Days 4 and 5

Thursday
Well, Thursday, we didn't eat breakfast...oh my goodness, no porridge! We ate yogurt and Pringle's for lunch. The driver, our rep, and our translator picked us up a little early so that we could visit another hotel. They said they could show us some rooms that were bigger than the one we're in now and cheaper. We visited the Hotel Zhambyl. (Zhambyl is the name of the region where Taraz City is located.) The hotel is older, but they did have a room with a living room/bedroom for half the price of the room we're in now. We decided tomorrow we'd check out of our hotel and into The Zhambyl. Then we went to the orphanage. Caleb came in and immediately started playing with us. We put him in the walker that was already in the room. (Up until now we had only played with the toys we brought--so, I wiped the walker down with an antibacterial wipe before he came in!) He first started going backward, then when he was backed up against the wall he went forward. He seemed to control it pretty well and enjoyed it. Today they didn't put him in the outfit we left for him--they had him in that same original outfit we brought. We have to take pictures with the dates on it of each day of bonding for court, so I want him wearing different clothes. I don't want them to think we faked it! So, we changed him into a new outfit and took the first one with us! Today I was holding Caleb facing Brad and they were talking to each other. Brad started clapping and Caleb did too. It was so cute! Something else funny that happened on a previous day that I forgot to tell you was Caleb kept pulling my hair and trying to put it in his mouth. I said, "Neeyet!" He started to cry! Brad and I cracked up! Nine month olds don't like the word "No" in any language!
When our time with Caleb was up, we went back to our hotel. We went to eat dinner in our hotel. Brad ordered something that, ironically, tasted like meatloaf. He liked it. I ordered my same salad, bread, and get this...chicken noodle soup! Of course, I basically just ate the noodles. Two words for you: bird flu!

Friday
Well, this morning we moved to our new hotel. We hated the room...we couldn't get the Internet to work (the phone cord was spliced with a piece of tape), the room was really cold, and the toilet didn't work. We moved to another room. It is smaller than our room in the previous hotel and is only saving us a little money. Plus, breakfast was included at the other hotel and not this one--I sure am gonna miss my porridge. Yes, we wish we wouldn't have moved! (Oh and to top it all off, they had just switched to two-ply quilted toilet paper at the other hotel--What were we thinking?!) Brad just said that he can't get the toilet to flush in this room either--we may be moving back to The Gazovik!!! All of these hotel problems are the reason we didn't get to post "on time"--sorry! Our visit with Caleb today went well again. He started off in a good mood, then about halfway through acted like his teeth were bothering him again. We gave him Babydent and fed him some fruit. He looks so cute when we feed him. For some reason he always turns his head sideways for me to put the spoon in his mouth. He walked in the walker some more. We stayed a little later than usual for some reason, and he started getting really cranky. I rocked him back and forth to calm him down. He put his fingers in his mouth and fell asleep. We may "hear about it" tomorrow because of messing up his schedule, but oh well. He was tired, his teeth hurt, and he felt very comfortable in Mama's arms!

Tonight we ate dinner at our new hotel's restaurant. Brad and I both ordered a salad, mashed potatoes, and we each ordered a different chicken dish. Yes, I ordered meat, despite my fear! Brad really liked his. Mine was called a chicken cutlet. Sounds like a thin piece of breaded chicken, right? Wrong, it was thick and stuffed with stuff--I don't even know what! It looked like anchovies or something. Needless to say, I didn't eat much of it!