November 30

Olesya is getting closer to crawling each day. She is trying to figure out exactly what legs do and at times gets part way up on one knee. She seems stronger and more determined with each new day. After about an hour of hard work she started to get tired and got angrier and fussier than we have seen before. This evolved into a short nap after which she was back to her happy self.
Today was a colder day in Taraz. Probably in the low 30's with very light snow, but no accumulation. After our visit with Olesya, Aida took us to her sister's book store where we got a few books on the area and some children's books.
I think there is a very good chance that Olesya will be doing a little bit of crawling by the time we leave. She actually rocked on her hands and knees very briefly today. She also figured out how to stick out her tongue and do raspberries. She did this for several minutes today. I'm sure once we get her home, she will do this at a very inappropriate time and we will be incredibly embarrassed, but today we were quite entertained by it.
We had a very nice time in the book store. I was pleasantly surprised by the selection. I even found some children's books written in both Russian and English. I am excited to share them with my class upon my return.