we just wish that we could be her family... We will see what we can do!
He's Our Son!!!
Gotcha Day!!!
October 26, 2006
Last night only Holly and Josh went to the Drama Theatre with us! It was so much fun… we only understood one word… “idiot-a” haha! Anyways it was cool and if you ever get the chance to go, do it!!!
So we had our morning visit with our baby… The Locurto family came in so Natasha had to go and meet with them, our visit was uneventful, really… compared to the rest of the day!
So we went to court and they approved us and waived the 15 day waiting period, and then plan is to be home WEDNESDAY!!!!! Then we went to the records office to get his birth certificate with OUR names on it! Finally we could go get him!!! He was quite confused, he wanted his bottle, and then we had to wait and wait and wait… there were only 3 caregivers there, so there was no party! The inspector was there so we were able to give her a gift though. We really liked her anyways!
So we took our baby bambino out of that place!!! He cried and cried, on the way home, we had him in that super thick snowsuit. Then he fell to sleep. But he woke up when we took off his snowsuit… He was totally wet from sweating in that crazy thing!!! Poor kid! We are going to see if we can avoid that tomorrow! He would not eat anything tonight, and we gave him a bottle, and he fell to sleep on Jerry, so he has been sleeping since about 7pm, it is now about 9:30. He is so precious in his bed sleeping! Of course we got pictures of his first real cry with us and his first “nap” All to be posted later from Almaty! Because we have got to pack! We leave at 8-ish in the morning!!!
Jerry went to pick up the final painting that we ordered, It is a Landscape painting of the Oral river. It is beautiful, and has a couple boats pulled up to a sand bar, I asked him to paint the Kazakhstan flag on the front of the boat. I can hardly wait for you all to see it!! I will soon post pictures of our paintings so you can see for yourselves! The painting was still wet, the guy was still painting when Jerry showed up to pick it up!! So we are going to put it next to the heater tonight to see if we can dry it enough to take it with us. We will see in the morning. Otherwise I think we can get one of the other families to bring it back to the US for us. Ahhh!!
Luba, our 19 year old sponsor daughter came over to see us before we left. She is so sweet, we can’t really talk but we try, she doesn’t speak very much English. She brought us a gift! Two nice frosted glass coffee mugs! When she had to leave, I think she was crying a little! I felt so glad that she likes us that much!!! We did not see Alia again, hopefully she likes us, but she is so shy that we can’t really tell! Hopefully they both will write us lots of stuff in their next letters!
So all of our friends were busy tonight, so we didn’t get to see anyone before we leave tomorrow… I am starting to get a complex…we are going to miss them all!
Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last night only Holly and Josh went to the Drama Theatre with us! It was so much fun… we only understood one word… “idiot-a” haha! Anyways it was cool and if you ever get the chance to go, do it!!!
So we had our morning visit with our baby… The Locurto family came in so Natasha had to go and meet with them, our visit was uneventful, really… compared to the rest of the day!
So we went to court and they approved us and waived the 15 day waiting period, and then plan is to be home WEDNESDAY!!!!! Then we went to the records office to get his birth certificate with OUR names on it! Finally we could go get him!!! He was quite confused, he wanted his bottle, and then we had to wait and wait and wait… there were only 3 caregivers there, so there was no party! The inspector was there so we were able to give her a gift though. We really liked her anyways!
So we took our baby bambino out of that place!!! He cried and cried, on the way home, we had him in that super thick snowsuit. Then he fell to sleep. But he woke up when we took off his snowsuit… He was totally wet from sweating in that crazy thing!!! Poor kid! We are going to see if we can avoid that tomorrow! He would not eat anything tonight, and we gave him a bottle, and he fell to sleep on Jerry, so he has been sleeping since about 7pm, it is now about 9:30. He is so precious in his bed sleeping! Of course we got pictures of his first real cry with us and his first “nap” All to be posted later from Almaty! Because we have got to pack! We leave at 8-ish in the morning!!!
Jerry went to pick up the final painting that we ordered, It is a Landscape painting of the Oral river. It is beautiful, and has a couple boats pulled up to a sand bar, I asked him to paint the Kazakhstan flag on the front of the boat. I can hardly wait for you all to see it!! I will soon post pictures of our paintings so you can see for yourselves! The painting was still wet, the guy was still painting when Jerry showed up to pick it up!! So we are going to put it next to the heater tonight to see if we can dry it enough to take it with us. We will see in the morning. Otherwise I think we can get one of the other families to bring it back to the US for us. Ahhh!!
Luba, our 19 year old sponsor daughter came over to see us before we left. She is so sweet, we can’t really talk but we try, she doesn’t speak very much English. She brought us a gift! Two nice frosted glass coffee mugs! When she had to leave, I think she was crying a little! I felt so glad that she likes us that much!!! We did not see Alia again, hopefully she likes us, but she is so shy that we can’t really tell! Hopefully they both will write us lots of stuff in their next letters!
