Crawling

Ben is just starting to crawl a few steps at a time! He's pretty selective about what's worth all that effort (either Mom's outstretched hand or his little remote control) but once he decides to go for it he can really move. Check him out in action:



You may notice the lovely bruise on his forehead...that is the result of a learning to crawl on marble tile. I just can't keep him on his own mat and he inevitable tips over every once in a while, but this one was a pretty good whack to the head. I felt terrible! This was taken the next day:



Ben is also showing a lot more interest in feeding himself. His current favorite fare is a zwieback cracker, which looks like a toasted piece of bagel. He'll chew on it for a good 20 minutes and leave a trail of crumbs all the way across the house. I've started feeding them to him at the pool so he can make all the mess he wants and we feed the crumbs to the koi in the pond.



Here's another look at him ready to run...


Next week we'll have our first playgroup with the American Women's Association and it will be nice to meet some women from the States. We've met some really nice neighbors but so far everyone has been from Europe or Asia and I'm looking forward to making friends that know what Dr. Pepper is, so we can talk about how much we miss it! I have been amazed at the range of groceries available here, but some things like that are just too obscure to locate. Ben enjoys going to the grocery store here because I never did take him back home, so the aisles of boxes and cans just waiting to be grabbed are all new to him. It's just a lot more trouble here because I usually have a stroller and I can only buy what I can carry back in a cab (and it's not easy getting in and out of a cab with a baby, small carseat, stroller, and shopping bags!) but thankfully the cabbies here and not the kind you'd find in New York - they're very helpful. We're very fortunate to have a car here for Matt to drive back and forth to work because some expats don't even get that much. Cars are enormously expensive here. It's something like $20,000 just to buy a permit to own a car, and then you can actually purchase a car. I've seen Toyota corollas here starting at $35,000 US, so they're not exactly cheap either.

Laughing Video

I don't have any new pictures to share but I have found a fun website from my friends' blogs where I can share short videos. This one is about 6 weeks old but it's the best one we've ever gotten of Ben laughing. I still don't know what was so funny that night but I can't watch this without laughing myself.



Ben has been a challenging little guy this past week. He completely adjusted to the time change and slept through the night a few times, but has started to wake up at all hours of the night for no apparent reason. We've tried everything to put him back to sleep but the only sure cure we've found is bringing him to bed with us, a habit I really don't want him to get hooked on! We all sleep so much better in our own beds because Ben's such a restless sleeper so we have to figure out something to help him sleep at night.

People in Singapore, men and women, old and young, just love babies and they go crazy over Ben's blue eyes. He just eats up all of the attention everywhere so he loves going shopping to meet some new friends. We did meet with his new pediatrician, a doctor well-known here for his experience with preemies, and Ben got another good checkup. The healthcare here is very good but my only complaint is that the patients all wait in one large area and actually see the doctor individually in his office, so there in nowhere separate to wait with a healthy baby. We sat next to kids with some nasty sounding coughs for nearly an hour...ewww. I tried to get Ben to hold his breath the whole time.

Trip to Singapore

I'm way behind in the pictures, so I'll start back in Houston on the day Ben and I left...

He got so excited playing in the lounge before the flight that he completely pooped out while we were boarding. I was of course hoping he'd wait until we were in flight for a nap so I could get one, too!

Somewhere over the Pacific in the middle of the night, one little guy was WIDE awake! He got tired of his carseat several hours into the first flight so I let him sit in his own seat, where he discovered that when he dropped toys into the aisle Mom jumped up every time to retrieve them. Very fun game.

Several more hours later, I finally found some TV (the Simpsons) that would entertain him long enough for me to eat. Airplane trays are not designed for holding a child in your lap and eating at the same time.

Finally at home in our new condo. Ben and I were both waking up at all hours of the night because the jet lag was pretty tough, so we were playing together at 3am.

Someone was not looking too excited about his first trip to the pool! Luckily, the second and third trips were much more fun and I'm sure we'll go several times a week now to enjoy the sunshine and company there.

I couldn't resist a little nude shot after the pool!

Ben just loves his crib now because he can pull himself up to standing in it. He's so proud of himself!

