Court Date Tomorrow!

On our next post, we will be the parents of Maksim Jason Woods, formerly known as Maksim Viktorovich Ignatov. We cannot wait. Of course. We didn't get any new pics today - so below are some from our 20 days of precourt visits.

Maksim was a fun and loving boy today. We had a great time. We ate yogurt, practiced English, learned to count to 5. He is even singing part of the alphabet song. It is really cute.

After our great morning visit, Lena told us that one of the caregivers had a serious talk with Maksim about being kind to his parents. We were happy that he listened but wished we could have explained it to Maksim. I guess the first thing we have to do is practice learning more English. He is really smart and picks things up so quickly.

We had lunch and practiced our court speeches. We talked about violence and crimes in our respective countries. People are the same everywhere. Criminals in the United States have it much better in jails and prisons that criminals in Kazakhstan. That is for sure.

Our afternoon visit was a great bonding experience. Maksim was excited to see us and took out his blanket as usual. He is learning to help Momma. We ate cucumbers. Yumm!! Momma tried to eat too many of them and Maksim was getting anxious. We should bring the whole cucumber next time so that there is enough to share.

We went on an afternoon walk and met up with Lena, Anya, a new translator (we don't know her name yet) and the drivers. Maksim thinks Anya is very pretty. Especially because she always pulls candy out of her pocket. She gave him a 1 inch diameter hard candy. Through the crowd, Maksim called to and came to his Momma to help him. Aaahhhh. He made me feel like I really am his Momma. Now, we had to do something about the choke hazard. Papa tried to break it in half. That didn't work, so Momma bit it into pieces and gave him part. He happily bit into it, too. Then we went for a walk.

Near the end of our visit, we sent Maksim into the toilet. We try to send him every half hour or so because we are giving him "extra" fluids. Well, we didn't hear the bathroom noises or see Maksim for a few minutes. We started to wonder. Papa went into the room and there was Maksim with big crocodile tears. He was rythmically rocking himself and sitting on the floor. We think that he thought Momma and Papa had sent him away. Papa picked him up and brought him back to the visiting room. He tried to play it off and pretend to Momma that his wasn't crying. I am pretty sure that he did this so that I would think he was a "good boy". I told him that it is okay to cry and held him close and then I rocked him. He sobbed and sobbed. It was really sad. Why do have to keep leaving him? When he was done crying, he climbed onto his blanket and told us that he was going to go to sleep right there with us. "Pora Spot Maksim E Momma E Papa". Can you say heartbreaking??

It was time to leave and Maksim started to cry again. Papa soothed him a little. Then he wanted back into Momma's arms. I picked him up and sang him a sad Logan song (heehee) and he cried for a while then laid (I am terrible at grammar) quietly in my arms. Lena came in while he was crying and got to see first hand what we had been talking about. She helped to stop Maksim from being upset and we told him about our court visit tomorrow.

We left. We cried some more. We wait.

Tough Day

Wheewww! We made it alive and well.

Today is Papa's birthday. But...we haven't had court yet so he didn't feel much like celebrating. Not to mention that as soon as we arrived today, Momma got her first yellow shower. Maksim was sitting on my lap as we ate an apple and read stories. My leg and sock were doussed. Really pretty funny. I was initiated into motherhood today. (I think!)

We had a couple of rough visits with Maksim. We have decided that he is actually doing great and trying be a really good boy. He is a really good boy and we love him. But testing us is his MO for atleast the last 20 minutes of our visits. We cannot decide if our leaving has something to do with it or if he is just getting bored.

We are visiting Maksim in a hallway. Several different people come in and out of our visiting room. It is really difficult because anyone that walks through has Maksim's full attention. He is dying for some communication about his toys in Russian. He tries his best to get their attention. If they do not look at him or interact with him, he starts gesturing toward them. Sticking his tongue out. Making the obeezyana (monkey) face. Hitting the air in their general direction. Screaming. Yie. Yie. Yie.

When we went for our walk, we taught Maksim to play the redlight, green light game. He loved it! We all took turns being the stoplight. It was really fun. Look at these adorable pics!

The afternoon was more of the same - and we apologize for being so boring! Maksim is bored, too. He seemed to tell us today - I'm hiding from you people who don't even know how to talk.
He is so cute. And so frustrated. And we love him so much.

We are frustrated too. We just want to be able to bring him to the apartment so we can be his true caregivers.

