Peyton 4 Months

Well I have a lot of pictures to post of Peyton at 4 months...

With our good friend. She is a single lady that loves children, especially babies. She LOVES Peyton and even helped us choose his Chinese name, Pei En - which means Abundant Grace.

Trying out the "exersaucer" that was passed on to us from some friends. He doesn't really like it too much yet but we let him try it out every once in a while

This boy is 7 months old. We hadn't seen this family since we were both still pregnant but had them over for dinner last week.  This isn't a great picture of him, but he was the CUTEST baby  (besides Peyton of course, ha ha !)

We were showing Peyton the new stacking toys that were a freebie at a baby store with another purchase.

He's not quite sure what to think of this "sitting practice"

Reister LOVES to hold Peyton

Peyton's not so sure if he loves to be held ;)

4 months with the Panda

And a little smile

I can't believe Peyton is 4 months. I'm sure I'll say that at every month. We love him so much! And the GREAT news is that the colic/fussiness is over. He is a very pleasant baby now.  He smiles all the time and doesn't cry that much at all. He still will have a tough day if I eat brocoli or beans, but now at least I know to try not to!  He's still eating once in the middle of the night but I've just decided to let him keep doing that until we start solids. I don't do the 10/11pm feeding, I just let him go after an 8 or 9pm feeding until 2 or 3. Then I wake him up to eat between 6:30 - 7:30 for his first feeding of the day. I'm trying my best to keep him on a loose schedule especially because we're about to travel for almost a month and I think that might help.  He'll have to been in childcare the last part of the month, too, so hopefully that will go well (I'll still go to feed him throughout the day)

The big boys are doing well too. I need to post more of them.  But Peyton is changing so much so fast that I am trying to keep up with it!

We're looking forward to a little vacation at the beach in about a week.  I'll try to post pictures of it when we return!

Market Q&A

In reference to the market post, my Mom asked about a vegetable that she ate while visiting us.  It is in season in the summer and we love it - it's called "Kong Xin Cai" or translated, Empty Heart Vegetable.  The stems are hollow so that's the only reason I can guess for the name. It's yummy!
Also, my friend Christine asked if we cooked western or chinese food with the food we buy at the market. I cook western, but if I'm buying for my househelper she will cook chinese!  I've tried my hand a couple times at some stir fry Chinese, but honestly I crave American food enough to keep me busy cooking western dishes!
I'm trying to think of a good next post for "local life"....
Also we'll be traveling soon, so I may not blog for a while (except I'll try to post Peyton's 4 month pics soon!)

Local Life #1 - the market

I've wanted to post more pictures / stories about what life is like here. I don't have a lot of time (or patience) to sit and write a lot of text, but hopefully I can share some pictures that give you more of idea of what our life is like here!

Here are some pictures of the fresh market where I buy most of my food.  I buy all my fruit, vegetables and meat at the fresh market. I actually only go to the supermarket a couple times a month for dry goods (peanut butter, diapers, toilet paper, etc).  We have a mini-mart type convenience store across the street from our apartment complex that has some things that we need regularly. Also, we have our milk delivered to our door (in big boxes of 6 1 Liter boxes - UHT - boxed milk - doesn't have to be refridgerated before opening).
So here are the pictures:

So I actually took these pictures back in November but never got around to posting them until now. This market has actually moved to a new location now, closer to our home, in a new two-story building.  At fresh markets here there lots of different vendors that sell the same stuff.  You just walk around and choose one to buy from - ask them the price, which they tell you per 1/2 kilogram.  Then you choose the produce and they weigh it and bag it.  There are also meat vendors, egg vendors, fish vendors and dry goods vendors (rice, oils, seasonings, etc.).  I don't cook every meal of every day for my family - we go out to eat a lot, both local food and western food, or we order in.  But I do cook some and enjoy being able to get good fresh produce at the market. :)

What questions do you have?

