Things We're Going to Miss

Obviously, I can't write the post of things we're not going to miss without also writing about all of the things we are going to miss. But, the truth is that this one is a lot harder to write. This one will bring all of the emotions to the surface, whereas the list of what we're not going to miss just makes it that much easier to throw things into boxes and suitcases. We have exactly one month left here, and it is going to be an emotional roller coaster for all of us. Since I like to generally be emotionally stable, I'm really not looking forward to it, but I guess I may as well get started...

1. Ynot food delivery: Let's start things off on a lighter note, okay? A couple of years ago Ynot? entered into business--the only English-speaking food delivery company in Seoul at the time. It took me a really long time to try it, because, why? I could walk anywhere I wanted to, to get nearly any kind of food I wanted, and if I didn't want to walk, I would send Eric. (Because he's good like that!) Then, one night, Eric was gone, I was vastly pregnant, and the big kids and I needed food. Enter Ynot. And it hasn't left our lives since. It's actually been huge for us since we've moved neighborhoods and not everything is within walking distance anymore. With Reece, we tend to eat in a lot more often, and Ynot is really handy when we don't have time to cook or go out and get food.

2. Food from all over the world: While I do not love city life, I do love having access to food from nearly anywhere in the world. Let's just see how many I can think of...Korean (see #3), Japanese, American, Canadian (yup, it's a thing), Mexican, Italian, Turkish, Greek, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indonesian, Moroccan, Lebanese, Russian, Australian, Bulgarian. That's all I can come up with off the top of my head. Obviously, some of these we enjoyed even in little 'ole Stanwood, and we definitely have favorite restaurants in the States, too, but I'm really going to miss some of these. Especially Turkish and Lebanese. I think I could eat it every day.

3. Korean food: Let's just continue the food theme, shall we? Korean BBQ, japchae, bulgogi, and sticky rice have definitely become staples for us. Even dongkatsu. It's not one of my favorites, but we'll miss it. The banchan. The kimchi pancakes. The kim. The bibimbap. Even the sweet and spicy friend chicken.mThere are still so many things that we haven't even tried yet; it's shameful. Word on the street is that there is a Koreatown not too far from where we'll be living, and the kids are already excited to go check it out.

4. No tipping: Okay, this is just one of these convenience things that we don't think about anymore (well, unless we're just about to head back to the States). Years ago, I used to be really bothered by Korea's definition of restaurant service, but now it feels normal, and I appreciate that they just leave you alone unless you need something. Because they generally leave you alone, there's no need to tip for good (or bad) service. And I kinda like it. (I've clearly never worked in the service industry, so please don't stone me!)

5. Free entertainment: The parks, the museums, the palaces...so many of these spots are free (or really cheap) that I am now at a place where I feel like we spend more when we get to the States. Sure, we might have to pay a little to park at some of these places, but I feel like so many parks and trailheads charge in Washington now that we can barely leave the house without having to fork out some cash just to get outside.

6. Public transportation: There are some obvious downsides to relying solely on public transportation, but having a car and being able to use public transportation when you want? That's the best of both worlds. I'm going to miss the convenience of buses, taxis, and subways when I want them. Whether it's because there's nowhere to park, traffic is terrible, or just because we don't have two cars, it's pretty handy to have alternate choices. School-provided transportation to and from school every day for teachers is also a perk that we have benefited from for the past (almost) five years.

7. Convenience: Everything is literally minutes away. Having grown up in the country and always feeling like it took 15 minutes to get anywhere, this was big for me. The stuff dreams are made of! And it has been so nice to be close to the school, the grocery store, our neighbors' houses, and church (though we do have to drive there now as opposed to the 10 minute walk we had before). We have many friends' houses who live within walking distance (and great neighbors!). We can walk to the nearest store for milk and be back within 10 minutes. When it's raining, snowing, or just frigid, I can go down to the car, drive to the parking garage at E-Mart, and never even go outside! It's about a 10 minute drive to school, but only because of the traffic. It takes us less than 10 minutes to walk down to the bus stops, even the airport bus is so convenient! (Thankfully, since we are going to have innumerable bags when we leave here!) Biking from our front door and down to the "trail" on the Han River is really convenient, too. Obviously, the huge hills are a pain, but it's nice to not have to load a bunch of bikes and the trailer into a car just to go for a ride. While I'm definitely looking forward to country life again, I'm going to miss the convenience of city life. A little story for you...

