My Daddy

Reister loves his daddy! He calls him Daddy now instead of Dadda. Lately he's been getting his toy laptop and sitting in the "chair" (=couch) by Micah as he does emails and internet. It's pretty cute - glad I caught it on camera.

This might have been the same day... I think Micah was getting ready to leave and they were saying good-bye. How precious! :)

Another ultrasound

I posted that we were having another boy but I didn't share that during the ultrasound we got on January 31st, the doctor found that one of the baby's kidneys was bigger than the other. She suggested that we get another ultrasound in a month to see if that was still the case. Well, we were advised by an American doctor to go ahead and get another one before we left Thailand (even though it wouldn't have been a month) because the chances of the ultrasound machines and doctor skills being up to par where we live were slim. So we went for another ultrasound on February 18th at the hospital where Reister was born. Both ultrasounds were very thorough, and the doctors measured what seemed like every possible organ, including the kidneys. While everything else is completely normal and healthy, the left kidney was still almost twice as big as the right one. This is most likely due to urine retention and might correct itself before the baby is born or after. Or it might pose some sort of problem for the baby after delivery - that hasn't been explained or made clear to us. But because of this we have been advised to return to Bangkok for the delivery instead of Chiang Mai where we were planning to go. Bangkok's Bumrungrad Hospital is more advanced and has neo-natal ICU facilities whereas Chiang Mai does not. So we'll head back to Bangkok in early June. Baby #2's due date was confirmed as June 28 on both ultrasounds. Please join us in asking our Father that this would not pose any problem for the baby - that He would heal his kidney before he is even born. We are really excited about this second little one that will soon bless our lives. Reister still doesn't fully understand how his world is about to change. As of right now, he really doesn't like it when either Micah or I hold other babies or toddlers. He likes to be the focus of our attention. He does love other kids though, and is pretty sweet to the babies he is around.

Here is one of the shots from the February 18th ultrasound - You can see his face and hand really clearly.

Oh by the way, we haven't decided on a name yet - we have several ideas but nothing has totally stuck yet.

Lantern Festival

We returned to the Shining City February 21st. February 22nd was the Lantern Festival, the last night of Spring Festival celebrations around this country. We have never been able to observe the festivities before - normally we're traveling - but this year we went out to see the excitement. The main street in front of our apartment complex was full of people, closed to all traffic. The city government had put up a huge dragon over the street (and in several other key places around town). We were told that everyone would make their way to the dragon and then "rub" it's tail for good luck. So there were literally thousands of people making their way down the street to the dragon and then making a U-turn back the way they came after touching the tail. It was quite a site to see so many people out and about at that time of night (normally after it's dark in our city people don't really get out). People of all ages were out. It was neat to be able to walk around and experience a little of the biggest holiday of the year year.

This is the moon on the night of Lantern Festival - it was really full.


Here is the dragon - all lit up - and notice ALL the people on the street.

Here's a cute little girl holding a mini-lantern - many of the children were carrying these around.

pictures...

Well, looks like I got one chance, and one success. Now I can't upload any more pictures. Maybe another day...

Finally, some pictures!

I have been trying to upload pictures for over a week now but our internet connection hasn't bee working well. These will be random because I'm going to try to just get as many uploaded as quickly as I can!

This was on vacation - we went to a beachside family friendly resort with several families and singles. Here is Reister with his buddy, Josh, which he learned to say, along with Josh's brother's names, Jordan and Joe (Josiah). They love him and Reister loves them so much and really enjoyed playing with them.

Buddy Pic

Reister gets to see his little friend, Schafer, about twice a year. As parents, we have high hopes for our boys to become good buddies in the future. Schafer is 13 months now, and Reister is 17 months.

Uncle Sean

We were able to spend time with my brother Sean last week who came on a short trip to help out with our activities here. Reister loved seeing him and said his name constantly while he was around "Sean ..... Sean..... Sean" I don't think Sean ever got tired of it though :)

Here are some good pics...

Another BOY!

We had an ultrasound here in the country we're in for the second part of our time and we found out that we are having another boy! It was unmistakable from the ultrasound that it's definitely a boy. We are very excited and know that Reister will really enjoy having a brother to play with! They will be about 22 months apart.

