A simple day

Today has to have been the most uneventful day since we have been here, the most exciting thing that happened today was that two little boys were moved out of our room at the baby house (they moved up to the next level) and there were two newcomers, also boys. That my friends was very sadly the height of excitement here today! 

 

Mr. Baby was feeling much better today and she was all smiles and giggles today and chatty…oh my goodness the babbling that was coming out of her was amazing….seems like Ciera will have some competition in the non-stop talking area.  Mr. Baby was also doing almost non-stop deep knee bend bouncing….hmm maybe more competition for Ciera in the non-stop moving area!  Her cough seemed a little more, shall we say, productive today so I imagine the medication is kicking in.  I asked if it was ok to give her bottles with water to help hydrate her a bit more and I was told that was ok.  I brought one bottle from home with what I thought was a fast flow nipple, but all she did was chew on it.  The nipples in the bottles at the baby house have a rather large cut in them so she really does not have to suck to get anything out, it just pretty much flows out.  She needs to suck as, if I recall correctly, you need this in order to be able to make certain sounds properly.  I think it will also help with her tongue thrusting.  So I brought the bottle home and made a slightly larger opening in it, while I don't want her to get frustrated with not getting anything out of it, I also want her to know that she has to work a bit for it.     When we got back to the babyhouse after lunch she was already up and in a walker.  M was already there and said when she got there Mr. Baby was already up and in the walker, she gave me a huge smile and looked darn proud of herself, when I looked closer I could see the traces of tears.  I asked one of the caregivers (ok I mimed it) if she had been crying and she said yes.  When I had put her down at 12:00 she was crying quite hard when I left the room so I'm wondering if she was just crying so hard that they got her up….sweet that she misses us but she needs her nap too.

 

I am hoping to meet up with the family who are here with their 5 year old son tomorrow at lunch, as much as I love Ciera I really think she needs someone her age to play with for a bit.  Ciera has become very creative here with her crafts, she saw a paper train in a book and sat down and made it exactly how it was in the book, I only found out what she was doing when she asked for help making the circles for the wheels and with the track.  She has made several envelopes for various things, a calendar and tonight made us both walkie talkies (the taxi drivers here use them) and then she made herself a watch.  We used the walkie talkies to talk to several people back home (I get to play a lot of parts!), she was very detailed with them and I am quite impressed with her creativity. We've done a lot of her school work that came along with us, and really just have a bit more to do.  In her creative work she writes a lot of random letters and then asks me what the word is, things like zcrabo, so I tell her what it says and then I hear "what does that mean mom?"….umm I don't know honey you wrote it!   She has almost the entire Bolt movie memorized and tonight was asking me what some of the expressions used in it are, some of them are tricky to explain.  What does it mean when Mittens says (and I am paraphrasing) "that's blood hero" or "you'll meet my claws Cujo"…..sigh oh well at least she is learning lots of new expressions!!  Not to mention forming a huge bond with her sister and more of a bond with me and she is learning lots about life in Kazakhstan….although I'm sure if you were to ask her what she likes most about Kazakhstan her reply will be something like "taking taxis".  Everywhere we have to go now she asks "can we take a taxi?" "Ciera we are going to the grocery store, it's a 5 minute walk."

 

Tomorrow evening we have arranged to go shopping at the bazaar with M, she has been there quite a bit (her apt is close to it) and she knows the shops to hit, she said she knows the perfect place for us to get boots!!!  She also did not bring boots, so I don't feel so silly now for not bringing ours J, I'm going to need an extra suitcase on the way home for our newly purchased cold weather gear.

 

On the positive side, I checked my VISA statement online and my overweight fee for our in country flight was only $64.24CDN……I was impressed, I expected it to be much higher!  So taking an extra duffle bag home will not excessively add to our costs.

 

If you are still reading, and I hope you are…I really want to thank everyone for their blog comments and emails, some make me laugh, some make me cry, but I love getting all of them and reading them, it really does help to keep me connected to home.  For those who have been here you know how long the days can be and how repetitive they can get and these emails/comments truly help.  Thanks everyone for your continued support.

 

Todays pictures:  I have the sweetest picture but I can't post it yet….it's our translator, Ciera and Mr. Baby watching Ariel this morning, all 3 are mesmerized by it and Ciera is holding her sisters hand with both of her hands….it's so very sweet.  But here is one of Ciera and her sister this afternoon (and not I do not let the baby watch more than a couple of minutes!!!) I don't think Ciera wa holding her hand here it was more trying to keep her hands away from the DVD player!!

 

 Ciera's parting words to me tonight "and don't cut yourself again tonight mom"