More pictures of the apartment in Almaty

Pictures of the inside of the apartment. As we open the door, the bathroom is directly in front. To the right was the kitchen, eating nook and continuing past that was the bedroom where we slept. If we made a left from the entrance, there was an extra room which is where Nicholas slept and played. There was a TV which offered a wide variety of shows in Russian. Occasionally we came across American cartoons in English or the discovery channel.

Bathroom:
Extra room (a.k.a Nicholas' bedroom and playroom)
Our bedroom:
Kitchen:
Eating nook:
The apartment was comfortable enough. The kitchen was fairly equipped with a handful of pots and pans and utensils, plates, cups. There was a small but adequate refrigerator. There was a microwave, stove and oven. I wish we had brought more tupperware type containers. I ended up buying a set there and it was pricey. I never could figure out the oven, so I just cooked everything on the stove or in the microwave. There was no washer and dryer so one night I washed some things in the tub and we used a clothing line and clothespins (which I brought) to hang the clothes. We also used plastic hangers, these actually came in handy on all our trips as there wasn't enough in the hotel to hang everything and we used these to dry clothes, too. All the things I had read about the towels were true, they were a bit rough and worn. I don't remember the sheets as too uncomfortable despite everything I read about the sheets .

Our apartment was in a really great location near most everything. It was close to the Silkway mall, there was a small grocery store nearby and the Green Market was about a 20 minute walk. The walk to Panfilov park was about 20 minutes but it seemed longer when we had Nicholas with us. The Mamma Mia restaurant was around the corner from the apartment. It was also pretty close to TSUM otherwise called The Central Department Store which has a great selection of souvenirs on the very top floor.

Entering our apartment in Almaty

Notice the difference in the various height between steps? We saw that all over the city and forget being accessible to people with wheelchairs, etc. We were on the top floor, no elevator, I think it was the 4th or 5th floor.

A few pictures from Trip #2

On our way to Almaty!

View of TV tower from our hotel room.

Beautiful view from Kok Tobe.

View from cable car on our way back down from Kok Tobe.

Juvenile Court House

Parents of Nicholas Roman!

Donating diapers and fruit to the babyhouse:


Enjoying our last visit with Roman:

Wednesday, July 29th

Although I still woke up about 4 in the morning, I was determined to be positive today after the bad day we had yesterday. My mantra today was ‘it will be a good day…it will be a good day’…and it was. We had a good visit with Roman this morning. We were told he was asking for us since 9 in the morning and he ran to us this morning when we arrived. Thankfully Galina was with us this morning as she is really great with helping us with Roman especially since she knows some Kazak. Most of our visit went really well. Roman did have a couple of fits of anger over something he wanted or wanted to do, but we managed to get past it and have fun. He is so active that I actually broke out in a sweat trying to keep up with him. The language barrier makes it hard to connect with him but despite this, he gave me several hugs today. He seems to thrive on the love and attention we give him.

When I watch him, sometimes he looks like a 4 or 5 year old in his face, but he is the size of a 2 year old and many times exhibits behavior much like a 2 year old. He also exhibits the independence of a much older child which is due to living in an orphanage, sadly kids are pushed to be on their own much sooner than children in a family. I feel sad he has had to live in an orphanage and learn survival skills to live there.

It gets really boring being in the same play room all the time, especially on days like today where it is raining. Today we brought a mega blocks truck from home and he seemed to really enjoy building a house and playing with the other blocks. It’s so funny that he was so into kicking the ball the last time we were here or rolling the ball on the ground and now he is not as interested. We did a little bowling with some of the plastic bowling pins and balls…well, Roman did anyway. Then he used the bowling pins to bat a little ball back and forth with us.

Roman does laugh a lot when we tickle him or Papa throws a ball from behind his back and head. Roman finds the latter especially funny!

After our visit, we headed to the Green Market to buy a few last souvenirs and some flat bread. We are hoping to make another trip there on Friday to stock up on flat bread to bring home. Afterwards we just had snacks and relaxed in our room. Then around 4 we decided to take the cable car up to Kok Tobe which is up a hill near the large TV tower. It was a really nice excursion; we didn’t realize there was so much up there. There are a few restaurants, snack places, shops, and lots of activities for children even including a mini zoo. There are lots of trees and places to walk and enjoy the view looking down on Almaty. It is also quite peaceful. It ended up being a beautiful afternoon, too, sunny with a slight breeze.

This is for Lea

Lea is a mom who recently adopted her son from the same Babyhouse. She loves this supermarket at Maxima and the restaurant called Mama Mia.