On a postive note, Maksim is intelligent, knows tons of English words and phrases, has the sweetest little voice, gives kisses and says I love you, he listens to his caregivers and tries his best to listen to us, is testing the ropes, and he is resilient. We are so lucky to have this chance to become his parents. We hope that everything goes well at court and that the waiting period doesn't kill us. We are worried! : )

Court Date!

We will have our court appearance on Monday, March 13th at 11:30 am. That means, if all goes well, that we will be able to take custody of our son on March 28th. Then, I will only have two weeks to get back to the US. They say it takes 10 days after you have custody. We will see.


Today, Momma and Papa made progress being parents. In the morning visit, the children came back from their walk. We had all of our toys out when the children came in. For some reason, some of the caregivers do not want the children to play with the toys. Neither does Maksim. But we don't really mind. Anyway, Maksim starts doing this grunt, grunt, whine, whine thing when one of his friends have one of his toys. I wish we could communicate better. Momma tells Maksim that it is okay if the kids look at his toys. We can share just for a minute. I had him on my lap because he was reaching and grunting. I told him nyet and sit still. He had other toys in his hands. He started freaking out a bit. I tried to calm him unsuccessfully. All one of the caregivers had to say was Maksim. He immediately stopped. I had said that, too. I even used a stern voice. He just doesn't see us as authority figures yet, I am sure.

Well, the children left and Maksim kept going a little crazy. We put away all his toys. He cried. Then he snuggled Momma until he stopped crying and then Papa took him to the window to watch the machina and sing itsy bitsy spider. One temper tantrum averted! Yeah! We felt a bit proud of ourselves. But of course we wonder if we are doing the right thing by redirecting his attention. Do all parents worry about such things - or just newbies??

Jason had a hair appointment at noon today. We went to a fancy salon and met with a nice looking hairdresser who was about 25 years old. I sat and watched while Jason was shampooed and then got a very precise haircut. While the hairdresser was cutting, Jason kept giving me the look over there look. I couldn't figure out what the heck he wanted me to look at. There was a 14 year old boy waiting next to me, a young bride getting her hair done, her mom, and several other hairdresser. The hairdressers were dressed in tight pants and high heeled boots...could that be what he wanted me to see?? Finally I spot it. The 14 year old had a Playboy. Just calmly reading it in the middle of the salon. His eyes were bugging out. We couldn't stop laughing. We were trying to contain it because we didn't want Jason's hairdresser to think we were laughing at him. Funnn - nnny.

The afternoon visit was more of the same. Except..Semyone's car needed to be fixed so his Dad picked us up instead...in a Mercedes. We really did feel like the "rich people". That is a running joke with Semyone and us. He drops us off at the front door of the baby house. We give the "rich people" signal (it is our hessian/heavy metal sign). Kazakhstan just instituted a selt belt requirment law! yeah! We don't have to hurt anyones feeling to buckle up. :)

Maksim is very sweet and we read lots of books today. We also looked at a bunch of the pictures that we had printed up from our visits. He really liked looking at himself and the other kids. He almost know the Miss Spider's New car book by heart. We read it for Lena today. She liked it. Maksim enjoyed showing off. It was the first time that he would do any of his cute things for other people. We were so proud!!

2 more days of visits and then court! We couldn't be more excited. :)

Can't do pics...try again later...
Okay only a couple - I don't know why

Sorry No Post Yesterday, Auntie Elizabeth!

So for today, you will get a bunch of pictures even if it cost me 1000 tenge!

The visit to the baby house yesterday morning was uneventful. More of the same Lagooshka and cell phone button pushing. We ate an apple. Steve and Candy from South Africa came in seperately and met Maksim. He was a little ham and loved their attention. They were jealous of Maksim's apple. :) It was officially woman's day yesterday so the caregivers needed the afternoon free from visitors. We knew that we would miss the little bugger. Boo Hoo. Seymone too us to Daniel (the supermarket) and we bought a few groceries. When we came back out, he aksed us to wait "one minute". He speaks a tiny bit of English. We waited in the car and he came back with flowers and chocolate for Melissa for Woman's Day! It was very sweet. We are lucky to have Lena and Seymone as our guides. Then, we went back home and took a nap.

