Sorry for the delay!

I don't know about you all, but things here for the past few weeks have been BUSY!

Here's a few updates from our side of the world:

Nathan is crawling! And it doesn't seem it will be long before he's up on his feet. Uh-oh! And he has 6 teeth.

We've started taking a new language class. Well, not a new language, just going to a different place for class. We have 3 different teachers. Mark is going 3 times a week, and I'm going 2 times a week. We're reviewing the basics and learning some fun things like proverbs and old sayings. Don't ask me if I remember any of them at the moment!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with a group of friends. We're all scattered among 3 different cities, so we chose one and all got together for turkey, chicken, carrot souffle, dressing, pumpkin pie, hot apple cider, mashed potatoes, etc. And we got the Christmas season off to a great start with some Christmas carols accompanied by our friend's piano. That was a special treat! Nathan got carried around all day by the girls in the group. They're all from 7 - 12 years old, and it was the coolest thing to have a real baby to play house with!

The weather is beginning to feel like winter, and the sun has been hiding its face for the past few days.

And our biggest news . . . we leave tomorrow morning for 3 weeks in the States! Yahoo!!! Nathan's done quite a bit of traveling in his short life, but none like this! We're so excited about him getting to meet all of his aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandmother.

Here's a few pictures for you to enjoy. Hopefully, it won't be this long until we post the next time! Love to you all, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Tea for Two

While enjoying a nice hot glass of tea with a friend the other day, I took a sip and felt something other than tea in my mouth. I thought maybe a fairly large tea leaf made its way into my sip. I discreetly cleared this thing from my tongue with my finger and discovered it was a fly! Call it extra protein all you want, that was gross! I suppose he thought my tea was for both of us to enjoy.

Compliment to the Chef

Overheard a guest say the other night . . . "I have been so excited about coming to your house tonight, Mark, because I knew I would get coffee!" Then, he repeated those same sentiments to me personally. When I served his coffee to him, he said, "Super!" and upon finishing the first cup asked for a second.

You may ask what's so special about our coffee. From our standpoint, nothing! It's freshly ground, French press brewed, coffee. But to our friend it must be kind of like how we feel about a fresh, hot cup of coffee from Starbucks.

Anyway, for we who had to learn by trial and error how to make good coffee in a French press (and believe me, we had to throw out quite a few of our first cups), it was the ultimate compliment!

What a great hubby!

I just wanted to brag on my hubby a little tonight. I got a phone call from a friend late in the day asking if I could meet for coffee this evening. Mark agreed to help by watching Nathan even though he also had plans tonight so that I could go. He took care of all the evening details - feeding Nathan his veggies, bath, PJ's, playtime, and bedtime. I came home to complete silence (expecting Nathan to be fussy and ready for his bedtime feeding). Mark said Nathan started acting really tired and fussy a little earlier than normal, so he put him down to play in his crib for a little while -he fell asleep within 5 minutes. And he's still asleep 4 1/2 hours later. What a great daddy!

Now I wonder when he'll wake up and realize he skipped that feeding!

Hot Water Heater

I won't go into the details of our recent adventure of having a new hot water heater installed, but there are two interesting things I thought you'd enjoy.

First, you must understand that our hot water heater is mounted in our kitchen cabinet and is connected to a large propane tank similar to what you use with your gas grills, which is located under the kitchen sink. Sounds a little dangerous, huh?!

Well, after our landlord's husband finally got everything for the new water heater hooked up - gas and water hoses - he decided he wanted to do a test to make sure there were no gas leaks. Know what he did? As if the whole setup isn't dangerous enough . . . he waved the flame starter thing (with open flame) all around the water heater and connected hoses! Mark took a few steps back, and I said a quick prayer. Thankfully, there were no leaks!

The following day we were having trouble with the new water heater, so a repairman came by. There was a leak from the water hose connected to it. He sealed it really tight, made a few other adjustments, and left. Mark told me that the stuff he sealed the water hose with looked like hair. So curious me had to see for myself. Sure enough, when I held the strands I pulled out to the light, it glistened like real hair! Today we found out from some friends that it is most definitely hair - it's commonly used to seal pipes/hoses in plumbing. We have no idea what kind of hair, but it seems to be dirty blonde! :-)

Breakthrough

Nathan's first tooth has finally broken through. Yeah!!!

