April 7, 2009 Crawling and babbling

It was a mysterious morning! We went upstairs and fed Nathaniel. As we were changing him, we were told to hurry up and get all of our things because we needed to go downstairs. We were hurried through the halls and went into a playroom with the other 2 adoptive families from the US and the Spanish lady who is adopting older siblings. We were given no explanation and had to stay in there for about an hour. It was very strange! Irina and Nathaniel enjoyed the ball pit in the room as well as a little xylophone that was in the room. We had a little time to play in his normal playroom after wards and he was doing a lot of babbling. We were on the carpet and Nate was doing his usual rocking on all fours and then it happened-he actually crawled a little bit! It was very exciting!!!!

We went home to lunch to find some men fixing our stove. It was our second day being surprised with someone in our house at lunchtime-the day before it was the cleaning lady. With about a week left, we finally have a working oven.

Nathaniel did a lot of talking in the afternoon and kept saying, "the da" to his little blue car. Listening to him babble is fun to listen to and we are glad to hear him talking.

We had to leave a little early so that we could go to the social workers. We didn't know what to expect. There were two ladies who asked us just a few questions such as what Kevin does for a living, who will care for Nathaniel when he comes home, if we are financially stable, and then they were interested in Irina (what else is new!?!). They asked her to sing a song in English (the ABC's) and they asked her questions about her school. Our translator told us that they were totally amazed by her. They kept commenting on what a beautiful little girl she is. Our session only lasted about 5 minutes.

Irina has been very funny in the apartment. She keeps wanting to "fight Daddy." They wrestle and she told one of the translators that she has to learn to fight because Daddy told her that boys are going to be mean to her. Luckily he hasn't started weapons training yet...

April 6, 2009

Irina was first to greet our smiling baby this morning. She is really taking to being a big sister. One thing that we really had to adjust to at Irina’s baby house was how fast they fed the babies. With 13-14 kids in a room and usually only 2 caregivers, they have to get all the babies fed and changed quickly but it was unbelievable to us. Nathaniel’s caregivers put out his porridge bowl and his bottle on a highchair on the other side of the room from where they are feeding the other babies and haven’t said anything to us about the way we feed him. He has really slowed down in his eating and now takes his time. He likes to watch everything going on in the room as he is eating. We can’t wait to give him some Cheerios or little rice puffs to eat! We don’t want to upset his normal routine and diet here so we’ll wait until we are with him in Almaty for our second trip to bring him home.

He spent quite awhile in his walker today and had fun zooming around the room. He was drooling a lot again today and was chomping down on all of his toys; maybe a seventh tooth is on the horizon. The music teacher came for music class today and entertained everyone in the room. It really is a fun time when she comes in! It was funny yesterday because one of the translators called “Zeitchik” and Laura turned around right away. She was talking about a rabbit but it was instinct to turn around when I heard my maiden name. She was just as confused as I was and then we realized what she was talking about and why I went to answer her. It was funny! Nate really liked the Zeitchik (bunny) song today and clapped along with Kevin.
We came home for lunch today and were quite startled when we tried opening our front door and a lady popped her head out of our apartment. It turns out she is the cleaning lady but did we have a shock! About ten minutes before we were supposed to be outside for our driver, we got a phone call saying that a man was coming to fix our oven, which hasn’t worked since we’ve been here. He kept talking to us in Russian and we finally realized that he wanted matches to light the gas oven. We didn’t have any so he left and came back a few minutes later. We didn’t know how to tell him that he had to leave so that we wouldn’t be late for our afternoon session so we were a few minutes late. We are still without a working oven…

This afternoon we gave Nate a quick sponge bath after feeding him and started to play with him. His doctor told us that after she listened to his chest, we could take him outside. We waited for about an hour before she returned. He was quite content chilling out and chewing on his toys. When it was time to go outside, Kevin and Irina put him in his little snowsuit and Irina took his hat. They started downstairs to put their shoes on to go outside. Laura had to fix one of his socks and got an earful in Russian about taking him outside without a hat. It was no use trying to explain that Irina had one downstairs for him. One of the caregivers decided that the blue snowsuit was a little too small and that he should wear a pink one so she changed him and we finally got to go outside. Nathaniel is so calm when we go outside; it’s like he’s just absorbing everything around him. He and Kevin went on the swings for awhile and Irina had a great time running around and going on the playground equipment.