Then Steve called us from his hotel so we decided to be brave. (We had decided to buy this DVD player from them that they had purchased here. Then we will pass it on the the next family so that they can also watch some movies.) We hailed a taxi and had the driver write down our address (we don't know where we live or our phone number). Then he took us to the Irytish Hotel. We had wine and dinner with Steve, Candy (South Africa), Sue, Pam and June (US). It was really fun and relaxing and we got to talk about everything. We were glad that we got to have one last meeting with Steve and Candy. They are a fun couple. Lucky for them they were able to pick up their son this morning and then they left Ust. We are sad we didn't find them earlier. It would have helped to pass the time. Then, we got to see if the taxi driver had written our correct address. He had! Yeah! Our adventure was very fun. We will definately feel braver to venture out of "jail" soon.

Today was a great day of visits with Maksim. He loves it when we arrive with an apple for him. We sat and ate the apple together. After that, we went for a walk. We ran into Mama Lena and the older children today. I think that they are about 4 years old. She is wonderful and the children love her. She talked to Maksim and the children and they all said goodbye one by one to Maksim. We wanted to tell her that we are still in jail and probably won't be able to take Maksim out of the orphanage for at least 19 more days! Maybe they are holding us hostage. :) But it was really cute. There was one girl who was really sad. Maksim leaned in and kissed her cheek as he sad goodbye. Can't we take them all home??

We came home for lunch so that Lena could help see everyone off at the airport. I made pizza for Jason with real tomato sauce. It was pretty good. We miss American style food, Mexican food, and Asian food. The food here is a lot like the food my family on the Johnson side eat. Meat, potatoes, meat and mayonnaise.

Our afternoon visit was really cool. Our favorite caregiver (Tanya) was there. She let us come to see where the children sleep, use the bathroom, bathe, and eat. Maksim was really cute and held his Momma's hand to show her all of the locations. He showed us his garshok, his towel, his bed, and his seat at the table. He is just soooo friggin cute!! We love him so much.

Then we went out for a walk. We were happy to be able to walk outside again. The weather has been pretty cold and snowy for the last few days and we were unable to go out. When we got outside, Seymone and Lena were there with another driver. We played soccer for a while with a little ball Tanya had loaned to us. He was soo cute. Everything he said (in Russian of course) was very polite. He kept telling Seymone "I will do this just like you have taught me!" What a cutey pie! We love him so much.

We took Maksim back in to his room to take off the layers of outside clothes and tried to tell him it was time to go. He knows it and gets so upset. He cried and cried and cried REALLY loud. We think that it is good to get out some of those tears. He snuggled Momma and felt better. We let him take Lagooshka back into the room to share with the other children for the evening. We are thinking about leaving the Lagooshka here, then buying a new one once we get home. The caregivers and children love this toy. I wish they had one with the Cyrillic (Russian) Alphabet.

We have not been able to set our court date yet. They promised it would be Thursday or Friday. Looks like neither of those will happen. Help us hope for Monday. After court, it will still be 15 days before we get custody. Sigh.

So what do you suggest??

Hello mad physics students!

I heard from 3rd period that everyone is very angry and haven't learned one thing at all. I worked very hard to prepare the reading notes packet to help you think about the heat concepts. I feel like that if you read and tried to think while answering the questions, then you should have no trouble with the "BASIC definitions and did you read" test. Okay, okay, there were a few questions that were a little challenging. But the majority were straight off of the reading packet.

There are no easy subjects in physics. I had to pick one that I thought you would have some everyday practice with. I am hearing your frustrations and I want to help and so does Ms. Yoshizumi. I heard, however, that when she tried to hold a review session, many of you simply ignored her and kept talking to your neighbors. If I had heard that you were listening intently and trying to understand, I think I would feel better. I would understand your complaint about the tough material. But after hearing THAT (plus all the weirdness like fights and fires)...what am I supposed to do?

I feel like you guys have shut down and are refusing to use your brains. I received one or two questions about heat from you guys. I thought to myself..."they must be understanding". But what it seems to me is that you weren't even trying.

What would you do if you were me? Now come on...be serious. I will not respond to "No test." Don't look for an easy out. Here is one idea...what about the research and presentation project that I have left instructions for? Let me know as soon as possible what you are all thinking.

We have turned in our request for Court!

Today, we were able to turn in our court papers. This means that on Thursday, we will be told our court date. It seems that we will have court on Monday. It is possible we will get Thursday or Friday. We are thinking Monday. It was anti-climatic. We walk in a room, hand over our passports, they look through our encyclopedia (dossier with translations) and then we walked out. It took 3 minutes tops.

Next we visited with our son, Maksim. We had a talk with him this morning about the court date, the adoption, the law of Kazakhstan and apples. Lena translated and of course he probably did not really understand what we were trying to say. But we wanted him to hear that we are doing the best we can to be able to not say goodbye anymore.

