Mother to Mother

As we exited the pancake house today, Denara (our translator) mentioned a consignment shop (called "Mother to Mother") was across the street. Blythe's eyes lit up and a huge smile came across her face. At home Blythe loves to frequent consignment shops and yard sales for Asher's clothes, and always gets a special thrill at the idea of recycling clothes and getting a good deal. Given the high prices in Kazakhstan, and the fact that the children will be sent out naked to the airport unless we intervene, Blythe felt she could do some serious damage at this place. Seth was confident of my ability to do this as well. We rolled in like a tornado (think "Pretty Woman", but with used clothes). Three shop keepers scurried about displaying shirts, skirts, and shoes. We noticed Kostin's pink sandals with the flower on them (which he has worn the entire time we have known him) in the girls' section. We felt it fitting that daddy introduce him to some manly, rugged tevas. Back in the hotel room, with the clothes spread out on the bed, Blythe could not have been happier. Oh, and we went to see the kids today, too.

One of the many cheap knock-off toys which came to Kazakhstan with us courtesy of "Michael's" was a $2 etch-a-sketch. We expected to see doodles from the kids, but were surprised when Alina wrote "Papa" in Russian. We had asked Alina earlier in the week if she could read Russian, and she said "no". But we came to understand today that she does know the Russian alphabet and the spelling of some words. The board became a good medium for Blythe to start Alina's English lessons. By the end of the day Alina could write "mama" and "papa" in English, and could recognize "hungry" and "thirsty".

Given how well the water bottles had gone over the last few days, we thought we would up the ante with some carbonated water. This time, it was Alina who wouldn't let go of the bottle. She kept taking the cap on and off to hear the fizz. This was obviously a high priority gift as Kostin could not even get close enough to see what the fuss was about.

As embarrassing as this sounds, we must admit today that we have been calling our son by the wrong name. Seth asked Denara today why her pronounciation sounds like "Kostcha". "Oh, well, that's his name." How were we supposed to know? He responds when we call him Kostin. At lunch we decided we have been calling him that long enough that we are attached to it. Besides, it's all throughout the blog and we are too lazy to change it now. Denara said she likes Kostin better than Kostcha anyway, so Kostin it is! Then she told us that his name is short for Nicholas. Hold the phone, isn't his name Konstantin? To which she responded "Oh yeah, it can be short for that too." Whatever. He's Konstantin "Kostin" Joseph Kaufman now. By the way, you may have noticed that Kostin is back in his original outfit. There must be some system for clothes swapping and laundering, but so far it has gone over our heads.