Henry rolls over!

Henry rolled over for the first time on August 30th.  I was playing with Henry on the newly set up play mat and Guinness came to join the fun.  At first I was just excited because Henry reached out and held on to Guinness arm and petted him a little bit.

Then Guinness moved away and I noticed Henry squirming to his side. So I strategically placed his favorite elephant toy a little bit too far away and....

He went on to roll 4 times in a row - every time I would put him back on his back he would pop back over. I snagged a video of the second time he rolled but I had trouble loading it.  I'll try again later.  .

Highlights of the first week in Dhaka

We've finished our first work week in Dhaka.  Settling in has been relatively easy and we've had a few adventures already....

- Henry took his first rickshaw ride(s).  I had to go to my office before a big meeting the second day I was here.  I strapped him in the Baby Bjorn and headed out.  I thought I would walk the ~1 mile to the office but it was quite hot and the streets were crowded in places.  I think Henry liked the view from the rickshaw. He was asleep when I left the office, and I was surprised that the jostling from the potholes didn't wake him up.  I was bummed I didn't snag a photo of this first ride but soon enough we'll make sure we get one of him taking a ride.

- For the first time EVER in 4.5 years in Bangladesh I wore a "short" skirt on the streets of Dhaka!!  Short is all relative here.  This skirt hung just below my knees but that meant my calves were exposed, oh my!  Don't worry, I didn't go gallivanting around town in my radical outfit. I just walked the 100 meters home from the American Club.  I've been saying I was going to try to wear "bideshi" (foreigner) clothes this time around in Bangladesh but I didn't know if I'd be able to muster up the courage. 

- We visited the "London Sausage House" which is only 20 meters from our apartment and on the way to the American Club.  We heard that this shop was similar to the popular German Butcher and were curious to check it out.  We happily discovered it's the same shop just jazzed up. Awesome.  We can get great fresh whole grain bread, fresh meat, and homemade sausages anytime we want them.  (I used to go to the German Butcher about once a week the last time we lived here).

The power goes out here about 4 times a day for an hour each and 1 time at night. Amazingly, we get 1 fan and one light in every room powered by the generator so life doesn't get too uncomfortable without the electricity.  Better yet, our internet will continue to work when the power is out - what does that mean for you? Video skype calls won't get dropped!

THE BIG MOVE

We're now in Dhaka - me, Scott, Henry, and Guinness.  There was excitement before the flight trying to figure out how to get all of our stuff into just a few bags. Henry and Guinness enjoyed looking on:

Thankfully Miranda and Troy hung out with us the day of our flight and helped us check in our 7 checked bags and 3 baby items and organize how we would manage our 4 carry on bags.

 At that time we tried not to think about how we would get the 14 bags/baby items, baby, and dog home from the airport in Dhaka.  The flight was smooth as can be and Henry did great - barely a peep was heard during the whole 20 hours in the air and the 3 hour lay over in Doha.

We've settled in pretty well.  We're unpacked and have already started working. Henry seems adjusted and Guinness is doing well.  Getting approval to take Guinness from the Dhaka airport required a LOT more effort than we had expected.  We landed at 5:30am but the cargo processing office didn't open until 9am.  Scott went to the office at 9 am and....7 hours, hiring someone for the day to assist with the process, paying bribes totaling 4 times the actual duty fee, and 41 official signatures later Scott picked up Guinness 25 minutes before the office was about to close for the day. Thankfully Guinness didn't have to spend one more night cooped up in his kennel!
Here we are out on our morning walk. We live on the top floor of the pink apartment building behind Scott

We'll keep the photos coming....

A week of family fun

The week before we moved to Bangladesh Scott, Henry, and I were able to see our families and have some fun before saying good-bye.  We spent a few days in Williamsburg with my sister's family, my brother and my dad and Charlotte and then a few days in Houston with Scott's parents.

We visited Jamestown:

And took a break for a bit so that the boys could get their fix of anti-social smart phone action:

They didn't even notice that Scott wanted to hang out too.
We had a Williamsburg must-do Tavern night with a walk around Old Williamsburg:

We also got a photo of Henry smiling but figured the crying one was a much better fit.

No visit with Sarah and Drew is complete without a game of Settlers of Catan (we're trying to get Kaylin hooked already):

And of course there was great family bonding time:

Then we were off to Houston:
Scott has learned the art of multitasking

We had a fun afternoon at Christine Yamokoski's playing with a bunch of new toys

And good family time...

Fun faces

Here's happy Henry from the beginning of August

The counsins have bonded

Kaylin and Henry have been able to hang out quite often starting with a few hours after Henry was born and as far away at Talent, OR. Here are photos of them together on May 18, 2010 the day after Henry was born and his first day at home

And here are photos from July 21, two months later:

A Densley girl in for the weekend

On what happens to be our last weekend in Baltimore before the BIG MOVE on August 21 Julia, a friend and roommate from college, came to visit.  We were successful in luring another roommate from college, Tish, and her family to come up from DC for some quality Baltimore time.  After picking up Julia at the airport (after she had a CRAZY flight) we went straight to the Inner Harbor to meet Tish and her 5 week old baby, O'Connor, for breakfast and a little walking around.  We missed all the other Densley girls!

Do you think Julia was having fun at breakfast amidst all the baby breastfeeding action???

On Sunday we went to DC to meet up with one of Julia's friends from grad school. The weather was great for most of the time - especially while we enjoyed a stroll around many of the monuments.  While Julia and her friends went to see the Lincoln Memorial, Scott snapped a photo of me and Henry:

Right before Julia left we went out for some wonderful Lebanese food - even Henry enjoyed some ;)