Ookah-Bookah!

We saw the entire spectrum of behavior today. Kids slept a full 10 hours last night and Dub only woke up once. Must’ve been the really good drugs. ;-) We gave them a hit of Children’s Tylenol nighttime to help with the coughing, fever and crud. And it’s an added bonus that it has a sleep additive. A few seconds of pushing he back and forth (as opposed to picking him up and rocking) lulled Dub back from his mystery terror. Dub actually woke up this morning happy for a change. Lena always does. We had a fun morning, playing monkey games and tried to eat last night’s leftovers for lunch (still didn’t go over well) then it was nap time. Ugh. Neither kid likes the idea of naptime and puts up the usual fuss. But today was beyond the pale. We did the usual routine and both started screaming and yelling “garshok” (which, for the thousandth time, means “potty”) even though they both had gone just after lunch. So we got them back up, let them garshok, dried the tears and tried again. A little whining and they eventually fell asleep. Dub slept about ½ hour and started his usual whimpering. He was so exhausted and kept drifting off and rubbing his eyes. I push-rocked him back to sleep and just when I thought he was out, he started screaming. For an hour and a half (of a 2 hour nap) I alternated rocking him to sleep and then he’s start screaming the moment I put him down. We contemplated what to do: do we let him scream himself to sleep and wake up Lena or run to him and pick him up (don’t want to start THAT!) or go in and pat him to sleep? Kids get so hot when they are screaming, so between the hot child, the hot room, the frustration, the back-breaking continuous rocking we were completely frazzled. By the time we just said “Forget the nap, Dub” Lena woke up and naptime was officially over.



We have found another little activity that the monkeys like. In our bedroom is a large window with a deep window sill that they can sit on, so long as Daddy is there the hold them up, since it’s 4 feet off the floor. Out that window, they have a great view of the main strip through Almaty, and they just love to sit there and spot “machina!” (car), “bus!”, and “tuwuk”. They especially like “yewwow bus!” There’s also a spectacular view of the Tien Shan mountain range, so close it looks like you can reach out and touch them. They are only slightly smaller than the Rockies; however, Parrott Monkeys don’t care much about mountains.



We spent the afternoon with the Morins. We walked down to Plovic Park where we found a great playground. It was a real first for the kids. The playgrounds at Umit are pitiful, consisting of a climbing bar, a slideless slide, and a dirt-box instead of a sand-box. This one had 4 different slides, a suspension-type bridge that really freaked the kids out! A couple of climbing posts and the ground – get this – was covered in SAND, not weeds! No ticks. No bugs. No mosquitoes. Just nice sand. And about 10,000 of your closest Kazakh friends. The other kids wouldn’t have been so bad, but it was the teenagers who pushed Lena out of the way so they could go down the slide that really ticked me off. Guess the mommy gene is starting to kick in. I was on the other side of the playground and couldn’t get to her to tell her off. Not that she would’ve understood. But they had a grand time and didn’t want to leave. We walked from there to the Russian Orthodox Church in the park that survived the 1910 earthquake. Built entirely without nails. We showed the kids where Jesus lives (they wouldn’t yet understand that He really lives in our hearts) and showed them His pictures on the wall. To hear His name mentioned by kids is so precious. Geeeezus! I know He smiles when He hears it! Off to the market then home in time for dinner.







We tried pasta tonight. Trying to experiment and see who likes what. I made rigatoni with tomato sauce and Dub scarfed his down like there was no tomorrow. Lena licked her spoon a few times then pushed her plate away. I’m not going to be one of those moms who make 5 different dinners for each member of the family. But I’m also not going to force the clean plate club. I’ll take the Glen Arden Camp for Girls rule (once they understand English): 4 bites of everything on the plate. It could be a bite the size of a pin-head, but make the effort. But here we are in a strange city, strange new food, so I tried to think what else she might eat. While giving Dub HER plate, too (which he polished off) it occurred to me that maybe she might like plain noodles with butter. Bingo! She cleaned her plate.



Kevin taught the monkeys to do the “Ookah Boookah” dance, where you hold your arms like a gorilla and say “Oookah Bookah.” They thought it was a riot. We finally got a picture of Lena in the act. Then we taught them to say Ooooo Ooooo Eeeee Eeeee like a monkey. They thought that was a riot as well.

So we saw it all: the horrible no good very bad nap time to the Ooo Eee Ookah Boookah dances. Guess it’s just a day in the life with toddlers.

Pray Marlene can get us out on the 29th!

Blessings,
KADL