A few weeks ago one of the nuts fell off of our stroller, causing it to crumple (with Reece still in it!) in the middle of the street. (The actual experience--Eric hauling bags of food to bring to pass out to the homeless at Seoul Station, along with the two big kids and two others from church--was a major pain. All you can think at that moment is why can't we just drive?! Park, pass out food, and drive home. Seems simple enough. But no, they take the bus or the subway and it's kind of an ordeal. Luckily, I showed up just in time (returning from my retreat via subway and a long walk) to take Reece home in the car, and they were able to continue on without the broken stroller!) Anyway, the point is that the broken stroller only needed a new nut, and after a quick drive over to our old neighborhood (because I knew exactly where the store was), I parked right on the sidewalk outside of the "store," left the kids in the car (I was never more than 5 feet away from them, but it wouldn't have mattered here anyway), grabbed the stroller and went inside. The man who owns and runs the shop found the nut within about 5 seconds and sent me on my way free of charge.

8. Seasons: By this point, no doubt, you've noticed the cherry blossom pictures in this post. In spite of the fact that my pictures do look pretty much the same as every other year, I did have to go out and document them in our last year, or #thefinalseason as I've been hashtagging (is that a word?) on Instagram. One of my favorite parts of living here has been the four distinct seasons. Unfortunately, winter and summer are definitely the longest seasons, and obviously the most extreme. Fall and spring are perfect, so they don't last long enough! The weather is a mild mid-70s for October and November, as well as April and May. In the fall, we get real fall leaves (everywhere!), and in the spring, we get all of the beautiful flowers. I'm going to miss that!

9. Exploring: With life in the city and a new culture, there is always something to explore. We do go back to our favorite places, but if we wanted to, we could probably go somewhere new every single weekend. Baseball games, palaces, plays, museums, parks, street food, shopping, traditional markets, amusement parks, mosques, churches...all of this is a subway, bus, or car ride away. I couldn't even name all of the places that we have explored and loved here! Years ago, I wrote this post about where to visit in Seoul, and it seems so naive now because we'd been in the country for such a short time. I recently read this quote, and it is oh-so-true: "Spend a day in a country and you can write a book. Spend a week, you can write an article. Spend a lifetime, you can hardly write a sentence." It puts things in perspective for me.

10. Community: The built in community that comes from working at YISS is the number one thing that we will miss when we leave here. Obviously, we've made wonderful friends--some that we will see again and some that we won't, but being plopped into this amazing community on day one is something that I had never experienced before in the same way, and something that I don't think any of else will forget. When you move overseas, you leave your entire family, all of your friends, and a life that you will never regain behind. That alone creates a sense of comradery that is nearly unmatched, but when you realize that your friends and co-workers must become your family, it helps to change your perspective on those people around you. Little things that could become annoying have to be overlooked. The fact is that you can either choose to love those you're with or you can choose to be alone, and alone is not a good way to go when you've been plopped into a new country and culture. Without a doubt, we will miss both the YISS community and the community that comes from being an expat.

