Playdates in Kazakhstan

Sorry for not posting yesterday. We had our visit in the morning and then in the afternoon we met with Saule (our coordinator) and Irina to prep for court. They read our speeches (which are updates from 2 years ago) and then asked us questions they felt we might be asked by the jusge and prosecutor. Apparently the judge (this is a new juvenile court so new judge from last time) really studies up on your dossier and is well versed by the time she walks into the court room. By the time all that was finished and they had checked out our gifts I just checked out for the night. So here's the update:

Yesterday, Sasha was measured and weighed because her 7 month bday is today. She's now weighing 8 kilos or about 17.6 pounds. I managed to sneak a few pictures of her getting measured as well as some of the other babies in her group. She's been recognizing us more and more and does a lot of laughing and smiling when she's with us. Check out the static in Serik's hair - a bit dry here.

The other day we met a Ukranian woman whose husband is an American with the US embassy at the grocery store. She gave us her number and said to call her which I did. She was kind enough to invite us to a play date today with other consular/embassy folks at her apartment (as well as Thanksgiving with a flown in turkey). Turns out they live in the same complex that we do. Serik and I made our way over this a.m. and had a good time talking with our women (me) and playing with other kiddos (Serik). They've invited us to dinner tomorrow but we'll have to see since Serik is running a temperature now.

We went to see Sasha and we got there when she was on the potty - snuck a picture of that too. Had heard about it with Serik but never saw it. Kurt keeps saying that she's going to be potty trained before Serik. Doubtful. After our visitation we went to Eurasian mall to get my jeans sown up (managed to rip them in the elevator on the way out to the circus) - they did a fabulous job for less than $5 - and got some things for Sasha's baby group.

Tomorrow we'll visit in the a.m. and then get some pictures developed for court. Looks like if all goes smoothly that we'll be home on the 23rd of December but will keep you posted.

Side note: Kurt and I were flipping through the channels and came to the Kaz channel. They were playing some kind of 'polo' game on horses except instead of mallots and a ball it was a sheep or a goat (couldn't really tell). The two teams race from two opposite sides of the field toward the goat in the middle and try to scoop it up. The sheep is passed from one team member to another while the other team tries to take it away. The goal is to get the sheep in the 'net' except it's not a net, it's a big clay-like donut. Interesing.