OMNF - Oh Man, Not Friday.

So now we have to wait until Monday to see Nurai again.  She is doing so well.  She actually made efforts to quasi-crawl this afternoon in an attempt to reach her toys.  The fact that in doing so she plunged face first into the floor is just a minor hiccup, a small matter of style yet to be perfected.

The visit began, as most kaz visits begin, with a lengthy wait.  The first shot of the day is of us waiting in 'the visit room' where we decided the bench was better placed further up the hallway to give us a decent amount of floor space and to act as a further privacy barrier.

In conjunction with the coat rack, the new bench placement gave us the confidence to once again remove her hat and outer sweater.  If you promise not to tell, I'll admit that we actually pulled up her shirt at spied her belly button at one point.

It was a good visit, but I must admit that I am tiring of trying to find new and exciting way to photograph within our darkened closet, and thus, there are not a great number of new shots from today's visit.  I lament that Nurai will not have the same voluminous record of our time visiting her in the Baby House as does Tougy.  And the inequity begins.

Following our visit, we promised Tougy we would go to the outdoor park (Ken Baba) again if she took a good nap, and thus the next lot of photos is from our afternoon there.  We have now been there 3 times, and weather permitting, we will go there a number of times more before we leave.

It is a good sized park with a number of OSHA denied rides and amusements that Tougy finds irresistible.  Easily her favorite is the swing pictured here that she and KJ ride together.  They have such a good time that it almost makes me want to do it, but alas, I recognize that spinning and I are not on friendly terms.

The last group of photos might surprise those of you who know me and my rather dispassionate relationship with food, though we like this restaurant so much we just had to mention it.  It is just a block or so from our apartment, and is really quite casual despite its more formal decor.  It is rather an anomaly here in Kaz to find a restaurant with such panache and swagger, but the food and presentation really are exceptional given that the three of us get out of there for around $30.00.

KJ had a grilled chicken Caesar, I had a wonderful lentil soup followed by a very flavorful and well prepared piece of Mr. Ed, and Tougy had a stylishly plated chicken fingers and fries.  Who plates children's dishes with a flower of ketchup and tartar sauce with Parsley leaves?  No other place I know.

At this point we have no real plans for the weekend, just a lot of hang out time with Tougy, and if weather permits, more outdoor park time.  We have asked to head off to Turkestan next Saturday and, at least at this point, expect to have a sunny and 60 degree day for that.      

Come Monday (yes Jimmy a little bit of you is never far away), we will already be at day 13 of our 14 day bonding period, and expect to know our court date by the end of next week.  Once we know our court date, the rest of our time in Kaz this time around will begin to unfold.

We hear that court here in Shymkent is a rather tame affair, and that is just fine with us.  Prior to applying for a court date next week, we still have to come to a final determination for Nurai's complete name.  We know that Nurai will lead off and that Morrison will bat clean-up, but what is unsettled is who is in between.

We feel compelled to follow the format we used for Tougy's name wherein her first middle name relates to her place of birth and the second comes from family, but truthfully, Shymkent is not a pretty name for a beautiful girl, and we have yet to come up with a good alternative.

As for the family component, we are looking at two names from my side of the family.  The first was my uncles middle name and the second is an older family name.  Let me just say for the record that naming is difficult business.

Speaking of names, while we were out at the park today we actually heard Nurai's name.  It was a family of 3 girls in which the infant daughter was named Nurai.  It is not a common name, and really caught us by surprise to hear them use it.  When we tell people here that Tougy's name is Aitugan, most act as if they have never heard it.  Could be our accent or it could just be that unusual, even here.

Another interesting thing is that on more than one occasion we have seen a look of surprise upon someone's face when they learn that Tougy is Kazakh, and twice we've heard that people here assumed she was Filipino.  We might expect that in the states, but it has surprised us that here in Kazakhstan, a great many people don't immediately assume she is Kazakh.  Maybe if we were in Manilla.

That's all the energy I've got tonight.  Over the weekend I hope to post a menagerie of photos shot here over the past week that don't necessarily have anything to do with our adoption.  Take Care.