After our talk, we ate an apple - Maksim's absolute favorite and snuggled. Maksim was very loving and kept hugging and kissing Momma and Papa. I love you so muches all around. Then Momma and Papa had a surprise for Maksim. We brought Little Leap Lagooshka. It is a Leap Pad brand talking frog that teaches about the alphabet. He loved it. Hugged LittleLeap. Kissed LittleLeap. Carried LittleLeap around. And pushed the buttons like DJ Jazzy Jeff. "M says M says M says O says ooohhh M says M says C C O O says oohhh." It was pretty funny. Momma predicted the noise we'd hear.

Some of the children came in from their walk and we shared (tried hard to share) Little Leap. One of the caregivers took the froggy into the room and let the children play. Maksim made a grunt grunt I want want noise. I told him over and over that we will share Little Leap. It worked out okay and all the children loved to push the buttons and listen to the music. When it was time to go, Maksim cried. Momma hugged him and let him cry. One of the caregivers came in and told him not to cry. What! Let my son cry and be snuggled!! Don't tell him not to cry. This is part of our bonding. Once they asked him to stop, he immediately jumped down and tried to leave us. Arrgghh! I know that they are trying to help the children. But I am trying to help my son, too. I think that his crying about his toys and us leaving is just fine, thank you. Oh well.

We came home for lunch and Momma and Papa had a nap. :)

The afternoon was just as fun. We played with Little Leap and ate crackers. Papa brought Maksim some roasted sunflower seeds to try. He really liked them and tried to open them, too. A budding seeder. Papa was so proud. He drank a little water, we played with Plastini (playdough) and Little Leap some more. We cut our visit short because we were having dinner with a large group of adoptive parents. Again Maksim was very upset when we left. This time, no one interrupted and Momma held Papa and Maksim while we dealt with the impending
separation. Maksim really belted out some sobs. Papa says he milked it - but we were very happy about that. At the end, Momma was covered with Papa and Maksims tears. When Maksim sat up, he wiped off my sweater and chest from all of the snot and we laughed. Then Momma tried to find some tissue to blow Maksim's nose. All she could find was her fancy (and very nice on the nose) scarf. Blow!!! Momma loves Maksim's buggers. :) Really.

Dinner with everyone was great! It was nice to be out for some conversation. We were at the opposite end of the table from the Gaines family so we did not get to talk to them too much. :( We did sit next to the couple from South Africa. We feel that they are kindred spirits. :) They get to leave Ust with their son, Michael on Thursday! How wonderful! We are excited for them.

Another fantastic day in Kazakhstan. We feel very blessed.

Happy Physics Students!

I heard some nice things about my students today! Hooray!

Thank you Francisca and Dulce for being helpful in class. Your attitude in period 2 really brightens my day and I am sure is good for Ms Yoshizumi. I hear that Fabiola is learning some good physics!

Parker...did you break my Newton's Cradle?? Or was is Lenny? Leeennnnnnyyy! I wish I could be there.

Thank you Michael and Corina from period 6. We definately need to recycle! Did Ms. Yoshizumi find the recycle bin that is in the storage room (Area 51)?

Please continue to learn and be nice to Ms. Yoshizumi. I will return after Spring Break! (Too bad Lenny. I am the boss. That is my classroom. : ) Can you believe we get a two week break this year???

Any questions regarding thermodynamics? Email me woodsphysics@yahoo.com or post a comment to the blog.

Women's Day and Vodka!

Today was a difficult day for parenting. We are not sure if Maksim was mad about not having an afternoon visit yesterday, but it sure seemed that way. From the moment we arrived, he was cranky and would not complete our routine. He was just plain agitated. We took some cute pictures and got ready for submitting our papers to the court. He is as cute as a button. But very stubborn, indeed.

During the last 10 mintues, Maksim had the worst temper tantrum we have seen yet. He screamed at the top of his lungs and hit us both in the face. We tried our best to communicate that this was not okay behavior. Normally the tone in our voice is effective. Today it was lost on a sad and angry little boy. As angry as he was he was still the most wonderful, handsome, fiesty little guy that we have ever seen. But our visit was at an end and we had to leave. Lena did not come up to the visiting room - so she couldn't help us communicate with Maksim.


We had lunch at the Russian Kitchen. The Gaines family arrived there shortly after we did. I think that we should just plan to have lunch with them daily. We enjoy talking with them.