Things We're Not Going to Miss

So, at this point in the year, with roughly six weeks left here in Korea, it's safe to say that emotions are running high. Kennedy had many, many breakdowns over the weekend--some more easily explained than others--and as Eric and I watched the calendar fill up, it got real for us, too. Suddenly, I feel like every conversation is more nostalgic than the last. Everything has a bit more of a "last" feeling than it did a month ago. One day it feels like six weeks will fly by in a blink, and the next day it feels like time is standing still. Of course, we all feel like this at some point, but this year it feels like it's on a grand scale. And so, it felt like it was time to put together a little post on some of the things from this life that we're not going to miss...(in no particular order)

1. Apartment life: there is no getting around it. We do not love apartment life. And to be honest, we've had it pretty good. We lived for four years on the first floor--praise God! Because the last year of living with upstairs and downstairs neighbors? It hasn't helped my graying hair any. Trying to keep the kids semi-quiet in the mornings is torture. Listening to construction, and couples fighting, and kids screaming at all hours from upstairs is miserable. Just as we make our downstairs neighbors miserable (minus the construction). The in-apartment announcements are more rare in this complex, thankfully, but they still wake Reece up every time they happen, and since I can't understand what's being said anyway, it's just annoying. Having to go up ten flights every time you need to get something out of the car can be infuriating. When you forget something minor, trust me, you just leave it.

2. Cars and driving: I could probably break this up into about four categories of their own, but instead I'll just make it one long one. I'm so sick of incredibly tiny parking spaces and not being able to open car doors. I go out of my way to find spots where we can open the doors on the driver's side (and therefore Reece's car seat is on that side, too), only to get out and discover that there's a post blocking Reece's door! Agh! Parking lots in general are annoying because whatever the floor is coated in, makes for extremely loud noises when cars are backing in to spaces (because that's what you do--always); it's just one of those noises that grates on your nerves. Secondly, The fact that streets are intended to be two way, but they are lined with parked cars on either side, leaving space for only one direction of traffic are infuriating! The way I weave in and out of parked cars is enough to make me carsick! And then there are the intersections with no rules. What would be a four way stop in the States is just an intersection with no stop signs. You just inch forward until there's space to make a break for it. And if you don't do it quickly enough? You'll get honked at, of course. Whatever you do--don't yield! Lastly, there are the motorcycles that use sidewalks as a street, and the cars parked on the sidewalks, so that there isn't room for any pedestrians at all, let alone those pushing a stroller!

3. Air quality: I gripe about this one all.the.time, so I won't go into it, but I'm really excited to live in a place where I don't have to check the air quality before sending the kids outside, opening a window, or figuring out our plans for the day. Sure, weather affects all of those things, but I'm pretty accepting of that. What I can't stand is when you have the perfect weather (for whatever activity you're hoping for--namely biking at this point), and have to alter your plans because it's not healthy to be doing any sort of athletic activity outside. Yuck.

4. The smells: I'm pretty sure this one pertains to any foreign place you visit; they're just not the smells you're used to. Here, it tends to smell like sewage from time to time (where I grew up, it smelled like manure quite often!), garbage is another regular smell (see #6), and another one of the perks of apartment life is smelling what everyone else is cooking. So I could be baking cookies, but the neighbor is caramelizing onions. There are several Indian families who live here, and if you're not already aware, Indian food has a strong smell! (Though I'll admit it comes from our place about once a month, too.) Koreans smell like kimchi, cigarette smoke, or perfume (which seems to always be flowery--not one of my favorites), and so the elevator often smells like one of those or all of them, combined with some food garbage. Lovely. (ps: Koreans think Americans smell like butter and cheese--and apparently that's a problem for them! Can you imagine?)

5. City noise: Another given. And also not exclusive to Korea, of course, but I am just so sick of living in the city and being overstimulated by noise noise noise all the time. Sirens, honking, traffic, singing, music, dogs barking, babies crying, noise in the hallways, the noise from the elevator/stairwell (though it's a million times better in this apartment!), neighbors arguing. Give me all the cows and chickens. I'm so done with city life!

6. Garbage: This is one of those things that we've gotten used to, but we definitely won't miss! All of the trash sorting, the special garbage bags, having a closet full of recycle (at least you can't see through the doors in this apartment)...we are not going to miss this! Give me a garbage can and a garage (of my own), please! The lack of garbage cans in public--so I feel like I'm always holding onto some piece of trash, or more likely, throwing it in the diaper bag. I won't miss that! In fact, it was one of the first things I wrote about when we got here. (Remember when my posts had no pictures? Sad.)