6 months old

I can't believe it, but our little boy is 6 months old! Where has the time gone?!
I thought you might like to know what he's up to these days.

rolling around

trying to sit up on his own - still a little wobbly though


eating a few solid foods


making all sorts of fun sounds with his mouth

scooting around in his walker - well, mostly going backwards

laughing a lot - although whenever the camera comes out he's so interested in trying to snatch the camera he forgets to laugh. this makes it a little difficult to get his laughs on video - sorry!

which brings me to one of the newest challenges - he's trying to grab everything in sight (especially technological devices), and it all goes straight to his mouth

peeking around the corner to see what's going on - he's very curious!
(or maybe just plain nosy)

Things he really likes . . .

putting things over his face, moving his hands away, and kicking his legs - silly!
bathtime

trying to get mommy's glasses

listening to music

watching people clap their hands

trying to "help" daddy play football on the playstation
gotta start 'em young, right?!


playing with anything that makes a "crinkly" sound
(even if it's trash)
Look at him go with this candy bar wrapper!

First Family Vacation

Well, we're back home from what's sure to go down as a trip with quite a few unforgettable moments! Nathan just fell asleep, Mark's taking a nap, and I just finished off a pack of some of my favorite cookies. So I thought I'd share a bit about our first family vacation.

We've traveled quite a bit with Nathan over his short 6 months of life, even staying in quite a few hotels with him, but on all of those trips we were either working or with other friends/family. This time it was just the three of us.

Here's a few interesting things we did/saw . . .

I saw broccoli on the breakfast buffet - and actually ate some!

We saw a little boy squatting in a not so private place to relieve himself - as they say around here, BIG potty - gross!

A guy told us about an olive festival in his village and invited us to go. We asked for the details, and he told us it would only be for that day. After about 2 hours of driving through olive trees for as far as the eye could see on a little dirt tractor path, turning around to start down another road, and winding through a couple of random villages (getting weird looks the whole time), we finally found a real road again. That wasn't the right road either, so we turned around to give up and head back to the hotel. After we turned around we saw the sign for the village. So off we went AGAIN in search of this festival. Guess what we found when we made it to the village . . . a sign that clearly stated "Olive Festival Fri., Oct. 9" We went on Wed.!

where we came from
the view from the road
nothing but olive tress for as far as the eye could see

where we were headed to
that's the village way up on the hill

Nathan got to play in the swimming pool for the first time. It was indoors, so it wasn't cold. But it was chilly enough that it took a while for him to relax. Once he got used to it, he was splashing his hands and squealing in delight.

We drove around looking for an old castle and ended up on another tractor path in the middle of olive trees. We drove so far only to find that the road became impassable. On the same day we tried to get to an old monastery, and the same thing happened. We had to turn around before we got to it because the road was impassable. Sounds like a pretty desolate place, huh? It was, but it was sooooo beautiful!

in our search for the monastery we couldn't get to we found this one

We searched and searched for Mark's favorite national meal and sweet treat - never did find either!

We learned that Nathan, like his big brother Titus, can be kept occupied for a long time with plastic bottles and any kind of food wrapper that makes noise.


I got to enjoy a nice, relaxing aroma therapy massage at the hotel.

We found cinnamon sticks and dried cranberries at the local bazaar - those are rare finds, and I was thrilled!

Also at the bazaar, we walked through the shoe section. In our city, shoes get strung up on lines that hang from one side of the street to the other. At this bazaar, the shoes were stacked so neatly in boxes and displayed so professionally, it was like walking into Rack Room Shoes!

We also got to visit some ancient ruins. The view was spectacular!





We had a few bumps along the way, but it was great to have some quality time as a family!!

Recent Happenings

Well, folks, it's been a while since we last posted anything here. Here's some snippets of life for us lately . . .

Nathan is rolling over both ways now and scooting backwards in the walker. He's also just started eating some solid foods.

We got to visit a 600 year old tree with some friends. It was fun to sit under the huge limbs and drink tea and eat some delicious food!

We learned that if it looks like it's raining too hard to get out and about, it probably is! In order to get to a new coffee/pizza place so we could have a "homework date" we ended up in the middle of the rainstorm of all rainstorms. We were so wet you would have thought we just stood fully clothed under a faucet. It was terrible! Later in the day we found out that there had been lots of flooding downtown where we had been. If we had waited much longer to get home we would have had a very hard time getting back. After all of that we didn't even get our coffee. We ended up back at home drinking Nescafe (instant flavored cofee).

The pizza/coffee place mentioned above is a new place. Their specialties are pizza, coffee, and cheesecake. You can also get a steak and cheese sandwich - philly cheese steak-ish with corn! It's actually quite good, even with the corn. :-) We hope this place will get lots of business because the handful of foreign families living here LOVE it! Mark and I went for a date one night, and I ate an entire small pizza, a piece of cheesecake, and drank a huge mug of hot chocolate. (Gotta love all the calories my body is burning from nursing our little hungry hippo!) I felt so sick after all that!