Everyone always told me the best toys are boxes and this one was no exception!

The Big Move and First Birthday

Our new life has begun - Ben and I made it safe and sound (though completely exhausted) to our new home in Singapore early Wednesday morning (and with only one major throw-up incident and two changes of clothes). We left Houston on Monday morning, got into Tokyo for a 4-hour layover on Tuesday, and Matt picked us up at the airport very early Wednesday morning. We made it to our new condo where all of our furniture and belongings from the sea shipment were already unpacked, which was very nice because we all got to sleep in our own beds again! Ben loves his crib now because he can use the rails to help pull himself up, although he still can't quite make it all the way to a full stand and he'll complain loudly enough for us all to know he's frustrated.

We marked Ben's first birthday in Tokyo at 12:44am (Houston time) standing in line at security for over an hour while Ben flirted with every single woman who passed...he's definitely a ladies' man! Words cannot express how thankful we are to have a beautiful, healthy baby because it sure didn't seem like it was a possibility this time last year when Ben made his unexpected arrival. It's amazing what a difference a year can make. We thank the Lord every day for our precious little boy and marvel at how he's grown.

Ben has done remarkably well with the time change, much better than I expected. It's 13 hours ahead here in Singapore so we basically flipped his nights and days. Luckily, when he wakes up at 3am to play I'm usually wide awake as well! I think the heat and humidity might take him a little longer because even indoors a lot of places aren't nearly as comfortable as home for him. When we've taken him out people are always talking to him and playing with him, I guess because blue-eyed babies are a little less common in these parts of the world.

We expect our air shipment to arrive on Monday so we'll get our computers back to start adding some new pictures. I know we have some grandparents back home waiting to get new pictures of their grandson's adventures!

Getting Ready for Singapore

Having a good time with Mama. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see all 3 of his teeth and one more on the way any day now. Hopefully he'll get a little break before the next round starts.

Look Daddy - I'm holding my bottle!
We've been coaching Ben on holding his own bottle lately after seeing some of his friends doing it...he's been pretty spoiled with the full-service bottle delivery.

Just chewing away...

I've been considering the best way to transport Ben to Singapore, but this just doesn't seem like a good option. (just kidding! don't call CPS) We leave first thing Monday morning and thank goodness Matt's company bought us each our own business class seats so the flight will hopefully be as painless as possible. This will be our last post from the States for a while since we don't know yet when we'll be back for our first visit, but I'll continue to post our new adventures from the other side of the globe once we get settled and online over there. Please do pray for safe (and sane!) travel and a smooth transition for little Ben to the new timezone, 13 hours ahead of central time. From what we hear, most kids adjust a lot faster than their old parents so we hope that's true!

I'm Standing!

Look at me...I'm standing!!

Hmm...I just don't know about that...

He is a little rubber ducky addict!

If only the kitty would sit a little closer...

Ben has learned how to make any seat just a little more comfortable.

Road Trip

I gave Ben a sippy cup to see if he'd be interested in drinking from it and he was really excited about it, but not so much for the reasons I'd hoped! It apparently makes a great toy and teether. His top teeth are on their way in so he's still chewing on things non-stop.

Hanging out at the park with his new baseball cap.

Ben and I went on our first road trip together to visit Aunt Stacey in Dallas. He was a pretty good traveler but when he got a break from his carseat he wanted to stay in the front seat with me.

The bluebonnets are still blooming in North Texas so I tried one last time to get some pictures of Ben in the wildflowers. I don't want to leave without some good Texas memories for him. Matt left last Friday for Singapore so he is already settling into work and getting our condo in order. Ben and I plan to leave May 21st and we hope to find that all of our belongings made it there ahead of us as scheduled. He'll be a year old on May 22nd so it seems like a good time to start his big journey overseas.

On another exciting note, Ben has started pulling up on things (mostly nearby shirts for now) and standing himself up. He absolutely will not crawl because for whatever reason he hates to be on his tummy, but he can make the crawling motions. I wonder if he's going to be one of those kids that skips crawling entirely but it sure is nice not having to chase him around yet!