Peyton - 3 months

Peyton turned 3 months old on December 28.  We think he's collicky although I read recently that colic is supposed to last from 3 weeks to 3 months.... he goes in spurts of being more fussy and not as fussy. I still haven't determined whether it's totally related to my diet.  But regardless, we love him and he really is a sweet baby (with some strong lungs!)  He was turning over in his crib from stomach to back for a while but has seemed to have stopped. He eats every 3 hours during the day and does a couple longer (4-6 hours) stretches at night.  Basically he feeds about 7 times a day.  His neck is getting really strong and he can hold his head up really well, especially during tummy time.  He weighs 15 pounds and is 24.8 inches - between the 75th & 90th percentile for both! He's bigger than Mason was at this age, but maybe not as big as Reister (I don't have exact records from 3 months of age for the bigger boys).  It's kind of funny - I found out recently that in the states you take your baby for a well check every month. We mainly just took our boys at 2, 4, 6 months for immunizations and it wasn't always to a doctor, sometimes just to a foreign nurse who was qualified to give the shots.  So this time around I realized I could / should take Peyton each month and it will be nice to have proper scales/measuring instruments to monitor his growth. We have an international clinic here that partners with our health insurance so it's really easy (and clean and not crowded).

Anyway, here's what you really want - the pictures!

I like to call this one Chub in the Tub - look at those thighs!

the shirt is a hand-me-down from cousin Jackson

"playing" with his big brothers

Our Christmas Feast

We had plans Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so we decided to have a traditional Christmas meal on Friday night. We invited several friends over and ate till we were stuffed. 

I do not consider myself to excel in the area of homemaking and cooking/hosting, but I have finally gotten the hang of some things and managed to plan in advance and was able to pull if off without too much stress!

Of course the photos are out of order, but here they are:

Enjoying our meal

The Ham - not a true ham, but a cured chunk of pork that tastes pretty similar. I put the "rub" on the night before - brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and then poured apple juice and coke on it as well as added mustard powder the day of... turned out pretty good

My first time to make crescent rolls from scratch - thanks to my friend's food blog.  They didn't taste too much like Pillsbury, but they were good

Our little guy - he was really fussy most of the day and especially after dinner - poor thing must have had some tummy trouble :(

My 6 year old toaster oven that seems to be going strong - cooking the ham at this point

My mom's cornbread stuffing recipe - yummy

Apple Cider - again from my friend's food blog

Pecan Pie - pecans are hard to come by here, but my mom had brought a bag of them in the summer and I pulled them out of the freezer and had a bottle of Karo Syrup on hand that someone had passed on!

Our dinner table settings..

We also had green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole but I didn't get pictures of them.

Micah and I discussed that all this food was "comfort food". It sure felt nice to eat it as we celebrated with good friends.  There is true joy in knowing that our Savior really did come in the flesh as a babe two thousand years ago - He came to die, that we might live!

Such a good big brother!

One day recently I looked over and Reister was "reading" a book about the Christmas story to Mason and Peyton. Of course he can't read yet, but was explaining it the best he could according to what he knows, and by looking at the pictures. I have the sweetest boys!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
Reister (5), Mason (3) and Peyton (2 months)

Student of the Day

Today Reister was chosen to be the Student of the Day at the boys' preschool.  He was really excited to have this job. He gets to stand at the top of the stairs where the kids come into the school and greet them with a "Good Morning" or "Zao Shang Hao".  His teacher said he would also be her helper for the day.  I'm so glad that Reister was excited about this - he doesn't always love going to school, but I think this special role made it more exciting for him.

I'm proud of Reister for learning Chinese and doing well at his school. His teachers really felt like he really "grew up" while we were in Thailand.  He is one of the oldest in his class now, whereas in the past he always gravitated toward the older boys in his class.  Now he is closest with a girl in his class, who is also 5 and is tall for her age (not the one in the picture).

Peyton and Ayi

Our househelper (Ayi means auntie) has been with us for over 3 years now - Mason was only 4 months old when she started working for us.  Now she is so happy to help me with Peyton in the mornings when she is here....