Mark got bitten by a very long and scary looking centipede. Didn't know they bite? We didn't either . . . Didn't know they could get into your house, crawl up into your furniture, and sneak into your covers at night looking for a snack? We didn't either . . . but we saw it with our own eyes! He's OK, but he said it's the most painful "bug" bite he's ever felt. We tried to take a picture of the creepy thing, but he got away (we thought he was dead, but I guess we were wrong). Just so you know, those things can run fast!!!

I realized, after we got caught in such a terrible rainstorm that led to some serious and unexpected flooding, how much I miss really good weather forecasting! Yes, while living in the States I was a news-a-holic! I LOVED to watch the weather especially. Here, you're lucky if you find out what the temperature will be in a city an hour or so away. After that bad rain system came through, there were a couple of forecasting centers set up with some special forecasting equipment. It was like going back in time! People here were saying they've never seen rain like we had that day, and I guess since it's so unusual for it to rain that hard no one was prepared or really knew what to do in such a storm. No kidding, there was rain, wind, thunder, and lightning for a full 24 hours! It was like a tropical system in a place that's far from tropical!

I'll leave you with a few recent pictures of Nathan. Good night!

our future fisherman

It was a really long day!

getting ready for his first solid food meal
Can you tell he likes to eat?!

"Where's the TV remote?"

What will the neighbors say?

The other night, Mark and I were both up with Nathan in the middle of the night. He was so restless, crying, fussy, and both of us were walking around a little dazed and confused and at our wit's end trying to figure out what else to do with this unhappy baby. I had the bright idea that I was going to try to go back to sleep while Mark sat with him for a little while. But in our little apartment there was no getting away from the crying. I got back up, and Mark was headed out the door with Nathan. It was about 4 in the morning. A hundred questions were going through my head, but I was so out of it by that point I didn't even ask. I honestly thought he was going to just go sit in the car with Nathan.

A little while later, I heard the door unlock, and here comes Mark pushing Nathan (who was bright-eyed and very happy) in the stroller. I was relieved to know that they hadn't been just sitting in the car because I kept thinking, "What will the neighbors say if they see them in the car like that?" Then Mark explained this story to me . . .

As soon as he got Nathan outside he immediately stopped crying. Mark remembered that the stroller was in the trunk of the car, so he decided to stroll him around the neighborhood for a little while. (Remember: 4 AM) He noticed some older women sitting on the balcony eating breakfast (they eat before sunrise because of their fasting right now). Then he saw how quickly they all popped up out of their seats to watch this man pushing a stroller around the street in the middle of the night. So much for the relief I felt when I realized they hadn't been sitting in the car. Now the neighbors had even better ammunition - we had our baby in the cold night air! And what would they have thought if they had seen he was only wearing a onesie with no pants, socks, or blanket?!

Somehow we finally managed to get him back to sleep, and amazingly, I've heard no whispers of the crazy foreigners who take their baby out for a stroll in the middle of the night! Of course, I can imagine that some of those women watching Mark have done some even stranger things to get a baby to sleep! Oh, to hear the stories they could tell!!!

Our feast

Tonight we hosted some local friends for a large evening meal. They are fasting each day from sun-up to sundown, and the meal that breaks the fast in the evenings is often eaten together with family or friends. Since we aren't fasting, and the preparations for such a large meal when you aren't even supposed to taste test anything, can be difficult, we're trying to bless a few friends by preparing the meal for them and giving them a break.

Here's what we had to eat:
dried dates (traditionally used to break the fast along with a glass of room temperature water)
rice stuffed grape leaves (I bought these ready made at the grocery store - yahoo!)
tomato soup (homemade and not too shabby)
salad
pickled veggies (out of a store bought jar)
bread (right out of the baker's oven - piping hot - mmm, mmm good!)
a vegetable medley (potatoes, tomatoes, green/red peppers, eggplant, zucchini, garlic that's all fried/sauteed first then all placed together and stewed. Yummy!)
bulgur pilav
a local version of chicken stir fry (with onions, garlic, peppers, and tomatoes)

And after all that, our guests were too stuffed to eat the dessert I made, so we just sat on the balcony and chatted while we drank our tea. (I didn't think the dessert turned out all that great anyway. It's these bland little cookie things that are soaked in a sugar syrup and serve cold with cream or coconut.)

We had a great time with our friends, and if I must say so myself, "It was delicious!" I will also tell you that I've never chopped so many veggies before in my life! There is a reason no one cooks like this every day of the year!!!

More Good News

I'm wearing my bracelet! And it only cost about 3 dollars to have it fixed.

Good News

My bracelet has been found! Now to get to the shop and pick it up before it gets lost on that very dirty and crowded work table again!!!

(For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, please read the previous post.)

May I help you?

