More Details of Our New Baby!

Last night when I was doing laundry, I broke the handle to the washer so Michael and Owen stayed home this morning to wait for the repairman. I couldn't believe it when he told me later that they showed up 30 minutes after our translator, Aizhan called and they were very professional. She was worried that they would over charge Michael because he's an American, but they didn't.

I had gone on to visit the baby and Michael and Owen joined me there later. We received the medical reports yesterday on the baby. He was just over 7 lbs at birth and is now 18 1/2 lbs. He was 19 1/2 in long at birth and is now 27 1/2 in. His birthday is August 3. They will ask us what we want to put down on the birth certificate - birthdate and place of birth. Appartantly we can change it if we want. What a hoot! We are still mulling over names. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He's feeling better today from his cold so he was a bit more active. He has three teeth, two on the bottom and one on top. He can crawl very well, turn over and pull himself to a standing position from the floor. His caregiver says he can walk while supporting himself but we haven't seen that yet. We'll be posting photos after the court date.

We have Internet access in our apartment. Yippee! First they said it would be about $2000 per month, then they said it was impossible. Then they said we could get an I-card, like a phone card so that's what we did. Just in time, too, because Michael has been working a lot and needed to do his timecard and upload his work. We were all surprised when it worked so well on the first try. It's much cheaper than the Internet cafe and not much slower. Now I can add more photos since before it was difficult to get my photos to the Internet cafe.

So, here are some from today. After the orphanage visit, we went to lunch at the mall. Here's the hallway, all glass booths which close and open whenever the owner chooses. Today we bought a frying pan, some sponges, paper and hand lotion. Michael's Russian is getting a workout, but he didn't know hand lotion. Thankfully Aizhan was near to help us out.In the basement of the mall, there's the food market. The produce stands are filled with terrific fruits and nuts. The shopkeepers there all shout at you trying to get you to buy their products. I had heard stories about the butchers here, that the meat is hanging from hooks, unrefrigerated so I was surprised to see some nice refrigerated cases full of delicious looking meat. But, I spoke too soon - as we turned down one hallway, we saw the meat hooks. They do a good business,but not from us.It was another day of doing errands for 3 hours after visiting the baby and Owen didn't complain at all. He and the driver, Dima are becoming good friends. At one stop, Dima motioned for Owen to get out of the car so they could play in the sprinkler.It's 8:30pm here and it's so bright outside. Our latitude is equal to Calgary, so we're pretty far north. Owen doesn't really understand why he has to go to bed when it's so light outside, but usually he's so tuckered out, he doesn't care.Good night, everyone.