Kazakh life

For all of you who wonder when I'm coming home, it'll either be Feb. 16 or 17 by the looks of it. Mike - the other American here with me adopting little Andrew - and I are a tad annoyed that our adoption coordinator is not in as big a hurry to get us out of here as we are. The judge will sign off on our adoptions Friday afternoon and HOPEFULLY we will fly to Almaty on Saturday. So you might say that this Friday (Feb. 8? - one loses track of time here) will be Olivia Veronika's official adoption date.
Today I was eating breakfast when I got to talking with a Kazakh from Almaty who's up here on business. His name is Marlen - given to him by Communist parents who wanted their child named after Marx and Lenin. He noticed the time I was having with Veeka - who was throwing bread on the floor and screeching - and he said, "My wife looked just like you do when she was raising our two children when they were small." He was trying to be kind but I didn't know I looked that ragged! Veeka was up til past 11 last night - she was very wired - I could NOT get her down and having no crib, I couldn't just leave her on the bed. She's now picked up a habit of taking things OUT of the trash can.
And dressing her or putting on a diaper is like wrestling with an octopus; you get one extremity pinned down and the others rise up to bite you. And I have introduced her to a new food delight: Pringles. Oh, does she like those potato chips! She loves hot cereal (that's what was served up in the baby house) and bread and meat. I've not gotten her to understand how to use a straw yet; maybe that's something they pick up when they turn 2?
The photo is of Sergey holding Veeka right after she got a bath while I was in Lisakovsk. She was in SUCH a good mood. She's not into things on computer screens or TV monitors yet. We tried watching "The Shawshank Redemption" last night on DVD and all she wanted to do is place her little feet atop my keyboard.