In one of my previous posts I mentioned that you have to take broken jewelry to a special jewelry repair shop. Here's how I learned that along with a story of one man's offer to help me in a difficult situation.

I have a gold bracelet that broke. I finally got up the nerve to find a place to have it repaired downtown. The guy in the jewelry store told me that I would have to go to the special repair place to have it fixed because they don't do repairs. Thankfully, I already knew the building he told me about, so all I had to do was find the right little shop inside the building. And, actually, I had spotted this particular shop a few days earlier.

Nathan and I set out one day to take the bracelet for repairs . . . well, I guess it was that same day. To get into this building there are a couple of stairs to go down. There are entrance ways on both sides of the building and when you get inside, there is a sort of back and forth staircase and an elevator. Most of the shops in the building are either seamstresses, wedding gown sellers, or candy shops. I thought I remembered the repair place being on an elevator floor (since the elevator skips the half floors), which meant all I had to do that could be challenging was to get the stroller down the steps by myself. It was a little awkward, but we made it inside. As I turned the corner to check out the elevator, I realized that the repair shop was on a half floor, which meant I had to go up half a flight of steps to get there. I didn't want to leave Nathan sitting in the stroller, and I couldn't physically carry the stroller up the steps, so I pulled Nathan out and headed up to the shop.

I gave my bracelet to the guy (who acted like he'd never seen anything so thin and delicate in his life - uh-oh!) and he wrote my name on a little white slip of paper, folded it around the bracelet, and carefully placed it among all the other little glasses pieces (he repairs glasses, too), jewelry, slips of paper, and other junk on his work table. I had a fleeting thought of "How does he find anything in here?" before turning to go out.

I got Nathan situated into the stroller and began to contemplate whether or not I could get him back UP the stairs to get out of the building. I wondered about using the second entrance, but it was even worse because there was a half flight of stairs to get to it. So I had no other option. When we got to the stairs there was a middle-aged man sitting on a bench (smoking and reading the newspaper). Just as I thought about asking him for help, he asked me if he could help. I thought that was great timing! He then proceeded to tell me to turn the stroller around backwards and pull. (OK, great advice, but once you see the poor lady struggling to pull it up the stairs, could you give some REAL help, please?!) This man's behavior is actually totally not normal. Most men would have jumped up in a heartbeat to help carry the stroller up the stairs. Anyway, I finally got the stroller up the stairs all by myself and back onto the sidewalk, no real thanks to my "helper"!

He told me the day I dropped it off it would be done 30 minutes later, but I had something else to do, so I decided to come back another day. One thing after another kept me from going to pick it up sooner, and before I knew it 2 weeks had passed. This time because of the stair situation I left Nathan with Mark and some friends downtown. That made it a lot easier! When I got to the shop I was greeted with, "Welcome! Oh my goodness, I couldn't find it!" He then went on to tell me that he has been looking for my bracelet and can't find it and that just the same morning he told a friend who came to visit that he couldn't find it. They had discussed how mad I would be when I came. I actually didn't feel angry at all. I just thought to myself, "Well, with a workshop that looks like this, I'm not surprised!" I kept wanting to chuckle as he frantically looked through everything on his worktable, all the while muttering under his breath what an awful thing this is. I felt so sorry for him. I told him that if he couldn't find it I would give him my phone number and he could call me when he does. He protested with, "I will find it! How many years have I been doing this, and nothing like this has ever happened!" After 30 more minutes of searching, he still couldn't find it. So he decided it would be best for me to write my number so he could call me. As I was writing my number his friend walked in that told him I would probably come before he was able to find my bracelet. Poor guy!

So after all that, my bracelet is MIA. Who knows if I'll ever see it again! And what did I learn from my "helper" on the bench? Never assume that when someone says, "May I help you?" they mean exactly what you're thinking!

It's a whole new world!

Look how much fun Nathan is having on his tummy these days!

The Drummer

Some of you may remember from last year that during our national friends' holiday a drummer comes around the neighborhood before sunrise . . . WAY before sunrise . . . to wake everyone up so they can eat a big breakfast before they start their daily fast. Last year it was bad enough that we (Mark and I) were awakened by it. This year it's even worse! Nathan is waking up, too!!! 3:30 AM is the hour of the drums . . . anyone want a wake-up call?!

Nathan's Most Recent Accomplishment

This week Nathan has discovered that he can roll from his back to his stomach. He hasn't quite figured out what to do once he gets there, and he gets pretty mad about that! Sleep times can get a little tricky because it sometimes takes a little fighting (with himself) before he can relax enough to go to sleep once he's rolled over. Here's how sweet he looks though once the fight is over.

Sorry the angle is a little weird. The picture seems to be saved correctly, but it rotates here every time I upload it.

