Almost halfway home!

Look Auntie April - it fits! It was actually hot enough in the baby house today that I could get away with dressing Jenya in short sleeves. She loved her new shirt, thank you so much! She kept patting the words on it as if she knew who it was from. Then we had snack and she gets tea out of a regular cup with no sippy lid, so she was soaked by the end of it. We usually have to change her at least once a day while we’re visiting. Maybe I should just buy Jenya her own sippy cup to use for snack time! It was so cute today, the caregivers put Rick to work while I was feeding Jenya. He gave bottles to TWO babies in the time I gave Jenya her cereal and tea. I wish we could have gotten pictures, but there were no free hands to take them. I think the caregivers were really happy to have the help with feeding. I counted today and there are 11 babies in Jenya’s room and usually only 2 caregivers there at once.

We got killed this week with internet charges! It takes a long time to download pictures to the blog and usually I lose connection in the middle, making it take that much longer. So unfortunately we may have to cut down to just one or two pictures a day to see if that helps bring down the cost. Sorry Nonna - but we’ll be home soon with tons of pictures to look through!

Our Happy Girl

Jenya's First Birthday

Birthday Girl!

We had such a nice time with Jenya today. We tried to make it an extra special day for her birthday, but being only one, she may not have known the difference! First, we put her in her new birthday dress. We bought it here and the size was 12-18 months, but it barely fit her! It was a little tight around the torso and hardly covered her little behind. Oh well, at least she got one wear out of it. Kennedy, do you need a cute little green and pink dress?? It’s so funny to say that because we just assumed we would be using all of Kennedy’s hand-me-downs since we thought we would be adopting a 6 or 7 month old. Now we’ll probably be giving Jenya’s clothes to her!

After she ate her afternoon snack, we put a candle in the cake (but didn’t light it God forbid we started a fire in the baby house) and the caregivers gave her a large knife to cut it! Of course I helped her but was a little nervous because I’m not very good with knives myself (just ask April and Rick). With her tiara on her head she tasted her first birthday cake and frosting. We gave her the candle and she got frosting all over her hands and face. It was killing me not to wipe it off as fast as I could, but everyone was getting a kick out of her messy face. The cake itself was very tasty, but the frosting was super sweet. I’m sure that’s why Jenya loved it. One of Jenya’s caregivers named Tanya was so sweet and gave her a stuffed bear for her birthday. She made sure to have the translator tell me that it was for her to keep and take home to remember them by. I almost cried, they love her so much. We hope you enjoy the pictures of her first birthday, but wish you were all here with us to celebrate!

I have to add our food experience for today to the blog. We decided to walk to a nearby restaurant for dinner called Haupu. The manager at the hotel told us that it was authentic Kazakh food. We were excited to finally try it! We thought that since the sign outside included the English word “restaurant” that they may have an English menu. No such luck. And the waitress spoke no English at all. Luckily we have memorized the Russian words for Karaganda beer and ordered that right away. Then we just started pointing. Catherine and I tried to imitate a chicken with the arms flapping and everything and it seemed like she understood. Rick asked for beef and she pointed to a few options for each of us. The only other thing we’re good at ordering is French fries, which is “free.” Here’s what we got: Catherine had what she said definitely tasted like chicken and was stuffed with cheese and ham similar to cordon bleu. She loved it. Rick got a cheese covered steak that was definitely NOT beef, but was really good. We’re guessing it was probably horse meat as it didn’t taste like any other meat we’ve ever had. Rick loved it. I got what I thought was chicken wings and thighs cooked with lots of spices and onions. It tasted wonderful. As I started on my second piece (they were small) Rick pointed out the fact that it had a snout on it. Ha! I think I got pigs’ snout and feet or some other random pig parts. But, I loved it! We really lucked out with that adventure. We’re not sure if we’ll tempt fate again and pick a restaurant where we have no idea what we’re ordering, but we’ll see. We still have two more weeks to go!

More Day 9 Pictures

In that last picture I'm getting soaked by Jenya's spit while blowing raspberries - that's the reason for the weird face!

Day 9 of Bonding!

We got to the baby house early today and our little Jenya was still asleep in her crib. Her caregiver told us we could go in and wake her up, what a great experience. There were about 16 cribs lined up, 8 on each side of the room, full of sleeping babies. So cute! When we found Jenya’s crib, there she was under a blanket with her right thumb in her mouth and her left hand wrapped around the side of the crib. I picked her up, which woke her, but she didn’t even cry at all. She looked so happy to see us! Her caregiver quickly came over to explain that one of the other little boys in the room had hit her a couple of times today and showed us the bruises on her back. She felt terrible, but how can they stop that sort of thing from happening with so many kids to watch? Apparently, he is getting too old to be in the same room with Jenya and the other younger babies, so he may be moved out soon. I can tell how much Jenya’s caregivers love her by the way they treat her and talk to her. After all, she’s been with them for almost a year now. Most babies are only there for a few weeks before they are adopted out.