We tried a new place after our afternoon session in order to access our blog and check email. We have been frequenting the same places and wanted to find somewhere new. There is a place called Johnny Walker Pub just a little walk from our apartment. We went in and ordered some things, including carrot juice that Irina wanted to try (she wasn’t too keen on it) and quickly realized that we couldn’t access any sites that required us to log-in. It was a little frustrating. We are hoping that one of our translators will be able to help us with our modem problem when she comes this evening.

We don’t have our court date yet but are going to get papers notarized on Wednesday (we will have been here 2 weeks) and a date should be assigned then. Hopefully it will be the following Wednesday. We can finalize our tickets home when we get that date.

April 5, 2009

Luckily Kevin was feeling much better this morning so we all got to spend time during our one morning session we had with Nathaniel. He was all smiley this morning when Kev got him out of his crib, probably because he knew a little sponge bath was in his immediate future. He had a lot of corn in his morning porridge mixture this morning.

He was happy cruising around in his walker for quite a bit. He seemed to be really happy to have his Daddy back, as he kept staring at Kevin and smiling. He made a lot of new noises today, and was even talking in his crib first thing. He was back to being a drool machine so maybe a new tooth is on the horizon.

He was quite verbal today and let us know when he wanted to be held. The morning session flew by, with Irina spending some time playing with Nate and being a great big sister by sharing toys with him.

It is surprising how clean the city is today. Yesterday was a mandatory cleaning here in Karaganda and it looks wonderful. What a difference a day of cleaning makes! Today we are eating at our usual cafe and are going to spend the afternoon walking around the big park so Irina can run around. She is missing her friends and has even asked to email one. Short post for today-thanks so much for all of the great emails and responses!!!!!!!!

Out of order we know - April 3, 2009

We awoke to cloudy skies and fearing the worst. When we walked downstairs, it was raining. Too bad Kevin didn’t buy the waterproof Columbia jacket from the Columbia store down the street. Everything there is 50-70% off. Anyway, he didn’t need it because around 1030am, the sun came out. Each time we arrive at the baby house, we change from our shoes into slippers that we leave in the shoe room at the baby house. Laura was quite perturbed this morning upon discovering that someone took her slippers. They were the same slippers she purchased at the beginning of our trip to Kazakhstan 4 years ago for Irina’s adoption. (Luckily whoever took them returned them sometime during our morning visit.) We weren’t able to take Nate out this morning because the doctor said it was too windy. As you can see from some of the pictures, he had a great time at breakfast. Unfortunately, it was a bit runny and Kev didn’t give him the rest because it was just too watery. Nathaniel’s top missing tooth finally broke through the gum! It was weird because you were able to see the tooth for the last few days just under his gum. We have been waiting for it to come through. The music teacher came late into our morning session and she stayed for a little longer than normal. Nathaniel started flapping his arms like a little bird when he got excited during the music and singing. It is impossible not to smile when you are around him! Also, one of the care-givers, who is pictured with Nate gives weekly lessons in Kazakh. It’s pretty cool to see because all the kids are mesmerized by her. All of the caregivers get weekly lessons and they are expected to teach the children in their rooms. Today she put a doll in a dump truck and was telling the children about the truck (it has two wheels, a door, etc.). Before we knew it, the morning session was over.

We ate lunch at the Karaganda Café. It’s not a bad place. Kev had a chicken salad, Laura had a beef and pepper plate, and Irina ate pancakes and jam, her most requested meal here. We also re-met another American couple who are from Texas. They are adopting a 20 month boy. They are in their mid-20’s and really nice. They have to be here for 2 months. We had a great conversation with them. On the way out, Laura met another American woman who teaches English in Karaganda and has been here for three years. Hopefully we’ll see her again and find out how her time has been here. When we arrived, there was an older man in the corner whom the Texas couple knew. He teaches college level English but we didn’t speak with him. We were also served incredibly soft and tasty bread today with lunch.

Back at the baby house, the afternoon dragged on. After feeding Nate, we did a cursory inspection of the diaper area to find a conglomeration of poop, not seen on such a little body or in a diaper. Needless to say, two things happened; almost 3 people were needed for the cleanup job and Nate got a bath. We were really shocked at the amount of recycling happening in that little dude’s body. Then again, he got enough food for lunch that even Kev could not have eaten it; it was a whole bowl full of meat and potatoes We gave Nate some walker time this morning and afternoon to help him develop his leg muscles. He is getting around great in his walker and we can’t wait to bring him home to put him in the jumper. He was really into playing with a big ball this afternoon. The babies enjoyed attention from Irina as she bopped/danced around the room listening to Justin Timberlake on the I-Pod while bringing toys to the babies. We heard a few peeps out of Nathaniel, though he isn’t very vocal yet. He likes to make a “woo” noise as he puffs up his cheeks and blows air while doing it.