Random Things

I thought I would write a little about some random things we've encountered over the past couple of weeks.

• Jewelry stores don't do jewelry repairs. You have to go to a jewelry repair shop for that.
• There's a cheap brand clothing store downtown that puts stuff on sidewalk racks in the front part of the store and out on the sidewalk when they're ready to mark down things for the last time. And if you buy from that part of the store you aren't allowed to go inside to try it on and you have to pay cash to this man that stands behind a counter and cuts clothing tags in half. The other day I found a blouse on one of the outside racks for about $2.00 that I thought would make a nice blouse to where to a wedding this coming weekend. I couldn't decide what size to get, so I guessed and decided that if it didn't fit I could easily bring it back to exchange it. Sure enough I got to my friend's art studio and tried it on, and it didn't fit. When I took it back I told the guy it was too small, and he just basically said, "yeah, yeah, just go over there and get what you want." There was no handing him the too small one with the receipt. I just took the too small one back to the rack, picked out a bigger size, stuck it in my shopping bag, and walked out. Later I took the blouse out of the bag and noticed a snag in the sleeve, so I decided I needed to exchange it again. This time I didn't even bother going over to the money man. I just took the old one and put it on the rack, took a different one, and left. No one ever asked what I was doing! I guess once you pay your money, you could swap all day!!!
• A pair of pants can be taken in for about $1.00.
• You know you stand out in the crowd when strangers ask about your baby if you're downtown without the stroller.
• There's a new commercial for a dairy company here whose jingle is to the tune of "When the Saints Go Marching in."
  

Smile, please!

"No, I don't want to!"

"I'm thinking about it."

"Cheese!"

All in a day's work . . .

Playtime

Naptime

Bathtime

Along with all that fun comes a pretty big appetite.
Just look at those chubby cheeks!

Fun Finds

Just thought you would enjoy hearing about a few "tastes from home" we've discovered recently.

• Cookie dough ice cream - it's not exactly that, but it comes close enough for our deprived taste buds.
• Snyder's pretzels - they don't have the really big, hard ones like Mark and his dad love, but it's pretty cool to find something from Mark's home state of PA around. What we found were honey mustard, cheddar cheese, and hot buffalo wings flavors. Mark actually doesn't like any of them, but I think they're great!
• Saltine-like crackers - they come in two flavors - tomato and olive. We prefer the tomato ones.
• Nesquick chocolate syrup - it's not Hershey's but it's a lot closer than the knock-off brand we can buy here normally.
  

Choices, choices . . .

Because we share a vehicle with 2 other families we have to get a little creative when it comes to getting around town sometimes. It wasn't really a big deal before Nathan came along, but now getting out of the house requires quite a bit of planning and sometimes A LOT of sweat!

We have good public transportation here. There are buses, taxis, 5 person taxi things. And for us, since we live in a small city and our apartment is not too far from downtown, there's the option to walk. I used to walk everywhere! And if I didn't feel like walking all the way downtown I would hop into one of the 5 person taxis and go. Then just about the time Nathan was born we discovered that we really like the buses (the bus stop is closer to our house than any other mode of transportation).

For the first few weeks of Nathan's life I pretty much went nowhere without Mark. So it didn't matter how we traveled - car, bus, taxi, etc. (and there was no walking because I was still recovering). He took care of getting Nathan, the car seat and/or stroller in and out of whatever situation we found ourselves in. Well, now that I'm getting out mostly by myself I've been experimenting with various modes of transportation. Earlier in the week I decided to carry Nathan in the snugli front carrier and take a bus . . . great in theory but after sitting on an unairconditioned bus, walking around in 90 something degree temps for a couple of hours, and riding another unairconditioned bus home I decided I would try to avoid doing that again this summer. Today I decided to walk . . . again great in theory. If you could only see the hills I pushed the stroller up and down today! This morning it took 30 minutes walking into town (Mark was pushing the stroller) and coming home took 45 minutes (just Nathan and me). Not only are there lots of steep hills, the sidewalks here are a nightmare! I don't even know where to begin trying to describe them! Anyway . . . I have decided that making walking downtown and back a regular thing may be too much until the weather cools off.

So what options am I left with??? Taking the stroller on the bus . . . possible, but definitely would need someone else to hold the baby while I lug that heavy thing onto the bus and often there's no one else getting on or off at our stop. Taking the stroller in the 5 person taxi . . . might work if I always get on at the beginning point and always get out at the stopping point. I might try it next week. Carrying Nathan in the snugli and riding a 5 person taxi . . . but sometimes you have to crawl over people to get to the back seat. I wonder if they would give up a front seat so I could avoid dumping Nathan into the floor? No to mention I'd still be carrying him around in the heat like that - yuck! A regular taxi is too expensive. I could just hold him the whole time, but how would I get any errands done?

