June 17 (Kaz)

June 17

Here ends week 7....2 weeks to go!

Andrew is adjusting to his new schedule and was actually awake the whole visit. He got a little fidgeting after playing on the grass for half an hour, so we got up and headed over to the strollers to take a walk around the driveway. When I was about 15 feet from my blanket of toys, I saw that they had let the 3 and 4 year olds out in the playground. About 5 little kids made a beeline for my blanket and were about to make much destruction of my toys. It was like slow motion, I lunged back towards the blanket saying 'n-o-o-o-o-o-o-o' while the Spanish man, Waldo, adopting a little girl, came to my rescue from the other angle , scooped up my toys and blanket in one scoop just milliseconds before the onslaught of 4 year olds. This was not their first attempt at toy scarfing of adoptive parents. They hade a devlish look on their face as the toys were safely stowed in my back pack. Andrew was entertained but unphased. We made it to the stroller and he started to figure ou the little steering wheel on the stroller.....next up is Rob's Lexus.

The other night while I was out to dinner with Baheet, our Russian speaking co-ordinator, she was gushing with comments about the type of parents that Rob and I would be. I think it was the obligatory comments that come with the 'thank you' dinner we had for them. In the middle of eating my Lagmon meal (pasta, soup, noodles and assorted other items of unknown origins) I dripped some down the front of my shirt....a common occurance. Baheet looks over at me, smiled and gestured to my now food stained front porch and says "And that is Erbol's (Andrew's) favorite part of his new mommy". Coming from anyone else I would be annoyed, but I think it was her attempt at humor. Here's a picture of Andrew making use of his new found mommy pillows/front porch.


On the ride home from the the orphanage we were following this car. That will be Rob and I in 40 years....driving around in our Lada with the kitty kat sleeping on the back dashboard. The other night at the restaurnat Baheet was telling us that in Kazakhstan many younger men look for older woman to support them. Then the men can do 3 things: 1) sleep, 2) eat and 3) watch TV. Maybe Rob will re-think his decision to return to the USA and come back to Kazakhstan to live.







We thought there was no nice grass in Kazakhstan. At the orphange they have the worst field of weeds that should be a test case for Scott's Fertilizer. Along the river walk one of the newer apartment buildings has a nice patch of grass. We say their 'lawn mowers' out cutting it the other day. Their lawn mowers are a bunch of 10 year olds that slowly and carefully break off the grass. Andrew will surely miss that activity as he gets older. When I told Andrew this, here was his response. Has anyone seen this look on Rob's face ?