Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

Tim was feeling very helpful this morning and for the first time in a long time asked if he could give Matt his bottle. Later on he wanted to try feeding him breakfast. All in all he did both jobs pretty well, although the feeding got a bit messy and about half way through the jar he decided he was tired of feeding him.

Once again we were all up earlier than we would have been at home. It was supposed to be in the mid-30's with snow flurries today so we donned hats and gloves too today to head out to the baby house. When we got outside, we discovered that there had already been a few flurries and that it was actually a bit slippery on the sidewalk. Tim enjoyed trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue while we waited for Zhanara to pick us up. Matt seemed less than impressed with his first experience of snow for the season as it was also a bit windy out.

When we arrived at the baby house today, we were met at the top of the stairs by Dinara, one of Hope's caretakers, who motioned for us to follow her away from the direction of her group. The kids were all in the music room singing along with a man who was playing an accordian. When we walked in the door, Hope ran across the room to a chorus of "Oooh, Mama, Papa". After hugs and kisses all around, she and Tim ran off screaching down the hall toward her group to get her sumka (bag) that has her Sleeping Beauty toys, lipstick, rings and hair clips from her cubbie and then it was off to the playroom. After the daily beautifying ritual (rings, lipstick, hair clips) it was time for more drawing, puzzles, jumping, running, and screaching. We also brought a princess sticker book today and in short order she and Tim had removed every sticker from the book and put it on 2 pieces of drawing paper. I have to say, as much as we enjoy our visits with her, it's starting to feel a bit like Ground Hog Day to Mike and I, doing the same activities day after day. The kids don't seem to mind though. I think it's a function of today's American parents that we feel like we have to provide new and different activities for our kids all the time while the kids are just as happy with repetition. The one big event for them today was the realization for Hope that it was snowing. We looked out the window several times to see the snow shower. For a while it was a pretty impressive display. Good thing it's been relatively warm here so that it didn't stick to the ground too much.

After lunch Mike walked around the city to a couple of different stores and finally managed to secure a bread knife, nylon spatula for our new frying pan and can opener for us. Unfortunately, he couldn't find a potato peeler so I had to peel potatoes for dinner with a rather dull paring knife. While he was out, I took the opportunity to try to clean some more. You know, one of the reasons I don't like dogs or long hair is that there is constantly hair everywhere. Well, the owner of the flat must have had long hair at some point because there is long hair stuck to every rug in the place. Our non-sucking vacuum was useless against this, despite all our efforts to make it work better. So, I fell back on the old masking tape trick my dad taught me as a child - you know, like when your black pants are full of lint and you don't have a lint brush you use masking tape to clean off the lint. Well, I found out that you can make a fine rug hair remover from a mop head with duct tape on it. It takes quite an effort and lots of duct tape to clean 3 5x7 rugs, but it can be done. They probably still need some work, but with the amount of hair I removed I could have made one fine hair extension. I also dust mopped the floors today. Mike has decided to accept dirt as a factor of our existence here, but I can't stand seeing the kids with black hands and feet every night so I have persisted in my cleaning efforts. I'm happy to report, they were much less dirty last night.