Big boy

Henry has truly become a Merrill boy.  Something I remember from living at the Merrill house for a few months with Scott and his brother and cousin is the sound of Guinness, our dog, licking away at one of the lucky boys’ feet.  Well, I’ve noticed that Henry now sits in front (or on top) of Guinness and shoves his foot in Guinness’s mouth for a few licks and then shoves in the other foot and says “other foot”.  Hmmm, and why does Guinness put up with this?  No. Why does Guinness love to do this?

Things have been fun around here. We’re still hearing replays about dreams with elephants swimming and boisterous laughs while Henry is chased around and around and around the dining room table.  One other thing we hear if Henry gets a little down time is signing.  Since a little before our trip he started singing his ABCs, albeit skipping a few of the letters but who’s to judge, but he especially belts out “Now I know my ABCs; next time won’t you sign with me.” How can we not sign along?  Also, along with the Itsy Bitsy Spider, we also hear Happy Birthday To You.  Learning this song was inspired by celebrating my brother’s birthday combined with me trying to keep Henry entertained during a flight.  His personal touch is signing by emphasizing the phrase with “Happy birthday… TOYOU”.

Is it okay to say more Henry news?  …  He has gone through many changes in the past week.  We switched him from the crib to the next stage towards a big boy bed. Let me tell you he was proud of the surprise!  He was grabbing everyone from across the hall to run with him back to his room to watch him climb into bed.  When Shilpi came a few days later he couldn’t wait to show her as well.  It’s fun to watch him climb into bed after book time and then plop down for his night of sleep.  Perhaps catalyzed by this switch to a big boy bed, for the past two days Henry has been using the potty and wearing underwear – without any accidents!  This evening while Henry and I were on a walk Scott got home from work and answered the door. As soon as Henry saw Scott he shouted “Henry pee in the potty!” and then enticed us to run with him to his potty for a display.  We’ll see how long this lasts; we’ll certainly encourage it while it does.   

Sabai dee!

Sabai dee means "Hello" in Lao and we now have  that engrained in our vocabulary.  We had a great time in Luang Prabang.  How could we not in such a calm town full of small streets to explore, great food to eat (Thai like food along with, because of the French influence, sweet and savory crepes and baguette sandwiches), a river to look out on, rolling hills in the distance, and wonderfully nice people to be among.  Our first few days in the city were filled with lingering in the morning, strolling until we found a place for morning coffee, being entertained with Henry trying to find the nearest chicken, picking and going on an adventure, reading and relaxing during Henry’s afternoon nap, hunting for butterflies when he woke up, then heading back out for a delicious dinner and perhaps exploring the evening market.  We spent the second half of the trip out of town at a relatively secluded resort of sorts nested within the jungle along a river where we hiked to an elephant camp a few mornings, went on a short boat ride, and just relaxed.  Spending a long week in Laos was just what we needed after the last few months.  We hope you like the photos and extra details. 

 The hotels we found through internet searches were fantastic.  The first one had a garden in the back (pictured here) teeming with butterflies and periodically chickens much to Henry’s happiness. At one point Henry and I were exploring the grounds when a women working for the hotel came out to pluck rose apples from the tree.  Henry loved the task of snatch up the fallen fruit and putting it in the bag I held.  He also appreciated being paid with 2 oranges.

Here's one of Henry's favorite discoveries off in the distance - can you see the chickens?

The second fairly secluded resort we stayed at was amazing.  We had a private, pretty big villa with a huge balcony looking out over the river, rolling hills, and jungle.  At night we left the doors open and slept to the jungle sounds.  There were a total of 8 villas at this place and only 2 others were booked the first few days we were there and then we had the place to ourselves.  Better yet, it was a 15 minute jungle hike away from an elephant camp, had an amazing pool  (pictured here, albeit a cold pool that we just sort of waded around), and a little space at the river front.

Back to the city...

One morning we 'climbed' Mount Phu Si.  This is basically a hill with steps to get to the top.  At the top there is a wat and a great view of the surrounding city.  Our muscles were shocked to deal with the elevation change which we never have in Dhaka.  This feeling continued throughout the trip; it was great to put my legs to work like that.  Across the street from the entrance to Mt Phu Si was the Royal Palace Museum.  While we were there we wanted, or needed since it was quite hot, to take a break in the shade and decided to sit by a pond with tons of hungry goldfish which we fed.  Within a minute we had tons of kids around who enjoyed Henry sharing the fish food with them.  By the end Henry had a gang of friends.

That evening and one or two more times we strolled through the street market that was set up and broken down every single evening. Most of the time Henry was running around making friends with the stall owners and luckily he didn't break anything.

One of the adventures we stumbled upon was a boat ride across the river to take a walk through a village, climb some more stairs to a wat, and, unbeknownst to use at the outset, descend into a little cave. We discovered this opportunity when we lingered a little longer than normal at a breakfast spot as Henry bonded with a rooster.  This huge rooster would belt out cock-a-doodle-do encouraging Henry to come find him.  Invariably, we'd find the rooster again (as you can imagine, it wasn't too hard) and Henry would stare at him awhile or even walk right up to him.  More often then not, the rooster would then turn to Henry to say his cock-a-doodle-do hello at which point Henry would forget all the manners we've taught him and just run the other way.  What happened to saying Hello back?  This happened, oh, about 11 times before we headed off to the boat ride.

