Eid Mubarak!

Today was jam packed with fun, and delicious, Eid celebrations. Before I go in to what we did here are two photos from the last few days.

Here is a new photo of Henry playing with that fly that I had not seen when I posted the last entry:

Here's Tad at an intersection near our house.  We're so happy he came during the Eid holiday because the streets are relatively empty and life here is "calm" but you wouldn't know that from this photo.

Today started off with getting dressed up for a leisurely morning and lunch at one of Scott's colleague's houses.

Once there, around 10:30 or 11 am, we met many family members (Kaiser has more than 70 1st cousins, brothers, and sisters living in his neighborhood) and sat around chatting for a little while. Henry quickly felt comfortable and

started bonding with Kaiser's son (14 yrs old) and daughter (6 yrs old). After about 30 minutes we enjoyed some food that included a few types of noodle pudding (very similar to rice pudding, enhanced with spices, nuts, and raisins), chat poti which is a special thick, soupy lentil mix, and another poti type of snack for which a thick, dry lentil potato mix is put in a hollow tortilla chip sphere of sorts and a spicy, watery mixture is poured over top.  When we started eating I thought we had been served lunch and was aiming to eat until was full.  I was surprised to hear about half way into my "lunch" that I was actually just eating a small appetizer.   Yes, today was going to be a culinary adventure.

To work up an appetite for lunch we went on a walk around Kaiser's Old Dhaka neighborhood. So many kids and families were on out the streets in the most fancy outfits full of color and glitter.  While Henry was absorbing the sights, we periodically caught him just standing around showing off his belly button for all to see.

At one point we turned down an alley and stumbled upon a dance party!  There were ~12 boys jumping all around having a genuinely good boisterous time while blaring music.  Do I even need to say that this presented an alluring invitation to Henry? They welcomed him in without hesitation and he was happy to show off his perfected booty bounce. I think if we had hung around a little longer then they would have incorporated his signature move into their festive jamming.  Alas, by the time we had to walk away, Henry had bonded with the boys.

Back at the house we again enjoyed family time finally getting to spend time with Kaiser's wife when she took a break from cooking.  Henry certainly loved having her around; he bonded with her right away.  Surprise surprise, we even found some sunglasses for Henry to don.

Eventually, after all the fun, we ate a wonderful lunch filled with various chicken curries, beef curry, numerous types of "chop" which are shaped pieces of spiced mixtures made from just about anything including potatoes and ground beef to lentils to hard boiled egg. I must admit that I love chops.

Phew. 

Henry passed out on the way home and slept for over 2 hours.  When he woke up we whisked him away to a roof top party hosted by one of our American friends to celebrate having a day off of work.  Henry enjoyed his first experience playing in a baby pool and eventually had it all to himself.

After playing around for about an hour we were about to leave when it started to rain lightly. The crowd gathered in the stair well to wait out the rain as we watched the raincloud pass over.  I'm so glad we waited with everyone because we were blessed with a huge, across-the-sky rainbow.

I framed the shot the way I did to catch something in the bottom left corner...a corn hole board. These friends of ours are from Nebraska and have brought their love for the game to Dhaka. What would we do without them!?

Gamps comes to visit

We're having a great time here with my dad who came to visit for a 11 days. Since we traveled around the countryside during his last visit to Bangladesh (8 years ago!), we decided to stay in Dhaka during this trip. We're also taking advantage of the city being relatively calm during this Eid holiday week when it feels like half of the city's population leaves. We've been doing much of the same: playing at the playground, going swimming, going on walks, hanging out at our apartment, and, of course, watching Henry do his thing. And, we had to get in a sunglasses shot. Oh, and Henry has streamlined his bedtime routine; he pulled out a book that we haven't read in awhile and surprisingly could complete the sentences on the first 4 pages.

Henry has not ceased to entertain us. He surprised us the other day when he took his bouncy ball and walked over to his stroller and threw the ball in the seat, just like throwing a basketball in a hoop. After throwing multiple baskets that first time, he now loves to run with his ball to the stroller to throw a few more whenever we say "Go throw a basket" or if we just leave him alone to his own entertainment. I've even caught him doing a spin turn or two or a little dodge the (invisible) opponent shimmy before he shoots. Wonder where he gets the moves because we have never watched or played basketball in Bangladesh.  And, he's refined his ball throwing enough to keep Guinness entertained and ensure they'll play together for longer than a minute.

