Daily routine

We go for our 1st visit at 11 am and, since the weather has been great, he's outside with his group, lately in the opposite corner from where we walk in. We walk around the building, he sees us and comes running over. We go to another corner and sit at a little picnic table.
Sultan starts going through our packs until he finds his pack, which he then pulls out and opens. He goes for the water or juice 1st and we try to make a game of it with the caps of the sippy cup and the water bottle and pouring and putting away. He's really good with it all.
Then it's on to the crayons, which are more about the box then about coloring. He did the dump the 1st time and now carefully takes out one at a time.
He really likes Susan's lipgloss. Turning the top carefully, and applying to Susan's lips. He'd like to do mine too but I guess I'm not ready for that. We have a chapstick we got in Amsterdam {it's the best!!}, and he pulls the top off, which is hard for him, and plays with screwing it out. The thing I like so much about this particular chapstick, besides the flavor, is that with 1 turn it's all the way out. So he plays with that and then puts it on our lips and we put it on his. Susan got him to understand that when applying it should only be out a little and he carefully screws it back in so only a bit is showing.

We play with the ball for a bit, bouncing it to him. He throws it back wildly and we chase it down for him. He like the zippers and the plastic clips on the packs. The favorite is the one on the camcorder case which flys about 2 ft if taken off the strap. He puts it on, I shoot it off, he goes OHH and puts it back on.
The pen is still good fun; top off, put on bottom, put back on top. The legos are good too but the little truck is his new fav cause he can zoom around inside with it.
He's not so much into the bigger cars now that he's found the little truck.
The afternoon couple, Alaina and Andrew, have flavored cheerios. Banana, apple and I'm not sure what else, but they are great. We all like them, especially Sultan and we need to work on limits in this area. Also he's started tossing toys and we don't want to let him get away with that. He doesn't seem angry or upset, just kind of casually hurling the legos or the little truck. Almira knows what to say to him and we told her we'll be calling her cell and putting him on so she can straighten him out.
Almira is a godsend. She's 29, lovely, fair skinned, reddish dyed hair, has a son, Islam, who's 18 months. Her husband is an accountant for a bank. Islam stays with her mom who lives nearby. She lived on a farm with her grandparents when she was small while her mom went to college. She's very calm and collected and I have every confidence in her. She is happy to go with us to the bazaar or shopping for pants for Sultan. She is great with him too. She started potty training her son at 1 month!!! and says that most Kazakh kids are out of diapers by 1 yr. I'm so grateful we got her and Igor and our drivers too.
Today is Sunday and we'll probably try and go to a park on the River that we heard about. Rent a boat, have a picnic. There's a birthday party here at the hotel for Ryane, Counsel's mom.
peace
love