Today when we went to develop our family photos for court, the Kodak picture printing machine was broken. Since we still have a few weeks until court we weren’t too upset, but the thought that if it happened the day before court stressed us out a little. Apparently it is a new rule that we have to have a certain number of photos of all of us together from each day of bonding to prove that we actually spent time with Jenya for the required amount of time. If they only knew how hard it is for us not to spend every waking moment with her!

So tomorrow is Jenya’s first birthday! I wish we could be at home celebrating with a big party for her, but we will make it as special as we can here. We bought her a new birthday outfit, a cute dress and tights, here in Karaganda. We plan to look for a birthday tiara for her in the morning as well as a cake to share with her caregivers. I got some birthday candles too, but we’re not sure if we can actually light them in the baby house. But the thought is there! We’ll be sure to talk lots of pictures of her special day, and when we get home we’ll celebrate with all her family and friends for her baptism. We plan to do that not too long after we get her home.

Oh, I forgot to update you on our food experience for the day. Today we found a woman in the open air market frying the best smelling food! For 45 tenge each (about 30 cents) we got a fried hotdog wrapped in puff pastry and a meat filled pastry. They were absolutely delicious. So much for spending $50 on a meal - less than a dollar gets us an amazing, yet not very healthy, lunch at the open air market. And for those of you who know how much Rick loves hotdogs, you’ll understand how excited he was when I brought that home for him! He’s already talking about opening his hotdog stand here in Kazakhstan :)

Funny Faces

Giving Kisses

Our poor little Jenya is still sick! She’s got a productive sounding cough and runny nose. It’s funny that I’ve always been grossed out by other people’s saliva and bodily fluids, but with my baby girl it doesn’t even phase me. I can kiss all over her snotty nose and love every minute of it. When I got to change her first poopy diaper the other day I was actually excited! To say we are enjoying every minute of being parents together is an understatement. So, since she Jenya was still under the weather, we stayed inside today. Unfortunately, they had just repainted an area of the baby house and the smell was really strong. I wish we could have gotten her out in the fresh air for that reason alone.

Jenya is learning how to give Mommy and her blankie kisses and it’s so cute. She opens her mouth and sticks out her tongue just a little - we’re going to have to watch her when she gets older! She also LOVES to blow raspberries. Maybe Daddy shouldn’t have taught her that one because by the time she’s done we are soaked with her saliva. We got great video of her doing that, but Blogger is not allowing me to post them. I am so disappointed, especially since her little cousin Paulie wants to see “the ones with the talking” instead of just pictures of Jenya! So cute.

We finally found Johnny Walker’s Pub tonight and had a fantastic meal. We’ve been craving vegetables since we arrived here. Can you believe it? But the main vegetable served with most meals is potatoes and we have had our fill. We had great salads for dinner, the tomatoes here are so fresh and tasty. Rick says the first thing he wants when he gets back to the States is a hamburger. For me, it’s definitely enchiladas from Pancho Villa’s. They’d better be open when get back!

I realized as we were going through the pictures tonight that there’s an awful lot of Jenya and me. It’s mostly because Daddy loves to take the pictures. I’ll have to be better about taking the camera and turning it on him and Jenya. Daddy definitely makes her laugh with all his silliness, can you imagine??

Our Sweet Girl (Part 3)

Learning to play peek-a-boo with her Horton blanket! And another pic of the serious side of Jenya. I think the poor baby's not used to a camera in her face all the time!

Our Sweet Girl (Part 2)

Poppy - is there an app for babies on the iphone? Jenya would like to know :)

Our Sweet Girl

These late visits make it much harder to post pictures in a timely manner! We only get to see Jenya from 3-6pm this week. But even though we’re only going once a day, she is really opening up to us. She talks (or babbles) so much more! Our translator, Natasha, said that when she would see Jenya in her room before we came she was so quiet and shy, taking in her surroundings but not making much noise. Now she says she’s quite different, more talkative and playful, which we love! I hope we are making her as happy as she has made Rick and me.

There were so many great pictures we got today that it’s hard to decide which ones to post. So I’ll try to get them all on there - I know my mom wants to see as many as possible, hopefully the rest of you don’t mind! I added a pic of Jenya's baby room so you can see where she hangs out most of the day. It's always very clean and neat! The babies sleep in their cribs in a room off to the left side.

We finally went bowling today (the alley is right in the hotel) and had a great time. We forgot to bring the camera, though, so maybe some pics next time. I kicked Rick’s butt - he is quite the sore loser! We might make a bet next time that the loser has to order the horse meat platter for dinner. I’ve heard it’s actually quite good, but not sure how I feel about trying it. I’m sure by the time we leave here it will have snuck onto our plates one way or another. It’s a delicacy here (there are not many beef options)!

Aunt T - Jenya has very little hair as you’ve probably noticed. But it seems to be more like a strawberry blonde, but could be light brown. We can’t wait until it grows in so we can see what she looks like with hair! But I didn’t have any until I was 2 years old, so we’ll see if she takes after her mommy.

Karen - I’d love to hear about the Next Food Network Star. Who are you rooting for? Who is still left in the competition?

A Couple More Pics

First Day Outside!

