Flying objects

Here are some photos from the past week
More fun with stylish accessories

Henry eating breakfast with Shilpi and Shobita. FYI: Bangladeshis generally eat (and relax) while sitting on the ground. Henry has learned now that if he's not eating in his chair at the table he better sit down right where he is if I give him a snack.  If he's sitting on the ground he'll really want us to join him and sit down.  It looks like he's learning Bangladeshi hospitality from the get-go.   

Hunting for airplanes and birds, while Guinness gets a good brush after a walk

Here's a series from Henry eating hummus beginning with the first bite and following through him realizing how delicious it is.

Scott is out of town and we miss him dearly.  Hopefully what he's learning about potatoes is worth the trip. 

Sliced aam, diced aam, pureed aam, ice cream aam....

Mango ("aam" in Bengali) season has arrived! Let me assure you we have taken advantage of it. Our household supply began when one of Scott's colleagues gave us a few mangos of a few different varieties from his own trees, continued with buying quite a few kg at the regular market, and escalated when Scott brought 10 kg home from his trip to mango-ville, i.e. northwest Bangladesh.  All of this happened over the past.....7 days.  Yeah, we are enjoying the mangos.  It's fun to explore all the varieties which vary in tartness and sweetness.  We're most proud of our mango ice cream. 

Luckily because we like to make ice cream and sorbet, and we have a big deep freezer, we don't feel the pressure to consume all the mangos within a few days. That would be quite a feat and  may result in us rejecting mangos for the rest of our life.  Instead, we are dicing up a bunch of them to have on hand for all the delectable treats one can make with this amazing fruit. All the while we'll make sure we have a few on head to eat fresh right off the pit. Yum.

Other than focusing on mangos, we've been having fun around the house and Club doing the same old.  I was excited this morning when Henry brought me an apple while saying apple (and apple sauce) and then stood there until I realized that he wasn't just showing it to me but wanted me to cut him a slice.  He then came back after finishing it and I swear he said his rendition of "more" and was happy to get another slice.  We've been trying to teach him a little sign language; one word that I've been focusing on is more. Although he doesn't have the refined, fingers together component of the signal yet, he does enjoy clapping to get the next round of snacks.  

Here is a photo of his "house" that we leave up. As you can imagine he loves playing in his tent and trying to entice anyone willing enough to crawl on in.

 We finally brought the camera out at bath time to snap some fun ones of him in his new deep bucket.  He loved bath time before but now that he can lean against the bucket when he sits and stands, can pull up and sit down to make the water level change so much, and can push his toys down and watch them pop to the surface of the water, his love for bath time has reached a whole new level.

 In addition to balls and some other classic toys, Henry has started carrying around pillows, two specific ones.  Periodically he'll stop running around, put the pillows on the ground, and lay one them for about, oh, 2 seconds, and then jump up again and run around.  Nothing like a good power nap.

We made a fun discovery this week about how Henry spends his Tuesday afternoon.  About a month ago Shilpi mentioned  that Henry would be going to the Club every Tuesday afternoon.  When I asked what she and the other kids/nannies would do there she just said they would "play" but regardless I thought this was a great way to change things up a bit.  On Tuesdays, I was always curious about how he could come home from the big Club playground so clean  but figured it was just more of Shilpi's magic. Well, last Tuesday I happened to be working at the Club because the Air conditioner in my office was out of commission for a few days...It turns out the nannies, with the help of one of our friends, organized a weekly dance class for the kids.  Oh my gosh, all these little kids were jumping about, wiggling, and giggling to Bengali music while many of the nannies dance around them. It looked like so much fun.  No wonder Henry has been busting a move more often lately. 

On a final note, we found another monkey today:

We hope you have a great weekend.  Here's a fun fact: Scott is leaving for Denver next week for a Potato Processing and Storage Conference. 

To the hills and waves

Having Joe come in town was just the motivation we needed to finally organize a trip to the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Cox's Baazar. The Hill Tracts (Rangamati) are known for their tranquility and beauty and are rather challenging to get to because you have to secure permission with government officials.  Cox's Baazar is home to the worlds longest beach. 

The trip was great. In Rangamati we visited Kaptai National Park with a beautiful lake and a few Buddhist Temples.  We then drove down to the beach where Scott met up with us for a night. 
Katpai National Park

Heading to and hanging out at temples

Mornings on our balcony at the Rangamati hotel

A morning walk to the bridge behind the hotel where Henry made some friends.

Driving down to Cox's Baazar. You can see the progression from isolated, restricted Rangamati down to congesting Cox's Baazar.

And, what you've all been waiting for, the beach in Bangladesh.  There were certainly some unique features that, luckily, we were able to capture on camera. What we didn't capture was the 10 year old boy who offered to sing for us for some money and the guy driving a 4 wheeler who really wanted to take Henry for a ride assuring us it would be "no problem".
If you zoom in on Henry or focus on the trees it seems like you could be anywhere.

 
But, look around you and....
There's a woman in a burkah - on the right - and she's even pulled it up a little to keep it dry.

There are some men who were draped on each other.  The way they were strutting it seemed like we could be in a South Asian based Bay Watch.

And, there's even a horse you can ride.  And, don't we all need a helper who can assist with directing kids and reminding them not to drink the water?

Maybe morning time, before 7:30am is the time to go....although the entertainment factor is just not the same.

Next time you want a vacation, come on over!

Basics of Dhaka

It's intersting how 3 weeks can feel like so long in some ways and feel like the snap of the fingers in others.  One of my friends came in town for 2.5 weeks which caused the hiatus in blog entries. 
Here's a brief Henry update: he still LOVES swimming and anything to do with water whethers it's Guinness's water bowl, the bath, swimming, or a teeny tiny puddle that only one of his fingers can splash around in, he looks for birds whenever he can, he is learning more and more words and now says "up" to be picked up, car (cahh), airplane which comes out as ahppah and sounds a lot like his rendition of apple, cracker which sounds like cra kha, and a few others, and he's quite the polite sweetie now that he blows kisses when someone says good bye.  We're working on teaching him sign language so that he can communicate "more" and "done" and a few other key points but I don't think he has quite grasped the concept. 
On to the photos from Dhaka over the past few weeks
Sliding

 Playing with Sophia

Swimming

   Henry trying out my new rain boots

 One of Henry's favorite new hats. I don't think Scott's parents realized how useful and versatile the box of magnets they gave him for his birthday would be!

Here are some photos of Henry with my friend - and no, none of these photos were staged. Henry just immediately bonded with him.

One last one from Dhaka.  Joe brought an inflatable raft for Henry to use in the pool.  I blew in up in preparation for heading to the Club but soon learned that it was going to better serve as a vehicle of sorts in the house. We tried using it in the pool but was no where near as fun for the little man.  If only we had had the bright to hide the raft a little sooner...

 Now on to a post about our trip to East Bangladesh.