Decisions, decisions...

Well, we made some good decisions and some bad decisions today, which I suppose is about par for the parenting course, no?

Good decisions:

Breakfast at the hotel. The kids are very good when you put them at a table with food on it. Half an omelette, a bowl of porridge, bread, cheese, and pancakes went over very well. And, the very nice hotel staff took to the chilluns quite nicely, babying and spoiling them at every turn. They got half an apple and a piece of candy as we left breakfast. Bonus: Kevin and Angel got adult food at this meal.


Alina, the Hotel Reception Desk lady, cooing over Dub.


Ditto for Lena.

Long walk around the park. Kids loved being out and about in the sunshine without the restrictions of Umit over them. We walked all over the park, stared in amazement at the "swimmers" in the local little fountain as they ran all over the place staying cool in the water. We climbed a million sets of stairs, which is odd, since Taraz is almost completely flat, except for the hill in this park by the hotel. They are both quite good at going up and down stairs.


It's just a big fountain, where most of the kids run around in their underwear in 2 feet of water.






Afternoon nap. Both slept like babies for 2+ hours between 1-330 today. Note to self: Lena wakes up very very happy, but Dub is like his Mama. So, we should not wake up grumpy to early...we should let him sleep.

Bad decision:

NOT getting the kids out for a LOT of exercise between nap and dinner time. We met another couple who had just arrived from Almaty and met their two kids at Umit. They naturally wanted to pump as much information out of us as possible. So, while we had fun meeting them and sharing our stories, the kids were bored for a couple of hours, and were not tired AT ALL at bedtime. OY! You know how that turned out. However, it was opposite the first night, as Lena quietly lay in her bed until she went to sleep, and Dub screamed bloody murder for an hour until Mama finally rocked him to sleep. She has the touch.

Dinner of broth soup, bread, cheese, and smashed potatoes was a hit, as was the two cookies afterward.

Finally, at the end of the day, as we silently wispered about how we'd get them to sleep tomorrow, we realized neither of us had eaten since breakfast. See "bonus" above. Funny thing is we weren't hungry either.

So, day 2 was, generally, a success. Still working on the bed time routine, and we'll get that figured out sooner or later. And then we'll travel on 2 planes for 2 days and completely mess it up again! But, that'll mean we're home, and that's ok.

Thank you all for your continued comments of encouragement. It means everything to us to hear how so many people care so much.

Blessings,
Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, and Dopey

PS - don't be surprised if these posts get shorter and shorter, with more and more mispellings and mindless blathering. We'll get there.