May 05

May 5th

Rob's side of the story
I feel like running about the park near our apartment today going “I am a wild and crazy Ameeerikkan!! Come hug me!!” But I figure that Kazak crazy houses are not so nice.

We had a very good day today with junior. He has 1 upper tooth and 2 lower teeth and I think I noticed them day 1 but didn't think to write about it. (Since I know we have some blog stalkers now every detail is probably important.) He was measured yesterday and the doctor says he will be tall baby. (Yes I type very Russian now but that is what the doctor said) Right now he is taller than my neighbor Chip AND my sister Patty so he is going to be in the NBA!

My day started great. I tried the shower for the first time and NO BROWN WATER!! It was hot and steamy and I steamed the place up real good. Bad part was the mirror was all steamed. I had to clean that up.

Tomorrow we get cable internet access so that will be cool. We no longer need to flash drive this blog and upload at an internet cafe daily. So I will be answering more of your emails and will even be on Instant messenger!!!!

Sunday we are going to a local football match (soccer) and when we went to get tickets today they were free!!!! We're excited to see the match.

By the way... I may have bad grammar but I know the difference between wail and whale!!! Haha that's a good one.

Don’t forget to bring your travel alarms… the one from my brother in law Bill (he gave it as a groomsmen gift when he married my sister Patty) works GREAT!!!!

OK so long for now.... I think I have a cold but I can't complain.

Jen’s side of the story
Last night we made the bed with the sheets that Gula, the owner of the apartment, gave us. There was one flat sheet, and one big sheet like an envelope with an opening of about 60% at the short end of the sheet with buttons. Hmmm, do we jam the mattress in there? No. Do we button the 2 sheets together? No. I am guessing we are supposed to jam the comforter in there and then button up the envelope sheet, so that is what we did. The bed is interesting; it’s a thin mattress on a piece of plywood screwed to a shiny wood frame. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but it’s sure no Tempurpedic!

The owner of our apartment is like a real estate genius that you’d see on late night infomercials. She bought the apartments for $5000 US Dollars 3 years ago, and now it’s worth $90k. And she owns 2 or 3 more! So if you hear of Gula the Real Estate Marvel, you heard it here first.

This was our first morning with our shower in the new apartment. The good news is that the bathroom mirror does not steam up when you shower, the bad news is that Rob hogs the hot water. Note to self: drag my butt out of bed and get a shower first. Of course we are dragging our butt out of bed at 9am…which is really after my morning nap. I now wake up around 6am and do laundry or use the computer for an hour or 2, then go back to bed. Do you know how painful it is to use a computer without internet access?

Our first night of laundry went well; it took about 12 hours of the washer working through the night to get the laundry done. By this afternoon the cardboard clothes were dry. I’m just glad we have a washing machine and don’t need to wash them out in the tub.

We’re making progress with junior, and got quite a few smiles. We have progressed to having him sit on the floor between my legs, and Rob attacks his belly with the Jeff Gordon dinosaur (named for its rainbow colors on every appendage and hair—did you know dinosaurs have hair?). There is a piano in the room we are using today and Rob was playing and junior was making purrigeon purring sounds like our cats. We also scored big points with the bubbles that Brenda gave us. We made his little arms punch at the bubbles….he will be a fan of Tae Bo Lawrence Welk style. We also learned a lesson in proper stowage of the toys. The bubble jar was left un-capped in the middle of the floor and as I was walking junior around, I bowled it right over. Anal Retentive tidiness would have prevented such an accident. So now we need to find another batch of high quality bubbles pronto.

Junior likes to be held, and after a half hour of playing on the floor he realized, “Oh crap, these people will hold me. I better start the crocodile tears and get in some snuggling before they jet out of here today”. Once we pick him up and stand half way up, he stops right away….I don’t think he likes the ground.

We also learned another lesson in parenting: kids dig cheap crap. We spent about 20 minutes playing with an 88 cent pack of Brawny Fresh-Naps with the re-sealable tab. He never did get the pack open, but he did like to grab it and squish it. As if that was not enough excitement, we next moved to the cardboard box from a TV in the corner of the room. He liked to beat on it, and then try to open it. No need to buy any more toys, we’ll just cruise the Allentown recycling center for cardboard boxes, or hit the neighborhood on trash night for empty boxes. We wondered what would happen if we put him in the empty box, but realized that it would probably freak him out a bit too much--- at least we figured this out before attempting it. He did try to chew the box, like our cat Tigger would, but we moved back to the Jeff Gordon Dinosaur for some teething ring chewing action. He has 3 chompers, and we’re wondering if that’s also making him a bit garumpy.

Junior’s next activity after our visits from Noon to 2pm is a nap, and around 1:50 he falls asleep on our shoulder and starts sighing and grunting. I am guessing potty times comes right before nap time. We are hoping this potty time thing continues in America so he can get used to sitting on the pot. We just need to get a waterproof book for him to read as he sits there.

Someone asked what the deal is with the slippers. Well, there are several answers. A) Once you have a child you age 30 years, and need to wear old person footgear B) Once you have a child, you lose all sense of fashion---- we did not have much to lose there (see earlier post on Rob’s stylish Timex watch) or C) Outdoors Shoes have germs and you can’t have germs in the orphanage. So if you listen to BearMan on WZZO, you know the correct answer is C.

After our visit we went to a new restaurant. We had an Apple and Walnut salad. And since its Kazakhstan they always sneak in extra stuff like mayonnaise, cheese and oranges. But it’s all covered in mayo so each bite is a surprise—soft and mushy or hard and crisp? It was quite tasty, and more flavorful that the shredded beet and raisin salad from yesterday.

After our big outing we came back to the apartment, and set up appointment for the water bottle man and cable man. Get this, the water man delivered after 7pm, and hold onto your hats, the cable man will be coming out on a SATURDAY evening to hook it up at no charge! In America we’d wait 30 days for them to come and they’d give you an 8 hour window that they’d miss. It seems like they work 7 days a week here. Since our schedule is pretty much the same each day, we don’t even know what day of the week it is.

Without having cable it is very quite in the apartment, and kind of nice. Unfortunately after tomorrow the TV will probably be on whenever we are in the apartment L

We ended out the day with dinner at the apartment…blinis, bread and apple juice, and stuffing gift bags that we’ll give to the orphanage people in a couple weeks.

Today was the 4th of 14 days of visiting, we’ll be filing papers for court (to be around May 23rd) so we’ll need a name soon. Today’s idea: Khlep Taylor.


This is the Land Of Lilliput lpace we went to the other day. This is one of the models of the future way Astana will look like.
















Another picture of the city ocf Astana model..

A picture of the camel butt model

The model picture of Almaty, the city I will visit right before leaving the country. It's about a 2 hour flight from Astana and where the embassy is where we get the final paperwork and medical exam done. The person in the picutre is Aishana, our translator. She is very excited about everything. Not the model mountains in the background, and the monster street light from the parking lot.