So all of our friends were busy tonight, so we didn’t get to see anyone before we leave tomorrow… I am starting to get a complex…we are going to miss them all!
Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
More days!
October 24, 2006
When we got there this morning the German families where in the room playing with their kids, as the kids were getting ready to leave we noticed they were all dressed up, they had had a performance that morning, maybe in honor of the holiday tomorrow. They looked so cute! Alex dug through the bag for a while, first this morning… maybe he was looking for the crazy bottle. He always starts smacking his lips when he thinks food is close by! Funny baby! We gave him his bottle and instead of just taking the bottle away as soon as it is empty, we let him hold it in his mouth for a while, until HE realized it was empty, then he pulled on the nipple for a while and soon he was smiling up at me instead of crying! Yeah!! I don’t like it when he cries, and he hasn’t even full on cried yet! We haven’t even seen actual tears yet! The older kids had left a hat in the room from the performance so we tried it on Alex, it was a little big, but looked so cute!!! We put his shoes on again, and let him try to crawl around in them for a while. Then Aliya called about the paintings and Jerry let Alex “talk” to her on Natasha’s cell phone, which he hung up. So Aliya had to call back. Ha!
Today we picked up our paintings! They are amazing!!! This guy is unbelievably good! We also bought a couple more paintings from him and he had done 2 of Alex, even though we thought he was only doing one. It was awesome! Now we just have to make sure they are dry enough to roll up and bring home! After picking those up we headed to the Bazaar with Aliya, Kristy, Richard, Suzanne and Lee. Jerry wanted to get one of those old fashioned fur hats, and we needed to get Alex a snowsuit! These kids over here are so bundled up when they go out, that they can not move, literally!! I will try to get some pictures of babies out and about, they just sit there with their arms straight out to the sides, since they won’t go down. It is funny!
October 25, 2006
When we arrived at the baby house, and our interpreter went in to give the caregiver Alex’s clothes for the day, she came out and said he was in there crying, he is waiting for us today! By the time he came out he was smiling… but his eyes were red… so maybe he knows! Plus, he was instantly ready for his bottle. He went to the bag and was looking for it!! Then when we get it out to mix it up he starts fussing and trying to grab it, like we are just teasing him with it, and not really going to give it to him… We think maybe some other babies in his group still get a bottle, and he does not anymore. So he is afraid he will not get it. He gets really upset!! Something is going on there! So today, I held him and he was a lot more relaxed than he has ever been with us feeding him the bottle. I think he is starting to realize that we ARE going to feed him. He actually almost fell to sleep. If we had a full size bottle, I think he would have. He held on to my wrist with both of his little hands! He was sad when it was empty, but he recovered fairly quickly today. The plastic blocks are gone now, so we played with the same old boring toys today! :) haha! We got to play with him for about 2 hours today, because our friends Bill and Robin are not allowed to visit, today. It is a holiday, and their agency is funny about stuff. Today is Republic Day. Not exactly sure what it all means, but it is a Holiday and lots of businesses are closed, I guess. Well about three quarters of the way through our visit, he spotted the bottle in the bag! Big mistake! Remember how upset he gets! Oh dear! It took about 5 minutes before he forgot about it, in baby time that is forever!! He still tries the fake crying, to get what he wants… as long as we ignore it, he stops and is just fine. Like today, he did not want us to put his shoes on him (we are practicing for tomorrow) so he started to “cry” I checked to make sure there really wasn’t a problem, and then tried again, he started again… so I just told him was fine and kept putting the shoe on, as soon as he realized that didn’t work, he chilled out and let me put it on! He is not quite sure what to do with the shoes on… He doesn’t like to take steps with them on… I think they weigh his feet down; we will keep working at it though! He did a few more chin-ups today, and of course tried to bang on the TV screen and get the camera! He was getting very hungry by the time his caregiver came, he still laughs! Rascal!
We also got tickets to the Drama Theatre in town, it is in Kazakh, so our interpreter can’t really tell what it is about, but we don’t care. Kazakh is a very hard language to speak and write, so not very many people can read and write it. I guess only about 85% of the people who speak it can read or write it! So hopefully all our friends can go with us tonight, because we bought 10 tickets! They were only 200 tenge! About $1.50! We hope that we will be able to get the story line with out understanding what they are saying!
We also have to get mostly packed up tonight, since tomorrow we get the baby!!!!!!!! We will not want to have to do much packing tomorrow night! We leave Friday morning for Astana, and then Almaty. We can’t believe our time in Uralsk is almost over! It went so fast!!! We are going to miss this place, even though we want to go home! We made sure that the babyhouse knows that should Alex have a biological sibling come into the system that we want to be called first, so maybe we will be back sometime. Either way when Alex is older we will bring him back so he can see where he came from originally!
