A Night Out On the Town (New Parent Style)

Sara has always said that one of the problems with her first husband was that he would, on occasion, make major family decisions without consulting her completely. To circumvent such difficulties, Julian finally decided to break the news that he had recently (weeks ago) put down a deposit for a purebred Dutch Shepherd puppy (a breed similar to the German and Belgian breeds), that will be joining the now rapidly-expanding Yeomans household in a couple of weeks time. Those of you who have followed our journey from the beginning would be aware that Charger, our beautiful 14 year-old Belgian, shuffled off his mortal coil the week before Christmas. Julian believed that a doubling of the pitter patter of little feet around the house would provide comfort to entire family. With few realistic alternatives, Sara decided that this was absolutely wonderful news for the Yeomans family – once the initial shock wore off. Julian remains suitably chagrined for neglecting to engage in complete consultation aforehand.

But back to the primary focus of our Kazakhstan adventure and the centre of our new universe – Zoe, our other little one.

Today we continued to discover each other’s distinct characteristics, personalities, and likes & dislikes. Thankfully, she continues to sleep extremely well at night and is now also sleeping during her designated nap times. At the moment, we are following the Baby House schedule, but will allow her unique chronological being to determine what is right for her when things start to settle down. We have found that she does not like to eat with plastic covered utensils – only stainless steel. She has not been impressed by some of the “listed” foods that we have tried to feed her – some she likes but others she will not touch. So we have also been introducing new foods to see how she will respond to them. She loved a scrambled egg and cheese dinner with us – using her hands to pick up the big chunks – receiving her own plate for personal experimenting. This was interesting from several angles. It was probably the first time she was ever allowed to feed herself – and to feed herself for pleasure, yet. It was an entirely new food. And she had just eaten her own, designated meal. We think that this bodes particularly well for her future with us.

Weatherwise today was yet another beautiful day in Almaty. Late this afternoon we took (the appropriately bundled up) Zoe to the Hotel Alma-Ata to get together with two American adoptive families who are in Almaty to complete the final stages of their respective adoptions. Kami and Eric from New Hampshire who have adopted their son Lincoln from Aktobe, and Gen and Joel from New Jersey who have adopted their son Gabe also from Aktobe. We went to a Chinese restaurant just around the corner from their hotel – for apparently the best food that these Aktobe based families had apparently experienced for several months. Our company for the evening was absolutely delightful – both families were very good company and their children were wonderful.

It was also our Zoe’s first foray into the world of dining out so we were somewhat curious as to how she would act under such new circumstances. To the sheer delight of her somewhat apprehensive parents, her behaviour was absolutely impeccable (Grandma Elaine, Ethiopian food on the first weekend home should now be confirmed). Clearly she was born to socialize. She encountered her first tastes of “foreign” food and thoroughly enjoyed the peas, beans, mini corn-on-the-cob and tofu on Julian’s vegetarian platter. Our little girl LOVES tofu! (Okay, we might keep that part hidden from the beef farmers in the family, but this discovery was a significant breakthrough from Julian’s perspective). If tonight is any indication of things to come, Zoe will be an absolute joy to take to the various ethnic food options available throughout her new, multicultural home city of Toronto. Fortunately, this is one of her parents’ passions, too.

And that concluded another day of new parenthood.
Zoe clearly has eyes for little boys.Zoe still cannot take her eyes off the little boys. P.S. In case you were not aware of the fact, Julian just happens be Sara’s “first husband”. However, she occasionally refers to him that way to keep him on his toes.

P.P.S. Continuing with the birthday trend, we are celebrating yet another family birthday today. (Our collective families are not really that big; it is just that half of them have February and March birthdays.) Happy Birthday to Zoe Yerkezhan’s Uncle Mark! Here he is with his horse, Shashlyk, er… I mean Marango.