Our little Aitugan continues to amaze. It is difficult to convey all the nuance filled events that alert us to her progress, but cumulatively they cannot be denied. She is developing quickly.

One of the more recent developments has been her focus on dexterity. She has been preoccupied of late with things that she can manipulate with her fingers.

The spinning wheels of the upturned car are a good example. Aitugan switched often between right and left hand, and using her index finger, would swipe at the bottom of the wheels causing them to spin.

She tested each of the wheels and you could definitely see that thoughts and mental connections were being made. As a proud parent, nothing could be more exciting than seeing the wheels of her mind stir.







Today we said goodbye to Heidi, Stefan, Miki, and their new daughter/sister Anna Lina. They will be around Astana for another 10 days or so, but it was their final visit to the Baby House. Tonight Anna Lina is spending her first night as part of a loving family - how powerful that is.









Miki received a couple of new cars over the weekend and was proudly showing all of us today. His energy will be missed in the playroom as the babies were often captivated by his activities. All of us back here at the Baby House wish you a safe and happy return to Belgium. Take Care.



Apart from adding commentary to go along with the photos, I feel I have been quite remiss in conveying a greater sense of how things are here in Astana.

Astana is an odd place. There seems little with which to compare it, for I know of no place so without context, without history and without genuine character with the possible exception of Loss Vegas. If a mid-life crisis caused men of means to build cities rather than buy the proverbial sports car, this might be it.

Borrowing from the movie 'Field of Dreams' - the motto appears to be "if you build it - they will come". Funded through Kazakhstan's vast oil and gas reserves, the government/president (for all intents and purposes synonyms) has elaborate development plans for the city.

Several years ago now, the President boisterously declared that by the year 2030, Kazakhstan would enjoy a quality of life on par with the US. The way things are going, it looks as if we may be willing to meet him halfway.

There are certainly more ten story cranes in the city than there are ten story buildings, with the former numbering well over one hundred. As this balance shifts, and as people come to inhabit them, an obvious question would be how will they get around.

Traffic already moves at a near standstill pace and there is next to no parking apart from curbside. I just cannot envision how this problem will work itself out.

Whew - moving away from that, we went to the Opera last weekend. Yes it was a first not only for ourselves, but for the other two couples we went with, and I feel I can speak for the six of us in saying it really did not need to have a third act.

Maybe some of you have enjoyed Aida in other venues, but with longer intermissions than acts, the night just dragged on in Italian monotony.

Really, is there a culture out there who doesn't celebrate - in either song, sonnet, or soliloquy - the star-crossed lover. And why is it that ignominious death always befalls them?

The other topic I promised to get around to writing about is the 'free iChat'. Well it is true that in the US, where most of us now enjoy unlimited internet access for a set monthly rate, such a thing as iChat and Skype usage would be essentially free.

I remind you however that in a place where internet fees represent not only the monthly connection, but also a fee for the amount of data you push through the system, iChat is anything but free.

Our coordinator came with our landlord the other afternoon to hand deliver our three-foot long itemized bill. It was immediately obvious that we were in trouble.

The total fee for our first month of internet - a hair over $425.00. Well we certainly didn't budget for that. Thankfully we were able to pay it using a credit card so that it did not eat into our available cash-on-hand.

So for now we are back to using the old fashioned way of communicating - email. For those of you who had grown accustomed to joining us on iChat, we will still try and do a little of it, though probably not again until Aitugan comes home with us after the 12th.

Until then, we can still IM and email, as rudimentary as that may seem. Take Care.