When we got there this morning the German families where in the room playing with their kids, as the kids were getting ready to leave we noticed they were all dressed up, they had had a performance that morning, maybe in honor of the holiday tomorrow. They looked so cute! Alex dug through the bag for a while, first this morning… maybe he was looking for the crazy bottle. He always starts smacking his lips when he thinks food is close by! Funny baby! We gave him his bottle and instead of just taking the bottle away as soon as it is empty, we let him hold it in his mouth for a while, until HE realized it was empty, then he pulled on the nipple for a while and soon he was smiling up at me instead of crying! Yeah!! I don’t like it when he cries, and he hasn’t even full on cried yet! We haven’t even seen actual tears yet! The older kids had left a hat in the room from the performance so we tried it on Alex, it was a little big, but looked so cute!!! We put his shoes on again, and let him try to crawl around in them for a while. Then Aliya called about the paintings and Jerry let Alex “talk” to her on Natasha’s cell phone, which he hung up. So Aliya had to call back. Ha!
Today we picked up our paintings! They are amazing!!! This guy is unbelievably good! We also bought a couple more paintings from him and he had done 2 of Alex, even though we thought he was only doing one. It was awesome! Now we just have to make sure they are dry enough to roll up and bring home! After picking those up we headed to the Bazaar with Aliya, Kristy, Richard, Suzanne and Lee. Jerry wanted to get one of those old fashioned fur hats, and we needed to get Alex a snowsuit! These kids over here are so bundled up when they go out, that they can not move, literally!! I will try to get some pictures of babies out and about, they just sit there with their arms straight out to the sides, since they won’t go down. It is funny!
October 25, 2006
When we arrived at the baby house, and our interpreter went in to give the caregiver Alex’s clothes for the day, she came out and said he was in there crying, he is waiting for us today! By the time he came out he was smiling… but his eyes were red… so maybe he knows! Plus, he was instantly ready for his bottle. He went to the bag and was looking for it!! Then when we get it out to mix it up he starts fussing and trying to grab it, like we are just teasing him with it, and not really going to give it to him… We think maybe some other babies in his group still get a bottle, and he does not anymore. So he is afraid he will not get it. He gets really upset!! Something is going on there! So today, I held him and he was a lot more relaxed than he has ever been with us feeding him the bottle. I think he is starting to realize that we ARE going to feed him. He actually almost fell to sleep. If we had a full size bottle, I think he would have. He held on to my wrist with both of his little hands! He was sad when it was empty, but he recovered fairly quickly today. The plastic blocks are gone now, so we played with the same old boring toys today! :) haha! We got to play with him for about 2 hours today, because our friends Bill and Robin are not allowed to visit, today. It is a holiday, and their agency is funny about stuff. Today is Republic Day. Not exactly sure what it all means, but it is a Holiday and lots of businesses are closed, I guess. Well about three quarters of the way through our visit, he spotted the bottle in the bag! Big mistake! Remember how upset he gets! Oh dear! It took about 5 minutes before he forgot about it, in baby time that is forever!! He still tries the fake crying, to get what he wants… as long as we ignore it, he stops and is just fine. Like today, he did not want us to put his shoes on him (we are practicing for tomorrow) so he started to “cry” I checked to make sure there really wasn’t a problem, and then tried again, he started again… so I just told him was fine and kept putting the shoe on, as soon as he realized that didn’t work, he chilled out and let me put it on! He is not quite sure what to do with the shoes on… He doesn’t like to take steps with them on… I think they weigh his feet down; we will keep working at it though! He did a few more chin-ups today, and of course tried to bang on the TV screen and get the camera! He was getting very hungry by the time his caregiver came, he still laughs! Rascal!
We also got tickets to the Drama Theatre in town, it is in Kazakh, so our interpreter can’t really tell what it is about, but we don’t care. Kazakh is a very hard language to speak and write, so not very many people can read and write it. I guess only about 85% of the people who speak it can read or write it! So hopefully all our friends can go with us tonight, because we bought 10 tickets! They were only 200 tenge! About $1.50! We hope that we will be able to get the story line with out understanding what they are saying!
We also have to get mostly packed up tonight, since tomorrow we get the baby!!!!!!!! We will not want to have to do much packing tomorrow night! We leave Friday morning for Astana, and then Almaty. We can’t believe our time in Uralsk is almost over! It went so fast!!! We are going to miss this place, even though we want to go home! We made sure that the babyhouse knows that should Alex have a biological sibling come into the system that we want to be called first, so maybe we will be back sometime. Either way when Alex is older we will bring him back so he can see where he came from originally!
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