Friday, May 20, 2005

Is there DFACS in Taraz?

If so, I'm in trouble.

We had a great day today. SOMEBODY woke up GRUMPY. Doesn't he KNOW he's supposed to let Grumpy sleep??? I guess it was the gloomy overcast sky and too much sleep! Anyway, by the time we got to Umit, the gloom had passed. When we got there, Dub and
Lena's groups were both outside playing together (very unusual.) Vera told us to go ahead and find the kids and go get them (usually you have to have a doctor go to the group and get the child and bring them to you- very orderly) They were in one of the little sheds that are on the ground for the kids to play in (they have these giant playpens made out of wood- see a picture below) and there are high shrubs surrounding each shed. But somehow Lena looked out just in time to see us walking by and her little eyes lit up and she came running toward us. We thought it was just her group and started walking away after we scooped her up, but then we heard FATKULIN! (Dub's last name) and realized his group was out there too. He saw us and started toddling toward us (Lena is a little more stable on her feet than Dub is) with his arms outstretched running to jump into Papa's arms!

After the morning session, we came home, had a lunch of 3 samsas each (for a whopping total of 120 tg- a dollar is 130 tg!) and napped. This is starting to become a very bad (or is it a good???) habit- this afternoon napping. I guess if we can coordinate with their schedule- when they sleep- we sleep!

We went back at 4 for our afternoon visit, and once again, Dub's group was outside. When he saw us, he was very distressed and we couldn't figure out why. The other family here, the Morins, arrived in their car first and they said Dub was there
looking at the car expectantly and when we didn't get out of it, he was very upset. We pulled up about 3 minutes later and he once again jumped into papa's arms. Somehow he knew that we come and go in cars even though he's never seen us leave or arrive before. They brought Lena in and we decided to go outside for bubbles. When they tired of bubbles, we just started swinging around and playing. They love to do the airplane- swinging by the arms around in a circle. I have always been very careful to do it by their armpits and not by their arms so as not to dislocate their shoulder. Here come the DFACS part- one time I picked Lena up by her arms and swung her around and when I put her down I heard a pop and she started crying. The first time in 11 days that we've seen tears, so we knew it was real. I scooped her up and went inside to take off the FOUR layers of clothing so I could examine her arm (and to give her a gummy bear which made it all better) It was obviously hurting still, so I went off in search of Vera and found the nice doctor (avoid the male doctor at all costs!!!) and told her "Kalamkaz" and pointed to my shoulder. She came with me and determined it was, indeed, her shoulder and another doctor came back with some gauze to make a temporary sling. She was very brave, but cried a few more times while they tried to take her layers off. Kevin gave her a gummy bear and although we could see her wincing in pain, the gummy seemed to have some sort of medical (OK so it was emotional) affect on her and she calmed down. The whole time Dub just stood in front of her very concerned. So I'm afraid that tomorrow I'll be called into the director's office and have some sort of chopping motion that may mean "you're a bad mommy and we're going to cut you off" We'll keep you posted. I feel just awful that I "broke" my little girl. I'm sure it's not permanent, but it still broke my heart that I inflicted this pain. When she rejoined her group, everyone wanted to know what happened and Vera said she had this very Scarlett-esque look on her face- she was very proud of the injury and the attention. Did I mention that she's going to be a handful???

And of course there's Dub- who fights us every time we try to put him on the training potty. I was afraid after the chopping lecture (twice!!) that he's going to have this bathroom complex, so we don't want to push him, but at the same time, we don't want him to have an accident and get the chopping lecture again from Brunehilda. So glad I brought some Pull-ups! I just hope I can but a potty here so I can schlep it across 3 continents. Speaking of which, still no word on how we're getting home. Guessing we're going thru Moscow- probably we'll have to buy 4 tickets Almaty to Moscow and then we can use the Delta skymile portion Moscow to Atlanta. Please continue praying!

Here's a few photos-
Keep the comments coming- we really covet them. And long emails from home too- we are feeling a bit disjointed- thanks Happy for keeping us in the loop!

OH- and thanks to Miss Robin who gave us these wonderful magnet doodle pads. We were going to save them for the plane, but they just LOVE them. See pics below!

Love,
Angel and Kevin



Obviously before the damage suffered by mother!


Kev says: "We know it's time to stop when someone gets hurt!" How NOT to play with your toddler!

They LOVE their bubbles!

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