Day 15--November 9, 2008

Day 15—November 9, 2008

Let me repeat: we live up NINE FLIGHTS of stairs!

Winter has arrived. Brrrrr!!!!!! It was snowing when we woke up this a.m., and we were surprised to see how much it had snowed overnight. There were a couple of inches on the ground. And it was good snow—wet and sticky—good for snowballs. Everything looked so pretty. We didn’t really bring warm coats, but we did OK. We imagine it is really nice here in the spring. There are a lot of (dead) rosebushes and a lot of (empty) fountains.

We got to the orphanage, and they brought him to us had dressed Aidar for outside, but not nearly as warmly as they dress him for when it’s 50 degrees. He had on a dress shirt, jeans, long johns, a coat and a hat. No scarf and no mittens. Aidar was excited about the snow. He tried telling us the Kazakh word for it, but, of course, we didn’t have a clue. John and Aidar made snowballs, and shook the snow from the trees; we put our footprints next to each other and took a picture. We didn’t make snow angels—we didn’t want to get scolded ;-) We finally went inside when Aidar’s hands started to turn red.

He enjoyed playing with his block set again today. He wasn’t interested in the puzzle, still, so we’re going to give up on that for this trip. He mocked John this a.m. He was trying to get the videotape as John was working with the video camera, and John told him “No”. Aidar looked at John with a big grin on his face, and said to John “No!” He doesn’t yet know when to differentiate when it’s funny (like with me) and when it’s not a good idea ;-)

John has made some fantastic dinners the last couple of nights. One night, he made chicken, a yummy sauce, rice, peas, corn and bread with olive oil. Last night, he made tortellini with shrimp in a tomato sauce, leftover steak, mixed vegetables, and bread with olive oil. This afternoon, he made deviled eggs. Tonight, we had pizza and beer at Marianne’s apartment. So much for hoping to lose weight!

It’s really nice to have Marianne here. She has been a lot of fun. John feels like he can’t get a word in edgewise when I’m with Marianne—I don’t shut up! She showed us the hotel she had stayed in last time, and it looked like it was going to fall down any second. There are no nice places here other than a couple of hotels that are pretty pricey (the lowest price we saw was $150 per night). I guess everyone spends money on stiletto boots instead of a decent place to live.

Marianne gave us some more toys for Aidar. She is so sweet. I know he will be thrilled. Again, for anyone adopting a child older than a year: bring toys (or buy them here). And bring mittens!

We hope everyone had fun at Karis’s and Alexa’s party today. We can’t wait to see pictures and hear stories! Miss you!