Laughin Leeza!!!

We had a wonderful day with Leeza today! Her daddy got her LAUGHIN—she was just giggling away…it was so precious!!!! Her lil nose is just raw from a lil cold, but she wasn’t fussy at all. The caregivers told us we need to keep her out of the wind. We still got to stay outside, but in the sun, instead of the shade. They even let us take a layer off her after awhile, so she only had one one layer after lunch. She was a lil dollface today (well, when isn’t she a dollface??!!) but she was showin off today. She was obsessed with my camera and her picture book and was showing off crawling to get it.
She can certainly get where she wants to go. She is doing the old fashioned “army crawl”, not on her knees yet, but she loves to roll from her side, to her back, to her tummy again.
She strikes this great pose like..YO, LOOK AT ME…I’M LEEZA THE SUPER MODEL-CHECK ME OUT!! It’s really cute. She also found the mirror on the bag we bring to the baby house. She was checking herself out…it was adorable!!! I bought this bag almost a year ago because Sandi and I noticed it on Sarah and Andy’s blog, and I emailed her to ask her where she got it. I had to have one too! I think it brought me good luck…as here we are in Kostanai, the same time as Sarah and Andy were, and even in their apartment! Although, they got up and ran every day. I have not tried that. My sense of direction is so horrendous I am just afraid I will get lost. Plus, we are up until midnight every night on skype calling friends and family, so we sleep until 8:30 or 9 anyway. I don’t miss running yet…but we’ll see how I feel after we’ve been here longer. Maybe by then I will have my bearings a bit more.

It was my turn to feed baby girl today and she ate like a champ. I am getting better at it, and the caregiver only fed 2 kids by the time I finished with my lil cherub. Maybe by the time I leave, I will be as quick as they are? I rather doubt it, but at least I don’t feel like quite the bumbling fool that I did the first couple of times.

We brought the ergo today for our walk around the baby house. She LOVED IT, and didn’t make a peep. Sean thought she might cry because she had never been in an ergo before, but nope, not my girl. She LOVED it and was just super content. We take turns with her walking around. Mom got to go twice around with Leeza in the ergo, then Dad held her once around, then Sean got to push her in the stroller once around. I offered Joe the ergo but he said he’d rather hold her. He think she’s too light to mess with the Ergo. I told him MEN do use the ergo’s, so he said maybe when she’s like 25 or 30 pounds.
She will be an ergo baby, held baby, and stroller baby—she likes em all!! She just gets sweeter and cuter every day!!! We met up with the other families at lunch and they asked me how our visit went. I smiled and said AWESOME and Loree told me I was glowing, just like I was pregnant!! I look like I’m pregnant because I wear our passports around my neck when I’m there, as I don’t want them out of my sight…so I got a pooch (more than normal!!) The other couple arrived yesterday, with their 5 year old son. We all met for dinner last night and bless their hearts, they were still in “the fog.” They looked better today, but because the director of the baby house was out, they didn’t get to meet their kiddo today. I know they were disappointed, but they had a good attitude about it.
We had lunch at this new place (I already forgot the name). They had an English menu..I had “capital chicken” and fries…and a beer. It was really yummy!!! I am totally loving the food here…such a wide variety and still can’t get over how cheap it is! As we were leaving, I practiced my Russian by telling the 2 girls, “Ochen Cusna” (delicious) and they said, COME BACK AGAIN! Not sure how they can tell we’re American….it must be because I’m not a size 2 and I don’t wear 6 inch heels. Man, the women here are gorgeous!!! The people in general are just precious, as are the children. Sean keeps talking about which ones he wants to adopt in addition to Leeza. If only it were that easy……

I chose a different setting on the washing machine hoping it would not take 3 hours to do one load. I started it before we left, around 10:30. It’s still going…and it’s 3:00. I don’t think I set it to a better setting….

It is very nice starting my day with Starbucks coffee with milk and splenda. The milk is different here,but it’s good. At home, I don’t like milk in my coffee, I only like “organic half and half”, but here, the milk in my coffee tastes OCHEN CUSNA.

It is another gorgeous day in Kostanai, and we are happy happy happy. The only thing that makes me sad is saying Paka Paka to sweet lil Leeza. She really is such an angel….I can’t get enough of her. I keep thinking of that Martina McBride song…”I have been blessed!!”