May 19th, Part Jen

May 19
Today we had another leisurely morning of sleeping in. Last night I went out with the other families and discovered that 3 cups of a shredded beet salad are more than my American digestive system can handle, so I spent the dark hours of Kazakhstan up and around....or more like down and out. But today i feel refreshed!

We went to visit junior a half hour earlier today to attempt to feed him. Since the last child I attempted to feed was over 20 years ago, once again I experimented with nephew Bryan, it was slow going. And they are not into slow leisurely meal times here. Junior had a big bowl of soup, as in adult size, with some floating bread, meaty balls, carrots and potatoes. Then a plate of about 2 cups of brown mushy stuff, which may sound gross but it pretty much looks like something I would eat at a diner. Then he topped it off with an adult mug of some kind of juice, maybe apricot. That was more than I eat for Lunch. And if I was eating it at the caf at work, it would set me back about $8. Anyways, since I had not fed a kid since the Reagan Administration, i sat down in front of him, looked at the food, and then asked our translator where to start. Meanwhile, junior was growing antsy as he could smell and see him gruel and it was not getting to him. So off I embarked on a feeding adventure with itty bitty spoonfuls. I remembered the airplane thing was popular with feeding so we did that for abut 2 or 3 minutes and junior was quite confused. Hey, this feeding time not play time in his eyes! After about 15 minutes of slow paced feeding, and about 10 adult soup spoonfuls, the caregivers came over and showed me how a professional does it. In 30 seconds she had about half the soup bowl in junior, spilling much less than me. Then it was only the brown mushy stuff which the other caregiver showed me how to do. After the rapid feeding they said to let him sit for a about 2 minutes to let the food settle. Heck, if I ate that fast I'd need a nap to let it settle. But after a 2 minutes, they were right, he was good to go.

Luckily they put him on the potty before lunch so he was already processed and ready for playtime. We went outside for half the time and sat at the covered picnic table and played with stacking cups, which are now known as Godzilla destruction cups. We are trying to show him how to play with them in a less destructive manner, but after all he is a boy. When we got outside one of the other families was just finishing up their visit so we sat with Aunt Susan from another family. I think everyone here has a new Aunt Susan, but sadly she will be leaving next Monday as her schedule is ahead of ours.

Then we moved playtime inside for some action on the slide again. Either I am becoming more brave, or junior is, with the slide. Now instead of being the overprotective mommy and holding onto his chest and back and slowly easing him down to 3 foot slide, I just hold onto his back belt loop and let him fly down the slide uber fast. Then at the bottom he stands up and I grab his arms and make him do a TOUCH DOWN. I am trying to teach him the Touch Down thing like my mom did, so it will make it easier to get his shirt changed. Since Rob is a hockey fan, I also tried to reach him the ref sign for slashing, but he did not catch on to that. Just as well since there is no functional reason to do that movement.

After playtime, Rob carried him around for a couple minutes of quiet time to get him ready for nap time. Rob does a good job at that, drool and all.

Then it was on to the Art Museum, which was more like an Art gallery. They had some neat black and white Soviet pictures, and some flowery stuff (how Soviet!) and some weird Salvidor Dali stuff that Rob got a price on ($5k, so it will not be coming home, unless Rob wants to take the slow boat home). I spent an exciting evening napping and reading my book....yes I am a slow reader. Ahhh, the day of a retired person, I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

The other day when we went sight seeing to the NEW side of the city, also known as the LEFT side, where all the government and super nice landscaping is, we saw them cutting grass. I’m not sure when the last time was that they mowed, but holy cow that’s a lot of grass. They need John Rose, and/or his Dad, over here to mow more often. This was one of the few places we saw an actual powered lawn mower. Usually we just see a scythe tool that they lop off grass with.









Last weekend we went to the Aquarium, which was about 60% Las Vegas and 40% fish. At one of the non-fish zones there was a little oriental garden and a picture of Buddha. This picture was not staged, it just happened. But if any one walks up to Rob and rubs his belly, I am sure there will be trouble.












As always, we found another car for my niece Megan. This one is a bit more maintenance than the last one, the green Mercedes, but it sure is stylish for Kazakhstan.