7. Messy closets: Okay. I'll admit this one is really stupid. But I'm so sick of Korean closets. There are no shelves (though again, our new apartment is vastly superior to the last in the area of closets!), and they're usually not built in. So, Kennedy has this huge wardrobe with one shelf. Our closets are a mess all the time! We've tried various ways to organize them (especially Kennedy's), but nothing works very well for long. I just can't wait for normal bedroom furniture!

8. Celebrity status: The good news is that as the kids have aged, this has become less and less of a problem. The bad news is we had another kid just as the big kids were outgrowing this. I will say that no one has handed Reece hard candy yet (knock on wood), and no one has taken their picture with him yet. Everyone still comments on how cute he is and they do like to touch him, but he's cute in any country, right?

9. Spitting, coughing, and chewing: I really probably shouldn't comment on this one. Actually, I probably shouldn't put it out there at all because it's a cultural thing, and it's their thing, and who am I to say there's something wrong with it? Yet, here I go. It just grosses me out. Koreans show their appreciation for and enjoyment of food by chewing it loudly, slurping it loudly, just plain eating loudly. It's such a part of their culture that you'll even see it on Korean dramas. It's just what they do. And it also translates to gum chewing--loud, smacky, bubbly. It gives me the chills just to think about it. I have (an older adult) friend who admitted that if her taxi driver is smacking his gum, she'll pay the 3,000 won (about 3 dollars) and get out of the cab and wait for another one because she hates it so much! And she's cheap! Spitting is also a constant among Korean men, and it's disgusting.

10. Grocery shopping: This is another one that we have just gotten used to over the course of the last five years, but I'm still not going to miss grocery shopping here. Whether it's Costco (still stressful!), E-Mart (just inconvenient), or the neighborhood store (that never has everything you need and always includes a walk uphill both ways), I'm just not going to miss it. There's always this mental battle--can I get everything I need and still be able to carry it all home? What are the rules for buying produce? What needs a sticker and what doesn't? What day/time is it? How packed is the store going to be? Do they have the international ingredients I need? Do they have the kinds of milk I need? Just this past Sunday, I drove to two different stores that were both closed before finding one that was open, but they didn't have everything I needed, and I had to park a ways away and juggle heavy bags. Nope. Not gonna miss it.

I don't really know whether or not writing out this kind of stuff is healthy at this point. As much as I have been reading about repatriation, I am confident that I'm not doing all of the prep work "right"; we're still going to have a mess of a family to put back together in the coming year. But, I know that this article cracked me up (as poorly as it was written...poor guy writing in a second language), and I know that there are going to be days when it seemed like life in Korea was easy--way easier than life in Texas is at the moment--and I'm going to need things like this to look back on. I'm going to need that validation that life was not always easy here, just as life will not always be easy there. Life just isn't easy. Anywhere. But, boy, the grass is always greener, isn't it?

(I thought these pictures of the beautiful sunset in Guam might calm me as I wrote all of this out, but it didn't really work. Or maybe it's the yelling and honking outside the window. Maybe they'll calm me when I look back on this six months from now!)

Ballard and Mt. Rainier

Well, last week was one of those weeks. The kind where you're running around all the time, but you pretty much accomplish nothing? Oh yeah. It's a great source of pride.

We decided that the kids and I will do AWANA this year (I'm still not convinced this was a good idea!), and there was a lot of paperwork and things that had to be done in order to gain base access to participate. My friend and I took about four trips to the security office on base to get our fingerprints done before I was finally successful. What fun.

In addition to all of that, either Eric or I (or both) were gone most evenings last week, so we were really just getting the bare minimum done. The kids did homework. We ate dinner and cleaned up. That was about it! We tried to get out for bike rides, but our evenings feel so short these days.

