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.

A celebration is in order

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HENRY!

It's been one adventurous year and we're certainly making the most of the reason to celebrate.  We've already had 2 parties and another one is planned for Saturday.  I bet Henry will be sick of hearing "Happy Birthday to yoooouuuuuu" being sung to him by the time the weekend had passed!

Before I tell you about the events I'll let you know that Henry's favorite activities are still:

• swimming, 
• catching, kicking, throwing, and chasing balls
• finding birds
• talking on video skype and showing off his new skill of blowing kisses 
• lately he just loves reading books: usually in the morning one or both of us spends 10 minutes or more sitting on the ground in his room while Henry brings a book from the shelf, snuggles in our lap while we read to him, and goes to get another book, over and over again.  If we don't distract him with breakfast or by asking where his ball we could easily get sucked up reading every last book in his book case.
• puzzles and putting pieces of things back in bigger pieces
• vehicles

He's a great eater and likes to dine on oatmeal and yogurt, carrots, any curried vegetables, lentils, bread, peanut butter, eggs, spinach, noddles, grilled cheese sandwiches and just about anything else we're eating that we let him try - even spicy foods.

On to the birthday festivities:
May 17th was a national holiday to celebrate Buddha's birthday which meant that Scott was able to stay home from work.  Henry and I spent the birthday morning going on our usual morning walk. These walks have become a bit more adventurous now that the rains are starting. The day was pretty normal and at one point when Henry was starting to get tired Shobita let the birthday boy get a little pampered:

 Henry dined on kitchuri (rice and lentils cooked together) and piaju which are basically a South Asian falafel.

 Then Henry took a nap with Scott (Henry is hidden in the Ergo)

In the afternoon we went up to the Club to swim and have dinner.  We decided to bring the birthday dessert to the Club in hopes that our friends would be there to sing and eat with us.  I thought quite some time about what dessert we should give Henry on this birthday. I wanted it to be something that not only he would like but that I too would want to eat.  After a little deliberation we confidently decided on...Rice Krispie treats!  They are such a rare treat here because marshmellows are not available but we were smart and had brought back a few bags with us last time we were in the US just in case we ever craved the yummy treats; they went over really well!

Time for dinner

Sophia and Henry dine on popcorn one of Henry's favs

 The first bite of Rice Krispie treat

 And then he goes in for the kill

The next birthday party was the one Shilpi wanted to throw for him during a playgroup get together the next day. I stayed home from the office in the afternoon so that I could join the cake festivities and a few minutes playing with all the kids.  Most of the usual group came.and they were all so cute giving Henry birthday hugs:

Henry focused most of his attention on the popcorn and watermelon.  He tried to use a piece of cake as a spoon of sorts for each piece of popcorn. As you can imagine it took him awhile to work through the kernels given that it's hard to balance them on the uneven cake.

He kept on trying even after the rest of the party had moved on

Then it was time to clean those teeth

The final celebration will be this Saturday morning at the coffee shop. We've made it a tradition to start our Saturdays there and we've asked some friends to come join.  I think Henry's favorite part in all this is dancing to "Happy birthday to you". I can't believe that he'll probably be singing right along with us next year!

Trucks and crocs

Henry, Shilpi and I just got back from a week in Gaibandha. We had a great time relaxing in the "small" town (of 300,000 people) in the silence of rural life.  When we stay up there we live at the Faculty House which, some of you may remember, is a two story dorm of sorts with a backyard, a very rare thing in Bangladesh, complete with a pond with a little path around it.  To give you an idea of the size, the loop around the pond is probably 40 yards.  We enjoyed morning strolls around the pond looking for all the birds and counting the number of jackfruit growing on the trees.  I'm sure Henry and Shilpi spent plenty of time strolling around back there during the day.  Here are a few photos I snagged in this relative sanctuary.
Henry looking back to find the bird that called to him:

 

A view back towards the house

Henry with Jahangir the cook

 

Walking up the stairs at the office

Henry made everyone proud filling his belly with Bangladeshi food.  Whether it was breakfast lunch or dinner; he ate from the food Jahangir served all of us staying at the house which included two other staff, i.e. no special food for the little man.  At breakfast he was eating tortillas, vegetable curry that was slightly spicy, and egg omelets.  The rest of the day he dined on lentils, rice, and vegetables which was similar to what he eats normally but was a bit spicier.  He seemed to enjoy it all.  On the topic of food, midway through the week Jahangir served a delicious green leafy vegetable.  They eat just about any kind of "spinach" here from pumpkin leaves to mustard leaves to all sorts of other leafy plants.  When I asked if we could have it again during the week, Jahangir said that we could have it any time we wanted it because it grew out back.  I thought that meant there was a garden or something.  Nope, it was time to go foraging...