Walking through the village...picking up rocks

Heading into and enjoying the depths of the cave (it was surprisingly warm in there):

And walking back to our boat:

The other adventure we took from the city was a trip to Pak Ou Cave  which turned out to not be an actual cave but just a nook in a cliff. Alas, we had fun.  During this trip Henry became attached to his hat which was a great feat.  Other highlights were Henry finding a monkey leashed to a tree and a completely random owl perched on a stick at a tea stall during our walk from the car down to the water. Most people take a 1.5 hour boat ride to the cave, versus the 45 minute drive we took, and as a result we were happy  to not have a crowd during the part walking part.

Henry's head is blocking the view of the nook in the cliff where our boat is heading.

 

More stairs...

One of the first things we did after settling in to the second place we stayed was take a hike to the nearby elephant camp.  When asking how to get there, the hotel owner suggested we take the road which was direct and would take about 30 minutes. Under his breath he said that we could also take the shorter 'path' through the woods but it might be a little bit of a challenge with Henry.  Granted the roads in this area were empty dirt roads but how could we pass up some time amongst the trees especially since we were coming from Bangladesh with no person-less space.  The first time around it was a thrill to find our way through the forest because, as you can see, there wasn't too much of a path.  Not to worry, Scott's trusty Eagle Scout skills got us through to the other side.  After that it was a short jaunt to the camp where we sat and watched the elephants for awhile.  We thought we'd try to go on a ride that day but after Henry freaked out when we fed the elephants banana's - I guess I can understand that it might be a little unsettling for the little guy to have a huge elephant truck come sniffing near his face with nostrils the size of his ears - we decided not to push it. The brilliant thing was that we could just walk back the next day. 

 

You can see in this picture below Henry's new trick of jabbing his finger(s) in his cheek(s) and smiling super dramatically when we pull out the camera or say smile.

 We decided to try out the road route on the way back and as you can see exploring the forest for bugs on the way there and watching elephants roam around can be quite tiring.  He definitely took a long, hard nap that day.

 

Henry woke up the next morning saying "Ride elephant!" which we took as a sign to get to the camp as early as possible and not let the opportunity slip by.  The ride included walking down to and through the river.  From that day Henry has talked about "ride elephant swimming" just about every day. In fact, when I ask him in the morning what he dreamed about he actually has an answer now.  Up until last week he would just stare at me like I was asking some lame, mom question but for the past few mornings he actually responded with "ride elephant swimming!".  Whether he dreamed about that or not it's great to know we didn't traumatize him!

The other side trip we took from the hotel was a ~10 minute "motor boat" (as Henry loves to talk about) ride up to Tad Sae waterfall.  Since it's the dry season the waterfall was pretty paltry in terms of water flow but beautiful none the less. At times I thought it looked like a man-made miniature put-put course since the rock formations seemed so smooth and strategically designed for easy climbing, but Scott assured me they were natural.  One advantage of the going at the tail end of the dry season - practically no other visitors.  However, there is a network of ziplines going through the park and at one point a group for 6 people came gliding through.  Henry was totally mesmerized by the "flying people".

The rest of our time at the resort was spent, as I mentioned, relaxing either by the pool area or by the river to throw rocks, walking back and forth on the bamboo bridge, playing with the owners dog (Henry and the dog became best friends), and listening to jungle sounds.  Was it mean to let Henry believe that one of the sounds coming from the trees was a troop of monkeys when really we think it was probably some funky bird - how could we burst his astonished bubble?

And finally, what a treat to say good night on the last night in Laos to a special friend who made his/her first appearance that night just for the event.  Maybe at that point we should have questioned leaving the doors open, but that would have just been rude to our potential visitors.

Additional photos:

Henry doesn't need to follow the crowd. This was taken while we were out with Henry on a morning walk in the city and saw the Tak Bat or the monks on their morning alms walk.

Momma and Henry at the top of Mt Phu Si

The End. Phew. 

Home sweet Home

Yet again the weeks have flown by as evidenced by the 3 week gap in postings.  I've been up to the Project site two times with colleagues from the US since the last posting, Scott has hosted colleagues from the US in Dhaka and also gone on trips around Bangladesh.  Phew.  We're finally both back and settled in the Big City and are really looking forward to our much need vacation that starts this Thursday.  Amidst all the movement, Henry has stayed sane as we're try our hardest to keep his world as stable as possible.  He's still having fun at play dates with all his best friends during the week, evenings at the Club whenever we can fit that in, and leisurely Friday mornings at the playground.  All too soon the weather is going to be dreadfully hot again so we're taking advantage of every outdoor minute we can have.  Since the basketball court area is the first thing Henry sees when we walk in the Club you can imagine we spend some time there. He's honed his basketball dribbling skills and periodically can pull of a 4 bounce dribble.  Move out of the way Steve Nash!

