Sunday, March 29, 2009

Monday

The washing machine was still not working. We later found out that a water pipe had to be turned on and it should be turned on today. We also solved another mystery in the apartment: the heat is on full blast and we haven't been able to find the thermostat to turn it off or even down. It is very hot in the apartment. There is central heating so the individual apartments don't have controls to adjust the temperature.

This morning Arman was in his walker when we arrived and was so happy to see us. After a good breakfast of porridge and stewed fruit juice, we played for awhile on the carpet. His feet don't really touch the floor so he couldn't really move around in the walkers. Today the music teacher came back and Arman watched her very intently. It is really fun to watch how animated the babies are when she is there.

Irina has a temperature so we are going to ask the doctors to look at her when we return to the baby house for our afternoon visit.

30 March 2009-part 2
What started out as a dreary, gloomy day turned out to be one of the nicest afternoons we’ve had. The morning was kind of a harbinger. This afternoon was absolutely beautiful with a few clouds but LOTS of SUN. Plus it was probably the warmest afternoon we’ve had since arriving. There was a nice gentle breeze to go along with the sun. A couple of cool things happened. We got our washing machine to work. Who knew that you need to turn the water on to use it? We actually got to upload some stuff at lunch time as seen on our blog. Unfortunately, Irina came down with something. She had a very high fever at lunch and into the afternoon. The walk up the 76 stairs didn’t help much and Laura ended up helping her donate to the porcelain bowl. You know something’s wrong with Irina when she won’t eat pizza or donuts. We’re pushing liquids and giving her some of the great, soft, round, delicious Kazakh bread we’ve missed the last four years. It’s the best stuff ever. If it would last the flight, we’d bring it home. Unfortunately, we’re lucky if it lasts 48 hours. And that’s if we don’t consume it immediately. Everything goes great with it. Honey, PB, butter, spaghetti sauce, spicy mustard – you name it. Just not all at once.

This morning Arman got a nebulizer treatment as well as a massage. It was interesting to watch the masseuse give him a massage. After a few minutes of massaging him, she went and got the diaper rash lotion we brought, smeared it on his chest, and then continued with his massage. She massaged his chest and back and then beat on his chest and back.

Arman was great this afternoon. Not a big surprise there. He gets a little fussy at the end of our time as he gets a little tired. We worked with him to sit up and stand. This will go a long way to developing his leg muscles which are not so developed for an 8 month old. Laura and I shared taking turns sitting with Irina and helping the doctor look after her. She slept for a bit during our afternoon session after the doc gave her some meds. After waking up, she was back to her normal self until we got home. Over the next few days, we have to take turns staying home with her so we’re splitting our sessions. One of us will spend time with Arman in the morning and the other in the afternoon. It’s too bad Irina isn’t feeling well because it would be great to go and walk around the city. Not that we can read anything but just to get out and see the city. The last time we were here, it was well below 0 every day. So we were forced to go from our apt to car to baby house and reverse the order. The exception was when we went to hockey games. And then we froze our asses off walking from the car to the arena.
For dinner tonight, we enjoyed some blini’s, corn that we used our 210 tenge opener to get AT the corn, and some Kazakh beer. The blini’s were great, especially with the spicy mustard. The corn, well, it wasn’t bad, after Kev spent what seemed like an eternity trying to “open” the can. The beer was actually good. Derbes is the name. A lot of American and Euro branded beer is here as well. Miller has some stuff called Midnight. You can get Stella Artois and Leffe in some restaurants. Efes is another beer we see advertised and in stores. We think it’s Dutch. There are a few “German” beers here. We’re not sure of the validity of them being GERMAN. Irina enjoyed some bread, tonsil spray, and Tylenol.

No comments:

Post a Comment