Here we come Grand US of A

 We're heading to the US in just a few hours!  We still have to pack, although I'll admit we've made piles of most of what we'll bring. It's too short of a trip but at least we'll be able to see our parents and some siblings in the week and a half we'll be State-side.  We're so excited!!Life has been chugging along this last week and a half or so.  Henry has quite a few more tricks up his sleeves now.  On Saturday he started clapping which, for some reason, was that golden milestone I was on the edge of my seat to see him hit. He gets such a thrill out clapping; quite a few times I find him sitting there giggling at his hands slapping together.  He's also figured out the thrill of opening and closing things.  On that note, he's become so much more independent.  Now he's content playing by himself throwing and retrieving balls, putting balls inside bottles and closing them up and then feeling so proud when he can get the ball back out of the bottle, running in circles bouncing off the U shaped couch we have, and always trying to catch us off guard so he can sneak into the kitchen and flip over Guinness's water bowl.

With his growing independence comes more fun at the playground.  Now that Scott taught him how to go down the slide hands out head first, Henry will charge right up the playground to the slide, squat down, put his hands out and go. The other day he didn't care (or didn't take the time to assess with all the fun he was having) that someone had made a sand box out of the bottom of the slide.  He still charged face first and as you can see, enjoyed the discovery.

One of the family's in the playgroup that I sometimes go to is moving back to Australia.  This weekend we had a party for her at a coffee shop another family in the group just opened (after 2 years of working towards this goal) that roasts their own beans and serves pastries made by the mom who is a trained pastry chef!  We were sad to say bye to Kym, Jamie, Stella, and baby Toby.   Here's a fun fact, about two months ago Henry lost his status as the youngest baby in the group when a few of the moms returned with babies. There are now 6 baby boys under the age of 4 months!

 On a final note, Henry and Guinness have become the best of friends.  Henry has decided that he is really helpful when he puts Guinness's bone or toy in Guinness's mouth.  I don't think Henry has grasped yet that it might not be so nice to take those things out of Guinness's mouth in order to enjoy giving them back.  Luckily Guinness is chill and let's Henry do as he pleases.  Note to self: don't let Henry assume other dogs are as complacent as the G.

Great day at the Club

Today was filled with fun at the Club from 10 to 2 starting with exploring the playground to swimming to lunch (with Henry eating almost a full big grilled cheese sandwich!).

going under...

The ball almost never left his hand. It's in all three of the next photos and all the other ones I took when he wasn't going under water.

 

Henry and his best friend, Sophia

Climbing to new heights

Henry certainly kept us entertained this week.  He’s walking more, is crawling faster, and has become way too crafty in devising ways to climb to higher elevations. 

On Tuesday morning we were all surprised to discover that Henry had two more teeth, the 5th and 6th in total and the 3rd and 4th on the top.  That grin has quickly morphed from gummy to toothy!

Henry’s new found joy is peek-a-boo. Scott loves playing this with him and has really honed Henry’s sleuthing skills.  It all began after the bath when we would either cover Henry or cover ourselves with the towel and wait for Henry to pull the towel off to progressing to Scott hiding under the bed covers until Henry found him.  Eventually Henry realized he could take matters into his own hands when he discovered the brilliance of the shower curtain.  Now Henry will quickly break away any chance he gets and go directly to the tub where he can stand and hide behind that curtain.  You can image the giggles with the “Where’s Henry?” “Peek-a-boo” routine regardless of the number of repetitions. 

Today I took Henry swimming and wow did he have fun.  When I would take him out of the water to stand on the edge of the pool in preparation for jumping in again he would stomp his feet in anticipation and smile so big sometimes even laughing.  I dunked him head first a few times and as soon as he wiggled his way back up to the surface he would shake the water off his face and want to go right back to gliding around the pool.  We seem to have a fish on our hands!