Anyway . . . I never dreamed that one of the biggest choices I would have to make daily would be whether or not to use the snugli or stroller and whether or not I wanted to walk or take a bus/taxi. At the end of the day I might return home exhausted, hot, and soaking wet with sweat, but just think of the adventures and opportunities I'd be missing if I simply stayed at home!

Here's wishing you a day full of traveling adventures . . .

Recommendation

I just wanted to share with you something that we ordered to use with Nathan that has been a life-saver - a portable sleeping tent. If you are having a baby or know someone who is, this is a GREAT purchase/gift (especially if you/they travel a lot)!

Our nighttime schedule gets interrupted at least once a week - we either stay late at someone's house or have guests at our house, and we seem to travel overnight quite a bit. If we're at someone else's house, we take the tent (which collapses easily and fits in a carry-over-the-shoulder bag) and set it up in a room not being used. If we have guests at our house, we often set it up in our bedroom (because Nathan's room is right next to our living room). And we've used it in a hotel, too.

It's lightweight (MUCH lighter and easier to carry than a pack 'n play). It comes with an inflatable mattress. And it helps baby feel like he/she has their own place to sleep if their crib is not available. Plus, with the flaps closed, it blocks out extra light, if necessary. There are mesh screens on each end so that air can circulate even when the side flaps are closed.

Anyway . . . we LOVE it!!! And since we've been using it, Nathan sleeps beautifully, even away from home! What more could a parent ask for?!

Titus' Twin

While traveling last weekend we met this dog . . . don't you think he looks like Titus???

Our Titus

Street-dog Titus

Our Titus even sits in this position all the time!
We call it the Sphinx pose.

Nathan's new friend

Now that Nathan is becoming more and more aware of his surroundings we've started actually playing with a few toys. Nothing fancy, just things he can hang onto and/or put in his mouth. This little giraffe has been sitting on the shelf in his room waiting to be loved on, and we got it out yesterday to see what he would do with it. Have a look . . .

First he just hugged it.

Then he realized that one of the horns is just the right size for sucking.
When we took it away from him, that horn was soaking wet. It kind of reminded us of a tennis ball after Titus has chewed on it awhile - a little bit wet and slimy!

Run, Run, Run, Fast as you can . . .

This is a little sneak peek of the exercise Nathan is most fond of doing. Occasionally, yes, he does accidentally smack himself in the head, face, and belly. But he takes it all in stride!

Wonder where he's trying to go . . .

All Smiles

Thought you might like to see some of Nathan's irresistable smiles!

Makeshift Bed

While traveling recently with my parents, Mark decided to take Nathan to the hotel one afternoon to get him out of the heat for a while. So after Nathan was fed, Mark headed with him to the hotel while I took my parents for a little more sightseeing. When we arrived at the hotel this is how we found Nathan, sound asleep. It was the perfect spot . . . out of the way so we wouldn't step on him in the middle of the night, out of the direct flow of cool air from the AC that actually worked, blocked somewhat from the lights in the room, and just the right size (but not for long)!

This little "bed" worked so well, we decided to put him there for the night. He slept all night long! Oh, that we could all sleep so well in strange places, huh?!

Oops!

We've been treating Nathan's face for some kind of rash (along with a stubborn case of cradle cap). The doctor prescribed some cream for his face a few weeks ago. After using the cream for about a week his skin looked much better so I stopped - like he told me to. Then once the weather warmed up it started looking bad again. I started washing his face and using the cream mornings and evenings again a week or so ago.

We took him to the doctor this morning for something totally unrelated, but while we were there he asked about his face. I told him that I was washing his face and using the cream he prescribed twice a day, and he decided to write a prescription for a different ointment to use on alternating days with the first one he prescribed.

Later in the day, as I was cleaning out a drawer in Nathan's room, I came across a tube of cream. As soon as I looked at it I realized that it was the cream first prescribed for his face. So you may be wondering . . . what had I been putting on his face for the last couple of weeks? That's exactly what I was asking myself! I found the tube I've been using and remembered that it was the one I got from the pharmacy for diaper rash!!!

I really don't think there's been any harm done, but it is funny that I was putting the diaper rash cream on the wrong "cheeks!"

Well Wishes

I recently attended an afternoon tea with a group of women I regularly meet with for tea. At the end of our time together they presented me with an ice cream carton filled with 4 things . . . eggs, sugar cubes, a large piece of cotton, and a few pieces of one of the finger foods we had eaten together. These all symbolize wishes they have for Nathan . . .

eggs - life and health
sugar cubes - a sweet life
cotton - a long life (This was placed up to his chin so that it looked like an old man's beard as they explained it to me.)
food - a blessed life

These are all things traditionally presented to a new mother and her child when a period of 40 days is over and they begin visiting with others together. My personal favorite was the cotton - especially the way they put it up to his face like a beard and said "May he have a long life, like a grandfather." I wish I had thought to take a picture!

