Our 4th day in Almaty – Day # 58

Being silly...








Getting sleepy. When he starts rubbing his eyes and sucking on his fingers it is time for bed. This is the onies we bought for him here. It has a monkey on it and says "I know I am cute but you don't need to stare".





This shot doesn't really need an explanation.

















Underneath the duct tape tent is the door stopper. Lincoln thought it was such fun to lay on his belly on the floor and suck on the door stopper. Yes, can we all say YUCK! I guess I don't blame him too much he is getting new teeth and I am sure the rubber stopper felt great on his gums. Still disgusting and we were fearful he would seriously hurt himself with it. This picture was taken after he tried to lay down and give it a good chewing. This picture doesn't really show the disgusted-disappointed look he really had when he realized things were different, now.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

The first part of our day today Lincoln was pretty cranky. Then after his morning nap and lunch we took him out for the afternoon and he was so good. We were thrilled on how well behave he actually was. Well during lunch he was not so well behaved till we got a high chair for him then he was better.

We had breakfast down in the hotel with the Feliciano’s again today. After breakfast we came back to our room to try and put Lincoln down for his morning nap. It took awhile to get him to settle down but eventually he did. During his nap time I took advantage and got out of the room to go down to the café alone. In the café we can access the mega line which is a much faster internet connection. It is no where near as fast as home but better than 30K like we have in our room. I got the blog updated for all the Lincoln fans out there. Eric stayed in the room to listen for Lincoln, I think he took a nap but he claims he stayed awake.

Lincoln woke up from his nap around noon time and we got him up, feed and changed. Then we dressed him in warm clothes to go out for a walk. We had plans to meet some of the other families down at one of the cafés for lunch.

The café is about 20 minute walk or so but we got a little lost before we found it so it took us about a half hour to walk down. Everyone was still there when we did finally arrive. We had lunch with Sara, Julian, and Zoe also Kristen, her Mom, Mary and daughter Maia. It was the first time we had met the 3 of them and they were very nice and like all the kids here Mia was super cute. She is 17 months old now. Joel, Gen and Gabe eventually joined us too.

After lunch Sara and Julian walked us a few more blocks away to a flea market. We were hoping to find a reasonable priced stroller. The market was huge and super busy. We also got the feeling it was probably not the safest of places for us Americans to be hanging out. Lincoln was asleep in my arms and I noticed some people giving me very dirty looks. I then covered Lincolns face with a little blanket so that solved that problem. We wondered around the market for awhile but it was a huge maze of all kinds of stuff. They sold just about anything you can think of. There was a huge grocery section and food all looked fresh and edible. It is still strange for me to see fresh meat sitting out on a table for sale. I do have to admit I am getting better of seeing skinned whole pig heads just sitting there for sale or bowls with chicken heads out for sale. I still don’t want to really look but at least I am no longer gagging over the sight of it. We did find children’s clothing but we never found any strollers. We probably could have wandered around in the market for hours on end since it was so huge but since we didn’t really feel too safe we got out of there after about a half hour. No stroller, oh well my back is getting stronger lugging Linc around in the carrier. I am trying to think of it as great exercise even though my back and neck are killing me from having his weight hanging off of me. One of the first things I will be doing upon arriving home is going to the chiropractor.

After the market we walked back to Tsum mall (sp?). Eric wanted to check out the souvenir section of the mall. Eric bought himself a Kazakhstan t-shirt. Plus we picked up a few little things for Lincoln to have as he grows up. After this we headed back to the hotel. It was nearly 6pm by the time we got back to our room. Linc slept for a little over an hour of walking around. Once we got him back here and changed into cooler clothes for hanging out in the room we feed him is dinner then we played for awhile. Even though he rode around in my arms for 5 hours today he didn’t have that much build up energy like I was expecting. I think the sun zapped a lot of it out of him. We feed him his last bottle for the day at 8:45 by 9 he was sleeping. I’m keeping everything crossed that he sleeps through the whole night!!

PS: Kristen, Mary and Maia it was wonderful to meet another happy family. We wish you the best of luck on your trip back home. We are looking forward to reading your blog to keep up with Maia’s introduction to her new family in America.