After lunch, we returned to the baby house for the afternoon visit. We fed Maksim some crackers and some apple juice. Lena talked with him about making better choices - but in Russian in came out more like be a good boy or Mama and Papa won't bring you yogurt. I tried to tell Lena that we will bring yougurt even if Maksim has temper tantrums but it didn't quite register.

We spent the afternoon reading books and eating crackers until Tanya and Goolyia(sp?) came to find us. They asked us to have some tea and cakes with them to help them celebrate Woman's Day. We came into a room and there it was! We had heard about the prolific Vodka (not really prolific at all). We toasted Woman's Day and talked about how much Maksim looks like Mama and Papa. We all laughed and drank and ate some crazy foods. Auntie Elizabeth - I was very brave and ate fish with mayonnaise with bread and pickles (ickkk!) and vodka. Maksim was fed cookies he was very content.

Then, they took us into a room with VERY loud Russian music and dancing and more vodka. We drank and danced. I left the room to find the camera and Jason was frisked and humped by the over drunk Russian women. Poor guy! Lol It was very gracious and funny and fun! We felt happy that they would invite us to their party. Maksim was whisked to a table with lots of cookies and the women fed him and made us dance. Very strange. Kinda like peer pressure, I think. After a few minutes - we wanted back with our sweet pea and quiet, so we excused ourselvses (Mama had 3 shots of vodka and Papa had 2) and went back to end our visit with Maksim.

He again was very upset and cried and snuggled into his Momma. We HATE leaving him each day. We know that he is upset because his toys, food, and tenderness leave. Sigh..... One day soon, pumpkin.

We love you so much, Masya ( a nickname that the caregivers and Maksim use. We only learned of it yesterday.) We got only sobs in return.

Da Svidyana. : (

Bizarre Bazaar

Today was really weird. First, I got a call from Jack. (another American) He and his wife are here adopting a 13 year old girl. The orphanage where she lives was having a party to welcome spring and he invited us to attend. We had already made plans with the Gaines family and Laura Brown and Zarinna but we thought it would be interesting. The Gaines family decided to come with us and we postponed our lunch with Laura until 1 pm.

It was really cool to see the children. When we first arrived, the kids we having an outdoor bazaar. They had made crafts and sweets and were selling them. We bought some funny handmade items from them for way too much and were happy. Jason got scurried off by some of the boys and came back with fistfulls of candy, cookies, and pretzels. He spent way too much for them but we were happy. The kids were beautiful and quite the little entrepreneurs. I talked with two boys for a while. They spoke a little bit of English and I a little bit of Russian so we learned each others names and about some of the items that they had created. We didn't have any more small bills on us so we couldn't buy any more items. I wanted to buy something from each table but I ran out.

There was much dancing and singing. The director and the kids kept grabbing us to come and dance. Jason was a big hit with the girls of course and loved when he twirled me around. We couldn't tell if they wanted Jason or if they wanted a Papa. I definitely think the former. lol At the end of the singing and dancing, they lit a straw man on fire in the middle. Steve Gaines noted the toxic fumes that all of the children were breathing as they watched the straw man burn - okay maybe not toxic but we couldn't picture this happening in America. : )

We were then invited to a concert that the kids put on. It was pretty amazing. The kids had great costumes and great choreography. It was really pretty fun. We had to dance there, too. They made us. We are not really sure why Jack had invited us. We were glad to see it and see the fun that the orphans were allowed to have. If we were older, we would want to adopt one of these children. The statistics that await them are staggering.

We went to lunch with Terri and Steve Gaines, Laura Brown, and Candy and Steve (?) from South Africa. It was really great to talk with all of them. We are planning to have dinner with them on Tuesday night. Hopefully we will go to Chinese food. But I am not sure what we are going to do.

We couldn't go back to the baby house for our afternoon visit.

No pictures today, boo hoo.

More of the same. Not to mention that our camera had dead batteries twice.

We learned Maksim is a clever boy who is very calm and listens to his caregivers. He ate lots of food and is repeating much of what we say. He is also teaching Momma and Papa Russian. When we mispronounce the words, he repeats them until we get it right. Then he says "Da-aa" with a knowing nod (you got it right, finally!)

We love to take him for walks and feed him. He really liked to see the orphanage Sobaka. We were afraid some Babooshka would come out and scold us again if we let him get close. We are going to ask about it so he can become more used to dogs.