Friday, June 26th

Today was day 7 of bonding. On the way we went to the big supermarket at Maxima to stock up again on water, snacks, etc. While at the Babyhouse, we try to get Roman to play outside because hubby is constantly sneezing in the play room. We kick the ball around outside and play with bubbles. Back in the playroom, we try making macaroni necklaces with Roman but that only keeps his attention for a few minutes. He did manage to make a small necklace. We also bring out a set of blocks we bought at the Green Market. The instructions which come with the blocks show a train. He gets excited about the train, but there is no train with this set and he is content to try to make a house. This keeps his interest for a short time as he tries to make a small house with the blocks. While outside, Roman’s attention is always caught by the ‘alma’ (apples) on the trees in the courtyard. He grabs one and tries to eat it, Galina and we tell him ‘nyet’ (no). When we get back in the room we bring out a small juice we bought at the supermarket and a small baggie with cookies which Galina brought. He is not as interested in the cookies…the boy loves his fruit, but he eventually eats them all. Galina says it’s common for the kids to overeat because they worry the food won’t be there and they don’t know what it’s like to be full.

After our bonding session, we return to the hotel for lunch in our room and a short nap. This is the point at which hubby blew out one of our converters (luckily we have a back up, but it’s at least 25 years old) and blew a fuse in our room. Since it’s warm and the fan in our room doesn’t work anymore, we decide to walk around and explore some. While exploring, we see some of the traffic lights out….hmmm, could this be from the incident in our hotel room? It caused quite a mess with the traffic which is crazy to begin with. We check out a couple of bookstores then we head back to the hotel. Luckily we finally are able to make a staff person in the hotel understand the problem in our room. A maintenance worker is summoned and quickly solves the problem.

After the other family returns from their babyhouse, we have Galina drop us off near Mama Mia for dinner as it was highly recommended to us. We were surprised we were offered real cloth napkins for a change! Every place we have been to, with the exception of Argento, only small squares of paper napkins are available. Guess us Americans are used to being messy! We shared grilled vegetables and a pepperoni pizza. The pizza was very thin and tasty. The walk back to hotel is a long one which takes us uphill. The wind picked up so at least it wasn’t hot. On the way, we stop in a store called Booking, which reminds us of a Borders or Barnes & Noble, with books, movies, and music.

Thursday, June 25th

I took another walk to the Memorial Park and Cathedral this morning. I love walking around the park away from the fumes of the cars and in the shade of all the trees.

Here are some pictures from my walk:









Day 6 of bonding. Another great day. Last night we had a thunderstorm, it seemed to clear the air a little and bring us some cooler weather. We played indoor for a little bit, but then we had Roman try on a new shirt and his new cap. We wanted to go outside since it's nice weather. We had to discipline Roman a little because he threw his cap on the floor. I showed him the bubbles which he LOVES and motioned we go outside. I pointed to the cap he threw and told him don't throw in Russian. So he got the cap and put it on. I held out my hand for him to give it to me. Then I showed him the bubbles and we went outside. The 'boys' kicked the balls around on the playground, then Roman wanted to show us the apple tree. Then he wanted to eat the apples, so I distracted him with the bubbles. I tell him that Mama holds the bottle and then he blows the bubbles, he wants to do everything himself. He likes to make shooting noises when the bubbles hit the ground...he is ALL boy, let me tell you!

We left the one playground and started to head to another but he saw his group coming out, I don't think he wants us to be around his group, he tries to avoid them when we are with him. So we end up at another playground where there are 2 kids about his age but with health problems. One is playing in the playhouse and he is sweet with the other boy and gives him a kiss. He didn't like it when the other boy took one of his balls though. It will take time for him to learn to share when he gets home.

So for the rest of the time, we stayed outside with Roman, he had a good time.

This evening after we took afternoon naps, we checked out a couple of stores down the street from the hotel on Dostyk. Then we went to dinner at Assorti which Tatyana recommended. We both had the chicken shashlik which is like chicken kebobs and grilled vegetables. We walked around on Dostyk before going back to our hotel.

Wednesday, June 24

Day 5 of bonding. Today went well, I was really surprised that when Roman came in the room, he was finishing a piece of chocolate and finishing a whole apple. I guess it was a myth that the kids in the Babyhouses didn't get sweets! Roman gets totally wild while kicking the ball, and he could do this all day. So we brought a few other more calming things to do. We brought macaroni to put in an empty coke bottle. He would patiently put these in and then pour it out, at one point he even started making a design on the floor with the macaroni, but he's just not into art too much. We have this 'Parents' brand phone from when the girls were babies that he likes to play with, too. You can record something short on it. There is a play mat in the room so hubby decided to make a 'dom' (Russian for house) and we played house. We also each played hide and seek. He can get totally hyper when playing with the ball, but if we find something quiet that he likes, it will calm him down pretty quickly. We've also tried learning a few phrases in Russian that helps, such as, Ni na do (don't do this), Ni brra sigh (don't throw), mol ode yets (good job), horr oh shoew (great/wonderful), ha va teet (that's enough).

After our time in the Babyhouse, our translator, Galina, took us to the Green Market where there are bargains to be had, well, bargains to Almaty, anyway. Everything is really expensive here. We bought a couple of outfits for Roman to try for size. I think he is about 18 months-24T. We also bought a couple of toys. A small bag of building blocks and a bag of animals which includes a shark, he loves for us to draw sharks and fish. On the upper level of the market people sell all sorts of goods, clothing, lots of shoes, hardware, toys, hats, etc. The lower level has all the food stuff, herbs, counters of cabbage and other items to make a dish, fruit, nuts, meats, all kinds of meats. She took us by this one man's sausage counter and he gave us samples of different kinds of sausage and smoked meats, including horse. The smoked horse tasted like ham. She treated us to some meats and bought us a flatbread, I'm not sure what it is called here, but it was yeasty, with a very hard crust almost like a cracker. It was fun, I always love going to farmer market type places.