We promised Irina we’d take her to the new mall where they have an arcade with games and a jungle gym play area. When we arrived, it was a two for one deal on the debit card used to pay for games and stuff. Irina played the Whack-a-mole game, a game where she had to stomp on lighted nubs, and then a few rides. Irina then when into the jungle gym but was bored quickly as she was the only kid in the whole arcade. We found this odd, as at lunchtime, it was crazy all over the city. After our session in the afternoon, the city was strangely quiet. The mall was empty. So we went to eat at a restaurant which only has English menus at lunch and with supposed wi-fi access. The food is great but the wi-fi is terrible. Actually, you’re supposed to be able to use wi-fi in the whole mall but that’s a bunch of BS. It doesn’t work anywhere, at least on our computer. Kev wants to blame Vista but he knows that’s not the answer. We were lucky that one of the waitresses at the restaurant spoke English though it was slightly uncomfortable as the entire wait-staff seemed to stare at us.

After the mall, we walked home. Nice afternoon/evening for the walk. For those of you trying to call us, we’re sorry you haven’t been able to reach us. For whatever reason, the phone cord was slightly pulled out of the jack. So now we’re good. Or so we think. We’re 4 hours ahead of CET and 10 hours ahead of East coast time. Irina put herself to bed quite early today, something she has never done before. It must have been a tiring day for her. Flipping through the night programs, we stumbled across the new season of Dexter (which we haven’t seen yet), a series we are hooked on. It is frustrating trying to understand what is happening since it is dubbed over in Russian.

We are almost halfway through our first trip here and are starting to miss some of the comforts of home, such as eating fresh fruits and vegetables (we have had a couple of apples and pears but that’s really about it-they just don’t have them here except in the summer), water without a lot of sulfur (not than water in Belgium is any better), using tap water, and a drier to name a few. We can’t wait to bring Nate home and settle into a routine of our own. It will be interesting to see the interaction between Gabby (our standard poodle) and Nathaniel!

April 4, 2009

Immodium Advanced works really well. Enough said. It even makes you sleepy.

The short version of the story is that Laura and Irina went to visit Nathaniel today while Kevin stayed in the apartment. It was clean up day at the baby house and all of the caregivers were at the baby house cleaning up the outside-shoveling, raking, picking up trash, sweeping, etc. Most of the snow is gone. As we drove to the baby house (and in the afternoon when we drove around), we saw people all over the city cleaning up. Not sure if it was an official “clean up” day but it sure seemed like it.

As usual, Nathaniel was very happy to see us this morning. It is so funny to see him in the morning because he is usually dressed in one of the little “overalls” that all of the babies wear. It is a piece of cloth that has four strings attached to the top and they tie the strings in the back of the babies to keep the “overalls” on. The babies who are being adopted wear disposable diapers but the babies who do not yet have families only have a cloth covering their diaper area underneath the “overalls.” We’ll have to get a good picture of him in his little morning outfit before we change him. He is all smiles on the changing table and likes to hold onto his package of wipes. Like any baby, he likes it when you blow on his belly. He had more green spots today, especially on his neck.

It was quite steamy again this morning in the playroom. It was funny to watch one of the babies in his walker-two other walkers were hooked onto his and he was pulling them around. Another baby was in one of those walkers. The playroom was bustling as all 8 of the women were in and out of the room. There are six caregivers and two nurses assigned to the room. Nate was very interested in what was happening and did a lot of people watching. As soon as one of the ladies would look his way, his face would break out into a big smile. We spent a lot of the morning playing with stacking rings-for whatever reason he found the green one quite tasty. Irina spent a long time playing with him this morning and he enjoyed her company. He spent a little bit of time zooming around in one of the walkers.
After eating at our usual lunch spot, the Karaganda Café, we stopped by to check on Kevin. Irina broke a glass at lunch and our translator told us that breaking a glass is a sign of good luck. She also told us that they think seeing spiders mean that you are going to get money. If only that were true at home in Belgium! We’d be loaded!!! Kevin was not in any shape to leave the apartment so Irina and I continued on back for our afternoon session. I was very happy to hear that the doctor said we needed to play in the other area because the playroom was too hot. We spent our afternoon in the other room with the other couple. Nathaniel liked sitting in the big comfy chair with his big sister as you will see from the picture. We played some more with the rings and Irina brought him a dump truck that he enjoyed chewing on. He spent quite awhile standing up while holding onto the big chair. It’s great to see him begin to develop his leg muscles.