But at the end of the day, Momma and Papa cried when we had to leave Maksim. Maksim was so cute. He stopped crying, sat up, wiped Momma's tears and we all laughed. Then we finished putting away the blanket and Maksim helped Momma put on her boots. Da Svidanya. Dobrae Vecher.

Physics Number 3

To find the answers to the questions that you have asked, you will have to go to the day that you posted the comment on, then click on the comments so that you are able to read all of them. You will see that I have commented back to you there. So don't worry, 3rd period, I have answered your question about cancer patients.

You should have also read about Entropy. Entropy is the randomness or disorder of the universe. In an ordered Universe, people can harness the transfer of heat to do work. For example your cars engine. There is a hot part (the explosion of gases in the piston) that is separated from the cold part (the exhaust to the outside environment). This is considered ordered because the hot and cold region are separate. Now when we do work, heat is transferred from the hot region to the cold region. In fact in your cars engine almost 75% of the heat that is transferred cannot be used for work. In other words it is WASTED! So when most of the hot part goes into the cold part we get warm. Lots of random molecules moving around in a random fashion. We can no longer harness this energy because the energy will not try to flow. We say that the Entropy has increased because the system looks more random now. In all natural processes the Entropy will increase and that means we will be able to do less and less work.

You should write some questions about entropy in this post. I will respond to them soon.

On another note,

I have heard that period 3 is being rambunctious! You are supposed to be a nice class that works hard! We I still see good results on your heat test?

4th period - I hear that you are well behaved and trying hard. I appreciate this.

5th period - What the heck is going on around there? Erika and Caitlin!! You need to try to learn something. I hope that you will not continue to talk and waste time. Apparently someone decided to light the trash can on fire. Have you completely lost it? It is not funny. I wonder why Javier had to go to the Nurses office for a burn on his finger. Seems a little coincidental. I know that he enjoys going to Santa Barbara High School. Hmmm... I had hopes that your class would be mature enough to handle my being away. You all are very smart. I would like for you to use your brain power. Please do not give your substitute, the Principal, or me a heart attack!

6th period - It seems that Gia and Jessica have had trouble with staying on task. Please continue to be my cute little 6th period,hard working class.

I will return soon. Please try to learn and be respectful. It is the only rule in the classroom.

First Tears

What an amazing day! Maksim knows the routine.

When we first arrive, he gives us hugs and kisses and goes straight for his blanket that Nana made for him. He knows that as soon as we set it out, food will come. He was really into English today. Every thing we said he would mimic. But he has learned to say "I like it! Da" He repeats this and "Pashaloosta Papa" all during snack time. Today he ate another entire green apple. "Yum" If we sound like a broken record, yeah, so. This is the visitation life. He gets so hungry that he chokes on his food sometimes. Papa cuts the apple into the smallest bites. It takes us about 1/2 hour for snack time. That is fine with us and with Maksim.

At lunch time, we ate with another American couple. They are from San Antonio and we had a nice time talking about the adoption, basketball, and beer. We also taught their translator some words to describe "over drunk" people. Probably not the best topic of conversation but it was funny.

We went to a bazaar and bought Maksim some new gloves (the ones we brought were too big for his fingers, but too short) and some sunglasses. And boy were the glasses a hit. He loved, loved, loved them. He wouldn't put them down. Actually he would put them down, then up, then down, then on his head, then poke his eye, then down and so on. He loved to wear them on his head like Momma does. He loves to make them move up and down like Papa. "I like it!"

We got to talk to one of the caregivers today. She is really nice to us and especially to Maksim. She explained that Maksim has really changed since we have been visiting. She said his language has increased alot and that he is like a boy that has grown up at home. We told her that we heard Maksim had been naughty. She said, "No. Not naughty. He has the taste of freedom." Even though Kazakhstan is a free country, Momma couldn't help but hear the Star Spangled Banner and see an American flag. Silly Momma, she is so patriotic!

We went for a walk and Maksim tried to entice Momma to leave the gates. "Come this way," he motioned with a cute little smile. Momma couldn't even come close for fear of the temptation. He still loves to look at all of the machinee. Yeah! Momma and Papa also love cars. He sweet talked Anya (translator for the Gaines family) into an extra piece of candy. Who can say no to a handsome dude in orange sunglasses! He looked so cute.

We came back to the room and played for a while. We read a book about a family of spiders getting a new car. It has some really fun onomatopoeia in it so we all SCREECHED and WHINED. My mom was right. It was a great book to pack. He hasn't liked it until today. But we had so much fun - over and over. He repeated all of the words with the same tones that we used. Amazing.