If you didn't grasp this from him playing basketball and fetch with Guinness, he's still quite obsessed with balls. Today at the Club we got stalled beside the tennis court when he spied a ball through the fence. After finally pulling him away we happened upon a ball in the grass that he held on to for quite a while. In the photo below, notice another white ball by my dad's feet.  Henry found that one somewhere else at the Club and carried it to the playground.

Here's something you might not do in the US: Henry killed a fly today in our apartment. About 20 minutes later we found him and Shobita playing with the dead fly flicking in around on the ground. Interesting...

I'm hoping to put together another installment during Gamps's visit. For those of you in Hurricane Irene's path, we hope that you're drying out!

A duck says quack quack

We've been having lots of fun playing with Oden (6 yrs old) and Lily (4 yrs old) who live across the hall. Because they had some work done on their apartment this past week they moved back in with us for a few days.  Henry has really bonded with them and eventually learned Oden's name ("oh-en").  Henry continues to refine his airplane toy and sword tactics as he plays with Oden and they all have fun running around and doing things kids like to do.  Henry's still loves shoes and kept putting on Oden's trying to walk as far as he could in the relatively massive pair.

We spent much of the weekend at the Club playground and at the pool.  All the families are coming back after summer vacations which means more friends for Henry but no more pool to ourselves.

We're trying to convert Henry to his sportier sunglasses that have a strap on them but he only wore them for a few seconds

It's been raining a little bit here. Honestly it hasn't been raining as much as it usually does this time of year.  But, most of the times that it does rain I put on my rain boots and Henry puts on his rain shoes and we head to the roof to run around (although I usually keep an umbrella over my head but that's a minor detail). This past time up there Henry kept playing with the main water flow from another smaller roof.  He would stick his hands in it and then jump back when he realized that the water fell with force and was a bit cold.  Then he would walk away but after 3 or 4 steps he would turn around and run right back to that waterfall. He did this for ~5 minutes.  Eventually he got so bold as to put his head under the flow.  He cracked me up because each time he did it he would jump back to catch his breath and then do a little giggle and dive right back in. 

In other Henry news, he now has his own interpretation of what all the farm animals say including ducks, cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, rosters, and frogs.  Nothing like a rooster "cock-u-na"-ing in the morning to wake you up!
A big Eid holiday week is quickly approaching here.  Gamps (my dad) is coming to visit during that week and we're getting really excited for his visit.  In the mean time we'll be "kick"ing balls, asking "where" they went when they roll under things, and reading books books and more books. Have a great week!

Prepare yourselves

You may only have to wait an extra day, but I just wanted to let you know that I won't be able to post the ~weekly blog on Friday, my weekend day, because....
The country's, the entire country's, internet service will be shutdown from 3pm on our Thursday until our Saturday morning because the one undersea cable supplying Bangladesh with internet is going to be repaired near Singapore.  At least they were polite enough to schedule the maintenace during the weekend which is not a consideration one can assume would take place.

More cheese

A quick photo free entry to give you a short story....
First off, as much as we love cheese, we don't get too much around here.  There's cheese in the market but your average cheddar is a bit pricy so we hold off.  However, the other day one of our friends bought us a big hunk of yummy cheddar from the US commissary.  This lovely present meant that snack time on Friday offered a wonderful opportunity to teach him not only the word cheese but also the sign for it.  Well, the next day he let his new love for cheese show when, for the first time, he used a two word sentence to ask for something that he wasn't already looking at.  Out of the blue (albeit around his usual afternoon snack time) Henry said (and signed) "More cheese?"  It's so fun watching him learn how to communicate his wants and thoughts.  On another note, we're starting to realize that he might think that "more" means "I want" but that's something we can stress over at another time.

Choo choo

This week has been coming along ok.  I was very happy to finally have a week in the same place and with the fam in Dhaka. Scott and I have been a little under the weather but luckily Henry avoided what we had so he entertained us while we were a little drained of energy. 

Ever since a few mornings ago when Henry and I were sitting on the balcony and heard a train off in the distance, Henry is so proud to say "choo choo" if you ask him what a train says.  Plus, day by day he's more interested in waving his hands around like an airplane if you ask him what airplanes do.  It's fun to watch him learn more words each day. He's also really picking up sign language; today he learned the sign for cheese and actually signed (and said simultaneously) "More cheese"!

Here's a few photos:
Henry at the Club after a swim

Henry sharing with Guinness

A ham for the camera:

Trying on shoes - this was a 10 minute activity