The Wizard of Oz

Today my little girl was wearing ruby slippers! They were so cute on her little feet. This was true, until we realized they were entirely too small and they were hurting her little feet! My first clue of this was when she tried to walk and the way she was turning her feet in and whimpering. Then when we sat down, she sort of tugged at her shoes. So, I took them off her feet – and then she really cried! She loves her footwear and didn’t want them off her feet. So, I crammed her little feet back in the cute shoes. We tried to walk around a little more then, and she was still walking ‘funny’. So, when we sat down again, she was still pulling at her poor little feet. So, I took them off again, and she cried and cried. We hid her shoes and then she was better. She doesn’t like to part with what is ‘hers’ but they were hurting her! It was the first time she had cried and she did for a couple of minutes, but I was able to calm her down ultimately. Most people don’t like a crying baby, but frankly, since it was a first for me to hear her cry, it was music to my ears and she was so snuggly and wanting me then too, that I felt like I could actually comfort her, which was nice! I will be happier when we are in the comforts of my house though so we can actually have a rocking chair, for example, in which to really calm down and snuggle. After all, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home…

Sneak peek, are you ready for this?? (You knew this was coming, right?)

The other new thing today was that I gave her a teething biscuit. She liked it! At first she took a couple of bites and it was fine – but then, as it is supposed to, it started to get ‘wet’ and ‘sticky’ and ‘gooey’. She ate every last bite, and did seem to enjoy it. It made her sleepy though, and she all but fell asleep towards the end of the biscuit (definitely would have totally fallen asleep, except that I ‘woke her up’). I think this is because she is used to having a 3 p.m. snack and then taking a nap right after snack… I gave her a snack about 1 p.m. and she thought it was naptime afterwards! At least that’s my theory!

We had a wonderful day with her again – a day of a few firsts… Shoes, painful shoes (being a woman, I’m sure this is the first of many pairs of painful shoes she will have to endure in her lifetime…), teething biscuits, crying, sleepy time, lots of snuggle time… and the typical laughs as well. A great day!

In the afternoon, Masha took us to the museum. Very interesting. It was all in Russian and Kazakh so I don’t know a lot of what it said, but even seeing the pictures, and knowing the parts Masha told us about made me feel like I learned something. After that, we went to get some coffee at a coffee house! Ok, so it wasn’t Starbucks - this place actually brought you a menu to order from, but they had lattes, and mocha’s…. AH! At last, a good cup of coffee! My first in three weeks. It was wonderful! From there, we walked home and learned a bit more about where we are going now! It was snowing and a little windy – quite what I expected every day to be like. It was great to walk home and get a good feel for the weather (especially since it wasn’t bitter cold!) There was new snow on the ground, but I have no idea how much… There is always snow – it is hard to tell how much more comes on any given day.

We left home three weeks ago today. Still, I am amazed at how fast the time seems to be going, for the most part. Other parts of me long to be home and with Matthew – but I try not to dwell on that too much. Mom and I will be home with the newest addition to the family before too long! The estimate is still the end of March or so… I am totally enjoying our time here though (without mentioning the obvious drawbacks that come with being here, like missing family.) We are getting a little more adventurous (for Mom and me anyway) each day. I think it is warming up a little too – it’ll be great if it really gets ‘warm’ before we leave – it’ll make it that much nicer to get out and about.