June 13th

Pat and Bob leave for the gym at 8:00am today. I eat my porridge and take a shower. Olessya knocks on the door at 9:30. She asks if we would like to have our room cleaned. I tell her yes. The young woman from our floor changes the sheets and towels, dusts, cleans the bathroom, and runs the vacuum. I think "Who will do this when we get home?" Alas, the answer is us. Pat arrives back at hotel. He had a good workout and more importantly the ping pong tournament is now tied at 3 a piece. He informs me that Beth I is back from the baby home with Sasha and Toby. We walk down the hallway to her room. Toby is on the floor playing with a truck. He warms to us right away. Sasha plays off to the side and keeps his eye on us. Pat plays with Toby on the bed hitting him with pillows as he laughs away. This is too much for Sasha. He hops on the bed and is soon laughing too. The ice has been broken.

We have lunch at an outdoor cafe called the Dom. The boys are well behaved. They have been in the baby home most if not all of their lives. They seem to be adjusting well. After lunch we head to the baby home. We take the bus as we're running a bit late. Olessya comes with us. She has business at the baby home today. The bus ride is quick and costs 25 Tenge. We walk a short distance from the bus stop. I'm on Molly duty today. I find her room without getting lost (hurray!). She is in her crib. Her caregiver brings her out. She is stripped and run under the tub faucet. I am handed a naked girl. I put on her diaper and go into the other room to feed her. Ground meat and beet puree is the main course. Her beverage is boiled mixed fruit juice. She drinks this from a tin cup. She is a good eater (no surprise there!) and cleans her plate. I wash her face and dress her in a onsie. Olessya informed the caregivers earlier that we would like a blanket so that we can take the children outside. I put wool pants on Molly while the caregiver get the blanket. She returns and gestures for me to take the pants off. We leave with Molly in a onsie and babushka. No socks, no layers. Freedom at last! We find Pat and Aidan waiting for us at the door. We go outside and find Bob, Beth and Nicholas in the shade. We spread our blanket nearby. We play for a while. Molly does her standing exercises. She seems to be catching on. Aidan is content to be in his Daddy's arms. He falls asleeps as Pat walks around. He looks so peaceful. Olessya comes to find us at 2:25. She suggests that we try not to let the children fall asleep because it could effect their schedule. We'll take her advice and try and keep them awake during future visits. We kiss our babies and take them back to their rooms. We take the bus back to the hotel. When we get off the bus Olessya goes into a salon and makes an appointment for the ladies to get pedicures (is anyone really still worried about us??). We drop our stuff at the hotel and head to the Internet cafe. There are no computers available in the one we usually visit. We try another place we were shown and get a computer. There is only time to check email before we're expected back at the hotel for dinner.

We eat dinner at a Bavarian restaurant in town. We walk from the hotel. Sasha and Toby are with us. I sit next to Toby and I am responsible for supervising the meal. All goes well. Dinner is good. Afterwards we go to the park. There are rides there. Pat accompanies Toby on the children's merry-go-round. There is no barfing involved. We all go back to Beth I's room. I take Toby to the bathroom and put on a pull-up for bedtime. Beth I puts a Clifford the Big Red Dog DVD in her laptop. The boys sit in her bed under their blankets to watch. The hope is that they will fall asleep. They've had a busy day today and will have an even longer one tomorrow. We say good night and head back to our room. Dana is coming tomorrow to take us to the open air market.