It runs in the family....

Teresa was sick again yesterday, so I was on my own with the kids in the baby house. The morning visit went well as our interpreter helped me play defense with the kids. They had a lot of energy at first, and then quickly ran out of steam. Madden ended up falling asleep in my arms for about 15 minutes. Jackson fell asleep for the first time in front of us. He fought it for a while, and kept wanting to lay on the blanket, so I let him and he was out before too long. Right at the end of the visit, however, he woke up and started crying. I'm not sure if it was waking up in a different environment than what he's used to, or if it's that he has a cold. His nose was pretty congested.

In the afternoon, they confirmed that Jackson has a temperature and wasn't feeling well, so he stayed in the crib (we don't get see the "back room"). So it was daddy-daughter day as Madden and I got to play. She had a lot of energy and kept waving her arms back and forth. I helped her stand on the chairs, and she seems to love that. She will wave her arms, hitting the chair, and will (rather loudly) voice how happy she is. It's an odd sound that I think I can now copy, but I'm not sure how to describe it. It's definitely a happy noise though. She stayed awake the whole visit, and was smiling and happy.

Teresa is feeling better. The rash is mostly gone. We're pretty sure that it was due to new clothes that she hadn't washed before wearing. I went to a Kazakhstan laundry service (with our interpreter) and got all her clothes washed (about 25 items) for about 1500 tenge - that's about $13. Pretty good deal!

Teresa still has a cough, but she's better than before. She's hopeful that she'll be able to make it to the visits today, and we can have the whole family together healthy!

We're supposed to go to a more traditional Kazak restaurant tonight, and are getting "Five Fingers". It's a traditional dish that is supposed to be very good. They have to order it in the morning as it takes a while to make. We're going with 2 or 3 Peace Corps volunteers - from what we've heard, they like seeing Americans as much as we like seeing them.