They’ve got names, we’ve got names.

Steve again. Well, it took a while but Terri and I finally settled on the names for the boys. I would now like to officially introduce you to our children—(drum roll please) Aidan Yan Gaines and Liam Sergei Gaines. Terri and I felt that it was important that the boys keep their Russian names as middle names as a link to their heritage. The name Liam is an Irish form of William. We picked this in honor of our fathers, Bill Gaines and Bill Golightly. The name Aidan may come back to haunt us but we really like it. It is Irish for ‘fiery one’. So for the rest of our journey we will refer to the boys with their new names. It may be a little confusing at first but at least we will be keeping you on your toes. Poor Terri, she will now be surrounded by three Aries boys, may God help her.

When we awoke this morning it was snowing. The locals do not embrace snow with the same fascination that I do. Remember, Terri and I live in a place where the only snow we ever see is when the cable goes out. The people here see it a many, many months out of the year.

Our first visit of the day went well. Liam was in good spirits but a little quiet today. Smiles did not come as easy this time. Aidan was in a good mood, too. Terri was entertaining Liam for a lot of the morning, and I have been working with Aidan. It appears that I may be forming a bond with Aidan, probably because he hasn’t gotten the roughhousing before that he gets with me. Liam was content to crawl around early on and I was Aidan’s human racecar. Half way through the visit Aidan fell asleep in my lap again—I don’t know whether to be flattered or insulted by this two day development! Liam was getting a little cranky at the end of the visit. Our visits end right before lunch so we think our boy is ready for his meal. Terri ended up carrying him around for quite some time. We think Liam may have some hidden sensor in his posterior that detects when it is coming too near the ground. It definitely is proximity based as Terri could not even sit down with him as he would cry. We switched boys, Terri taking the still snoozing Aidan and I took Liam. He settled down some, but was not even impressed with baby sky lifts. When Aidan awoke all disoriented Terri was there to comfort him—very important in establishing a bond. When it was time to go, we put Aidan’s shoes and hat on for him and both boys were off to their groups. An interesting thing with children that are in orphanages is that they are by necessity self-sufficient. One of the things we need to do as parents is to regress them a bit. Aidan is completely capable of dressing himself, but we made sure we dressed him instead. Again, it helps to reinforce to him that we are here to take care of him and he does not have to fend for himself. Terri has prepared well for the challenges of adopted children, reading up on the hurdles we will need to cross, and putting things into simple terms that I can understand.

Lunch was at the Russian café we have been frequenting. We had our usual fare of soup and blini—we have become creatures of habit in Kazakhstan. It was then back to the apart to fit in a couple of episodes of 24 before our afternoon visit.

On our afternoon visit Liam was a bit disoriented as his caretakers changed his nap time and ended up having to wake him for the afternoon visit. He was a little out of it but seemed content to be held. When Aidan first came in it looked as if jealousy reared its ugly head. He got a little whiney and upset that Liam was getting attention when he came in. But he got over it fairly quickly. Real progress came with Aidan. Terri really got some time to bond with him and make a connection. They played a game where Aidan flew feet first into my belly—Terri saying something about it being a large enough target—thanks, dear. But they were having a good time. We worked with him, pointing at each other saying mama and dada. All of a sudden he blurted out mama soon followed by dada. Incredible! Terri and I were elated. We were a little apprehensive about Aidan’s speech delay; but here he was saying mama and dada. We had some serious high fives on this development. Tomorrow I am going to try to get him to say encyclopedia… I am joking. It is actually scheduled for next week.

After our successes of the day we felt coffee and ice cream were in order and went back to another of our popular hang outs, the coffee house. After this it was to the market for a few items, then home to an evening of DVD watching. All in all, a pretty good day.