Bottles, Books and Bargains

To all of those wondering the answer to today’s question - NO EGG – although Laura had mixed it up a bit and had scrambled. (if this makes no sense, see yesterday’s post). Not that each day isn’t special but today was full of Firsts for us and Joseph. This morning’s visit was a bit more relaxed than most as Joseph was still battling his cold and just seemed a bit fussy. Fussy, but not cranky or crying – basically unsettled. So for this session we did our usual admiring, kissing and hugging – trying to get Joseph to smile or laugh. We tried many positions with him – back, belly, sitting up, but nothing lasted very long. Finally Laura was walking him around cradling him when the first “first” occurred – Joseph fell asleep in her arms! It was just a beautiful sight and Laura was the envy of the other Moms! Laura had a big smile on her face and was looking so content. It turns out that the poor boy did not sleep very much between his cold and another child not sleeping very well and therefore keeping several of them awake last night. We grabbed a few photos of this (data not shown) and when our allotted hour was up, Laura had to hand him off to the caregiver while still snoozing…the story of the first “First”.

Following the morning session Olga asked us if we wanted to do anything and Laura requested we go to the open market. It turns out there are three open markets; the Chinese one, the Moscow one and then the “Other” one. Apparently they differ in quality with the Moscow one being the best. There were two goals, hats and shoes for Joseph and potentially a few souvenirs. After a few booths and questions of price we found some shoes in Kazakh colors as well as a couple of hats. As you can see from the photo, they will fulfill the cuteness requirement. Laura asked Olga about traditional gifts given in Kazakhstan during certain lifetime events such as a wedding. We would like to buy him some gifts from Kaz which we can give to him for his birthdays or even his wedding. We really could not get a good handle on such gifts besides money. We did come across some Kazakhstan jerseys which were pretty good looking at one stand and wanted to get about 6 or 7 of them. We once again got the party line “They are 8000 tenge but for you, 7800 tenge”. I then told Olga about haggling which she really did not have any practice with so I began to work with the guy and offered him 7300 tenge. He finally agreed and I was so happy with myself that I got him down to about 1200 tenge (about $10) each. This was our First; our first experience with bargaining in Kazakhstan! Olga thought I did well but when I asked a bit more she said that these sorts of things come in from Almaty and she would expect to pay about 700 tenge each….In the immortal words of Homer Simpson…Doh! My beaming pride quickly faded with my obvious overpayment!...the story of the second First.

Following another great primavera pizza at the Chagala Hotel, it was time to return to the baby house for our afternoon visit which includes more play – music, reading etc. Usually we share the music room at the baby house with one of the other families but today both of them were at pre-court getting ready for their court appearance tomorrow so we had the whole place to ourselves! Joseph arrived looking as cute as always and seemed to be feeling better after his nap. We started up the Danny Zane CD with a nice selection of toys his Momma selected and began to play. One of the books we were so kindly given was a puppy touch-n-feel book including fake dog fur and today seemed to be the day for reading for Joseph. Nestled in his Mom’s lap he decided he better start practicing getting used to feeling dog fur as he has Bacio and Luigi waiting at home to cover him in kisses. You can see from the photo that he took to the book with the diligence of a future UofC student! Not long after a few smiles and giggles Olga appeared with a bottle for him and told us we could feed him for the First time! We were very excited and as you could see from the photo his Mom did a great job and they looked like they had been doing this forever! They both looked so content, although by the feel of his head, he was working up a storm sucking down his formula! You can not see from the photo, but it was a good sized glass bottle with a honkin’ sized nipple on the end of it! While he was eating Laura said he watched me the whole time as I was walking around the room, taking photos etc! It was a great time for all of us. From adults to infants, food has always brought people together and it was no different here today in the baby music room in the tiny town of Uralsk Kazakhstan…the story of the third First.

Another great day for all of us, the US including all of you reading this blog as we feel so happy to read your comments. Although far from us in distance we feel your presence with us in sharing all of these wonderful times. The importance of your support is immeasurable….See you tomorrow….