And, of course, just as soon as we had all of the biking gear we needed and everything was figured out, one of Eric's tires went flat and we were so busy that it was probably about five days before he was able to get it fixed. He finally got it taken care of on Saturday, and we were able to ride 11 miles on Sunday. Biking is definitely our new favorite way to get to Seoul Forest because the line for the parking lot was ridiculous!

This week, we're working on preparing for Lindy's visit. We finally got some of those little things done that had been bothering me like throwing away stuff the old tenants left behind and hanging pictures on the wall. This is a four day school week for the kids before the Chuseok holiday weekend, so we've got the lazy bug in preparation for a few days off. It keeps getting harder to get out of bed in the morning!

It's always my goal to get through the last round of pictures before another one comes along, but it rarely works out. I'm close to finishing up the summer pictures, but no doubt the pictures of Lindy's visit will be delayed (if I actually manage to take any that is!).

After our trip to Skamania, we had a couple of down days to get some more shopping done, and then we began the countdown to our departure date. It was time to start saying those last goodbyes once again. So, we spent one day with my brother in Ballard, visiting the locks, hanging out at the park, and walking through town to find dinner. It was a beautiful day, and a great way to spend some quality time with him before he started his new job and we were headed back to the Land of Morning Calm.

The next day, we got up early and headed up to Mount Rainier for the camping trip with Eric's aunt, uncle, and cousin that we'd been talking about all summer. Unfortunately, we were only able to fit in one night, and we really didn't get much of a chance to check out the beauty that is Rainier because of our time constraints, but it was fun nonetheless.

Reece was more than happy to hang out in the pack'n'play, go for walks in the stroller, and sleep in a tent. In fact, I think it was one of the handful of nights that he slept straight through. The glory of the great outdoors! And the big kids, sleeping by themselves in the new tent that Eric picked up for hiking, slept in past 9:00 the next morning. We actually had to wait for them to wake up to leave because Eric had pretty much packed up everything before they got up!

But right now, as I reminisce over our summer, my youngest is chatting it up in his crib and starting to communicate that he's done in there. So, I'd better break out of the bubble before things get ugly!

Sun Lakes and Skamania

I've got to admit, it's hard to be motivated to update here when there really is nothing to update. We celebrated Eric's birthday with some really good Southern BBQ right here in Seoul, though it required a really long walk and darting through the rain with a stroller and one umbrella shared between the five of us. His friends at school took him out to lunch, and I think everyone he knows baked him something, so I was off the hook, thank goodness. Aside from that, we're just here, living life. I'm thankful for some hum-drum in our lives.

Reece has been napping well and sleeping fairly well at night, considering he's got a tooth poking through on top. He finally starting signing "more" right after I published the post about how he refused to sign. (He'll probably stop sleeping well as soon as I publish this one!) He also likes to show us when he's angry or frustrated by balling up his little fists and shaking them. Such personality that kid has!

I've decided to do Awana with the kids this year. It's nuts, I know. So far, I've been to one informational meeting (which provided very little needed information), spent several days doing insane paperwork to gain base access, spent a week trying to get fingerprints done unsuccessfully, and spent an evening registering kids without every actually registering anyone. It has been kind of a disastrous start. Things can only improve from here. I think.

We've been spending a lot of time riding bikes along the Han now that we finally have all of the needed equipment. Kennedy and Cade had to trade bikes because Cade wasn't able to start and stop by himself on his "new" bike. It took some convincing, but we're grateful they were willing to work with us, as now Cade has to ride a pink bike and Kennedy is riding a green one that's covered in skulls. Don't tell them I told you. Cade has been eating as much as he possibly can in hopes that he'll soon be tall enough to ride his own bike! He probably just needs about an inch.

After waiting around for Reece to nap on Sunday (oh, did I say he was napping well? well, not always...), we decided that he would fall asleep faster in the bike trailer than he was in his crib. It had been over an hour of waiting, so we headed out instead, which gave us the freedom to ride as long and far as we wanted without worrying about when his next nap would be or getting home to make dinner. I prepped everything for dinner beforehand, and we were off. We rode nearly to Yeoido Island, almost five miles, before turning around. I was impressed with how well the kids did. Even when Cade crashed and burned because a guy walking wouldn't get out of his way, he still got back on and finished the ride.

