So much progress in just 4 days

Its Day 4 of visitation and Sofie has made so much progress already. What a delight it is to see her learn so quickly! She is pushing off much more with her little legs. She is beginning to bite on stuff besides the knuckles on her right fist. She has never kneeled before. So I tried to hold up her trunk, but she just can't do it. In the picture with the mirror (thanks Tante Pam, she loves it) she is leaning on my leg, but I have her on her knees. I still have to hold her legs together or she does the splits. That was this morning. This afternoon I had her in the same position and I didn't have to hold her legs together. Its so amazing to see her get strong and learn new things so quickly.


This afternoon we went to the "open air Target" and found some Samosas. They are puff pastries with cheese or chicken or beef inside. Delicious! and only 40 cents!! There is a huge park right behind our hotel that we explored today. It is quite interesting..many statues, some buildings are brand new and some are in ruins. They don't have grass here. Its like sage brush and they don't mow, but there are flower boxes. It will be a good place to go for a walk in the afternoon.

Today I found out that Meruert {Mee rue air t} means 'Pearl' in Kazakh. Her nickname is Mira {Mee ra} and Miroshka. I use all of the names when I talk to her. She understands Russian. I can tell because when the caretakers talk to her she responds to them.

I also found out that her head is shaved! They do this to make cleaning easier and to avoid lice (yuck). It works, so I'm not complaining. Her hair will grow soon enough.