Rylie and the Horses

Greetings from Astana---

Here are a few pictures from our visit with Rylie. When we got there, she hadn't eaten yet, so Sara got to feed her breakfast. Again, Rylie is dining with her buddy Sabina. She spent a lot of the day dancing to our translator Gulsana's cell phone. Rylie loves music, so she was entertained by bouncing up and down and shaking her head from side to side for about 3o minutes by the music from the cell phone. As usual, Rylie spent a decent amount of time playing in the bin of balls.

We also had a little fun playing with her hair. We think from the looks of this picture, Rylie might have been holding out to be the next Jolie-Pitt!

But since she's stuck with us, we thought we'd help her out a little with her hair. These pics are for G.G. We know you've been waiting for us to put barrettes in her hair!In the afternoon, we went to the horseback riding place. Here is a picture of the outside.And here is Adam on his horse, Omega!!!After Adam's horseback riding adventure, one of the guys who works there gave us a tour of where all of the horses stay. We even got to see some of their newest additions! These horses range from 6 months to a year old. So that's all from here. Love to everyone----

Rylie and the Eurasian Market

Greetings from Astana---

We hope you are all well. Here are some pictures from our past two days with Rylie. She's been really active lately. Yesterday, we even heard what we think was a little song. She was singing and rocking her head back and forth. It was very cute. She's been very into her books lately, especially Are You Ticklish? is definitely a favorite. Today we looked out the window and watched some of the 2 and 3 year olds outside playing on the sleds. It was a very cute scene!

Here are some pics of Rylie reading. Over the past two days, she's started babbling along while she's reading.

Rylie loves the baby carrier.

And the best part is, it makes her sleepy!

Rylie thought Adam's funny faces were the best. She couldn't stop giggling....

Oh, and Adam was not really growing a beard. His electric shaver stopped re-charging, so we didn't get him a razor and shaving cream until yesterday. So the little beard is gone :-)

We also went back to the Eurasian Market this afternoon. This is the shopping center that has the huge farmer's market on the first floor. Here are a few pictures of the food section.

The meat is in another room. Additionally, because of the prominant Muslim presence, the pork is separated from the rest of the meat in a completely separate room.

So that's the story from here. We hope you are all well. And as far as coming attractions go... we are going to some horseback riding place in the countryside tomorrow. And Saturday night is the opera- the St. Petersburg performance of Aida.

Love to everyone---

Answers to Some of Your Questions

Hi from Astana--

We hope you are all well. While our lives are starting to feel a bit like Groundhog Day over here- not so much new news to report each day, we figured we'd answer some of the questions people had posted in comments.

We do change Rylie's clothes when we get there each day. For those of you who are preparing to travel, keep a few things in mind. There is a chance that if you put your child in an outfit one day, you won't see it again. (If you have a really special outfit that is of great significance you to, I would not put your baby in it, unless of course you want to change him or her out of it before you leave.) Rylie's caregivers are amazing. We love them and they do a really great job with a job that is not an easy one to do. Nine times out of ten, we have gotten the outfits back, we wash them, and bring them back. We've lost a few onesies and a bunch of socks in the mix, but most of the stuff we get back. They seem to have an easier time if they see something over and over again, so then they know it is her's. That's why you've seen a lot of repeats! We had to get some new socks over here to replenish some of the lost ones. Which hopefully explains the polka dot socks with the striped pants! Most of the outfits will be donated before we leave, but we're trying to make it through. We also have a sort of bartering system going on with some of the families. Given that Kaz does not have referrals, most people come with some 6 mos stuff, some 9 mos stuff, some 12 mos stuff, some pink, some blue, some green (you get the point.) So we've also done some sharing :-)

As far as Thanksgiving goes.... We did not go back to the Intercontinental on Friday night for the "traditional" meal. While the manager told us we should come back, we explained that $100 for dinner is a treat for all of us. Apparently it didn't occur to him that he should invite us back for a complimentary meal! So no turkey this year...

No Macy's Day Parade either.

Yes- those were beach umbrellas on the "beach" along the Ishim River. The whole thing is kind of bizarre. It is frozen now, as you saw from the pictures. People walk across it, bike ride across it, they basically treat it as a new road/sidewalk in the winter. Apparently they don't fall in here.
And lastly, yes, we are definitely planning to come back here one day with Rylie, certainly to visit and very, very possibly to get her a sibling (or two) while we're here! But yes, we will come back with Rylie one day to show her this amazing country where she was born. Next time we'll just plan a little better and come in the spring time.

And just a few pictures from Tuesday's visit.

Another family pic This is how we'll travel once Adam leaves :-)Okay, we are off to see Rylie. We hope you are all well.
Love to everyone---

Some Pictures of our Sunday Walk and Monday Visit

ENJOY...

Some pictures of the now frozen Ishim River. As you can see, ice fishing is a pretty popular activity in the winter time here. The second picture is of the beach area which is now covered in snow. This same picture in on one of our earlier postings from when it was much warmer.

Pictures of Monday's visit with Rylie...

Sorry no real narrative. We're both a little sleepy. Hope you are all well.

