Steve here.  In between our visits to the baby house, we usually have several hours to ourselves.  Today we ate an early lunch, then went for a long walk through part of the city.  We stopped in the church nearby (see picture on Dec. 2).  It's official name is the Church of Christ Savior, but the locals call it the "Golden Church".  It's Russian Orthodox and it's actually pretty small on the inside.  I'd like to go to services there this weekend, but our visiting schedule doesn't really allow it.  The other thing we can't figure out is where people sit - there are no pews inside!

We made our way southeast from our apartment on Dostek street to Kirov park in Uralsk.  The park runs along the Chagon river (one of the two main rivers in town - the other is the Ural) and it holds a small amusement park.  The park has an amazing number of birch trees.  It also has a very pretty promenade. We have been very lucky with weather here. We have not seen any day where the temperature dipped below 20 and there has been very little wind. Each night we get a dusting of snow - but not enough to be inconvienient.  

Today Aidos was very smiley.  It was easier to make him giggle.  He had a lot of fun drumming on a plastic stacking toy (with a very regular rhythm).  Jen built a loose tower of the stacking rings several times and Aidos enjoyed knocking it down.  He would go "tap, tap, SMASH" with his plastic baton.  Then he would laugh uproariously.  It was really nice to see him exhibiting what we think of as typical three-year old behavior!  There will be plenty of time to stifle his joy and creativity later :-)