November 29

Today we had our first morning visit with Olesya, however aside from the clock there were very few differences. We played the usual games and such in the first hour. She then began to fade and by 1130 she was asleep. She awoke a few minutes before noon for a little more play time before going back upstairs to suite. She seems to be getting stronger and more alert with each passing day. She is a little closer to crawling as we play the reach for the rattle game and she is happy to see us from the moment she comes in the room and seems to recognize that we are the two people that she gets to have a couple hours of fun time with each time we show up.
At this point, we believe the first trip will go 1-2 weeks longer than originally forecast. This will likely put us right on top of Christmas, but hard to say exactly. Bulat is doing what he can to keep our trip as short as possible. After our morning with Olesya, we had a nice lunch with Aida. It was at a cafe near the hotel, but all writing was in Cyrillic so I cannot speculate on the name.
While Olesya was having "tummy time" this morning she stuck her tongue out and let out a great big, long raspberry. We were quite surprised by it and I think she was too. Joe and I then spent the next several minutes doing our own raspberries, to try to get her to do it again, but she didn't. I think she has just recently discovered her tongue and she enjoys making bubbles, sticking her tongue in and out and having me try to grab it. She sure is entertaining.
Our lunch with Aida was very nice. I have discovered that I love hot tea with lemon and sugar. We also like sharing similarities and differences about our countries. Mom, Aida told me that she loves reading Barbara Taylor Bradford. Maybe when we come back in January, we can bring a few for her.