Have you heard of a Tummy Tub? It's a type of bucket you can use for bathing a baby that is deep and supposed to mimic the womb. You can pay a lot for these buckets and while I have heard good reviews of them I never had a plan to buy one.  This past week Henry used a bucket of that shape because a) I was definitely not going to bring his bath bucket up from Dhaka with us, b) this deep kinds of buckets are in every room at the house  because they are usually used for cleaning clothes and for taking bucket showers.  Oh my he loved bathing in it! He has just figured out that bath toys he pushes to the bottom of his bath will pop up to the surface. In the photo below he's trying to make a smaller bucket float; he doesn't quite grasp yet that once it's filled with water it's just going to sink.  Shilpi loved being around for Henry's baths because in Dhaka she never sees how much fun he has in the water. 

Henry also started talking a bit this past week.  After "croc" I think his new favorite word is "truck" which by the end of the week became "beh truck" for big truck which he would say every time he heard one pass by. He got a lot of practice because the house is right next to a warehouse of sorts and trucks regularly drive down the small road to make deliveries. He also says “juu tha” for ‘juta’ or shoe in Bangla and “dahg” for dog.  Perhaps the most entertaining for me is what Henry learned to call his milk cup.  I, of course, call it milk.  However, the Bangla word for milk is 'dude'. Well, actually it's dhud with an aspirated first d.  The fun came when Henry asked me for milk when I got home from the office...He pointed to the cup and said what I initially heard as "doo doo" but then I realized he was saying "dhu dhu" bottle. Awesome.

Luckily the car ride went pretty well.  He was able to watch all the trucks go buy stuffed with cows, sheep, chickens, men, and so many other interesting things.  The red ball I bought him right before we left did wonders in terms of entertainment.  He loved balancing it on his head. I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was his chair that held it there; he thought he had magical powers.

Here's one last photo of Henry with his toothbrush

Good night kisses

I'll warn you I have no photos for this entry - but I do have 2 fun facts.

Henry gave his first real kiss - and then 17 more of them - today.  He's super cute about it.  If you tap on your cheek or just lean in a little he'll plant a big circle of goober on your cheek and then smile really big and/or clap.  His new skill was put to the test as we said our nightly "Goodnight" to the all the family in our photos.  Aunt Sarah happened to get an extra big, smile-ly kiss.

The other new development is that this is the second night Henry has persuaded me to let him go to bed holding on tight to .... his favorite book? nope    a delicious piece of chocolate? nope   a fluffy stuffed animal? nope    his toothbrush? yep  I guess those bristles offer a unique kind of comfort.  I wonder how long this attachment will last; given the alternatives, I think I'll support it.

The big move

It seems like so long ago when we were in the States with family and friends.  Alas, we've made the most of the two weeks we've been back.  Last week we had to move. We were super lucky and were able to move into the apartment right below ours.  There are so many reasons why I am happy we didn't have to move far, one of them being that moving can often involve loading beds, a refrigerator, clothes stuffed in bags and all other special personal items onto rickshaws to get cycled to the next location.  Hmmm, something about that doesn't sound ideal. Instead, we had a team of 6 guys come over to help "shift" our stuff. It's amazing how much they can carry. I was taller, and bigger, than each of them but they carried all sorts of stuff from 75 inch long book cases to beds on their backs.  At one point we decided that the bookcase we had designed for our upstairs apartment wouldn't fit in the layout of the new place.  Rest assured one of the men brought his saw - poof we now have two bookcases that fit.

Unfortunately Henry came down with a cold a day or so before the move.  We made sure he was comfortable and was able to rest while observing the activity.

If you take a good look you'll notice that Shobita wa carrying a roll of paper towel, a can of soda water, a coffee cup, and a muffin pan. Without boxes, we got our fair share of exercise hauling random items from the 6th to 5th floor all day.
Henry has reached a whole new level of stubbornness when it comes to eating.  He wants only what he can feed himself.  Since he hasn't mastered the art of using a spoon, eating oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast was quite the event.  The mango in the mix added a nice bit of color.

 

He's just starting to get the hang of drinking from a glass and thanks to his Aunt and Uncle he has a super fun one to practice with.