Tuesday May 2nd

Posted the pictures early this morning and read a quick email that Tim and Ian had made it safely to Auntie Robin’s house in New Jersey. Ian slept 3 hours in the hotel in Almaty and then Tim and Ian had 4 seats to spread out a bit from Almaty to Frankfurt. Ian slept the entire flight, I assumed Tim slept most of it as well, but when I read his latest email he said his flight from Frankfurt to Newark was horrendous. He had a high fever and chills He thinks he has full blown strep throat. Ian had it before we left and I had extra bottle of anti-biotics I brought along just in case of a relapse while in Kaz. Tim felt really crappy for about 5 days here in Kaz and drank the whole bottle of anti-biotics , so we thought he was in the clear. Guess not. Of course I have the bag of meds here with me in Kaz. I feel horrible knowing he felt like complete and utter crap and here I have the Tylenol that could have reduced his fever in no time. Plus, I just wish I was there to comfort him, be it making sure he got some rest, some soup, was warm enough, whatever. Ok, I miss my husband a lot. Ian’s tonsils looked inflamed as well and complained a bit about his throat hurting but never any other symptoms. Hopefully both Tim and Ian will both see the Dr. on Tuesday. I know Ian is excited to get back to preschool and I would hate to have him bring in an unknown sickness due to traveling. I’m very thankful he and Ian are able to rest up at Auntie Robin’s for a day before heading home to Dover. Poor Auntie Robin and Uncle Erin will be bombarded with numerous questions and tidbits of information as Ian is a jabber-jaw and very inquisitive.

The snow has melted and the sun comes out periodically but it’s still quite cold. Regardless, we will take a walk this afternoon after lunch for some exercise and relief from being cooped up in our cozy but small “home.” Overall Sam is doing great. He still pouts a bit if he doesn’t get what he wants. For example, he went to bed later than usual last night because we went out for a late dinner and had to walk home etc. I gave him a bit of coloring time and then one book before bed. He was not pleased with only having one book and having to go to bed in general and pulled the “I’m not going to look at you or give you any form of emotion” and so instead of getting frustrated or angry I simply kissed him on the forehead and said, “night-night.” The next morning Sam walks into my room with a big smile and I know all is well. He’s still a wise guy in that sometimes he doesn’t want to have “learning” time and plays dumb. This used to drive me nuts, now I simply have him sit in the time-out chair or lose a toy for a while and then we go over our lessons. He loves Leap Pad, but doesn’t want to use it so much as a learning tool vs. a toy. Oh well, too bad. I think we’ll start off slow with 15 minutes of “school” time every 2 hours or so, and work up from there. He needs to see learning and fun can be intertwined. I think when we get home and “re adopt” him we may need to change his birth date by a year. I really don’t think he’s 4.5 yrs old, for a multiple reasons. My biggest concern is that he has a equal chance at succeeding in the US educational system and if that means changing his birth date so that he’s mentally, socially, psychologically and physically ready to begin school, well, so be it.
Sam and I took a 1.5 hour walk and found some small homes vs. standard Soviet apartment housing. These houses were by no means nice, but it did give the city a more residential feeling. We did see an elderly Kazakh man dressed in all of his native clothes which was cool. We then went to the grocery store and Sam picked out some canned vegetables, peas and carrots, in addition to our staple of corn. These veggies are imported from Budapest, the carrots look ok, but the peas are an army green vs. kelly green so I hope he still likes them. They smell way too much like Ian’s baby food of peas and green beans and still to this day that smell just makes me gag. He was also very excited that he was able to pick out the color of the toilet paper. He’s a bit over tired and silly right now. He got a time out for not listening, but after 5 minutes all is well once again. I figure after dinner we’ll do a little leap pad and books and then to bed. I miss home the most at night. I really wish I could give both of my state side boys a big hug and kiss. Let’s hope some sun and warm weather comes east for Wednesday.