Dimples! (day 2)

Alex has been a disaster lately… Yesterday and today he has been rude to most adults who try to talk to him and he wants to hide behind us, and turns his face away and won’t talk to people… it frustrates us, because he is not this was normally! He is usually your best friend in just a few minutes! I think there are several reasons why… he is jet lagged/tired… coughing/sick… and he has been meeting a lot of new people who want to touch him and stuff… I am surprised at him not wanting to touch… he is usually very touchy/feely. I am guessing this has all stressed him some, because his nosebleeds have started again! The minute we got off the plane in Uralsk (we had to wake him up) he got a nosebleed, just before we met Olga, Olga and Misha!! It was a mess… there was blood all over my shirt! Then while we were waiting at the airport for our luggage the babyhouse Director from Babyhouse 2 came over and saw us… she was there seeing off a baby to go to Almaty for some special treatments to keep her alive. Alex was of course very shy there too… almost naughty-shy though… I am not sure what that is all about… It is annoying to say the least. They are all going to think he is a snob! Today Alex had so many nose bleeds, I lost count!!!

When we arrived at the babyhouse, Alex’s old Doctor met us at the top of the stairs! She was so happy to see us!!! She tried to talk to Alex… he did his snobby thing and wouldn’t talk to her! Uhhhh!!! Olga took the diapers and Anthony’s clothes into his group and we talked to the doctor while we waited for him to come to us… Finally he came and we snatched him up and kissed on him!!


It was 91F here today! Which if you know me, you know I don’t like hot weather… so I was HOT! Pretty much sweating all day!!! Ugh… Our first visit today was at 11am, we went outside… with Anthony’s hat on… after a little while, he was so hot he was sweating! We took off the cute little hat! We walked around a little, watched Alex climb the slide, we waited for the other couple visiting to leave so we could take their place under the awning… on a board floor and in complete shade! I saw their baby and thought it might be the little boy that we lost the referral for, but I couldn’t be sure… I just kind of felt that they might have him… they were a beautiful couple and have an adorable daughter that is maybe 4 or so… I was hoping they had him… but I wasn’t sure!!! After they left we took our sheet and laid it down on the floor and spread out our stuff… Anthony is so wiggly when you hold him… it is like he is uncomfortable being held… so we hold him as much as we can and still keep him happy… he was getting pretty restless, so we put him down… he loves to lay on his stomach!! He is just so adorable we can hardly stand it!!! We want to smooch on him all the time!!!! We played a little with the toys… then we set about to try to make him smile… we tried tickling – doesn’t work… then making funny faces and singing… we taught him patty cake… his hands are in constant intense fists! So the whole hand clapping doesn’t work very good… but a few minutes later he clapped his hands! I couldn’t believe it! Maybe he just got lucky, but we think he was trying! He likes the “as fast as you can” part, he smiles for that… it is so funny to see him smile, because he has no teeth on top! He opens his mouth wide and you start to see his dimples!!!!! Which I am working on getting a good shot of… but they don’t come out very strong yet… I am guessing he doesn’t smile too much normally so it will take some practice! Then I remembered Angela saying their daughter liked to be lifted up in the air… so I tried that… he smiled much bigger and after a while he actually laughed! Although it only works a few times and then he gets distracted by the trucks going by on the street and he just tries to see what that is! Alex was able to be out there with us, so that was nice… he plays for a while and then comes over for a while, he hands Anthony toys and plays with them himself! Then he is off again going down the slide or something…


We also did a photo shoot this morning… remember that first photo we took of us with Alex, where we both spontaneously kissed him on the cheeks and he was kind of smiling? Well we decided to do a similar shot with Anthony, then we got Alex to come over and Alex kissed him on the top of his head while we kissed his cheeks! It is pretty cute… We are trying to get a picture of us that we can have the local artist guy paint for us. I don’t think we will use that one, we might go with one a little more formal… we will see. I need a photographer here!!! Then we held him for a while more… and snuggled on him a bit. OOOHHHHH he is soooo precious!!! I cannot wait to bring him home and introduce him!!!! All too soon, Olga had to take him back.


We came straight back to the apartment and Alex went straight to sleep, we checked our emails and stuff, went through the pictures and frittered until it was time to go again.


This afternoon we stayed inside, it was just too hot outside… Olga said that Alex could come in too, since it was so hot… I don’t think the Director was too happy… Olga told her it was just too hot outside… I am not so sure about that… but we really love having Alex with us. So far he is fine with Anthony. He is interested enough in him, but kind of does his own thing. He gives him a kiss when we send him back to his room. Soon we should start talking about when we get to take him home… then things will change!!


We just played on the floor, tried to get video of him laughing… he is so cute… we show him the toys and talk to him. We take pictures and try to make him smile and laugh… We actually started massaging his legs this morning, because his muscles are so tight! The miotonic syndrome… we massage for a little bit and he seems to relax… he is sooo tense! We will work on his arms , too. When he doesn’t have anything in his hands he will frequently clamp his hands together and just hold them there, locked in place, probably doesn’t help the tenseness! Poor baby. He can’t seem to stand upright… too tense and he can’t sit up either. You will notice in the picture of him standing… his head looks extra big… but it is mostly because he is sticking his little bahoney out behind him! Although his body is pretty small… his legs are little stick legs! So funny!

He will lay on his tummy and then roll half over and sit on his elbow watching us or Alex… every once in while he will roll back and if we aren’t quick enough he bonks his head… doesn’t seem to phase him though! We try to catch him though. His little head has hair like Alex’s! There is not much of it! A lot of it is rubbed off on the back from laying in his bed. While he lays on his stomach, sometimes he gets tired of holding his head up and bows it while rubbing his face! It is so cute… Sometimes we even catch him sucking on his thumb a little! So cute! He has not cried yet for us… although I guess that isn’t too unusual… Alex didn’t either. When I go to kiss him on the cheeks, he tries to eat me! He opens his mouth wide and sticks out his tongue! Its so funny! We gave him his vitamins today without any issues! He loves them. Today I would stick him about 3 feet from me and then lay on the floor in front of him… he would pull himself forward with his strong little arms… quick though! He likes me! When he got to me he would just put his head up against mine and stay right there… it was most precious! I think he has his eye on my camera too! He tries to scoot to that too!


We all kissed him goodbye and as we were leaving we saw a caregiver holding a baby waiting for the other couple… we went outside and they were actually all set up in one of the covered outside floors. So I went over to meet them and give them our email so we could have dinner sometime in the next couple weeks! They are from Belgium! They were very nice and they have a daughter from China! As we were chatting their coordinator brought out their baby! It was our first referral!!!!! I was so happy to see him, with his family!!! He is going to live in Europe!!!! They are naming him his original name, Askhat! Which means “the happiest.” How cool is that! He was meant for them! As always everything has worked out just perfectly!! I can tell they adore him, which makes me very happy! Yay!!!!


On our way home we stopped at an electronic store to check out computers… we would like to buy Luba a computer as a gift. Luba will graduate on Monday from College with a degree in management! She came to visit us last night with a friend of hers that speaks English very well, so she could translate. That was very nice! She doesn’t know we are going to buy her a computer yet… she is going to be sooo surprised!


I can’t wait to see Anthony tomorrow! We think he is definitely recognizing us! Every day is going to be such an adventure!!!