Trading Snow hat for Sun hat

What a beautiful Monday we're having! Aliya has slept through the night for 3 nights in a row, and we're all feeling like new people. And today we lucked out with a break in the cold, dreary February weather - it's 68F and sunny out! Aliya went for her first long outside walk, with bare tootsies and a sun hat. She babbled and kicked her legs the whole time.

Afterward, she enjoyed some refreshing time playing with the grass, mud, moss and twigs in our front yard. Can't wait til this weather kicks in for the season.

Also on today's menu, and extremely messy lunch. Here are the before and after pictures:

This past weekend we enjoyed a nice long visit with Nina & Justin. Aliya took to them with lightening speed. Dexter, however, who has already been battling baby-envy, nearly blew a gasket when Phoenix got to sit at the table during lunch. Poor Dex.

Aliya is pure joy, even when she's fussing and crying (the latter of which is primarily reserved for car rides - she hates 'em!). My heart is so full. As Gia recently predicted to me, mommyhood

has exceeded my expectations.

Happy Valentine's Day

We're winding down from the first week at home. Aliya is all decked out in the Valentine's outfit that Kimmy got her, and she needs a morning siesta, because we're expecting Grandma & Pa Mengine later this afternoon, for their first visit with their 6th grandchild.

The best part of bringing Little A home has been introducing her to the Big A. As we all expected, Ava has proved herself a wonderful, caring big sister. And as I was warned by those who went before me, two is not twice as hard as one - it's 3 times as hard as one. Even when the first is as helpful and obliging as Ava. Incidentally, Ava got to stay home from school with Aliya & me on Monday because a massive baby-diarrhea-all-over-the-bathroom episode combined with a faulty-car-seat-installation episode made us unable to get her there on time. This was Tam's first morning home alone as a mommy. Now let us never speak of that morning again).

Motherhood has proved exhausting, emotional, fun, endearing, silly, exhausting, and also exhausting. The child who slept easily through the night while we were in Kaz has apparently stayed in Kaz. The U.S. Aliya frequently awakens and has forgotten how to soothe herself back to sleep. We have found that keeping her room uber-warm, swaddling her tightly in blankets, and immitating the "ShShShShSh" sound that the baby house caretakers perfected are all helpful in lulling her back to sleep. Unfortunately we're finding it tougher to lull ourselves back to sleep. I'm confident we'll figure it out in time.

Besides the sleep issues, though, it's going really well. She's such a doll. She is obsessed with trying to walk, and we suspect she'l be fully mobile soon (god help us). She's fascinated by the relative vastness and clutteredness of hew new digs. She has consisently pooped on the potty since we got her home, which has been so great for us (other than the aforementioned disaster morning - but, I forgot, I'm never speaking of that again).

Pictures will speak louder than my words, no doubt:

Home Sweet Home

We did it. After 11 of the most roller-coastery months of my life, we are home with our dear baby girl. Aliya is now a U.S. citizen and there were no (major) hitches on the trip home. Aliya is such an amazing baby. She got up at 1AM Friday morning, traveled for 26 hours straight, got to her new house full of new objects, met her new grandparents & the dogs, and she did it all with barely a tear or fuss. She then slept from 7:45PM to 4:30AM last night, which I felt was great given that we are completely reversed from her native time zone. She's taking her first nap in her new home now.

Lots to say, but lots of unpacking to do, so I'll just share some super-cute pix for now.

Our last day in Almaty (with our travel companions, Maryellen, Sabina and the newly adotped Nikita):

At the Frankfurt airport (6 hour layover. Aliya wasn't fussy but I was):

And at home, featuring the beautiful sign we found when we arrived, made by our neighbor Victoria, which we will keep forever. And from this AM, her first meal in a highchair. The dogs have already figured out what an asset she is to have around. (Grandpa John took all the homecoming pictures last night, and I'll post them when I get a copy):

Look out world

Wow! The reserved and solemn Aliya has morphed into a cherubic fireball!!! She has a lot to say, a lot to grab, and a lot to throw. She is crawling with a drunken, swaying gait, and believes she can pull-up and cruise WITHOUT ANY HELP, thank you! - even though each time we let go she promptly lands on her bottom. I'm exhausted, but I'm so relieved - her staid little demeanor on our last two trips had me worried. She's quite content riding in the peanut shell sling (thanks Lorie and Rick!) and has just about outgrown this small hotel room and the small suitcase's-worth of toys we brought. She is sleeping great - 11ish hours at night without a peep, and also a nap during the day, though the actual schedule has been quite varied each day (whihc must be a shock to her, after the regimentation of the baby house). Wish I could say the asame of us - we are both very jetlagged. Hopefully we'll be able to quickly return us & her to a fixd routine once we get home. She has used the toilet three times, though she's also gone through quite a few diapers. She is eating at restaurants with us, but without high chairs or any child-friendly amenities, the meals are quite an adventure. This girl is ready to get home!

OK, that's about all the text my fried brain can handle. Love to all back home!!!

Baby on Board (amazing)!

Well, I am so overwhelmed with joy that I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, so I’ve been doing a little of both. Little Aliya is asleep in the crib beside me in our small hotel room. We have been her parents for 2.5 hours, and they were a perfect way to start our new life with her. I don’t know what happened to the solemn, serious little kid we left in Kostonai, because this baby is full of laughs, smiles and shouts of glee. Since the moment we picked her up at the airport tonight, there was not a single fuss or frown (I know, I know, it’s only been 2.5 hours). When we got back to the Hotel Kazzhol, Aliya got to enjoy, for I assume the first time, the joy of sitting around in only a diaper, and she was shocked by both her feet and her bellybutton (those are mine? amazing!) play on the fancy play mat Aunt Beth gave us (that mirror is amazing!), fed herself some crunchy baby peach puffs (they melt in your mouth - amazing!), had a nice blowout of diarrhea in her diaper, then on me, then on the changing pad, then in the toilet (she also peed as soon as we put her over the toilet – amazing to us!), then went back to the play mat (it’s still amazing!), then discovered Sal’s nose and my hair (ouch! I mean – amazing!) then had a nice baba, which took her a minute to accept the new nipple & formula – but then sucked the whole thing down without a pause - amazing!), and then we put her down in her crib, and she was all smiles and giggles, and then soothed herself to sleep within 5 minutes (wow. truly amazing!).

I don’t know what to write – beyond the factual synopsis I am at a complete loss for words. I’m just going to post this and watch my baby girl sleep.