July 15th

The alarm goes off at 7:30am and we awaken to another crappy day. The weather is a carbon copy of the day before. Bob calls to say that he is not feeling great and is going to skip the gym. Pat thinks this is some kind of plan to squelch his recent momentum. He heads to the gym alone to workout. I attempt to fall back asleep without success and get up to write in my journal. Pat returns from the gym. He writes in his journal a bit and then we bundle up and go for pastries. We setttle on a large cherry/cheese one that we'll split and also by two pieces of what looks like raspberry coffee cake. "To go, please." we say in Russian. Another new phrase we've recently learned. I head directly to the hotel and Pat stops at the Gros for some much needed toilet paper and juice. I run into Beth back at the hotel. She is on her way to the Gros. Bob is feeling a little better and has requested some 7-up. We discuss taking the bus given the weather and Bob's condition. We'll meet at 12:40pm. Pat arrives back at the room. We eat our pastries, read a bit and get showered.

Bob and Beth knock on the door at the appointed time. "How are you?" we ask Bob. "Super." he replies. Clearly he is stretching the truth. We get outside to find that while it's still overcast the rain has stopped.

We get to the baby home, divy up the diapers and go for our assigned child. Molly for Pat and Aidan for me. We find Aidan and Nicholas standing in the small playpen. I say hello and he grins. The boys are ready to go. The music in their room is crankin'. I dance with Aidan in front of the group playpen. He smiles and the other children rock back and forth. After our dance we head to the marble room. Aidan and I play while we wait for Daddy and Molly. He is in very good spirits. I drive a truck on his belly while making truck sounds. He finds this entertaining. Pat and Molly arrive. She is wearing the torquoise stretch pants we love so much. We haven't seen these in a while. Pat had to wait for Molly to be fed. Mama Bibigoul had Pat put on Molly's t-shirt and tunic. She wiggled around but he got her buttoned up. Molly is also in good spirits. All of the children are active today. The boys crawl around exploring. They stop to play with a toy now and again. They both wind up under the coffee table and play with the blocks that are there. Molly gathers the toys around her and carefully monitors the inventory. One for me - none for Aidan - two for me - I'll take that Aidan - and so on. We experiment with a suggestion from our friend Susie - Pat holds Molly's belly up while she is on her hands and knees in a crawling position. She doesn't move but she doesn't fuss either. We'll keep at this and see what comes of it. Aidan spends time investigating Pat's face. One of his favorite activities. I waltz around the room with Molly and then it's time to go. We look over at Bob and see that he is turning green. There is a stong smell of roasting galic and chicken coming from the kitchen. He opts to wait outside while we take the kids back to their rooms. We leave both Molly and Aidan in their cribs wide awake. We bus back to the hotel. The sun is peeking through the clouds. A welcome sight.

To the Internet cafe. My shameless hints on the Blog have increased our email volume to a more satisfactory level. Dispite the the fact that we are still enjoying our time here immensely, pangs of homesickness find us now and again. We only check email today. We have a lot of company at the Internet cafe. First Beth arrives, then Cate and finally Dana. We invite Cate to dinner. She had a late lunch but will join us for dessert. We run back to the hotel for Beth while Dana finishes her email. Bob is not up to dinner.

We try a new restaurant that Olesya recommended to us this afternoon at the baby home. It is called Cafe Gold and is located across the street from the medical college. We know where this is.
The restaurant is on the second floor of the building and looks new. We select a booth. The seating is a cressent shaped blue velvet couch. Dinner is very good. Dana and Beth order the cutlett. Pat has a chicken dish with a funny sounding name and I have a dish referred to as "French meats". It is thin slices of pork covered with scalloped potato augratin. Tasty. Pat has two Baltika 9s with his meal. I have two Derbes' (another variety of beer from Kazakhstan). The girls get ice cream for dessert. The sun is out and it's a pleasant evening. We walk Dana 1/2 way home. Pat, Beth and I stop at the Gros on the way back to the hotel. We buy diapers (the next size up (4) for Molly), ice cream and chocolate bars. There is live entertainment on a stage in the square and we stop briefly to watch. We arrive back at the room at 10:00pm. Pat immediately falls asleep on the couch (that Baltika 9 has a kick he says later) and I finish my book. To bed at midnight.