Merrilly Living

I've learned that if I have another child I will be having a girl. Yep, Elliot's tongue says it all. Apparently, as Pollobi explained to me over a cup of tea the week before Christmas when we were up in Gaibandha, if your youngest child has a narrow tongue, as she informed me Henry does, then your next child will be a boy. If your youngest has a narrow tongue, as Elliot has based on her expert opinion, your next baby will be a girl. Hmmm, now I'm curious to test this out - but give me at least another year.

Speaking of Elliot, he's doing great. He's a AVID eater who just doesn't want to stop. I know many infants can be this way but Henry was a little more calm around meal time. Since Elliot's 2nd day of eating solid food he's been gnawing on little pieces of all the foods we're eating, including the spicy bits. In fact, I can't keep up with getting food in his mouth especially if I'm trying to eat at the same time. All this eating ensures he's maintaining his baby pudginess. I bet soon he'll work off all those rolls (but I hope not since I love cuddling them!) because Elliot has been crawling for awhile now and continues to try to stand up and walk on his own. He's still got awhile to go until he can balance by himself and until then I have my fingers crossed that he carefully chooses where to practice so that he doesn't bonk his head on the marble floors too often.

Henry has been doing great. He's hooked on vegetables now - finally. He always wants to break off bits of his veggies, or squeeze the corn and peas, so that he can share them with Elliot. He also has a few south Asian tendencies including his interest to say "Same same" whenever two things are similar.

I know I'm a bit late, but...Christmas was a really good day. The whole Christmas experience is pretty low key here in Dhaka but we certainly had a tree, a few decorations hanging around the house, a few Christmas-themed events around town, and then the big day filled with family time and fun - including a brunch at our neighbors and then our tradition of making a pizza for dinner.

The first Christmas themed event was at the American Club. The only photos I have right now from that event are of Henry hanging out with his best friend Jafe. You'll notice the Henry/Jafe theme in many of the photos below.

Then we had a Christmas party at Henry's school. When I walked in his class was up at the front singing. After that Santa Claus came, never mind that he was of south asian descent, and handed out gift bags. Henry was weirded out at first by Santa Claus but then over the span of 30 minutes got hooked on him.

Henry and Jafe convincing their teacher that they should have a candy in each hand

Saying bye to Santa. Henry was one of the only ones completely curious about where Santa was going.

More Henry and Jafe antics

Near the end of the party Henry went over to the mic and started singing in to it. He takes after me since I love karaoke! His comfort with the mic made me think that singing time at school might include the kids getting to solo perform - awesome.

The weekend before Christmas we had dinner at a friends house. I was glad I was organized enough to get Elliot in a Christmas themed onsie which you can sort of see in this photo.

and of course Henry and Jafe played. I was surprised that Henry wore his Christmas hat the whole evening - and wouldn't let anyone mess with it. He wore it again on Christmas for awhile.

Then on Christmas Henry made it through 3 presents before I sensed that he had lost his steam - or maybe he just got too enthralled with his Mr Conductor Dinosaur Train figure to care about opening any more. He didn't even notice when I took the last wrapped present away from under the tree and put it back in the closet.
Picking out the first present to unwrap...

Elliot with is bounty

Henry now sleeps and eats with his Conductor.

And loves going everywhere with all of his dinosaur train friends. Although I usually convince him to keep the figures at home, we were a bit lenient on Christmas day...