WEDNESDAY: And Night Fell and Morning Came, the Second Day….

Note: We are so overwhelmed at all of the comments we have been receiving lately and are very grateful. It really feels like we are on this journey with everyone – it is great. As far as the blog goes, I can not promise you many interesting stories as this journey progresses unless spit up and drool constitutes good reading. I think also Mr. Joseph may cut into my blogging time but I will try. The following is for Wednesday May 17^th although I am just uploading it on Thursday due to more internet problems.

Yes, night did fall on Tuesday and with it the lack of hot water and the hope that it would return in the morning. Joseph fell asleep with our hopes that we would sleep through the night. With the coming of the morning Joseph did awake at around 6:15ish and so had a good 9+ hours of sleep. Now his schedule which we received a couple of weeks ago said he would sleep from 10pm – midnight and then get a bottle and then sleep until 6am. We thought…let him sleep, so we did. Unfortunately what did not come in the morning was the hot water. It turns out the entire city center was out of hot water and it was likely it would not come on until Friday. No shower for us but we got one in yesterday before the party so we were not doing so bad. Our friend Tamara at home said to me in an email that this was all apart of Laura and I becoming a bit Kazakh! And I thought the T-shirt I bought was enough!

When Laura went over to him at the crib he just laid there smiled and cooed. That was a pleasant good morning for anyone! We got him up and then started to create his usual 1^st breakfast – formula. We also decided to start supplementing his diet so we pulled out the vitamins the doctor at home prescribed. Everything went smoothly and so we retired to the living room for some playtime. The apartment is fairly well stocked with things including this walker chair that you see in this photo of Joseph. We were not sure if he would like it but he did very much. I put in some batteries and understood perhaps why there were none in there. This thing is LOUD!! If you look closely at the photo you will see some silver duct tape covering the speaker in an attempt to mute it a bit…it kind of worked. After we played for a bit it was time for his nap which went well.

When Joseph woke up, he was again in a great mood for his second breakfast of semolina, mashed potatoes and a cup of tea and biscuit. Laura added some baby food to the mix as well to add some nutrition but wanted to keep things fairly consistent for the little guy. The tea is a bit strange to us as he drinks it from a mug but he likes it. This all went down okay without much of a mess and it was on to more fun. We decided as it was such a nice day that we should go for a family walk to get some water before the next nap. We dug out the stroller that comes with the apartment and here you can see Joseph all dressed up looking around Uralsk. This was the first time he was in a stroller. He was a bit tense but did not say a word so we assumed he was enjoying it. When we left the apartment we remembered that although it was warm outside we did not want to attract the attention of a babushka and risk being yelled at for not dressing our son properly. We thought we were doing pretty well with multiple layers and a hat as we did not even need coats. We thought we were getting some looks and thought it was because we were Americans but maybe not. When I saw another stroller coming our way I asked Laura to look to see how their child was dressed. Expecting to be vindicated we were disappointed. This child had pretty much everything Joseph had on PLUS a big heavy blanket and gloves! Now we knew we had missed the Kazakh mark a bit. We did not venture too far but just went to the local market and up and down the block. As you can see from the next photo Joseph decided to nod off just like most kids so we decided to head back to the apartment.

Joseph and Laura went in while I collapsed the stroller…then Laura came out to collapse the stroller…then I went out to collapse the damn stroller! FINALLY the stroller collapsed correctly just before collapsing under the weight of my foot and the nearest rock! The only spectators were the beat up street cats and a raven/magpie (whatever they really are) so I do think I embarrassed all of America. At least we have instructions for our Chicco stroller at home and we have already practiced with it! So Laura got Joseph to bed and I tossed the stroller into the sun porch. After the nap Joseph got his minced meat, stewed fruit and more potatoes plus some other stuff. (Don’t worry, I will not go on more than today about his food and I am actually sparing you some of the details!). After lunch and the food had settled we did some of our standard ball playing as well as dancing etc. We all had a good time together and only had a couple of instances of Joseph being bored. This photo shows Joseph and I on the floor. I took to imitating him on his stomach waving arms and legs while making noises. I would do it then look up at him. He would smile and then do the same thing. This went on for at least five minutes and for the three of us it was a great sense of communication and fun.

I will cut to the chase and say that his nap and dinner all went well and we made it through the day. We were told do not be surprised if he did not have a bowel movement right away as is often case after leaving the baby house. This was not the case and we did get one which thrilled Laura – a true Mom. He went down to bed just fine and we have seen now that he is good at soothing himself to sleep with rocking and tossing from side to side. He also uses his feet to walk the slats of the crib and prefers to sleep on his side. Yes, we checked on him often, as most new parents do, to make sure he is still breathing and he always was and peacefully I should add. The only thing that arose as we were putting him to bed was that the electricity failed. This photo shows me cooking dinner by headlamp lighting – yes, the same headlamp Laura used for reading. The electricity actually went out in the afternoon but as it stays light here until around 9pm it was not too bad but now it was a different story. So now it was dark, we are on our first day with our 7.5 month old baby, we have not had (nor may have) hot water and now we do not have electricity. Thank goodness we have a gas stove! I guess we really are Kazakh now, right Tamara! Tomorrow we begin to pack for our trip to Almaty on Friday!

Da Zavtra!