(Maureen's Post)
I went to bed late last night and awoke late AGAIN. Gotta break this habit! For breakfast I made some toast. Actually my "toast" was bread I warmed up in the frying pan with some butter, so it was more like just fried bread, then I topped it off with Nutella (for those who don't know, it's a chocolate hazelnut spread) - yum! Of course, I had tea with it. Sean's breakfast was bread (untoasted) with peanut butter we brought from home and Nutella. He said it was like eating a Reese's peanut butter cup on bread. Oh, yeah - we're totally eating healthy while we're here - NOT! Sean bought some Nescafe from the Viola market yesterday and had that with breakfast today. He says it's really not too far off from brewed coffee taste. However, you have to look for Nescafe Gold here, not just the plain Nescafe which is pretty weak.

After lounging away the morning catching up on yesterday's post and watching a Russian-dubbed movie starring Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman, and Matthew Broderick (I believe it was "Family Business"), we started to get ready for our afternoon visit with James. It's not taking us nearly as long as it first did for us to get ready to go. There's just some things we have to remember about this apartment, such as making sure we don't overload the circuits by running two appliances at once. This happened yesterday in the bathroom, as the washer was running at the same time the water heater was on, so then the power went out in both the bathroom and the kitchen, which is probably on the same circuit. It wasn't so bad, except I was in the shower at the time. Fortunately, I was almost done and could rinse off in the dark. Speaking of which, our shower is another interesting thing. Thanks to the fixed water heater, scalding hot water is plentiful, so it's pertinent to make sure you know just where to turn on the water (faucet knob placement) so that you're neither burning nor freezing yourself. Flow rate is variable, usually on the low end (remember the "Low Flow Shower" episode on Seinfeld?) It takes a while sometimes to wash your hair when all you get is a trickle. The drain doesn't work the greatest in the shower, either, so it's best to shower in parts - turn water on to wet hair, then turn water off to lather shampoo into hair, then turn water on and rinse hair, then turn water off to soap up, then turn water on to rinse off, etc. That way when the shower is off and you're lathering your hair or soaping up, the water at your feet has some time to drain off. Then of course, you rinse off your feet last before climbing out (yes, it's elevated by at least 12 inches) and then you're done!

We had another good visit with James today. It started out very upbeat with lots of floor exercises and games. No Baby Einstein music today, as Sean wanted it to be more low-key today. However, midway through our visit James began to get cranky and we figured it was naptime. Yesterday he skipped his nap and was fine, but that's not the case today. He was obviously trying to fight it. We wouldn't let him skip the nap this time so Sean rocked him to sleep. He slept for quite a while before we woke him to change him into a clean outfit towards the end of the visit. Again, he was so unhappy to see us go and he cried to let us and everyone on the floor know it. I will say that he can cry pretty loudly! Fortunately, I was able to escape the room pretty quickly before he began crying too much so I wouldn't feel so bad about leaving him again today. Actually, this morning we were looking at his pictures from yesterday thinking that it seems like he's gained even more weight just in the 7 days we had visited him so far. I thought that some of the 6-month outfits we brought would be too small by the time we leave Kazakhstan in March, but I fear he will outgrow them just within the next few days! Two of the outfits are already starting to fit a little bit tightly, particularly with the length of his legs. So we asked Inna and she said we can ask Dr. Victoria about getting updated measurements; hopefully we'll get those and get to meet with her soon, as I'm interested in knowing what his current feeding schedule is like, too.

After the visit to the hospital we went back to our apartment for an hour to freshen up a little bit and then walked over to the Mechem's apartment building and climbed the four flights of stairs to their apartment (that's our justification for our not-so-healthy eating; walking and taking stairs are good cardio workouts - oh, and don't forget lifting baby and dancing around the room with him numerous times). Then we walked to the Viola market where Rada, the Mechem's interpreter, met us. Then we all walked to the Rainbow Cafe, about 10-15 minutes away, trying not to slip on the ice (it sleeted today) or get blown over in the wind. It was great to have dinner with all the families. The food was delicious and the vodka was flowing. We had the best meal here yet. They make the kabobs after 7PM here, so we placed our kabob orders (either pork or chicken wings), started with salads (no lettuce, of course), and made a few toasts (i.e. did a few shots of vodka). Of course, the obligatory pics of food are posted above - all delicious! Also pictured above are our beautiful interpreter, Inna, and awesome driver, Oleg. They are absolutely wonderful! It was a time for celebrating as the Baardsons and Joan Mesker (both families are a week ahead of us) had successful pre-court hearings today! Of course, we had the cherry juice, too. Sean and some others got beer in those crazy huge mugs, too. It was all very reasonably priced. We divided up the bill equally amongst the adoptive parents and it only came out to 1000 Tenge per person (@ $8.00 USD per person). Then some of our party left but the rest of us stayed to have another 2 (or was it 3?) rounds of toasting. We then all walked home, some going to the cottage, and the rest to their apartments. It was really a fun evening, and we're all hoping to get together at Joan Mesker's apartment on Saturday night.

This concludes today's post! Until tomorrow, Paka! Love to all!