Baby Gifts

Our neighbors here are all about hand-made/knitted gifts for newborn babies. We thought you'd enjoy seeing the hand-made things we've received from our neighbors. The big fuzzy white blanket thing is specifically for our stroller. All "good" mommies here keep their babies wrapped snuggly beneath a special blanket while in the stroller. Notice the frilly stuff around the edges. Hmmmm . . . According to our neighbor who made this, as the child gets older and begins sleeping in a regular bed this same blanket is folded at the foot of their bed to hide their PJ's. We'll see what our little boy thinks of the frills when he gets that old. :-)


Also this week we received the quilt that Mark's mom made for the baby. It's bright, cheery, and stitched with lots of love!


And finally . . . today some very dear friends "showered" us with lots of special gifts. It was a lot of fun hanging out with our fellow ex-pat friends for a special day of celebration. Having a traditional baby shower in a foreign country takes some planning, and they went all out! We had punch, chocolate cheesecake, cheese balls, fruit salad, little ham sandwiches, spinach dip, chicken quiche, and chocolate chip cookies. YUMMY! Mommy and baby were VERY happy with so many favorites to tickle our taste buds!!! Here's all the wonderful things we came home with.


What a beautiful assortment of gifts. You might not be able to make out what all of it is, so here's a summary. Onesies and other really adorable outfits, bibs, booties, hooded towel, diapers and wipes, pacifiers, laundry detergent, books, stuffed animals, blanket, bath supplies, a beautifully crafted scrapbook, nightlight/music box thing, hand/foot print kit, and a few other odds and ends that are tucked away in that basket. These ladies have been a tremendous blessing to us today!

Fun Discovery

We recently came across an unexpected surprise in the grocery story . . . jelly beans. Not your ordinary drug store, $1.00 a bag jelly beans either. I think they could give Jelly Belly a run for their money. Well, maybe not, but to these Jelly Belly deprived taste buds, they were delicious!!! It's a gourmet jelly bean brand made in Ireland. The container was full of all the typcial Jelly Belly flavors and even included a key on the back to tell you what flavor each color was. There was even a buttered popcorn one! Isn't that fun???

AND someone else just told us that they've been able to find marshmallows in a small market. So among our ex-pat friends the new favorite dessert seems to be "corn flake crispy" treats. We can't wait to make them either!!!

If I were a . . . . .

Be forewarned . . . the following information is purely random and for most of you useless, but it was very interesting to this very pregnant mom-to-be. Enjoy!

Just yesterday I was watching a National Geographic show on how the young of 4 different animals develop from conception until birth. Lemon sharks, some kind of wasp, kangaroos, and Emperor penguins. I've decided I'm very thankful that I'm not any one of those! Here's why . . . sharks are born backward (tail first), the wasps larva are implanted into another poor worm creatures body and then chew their way out only to kill their host, once the baby kangaroo has developed enough it can poke its head and legs out of the pouch anytime it wants to (it goes in and out, in and out, in and out for a few weeks before completely being separated from mom AND I only thought Nathan had some powerful kicks - he doesn't have anything on a baby kangaroo), and as for the penguin . . . well, maybe that wouldn't be so bad because after the mother lays the egg it's up to the father to take care of it until time to hatch! Ha ha!!!

Of course, with all of that said, this just shows what a creative Creator we have! It reminds me of the kid song "If I Were a Butterfly." I'm glad He made me the way He did!

Passing the Time

So just what have we been up to since our last post??? LOTS!

Making new friends.
Visiting with old friends. (and eating some of the best Dunkin Donuts and homemade Chinese food we've ever had)
Shopping for baby stuff. (We'll have to send some pictures later.)
Reading about labor and delivery. (And thanks to all of you who told us not to, we haven't seen a single birth video!)
Thinking of what kinds of exciting things we've been waiting for just the right time to purchase because the exchange rate is sooooo good right now.
Traveling. (A "before the baby comes" all girls trip to shop 'til we dropped.)
Helping friends get settled back into their home after being away for a few months.
Trying to figure out how both of us can get a good night's sleep now that one of us is constantly up and down all night and snoring when she's asleep.
Going to language class, doing homework, and trying our best to practice the new things we're learning.
Sorting through all sorts of interesting advice from our local friends (For example, I was told just last week that if I walked around the house without slippers my urinary tract would get sick and stop working properly. Hmmmmmm . . .)

Oh, the list could go on . . . but we'll spare you the details! Hope you all have a very productive week!!!