At the end of the visit it was time to fold the blanket. He did NOT want to help Papa. Nee-yet. He knew that it was time for Momma and Papa to go. Nee-yet. He started crying. Real tears this time. Momma got to pick him up and sing him a lullabye as he snuggled her. It made him feel better and he got back up to play. But it wasn't time to play. So we put away the toys and said Paka Paka. He went back into his room and waved and said Da Svidanya and blew us kisses. His caregivers allowed him to run back and give Momma E Papa another hug.

"I love you so much Momma." a first.

"I love you so much Papa." another first.

We love you so much, Maksim!

A. Maze. Ing.

The party!

The party to say goodbye to winter worked! All of the snow is melting like crazy and it is a warmer outside. The streets are filled with water.

We took a video of the performance and it was definately cute. There were lots of doctors and nurses there to watch the kids. They were so excited and did a great job. Several of the kids recited poetry (including Maksim) and they were proud and did a great job. No one even got stage fright. We were amazed that the children had learned their parts. We have never been to a 3 year old performance before - so we have nothing to compare to but we think they were amazing. There was the cutest little dance with four boys and four girls. They knew their parts so well. At the end of the partnered dance, each boy returned his girl to her seat and bowed to her as she sat down. Here is a picture of Maksim's partner. She is adorable. Her Momma and Papa are coming soon we have heard. There were 4 or 5 kids that we wanted to sneak into our back pockets to take home. Just kidding, of course. But all of the kids were great! The children got chocolate and a pancake (a crepe). The adults got a pancake too! They were tasty.

Maksim was a very good boy who made good decision today. We went for walks in the morning and the afternoon visit. The caregivers said that Maksim was unhappy when he woke up from his nap. He snuggled into Momma and ate some cucumbers, and crackers. That cheered him up right away. He loves cucumbers. "I like it!" he says, "Yummm!" Momma always asks him, "Do you like it?" "Da," he says and nods. We love to feed him.

On our afternoon walk, we saw a sobaka (dog) Maksim really wanted to go check it out and we did, too. As we got closer, some ladies from the orphanage came out and scolded us about getting Maksim too close to the dog (we think - who knows they we speaking Russian). As the dog got closer, Maksim got really scared and wanted Papa to pick him up quick! Ah-Oh. Audry and Maksim will have to go through some bonding time, too.

He has also been doing this fake cry kind of thing. "Waa, waa". We are not sure of the meaning. Momma and Papa snuggle him, he resists, but stops crying. We are not able to comfort him as much as we would like. We are sure that it will come eventually. Hopefully we have figured it out by the time he comes home with us.
We will turn in our court papers on Monday. This means that we could have court on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday are a holiday - so we might not have court until Friday. After court, there is a 15 day waiting period. The next day we can go to the orphanage with our court decree and walk out of those gates. Maksim is ready, now.

Rambunctious

What a rambunctious boy! Our boy has a lot of energy. We heard when we arrived at the baby house that Maksim had been a naughty boy. He hasn't been listening to his caregivers. They let us know this morning. Yikes! We think that maybe he is feeling frustrated. It must be confusing to him that he gets love and doting attention, then return back to the environment where there are not enough arms to go around. Then love again - then back to the orphanage environment. One day soon he will be with us alone. He definately needs some consistency in his life.

He has been a little fiesty with us, too. It is so hard that we cannot bring him home to the apartment with us. We love the little guy and can't wait to feed him, love him, and teach him to be a man.


Tomorrow, though, is the party and we will get to see his performance and eat pancakes to celebrate the end of winter. Although, today, we had a large blizzard. Maybe goodbye to winter will have to wait!

We love you so much, Maksim! We will always be there for you.

Sheeps Head

Maksim is learning some songs! He will sing Itsy Bitsy Spider - he knows many of the words, all of the actions, but "lalalalas" along sometimes. He will also sing "eieio" when we use the Old Macdonald puppet. He has also tried to sing some of the songs from the party that is coming up. I think that he feels frustrated that we do not know the words.

