Running Short of Humorous Titles

For today's visit we brought Melanie back to the apartment. We had fun putting things out of her reach as she would get into them; she FAST! We tried out the portable high chair and it's a dream! I'm so glad I brought it. I even took her clothes off to try on her pajamas, and she has FEET!! And ten little baby toes. All this time, I have never seen her feet; she has always had on tights AND four pairs of socks. Her poor little skin was so dry that I pulled out the Johnsons' baby lotion and gave her a little massage. She loved it; she just lay in my lap and let me rub her legs. Pure joy on my part. There is no pleasure on earth like the feel of baby skin smelling like baby lotion. Aida is getting a crib this afternoon, and tomorrow, Melanie comes to stay with us at the apartment full-time! We are off this afternoon to buy tights, a potty, and other paraphernalia that we'll need to have her here.

We brought Melanie back to the apartment again for our afternoon visit (it's so much better than sitting in a little room at the baby house, staring at each other!) She learned to brush our hair, to eat a piece of bread in her high chair, how to take things off the shelf one by one and hand them to me, then put them back on the shelf again, one by one. She's a genius! She also found some china on a shelf, the silverware on a tray in the kitchen, and the sharp knives. We put all of those up where she couldn't get to them. We also learned that she is NOT, in fact, potty trained. So we wasted money on the potty. The caregivers in the baby house were always telling us that she NEVER needs to wear a diaper, never. So explain why she "christened" the rug in the apartment the minute she walked in the door, huh? On with the diapers! Oh, and for all the expensive toys we brought, what did Melanie end up playing with? The empty water jugs and a hairbrush. Take our advice: save your money on the toys!

Tonight we ate dinner at the "Almaty Hotel" with Christie and Corey. Aida came in with us to help us order from the menu. At one point, I directly asked the waitress, "Morozhenoy yest?" (Do you have ice cream?) and Aida turned to the girl, and asked her, IN ENGLISH, "Do you have ice cream?" Talk about throwing her off! We were the only ones in the entire restaurant, but the service was excellent. Unfortunately, Corey had a dish called "Lamb Gristle and Vegetables" so for future reference ... skip that one. But the "Lamb Tashkent" was quite good, with french fries, and a "greek" salad. We had a nice visit ... our last as just the two of us! Melanie sleeps with us tomorrow night. I'm so ready to have her here!

This entry is completely short, I know, but we didn't have a very newsworthy day. It's still very cold, although all of the snow has melted. We can't believe that we are in the home stretch towards court. The time truly does go by quickly when each day is much like the last. Stay tuned!