Scarecrow, Tinman, or Snowman???

Which do you think the little "people" knitted on Nathan's most recent addition to his sweater collection look like?

Reverse Psychology

I think it's been mentioned in previous posts that our local friends and neighbors are superstitious about little babies. They believe that saying certain phrases, wearing red, and pinning a blue bead on their clothes will protect them from bad things that come as a result of compliments.

I don't think I mentioned the other thing they do to try to help protect the baby from evil.

What would most of you say the first time you see someone's baby? "How cute!" "How sweet!" "How handsome!" "What a beautiful baby!"

Well, babies here are often greeted with "You're so ugly!" "You're so naughty!" in the sweetest, highest pitched baby talk you've ever heard! Yes, Nathan has heard his fair share of "You're ugly/naughty" comments, and today a lady pretended to spit in his direction!!!

It seems folks are trying reverse psychology with the forces that they fear. By not complimenting the baby and instead saying something not so nice to the baby, they believe it will protect the baby from evil instead of drawing undue attention to the baby.

Interesting philosophy, huh? Anyone care to try calling a new mom's baby ugly where you live???

The Many Moods of Nathan

This is Melissa's most favorite picture! It was taken the night Nathan was born.
If you can't tell, he's looking at his mommy's face. Awwwww, isn't that sweet?!

This face just cracks us up! And if you notice his right ear (his right) it's a little bit floppy. We were a little concerned it might stay that way! But it's firmed up a bit and looks like the other one and not so "elfish" anymore.

This is his classic rootin' snortin' "FEED ME!" face.
We affectionately refer to him as our "hungry little hippo" when he gets like this.
Remember that childhood favorite "Hungry, Hungry Hippo" game?

He's confident even in his sleep. Look at those muscles!

Well, he's not looking so confident here! He wasn't sure what to think of being totally naked and partly submerged in water. Strange thought considering that's exactly what life was like for him for 9 months, huh? But although he wasn't looking so confident he never even made a peep and seemed to like the bath in the end.

"Have ride, will travel!"
This was our practice run with the snugli carrier because the next day we made our first big trip. We had to travel to the nearest Consulate to apply for birth certificate, passport, and social security card. He did great!

The Baby Lazyboy Chair
Doesn't he make it look sooooo good?!

What I call a VERY successful day . . .

Sorry the blog posting has taken a back seat recently. You can probably imagine how limited time is these days, and we appreciate your patience.

With time in mind, I wanted to share with you about our day today. To start with I must admit that I've found one of the most challenging parts of being a new mom is learning to always plan what I need to get done in 1.5 to 2 hour segments of time (and sometimes less). Of course, that's because I'm accomplishing the very honorable task of feeding, cleaning, dressing, and calming our beautiful baby boy. And I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Today we had a special day. Here's why . . .

• Nathan slept 6 straight hours last night! Need I say more???
• Nathan and I made our first trip to the grocery store alone. I decided that if I made it back home with Nathan in the car and something to cook for dinner tonight it would be a success. Well, Nathan made it back home, and I even managed to practically fill up a grocery cart. (Just a side note: Here, you bag your own groceries. That was an experience with a baby hanging onto me!)
• And my favorite part about today . . . right now. Nathan's asleep. His Daddy's taking a nap. And there's a pot of chili on the stove waiting to be devoured. Hmmmmm . . . why am I not sleeping, too???

Well, I may not get a nap, but I am going to get a bowl of piping hot chili to eat while the little one is sleeping. How many times I've had to choose between food and sleep these last 6 weeks! This time food wins hands down!!!

I'll leave you with a picture to ooh and aah over.



By the way . . . it looks like that chili will have to wait. My little hungry hippo is awake and starving! I guess I shouldn't have waited for Daddy to wake up, huh?!

Coffee Mix Up

So having a baby in the house has led to a few "moments" - moments of forgetfulness, moments of sleepiness, moments of anxiety, moments of tears, moments of the most incredible joy, moments of confusion, and moments of laughter.

My most recent "moment of laughter" happened to take place while attempting to be a proper hostess for a couple of neighbors.

Now that I'm getting up and moving around a lot better, it's becoming more and more necessary for me to resume the role of hostess, especially when Mark is not around the house to help. The day these particular neighbors came by, I wasn't expecting guests (no, they don't normally call before coming), but since they came, it was appropriate for me to offer something to drink at least. I offered them a cup of national coffee. They both accepted.