Bus stop:

McBurger:

Green Market upstairs where we bought some clothes and toys for Roman:

Green Market sausage/meat vendor:

More pictures of the Green Market:




The rest of the day was spent in our room and making a trip to the supermarket for more water and Coca light. You might wonder what we do in our room, most of the time, we are on the internet, taking a nap, talking to the girls, watching one of the dvds we brought (thanks to several friends who lent us dvds), reading or knitting (that would be me who is reading or knitting). Tonight we had a picnic with the sausage and smoked meat while we watched 'John Adams'.

Our 'picnic' dinner:

Here I am on the internet probably typing this!

Random pictures

Some from the post office:


Look! They sell AVON at the post office!




Dima called this the 'chicken house':

Monday, June 22nd

This morning, I decided to take a long walk to try and keep up with my daily exercise. I walked over to the Memorial Park (not sure what exactly it is called) and near the Cathedral. It was a nice park with lots of flowers and lots of tall trees providing nice, cool shade. There are a couple of monuments, too, I can't wait to go back and take pictures.

We left for the Babyhouse a little after 9:30am. We brought a few new things for Roman to play with. I was so pleased to see we would be the only family there. You see, the last couple of times, there was a family with a baby and they would already have all the infant type toys laid out near a mat. It was hard to get Roman to focus on us with so much stimulation of all those toys. So, I think today went well on Day 3 of bonding.

On Sunday, we bought a couple of inflatable balls, a plastic playground Mickey ball, and a coloring book. Roman loved the Mickey ball so we started rolling it around between the 3 of us...it ended up in the air a few times. I brought out the coloring books and crayons as I was hoping to work on colors. On Saturday, Maigul helped me to teach him red, green, yellow, blue in English. He's really bright, I think he's got yellow down. Well, instead of practising colors, Roman wanted us to draw fish and sharks so we just did some pictues, he didn't even really color in the coloring book much.

He got tired of playing in the play room, so we went outside to one of the vacant playgrounds. It was a sad looking playground with lots of weeds and barely anything to play on, but it was perfect for perfecting his soccer kick and boy can this kid kick! He fell down a couple of times and brushed off his hands, I always approached him to comfort him. One time he fell and skinned his elbow, I immediately ran over to him. I heard this little cry and I scooped him up and kissed his elbow. He motioned for me to do it again so I kissed his elbow several times. I wish I could have held him longer, but he is so active! He is so tiny too. It's strange to look in his face, this face of a 3-4 year old but the body the size of a 2-3 year old. We are also not so used to a child so light.

Then Roman wanted to swing so he took us to another playground. As we walked over there, we walked by his group playing on one of the playgrounds. The kids kept calling him over "Roma!" "Roma!" and he proudly told them he was with his Mama and Papa. There were a couple more playgrounds that had some Little Tikes swings,slides and playhouses. He played on various equipments then we ended up in the little house (dom or domika in Russian). He invited me in and I went to the sink and pretended to turn on the water. He then did the sweetest thing, he took my hands and pretended to wash them and my face, too. Then I pretended to wash his hands. I eventually brought out a little bottle of bubbles and his eyes got big. Friday, the other family had bubbles in the play room but it ended up being a mess and they gave them to us with the battery operated bubble blower. Roman kept referring to the bubble blower as a pistol (as translated to us) so I will not be bringing the bubble blower again! Anyway, he tries to do the bubbles all by himself but I insisted on holding the bottle, then he did very well with the bubble wand.

After some time, we went back into the play room to play a little more till it was time for us to leave. It was nice to go outside and have him run around, but it was so hot after a while, I was glad to go back inside. There is a toy there that we started teaching him colors, so we played with that a bit. I'm not pushing as I know he will absorb the English when he gets home and it's hard work to learn so many new things.

On the way back to the hotel, we dropped off some laundry to be done. As far as I can tell, there are no coin operated laundry, just drop it off to be washed and dried at the cleaners. You pay by weight. Our laundry was 4 kilos and 5000 Tenge which is about $34. We can pick it up in 3 days.

So then we come back to the hotel and check emails and get online. I also did some hand washing of clothes which I may do more of instead of dropping it off, we shall see. We got pretty dirty on the playgrounds at the Babyhouse! Then we decided to explore a little since we have been spending too much time cooped up in the room. We walked around looking for some stores near the American Bar where Tatyana took us to lunch on Saturday. We eventually found them but everything looked rather expensive. We are hoping to make it to the Green Market this week where I've heard there are bargains to be found.

We ended up at a pizza place which is near the hotel, actually located on the opposite corner. Another family mentioned it was good. We ordered water, grilled vegetables and pizza (margherita). It was nice and not too expensive.

Pictures from our exploration: