Gone with the Kyzylorda...aka Almost in Almaty

Hello everyone. I hope you are getting accustomed to the switching of bloggers (I mean webloggers...for Fina). It is likely going to continue this way for the remainder of our trip. Well today Andrew has listed a couple of items I am suppose to answer for those of you back home. (1) Dinara doesn't really have a favorite story book right now. We try reading the boardbooks we brought from Canada but she is more interested in bashing them with stuff or chewing on them. We also have an extensive library at home already for her but if you wanted to purchase more I love Robert Munsch (spelling) books. The only ones we have so far is I'll Love You Always and Smelly Socks (is this one his?). (2) On the Baby Einstein front...yes we have these DVDs in fact we brought 4 with us. Dinara loves them. So far her favorite is Baby Beethoven (Wellingtons Victory specifically) with Baby Monet coming in second. The others are a little above her...they repeat words with no music. Our little girl may be 15 months old but her speech is much farther back. This isn't really an issue as we prepared for this. So she is enjoying music and basic words. She knows her name and responds when you call her. She knows Mommy and Daddy...especially if she is sad or upset (like when she is getting bathed by Mommy or put on the potty by Daddy).

Ok on with the name of this post. Well tomorrow is big step #1...we are flying to Almaty. Whoopee!!! Not that I won't miss Kyzylorda but the air and dust are getting to me. My allergies have begun to kick in (I know that isn't really a surprise), and Andrew has had allergies since we got here (that is the big surprise). So we were told that Almaty isn't as dusty and is much more cosmopolitan. I am looking forward to cooking and cleaning for myself. We are renting a 2 bedroom apartment while there. We were offerred a 3 bedroom apartment but couldn't really understand why we would need this amount of space. We will NOT be posting tomorrow. We will be flying and getting settled in so there won't be time for a post. The bad thing is tomorrow we have to be at the airport by 10 am...this is Dinara's first big nap of the day. We don't board the plane until 11:20am and we have to check our stroller. We hope she will put up with sleeping on one of us. We also have mucho baggage. We have on large suitcase for Andrew and me, one large suitcase with Dinara's stuff, and a duffle bag with gifts and dirty cloths all to check. We then have two smaller carry on bags (we might check one), a diaper bag and a electronics backpack. Oh boy! I hope we can manuever.

Well enough blabbing here are some pictures...

Here is a shot of Dinara that was taken last night. She was getting a little tired but was still playful. This is Daddy's new favorite.


I now understand why my mom put my hair up ontop of my head always...it looks so cute! This is the styling outfit Mommy picked for Dinara today and her hair up look so good I took a photo. We are so very lucky in our little girl!

Oh!!! To get off topic for a minute. Dinara had her first explosive pooh yesterday. Mommy thought it wasn't that bad of a pooh but Daddy was gagging. So of course Mommy was the one cleaning her little girl up. It was very funny. I just kept laughing at Andrew while I was cleaning our girl. Just thought you would all like to know.


Escape Baby! Here is our little one making a break for the hallway. She can crawl soooo fast now. Here I was worried in the beginning that she would be so behind as she didn't crawl when we first started visiting her. Now she prefers to be walked everywhere. Goodness how fast we can learn how to do things.


Happy baby in the hallway. She is just so silly. So many little things make her laugh now. I remember when getting her to smile was an effort...not anymore!


Anybody thirsty? Don't worry I know how to share. This is a new toy of Dinara's...of which she has many...she loves the sound it makes as she hits the floor with it. Also, she has been trying to figure out how to open and drink out of it. She sees Mommy and Daddy doing it. Very cute.


Another water bottle day. She also likes to pull over the full bottle and watch the water swoosh around in the container.


Speaking of Baby Einstein. She is riveted by Baby Monet in this photograph. She likes to play while it is playing in the background and occasionally will stop to watch the images on the screen.

That's all for today. I hope you all can survive with a pause in our blogging. No worries. Miss you all and still are homesick. Hopefully we can find some good food/good grocery stores while in Almaty. Paka paka.