friday is always a good day.
1. it is the end of the work week. not that our job is hard or anything (i mean come on... we are teachers!)... but it is always nice to have a break. plus with jen being so pregnant... she tends to be pretty beat (although she doesn't like to admit it) by the end of the week.
2. friday night is our weekly "date night" and we tend to try and do something quiet with just the two of us or maybe we get crazy (meaning we stay up past 1000pm) and hang out with some friends (poker night being a prime example).
this week we went to dinner at the louw's house. lee-ann is our sole graduating senior at bishkek international school and in theory is one of my students. i say "in theory" because although i am the math and science teacher at bis... she finished math earlier this year and she is taking an ap biology course online which i am not proctoring. (love that word... proctoring). so i don't really have much interaction with her. being the graduating senior... she is the bell of the ball. everyone loves her and think she is brilliantly talented (she "headlines" all of the schools musical productions and performances). personally... i think gloria (my step-mom who is a notoriously challenged singer... although to be fair she does sing from the heart!) gives lee-ann a run for her money. lee-ann's mom is a typical ex-pat (her husband works at the kumtor gold mine), international school mom. very involved... very intrusive... and very critical of anything that she feels isn't in her daughter's best interest. at least that was my opinion until we went to their house for dinner...
the family was crazy... in a good way. they are south african and the dinner was all about food, copious amounts of alcohol, playing pool, talking with scottish accents (the dad had a really heavy one that grew stronger and stronger the more he drank... until you could swear you were talking to sean connery)... and the highlight of the night (i am being a bit facetious here), watching over an hour of footage of lee-ann perform in high school musicals back in south africa. the first time through the dvd, we sat their kind of stone faced as the mom and dad (lee-ann to be fair looked horrified) danced and sang along with the tv. by the third time... we decided to join in and sing along.
it seemed pretty self indulgent and "look at how great our daughter is". of course keep in mind this is coming from a guy who maintains a blog about his life in bishkek which is dedicated to his unborn daughter. i am sure that jennifer and i will be as over the top with olive as the louws are with lee-ann. and to be honest... i can't wait.
3. before the revelry on friday night... we had a doctor's appointment. LOVE the soviet "style" of doctoring! dr. arena gave jen and the baby thumbs up and said everything looked great and jen's urine (everything is about urine here) checked out. she gave jen some exercises to do for 45 minutes each day (down on all fours so gravity would pull the baby and her tummy out and down instead of just down like when jen is standing... who knew?)... prescribed a belly wrap to hold the belly high and help support jen's back. and asked jen to drink a glass of cranberry juice each day.
i tried to convince the doctor that jen was lactating already hoping that she would perform the infamous "lactating nipple twist test" that she did when we first visited her... but jen argued her way out of it all the while giving me a dirty look.
it was wonderful to hear that jen and the baby are healthy and growing daily!
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