A Long Walk and Our Last Visit to the Baby House

Tuesday, the last day of the Independece Day holiday, was relatively warm and very sunny - the first truly sunny day we've had in a long time. We bundled up all the kids and headed out the door by 11 AM to get some fresh air and exercise. We took a walk up the riverwalk and headed to Pucha for a little shopping. The kids really enjoyed the riverwalk so it took us quite a while to make our way there.
Hope, Mike and Tim walking up the riverwalk

We stopped to watch men ice fishing and someone cross-country skiing on the river. At one end, some people were building an ice wall and sculpture and workers were busy putting up an Eve tree. Matt slept through most of this, but Tim and Hope had a good time.

People ice-fishing on the river in front of the amusement park.
Construction continues at the end of the riverwalk.
Hope, Mike and Tim at the bottom level of the riverwalk to get a closer look at the ice-fishing.
Putting up the tree on the riverwalk.
Building an ice wall on the river.
Matt sleeping through all the excitement.

After our shopping expedition, we decided to try a restaurant that we never made it to this summer - Venezia. It's at the TSUM so it can be more expensive, but there's a pizza cafe (outside in the summer, but in the mall in the winter) that's more reasonably priced. When we got there all the tables at the cafe we taken so we decided to go inside. We were all glad we did. There was a lot more room, we got to relax at a nice table and enjoy all the holiday decorations, and Matt didn't have to eat in the stroller, which is good since some days he eats more than Tim and always eats more than Hope. Hope really seemed to like the restaurant - probably because it was pretty. She only wanted soup for lunch and, as usual, after a few bites declared it to be "zhaman" (bad). No big deal - that's what she says about everything except candy, cookies and fruit. In the end, she did a pretty good job eating and was all smiles most of the meal.

Lunch at Venezia

After lunch we took another leisurely stroll down the riverwalk and headed home. It was a very nice day.

Wednesday we made our last visit to the baby house. The kids went in their Christmas outfits because when Zhanara called to ask if we wanted to go, I had just bathed the boys and was getting everyone dressed to try to take some pictures of them in their outfits since we didn't know where we'd be for Christmas. The visit was nice. We had missed all the doctors last time so we brought them their gifts. Unfortunately, the one doctor missing today was Hope's current doctor.

The kids with the doctors.
Waiting to visit the group with the speech therapists and music teacher.

Lots of people stopped to admire Hope's dress. She, of course, loved this. She also recited her full name and each of the boys' full names for several people. It's a pretty impressive list of names she has to memorize since she and Matt each have 2 middle names. Then we visited with her old group. Some of her friends recited some poems and songs for her and she did the song that she would have done at Friday's pageant, if she were there. The director gave her a photo album with some pictures from her days at the baby house and a doll.
Hope getting her presents from Dr. Alma (the director).

It was a nice visit. It did take us a while to get out of Hope's group though - not because Hope was lingering (she and Tim had already headed down the hall), but because Mike had to give one last cuddle to each of the kids. It is kind of sad that we won't see them anymore. We got so used to seeing them almost every day during the summer and then during this visit we were almost surely greeted by a large bunch of kids to get their hugs and kisses from us. They're really a great bunch of kids. Tim has said the last couple of days over dinner, "I wish we could take all the kids from Hope's group home". I think Daddy feels the same way, and Mommy does too, in spirit, but has a much more pragmatic view of taking home 13 2-5 year old children!

Hope's group. The girl sitting next to her is her best friend Ela (one of a set of triplets - her sister Gala is 2nd row, 2nd from the left and her brother is last row on the right. The little boy who went home with his mom recently is front row on the left.

A couple of people asked Hope if she wanted to stay with them at the baby house and she said "No, I'm going to stay with Mommy". When I asked later if she wanted to go to the group she said yes (she's bored here too), but when I asked if she wanted to sleep there I got an emphatic no with a "you're very silly look" and that she wanted to sleep on her bed here. After we left the baby house she wanted to know if we were going on the airplane now. Unfortunately, not yet.

We did find out in the afternoon that all the documents are ready, except her Kaz exit visa. This won't be ready until Monday or Tuesday so we will be spending Christmas in Astana and then leaving for Almaty the morning of December 26. If all goes on schedule we should still make our flight on December 29. Hopefully we'll hear more about our appointments in Almaty in the next few days. If the visa isn't ready until the 26th it could slow us down or if the US embassy is backed up with appointments because of the Independence Day and Christmas holidays. We'll keep you posted as we find out more.