An ordinary day

Today was just an ordinary day for us here…..except I think the lovely lady who cooks for us is psychic!   Yesterday at lunch, we were chatting (the couple who lunches with us and I) about our meals, and they mentioned they had eaten cabbage rolls the night before.  I said "really? cabbage rolls, huh we have not had those yet, I'd like some of those".  Today we walked in for lunch and what had she made?  Yes…..yummy home made cabbage rolls!!   Weird or what…..hmmm maybe tomorrow we should talk about chocolate cheesecake and see what happens J

 

Mr. Baby is finally completely back to her old self but I have discovered something about her, actually I think it's new,…she HATES being told no and having something taken away from her/stopped from doing something.  That was a full on go on that today, she wailed, complete with tears, the few times that I did that today.  It was almost comical.  Her legs are so much stronger now, she can hold herself up fully with straight legs and feet flat on the ground, with me holding her upright of course.   In the play room one of the therapists saw her doing that and came over and put her down on her hands and knees and showed her how to pull herself up on a wall ladder and in my head I'm thinking "I don't want you to teach her that, I want her to learn it when she gets home, please don't help her".  She has almost got her knees into the crawling action now, it amazes me daily how much she has changed in 6 weeks, it is incredible to see on a daily basis.  Today she almost put her arms out to be picked up, I put my arms in her crib to get her and just held them back a little and one little arm started to come up, I praised her heavily for that.

 

It was a bit cooler today, but still not bad, and it was drizzly so we had to stay inside all day (yuck), hoping tomorrow is better and we can get back outside.

 

After we left the baby house today we met up with Oxana, another of the translators whom I knew from the last trip here.  Together we went to the art studio that we also went to 4 years ago.  The husband of one of the Dr.'s at the baby house is an artist and I wanted to get a couple more paintings.  It was so hard deciding, they were all so beautiful.  I let Ciera pick out one for herself for her room, she wavered between 2 but finally decided.  She wanted both but I told her she had to pick one!  He is a wonderful artist and is currently working on doing wax figures for a new museum that is going to open here.  There were a couple of "heads" there that he is working on and they are pretty darn realistic, and he said they were not even done yet.  I'd like to see them when they are complete.  I learnt a bit more about Karaganda history while I was there, a bit of the dark side, I will have to read up on that part more.   

 

After that we had a quiet night at home, Ciera did about an hour of school work.   She complains about starting it but once she gets going she keeps wanting to do more, which right now is good as we have fallen a bit behind (sorry Mrs. Gillard and Mrs. Keeping) and have to catch her up before we get home.  We only brought 5 weeks worth and will have been gone 7 by the time we get home so she will still be 2 weeks behind but that's not so bad considering what she has gained by being here.

 

When we were out with Oxana this afternoon, Ciera was showing her pictures on the camera and kept saying "my sister this", "my sister that" and Oxana commented on how she accentuates "my sister", she's very possessive of her already.  I had initially been a bit concerned that almost 5 years between them might mean they won't have a good bond, but that concern is long gone now.  The bond is cemented there.

 

Picture today:

-       it was a slow picture day but I like this one.  Little sister looking up at big sister on the ladder.

 

A few of you have mentioned you think you know who Mr. Baby is as you were here prior to me.  As you know pictures of your child before you met them are priceless and always appreciated.  So of you have some please send me an email, or just send me one if you just want me to confirm or deny who she is before you send me a whole bunch of a child who is not mine!!  Any thoughts or observations about her also would be very much appreciated.  Thanks so much.

 

For those who will be travelling after me, I do regularly take pictures of the other children in the room and I will be most happy to share any pictures that have your child in them and I will also share any observations and moments with them.  I have grown to love all these little ones, they al have such unique personalities. I do hope they all find loving homes soon, be it back with their birth families or new forever families.