Sunday, October 25, 2009

family trip

Ah, home sweet home. For a few days, at least. This past week we headed out as a family for some countryside-time. Minus some illnesses, it was a great trip overall! The girls traveled well and it was a very worthwhile time. In fact, Grace didn't want to come home today. I'd say that's very good news seeing as how we might be moving to the countryside next year. But getting ready to leave for this trip was not without some drama. Late last week, Grace was playing with a friend and hurt her foot coming down some stairs. I really didn't think anything of it until she still wouldn't walk on it the next day. So, since we were getting ready to travel and needed to know if her foot was possibly fractured, Grace got to have her first local hospital experience. Hospital visits here are worthy of an entire blog post in itself, so I won't go into detail here. We were just glad to be able to get an x-ray and find out it wasn't broken. Then the day before we left, Kevin's passport met an untimely demise. Kevin normally doesn't put his passport in his pants pockets, but I guess it only takes once. While my dear helper was doing laundry she didn't notice Kevin's pants pockets were holding said passport, and well, it was laundered. I wouldn't recommend putting your passport in the laundry because it will be completely void, but if you do, it comes out looking really funny. Thankfully this week we are already scheduled to head to a city with a US consulate, but getting a new visa might be tricky. Ugh. Ok, now for some pictures. This week we discovered Grace totally digs villages. I mean, what's not to love with water buffalo, dogs, pigs, and chickens roaming around? She didn't get near the water buffalo (said it might "eat her") but she did love feeding the chickens. And her absolute favorite new person this week was a little boy we'll be seeing lots of in the future. He is such a sweetheart! I was excited to see a new supermarket in town; it's at least 10 times better than the previous one. It was kind of a mini version of Wal-Mart that we have in our big city. And they even had the infamous fish tanks to pick out your favorite fresh fish. (Don't tell anyone but sometimes we let Grace go fishing just for funsies.)
One little sucker jumped out of the tanks and was flopping everywhere. No worries, a worker came to scoop him up and put him back for sale.
This child never ceases to amaze me with what she will and won't eat. She often turns her nose up at "typical" food but then was all over these really chewy and hard pumpkin seed appetizers at dinner one night.
Here's what often happens with Trinity when we eat out. Once I let one restaurant worker hold her, they all come over and take turns. Everyone in this picture held her at least once!
We also had a fun little bbq one night with friends at the park. Who doesn't love meat on a stick? And who knew you could even fit tiny green vegetables on a stick?
Trinity had some more friends to love on her at the bbq.
Chicken feet on a stick anyone?
Here's Kevin showing his skills on the bamboo dance. He's got skills, I tell you.
We got back today and head out on Tuesday for a short vacation trip we are completely excited about. Some dear friends of ours just got their baby after literally years of waiting for their adoption referral! We're so excited to meet him! Now we just hope Kevin can get on that plane even with a washed-passport. We'll find out on Tuesday!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

a very different kind of birthday request

So have I ever mentioned that we have family members living in our city? Oh, I have? Yes, Jeff (Kevin's cousin), Amy, and 4 month-old baby Macy live here and we consider it a HUGE blessing to have them with us on this side of the ocean. And have I ever mentioned anything about the "baby swimming" cultural phenomenon that takes place here? Oh, I haven't? Well, let me fix that. First, let me explain how these two things are related. Yesterday was Jeff's birthday. And for his birthday, he had one request. Apparently since Amy was a few months pregnant, he's been excited about taking baby Macy to experience a swim-time just like the locals give to their babies. So, for his birthday he figured it would be a fun thing to do. And he invited Trinity and the rest of us to come along and experience baby swimming, Asian-style. Confused? Pictures will help. Welcome to the baby swim store! As you can see, each baby gets their own little pool. And it's hygienic: every baby gets a new plastic liner. Because there are no swim diapers and the baby will be, in fact, naked. This kind lady explained to us the thinking behind baby swimming. She said "little babies are usually being held or in their strollers and don't get much exercise, so this is good for them. Also, the swimming is good for their brain development." So there you have it. (BTW, you can see these little tubs sold in stores here for baby to swim at home as well.)
You can pay for a single trip, or if you want to buy a 10-time, 30-time, or 60-time card you can do that as well. The swim lady said coming every 2-3 days is best! As you can see from the little boy in the picture, the swim floaty is placed around their necks. There's nothing else to inhibit you in the water, so the baby can float around and kick and move to her heart's content.
But before we stripped the babies down to swim, they had a little warm-up exercise. Here's Macy loving her baby stretches. (This really made me smile! I mean, gotta warm up those muscles!) After this, she bathed Macy before she got in the little pool.
I was thinking Grace might want to get in a pool, too, and that I'd have to explain to her it was just for the babies, but she was totally fine with being a bystander on this one. She thought it was all pretty amusing.
Here's Macy's turn. At first she wasn't too sure about it...
but after a little reassurance from Mommy and Daddy,
and after a little playtime in the water without the cumbersome floaty ring around her neck,
she decided baby swimming was great! It was fun to watch her just hanging out and being cute in her pool.
Next up was Trinity's turn. She thought the warm-ups were great...
but when it came to swimming my normally go-with-the-flow 7 month-old was NOT happy about it! After we tried dangling her in there a few times to no avail, the lady told us that usually babies don't enjoy it after 6 months of age because they get scared. (I guess having a ring around your neck and being dangled in a pool is only fun for so long...) She didn't seem too surprised that Trinity didn't like it. So, word up, if you want to try this at home, start them early. The swim lady said its best to start them out swimming as newborns.
But even though Trinity didn't want to swim, the whole experience made us smile! Happy Birthday Jeff! This will definitely be a story for Macy's baby book.