After a quick stop at the grocery store to buy some groceries and smaller diapers (Nathaniel is a little guy), we came home to find Kevin feeling much better. Irina has been learning about the cycle of life via the National Geographic channel in Russian. Late this afternoon was our first big downpour since we’ve been here. It didn’t last long but the raindrops were huge. We are hoping that the weather will be beautiful again tomorrow so that we can go to the park after our morning session. There is no afternoon session on Sunday. We are hoping to find out when we can go visit Irina’s baby house so that we can see the caregivers who are still there and so that Irina can see it for herself.

April 2, 2009 - We have a name, finally!!!!!

It is so nice getting to be the ones to get Arman out of his crib first thing after his morning nap. It was wonderful not to hear him wheezing or breathing hard this morning. His congestion is much better! He is always happy and excited to see us. He also knows that we are going to feed him. Laura fed him his morning breakfast today and he was kicking his legs and anxious to get at his food. He had a really chunky breakfast with lots of potatoes this morning. He kept smiling at Daddy and Irina while he was eating. He is always interested in what his big sister is doing. Kevin had to give him a little mini-bath after we got a whiff of his diaper. It was great to be the first ones to use the little washtub they fill up with warm water because they use it for all the babies and don’t empty out the dirty water first or change the wash rag. As soon as we washed and dried him off, his doctor came in to check on him. The doctors are constantly coming into the room to check on the babies, which is very reassuring to us now that one of the babies is our son. We pointed out to her, via one of the translators, that the little red raised spots seem to be more prevalent. She told one of the caregivers to put some kind of medicine on the spots. It is green and we were told that it is equivalent to our Calamine lotion. It was really funny to watch her dabbing his little spots and he looked like someone took a Bingo ink stamper and stamped all over him. She didn’t get all the spots but got a majority of them. The green spots dried very quickly, which was good because we had a cream colored outfit for him to wear and didn’t want to stain and ruin it.

We were expecting to have to take him to get his breathing treatment but got to go outside for 20 minutes instead. Irina was thrilled to see how much snow had melted because she has been begging to go play on the playground equipment, particularly the swings. She had a great time swinging, climbing, and running around. Laura and Arman went on the swings also. When we were in Kazakhstan for Irina’s adoption, it was unbearable to be outside because it was so cold. We are so thankful that we are here this time of year with Irina because she has so much energy ALL the time and needs to be able to run around. For those of you who have not been privileged to spend hours on end with Irina, you cannot understand how one little girl can talk for HOURS on end if she does not burn off some of that energy! Megan, we may need you to FedEx some extra ear plugs over here for us and our neighbors in our apartment building… Just kidding, Irina. Speaking of our apartment, we have counted the stairs leading up to our apartment: 76! We ended our morning session with our translators asking if we had chosen a name for him yet. We had not and knew the clock was ticking. Arman was taken to get his daily shot and then the caregiver put him down for his nap.

We went to lunch at a nice hotel called The Cosmonaut, that is just down the street from the baby house. We feel badly going back to the same places each day to use the wi-fi. We were able to access wi-fi in the restaurant of this hotel while waiting for our lunch.

After lunch we got Arman from the crib and began to feel the time crunch, as today was our deadline to decide on his full name. We have to give our facilitator his name by tomorrow so that our adoption paperwork can be started-we were not ready when she asked earlier this week and have been discussing this nonstop for weeks now. Seeing as we have no Internet at our apartment, no television in English, and a very small supply of reading material to last us 3 weeks, discussing names has pretty much been our evening entertainment. What fun!?! We had decided on a name prior to coming here but we didn’t know what our baby’s name would be and whether the name we decided on would be his first or middle name. It does not work well with Arman and Bookman so we were back to the drawing board. Arman’s name is pronounced “Ar-mahn;” we are anticipating that his name is going to be mispronounced often in life. During the time we took him outside this afternoon, we finally decided on his full name: Nathaniel Arman Bookman. His nickname will be Nate. Looking at him, both Nathaniel and Nate seem to fit him. Now we have to get him used to responding to those names. We all seemed content outside this afternoon: Laura and Kev were much relieved to finally resolve the name issue, Irina was playing and getting very muddy, and Nathaniel nodded off in Daddy’s arms.
The masseuse came for the afternoon massage and then we gave Nate some walker time. He loved zooming around in the walker and defended his toy when one little baby tried to take it. There is an improvement in how he sits and uses his leg muscles since we first got here. His top missing tooth seems to be ready to break through the gums in the next day or two.

Irina picked up a toy from the shelf in the playroom that has little balls that go cascading down several tiers, making noise as the little balls go down. All activity ceased in the room and you could hear a pin drop as all of the babies froze and stared in complete silence at Irina. She continued turning the toy upside down to make the noise a couple of toys and all babies continued watching her. The other couple in the room commented on how she enjoyed being the center of attention, though that seems to be life as Irina has known it. She was very sweet and took the toy around the room, making it make the noise for each baby and letting each and every baby have a turn touching the toy. After that, they were very interested in everything else that she did. It was funny to watch her holding court in the playroom. She has been wonderful during our visits to the baby house, entertaining herself with coloring, playing with a Barbie set we bought her, and interacting with the two translators who have been very sweet to her. She comes over from time to time to interact with her brother and hang out with us.

We stopped at a new (to us) grocery store on the way home and were delighted to find a new selection of chocolate snacks to sample. We have been conducting a taste test of peanut M&M’s all over the world over the last few years and were happy to find some Kazakh ones. Kevin has just informed me that we should throw out all of Irina’s clothing just prior to traveling home to Belgium and fill up her suitcase with Kazakh peanut M&M’s. They are some of the best we have ever had! (Hopefully our social worker is not reading this! Just kidding, Randy, if you are!?!) There are so many varieties of candy bars here that aren’t found in the US or Belgium. The Kazakh Kit Kats are quite tasty as is the Kit Kat ice-cream. Laura’s grandparents would be proud of us as we eat our way through each country we visit.
For the second night in a row, we let Irina run around in the park area near our apartment building and then walked down the street to where a lady has rotisserie chickens in a small box that cooks about 4 at a time. It was a whole delicious chicken for about $7.00 and reminded us of the Sunday market at home. We are thinking that we might be able to leave here on or about April 14, since that would be 21 days in country, and maybe return the first week of May to pick up Nathaniel (it’s kind of weird switching names today).

We want to say “thank you” to everyone who has emailed us via our personal and work emails, Facebook, and our blog site to say congrats and for all of the comments. It really means a lot to us!!! We have such a limited time to use the Internet since we can’t get it working in our apartment so we haven’t been able to respond to most of the emails.

1 April 09

Happy April 1st!!!!! Spring is here in Kazakhstan. As we write this we're enjoying Russian beer and it's taking 4 people to make Irina's fresh squeezed OJ. And one of them is a man.

This morning Laura went to visit Arman by herself. Irina didn't have a fever when she woke up but we wanted to let her relax for the morning and be sure her fever didn't come back. Arman was laying in his crib and was excited to see Laura this morning. He was very hungry and enjoyed his breakfast. He has gotten more patient when eating and it's great to see him taking his time and chewing his porridge rather than scarfing it down. We started to play with some new toys we bought for him last night and then a doctor came to take him to get his daily shot (maybe anitbiotics?). We played for awhile and then the music teacher came in. We went over and sat near the piano and Arman mostly stood up by himself, holding onto one of the walkers. I had to keep watching him because every once in a while he started slapping the head of the baby who was in the walker. He laughed each time one of the caregivers or the music teacher brought him something to touch like the cat, rabbit, or drum. Today she had a xylophone, which the babies were very interested in. It was very hot in the room today, especially in the area that we usually spread our blanket out in, which is in front of the window. The other family took their baby outside and after I saw that they made him wear a very heavy snowsuit, I decided not to ask if we could go outside. The doctor came to get him for his breathing treatment (Nebulizer) and I got to take him down and give it to him. He sat patiently like he was used to sucking on the mouthpiece. Our translator let him watch a music video on her phone when he got antsy and he was mesmerized by it. It is amazing how fast the time flies by!

We all met up for lunch at the Karaganda Cafe, where there is wi-fi we can use and the people are nice. After lunch we all went back to the baby house, which was like a sauna. Irina was excited to see Arman-she calls him "my baby." Arman needs to develop his leg muscles so we put him in a walker on the floor rather than the carpet. We were amazed that he could scoot around the room. He enjoyed going from Kevin to Irina and was excited to be mobile. It's fun to watch the babies interact. Arman didn't let the other babies push himself around and it was like bumper walkers for awhile. His masseuse came to get him and Kevin is frustrated that he doesn't know how to ask for a massage in Russian. I am sure this lady could work out any kinks he has in his back! We played for awhile, though we wished we could go outside without the snowsuit. We took him for his afternoon breathing treatment and he did not like it one bit. He was crying monster tears and wouldn't calm down until it was over. Then he settled down immediately. As soon as we got to the room we had to put him in his crib for his nap.