day 9 of bonding

Zhanna and her
monkey!













Pilates for the
younger set!









Today was day 9 of the 14 day bonding period. I spent the morning with Zhanna. She was in a great mood, and seemed to recognize me as soon as she saw me. I got there a bit early, so she was still sleeping--a nap I guess. She started babbling and laughing when she saw me. The caregiver cleaned her up and let me put a pamper on her, after showing me the proper way to apply lotion. They really are wonderful to the babies and take the job very seriously. She also showed me the cubbies for towels and combs--Zhanna is #10. Each baby gets a new towel each day and the combs are soaked and cleaned.
We had the playroom to ourselves today, we usually share it with the speech therapist and the massage therapists. The older children seem to have speech therapy almost daily, and they work in groups of 4 or 5 repeating what sounds like nursery rhymes. The older children also have music class every morning (Monday through Friday) and sing their little hearts out.
After I left the baby house "Malutka" I headed home with my driver "Tolie" which is short for Anatoli. He took the long way and gave me a tour of the city--somewhat difficult without Lena to translate. We went by an outdoor market--appeared to be somewhat like our flea markets, although we only have them weather permitting. The temperature today (according to the thermometer in the car) was -19celcius, which I think is about 5 farenheit. The windchill was very cold though.
I walked to the mall--which is also very different from our malls. I think this is where the word "kiosk" came from. All of the stores are about 6' by 6', and they keep the money in cardboard boxes. When you purchase something, if they don't have change, they simply run to another "store" for change. The money here is called Tenge, and there are approximately 132 tenge to a US dollar. Prices are very cheap for most things...my grandfather would be so happy to hear that you can still buy a loaf of bread for 20 cents! I didn't spend too much time at the mall as I am not so sure of the directions, and wanted to get back to the apartment in day light. It begins to get dark at about 6:00pm, so I wanted plenty of time.
Will sign off for now....miss you all!