Saturday, February 16, 2008

Bonding day 11 of 15

Today was a great day. Lincoln was feeling really well for both our visits. This morning when we got in the Nanny brought him up and he had a gigantic smile on his face as she handed him to me. He then took turns jumping between Eric and I. He is now finally putting his arms out and leaning when he wants to go to someone else. He is not aggressive with it yet. Like if you are holding him and not paying attention then he just stops and doesn’t push it but since we are encouraging positive behavior from him we make sure we hand him off each time so he learns that it really is okay to want to go to someone else. Eric had the ipod playing Disney music today, Lincoln really got into dancing to some of the songs. I think he would like music more if he wasn’t too busy paying attention to every one else in the room. He also really seems to enjoy it when we hold him in our arms and sway to the music or bounce him up and down to the beat of the music. We did lots of playing today. He was in the walker for a little bit but mostly out with us. He walked around the room with us more today than other days. He is really getting quick with his crawling. In a blink he is gone. We really have to be careful with him in the playroom because the walls are lined with hot radiators and the pipes running to the radiators. Eric or I can touch them quickly and not get burned but I can just imagine him latching onto them and not knowing to let go. We don’t need a burned baby! Oh when we left this morning, I took him back to his room and when I handed him back to one of the Nanny’s he didn’t want to go. He did his leaning in to me and looked at me with this look, like where do you think you are going. He then of course got this sad look on his face when he realized I was not going to take him back. This qualifies for one of those happy – sad moments for me.

In between our visits today we went back to our apartment then we went out to the grocery store, and the mall. I need to buy a hair dryer so we went to a store call Tecahdom (or something close to this, name). We walked into this store and it was pretty much like walking into Best Buy. They sold all electronic type stuff you would need for your home. Neither of us could believe that a store like that existed in Aktobe. Eric was in heaven. I found a blow dryer that I thought would be good enough for about $10 US dollars but unfortunately they didn’t have one in stock. We are going shopping tomorrow to a mall we have not been to yet and Biyanna tells me I will be able to find a blow dryer tomorrow. I need one, so I hope so. Eric went and bought a pillow today. The pillows they sleep on here are large square pillows that resemble huge throw pillows. They are big and bulky and definitely not great for sleeping on. So Eric splurged and bough himself a pillow at the mall. I didn’t get one; I can live without a pillow for a couple months. I actually have been using a neck pillow that my parents gave me to use on the plane. I sleep with that every night. At the market today we still have no idea what to buy for meals. Eric bought more cookies. We have eaten more cookies here than we eat in a year a home. We also bought some pre-packaged salami, cheese and some bread. This is what I had for lunch today. Eric had this and ramen noodles. I am so sick of eating noodles!! You have to be super careful what you do buy in the grocery store because almost everything is expired. You have to dig through the stuff on the shelves to find something not expired. Tomorrow when we are shopping with Biyanna we told her she has to go to the grocery store with us to help us buy food for meals.

Our afternoon was just as fun as our morning visit. He definitely is feeling better. One cute thing that happened this afternoon we have been trying to teach him to play peek-a-boo and he finally seemed to get it. I was holding him and he was looking behind me, Biyanna came up behind me and kept jumping from side to side and he actually kept looking for her. He really likes her. She dances around and acts silly playing. He really lights up and gets all smiley and giggles when she talks to him in Kazakh. I really wish we knew enough to talk to him but they do tell us to only talk to him in English so he gets use to it. We gave him apple-carrot juice combo today. He didn’t seem to like it or he wasn’t too hungry. He loves plain apple juice the most but it is so hard to find at the store. I look every time we stop at the market. Toward the end of our visit he was getting really sleepy and rubbing his eyes. I was holding him and walking around the room. I walked past the window and he let out a squeal so I stopped and he just starred out the window. The outside just amazes him. I can’t wait till we can take him out. He will probably hate the cold since it is so hot in the baby house.

This evening after our visits we all went out to dinner at an Eastern Asian restaurant. The food was really good and we had a fantastic time. Saturday nights seem to be our night to go and relax and splurge on our meal. This is why we have to eat oatmeal and noodles the rest of the week. But it really is worth it. Biyanna is really fun to hang out with; she is really out going and enjoys sharing her heritage with us. We of course, love hearing all her stories. She was explaining to us tonight about what happens when couples get married. It was really interesting.