Would you please pray for her and her brother? Her brother was diagnosed last week with colon cancer and had surgery today to remove the cancerous portion of it.  I don't know much more because she's been off to be with him.  She is like-minded and I long for her brother to also know the same joy and peace.  Ms. Liu is a precious gift to us and we are so thankful for her help.  She is broken over her younger brother's diagnosis. He has a 4 year old daughter and makes a living driving a three wheeled electric bike taking people around town (so he doesn't make much).  Please ask Father to heal him and to provide for all their family's needs.

Peyton - 2 weeks to 2 months

2 weeks

2 months

Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

It wasn't really Peyton's preference to take a picture at that time but, hey, we rolled with it.

We went to some friends' house and had a nice traditional Thanksgiving meal. They made the turkey. I made the cornbread dressing (my mom's recipe), green beans (my Mimi's recipe), and a corn casserole (my friend SB's recipe).  After dinner Mason had a major #2 accident and if it hadn't been for another Mom having an extra pair of pants we would have had to leave early or go buy some at the supermarket nearby.  We enjoyed the company of several other families and friends.  We shared what we were thankful for, played a few games, ate some good food & dessert.  Unfortunately when we got home Micah really started feeling bad and has been sick the last 2 days with an ear infection of some sort.  But we did manage to get the Christmas decorations up. This year Reister was really excited about doing that and kept pushing me to keep going. He couldn't wait to put the star on the top of the tree but I made him wait till we had everything else on. Any other moms of little ones out there just give up on having a "pretty" tree? I have some prettier decorations, but Reister kept pulling all the old, cheap ones from the box and putting them up. I couldn't bring myself to deter his efforts.  So I just accepted the fact that for the next few years our tree will look haphazard rather than 'classy'.  I'd much rather have that kind of a tree and have three amazing little boys!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving wherever you are in the world!

Daddy Date - Reister

While we were in Thailand Micah took time to take each of the boys on a special "Daddy Date"to do something really fun.  Reister's was to go zip-lining.

On the way - he was super excited

All geared up and ready to go

Micah said Reister was so brave - he wasn't scared at all

"Daddy and me"

The were several guides that stayed with the group of people that went through the whole course together.  Reister got to know them and the other people in the group and Micah said they all enjoyed having him along

One of the many lines of the course

they also got to go across sky bridges

Just hanging out

Having fun

Micah said Reister only cried one time and that was at the end - because it was OVER! I think I can see a hint of this here - they did the "Jungle Flight" zip-line course outside of Chiang Mai

Reister 1
Reister 2
Reister 3

Check out these blog posts from 5 years ago to see if you think Peyton looks like Reister when he was a baby...

I've heard through the grapevine that pictures are being requested ( sorry Leslie for being slow!)

Here's a recent one of Peyton during bath time. 

Things are going well, I guess. Peyton is precious, but sometimes likes to exercise his lungs (i.e. cry, scream). We think he might be a little collicky but we've learned to utilize the paci as much as possible, try different positions (especially on his tummy), and give him the gas drops!  He seems to be growing a lot - (look at those leg rolls!)  I'm trying my hardest to get him on a schedule of eating and get him sleeping for longer periods at night. He's does pretty good most nights, but those hard nights are HARD!  Fortunately, God gives grace and I'm not feeling too exhausted.  i'll try to get some more pics posted soon!

Peyton Justice - ONE MONTH

We're back in our city and trying to get back into a routine of life with three kids.  The big boys have started back to their preschool in the mornings. Peyton is 5 weeks now, but this picture was from when he turned one month old.  He is becoming a pretty fussy baby, but a sweet and cute one. He doesn't sleep too long at night and sometimes thinks it's time to have "wake time" at 3 am but ... what can you do?  Sometimes during the day he just won't wake up! I don't remember that being the case with my other boys!  But thankfully I'm not feeling too exhausted, just still pretty sore from the C-section (sneezing and coughing are helping that!).  We sure love our little guy and are amazed at how he's growing and changing.  What an incredible blessing!