Anna Merriman

hmmmm, another post where WordPress decides that I didn’t really want to use the built in gallery function, and leaves the images orphaned without a post assigned to them. Well anyway, these photos were taken on the 31st of August, and we have now finally reached the end of the backlog. Here you can see Anna starting to learn how to use objects to assist in standing up (hands near her for the inevitable wobbly moments, obviously). Although she can now roll with gay abandon, and crawl backwards, Anna still doesn’t seem to want/be able to coordinate moving forwards. However, given that forwards it same really as horizontally rotating 180 degrees, then moving backwards, she still seems able to get where she wants. Namely off the safe, clean playing area we lay down here or at the inlaws, and onto the much more interesting carpet.
To round off this post, we have a shot of Kara using Anna’s nappy changing mat as a stalking area to pounce on Muska the next time she enters the living room.

Anna Selecting The Next Toy To Play With

Kara Waits To Ambush Muska

So, given that these photos and video of Anna trying a (mixed fruit?) purée for one of the first times were taken on the 26th of August, I am only just over a week late in posting these. OK, add a few more days as I’ve scheduled this post to go live on September 6th (if I’d published them all in one go, some would have fallen off the front page of this blog straight away), but still, I’ve only one more post after this before I’ve exhausted the ‘To Do’ folder in Anna’s pictures collection sitting on my hard drive. We were sat in the kitchen, watching Anna munch on some real veggies, and decided it was time to try out this form of food, in case we ever needed something quick and easy to server her. She took to the food with no problems, and managed to get the hang of accepting a spoon of food quite quickly. Obviously, just like when she ‘eats’ whole vegetables or fruit, the majority of the food ends up on the high chair or bib, but the idea is to get her used to pushing the food around her mouth in plenty of time before weaning occurs. Enough of the witter, onto the photos and video…

OK, so we still haven’t actually tried the sweetcorn that they sell in a kiosk just outside the Mega shopping centre near us, but I wanted to post a recent shot of Ira and Anna smiling. Anna is sporting her hooded cardigan, as by this time (25th August) the temperatures had already started to drop from their summer highs.

Ira And Anna Outside Mega Shopping Centre

Waiting (2many steps) outside the residents’ meeting thats discussing the 16 million Tenge owed (by others) to KCK! http://twitpic.com/f3ucq

Ha. Assuming you count a fortnight as being within ‘a week or so’, I’ve just met the dead line for ‘proper photos’ that I promised when I tweeted from the Melnitza restaurant on the 22nd of August. Melnitza is situated on SaryArka, quite near to our apartment, and as we hadn’t tried it before, were already heading to a nearby shopping centre and I wanted to grab a shot of the Khan Shatyr entertainment centre.

The service was superb in the restaurant, the prices not too excessive considering its reputation, and I can honestly say they served the best tasting sashlique I’ve ever eaten. This is Kazakhstan, and given my meat and potato type meal preferences, I’ve eaten a fair few of the barbecued kebab like meals over here. The exterior of the building is surrounded by flowers and vegetables, giving a real dacha-like feel to the outside seating, the staff were very attentive and smiling, and their take on garlic bread (see photos below) were delicious.

Oh, and my thanks to this post for reminding me of the name for the big glass yurt like structure up the road from us. I left a comment there in an attempt to correct some of the inaccuracies in the article, but it remains an interesting post.

Yes, back on the 21st of August, it really had been a whole six months since Anna was born, and turned our lives around for ever (in a good way). Irina’s parents, Walton and Assel and Igor & Natalya all popped round for the birthday girl’s celebratory meal (I’m assuming these events will gradually encompass a little more comprehension for the date’s importance in future years for Anna). Irina cooked another superb meal, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

From this point on, Anna will no longer be 1/60 of my age – the gap will be shrinking (proportionately speaking)!

I’ll have to double check, but I think this video is the first we have of Anna eating (well chewing and sucking at least, not a lot seems to go down her throat, though the carpet and high chair do get fed well). Again shot on the 19th August, proving that a foot was no substitution for the real thing.

It had happened a little while before this photo was taken/video was shot (19th August), but Anna seemed to take great joy in discovering that she could now reach her feet, and well, have a good meal with them

We Do Feed Her, I Promise!

Just noticed, that was the 4000th picture we’ve taken on Irina’s camera. And this is the 2024th post on the blog. Try to contain your excitement upon hearing this news. Please

Big girl sat in her new highchair at the table, having tea with the grownups http://twitpic.com/dzkvd

Anna chilling out in the kitchen. Think she is heading towards needing a nap. http://twitpic.com/dz5rz

Anna had one day off being photographed, so this makes these shots from the 15th August. Only a fortnight behind with these photos now
Aunty Sasha was still at the in-laws, as were we, and wanted to spend as much time with Anna as possible, before she returned to St. Petersburg in Russia. We took a few shots of Anna in her new baby swing, with Aunty Sasha on the grown ups’ swing, and finally one of Anna and Irina in her baby sling.

A day after Irina’s Mum’s birthday, (so that is the 12th of August. In case you’ve forgotten, I don’t really have some OCD thing going on with dates, it is just that I’ll eventually be altering the dates on any posts with Anna photos in them, for later importing to her blog), I think Aunty Sveta and the rest of the family from that area in Kazakhstan were leaving. Anna had coped very well with all the attention from lots of new faces the night before, and continued to impress us all with her willingness to be the parcel in a game of pass-the-parcel once more (hugs were much in demand).

Another post where I can easily remember the date for Anna’s photos, as Irina’s Mum’s birthday is one day after our anniversary! So, these shots were taken on the 11th August, at a restaurant called Attila in Astana. Yes, I mis-spelled the restaurant in the post linked to.

10th August. I’m sure on the date for this Anna’s Photos post, because it was taken on the same day as Irina’s and my anniversary. We returned to the Astana Park Hotel outdoor restaurant, and I discovered their pizzas were lovely, definitely better value for money than the sashlique I’d tried previously.
Anna was once again very well behaved, and the gazebos offer enough privacy that Anna had a meal with us at the same time No photos of that…
However, also in this post are some photos of the Kazakh-style wiring we found at the entrance to Astana Park. I had originally thought that the structure was permanent, and thought that supply of mains electricity jerry rigged from the nearest lamp post was utterly laughable. However, the piece has now been removed (installed for Astana Day/the international conference for religious tolerance), so the wiring was only ever supposed to be temporary. Worthy of a giggle then, but not a full blown guffaw. The structure was a combination of a traditional drink vessel found in Kazakhstan, and the ventilation area at the top of a yurt.

This time (9th August) it was for Ira’s Mum’s 60th birthday (pictures to come of this event that occurred a few days later, will appear in a couple of posts time), but Aunty Sasha also seemed very happy to make the long train journey from St. Petersburg to see Anna again as well. This is the last post I’ll write until I get around to uploading the last remaining Anna videos to YouTube, so apologies if there a few days pass before more Anna photos appear.