Family Visit

My family got here June 5th and we've been having a great time with them.

Here's Reister with his Uncle Sean

We went to visit a local monastery last week -

Here's Reister enjoying his Daddy

Here's me and my mom at the monastery -

Yesterday we went to see the famous salt lake in our province -

as we were driving down to the shore, we ran into a herd of sheep - they wouldn't move out of the way - it was really funny!

My parents by the lake -

Mom, Dad and Sean at the stop on the way to the lake where you can see the Sun Moon Mountain in the background - still snow capped!

Nine months

Reister turned 9 months old June 1st. Here are some pictures from then and some more from the beginning of May when we went to see the tulips at a local park with some friends and their baby.


He doesn't always look like this -

With his friend

28!

Well I'm officially 28 years old! We celebrated last night with our friends, the Gloriosos and the Bohrers. Thanks to Laurel & Sara Beth for making a great mexican meal and a beautiful cake! Mmmm.... chocolate chip cookie cake! I stole this pic from the Glorioso's blog -

Making Friends

Today my friend Erika and I took Reister to our city's children's hospital for an event sponsored by Nestle. Nestle makes baby cereal and formula here and put on an event in lieu of Children's Day (June 1). Anyone could take their baby to have a simple check-up that included measuring the baby's head, height and weight. You could also ask the "experts" any questions. Reister's head is 18.5 in (47 cm), he is 28.15 in (71 cm) tall, and weighs 18.5 lbs (8.4 kg). He has put on some weight this month! Thanks for all your pryrs! The flyer about the event said there would be a competition of some sort. I didn't see one going on when we got there so I asked someone about it. She said "Oh well, we could have one, wait just a minute." Within a couple minutes, several babies were all on the large foam play mat and they had started the crawling race. But just before that a little boy had given Reister an play guitar and he was so infatuated with it that he just sat at one end playing with it. Finally with the help of some of the Nestle ladies, we got him to chase the guitar down the mat. Now the funny part is that normally when he crawls, he "army crawls", but today he crawled all the way down the mat on his hands and knees. I thought surely he would be last because he started last but in the end he got to the very end of the mat first! Well all the other babies were kind of playing along the way (the way you'd expect in a baby crawling race). But one of the Nestle ladies announced "1st place!" and gave us a box of rice cereal as a prize! Way to go Reister! Ha ha! Below are some pictures and a video from the event. Sorry the video is sideways, I took it on my cell phone and accidently turned it to the side!
I'm so thankful I went because I met a mom who doesn't work and stays home with her 12 month old. Most moms here work and the grandparents take care of the babies so I haven't been able to make friends with someone whose schedule is as flexible as mine. I hope to contact her soon so we can get our boys together and visit.

The very end of the race (that's Reister)


The proud Mom and champion (notice how tightly he's clutching the guitar)


The play mat - one of the Nestle ladies in the orange t-shirt to the right of Reister. The little boy to his left is the one who gave him the guitar. His mom was one of the Nestle ladies.


This baby could crawl soooo fast. They said she was only 11 months but she looked a lot older to me.


Reister wasn't sure he wanted to share the guitar


"This guitar is AWESOME!"


Here's the video

Yay for Reister!

Isn't that fun!? Would you please ask the Father that Reister would put on some weight? He's doing great developmentally and maybe it's because he's so active but he's not been gaining too much weight lately. Thanks!

What's a Meme?

Honestly, I have no idea what "meme" means or how it's pronounced, but I guess I'm going to "do" one... or post one... or play... or whatever. Kelley tagged me so I am going to do it. Here are the directions:

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. You need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names.
1. I love Sour Patch Kids candy
2. I sometimes think Bananas taste "spicy" and Micah thinks I'm really weird for saying that.
3. I played the flute in 6th, 7th & 8th grade.
4. I've started doing yoga in the last 6 months and really like it (there is no spiritual component in the classes I go to).
5. I love to snow ski but haven't been in almost 10 years - on that note, I love Colorado - any time of the year, but I also haven't been there in a long time.
6. I really enjoy looking at other people's blogs - especially ones with babies the same age as Reister!
7. Although I LOVE Dr. Pepper, I haven't had one since Valentines Day at Teresa's Pizza restaurant in Kunming.

Okay so now I tag 7 people.... (I'm going to tag people that I think read our blog)
SB, Lindsey R, Cheryl, Sandra, Sara, Germaine, Kari

May Day

Here's Reister funny face...

Fun times in the laundry hamper!

Reister trying to grab his friend Eden's hair!

Quality time with Dad

"Hmmm what can I get into next...."

"Um, Dad, are all those people looking at me?"

In the bath!

"I love this little ducky!"

Family Pic at the park

Reister can now feed himself a bottle! (With the Boppy's help)

Crawlin Man

Here, May 1st is Labor Day - everyone has a week off from work and school! In our city, they have an annual Tulip Festival - below are some pics from our recent trip to the park here.

Cute Boy!

Two New Videos

We took these videos recently... The first one is Reister attempting to say "Hi" - see if you agree. The second is him "crawling" or is that called "creeping"? Watch the whole thing to see what he is so motivated to go after!!

Can you post too many baby pictures?

We have a lot of friends out there who have had babies in the last year or so. I know I love looking at every picture they post... so I'm hoping other people like to look at pictures of Reister just as much - we take a LOT! So I'm going to post a lot!

"Look at me, I can stand!"

"I love my dad!!"

"Hey are you taking my picture?!"

"Okay, isn't that enough pictures!?"


Reister with Melody and Mandy

7 months

Reister is now seven months old! These pictures were actually taken on March 24th but they're still cute. He's sitting in our living room on our new Tibetan rug. A rug making company here had a sale and we got two for our apartment. It's made it a little easier for Reister to try to "crawl" or drag himself along. He really enjoys his toys, as you can see, but only if he's not tired and his tummy is full!

The Barn

Some of you know about the Barn... It's a historic barn from Kansas that my (Michelle) dad had transported down to Austin and then has slowly been restoring. Mom, Dad & Sean all work hard in almost every spare moment they have. They often have international students and their families out there. Here are some recent pictures for your viewing enjoyment!

I love to laugh...

We took this last night - Micah sure can get a rouse out of Reister! Isn't his laugh sweet!?

What a great face!

I love the way Reister looks in this picture so I had to crop him out and post it!

It came from the picture below of Micah with our friend Shorel and his son Schafer that was born in the end of December.

Pictures from vacation

We spent time on a peninsula that was essentially an island because you can only get to it by boat. How fun - Reister's first time at the ocean! Not sure if he'll remember it....













These are two other babies born in Thailand in September. The middle one, Keely, was born the same day as Reister. The one on the left, Judah, was born almost a month after the other two.... Never would have guessed, huh?

Here we are with Judah and his mom Germaine.