Anna Merriman

Scratch prev. tweet. Dune – Millions Miles From Home did the trick & is strangely apt.Repetitive lyrics helped imho http://twitpic.com/68y50

Dune tracks not working as a lullaby. Back to Green Day I guess… Digging of garden will commence shortly :-/ http://twitpic.com/68w76

These two were shot when Aunty Sveta was still around (28th May), over at the in-laws again.

The following photos were all taken around the time (26th – 28th May) Aunty Sveta came to visit us at Irina’s parents, with some other family members. Aunty Sveta was very glad to finally see a small addition to our family. The pictures were all taken around the in-law’s home – in the back garden, kitchen and on the garden swing.

Although not quite the panacea to Anna’s refusal to sleep when we were back in Britain, the bouncy chair that we were given over here is definitely very useful, we now use it at meal times so she can feel a little more included whilst we eat, and when we come in from our (very nearly) daily walks, Anna can be put in the chair whilst we collapse the pushchair, wash our hands, and generally go back into house mode
Anyway, here is a quick shot from the 24th May, showing Anna enjoying the chair. I’m hoping Irina will occasionally add to these posts with comments about Anna’s clothes, as I’m not exactly an expert on them. In general, they are pretty, and lots of them were given by lovely relatives and friends. To be honest, if Anna is comfortable in them, and they aren’t black, purple and brown pinstripes, I’m happy

Anna In Her Bouncy Chair

The next day (22nd May) DanD popped over to Chubary (where Ira’s parents live, and where we were based until our flat was redecorated and had hot water again) to see Anna for the first time.
He and Lara have very well behaved and cute twins (given a discussion I had the other day, I would just like to point out that the two of them have their own unique personalities, and referring to them as twins is a lazy label. There, think my arse is covered now), who haven’t yet met Anna. Once they do, I’m hoping they’ll be a positive role model for her

DanD and Anna

Here we have Anna at her Babushka’s in her bouncy Chair, shot on the 22nd May

Finally we have a very short video of Anna in the back garden at the in-laws, shot a few days later when Aunty Sveta et al visited (26th May)

Right, I need to check if there are any new videos waiting on the hard drive to be uploaded of Anna. There are a lot more already on YouTube of Kazakhstan, Dubai and Britain in general, but they’ll have to wait until I’ve at least cleared the backlog of Anna’s pictures, and I’d like to transfer and upload the DV camcorder footage we took of Anna back in Britain.

Wow, there are a few there, I’m uploading them now, but will probably have to leave it running over night (I’m actually writing this post Thursday night, but post dating it 12 hours so there is a bit of a gap between blog entries.)

A week after we arrived in Kazakhstan (so the 21st May), a couple of quick shots with Anna and her Kazakh grandmother (babushka) and grandfather (dedushka) in their kitchen. The sunglasses aren’t a fashion statement, the lights were too bright for his headache

Baba Jenya and Anna

Dedushka Valery and Anna

Oh, someone remind me I need to upload the rest of Anna’s videos to YouTube, and actually get around to embedding them in some posts as well. Please.

Anyway, back on track, this photo was taken of Anna on the 20th May, just outside our block of flats. She is happily sleeping away in her car seat/pram combo – we’ve now swapped to the proper pushchair attachment for the frame, as she is getting too big to spend too long in the car seat

Anna Asleep At The Entrance To Our Flats

Forgot 2incl GPS link previously. Feel free 2click & have a look around our Kazakh neighbourhood. http://is.gd/BCfC http://twitpic.com/5jn96

Dad is still looking into automatically placing photos from the Anna’s Photo category on his blog into this one.

In the mean time, a quick update… In three days time, I will be three months old. We moved to Kazakhstan last weekend, and right now we are in Mummy’s parents’ house, until out flat is redecorated. I am fine, though my gums are starting to annoy me, and I still find initially getting to sleep in the evenings a bit difficult. That said, I can now sleep through most of the night, which means Mummy gets a bit more sleep.

A couple of days after we arrived, Walton and Assel came to visit us at the in-laws (where we lived until our flat could be sorted out properly in terms of re-decoration, hot water etc.) It was great to see them both after one day shy of six months (17th May).
So, we have a shot of Anna on the floor in some dungarees, Anna with Asel (I’ll hedge my bets and spell it with one S this time) and then Walton, and finally a quick picture taken with her Great Grandmother (I think the Russian is something like old-grandmother!)

Anna Dungarees

Assel and Anna at the In-Laws

Walton and Anna at the In-Laws

Anna and Ira’s Babushka in the In-Law’s Kitchen

Today we saw Kara and Muska properly for the first time in a little over six months. We had seen them via a webcam session in Skype, but that obviously wasn’t the same. Anyway, they looked well (Kara especially, she has put on some weight and now looks healthily non-boney), so a huge thank you to Gulnaz for looking after them so well. I’ll try and remember to take a few shots of them once we move back into the flat.
Anyway, onto the reason for this post – Anna’s published photos are a long way off real time, so I’m hoping to upload at least the majority of them tonight, and space out the actual posts over the next week or two. These photos are of Anna having some more tummy time (considered important now that parents are advised to place babies on their backs always when sleeping, therefore their neck muscles need developing), with Gwen guarding her in the background See here and here for the last couple of similar posts with pictures.

As you may remember from posts around mid-May, BMI lied through their teeth multiple times in order to obtain, and then not lose, two expensive business class ticket sales. Combined with poor customer service in Heathrow, the lack of the promised bassinet made our journey a little more stressful. Anyway, onto the reason for this post – Air Astana actually managed to reverse BMI’s position, by saying there would sadly not be any bassinets on the flight from Almaty to Astana, but upon arrival, we found there were some
So, here we have Anna, 15th May 2009, in a bassinette on the flight, meaning we didn’t have to hold her in our arms the whole time. Whilst the flights was only a little more than an hour, rather than the seven or so from London to Almaty the day before, it was a relief.

Anna Air Astana Flight Almaty Astana Bassinet Bassinette

Oh, and to be fair, BMI did eventually offer a partial refund on our tickets. Very partial – around 5% !

No, we didn’t pop back to Britain on the quiet, this post is the first to feature proper (non-camera phone) pictures of Anna since her arrival here in Kazakhstan.

Ira’s Dad Anna Almaty Airport Hotel

This was taken on the 14th May 2009, when we were grabbing a few hours rest at a hotel next to the airport in Almaty, before flying over to Astana.