Zahri's First Bath

Today we took our first bath, or should I say that I put about 1” of water in the very front of the tub and Zahri sat in it? It was nice because I brought in her stacking cups and linking rings, toys that she has played with for nearly 2 months now, and they really helped her calm. At first I had her stand in the water, which she wasn’t so sure of but she did, and then I sat her down. Yep, a little squeal for a bit, then she looked right up to me like ‘help me mom,’ and then she calmed in the frozen position. After a couple minutes she started to relax a bit, and I was able to at least slowly put water on her back and her hair, by no means was it a ‘I’m totally getting her clean bath,’ but it was a start. Afterwards I snuggled her in the towel and then put baby oil on her, thanks Linda for your wonderful Arbonne treats for Z. Once she was in her pjs she was so darn happy; I can only imagine how great in felt to be semi-clean. I hadn’t tried a bath until today, I didn’t want to overload her on too many new things. I really wanted to come right home and get her in the tub, but I resisted. Look how darn cute she is!

Regarding naps, I had asked if 3 naps a day is normal on my last post, thanks for your responses. Seriously, who knows! I do think that they probably slept more than what is normal to allow the caregivers some reprieve throughout the day, but I am telling you that after 2 hours of playing she is pooped and needs a nap, however, I am learning that when she naps, it is usually only for a half an hour or 45 minutes, no 2 hour naps for Z. She gets very needy (normal) and starts lying on the floor and sucking her thumb. When she sleeps, she always sucks her thumb. It is so cute, when she isn’t quite ready to sleep, we lay on the bed and she talks up a storm. She also makes so many noises with her mouth, ones that I haven’t heard before, I love it! I learned 2 things in the past 2 days regarding naps:

1. If I lightly touch her forehead and face and neck she gets drunk eyes and falls right to sleep. Sweet!
2. Yesterday I was putting her down to nap, and she had 2 toys in her hands. After awhile of playing with them, I took both toys away so she could concentrate on sleeping. She then grabbed for her burp cloth near by to play, so I took that after just a bit. The she found her socks and played with those, again I had to take those too. Then it was my watch on my wrist (which I took off), then she crawled up to the headboard to feel that, then she pulled the blankets back to feel the mattress, then she found her toes, and then she started with her mouth noises. I couldn’t take away her toes or her mouth (haha); I guess this is how creative you get with what little you have to play with while you are in the orphanage. It was so darn funny! Each time I took something away she didn’t squeal, she just found something else to play with.

Really, I don’t just put my child in her walker and let her be all day. I promise! Really! It is just the best time to get descent photos of her since my hands are not full of her. Here are a couple cute ones of her scooting around! I am so glad that I invested in this cheap walker for the week that we are here. It only cost 3000 tenge at the outdoor market (Sulpak – best place to buy cheap walkers). 3000 tenge = about $25 since the dollar is so terrible here. Ugh! We get only 118 tenge right now for $1.00 and that is super low. Even when I first got here we got around 120 tenge for a $1.00; I guess a couple years back your money went very far here but with the decline in the value of the dollar and with all of the new oil and gas rigs around here, it is quite expensive. You think, oh I will buy a fur coat, tall stiletto boots and a tall Russian fur hat, they must be cheap since the demand is so high and everyone wears them. This is not the case.