Laughter

Laughter

It’s a cool and rainy day in Taraz. We were picked up around 10:00 to go to the baby house, and were greeted by Zema holding Symbat. Quickly we took her inside to the same play room we were in yesterday. It doesn’t have a lot of toys for little ones other than a rattle, so we’re really looking forward to getting our suitcase!

We found out that her birthday is March 18, so she’s 13 months old right now. Developmentally she is probably more like 7 or 8 months in some respects, but we figure she’ll catch up pretty quickly once we get her home.

At first the little one was a bit unsure of us again today. She stiffens up and clenches her fists when she’s not sure of things. It only took a few minutes today for her to warm up though. I think a lot of it has to do with Kara, as she just has a way with kids.

We played and took some more pictures. Our goal today was to get her to make a sound, as yesterday she was totally quiet. Kara started zooming her again and after a few times she started laughing. Her laugh almost sounds like a cry - it’s a little different but it’s cute. The first time she laughed though Kara stopped to check that she wasn’t crying, but it was definitely a smile on her face. She is also a pretty curious child and really likes to be touched and held. She played with the hood strings on Kara’s coat for quite a bit. She also snuggled up to Kara and fell asleep. It seems like she can fall asleep at the drop of a hat. One of her comfort poses is to suck her left thumb, and her right hand goes up just behind her ear and she rubs her fingers back and forth holding her hair.

Other observations… she sits by herself without any problems, and she seems to have a fairly strong upper body and balance. Kara had Symbat on her lap for a while and was rocking back and forth and the little one was fine with it. We put her on her tummy to see if she would crawl. While she got up on her knees, she was pretty stiff and didn’t move, so we’ll work on that a bit too.

This little one is a cute kid, and I think she’s a keeper! We’re still thinking of names. While her name does mean beautiful in Kazakh, it might not be so readily understood in the States. We have a list and just need to figure out what seems to fit her best.