In which we travel backwards through time.
In the now legendary cinematic masterpiece Superman, starring Christopher Reeve, the hero demonstrates how one can time travel into the past by spinning quickly against the orbit of the earth.
Owen spent his afternoon trying to replicate this experiment.
Much to his parents' delight, Owen demonstrated that he can not only roll from his back to his stomach, but also, as of today, from his stomach onto his back. The demonstration was repeated many times, particularly as each roll was consistently followed by applause and cheers.
Now perhaps the experienced parents out there think that Robin and I have set our expectations remarkably low. While it is true that we are completely prepared to let Owen make his living on his astonishing good looks (have I mentioned that Lyuba and Gulmira also think he looks like me?), we're dealing with a special case.
In preparation for adopting, particularly adopting internationally, one receives a LOT of reading material. Several articles deal with delayed development. As a rule of thumb, for every three months of institutionalization, a child loses about one month of development. In Owen's case, he's approaching seven months of age with the "skills" of about a 4- or 5-month old.
The thing that we find remarkable, however, is how quickly these kids catch up. The Strelos told us we'd be surprised. As always, they were right.
When we first met Owen, he could barely hold his head up. While he slept on his stomach (or so the nurses told us-- he's strictly a back sleeper with us), the rest of his day was spent lying on his back staring at the ceiling. There wasn't really room for him to roll over.
In the three weeks we've been with him, though, he's steadily strengthened his neck muscles, holds himself up and, as of today, is mastering the art of rolling over. Sitting up remains an intriguing mystery to him and the use of his legs to support himself "standing" can be a hit-or-miss proposition. Still, the change, in such a short time, from motionless doll to active baby has been fun to watch. The whole thing makes us more eager than ever to have him home and checked out by westernized medicine.
Surprisingly, however, despite Owen's amazing skills, he was not able to time travel. His parents were more successful, albeit in a the metaphorical sense.
Last night, we had the opportunity to watch the past unfold as the McCall family, Lisa and Mike, arrived in Kokshetau. (Click here to see their website and look at the quick snap of Lisa, left.) It's been kind of fun to watch them the way the Strelos must have watched us on our first night.
There was the same hurried visit to the hospital to see their prospective son. (Reid is staying at the children's hospital which is a few blocks from the maternity hospital where Owen lived.) There was the same surreal tour of the cottage-- "This is a table. You can eat here. Here is a refrigerator. Food is often kept here."-- and the same exhausted supper. Like us, they were a bit shell-shocked from the flight from Almaty to Kokshetau.
Mike is retired from the service. "I've flown on a lot of planes," he told us. "But NOTHING like that..."
We spent today envying them the thrill of leaving the cottage for three entire hours and having lunch at a cafe. (Inna took them someplace she didn't take us. We're insanely jealous.) Meanwhile, Robin and I played "Uno" and accused each other repeatedly of cheating. I'm not sure it's actually possible to cheat at Uno, but we're both only children and very poor losers.
Oh, well. We'll show those McCalls soon enough. I finally got ahold of Peace Corps Bryan and he's promised to take us to lunch for "dirty schessliki." Schessliki, which I'm positive I've spelled poorly but at least in the ballpark of the pronounciation, is a Kazakh shish-kebab. The restaurant is Bryan and Ryan's favorite hole-in-the-wall, hence "dirty" schessliki.
Normally we don't eat "dirty." You're beginning to see how desperate we've become.