Trip

Our vacation to see our friends in SE Asia was AWESOME! Here's a picture at a waterfall there. More to come!

Leaving soon!

We leave tomorrow to go on vacation! We are soooo excited to go to a warmer climate and see some dear friends. I may or may not have time/a good connection to post while we're gone. I will say that the last two days Reister has been sleeping a little later (i.e. almost 7am). Hopefully this will continue for the next 3 weeks, as we'll be in the same room with him in the pack'n'play.

Some cute things Reister's been doing lately:
- still "cooking" with plastic bowls and spoons
- when we try to get him to say his name by asking him "What's your name?", he replies "Name"
- he's saying mess, and can identify one when he sees one (no matter who made it)
- he's giving his sippy cups to his stuffed animals
- he says "ma dadda", which we interpret to mean "my daddy"; alternately he could be starting to say mama but realize he's talking to dadda and change mid syllable
- he says "a yi" in the local language which means "aunt" and is the appropriate way to address other women about my age and older. One time this past week on the bus he started saying "a yi, a yi", trying to get the woman opposite him to look at him. The local women love it that he can say it and he really does say it to almost every woman he sees. He can also say "jie jie" which is big sister and he has a real affiinity for little girls - they normally give him plenty of attention. He does not discriminate skin colors, because he likes local little girls and our American friends' daughters. Of course he enjoys little boys like his buddy Micah as well, he just doesn't say "ge ge" (older brother) quite as often.

Well, hope you are all doing well and blessings on you - whether you're back into the daily groove of work and school or about to travel like we are!

Daddy's sweater

Reister found Micah's sweater and wanted to put it on - how cute is he?

My Friend "Ba-daow"

Reister tries to say his buddy Micah's name but it comes out sounding something like "Ba-daow". Actually he's getting better and better at it but initially it sounded really funny. But it's definitely him trying to say "Micah" because every time he sees him or a picture of him he says it. A couple of weeks ago Micah's family moved to a new apartment and we kept Micah that morning so his parents could focus on getting all their stuff moved from one place to another without chasing kids around. Here's Micah and Reister enjoying playing inside our coffee table/toy box. Reister had never gotten in before but when Micah wanted to play inside it, Reister thought it was a good idea!

Correction

I just wanted to make a correction to my last post. Somehow I had a lapse in my thinking and thought Reister's "regular" time to wake up was 7:30am. I want to say that his actual "regular" waking time is between 6am and 6:30am. That day was a fluke. It has become a very frusterating thing for me that he wakes up so early because I try my best to get up at 6am to have my own time of peace and quiet for about an hour (assuming he'll be content in his crib until 7am even if he wakes up before that); BUT normally he still starts to cry and is VERY ready to get out by 6:30-6:45 at the latest (so much for peace & quiet). We've tried altering his day time sleep in order to get him to sleep later; we've also tried putting him to bed a little later at night (normally he goes to sleep around 7:30-8pm). But nothing seems to work. I guess this is the struggle of every mom of young kids. But if any one has any tips, I'd love to hear them.

Happy New Year!

I just realized that I should take advantage of the time difference and say that 2008 is great so far! (it's 9:15am on January 1 here in the Shining City) I guess we're officially OLD in that we didn't make it until midnight last night. We put Reister to bed at his normal time (7:30pm) and stayed up until 10:45pm or so but I was falling asleep watching a show from about 9:30pm on... Ha! Anyway, I was glad we didn't stay up too late when Reister woke up at his normal time (7am) and I wasn't exhausted. I hope you all had a wonderful New Years Eve, whatever you did, however late you stayed up. We have plans to go to my local b.f.f.'s home for lunch and to Casa Mia for one of our American friend's birthday. Hey, that means I don't have to cook at all today! :)

I thought I'd leave you with this cute smiling boy....

Christmas Post 2

Here's our family's Christmas picture - a little late. This is not at our house, it's at our local Italian Bistro, Casa Mia.


Here's part of our group gathering on Christmas day. We didn't get many pictures so I thought I'd just post this one. We went our friends' home and had a gift exchange (we had each drawn names a couple months earlier), visited & ate lots of good food.


Here's Reister opening one of his gifts. We had already helped him open a couple others and after that he went on his own initiative and found this one and started peeling off the paper.