Boy, are we glad to see you!

4 May 2009

Nee plach, f-syo kharaso = don’t cry, it’s ok

It’s another chilly and cloudy day in Taraz. We met with our coordinator and her husband driver at our regular time to go see Lukas Anton, however, no translator today. Zema is in Almaty for a few days and Aima has gone back to school. We did get a call from Aima and she said if we need her to ask anything to just get her on the phone.

Lukas Anton was neither thrilled nor upset to see us today. He did let us give him a hug and kiss and then he went straight for the food. We captured his attention with some bubbles we bought at the festival over the weekend. He liked to chase them around but had some trouble when it came for his turn to blow some bubbles.

We noticed he had a bit of a cough today and was a little sneezy. He soon was back for the food. We like to try to spread it out throughout the visit. So papa said no. Down to the floor he went. Now all you parents out there have to give papa a break, because he messed up. Papa went to pick him up by his legs, and kind of hold him upside down. Some kids seem to like that, but Lukas Anton sort of went ballistic and started to cry. Papa picked him up and said he was sorry about 400 times and he eventually stopped crying and let Papa hold him for a while.

A nice jelly cookie from mama seemed to perk his spirits up and I think he forgave papa because he gave me a bite. Once he was back and playing for a while the psychologist came in for a surprise visit!! We managed to across the fact that we had no translator today using our phrase book but had to call Aima on the phone to finish the conversation. The lord was on papa’s side today because when she was speaking to Lukas Anton, I called him over and he sat on papa’s lap next to the psychologist.

It would have been nice to have the translator there but we did our best and she was just checking to see how it was going. I think she asked Lukas Anton if he liked mama & papa and he sort of shook his head yes, but the rest of the stuff she asked him, he really made no response.
But, she seemed OK when she left.

The rest of the visit went fine. Around 11:30 the music teacher came in and we got the basic gist that we needed to clear out. Lukas Anton saw us cleaning up and helped pack up the back and went to put his shoes on. I think he may have thought we were going outside but one of his nannies came and whisked him away at 11:30 for either lunch or his music lesson.

We went to lunch and then to the store and Papa brought Lukas Anton two toys; nothing like a good case of guilt.

Mama decided to buy herself a souvenir and everything was going well until it came time to pay. The door said they took credit cards, however, it did not specify Kazak credit cards. They wouldn’t accept my American based credit card. So off Wayne went to find the ATM at Tsum to get the Tenge. He eventually made his way back but could not get the full amount so off I went to get the rest. At least we were able to get rid of our large bills on my purchase and now have a lot of smaller Tenge bills. We should be good for a while now.

Well, I know what you really want is to see more pictures, so here you go….

Anton and bubbles






Anton after meltdown


Back to playing


For those of you who have asked we will borrow Kara's measuring tape tomorrow and post the measurements on the blog.

Paka,
Lynda and Wayne