Father's Day - Day 24

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Last night was hell again. We took turns getting up to put Izaak back to sleep – about 4 times total during the night. We got up for good at around 6:30am. I fed Izaak a bottle (my first) sitting in bed with him on my lap. This was a neat experience. He was more awake than he usually is for bottle time, so it was cool to watch his eyes and his little hands grab at the bottle, my arm, thumb, etc. After that, we were all still not fully awake, so we played in bed for about an hour. At one point I got on the ground and hid from Izaak. He would look around for me, then I would surprise him with a “peek-a-boo”. He got a big kick out of it and started to anticipate my antics more and more. His little eyebrows go up as he tries to look over the edge of the bed for me. That game ended when he stopped laughing. Guess I scared him a bit. Oops.

Had some breakfast and cleaned up a bit – the laundry came out just fine despite pushing random button on that darn Russian machine. To my surprise, Izaak handed me a card for Father’s Day… well not really handed, as I had to pry it from his mouth. It was nice to get my very first Father’s Day card while in Kazakhstan. Complete with teeth imprints from my boy.

We packed up some gear and headed off to the mountains. The driver picked us up at 9:45am for the 30 min. drive up. The ski/skate park is just outside the city, so we got to see some huge mansions and countryside before the terrain started to go straight up. We drove up to the ski resort and decided to hop on the ski lift in operation, which takes you up another who knows how high. The weather was nice. The sun was very warm, but there was a cold breeze. Izaak was strapped to his mother via the carrier and everyone seemed warm enough. We took the 5-minute lift to the next plateau and walked around for a while. Izaak was starting to get fussy, so we took him out of the sling and let his feet touch down on Kazakh soil. There was another lift that takes you to the top, but we opted out of that because Izaak started to get uncomfortable… fast. We took some photos/video of the beautiful mountains and boarded the lift to return to the car. On the way down (backs towards the sun) we realized how cold it really was. This was apparent because Izaak started screaming bloody murder! He was bundled up, but we probably should have sprung for the $3 Siberian winter jacket – dumb. Oh well, we made it down in one piece and Izaak recovered quickly once we got in the car. We’re such newbies, it’s ridiculous.

We went directly back to the apartment and cooked up some Ramen noodles for lunch. We got some food in Izaak (not as much as we would have liked) and had some more play time. I put Izaak down for his nap at 1:30, but he must have been too tired or hyped up from the mountain adventure because he was up screaming 45 minutes later. This is where the fun started. For the next 2 hours we tried desperately to get Izaak back to sleep – walking, rocking, begging, pleading, etc. It totally sucked. He finally went down…hard. Angela and I were exhausted at the point. We managed to get some downtime and watched a couple episodes of Firefly before waking the beast from his ancient slumber. At 6:30pm, Angela decided to give Izaak a Sumo wrestler portion of cereal and baby food. This kid took it all in. He looked like a Buddha after she got done with the little man. Too funny. We thought he would spew or spring a leak.

We moved on to afternoon fun and games. We popped in some Baby Einstein, which caught Izaak’s attention for all of 3 minutes – good thing I brought 4 hours of this crap. We blew some bubbles, walked and crawled. Izaak is doing so much better crawling and puling up to stand. We put some pillows on the ground around him, as he tends to get cocky and let go. The first time he did a head plant on to the carpet and has been more cautious ever since.

Izaak still has a cold so we have to break out the dreaded bright blue nose squeegee (I’m sure the fresh mountain air was no help). He hates getting this done as much as I hate doing it. Now when he sees the squeegee coming, he braces himself for impact. His face wrinkles up and he starts screaming which only creates more snots, so I have a field day sucking it all up – gross!

No wanting a repeat of the 2 hour “Izaak, please go to sleep, I’ll do anything” party, we tried something different. At about 8:30, we wrapped Izaak up and took a quick walk around the apartment buildings - nothing exciting, just a way to get Izaak to settle down. When we returned to the apartment, Angela took Izaak and laid him in his crib, rubbed his back and off to sleep he went in about 15 minutes. It still took a couple tries, but was so much better than what happened before. Mom’s getting smart and I’m taking notes. Maybe we’ll get some sleep tonight?

Quite the rollercoaster ride of a Father’s Day, but one I will never forget. Happy Father’s to all the Dad’s and Grandpas at home. This day was as much yours and it was mine as you’ve all helped this dream come true. ~M