Love to everyone---

SHYBOO--- GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to the hockey game, and we learned one word- Shyboo means GOAL! It was unquestionably the most fun $1.60 we have ever had. The rink is a part of a huge sports complex here in Astana. The Astana team (some kind of tiger) played a team from Russia. Our translator, Gulsana, explained to us that the teams are both competing for a spot in the Russian League. This is the first time that the Russian League is allowing teams from Kazakhstan to have a chance at being in their league. The Astana team, despite losing last night 4-2, is still in second place in the league. Whoever wins the league, which will be decided sometime in January or February, will have a place in the Russian League. Our translator also explained that many of the talented Kazakh players have already gone to play for Russian teams- for two reasons. First, the scouts from the NHL only go to see the players in the Russian League. And second, the NHL pays its players the most, followed closely behind by the Russian League. The Kazakh League, while the players get paid nice salaries, apparently pay the hockey players around the same as well paid professionals- what a concept, huh?

We also noticed that in addition to the goalies, some of the players had the full facemask on their helmets, not just the plastic covering. Gulsana explained that there is a law here that all players under 18 must have the full facemask on when playing.

One thing we did pick up on quickly- hockey fans are hockey fans, no matter where you are. Within the crowd, there was a good mix of beligerent, drunk fans and cute little kids wearing oversized hockey jerseys. The one thing you normally won't see at home was the large number of women wearing fur coats to hockey games. Also, the meat pies probably aren't so popular at hockey games back home. And of course, the smoking in the bathroom is definitely more of a Kazakh thing. Here are a few pictures from the game. This is the outside of the ice rink.

Some shots from the game, and of course the Astana team's mascot.

Now for the Rylie Update. During Friday's visit we could tell that she was starting to feel a little bit better, so that was definitely a good thing. She played for much of the visit, which was a good sign. As usual, Rylie and Sara played in the bin of balls.

Then Rylie ventured over to one of her other favorite hangouts- the dial on the side of the slide. This is a dial that moves in a circle, like you have on old phones. Rylie loves this dial, and the fact that it is next to the mirror doesn't hurt!

Lastly, we got another family picture. Rylie was not very happy during this one. She had just been playing with our coordinator's cell phone, which was now being used to get her to look at the camera (as you can see in the bottom corner.) Rylie was much happier after the picture when we put her back down and she could play with the cell phone- the ring is a baby crying, which we have figured out confuses Rylie. Whenever it goes off initially, she looks around to the other babies in the room to see who is crying. Then when we show her the cell phone she starts to crawl to it. In any event, here is family picture #2.

As far as Saturday's visit goes- same story every week. Rylie doesn't really like it. She has moments where she enjoys the craziness in the room, but those moments were few and far between yesterday.

At the beginning of the visit, Rylie had fun playing in the little plastic house that she loves. The Belgian family, who is adopting a little girl in Rylie's room, also has an adorable 5 year old boy (also adopted from Kazakhstan about 4 years ago.) Rylie is very intrigued by Mickey, who is all boy! Mickey came into the house to play with Rylie yesterday- of course he climbed through the window! He had a very cool kid's MP3 player toy with music, games, and a camera on it. At first, Rylie was rocking back and forth to the music. Then she was trying to grab it. Mickey was really patient with Rylie at first.

Until of course, she tried to put it in her mouth. That didn't go over so well!

Rylie had a few minutes of smiles playing on the ball with her friend, Aitugan.

And for a very few minutes, Rylie played contently with the three babies from the afternoon group.

But most of all, we think Rylie missed her buddy Quinn for the past two days. Quinn left the Baby House on Thursday, for a very special Thanksgiving, and will soon be heading home! Rylie spent much of Friday morning looking to the door every time there was a little noise- we think she misses Quinn!
So that's the story from Astana. We hope you are all well and having a nice holiday weekend.
Love to everyone----

A Thanksgiving to Remember...

Happy Thanksgiving from snowy Astana!

We are having a great Thanksgiving here- no football games on TV and no Black Friday shopping, but all in all, still a great day with a lot to be thankful for.

We started our morning with our regular trip to the Baby House. Rylie has another cold, so we spent much of our visit just holding her today. She slept on Sara's shoulder for much of the visit, but she managed to get in a little playing at the beginning and the end. She played with her fingerpuppets today for a while. The visit started with Adam's little puppet show with the cow and the chicken- the two happiest animals on Thanksgiving! Rylie was really sleepy and didn't feel well, but she was still pretty intrigued for a while.

After a while, she sat up and preferred to eat the animals.

We tried to explain that it was Thanksgiving, and you eat turkey, not cows and chickens--- as you can see, that didn't go over so well. This is Rylie's pouty face!

Aside from the puppets, today was primarily a sleepy day for Rylie. We got her more medicine yesterday afternoon, so hopefully tomorrow she'll be back to her normal self.

