Okay, Okay.

Now I'm ready. Now I do feel that it's time to move on.

Monday the gas went out on the stove. Not that it matters directly to me since I don't cook, but it did mean that the AMAZING dinner that Kathleen was making was interrupted part way through the cooking. (Still, it was--I repeat--AMAZING chicken Parmesan.)

Tuesday, the washer broke. The owners and Luba are making clear that they believe this to be our fault. They found 2 coins and a match stick in the lint filter and believe this broke the machine--even though the repair involved replacing the pump. Go figure. Anyhow, we are no longer allowed to do laundry. The good news is that now Luba will do it and she irons everything--including towels, sheets, and socks. So, we'll be looking good these last few days. The bad news is that she charges 500 Tenge a load (a little less than $5). And with four of us in the fam now, and this being a very small washer, that will certainly add up.
So, I'm thinking it's time.

Yesterday, we found out that the owner of the other cottage refused to get a crib for the gals over there. Angie and Renee got custody of their kids yesterday and needed a place for them to sleep. Renee's girl is a little over 2 years old and can sleep with her in the bed, but Angie's son is 10 months and needs a crib. We donated one of ours to the cause, but it certainly complicates things a bit here. A pallet on the floor won't work because both can crawl (or close enough); they can't sleep with us because our bed is only a full-sized and so barely fits the two of us comfortably--besides we're not going to lay down with them every nap; finally, they can no longer sleep together because they have gotten just a bit too big and Jess with his teething issues squirms a whole lot in his sleep and fusses off and on.

So, we pushed a chair against the wall and are using that for Evelyn.

I think she is getting used to it, but we had a very late night last night trying to get her to sleep. Every time we put her in it she couldn't sprawl out like she usually does and would wake up and start investigating the problem. Then we'd have to start the whole rocking her to sleep routine all over again.
Yup, it's time.



The kids are starting to get extremely bored with their current batch of toys (though our friends here in Kokshetau keep giving us little gifts of toys and that has really helped--thanks you all!).


This little toy (from Kathleen) cracks me up.

It drives around and the creatures sway back and forth and sing a song in Chinese, I think. It's hilarious. The twins like it too! Below are all the new toys together.

Jess, in particular, no longer wants to play with toys unless we are playing with him. Otherwise, he wants to crawl around and explore, but this isn't a completely childproof setting and he feels especially drawn to cords and to the standing fan.

Oh, and the kitchen sink keeps clogging.
Time to move on.Clearly, none of this is catastrophic--in fact, it's all pretty darn trivial--but even such minor inconveniences at this late stage in the game provide just the push I needed. I'm looking now toward home.
While we look to our departure date, it seems only right to pass these last few days in a festive way, so I've instituted a daily happy hour on the porch. It begins at 5pm. There's beer and happy hour snacks for whoever shows. On the first day it was all five of us. Evie and Jess even showed up for a cocktail of apple juice flavored water (out of a cup--very special!), and their first teething crackers. For the grown-ups it was beer and nuts.


Yesterday, it was just me and the twins. We'll see who shows up today, we bought a variety of different snacks at the store--don't yet know what they are. Stop by if you're in the neighborhood.

This picture was actually taken in the dark. They wouldn't go to sleep last night (the whole new-bed thing) so we finally just turned out the lights, put them down on the quilt with their toys, and sat quietly to wait them out. I could vaguely see them doing something, so I took a quick picture. This is what I saw today when I downloaded it and added some light. Clearly, Evie was letting Jess try out a few of her fingers.

Hard to believe with all these toys they could be bored!

P.S. Would you look at her hair?!?