Kazakhstani Kids

Another great day in paradise! Do we sound like a broken record? Maksim is amazing. When we arrived to visit this morning, Maksim told his caregivers in Russian (of course) "My parents have arrived!" Everyone laughed so hard. Where did he get such language? The caregivers didn't know. Lena didn't know. And we certainly cannot say it. So formal. He was really excited to see as and ran up to us saying "I love you so much!" He got the whole sentence. He really loves to see us - mostly because he loves his food and toys. His love for us will grow. : )

He ate apple flavored yogurt and a bunch of crackers saying pashloosta every 10 seconds. He is so hungry. We are going to bring a little more food than we have been. One of his caregiver, Tanya, brought in a traditional Russian costume and had Maks put it on for us. She helped him sing a little song and dance. We got AWESOME video of him in the costume. Here is a picture so you can see how adorable. Are all parents this annoying with their cute pictures of their children????

We ate lunch at Pizza Blues and got to meet Laura Brown and her sister in law. They just got to pick up their daughter Zarina. Zari was part of Maks' group and we saw her in the baby house before her Momma arrived. It was fun to spend time with Zari. She loved Jason. They played in the playground and the restaurant and had soo much fun. She is a beautiful girl. She was such a little Obezyanna! (monkey) The Brown family's translator Alfia was very helpful with her and we all laughed about the absolutely adorable monkey.

We went back to the baby house and hand wrote a request to the court to allow us to be Maksim Viktorovich Ignatov's parents. It was really cool to say that we are his mother and father on paper. I hope that we get a copy of our hand written request. We are keeping his birthdate and birthplace and are requesting to change his name to Maksim Jason Woods if the judge will so grant our request.

At our afternoon visit, we ate crackers and looked through the life book on Maks' blanket. We love looking through it with Maksim. He can pick out his Momma and Daddy and say their names. He doesn't like the fishing pole. He does like the blanket and pillow, and also the flowers. He rubs the blanket on his face and our faces. He sniffs the dried flowers from our garden. aaahhhh! He is a cute as we could ever have hoped. We are lucky parents.

Today he learned to say "good boy, Maksim" and he says it alot. He learned "say cheese" and loves to do that for the camera. He is afraid of these sticky frog things that you fling and they stick to stuff... you know what I mean. He practiced the itsy bitsy spider song with us. He kinda hums along and does the sun came out hand gesture. He loves to play give me five. He did the give me five for Daddy for the first time today.

Even though we have missed many of his first - we have many more to appreciate. We are very thankful for this beautiful gift.