Leeza learns KISSES!

L is for the LOVE we have, for Leeza's lil face

E is for EXCELLENT,the time we've had in her birthplace

E is for ENAMOURED, because she's our shining star

Z is for her ZANINESS,which makes it impossible not to smile


A is for our AWESOME GOD who made the wait WORTHWHILE!


It was a terrific Tuesday here in Kostanai! The day started off well, with the "scrub woman" coming and cleaning our apartment. It gets SO DUSTY in these parts! We had our last hot shower for a couple days...as CAMPING starts TONIGHT AT 11! The water is being turned off tonight, and is being turned on Thursday night at 11, (I think!). I have 4 of the 5 litre bottles full of water, a bucket full, the kettle full, a big spaghetti noodle pan full, and the bathtub full of water. I'm not sweating the no shower bit...the weather is so perfect we don't sweat and it's not like I'm working out! My hair will start to look skanky on Thursday, but one day of skanky hair never killed anyone. In fact, the day I met my daughter I was REALLY SKANKY and scary and smelly, and they STILL let me in the baby house. Plus, EVERYONE else will have skanky hair too, so it doesn't matter. I think we have plenty of water to flush, and we don't drink the water anyway, so it's NO PROBLEM, MON! If they told me NO INTERNET for 2 days, THEN I'd be having a cow...


Warning..Very Braggy proud mommy comments below

We arrived at the BH and Leeza was still sleeping. It was SO adorable. I was standing near her crib and she stirred, and I whispered, Hi Leeza, real soft. She broke out into this HUGE smile and opened her eyes. It was so awesome! My girl recognizes her mommy's smell and her whisper! I knew she was BRILLIANT! I put her on the potty and we played peek a boo and clapping and "where's your nose". Leeza is a genius and she knows SO MANY TRICKS! I can't wait for her to show them off to Daddy...who will be here in just 5 days!! After she did pecet in the potty (while clapping, peek a boo'ing, AND finding her nose) I got to dress her and she ate lunch. She is so funny..she kept kicking her legs and sliding back in her chair. When I feed her her snack of milk and cookies before nap time, I hold her in my lap instead of the chair business. She and I both like that MUCH better and she also doesn't inhale it, she takes her sweet time. She is a smart cookie..she knows that after milk and cookies is nap time and Mommy has to go. She has started crying when we leave which breaks my heart. She used to just smile at her caregiver and only cry cuz her milk was gone. I think we're attaching!! We had a blast playing. She is really noticing EVERYTHING we do (kinda scary...) She was spinning the ball in her stacking cups the way she sees Sean and I do it, and she's stacking them the way we do too. She is loving standing, and then squatting down to pick up a toy. She is defintely getting stronger and more coordinated! Her new skills are multiplying faster and faster everyday. Her new skill on Sunday was pointing to our noses. Where's Leeza's nose? She points to it. Where is Mommy's nose? She points, and just to make sure she is not just making a random connection...where is Sean's nose? and she points. PURE GENIUS I TELL YOU!! {Sorry, I told you this was a very braggy mommy post}I am just so proud of her and so amazed that this is the same child that I didn't think ever made a sound or could crawl on the first couple days we met her! It's UNREAL! It's so amazing what love and attention can do...for everyone!! What I am loving is that she is BUSY BUSY BUSY, yet she always loves to crawl up in mommmy's lap for reading books. She is still snuggly, but she just has to have her busy time too! We havShe LOVES her ABC lion. I always kiss Leeza, probably about 1000 kisses a visit, no lie. I'm sure she feels like she is getting "mauled", just like Duchess the dog felt. Well, I told her to KISS her lion. She TOTALLY did! I thought, no way, that is just a kawinky-dinki. I asked to kiss her lion again..BIG HUGE KISS to the lion. I was reading her a book,and it's a baby book. There is a picture of a "Happy baby". I said, 'Kiss the baby, Leeza', and she DID! I was so impressed! She won't kiss the mommy though..ONLY the lion and the baby so far. I will continue to work on kisses for the mommy. I was so enamoured with her kissing the lion, and her standing and bending up to pick it up over and over, and I was trying to get it on video. I think I did, and she did something really cute, and I sat down, and SAT RIGHT ON MY CAMERA LENS. It was open, and yes, BIG FAT MOMMY BROKE THE CAMERA! I loved that lil Canon camera too. It was so small and took such great pictures. Ivan took it is giving it to the guy at his company who fixes cell phones. I am not sure it can be fixed, but hey..I can let him try. I do have another camera, so I can use that one, but I was so sad. I'm just glad I did it,and not Sean, because I would have really yelled at him to be more careful!

It was a gorgeous day out, so we took bundled up Leeza for several laps around the baby house, where she fell asleep on the last 2 laps. She makes these sweet lil sighs of contentment when she's in the ergo. It just warms my heart. I want to hug her and never let her go! I will say it's getting harder and harder to leave her at the baby house everyday. On Sunday, I was walking with her and we saw her caregiver outside. She was smiling and talking to Leeza and Leeza was smiling at her. She said "kit kit" which I think is Kazakh (or maybe Russian) and held her hands out for Leeza to come to her. Leeza TURNED her head the other way. It was SO CUTE! The caregiver (and my bad, I forget her name!!) did it again, and again, Leeza turned her head, as if to say...NO WAY, I'M NOT LEAVING MY MOMMY'S ARMS!! The caregiver said something and was really smiley...I think she said she loves her mommy,but I don't know. This is one of the caregivers that I used to be scared of. She is nice, but kinda stern and I thought she thought we were idiots. It just took her a while to warm up to us because now she is all friendly and happy and smiling at us, but she also came in on her day off to get some torte on Leeza's birthday. I think the torte sweetened her up a bit! I fed Leeza her cookies and milk in my lap, and she took her sweet time, her newest thing. The caregivers were putting their 2 kids that they fed to bed, so I snuck a bite of Leeza's milk and cake. She shot her head around and looked at me very wide eyed with those big blue eyes...as if to say..WHAT ARE YOU DOING-THAT IS MY SNACK MOMMY! It was so funny. At least she didn't cry... It tasted pretty good but the cake was a bit soggy for my taste. I put her down for her nap and rubbed her back and she was all smiles, UNTIL I walked away. Then she cried and I felt sad. However, I know it's not for much longer. This is the first time I have allowed myself any kind of a countdown. We have 5 days until Joe gets here, then 8 days until court! One week from tomorrow we have court! YAY!! I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

We are still very happy here, and very well taken care of. I will truly miss Ivan and Tatiana and Eugene when we leave. Tatiana has become a good friend! Ivan is such a gentleman and so wonderful. Joe is sending Sean's homework to me via email,and I save it to the flash drive, and asked Ivan if we could please go to a printer to print them. He just printed it on his printer at home and won't let me buy him ink or paper for his printer. I had more homework today, and told him I want to buy his ink, but he won't let me. He took us to the Gros last night and kept reminding us of stuff to get...do you need water, didn't Sean want ice cream,etc. They are SO NICE and caring,and I know that we are paying them for their service, but they treat us like friends. I expected to experience "Groundhog day" and boredom and frustration here, but I haven't experienced any of that. I am sad that I have not lost any weight, and I sat my big fatt butt on my camera, and yes, it's harder and harder to leave Leeza each day, but that's pretty much to be expected! Since my pictures today are with my broken lens and Ivan, I will post some pictures from the last couple days since I wrote a novel and I am sure it's a real bore to read. Here is one of new tricks.."doing squats" I'm glad SOMEONE is working out...