I finally got organized enough to get some clothes made for Henry.  Growing out of all the pants we brought is a good motivation.  There are some shops here for baby clothes but a) they are VERY geared toward baby girls, b) often only have clothes for 2 years+ boys, c) are relatively expensive, and d) perhaps the most important, require shopping and navigating Dhaka.  With all those considerations in mind, I wanted to take advantage of not only being able to get the clothes I want made by a tailor but also the luxury of having a tailor come to our house – how fancy.  You might wonder why I didn’t take advantage of this sooner, I ask myself the same thing.  Finally, last week I bought fabric and had the tailor make pants and “fotua” shirts.  These are simple light weight shirts that are the South Asian version of Hawaiian shirts – just loose and simple.  I was happy the clothes fit and look super comfortable. 

But, oh my gosh, when Shilpi and Shobita saw Henry in Bangladeshi clothes they were SO HAPPY.  They went crazy.  It was really fun to see how proud they were to have Henry dressed Deshi style.  We’ll have to make more.

By the way, if you have an infant and you want new ideas for the menu, try chicken liver….I am not used to eating offal (in fact I find it awful :) ) – and don’t know many in the US who are - but in many parts of the world nothing is to be wasted including chicken liver, bone marrow, cartilage, and perhaps more appetizing, chicken head/brain.  So far I think Henry has not tried chicken head – the belief is that eating it will make kids smarter – and I think I’ll discourage that one, but since liver is packed with goodness I figured we could see if he liked it.  Big hit. 

In none Henry news (could there be any? ha!) the other day on my walk to work I passed by some pavement making. No matter how many times I see this, my sheer awe of the process, and sympathy for those who have to do it, does not wane.Note that in the second to last photo, the snack stall behind the fires is still packed.

 

Culinary bliss

For the past month we have been watching the making of a new restaurant right across the street, literally 20 feet away, taking shape.  Thai Kitchen was set to open at the end of Feb which was delayed to the first week of March which was delayed until this weekend.  I kept reminding the owner of the shop below the restaurant (London Sausage where we buy meat and bread) that I love Thai food and I would feel honored if we were the first customers.  I made this last comment in a joking manner, although secretly I would love to claim that title.

Finally the restaurant opened last night with a VIP party. We received an invite, but at 7:30 pm after Henry went to sleep and a little bit late to organize a babysitter.  No problem, we (Scott, Henry, our friend Shanna, and I) raced to get there for an early lunch and successfully secured the First Customer title :)  After our meal the owner came over and said that sometime soon he'll schedule a photo with us to commemorate the event.  Awesome!

The thrill of the race was enjoyable enough but was made all the more amazing because - the food was DELICIOUS!!  Spicy, tasty, yum.  It turns out they actually hired a true Thai chef who just moved here from Bangkok a few weeks ago.  I think I'll be eating my fair share of papaya salad over the coming months.

Soup is best eaten with a spoon

Soup is best eaten with a spoon unless you are looking for some entertainment. Henry now puts up a fuss if you try to spoon feed him and rightfully so. I think I'd get pretty frustrated is someone else, even a loving parent, were always deciding for me when, what, and how much I ate.  We've been cooking up some fun finger foods but a dinner a few days ago took the prize for mess factor.  Here's Henry at the tail end of enjoying lentil soup (albeit thick lentil soup) and big chucks of carrot, zucchini, cauliflower, and broccoli.
PS - Guinness is quickly catching on to the perks of Henry feeding himself.

It amazes me how much this little kid can eat. Today for lunch he ate a whole grilled cheese sandwich, the same size that Scott and I eat, and then for dinner he ate a whole normal sized egg and cheese omelet.  It looks like today was a cheese themed day...yum.