We went to a very interesting "mall" today during lunch. We didn't get any pictures because our batteries were dead. It is basically a farmer's type market except the vendors are middle men. They had PRODUCE!!! We bought lettuce (kinda sad lettuce), fresh parsley, good quality onions, green onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, pomegranates and garlic. We were told by the health department in the US that we should not eat such food because of the diseases in the water that is used to wash and grow the veges. But I can't help it! I need some vegetables. I am going to cook much of what we eat and peel the stuff to try to cut down my chances for getting sick. The cucumbers, bell peppers and tomatoes are the fruits we will have to watch the most, I guess. We found some honey. Since honey is made from the pollen of flowers, this honey was very different from the US honey I like. The honey Jason and I get from our local farmer's market is usually avocado or orange blossom. I really like to get it in those sticks. This honey though has such a unique flavor. We bought a little in a plastic container. We weren't used to the fact that containers are sealed and weren't careful enough so we had honey all over the bag it came in. lol Lena and Simone thought we were funny! The people in the mall haven't seen many tourists and they loved to hawk(?) there wares. The meat is laying on concrete slabs around the market. Underneath one of the tables was a large cows or sheeps head with fur and everything. Just the head. Brains and blood. Yup! Jason bought a "chop" and we are going to cook it tomorrow. I really wish we had. a BBQ. That is the only way I like meat, really. I will probably try a bit. Jason also got some horse sausage. I probably will not try it because I do not like sausage at all. I would try some horse chops if they had them BBQ. It seems we will not find this, though.

In the afternoon, we took Maksim and his Sobaka for a walk. We like to get him out of that little room. We saw all of the translators out there and Maksim fell in love with Alfia. He just stared at her with a coy little smile. He is a ladies man! He got in the car with them for a while. And just sat without saying a word. We came back to the room and read 4 stories all the way through. Maksim threw a little temper tantrum when Momma wanted him to listen to the story and began hitting the book and grunting. I wish I knew Russian!! So I turned him around to face Momma and tried to explain that we are nice to books and have to listen and be good when Momma and Daddy are reading. It was first try at scolding - sort of scolding - is it scolding if you don't understand a word? I know that he understood my tone of voice. It seemed to work and we finished the book sitting comfortably and making the noises with us and turning the page when it was time. He is a good boy. Good boy, Maksim. He repeated it.

Now I am going to make some dinner and a CD for Simone of some of our favorite musica. Paka Paka!

Physics Number 2

So... you guys scared off your previous sub! Will you please, please be nice to your new one. She sounds very nice and knows some physics! I miss you and physics.

Thanks 4th period for writing me a note. Kazakhstan is really wonderful. It is alot like Utah (where I grew up) in geography. Of course the people speak Russian and Kazakh.

Please go back and look at day 6 with the substitute so that you can complete the activity. You need to read my post and then ask me some "radiation" questions. Your subsitute will also be able to answer your questions. :)

Love,
Mrs. Woods

Momma's Snuggle

Today, we got a treat! We got to watch a rehearsal of the party that will happen on Thursday. The children from the 2 and 3 year old groups will perform a dance in the Goodbye to Winter party. We got some great footage of Maks' first performance. He was so cute and nervous. The video is adorable. He will dance with a girl, say a few lines solo, and participate in the group dance. I can't wait to see it in full costume.

At lunch time, Simone and Lena took us to a museum . Did you know that the author of The Wizard of Oz is from Ust-Kamenogorsk? Weird. We got to see his house. The museum was also very interesting. They had a taxidermy section where we were allowed to take pics. Ahhhheehh! Stuffed animals - not exactly my cup of tea. But interesting. Here is a picture of us by a (dead stuffed) snow leopard. It is the national animal - kinda like the bald eagle is for the US, I guess.

We took Maksim for a walk. He loves showing off his new boots. All during the walk he was talking about bananas. He loves food! He loves trying on his new clothes. The 2T stuff we brought him is almost too big!! He continues to love to play with the cell phone and looking at all of his books. He is really getting into the life book now. He asked me the name of all of his cousins and he repeated them. He knows auntie and babooshka (sorry Nana's - I think you will be Babooshkas!!) The little sticky frogs are a big hit now that he knows they will not "get" him. Lagooshka!! Lagooshka!! He shouts when he sees them and we stick them to the walls. He has soo much energy. We will definately have our hands full with him.

We hope that he will not be scared when he comes back with us to the apartment. What will it be like without the other children?? What will he think of the elevator and Momma's cooking? Do kids like sriracha? hehehee

At the end of the visit, Maksim really snuggled into Momma. He did not want her to leave. She did not want to leave either. He played with her hair and buried his head into her neck and leaned right into her. "I love you so much," he said. Can he already know what that means? I am almost ready to cry just remembering his little self hugging and holding me. We snuggled for a little while until he was ready to go. He gave Daddy a snuggle and Da Svidanya. Can't wait until tomorrow!