It was a sunny day in Uralsk!!!

After several days of dark snow clouds, today was an absolutely beautiful day. It was so nice to see the sun!! The days here are also very short right now. It doesn't get light until about 9:00am and is pretty dark by 5:00pm.

My last few visits with Abby have been so wonderful!!! She is the most amazing and incredible baby. And smart. Yesterday I graduated her to her new larger blanket and by yesterday afternoon she had figured out what her new boundary was. Now she crawls to the edge of the blanket turns around and smiles and then makes a break for it. There will be no keeping this girl back! She has some other very funny things she does too. My other favorite is what Assia and I now refer to as her Princess pose. She will lay on one side and ever so casually cross one leg over the other. All she needs is some grapes and some men carrying her around and she will be good to go. It is soooo funny. I wish I could find a place to post photos so you could all see.

Abby laughs more and more each day. The first couple of days she made me work for a smile but now she almost volunteers them. Cheerios are definitely a big hit. And banging. Anything she can find to bang is pretty darn cool. :-) Assia had a headache today and I'm not sure she appreciated the noise as much but with a relatively small border to play in there is only so much you can do. This afternoon when they brought her out to me, they had her hair in this little clip. Oh my gosh but it was adorable. For those of you who have not seen her picture, she has hair but there is not much to actually clip.

I love her more every time I see her. And when I am not with her I am thinking about her. I can not wait for each visit!!! I get very excited when it is 9:30am or 3:30pm because that means Igor will arrive soon to take me to see her.

OK - more life in Uralsk for you. Last night was a big night in the Green apartment. Wash night. I realize I sound very Laura Ingalls Wilder that I planned a night around this, but I am happy to report all went well. The washer is very tiny and takes almost 2 hours to wash one load. I'm not convinced how clean everything really is but there was soap, there was water, and there was spinning so I'm calling it a success. No dryers here. I had to hang my clothes around inside the apartment. There is a clothesline out on the porch but everything would freeze in about 20 seconds out there so I dried them inside instead. When I woke up this morning everything was dry. Woo hoo! Life is good.

I have been walking each day from my apartment to the Internet cafe. It is about a 10 minute walk and now that I know the way, I really enjoy it. Today the Internet cafe was closed though, so I wound up walking around for about an hour. It was extremely cold but the day was so nice and it was really great to be out of the apartment. I feel 100% safe walking here. If the weather were warmer, I would do even more of it.

Right now I am at the Chagala Hotel. The internet is more expensive here but it is worth it to me since they are open. I will try to eat before Igor picks me up. This afternoon Igor had his son Maxim with him. That little boy is the cutest kid!!! And has the most beautiful eyes. We got stuck in a snow bank near the apartment which was kind of fun. A car was sitting in the way so we attempted to go around him and next thing you know, snow is flying by the window. We all got out of the car and Igor was able to move it but it was a moment of entertainment.

I have realized I take so many things at home for granted. Especially little things. Like toilet paper. I brought 2 rolls with me and believe me I wish I could have had room for more. I am using it so sparingly to try to save every bit I can. The toilet paper here is truly like brown crepe paper. There are many other things I take for granted too. Like choices in the grocery store. They only have 1 or maybe 2 brands of things here (except for vodka which took up an entire row of shelves). I also take for granted my car. Most people here do not own cars. They either walk everywhere or have someone else drive them. Pedestrians don't necessarily have the right away though. They cross when they feel like it but cars will wait until they are almost on top of them before they honk the horn. This is funny to me because by the time they honk, it is truly too late.

Speaking of cars, many people in my apartment must have drivers pick them up. My first day here I had not yet learned which car was Igor's (I swear almost all of them are white cars). So 2 different times I thought Igor was here and attempted to get in a white car only to hear "NYET" (translation: NO). :-)

One mroe thing about my apartment. My bed at the apartment is totally fine for me but I imagine taller people have some trouble with it. It is very close (maybe 1 foot) from the ground but it is also extremely short. My feet can touch the foot board. For those who don't know me personally, I am 5'3". I'm telling you, it is a little bed. :-)

Well, I am going to try to get something to eat while I am here. I hope you all had a great Sunday. Please keep those emails coming. I can't tell you how great it is for me to read messages from home.