Growing Leaps & Bounds

I can’t say it enough; it is just amazing how much these babies change in just a month’s time. I look at all of the babies, and they are growing and learning at amazing leaps & bounds. Just over a month ago Zahri had no leg strength, she would just sit back and watch me build a tower of stacking cups, she couldn’t get enough of watching everyone else but didn’t interact with me much, she would hold a toy but wouldn’t much play with it, she would look up at me without emotion yet with a look of please help me but I am not sure if I should trust you. Now, she is interacting with all of her toys; she is hitting toys together intentionally to hear the noise, knocking over the stacked cup tower, playing with the tags on the side of her Itsy Bitsy Spider Book, hitting the buttons on the walker intentionally to hear the music and such. Zahri is nearly crawling to grab those things that she wants, basically running in the walker, jumping, sitting on my lap while I read her a book, dancing, interacting with me on a one on one. So much growth!

In the past 2 days, I have noticed 3 new things with Z. First, she now understands how to make herself go forwards, backwards and sideways in the walker. She can move herself to any object that she wants to get at. At first she would just play with the toys on the walker but wouldn’t use her legs at all, and then she would put her feet on the ground but not make herself mobile. Then she figured out how to move her feet thus move her around the room, and now she moves in all directions with purpose. It is so fun to see! Yesterday she was dancing in her walker, dancing to Bayana’s music on her phone and dancing to Geert’s piano playing. Today, she was zooming around nearly screaming in delight. She loves it when I stomp my hands on the floor while crawling towards her and say, “I am going to get you.” She usually screams and laughs in anticipation.

Second, today Zahri truly understood Peek-a-boo. She had sort of gotten in the past but never really played back with me, but today she was looking around the tiger to find me. She was so darn cute.














We have also been playing a lot with the 2 stuffed dogs in the playroom and a bit with the big Tiger too. I want for Z to get comfortable with the puppies, so we pet them & I bark and pant and whine. (Yes I do this, only for the sake of Z………..or maybe more so for the sake of Diesel and Rylee, my little pooches waiting back home, we need to get her ready for them.) At first she wouldn’t even get close to the dogs. She would back away from them. Then she would at least look at them and not back away. Then she started to pet and tap on the dogs and play with the black dog’s nose, and just today, I said, “Should we get the puppies?” and she looked right to the top of the piano where they sit. She knew what I was talking about. I talked about the puppies a couple times before getting them down off the piano and she looked up to the piano each time. She is so darn smart!

Here we are feeding our little ones breakfast; this day it was some grayish brownish cream of wheat, pretty nasty looking I must say, so Z and I had some bananas too.












INTERESTING BELGUIM TIDBIT: So last night we (both Belgium couples, me and Bayana) went out to eat at a Ukrainian Restaurant and then went out bowling. While we waited for our lane to open up at the bowling alley we ordered drinks, beer and Coke. Davy then poured Coke about 1/3 of the way up in his glass and then he added his Becks beer to the Coke. Yikes! Beer and Coke? Together? On Purpose? They told me that this is very popular in Belgium, kind of like our Tomato Juice and Beer perhaps, so I tried it too, and I must admit that it was pretty tasty. So interesting.

Today, after our morning visit, Davy, Evy and I went to Sulpak. Sulpak is a great indoor mall with 3 floors plus a fourth level with a cafeteria. This is one of the nicer malls in Aqtobe that we have found, and the prices are fairly reasonable (I mean, reasonable compared to the other crazy prices in Aqtobe, still not cheap by any means.) Just outside the indoor mall there is also a huge outdoor market, and YES, even in negative a billion degree weather, the outdoor market is still open. It was freezing, but it was kind of fun too. These merchants must be crazy to do this year round! You can find anything from kid’s toys, to hats, to clothes, to rolls of material, shoes, pots & pans, etc. out there. There are also 2 smaller indoor markets inside the outdoor market too. So, we would spend about an hour outside and then head into one of the smaller indoor markets to shop and de-thaw and then back out to the market, it was great fun! I highly recommend shopping here if you stay in Aqtobe.