We're Bonding Away! (day 6)

When we got to the babyhouse the other covered floor play area was already occupied by some of the babies, so we ended up sharing with our Belgian friends. That was kind of nice since their daughter and Alex were playing together… plus we could say stuff to one another once in a while as we were playing… It was fun… I can tell they adore their little guy as much as we adore Anthony! Their baby is about a month older than Anthony, so he is crawling and sitting better than Anthony does. We also heard little Askhat laugh today… they were singing and rowing to “row row row your boat” of course in their language though, and the baby was smiling and just laughing… and they would do it over and over and over, and he just kept on laughing, it was precious! Alex and their daughter Rufan got into a few tussles… usually about sticks today. Silly kiddos!

Anthony was stiff as usual when I grabbed him from Olga. But soon he loosened up again today we had 6-12 month pants (from Gymboree) and he was swimming in them so when he pulled himself forward on the floor they started coming off… so we pulled them off for a while and I massaged his legs while Jerry entertained him with the stacking cups! Anthony seemed a little more comfortable with us today… he was more content sitting still some… we played patty cake while sitting in my lap, facing Jerry… I would clap his hands together and Jerry would grab his toes and kiss them… he was actually laughing out loud!!! Of course after that we had to get the video camera… not sure if we got it or not, but we will keep at it! It was slightly difficult to video him when we needed all of our hands to make him laugh! We manages to balance it on top of the stacking cups for a few minutes!

Anthony already loves mommy’s camera! When I put him down and it down he just starts kicking and pulling himself toward it to grab it! Funny baby! How does he know that is off limits and stuff… the other favorite thing to try to get it the plastic Ziploc bag that we bring his clothes/diapers in everyday! Why!!? What is up with that! Human nature I guess!

It was just a nice morning out there was a little breeze so we were not hot, but the sun was shining, we were in the shade of course under the shelter thing… I put some of the Arbonne diaper rash cream on Anthony’s rash on his head and elbow and the little rash spots on his cheek and arm. We will see if it makes much of a difference. It is supposed to be some amazing stuff… and it is natural, so… we will see. We think the rash is from a hat they probably keep on him a lot inside too… it is all the way around his head just where a hat might go and then a big spot in the back where he probably spends most of his day laying. I can’t wait to get him out of here. Toward the end of the visit Alex came up and wanted to hold Anthony! So he sat down in Jerry’s lap and held him for a couple minutes! It was cute! Alex is so gentle with Anthony so far, I am so glad about that!

I have to say that I really think this bonding process is awesome! It is really nice to get to see him and just play with him… it gets him used to us gradually. I don’t have any experience with the other way yet, where they just hand you your baby and that is it… I know that will be amazing too, and once you meet your child you just want them with you always, but this way is really probably less stressful for the baby! He gets to just be with you and not wonder what is going on next for him… he knows… when he leaves you, he goes for his nap or he gets to eat like it was for Alex. Very scheduled. Its nice for him… By the time we take him he will definitely want to be with us. By the time we had court last time and we did not show up for our afternoon visit, Alex was crying and crying and standing at his crib waiting for us. Which was soooo amazing to hear… Poor Alex, because he wanted us and we were not there, but so awesome that he knew he wanted us! I don’t know if Anthony will get to that, I like to think he might!

Many of you have been asking questions about Anthony, so I will tell you some! He is about to be 7 months old! He was born on Kazakhstan’s Independence day on December 16!! We are excited to have a holiday baby! He weighs about 15-16 pounds as far as we know… we think he is as light as a feather though! Since Alex is about 35! Anthony is still a scrawny little guy with big cheeks! But we think he is perfect!

This morning we went to the babyhouse early so that we could go to Luba’s graduation at 11. However after an hour it had still not started, so Alex and I came home and Jerry stayed to take pictures and check stuff out! Jerry came back about 2pm. Luba came with him and I took some pictures of her diploma! Some of the girls were really dressed up for the graduation! They had on formal gowns or really slinky, sexy little dresses, fancy hi-heels! Some of them had their hair in fancy up-dos and covered in glitter! Some were just in regular dresses and a lot of the boys were just in pants and t-shirt. Some of the guys were in suits, but all the guys really thought they were hot stuff today… you could just tell they had attitude! :) Luba’s group was of course the last group to get their diplomas! We haven’t decided exactly what we are going to give her for a graduation gift… we may not do the computer… we are trying to evaluate her needs still.

Our next visit was great. We played. Alex played with Rufan again… except she was not feeling like sharing her toys and got in trouble… pretty soon she was just crying and crying… well… the Doctor came out and wanted to see what was going on! She told Olga that the kids needed to stop crying out there, because the kids inside could hear them… The Doctor looked upset… I don’t know if she really was or not… We decided that we had to get a picture of Anthony for the painter to paint, so that was the big project today! We decided that we wanted one of him laying down as he is not able to sit or anything else… it shows his abilities now… So we had to put Anthony down and then step back to try to get the shots! Oh! And make him smile! He is so funny, he would grab the sheet and start pulling himself toward us right away, so we had to keep putting him back!
We had my computer sitting there so we could meet with the Artist. He went immediately to the computer and then just laid there with his hands on the outside of the computer… and then just looked around!!!! I couldn’t believe it!!!! He thought he was hot stuff for touching my computer! So we put him back in his spot and moved the computer over by me… he headed toward it! We must have made him tired, because we took a break and Jerry just held him for a little bit… he just relaxed in Jerry’s arms and sucked his thumb! It was so adorable! He looked content and he stayed there for quite a while! Finally I said we needed to try again! So back he went… oh! And we even tried a different outfit… a green one, but we liked the brown shirt best so we went back to that one! Finally we got one to use, and then Anthony could rest… he went back to lounging and checking out daddy’s “pokey” face! It was a nice visit in spite of the crying done by Rufan and Alex!

We met with the Artist! His prices have gone up of course! But we haggled and got a price we could live with! We printed the pictures he will use to paint from! We are having 3 paintings done. One of Anthony, and 2 of the 4 of us… We will of course post about them all later… when we get them!

Then we met our friends from Belgium for dinner at the Kamelot, just 2 blocks from our apartment! Our dinner was good. We had salad, soup, mashed potatoes and broccoli & cauliflower. The salad was awesome, the soup was awesome, the mashed potatoes were great, and the broccoli and cauliflower were soaked in oil! Oh Alex had some noodles… they were fine, but he did not eat many of them. Too excited about playing with Rufan I guess. We talked for a while, and had a nice time chatting… the kids were getting rambunctious, so we decided to go… They have pre-court tomorrow, so it will be interesting to know how it goes. We think we may be eating there for dinner more often, we both decided that we hate cooking in the apartment… it is so hard to get good food to cook at home… now if we weren’t vegetarians it would not be so hard, but the produce seems to be limited and, I don’t know… we are just having a hard time with that. But the salad and soup were so good at Kamelot that we are going to have that again! We are craving vegetables though… we are going to try the market soon and see what we can find there.

We came home and made a few calls to the states for business and to Jerry’s parents… everything is fine there…Now we are going to bed!!!! More playtime tomorrow!