Best day of bonding yet!!

Noah seemed to feel much better today. He has two teeth just beginning to cut through up top. The caretaker was sure to show me this morning as if she was quite "proud!"

Yesterday, I tried to act like I was tossing Noah up in the air ... and he freaked out ... was scared to death! Today, I just started gently swinging him around and he laughed and laughed. Then, I did the "act like I'm tossing him high maneuver" and he decided he looooooved it! He giggled and giggled and giggled!!! So did I.

He stares at my face alot and he loves to study my hands. He loves balls and he loves stacking cups! He can't crawl yet ... but he is scooching ... if that's a word!

A funny thing happened at bonding today. There was a brown sock lying on the carpet … and we were all saying … whose sock is THIS … and laughing about it! A little while later, I found a single black knee high hose … and we all laughed at the oddness of THAT! Well … later that afternoon at bonding … I looked down and there was a navy blue knee high sock hanging out the top front of my pants. Puzzled, I looked down and pulled it out … and said to everyone, “What the …. ?” I busted out laughing. It dawned on me that the long john silk underwear I had worn for the first time since last year must have had static cling and collected socks!!! These items had been falling out of my pants!!!

I've included a picture of our "play group." In the picture is Joanie Vignovich ... from Roswell, GA ... with Hayden (given name Almira) and a sweet couple Shannon and Derick ... from FL ... with Asher (given name Bulot) and of course me and Noah (given name Ramazan).

Between bonding visits, we were taken to a book store where I bought 4 children's books. Each page had the story written in Russian, Kazakh, and English. I loved them because the children in the books look like Noah ... and I thought he would like that.

We were also taken to Memorial Way where the town has a huge statue of Lenin and smaller statues of Lenin's "friends" as our interpreter put it ... one was of Karl Marx ... the rest we couldn't figure out! Then, Larissa, our interpreter took us to the Sport Club. It is owned by a short, stout Kazakh man named Yuro. He wanted a picture with me ... the pretty blonde he called me! His daughter led the workout. Her name is Marsha and she is a body builder. She won the Kazakhstan Body Building Championship, then the Championship in Asia and next August, she travels to Spain.

Today was a holiday in Kazakhstan. It is called the Day of the Republic. It is one of the most important holidays of the Republic of Kazakhstan because fifteen years ago, on October 25, 1990, the Declaration on State Sovereignty was adopted and this day became the basis of declaration of Kazakhstan Independency. Kazakhstan was under Russian rule until the year 1991.