Sorry it's taken so long for us to post today! We went to lunch after visiting the babies and then had so many errands to take care of. We've gotten to the point where we feel comfortable taking the bus into the city for only 30 tenge instead of 400 tenge for a taxi. It just takes a little longer and is smellier! It's gotten hot again here and there's no air conditioning anywhere, only our hotel room, thank goodness.

Jenya really enjoyed our long walks outside today. She ended up falling asleep in the carrier. She is just so precious. We thought we would get 2 visits a day this week, but most likely only one because they are having inspections done at the baby house. There's a lot of construction going on. It looks like they're building on new rooms and putting in new windows. It's really a beautiful place, the children are so well loved and taken care of.

We spent almost an hour looking for this restaurant called Johnny Walker's Pub for lunch today and never found it in the city! Well, we finally figured out we weren't looking in the right direction, but we ended up eating in the city mall and it was very good. Rick had pasta carbonara which was better than I've had in the states! I had just plain pasta and sauce for fear that the cream would kill me, but it wasn't anything special. Still tasty though. The best part was that we found a carnival going on that sold cotton candy! That is my favorite carnival treat and for $1 really hit the spot. I just wish we could have brought Jenya there. She loves to watch people and just take in her surroundings. There was a lot to see there.

Hoping to post a few pics today, we'll see how the internet is working for us! Miss you all so much :)

Catherine and Tyler

My aunt asked on the comments how our travel companion Catherine was doing, and the answer is wonderful! She has found her little boy here-it was love at first sight! She okayed my posting a picture of them together for you all. He is 6 months old and the cutest little guy. He's got an awesome smile with huge dimples!

Another question from Kelly was what do we do with all our spare time? Well, since we're only allowed one or two visits to the baby house a day, we try to spend the rest of the time exploring the city. It gets boring staying in the hotel, but it really is a nice place to stay. There's a bowling alley in the hotel that we plan to go to tonight, should be fun.

The other picture I've posted is of a traditional Russian restaurant in Karaganda. It was actually a terrible experience but we learned our lesson. The menu had chicken, beef, and fish dishes, but they had no chicken or beef. So we ordered fish. Both my salmon and Rick's perch were completely full of bones. It took us a good 45 minutes to get through picking all the bones out of the meal and our mouths as we ate it. Catherine was smart and got shrimp but it was so overcooked it tasted like rubber. The best part was that it cost $50 for that lunch! Oh well, we'll stick with our favorite Chinese food restaurant from now on that costs $20 and is incredibly good. No more fish in Kazakhstan for us!

And a few more :)

More pics!

Lots of pics - just for you Nonna!

Only one visit to the baby house today and none tomorrow, we are going to miss little Jenya all weekend! They do not allow family visits on Sundays. So we sit in our hotel room and replay videos and look at pictures of her every chance we get! We can’t get enough, and really 3 or 4 hours a day with her isn’t enough. We just want her for every minute of every day. I pray that these weeks fly by until we can do just that.

Jenya was so funny today with the iTouch. Rick turned on Celine Dion (one of his favorite artists and one of my least favorites!) and she started to twist herself around like she was dancing and making noises as you saw in the video. At first I thought she was going to like Daddy’s music better, but then she somehow got it to change to Daughtry and seemed to like it even more, whew!

She’s such a serious little girl most of the time, but it’s getting easier to get her to smile and laugh. When she’s concentrating on a toy or something she sticks her tongue out, it’s so cute. But when she gets tired her thumb goes in her mouth and she wants Mommy to hold her - I just love it!! Check out the pic of Jenya and Daddy lounging with the toys. We didn’t put her down like that, she just decided she wanted to sit like that and play. She mimics everything we do!

Today we went to the notary’s office to sign some papers that stated that we were going to promise to take care of Jenya and all her needs forever. Of course we will! She’s our baby girl already, always and forever.

(The blog will not let me post too many pictures in the same posting, so I had to separate them out, just FYI)

Singing and Dancing

Enjoy the show!

New pics

Thanks everyone for the photo developing advice. Today we bought a CD from the Kodak store and loaded some pictures on it and tomorrow we'll try to print them out. It should recognize a disc that was sold here! We'll let you know. We have so many pictures from today and it's so hard to choose which ones to post. Hope you enjoy them!

By the way, that last picture is for you dad - can you see how much Jenya loves the iTouch already??

And I forgot to answer the question about taking Jenya outside. We are able to take her out onto the grounds of the baby house, but that's all. Since she's had a cold and it's only been in the 60s the last few days we've just stayed in the playroom. Hopefully by next week it will be in the mid to upper 70s and we can take her for her first walks outside! Can you believe it? One year old and she hasn't been outside yet. It makes me sad, but excited to see her experience it for the first time.

And someone asked about her size. She is very thin, so she fits in 6-9 month clothing but a lot of times they are too short in the leg because she is so long! She is probably closer to being 9-12 months now. I figured out on a growth chart that she is in the 23rd percentile for her weight but in the 47th for her height! Not too bad, and I'm sure she'll fill out as soon as we get her home.

Thanks for the updates from home! Renee have fun in the "woods" and give the boys a big kiss for me. Sandi, good luck with Ozzy. Skunk smell is really gross!