As you probably saw in our previous posting, we had Thanksgiving Dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel tonight with two other couples. So as we had mentioned in our earlier posting, we wandered over to the hotel earlier in the week. It is right behind our apartment, and we figured maybe they would have a nice restaurant where we could have a good dinner for Thanksgiving. So we were ecstatic when we saw something showing a "Traditional American Thanksgiving Meal" in one of the hotel's restaurants. We gathered some of the other families and decided to make a reservation to celebrate the holiday with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc. So when we got to the hotel tonight (there were only 6 of us in the end,) we were seated and the waitress brought out the menus. I asked her for the special Thanksgiving menu, and eventually she understood what I was asking for, went into the back, and came out with one copy of it for the table. We found this a bit odd, but we all continued to look at the set Thanksgiving menu and the regular menu in deciding what to order. We called over the manager of the restaurant, a man who speaks English pretty fluently. (Sidenote- he is the same person we spoke with when we came into the hotel to discuss the Thanksgiving meal earlier in the week, and the same person Sara spoke to when she called on Tuesday to make the reservation for 6 people for Thanksgiving dinner at 6pm on Thursday.) Adam asked him if it would be possible to order the Thanksgiving meal, but substitute a few things (ie. Lentil soup for clam chowder and salmon for turkey.) The man explained that he asked the owners of the hotel about substitutions earlier in the week and they stated that "They did not want to break American tradition and re-write American history, so no substitutions." He then walked away and we all decided what we were going to order. Our waitress came back and started with Sara. I ordered the Thanksgiving meal. She kept saying "Nyet" (no.) I couldn't understand, so I looked down at the special Thanksgiving Menu (pictured below) and got a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach.....

We know the picture of the menu isn't completely clear, but it says--- Thanksgiving 2007- November 23rd, 2007.

Right--- November 23rd! So these same people that are so concerned about "breaking American tradition and re-writing American history" by substituting lentil soup for clam chowder decided that Thanksgiving will be celebrated on Friday, instead of the 4th Thursday in November!

Needless to say, we still had a great meal with great company, just no turkey, stuffing, or pumpkin pie. Oh the stories we will have to tell Rylie one day.............

So from snowy Astana, we wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and a productive Black Friday- for those of you who are hitting the stores.

Love to everyone----

Rylie, a Trip to the Mosque, and Preparing for Thanksgiving

Greetings from Astana,
We hope you are all doing well. We have had a good couple of days here in Astana. Yesterday's visit with Rylie was great. We got there and her other favorite caregiver was feeding her. This is the caregiver that always says, "Yum Yum Naina" to try and get her to focus on eating- she gets really distracted looking to see what all of the other babies are doing. It is probably much cuter in reality, than it sounds- so trust us, it is very funny. We were happy to have caught it on the camcorder yesterday. Here is a picture of Rylie and the caregiver- we haven't quite gotten her name down yet. I'm sure you won't be surprised to know that this is the other one who spoon feeds Rylie all of her liquids!

After she finished eating, we had a great time hanging out in the playroom. Rylie has had a lot of fun playing with the other 3 babies in our visitation session. Rylie has been crawling really well and been really active lately. We played with our usual favorite toys- the stacking cups, keys, the bin of balls, the plastic house, the slide, and read our favorite book- Are You Ticklish?

After our visit we went to the Mosque. There are a number of mosques here in Astana as almost 50% of the country is Muslim. The country prides itself on its acceptance of all religions and has many landmarks throughout the city recognizing the different religions and embracing the many cultures. Here are a few pictures of the main mosque in Astana. Like the synagogue, it is only 3 years old, even though the architecture makes it appear to be much older.

Today we also had a great visit with Rylie. She has been really, really verbal for the past couple of days, which is great. We think she just discovered that not only can she babble, but she can scream. It was pretty funny this morning, she kept screaming, and then laughing. She's also still blowing raspberries a lot. She seems to blow raspberries when she is concentrating on something- like crawling or catching a ball being rolled to her. It is pretty funny to watch.

Today, as usual, we spent a lot of time rolling the ball back and forth. Rylie gets so excited when she sees the ball!

We also spent time reading Rylie's Mirror Me book, which she loves. Rylie gets very excited to look at herself in the mirror and her eyes get huge. It is pretty funny.

And of course, we spent time in the bin of balls and playing with the stacking cups!

During our visit this morning, our translator was reading us some of our court papers that she had translated about the whole adoption. Rylie was squealing and babbling and smiling a ton, so we definitely think she's on board for the whole thing!

We wanted to wish everyone a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. We hope that wherever you are, you are enjoying a good meal with good company. While we wish we could be in either Phoenix, Philly, or Palm Springs, we are happy to report that we are going to be spending Thanksgiving at the Astana InterContinental Hotel. They are having a full Thanksgiving dinner, so we will be going with two other couples. Needless to say, we are very excited for a good "beet free" meal!

And Michele- this preview is for you, since I know how much you like the coming attractions section of the blog! On Saturday night we are going to a professional hockey game! We are really excited and we got our tickets today. The funniest part of the whole thing- each ticket was about the cost of a banana. (Bananas are really expensive here and hockey tickets are really cheap at 200 Tenge a piece- about $1.60!)

Love to everyone---