A New Look

Mason has worn glasses since he was 6 months old. He had surgery when he was 1 1/2 to correct his (crossed) eyes. They weren't permanently crossed but would both turn in at times. He had to continue wearing his glasses for far-sightedness.  This past December Micah took him for a visit to the doctor in Hong Kong and he said his vision had improved and no longer needed to wear the glasses. But at that time Mason wasn't ready to stop wearing them.  A couple weeks ago he got a hair cut and I told him that with the haircut I could see his "cool" eyes better but that if he didn't wear the glasses people could see them even better. He said "I don't want to wear my glasses anymore" and hasn't put them on since.  We're still monitoring his eyes and in June will take him to see the doctor in Texas that performed the surgery.  Here is his "new look". We were at a nice Cherry Blossom grove last weekend on the outskirts of the city. 

Peyton's Toupee

These pictures were taken in Thailand while we were on vacation. I'm sure Peyton will *love* these pictures when he's 15! HA!  We say he has a toupee because he has a lot of hair on top and it's thinner-to non-existent on bottom. But he sure is cute!  He was still 4 months old in these pics.

Grrr.. why are you putting that flashy thing in my face, Mom!?

Vacation Part 2

Our last day in Thailand we went to a waterfall called "Sticky Falls" with a group of friends and had a blast!  You can literally climb up the rocks of the waterfall - they are "sticky" because of some kind of mineral formation.  Reister was brave and enjoyed going up and down with his friends and Dad.  I got to climb up once by myself.  It was a great day of getting out in nature and having fun!

Sneak Peak

We are back in the Hazy City and I am going to post more from our time away as well as a post dedicated to Peyton being 5 months but I just had to post these two pictures.  You can see in both of them his 2 bottom teeth coming through (click on a picture to get it to enlarge)!  It's still crazy to me that he's teething so early! Reister and Mason didn't get teeth till 8 or 9 months!

He is really a happy baby!

He just had a bath and got all lotioned up - that's why his face is shiny.  Not sure what he was thinking - probably "Why are you flashing that thing in my face over and over Mom!?"

We all love our little Peyton Justice!  He is really easy going, loves to smile and laugh, and has returned to his normal schedule of eating and sleeping since getting back home. Whew, I was feeling like I had a newborn again while we were away - he was eating every 2 1/2 hours -DAY & NIGHT!  I was tired!  But we had a good time.  I have to go through the rest of our pictures and get some more up for you all to see!

Vacation

We are in sunny Thailand enjoying our vacation time at the beach... Here are a few *A LOT* pictures of our time so far. We have one more day here at the beach before we head back to the city Peyton was born  in for some meetings.

Peyton got to ride in the bassinette on the plane ride to Bangkok - he cried during take -off and landing but slept the rest of the time in this little bed that hooks on the wall of the bulkhead seats

Mason and Reister did well - they "plugged in" and watched shows on the iPods or played games. We also got served decent meals on the flight.

 We spent 4 days in Bangkok for doctors appointments (at the hospital that the big boys were born at)  We also enjoyed good food - there is a Lebanese restaurant and Mexican restaurant that we LOVE to eat at.  Then we headed south to a beach about a 3 hour drive away. We are staying in a house with another family that has 3 kids close in age to ours.  It has a pool that we've enjoyed a LOT!

Peyton enjoys the view from his stroller

At the beach, Peyton chilled (napped) on the beach chair

Micah and our friend Todd enjoying the beach

The kids enjoyed playing in the sand and looking for crabs

Our smiley boy

5 kids in the back seat

And Thailand does have this guy!

We are really having a good time and getting a much needed time of rest and relaxation (apart from all sleeping in the same room and Peyton deciding to eat every 3-4 hours even through the night!!! )

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!