Day 18 - "Offically Rotten" (double click for pics)

Saturday, July 15---Day 18 Visitation (3rd extra day)

Today was somewhat mellow. We did have our best night of sleep yet. We actually slept until 8am, what a surprise. We must have used all of our energy on the internet and phone calls last night. I had a chance to talk with several people from my office - it was great to hear from all of you. We started the day with an easy breakfast (doughnuts from the pastry shop) while I worked on the posting for today and updated some more pictures from day 16. It’s going to be great having the internet in our apartment…fyi to those calling our apartment…if the line is busy, call our skpe number as we will be on the internet via dial up. During the morning, Kim did prepare some refried beans. These were very good and will become part of our meals going forward.

Kim and Rylee were busy working on a small gift for our driver, Sergey (corrected spelling). Today was his 30th birthday and we wanted to show him our appreciation for the great job he has been doing. He received some American candy and an original Rylee Claire birthday card. He loved them both, but especially the card. Saturday at the baby house is usually a slow day. We
did not see any of the normal staff today, but we did get greeted by a man in the lobby that asked if we were the American’s… easy answer to that one.

Landen was full of play and again wanted his RyRy. I should say anybody that would walk him around as Kim and I decided he is “OFFICIALLY ROTTEN”! God love him as he deserves to be held and loved like this. From the minute Kim picked him up until the end of the play time, he was full blast. Kim said he was in the swing when she got to the room and he made it be known that he saw Momma and wanted to be with her. He also had a paci from the baby house with him when he came to the music room. This paci was very basic, but he seemed to like it just the same. We have some pictures of it to share. Rylee has also been bitten by the love bug. For the first time, I mentioned Landen had spit up on her and she said “it’s only slobber”. Before today, she would have handed him off to anybody immediately, but not now. She can not get enough of him and like wise he can not get enough of her. We got a few pictures of him reaching up for her to pick him up-----this should give you the full picture of the day. If Rylee was taking a little break, as he was getting a little heavy for her, he would let everyone know it with his little whine. Around 1:55pm, he started to slow down. He was ready for Mommy to snuggle up with him and let him take a nap. As we have noted earlier, we are not to let him sleep due to his schedule, so we took him to his room where they will allow him to get in the swing or get in the play pin.

After the visit, we came back to the apartment to make plans for the evening with our American friends. As normal, Rylee gets the keys and runs up the stairs to unlock the door for us. When she reached the fifth floor, she got a little surprise. We had a bird at our door. Yes, a bird had gotten in the building and climbed 5 flights of stairs. The bird appears to be some kind of pigeon, but we are not sure. It is a young bird as it can not fly and seems to hop up the stairs. I used a towel to catch the bird, which I did not need as he did not try to get away. Rylee and I took the bird down stairs to let him go. We placed him in the grass out in front of the apartment building and sat him down. He seemed to stumble a little, but then walked into some shrubs. When our friends arrived, they told us the bird was back in front of our door. I checked every level on our stairs and there is no way the bird could come in a window, so he had to come through the front door and hop up the stairs to the fifth floor. Again, he can not or has not flown while with us. Now I had 3 girls and their new son to assist me with taking him back down. We took a little food for him and dropped him back in the grass. We sat to watch him for a few minutes, when he started back towards the building. He went into the internet room in the bottom of this building this time. We had a lot of laughs watching him trying to log on…just kidding. He was looking for something in there, but I again caught him and took him to another area in front of the apartment. He walked in the other direction this time, thank goodness. Kim thinks he may have heard from some of his friends that I give out free food and he was trying to get some handoutsJ. I was just glad I did not let him go out of our window like I wanted to do, because I really do not think he can fly!

After the bird episode, we were all down stairs, so we went on a stroll around the area and had some interesting findings. We found a man that appeared to be in a deep “drunken” sleep in some shrubs/weeds by a fence. He was moving a little, so we decided to let him stay there. The kids found a slide behind one of the building, so we stayed there about 15 minutes to let them play. We found so much enjoyment watching our friend’s son experience new things on the walk and in our apartment. From eating his diner (solid food versus mush) to working the light switches, he was so taken back that you could only smile as he ran around. We played with a balloon -----even played baseball with it. I must say, he has a very good swing.

We are planning to spend their last day in Pavlodar with them tomorrow, probably going back to the carnival. Until tomorrows update, Poka, Poka.