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!