We've been quite impressed with how much Henry likes to eat.  There was a spell when he wasn't as interested in trying new foods but that phase has passed. Now he often asks "Try it?" while pointing to our food and more often then not likes what he tries even if the food is filled with gourmet spices. In fact, he'll even ask for "More picy (spicy)" when he tries something hot - and food can get quite spicy here.  He still favors anything cheesy and is starting to like meat more and more.  I'm glad he's back to trying, and liking, all sorts of foods because he, like me, gets to enjoy the availability of the winter veggies like pumpkin and cauliflower that unfortunately are only in the market for 2 or 3 months here. 

Hopefully Life has slowed down around here so get ready for more entries.  Until then, here's more of Henry and Baba while Henry is playing tether ball (which you can imagine he adores since that ball just keeps on coming back to him) and while Henry is swinging which in fact until today he never like to do.  Scott apparently had great technique today because Henry stayed in the swing for over 30 minutes.

I decided to throw in one photo from my trip north just to show you that while Dhaka stays somewhat warm, albeit chilly when the sun's not up, it can get quite chilly outside of the capital.  Here we are spending a weekend working outside (since it was actually colder in our little dorm like building).

  

Bring on 2012!

Welcome to 2012!!  The year should prove to be a good one.  We celebrated New Years eve with a leisurely morning at the playground drinking coffee and watching the kids hunts for serpents.  In the afternoon we started preparing for the festivities.  Scott made the dough and all the fixings for some delicious pizza and laid it all out on the table.  The family across the hall came over to celebrate with us and each person created his/her own pizza.  After dinner there was wildness in the house as the kids ran around until bedtime.  It didn't get too rowdy for the adults since more of us had to work on January 1.  The traditional Bangladeshi calendar follows a different system and they celebrate a "New Year" later on in the year; January 1 isn't such a big deal here for them.

In 2012 we've been enjoying the calm before the storm of me having many colleagues in town and spending about 2 weeks up north at the Project.  We're looking forward to a family vacation in early February after the calm returns - I can't wait for that!

We love that Henry plays independently all the time now.  Some of the things he'll fill his time with are 'read' his books, play music and dance to it, and build big towers with his legos-type set.  We always know when he's building because he'll run out of his room excitedly yelling "big tower!" enticing us to come look.  His towers always start with this one long wheeled piece as the base and have to include all the pieces.  For awhile he would only put the same type of pieces together but in the last few days he's tapped into his creative side and has started to make all sorts of big towers. It's so fun to see his creations. Oh, he always puts the "Mama" pieces on top.  He's also gained an appreciation for camera's. In a few of these photos he was playing somewhere else in the room and as soon as I took out the camera he ran over to his big tower to stand proudly by his creation - hilarious.  He loves big towers so much now that if he sees a huge stack of bricks when we're on our morning walk he'll yell out "big tower".  Will he big a brick mason when he gets big?

Happy Holidays!

Christmas week has proved to be a great one around here. We've taken advantage of the calm atmosphere as many people left for the holiday to relax and enjoy time around the neighborhood.  It was cold during the first part of the week so we had to bundle up and sip hot chocolate - definitely nothing to complain about!  On Christmas we filled the morning with a skype call with Scott's family and the adventure of teaching Henry how to open presents.  He still has no idea who Santa Claus is so a stocking filled with little stuff to too random for him to think about; or at least that what I assumed and didn't even fill one for him.  We're lucky that we can still re-gift toys to Henry that he either played with a little while ago or even just the day before.  He got through opening a coloring book and a pajama outfit and then opened up a soccer ball (one that he had been playing with all week) and it was time to take a break.

We had Christmas lunch at our friend's house, the same friend who hosted Thanksgiving.  We had a nice mix of Scottish Christmas treats and classic American food - along with homemade ravioli which was delicious.   We stayed over there well into the afternoon and got a little nervous that Henry didn't take a nap.  But, he was a charmer through bedtime and we tallied up another great Christmas. 

Henry is quite the giggle-er and the "Oh my gosh" kind of guy these days.  He keeps adding more words to his vocabulary some of which we have to spend a little time deciphering.  The other day we finally figured out that "kemu" meant cucumber, one of his favorite snacks and desserts. Henry's also still addicted to cookies but very flexible in what a cookie is.  So far he likes apple cookies (just an apple slice), cracker cookies (just a saltine...you get the point), banana cookies, etc.  Of course, he gets to chomp on a real cookie from time to time :)  In other Henry news he discovered an old Sesame Street book with counting activities that we've had laying around for awhile.  Suddenly, perhaps triggered by his love for The  Monster at the End of This Book book, he got excited to learn the names of all the Sesame Street characters.  He loves 'Bert' the best it seems. We just found a free Sesame Street video podcast that we can subscribe to offering weekly, ~7 min 'word on the street' episodes.  They're little bursts of entertainment.  We've watched 'fantastic', 'incognito', 'healthy', and 'identical'. Check them out if you're so inclined.

Oh, Scott discovered a few days ago that if he folds Henry in half Henry will laugh so hard.  What a good party trick Henry is.

The other day Scott hosted a surprised, unplanned as of that morning, event at his office....

 

What a great Big Boss!

We hope you're still enjoying a great holiday season !