Let me describe the coffee here and the process used to brew it . . . the coffee is a very fine powder (think espresso) and it is placed in a small pot with water and a cube of sugar (if desired) and brought to a full boil until foam forms on the top. It is then poured into the cups (and hopefully the foam will stay put on top of the coffee as a sign of one's hostessing skills).

Well, I went into the kitchen, got out the coffee, sugar cubes, and coffee cups. I mixed the coffee, sugar, and water and started heating it. When it started to boil, I removed the pot from the stove to pour it into the cups. I noticed that it wasn't keeping the foam very well. Strange . . . I've become a decent coffee maker and mine usually foams pretty well. Then I caught a quick whiff of the coffee . . . hmmmmmm . . . it didn't smell like coffee. One more whiff . . . it smelled like cocoa. I realized that I had mistakenly pulled the container of cocoa out of the cabinet, thinking it was coffee - they look practically identical!

One of my neighbors had walked into the kitchen as I was finishing the coffee and we were chatting when I realized what I had done. I told her that what I had fixed wasn't coffee. She asked me what it was, and when I told her it was cocoa, she (thankfully) thought it was funny, too. I insisted that she let me make coffee, but she insisted that they would drink it.

Drink it they did, too! I couldn't believe it!!!

Normally, people offer small chocolates to eat when drinking coffee . . . since my guests were drinking "hot cocoa" I didn't even bother to offer them any chocolates. I figured what they were drinking would be enough chocolate.

A few days later a group of neighbors came over together to see Nathan. The plan was to serve coffee. Do you think I made coffee??? Not a chance! And fortunately I just provided a brand new bag of coffee for my friend to make so there would be no confusion.

I guess I need to label my storage containers so there aren't any more mix-ups. My saving grace is that I'm a sleep-deprived new mother. I'm thankful they were so gracious to me!

Local advice . . .

I'd love to know if any of you have ever heard these same tidbits of advice . . .

Don't let wind blow towards the baby - he'll get sick.
Don't dress a baby with only one layer of clothes - he'll get sick, especially if he's sweaty.
Don't put the baby too close to the floor - he'll get cold and sick.
Don't let the baby's feet get cold - it will cause gas.
Don't let the mother's feet get cold - it will cause the mother to get gas, which will pass on to the baby.
Feed the baby every 10 minutes if he cries every 10 minutes. (They can't stand the fact that we have Nathan on a feeding schedule.)
Don't try to sit the baby upright before he's 3 months old.
Don't pat the baby's back to burp him - you could hurt his back.
In order to help jaundice go away, wrap the baby in a yellow blanket.
To keep evil/bad luck away from the baby, the mother should wear something red.

When people come visit they often bring a container of fruit juice. The reason is so that the mother's milk will be plentiful. When they bring a plate of food to us, they say the same thing "Eat this so your milk will be plentiful." I was even told to eat chocolate today to help my milk remain plentiful. And a (male) friend of Mark's made a list of veggies, fruits, and herbs that would help my milk remain abundant. We thought it was funny that he was giving advice on this topic!

Oh, I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but maybe those tidbits give you a taste of the kinds of advice we get daily.

Nathan James has arrived!!!

It's funny that the night I wrote the last entry was the night I went into labor! Who knew?!

Nathan was born April 8 at 11:55 pm (3.44 kg and 52 cm -approximately 7.5 lbs and 20.5 in) . It was a long day, but everything went very smoothly. We had no problems communicating with our doctor and his staff. They were all great!!! We spent two nights in the hospital (2 very long nights!). The pediatrician wanted to have Nathan in the hospital for a full 24 hours before releasing him, and my doctor didn't want to let me go the next morning either.

Nathan slept so hard the night he was born that his hat wiggled down over his eyes by sunrise. After 9 months of darkness, who wants light shining in their eyes?!

We've been home for going on 2 weeks now - my, oh, my, how time does fly! We've had lots of visitors already. In fact, today about 12-15 neighbor ladies came over for coffee just to see Nathan. A neighbor and a friend served so I could rest and visit with the women who came. It was really sweet of them.

So I thought I would share a few pictures with you of a few odds and ends we've received over the past week or two.

Nathan's first gold coin - a traditional gift. It's about the size of a dime.
We can hang on to it as a keepsake or take it to a gold jeweler and trade it in for cash or a piece of jewelry. What do you think we should do???

My gift from the neighbors that came for coffee today.
Gold earrings and pendant with "diamond-like" stones.

This was pinned on the back of one of the sweater vests Nathan received from a neighbor.
According to their beliefs, complimenting a baby excessively can invoke bad luck, and this bead (the one with the "eye" looking thing) is believed to ward off any harm that could come from that bad luck.

A few more hand-made sweater vests.