December 30, 2006 Adventure Day!!

The morning started out fantastic, except for a few presents that Berik gave to mommy, 1 pee, and 3 poopies all in a row, now that's what I call an eye opener for sure. Not to mention a great way to clean your sinuses. He was in a good mood, laughing and giggly as he is most of the time, as he played with mommy, daddy fixed his porridge with eggs and got the rest of his breakfast ready. Jump to lunch time, we are waiting for our translator to bring some documents for us to sign, well she shows up at 11:45, just as we are fixing to put Berik down for his power nap, and then eat lunch ourselves. Gulsana proceeds to tell me that we will have lunch with the other families and then go to Ice City, and do a few more errands that we needed to do. Once all this was completed we would fill out the documents at our apartment later. So much for any advanced notice at all, we got ready and left and went to my least favorite place to eat, I call it the "Horse Meat Cafe", it is a traditional Kazakh restaurant. The only thing that they have there that Gena and I like is the Kazakh bread, fried donut holes,mmmmh! They are yummy for the tummy!

We did however find something that we liked, Chinese Meat and Frees. We left there and went to Ice City, it's a place that is created along some type of water way. They build everything from blocks of Ice; sculptures, slides, castles, and of course Father Frost is present as well. Gena and Berik went down the small slide twice, man that was hilarious,

then of course it was my turn, absolutely great fun.

Gena (top) and Kevin (bottom) went down the big slide while Pam, Berik and I watched and laughed hysterically as they came sliding down..

Kevin and Pam are with the same agency as we are and have just recently arrived. After this we ventured into the ever popular RamStore(over priced Walmart). Now time to fill out documents, also time for the little man to go nappy time, this is when Mr. Hyde appeared, cried and screamed for 30 minutes, he stopped long enough to catch his breath. Finally!, he went to sleep, but only briefly, but the papers were done by this time, so all is well that ends well. Supper time for little man and then his new favorite thing, bath time, then play a little, nite nite. Hope everyone has a great New Year. Love to all! Jaimie, Gena & Berik

P.S. Last night I went and bought our plane tickets for our flight to Almaty,

and was given Berik's passport, adoption certificate and birth certificate.

December 29, 2006 Minus 4 Degrees/Random Photos

We woke this morning to find the temperature outside to be a mere minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit, so much for taking Berik on his first sled ride. He will get to ride on it before we leave Astana no matter what, or Santa will be disappointed. Glad to see that everyone likes this site as well, this one just seems to make our lives a little easier. 10 o'clock and it's feeding time at Dome Lloyd. Get everything ready for our little boy and then wake him up to feed him, or face the wrath of the "BERIK". Once he sees that you are getting ready to feed him, you can't get it ready fast enough. Better to have it done before you get him up, plus it keeps him in a better mood. 12 O'clock and it's nap time, Gena has this round, sound like to me he's ahead right now, but she will prevail, because she has mommy power, but he's definitely fighting it at this point.

Of course before he goes nappy time he has to look at himself in the mirror, always good for a few laughs.

He doesn't want to sleep because he is soooooo nosey, has to see everything, talk about over stimulation!

I don't hear anything coming from the bedroom now, Gena may have prevailed. Thought I would put a few pictures on today's blog that no one has really seen, so enjoy. Here are the keys needed just to get into the apartment.

This key is for the bedroom door.

I bought this Kazakh shield for me, it is made from metal, then wrapped in leather, then decorated however they choose, with horse hair coming from the middle, Gena doesn't like the horse hair at all.

This is the infamous washing machine that takes 2 1/2 hours to do a 10 pound load of clothes.Berik and mommy gave me this collage of pictures of daddy and Berik for Christmas, I really like it.

December 28, 2006 More Random Pictures

Gena talked about this on the other blog, candy for men with no women on the back of the wrapper, some things here are rather comical. Enjoy!
The candy even has the no women allowed sign molded into the candy as well, how silly is that. Then of course there is the infamous hole in the floor at the train station in the mountains where Gena spent a 1/3 of her time with food poisioning. That's always a lot of fun. Not! But never the less you must see this one it is priceless, talk about having a good aim, check this out ladies!!!!!!

Isn't this just the most wonderful invention of the century?! You shouldn't try using this facility under the influence of alcohol or any other sight or balance imparing substance.

This is the a door to one of the ladies restroom stalls at the restaurant where we are pretty sure Gena got her food poisioning from. How many hinges do you think they should have used? Here is a picture of the whole gang when we made our first stop in the mountains, left to right we are Peter's mom Bonnie, our driver Azibiul, Gena, Me, Peter and bottom is Kisia, their driver Bijon, and Moses, it was the begining of a great trip for all. We would love to return again someday!

December 28, 2006

Here are some random pictures.

Well I woke this morning with a little stomach problem, not sure what caused it, but don't like it very much. We want to take Berik for a ride on his sled that Santa brought for him, as we have lots of snow on the ground. Berik woke this morning in a good mood, and has been giggling pretty much all day until it's feeding time then he is a whole different kid. When they are in the orphanage they feel like if they don't get what they have coming then they will not get anything to eat, so when they do eat it's a free for all. We are working on this, and he is becoming less aggitated, but it will take more time. Gena said that he was watching the birds fly outside our window, and when they flew up to the roof, he would try to follow them and just about got whiplash. He is too funny, he finds the most joy in his feet and toes. We took a few photos during potty time this morning, which is when he is comical as well.

Sometimes it's a little overwhelming that we have a small child in our household, as it has been such a long time since we have had to take care of a small child. The skills are still there though, I guess you never lose them. All we know for sure is that we love him, and are cherishing every minute we have with him. Today we went out with the other families to eat lunch and then go to the notary, and of course this would be Berik's first time out to eat lunch, so we bundled him up in his snow suit and off we went to eat. In case anyone doesn't know it they don't charge extra for letting your child sleep in the window sill.

It was also his first time in a high chair, he was very good and was very pleasant during the meal, it was a great outing for him, he also got to feel the snow landing on his face while we walked around outside a little.

December 27, 2006 New Blog site!

Lets make this short; we arrived here in Astana Kazakhstan on November 12, 2006, to adopt our son, Berik James Lloyd. As you can see from this post date, we have been here nearly 2 months, but it has been worth it in the long run. We have a beautiful son, who we love very much. We were granted custody of Berik on December 23, 2006, what an awesome Christmas present. Gena had created a blog site for our trip, but it doesn't want to cooperate very well, so hopefully this one will act right and let me post pictures, so that we can share the rest of our trip with our family and friends. The beginning of our journey can be found at www.frogssnailsandpuppydogtails.blogspot.com