Mobility

Although last week Henry could take a step or two if coaxed, this week he started walking on his own volition!  On Tuesday Scott was able to come home from work around 5. When I got home a few minutes after him I came through the door and was walking over to Henry to pick him up.  Scott, who was holding Henry's hands so that Henry could walk around said, "No, wait..."  Before I knew it Scott let go of Henry's hands and Henry walked 6 or 7 steps towards me with big open arms.  What a wonderful surprise! Now Henry is taking steps all the time.  Gone are the days when I could just stand him next to the bookcase and assume he's just keep on standing right there holding onto it.  

With this increased mobility comes a lot more fun at the playground.  Although Henry clearly still loves to sit and play in the sand, nearly burying himself as he moves little handfuls of sand from the bucket onto his lap

He also loves to climb up the big play set and persuade me to ride down the slide with him. 

Today we had fun as this sister and brother pair, 2 and 4 years old who are in one of Henry's play groups, sat together at the top of the slide and asked so sweetly if they could hold on to Henry and slide down with him.  I just had to oblige - while offering some subtle support of course. Super cute!  

Speaking of play groups - the one I mentioned above is an informal group of neighborhood nannies who know each other well and regularly plan get togethers throughout the week. There's another group we visit with often organized by some moms and a dad.  One of the moms is a trained pastry chef (and her husband is a coffee expert and they are here to open up a coffee shop that will sell freshly roasted coffee!! Cheers to having something other than Nescafe instant coffee.). The other day she hosted play group and enticed us to come with the offer of a cinnamon roll taste test for treats they'll make for their shop.  Those were some dang good cinnamon rolls.

In other Henry news, he got his top two teeth this week. This time around there was no fussing; we only found out he had the teeth when he leaned back and smiled.  Let's hope the other teeth come in so uneventfully. As they start to stick out a bit more we'll be sure to snag a photo.

To round out the focus on Henry, I'll say that he still LOVES playing with balls and will hunt anyone down holding one. He loves playing with Guinness's big plastic food bowl making it swirl all around and make noise. Sometimes he gets to Guinness's water bowl before we're able to and enjoys the excitement caused by dumping water all over the place.  He also loves to hang out in our bathroom and pull everything off the shelves.  This interest has lasted a few weeks now.

and his new hobby that he developed a few days ago is to play with shoes

Another member of our family has been making friends.  One of our friends asked if her daughter could play with Guinness because she recently became very interesting in Clifford books and has never really played with a dog. Guinness loves any opportunity to play fetch and doesn't get shy even if a few people grade his skills (notice a guard and a woman start to gather. I hear by the end of this session there were quite a few by-standers.)

And finally, Happy birthday, Scott!  You can see how much Henry enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to Dad.

Balancing act

Over this past week Henry has taken quite a few steps!! Granted not one of them did he decide, Oh, I'm going to stand up and step towards that fun object over there.  Instead, we, his fan club consisting of me, Scott, Shilpi, and Shobita, decided for him that we wanted the entertainment of him trying to walk.  For the last month or so he's been walking around while holding our hands, so now we just pulled our hands away from him and watched how far he would go.  He got good at the three step shuffle :)

Last Saturday was Olivia's 1 year birthday party. Katherine, her mom, is quite the planner and went all out to celebrate, as she said, not only Olivia's birthday but also surviving one year of motherhood.  It was at the Club and quite fancy schmancy and fun. Complete with a merry go round...

 Of course Henry, clean and presentable when we arrived immediately bee-lined it for the dirtiest part of the area:

And then took a nap and missed the "cake cutting"

Rest assured, with 2 and a half months until Henry's 1st birthday I'm well on my way to planning an even more impressive celebration.

On more of a Henry note, he's such a ham for the camera. I pull it out and immediately gets all giggly and stares at it  showing off his biggest smiles. And remember he just loves smiling with his eyes, i.e. shutting them ever so gently while he shows off his pearly whites - super cute.  Well, this morning I happened to have the camera out and here is a sequence of photos.  I literally only deleted 1 photo that was blurry:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think he wore himself out by the end there!


The weekend has arrived which means more apartment hunting. Wish us luck.