Plof

The morning visit was fun. Lena was very angry when I came around to her group's hut to pick her up. She was playing with lots of toys and was upset that I would dare interrupt her fun. Took her a couple of minutes, but she came around. We discovered that Lena and Dub LOVE playing tent game, in which they sit real close together, and I toss a small blanket over them so they can only see eachother. This little phenomenon generated many shrieks of laughter. No pouting at all today.






This afternoon, we brought out the sippy cups again, for the singular purpose of trying to train Dub to use them. It is our (completely untrained) opinion that Dub has never learned to suck his thump, a pacifier, a sippy cup, or anything else. Why would we think this? Because his facial and mouth muscles don't seem to be developed well, causing him to struggle with certain sounds and/or words, like "please". He barely opens his mouth, and it comes out more like "pphhhhheeezzhhhe". We asked Anne Morin (NICU Nurse) about this, and she heartily agreed. So, out came the sippy cups. Lena didn't like it at first, but she sucked down her entire cup of apple juice in a hurry. Dub got a little frustrated, and kind of kept trying, but didn't end up getting more than a few sips of juice. We'll try again today.

Tonite, we all - American couples here along with our coordinators - gathered at the Morin's apartment to learn how to make some local dishes, mainly "Plof", or, in Kazakh, Palao. This is a rice-based dish with lots of meat, onions, carrotts, and whole cumin. Very delicious! We added to the Ploff some Manty which are made by wrapping a spicy meat concoction in fresh pasta, cooking, then dipping them into a ketchup-mayo sauce. Also quite good. We were up and out late (oooh! 1130!), so no "24", and that's why I'm just posting this morning.

Now, TGIF!! Five more visiting days to go, then we get these wonderful kids, and they have to put up with our English, bossiness, constant hugs, kisses, and "wuv woos" 24/7. Yes, "wuv woo" is their version of "Love you!" Every day when Mit and Vera come to take D&L back to their playgroups, they walk out the door, then turn and say "bye bye! see you! wuv woo!" and blow kisses to us, then trot on their merry way to lunch or dinner.

We would love nothing more than to be able to see what goes on in their heads when we bring them back to the hotel for dinner, bedtime, wakeup, playtime in Taraz square, lunch, naptime, on and on and on! What are they gonna think?!?

As for travel, we leave for Almaty on the 18th, and we are currently scheduled to leave from Moscow to Atlanta on July 5th. Our wonderful agent at Delta (Thank you, Marlene!!) has us waitlisted on every SVO-ATL flight from Friday July 1 through Tuesday July 5, so it will all depend on when we leave Almaty for Moscow as to when we get home. Laura, who we dined with last week as she came and went with daughter Rebekah, took 5 days for Passport and 4 days for exit visa. That's 9 business days, and that's what we have to measure by. So we might, just might, be able to leave Almaty on July 1. Then we'll have to see if God wants us to spend a few days in Moscow, or if we can just travel all day Friday and get home that evening. We'll see!

Blessings,
Kevin, Angel, Dub and Lena (aka, KADL)