One Week Down, Two to Go

I can't believe we have already been here for a week. Time actually has gone pretty fast this past week and I think time will fly once we get custody of Nick.

On Monday we were able to visit Nick again, WooHoo! Our normal visiting time is from 1 - 3 which is right after lunch and right before a snack and nap time. The plan today was to meet our translater, A, at the metro stop closest to the baby home. We would then walk to the home, with Bill leading the way to make sure we know how to get there. It took us about 50 minutes between walking and metro, to get from our apartment to the other metro stop, then it was another 15 minute walk from the metro to the baby home.

Once we arrived at the baby home it was slightly chaotic in the little room we usually play in because Nick's groupa was getting ready to go play outside. They have covered pavillions outdoors, filled with toys where the little ones can play. Its quite a nice setup and gets the kiddos out doors. They gave us Nick, and he was a little fussy but this time we had Cheerios ready to go. So he was fine once he saw that.

We went out to the pavillion and had a fun time playing with Nick and the other children. Another family visiting their little one on Trip One was also outside with us. It was good to see Nick interact with the other children in the groupa. Additionally, we saw some skills that he hadn't shown us before, like the ability to stand up unaided in the middle of a room and then walk, fairly unsteadily I might add, but he was still walking!

We also taught him to sign "more". We don't know if he really gets it yet, but he was doing it to indicate that he wanted more cheerios. Of course we think he is brilliant for picking this up so quickly. I think tomorrow we're going to try "hat" or "bird", and of course continue to work with "more".

Nick is also becoming more vocal. He was babbling alot more today and he said Mama, very clearly. Now we just have to teach him who Mama is because I'm pretty sure he called Bill Mama also. We will see how that progresses!

It seems that he has a slight cold because his little nose was running a bit and he coughed a few times. Hopefully this passes without getting any worse.

Before our translator left us, she secured a pass for us to use to visit Nick for the rest of the week. Bill seems slightly stressed out about this and I think we'll be fine. As far as we know, we show up, show the pass to the security guard and then head in to Nicks groupa. Tomorrow we'll find out if it works like it should.

After our visit with Nick we made the commute back to the apartment and regrouped to head out for an early dinner. After the 2 hours of commuting and 2 hours of playing non-stop, with no lunch, we were fairly hungry and tired. We decided to try an Uzbek restaurant called, Kish Mesh.

At Kish Mesh, Bill started with a hearty soup with potatoes, carrots and lamb (I think) and a Samsa. The Samsa was a large dumpling like object which appeared to be a cross between phyllo and puff pastry around seasoned mashed potato. (I am surely butchering the description of the food, but you get the idea.) I started with a Chebuluk (sp?) which was a light pastry around some type of soft cheese (hopefully not goat, but it was still good!) with seasonings. It was quite good. For our main courses we both had the kebabs, Bills was mutton and mine was chicken. We ordered the spicy sauce with the kebabs, which turned out to be slightly sweet but ended with a kick.

Tomorrow we venture to the baby home, by ourselves for the first time, to see Nick. I can't wait to see what the day brings us!

Paka!