A New Day, A New Month, And Hey! A New Oufit!
Dinner last night: Pork chops dredged in curry/flour, pan seared, then braised in pomegranate juice, fresh apricots, garlic, and onions. Served with dilled potato salad and tomato salad with purple basil; as you might guess, Candace cooked. (CD: As a complement to all the other written material we are putting together for Otis, I’ve started writing the How to Cook in Almaty When You Have Very Few Pots and Pans, No Decent Knives, No Oven, and Not a Whole Hell Lot of Anything Else Either Cookbook.) Damn tasty dinner. Last night CD’s GSM phone rang twice around 3:30, waking us up, which is weird because no one has the number. There’s apparently some sort of scam here, where your phone is randomly called and they ask for your Sim card #, which may be what it was.
Woke up at the usual time today and struggled again with the washer/dryer. When CD got up, I made us an approximation of a NYC diner breakfast: omelet with cheese, ham & scallions; home fries with onions and hot pepper; country white bread toasted in the skillet with butter and apricot jam; coffee and apple juice (CD--it was fab.) We then headed out in the noonday heat to check out a local department store Milena had told us about.
We didn’t find the department store, but did find the Almaty equivalent of a Toys “R” Us/Kids “R” Us mall, which we checked out at length. (CD: I kept wanting to buy age-inappropriate toys, I think because I think they look fun to play with. For instance, there are these cool Italian Lego-type toys where the pieces attach with magnets, and with which you can build, say, a miniature Eiffel Tower.) We walked back to apartment through the local park, see CD’s post below, and met Sagat at 2:00 to head to the babyhouse.
Imagine our delight when Otis arrived wearing a new outfit! (See pictures.) O was in a much better mood today, big smiles for all. We sat and played with his toys, and it really looks like his teeth are coming in. He took the teething rattle and shoved it into his mouth repeatedly; when he dropped it, he grabbed my thumb and shoved that in; I felt two really hard full ridges. We worked on getting him to sit up or lay on his stomach and, boy, was he not happy about any of that. (CD: “Cuddling me is your job. Godamnit, do it.”)
After a while he started yawning and crying, so I started rocking him to “Old Paint,” and he started to nod off. We checked the time, 3:15, and realized we might be screwing up his schedule. So I sat him up, he groused a little, but CD started reading Fox In Socks to him, and he followed along. CD showed him the photo album again, and again he stared at each picture intently. When he started yawning and crying again, I handed him to CD who rocked him to sleep. When CD wanted to get up, she passed him to me, and I held him for another five minutes or so until he woke up on his own and tried to grab my water bottle.
Galina arrived to tell us that it looked like our court date would be moved up a day to July 11, CD’s birthday! (CD: What a birthday that would be!) Otis started to nod again, so I walked him downstairs (after a full two hours!) to the nasty young nurse we most frequently deal with. He didn’t want to let go; she gave me the “My baby, not yours” look, kissed him and stalked off.
PS from CD: Re a certain picture below – most of you will know which one – all I can say is, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Woke up at the usual time today and struggled again with the washer/dryer. When CD got up, I made us an approximation of a NYC diner breakfast: omelet with cheese, ham & scallions; home fries with onions and hot pepper; country white bread toasted in the skillet with butter and apricot jam; coffee and apple juice (CD--it was fab.) We then headed out in the noonday heat to check out a local department store Milena had told us about.
We didn’t find the department store, but did find the Almaty equivalent of a Toys “R” Us/Kids “R” Us mall, which we checked out at length. (CD: I kept wanting to buy age-inappropriate toys, I think because I think they look fun to play with. For instance, there are these cool Italian Lego-type toys where the pieces attach with magnets, and with which you can build, say, a miniature Eiffel Tower.) We walked back to apartment through the local park, see CD’s post below, and met Sagat at 2:00 to head to the babyhouse.
Imagine our delight when Otis arrived wearing a new outfit! (See pictures.) O was in a much better mood today, big smiles for all. We sat and played with his toys, and it really looks like his teeth are coming in. He took the teething rattle and shoved it into his mouth repeatedly; when he dropped it, he grabbed my thumb and shoved that in; I felt two really hard full ridges. We worked on getting him to sit up or lay on his stomach and, boy, was he not happy about any of that. (CD: “Cuddling me is your job. Godamnit, do it.”)
After a while he started yawning and crying, so I started rocking him to “Old Paint,” and he started to nod off. We checked the time, 3:15, and realized we might be screwing up his schedule. So I sat him up, he groused a little, but CD started reading Fox In Socks to him, and he followed along. CD showed him the photo album again, and again he stared at each picture intently. When he started yawning and crying again, I handed him to CD who rocked him to sleep. When CD wanted to get up, she passed him to me, and I held him for another five minutes or so until he woke up on his own and tried to grab my water bottle.
Galina arrived to tell us that it looked like our court date would be moved up a day to July 11, CD’s birthday! (CD: What a birthday that would be!) Otis started to nod again, so I walked him downstairs (after a full two hours!) to the nasty young nurse we most frequently deal with. He didn’t want to let go; she gave me the “My baby, not yours” look, kissed him and stalked off.
PS from CD: Re a certain picture below – most of you will know which one – all I can say is, a picture is worth a thousand words.
posted by Candace and David at 7/01/2005 09:18:00 AM
5 Comments:
Got the E- mail. One more Question - since DJ's (hall) closet is emptied and the shelving has been removed, what do you want to do? put it back as before ? or just two bars ? by the way the adjustable bars in the bedroom are temp and will be replaced with proper 1 1/4" chrome.
regards,
Michael
Michael: D says he wants one bar at the top, and a wooden shelf in the middle where the wire shelf was. He says he hates the wire shelves. - C
The magnetic/Lego-type toy sounds really cool. You have to start Otis on baby push-ups; it's never too early to work on upper body strength. Later on he will thank you, although he'll be fussing plenty in the short term.
I too have been shopping for toys for Otis (on the Web) and have been intrigued (but not tempted) by some pretty bulky ones. I just don't think I can buy for him until I meet him.
I say get the magnetic-Lego things and save them for later... We can play with them in the meantime.
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