Day 6 waiting - Momma's Boy (double click for pics)

"Momma's Boy"

Tuesday, July 25, Day 6 waiting...

Hello again from Kazakhstan. Today was an action packed day, at least for us. After the usual morning ritual, less the exercise, we had some fun with the birds outside the window. The number has grown daily and we now have 8-10 birdies waiting on me in the mornings. I’m afraid to not feed them for a day as they may revolt and attack. They’re getting very bold as well. They will land on the ledge while my hand is still out there. Maybe I can feed them from my hand before I leave….Kim has already warned me about the Bird Flu, so I won’t do it….well probably not.

We arrived on time for the visit and Kim did the duties of going up stairs to pick up Landen. One thing that is very different now than before court is the way the caretakers analyze and or judge our every move. Before court, we seemed to get in trouble 1-2 times per visit. We may do things like walk on the carpet with shoes on (big no, no), have the window open on a day this particular person thinks we should not (even if it’s 90 degrees outside), or do the biggest penalty of all…..allow Landen to crawl 1 inch off of the blanket. We have grown to understand and appreciate their rules and realize they do care about these kids. Since our court date, the caretakers are all smiles and seem to give us more “space” as new parents. Lena said the reason is simple, we are now his parents and before we were visitors. Still, you better not walk on the carpet with the shoes on…if so, you will still get into trouble, but they may give a little smile as they scold. Landen was very much a Mommy’s boy today. He did not have a lot to do with Rylee or me unless we were playing with him as momma held him in her arms. Spoiled rotten (in a good way)….it’s so funny to see this part of him coming out. Kim said when she got him from the room he was so happy to see her that she almost cried…and he was ready to cry when she had to take him back. Lena was with Kim and had to tell her “posh lee, posh lee” aka-“lets go, let’s go“, as she could also tell he was ready to cry for his momma (sorry Barbara, no warning).

After the visit, Lena took us to the open food market. This was very interesting to say the least. Kim had a little (well a lot) of trouble dealing with the fresh smells from the meat department. They would not allow any photos, but I was able to get a couple in. To describe the meat department; it was kind of like being behind the scenes at a butcher shop when the heat was on and they ran out of space to put the meat, so they put it all over the top of each other. I bought some eggs…. I did get a picture of horse meat (sorry to all of the horse lovers out there) Rylee did not hear Lena when she told me what it was, but continued to ask….so I told her. Probably a mistake, but she was good about it. Did I mention Kim did not fair too well in the market? Along with eggs, we picked up some coffee, bread, candy, cheese and smoked meat. The meat was a gift from a lady that was so excited to meet a “real American”. She owned a little store inside the market that had smoked meats and cheeses. I gave her a slim jim and beef jerky from America and she was so happy and looked as if she would cry. That’s when she gave the Kazakh meat to me. Did I say Kim was ready to leave?

After our adventure at the market, we all took a little nap to prepare for our big night out. We had dinner plans with Lena and Leeza, where we enjoyed another Russian restaurant. Some differences were; they actually had a menu in English. Kim and I had the same item (chicken with mushroom and onion covered with fried potatoes) that we had at the other place, but our little dare devil child had Russian pickles, pancakes and a hot milk/sugar mix that she enjoyed.

We had walked to the restaurant, so we had a pleasant walk back to the apartment where we started discussing how nice it will be to share Landen with our friends and family.

Hey, another day closer ….until tomorrow, poka, poka.