I do feel a little guilty that Reece shouldn't technically be in a bike trailer until he's a year old, but I'm comforted by the fact that the bike trails here are in much better shape than the sidewalks. I know that if we haven't yet damaged his neck in a stroller on the sidewalk, then the chances of neck damage in a bike trailer on the path aren't too high. And I'm definitely sticking to the paved trails with it; it's enough of a challenge without crazy sidewalks and pedestrians!

It's a little frustrating knowing that we've put over $300 into this little hobby here in Seoul in the past month, and we're really going to want to continue it during the summer. Which means, we're going to have to invest just as much or more in all of this gear in the States, too. I guess that's just life for us.

The one thing that we did buy in the States last summer for our future in bike riding was a bike rack for the "rig," so the kids were able to bring their bikes to Sun Lakes, among other places. That one picture at the top? That's the one picture that I took while we were at Sun Lakes. Pretty impressive, huh? Of course, I brought the camera all the way over there. I unpacked and put it in a little drawer in the dresser in our room. And that's where it stayed for three days until I packed it back into the car.

We had a great time in Sun Lakes, but with the heat and always hauling around baby stuff and beach stuff and too much stuff in general, the camera was left behind every time. Eric and the kids played miniature golf. Eric and the kids played at the pool. Eric and the kids rented a pedal boat. Eric and the kids played at the beach. Reece napped. I read.

That's not entirely true. Reece got to swim in the pool a little bit (it was freezing cold!), and he floated in the lake, too. The boy really does enjoy the water, but he prefers that it always be at a comfortable temperature--a little more Philippines, a little less Washington. I also rented a paddle board for an hour, and aside from thinking that I was hearing my kids yelling for me, was generally able to relax for awhile.

And since Lindy had joined us on this trip, our child to adult ratio was even, and she definitely took her (un)fair share or hanging back so that Reece could nap. We stayed in one of the new duplexes at the resort, which was big, beautiful, and cool, so Reece took some really good naps while we were there! The big kids got a chance to learn some social lessons, as they played with the neighbor kids on the front lawn. They're used to automatically being included because they're the only white kids around, so having to ask was a little out of their comfort zone, but they did a good job.

After Sun Lakes, we headed down to Lindy's house and settled in there. We were only there for about three days before we took a short trip down to Skamania to visit our friends from Seoul. It was the first time that we had seen friends from Seoul while we were in the States, and it was a little surreal. We've had some people talk about or try to make plans to see us during the summer in Washington, but most of those haven't been people that we usually spend much time with when we're in Seoul, so it didn't make much sense to us that we would spend time with them while in Seattle.

This family is new to Seoul, but both the kids and the adults hit it off right away, and since they live in this amazing place just a couple of hours from where we were staying, it was hard to say no when they suggested we come visit. They actually have a home of their own for the summer, so it's easy for them to have everyone come and visit them. It sounds like their guest rooms are booked pretty much every night of the summer, though! They had friends that had just left before we arrived and family that was coming just after we left. Busy people!

We drove down on Monday morning--not leaving as early as we'd hoped, as always--and arrived about lunch time. After a quick lunch, we headed down to the park in their neighborhood which is sandwiched between a lake and the Columbia River. After an hour or so tubing behind the jet ski on the river, we headed over to the park and watched the kids swim while the adults sat in the shade chatting. A couple of our other friends from Seoul, whose parents live in Portland, joined us for dinner.

In the morning, after a big breakfast, we headed out to hike Beacon Rock. After our hike, we drove out past the Bonneville Dam and then to lunch on the Oregon side of the river. After a late lunch, we headed back to Lindy's through Oregon, stopping at Multnomah Falls on the way. And even though it put us on the road much later than we'd hoped and messed up Reece's nap much more than I would've liked, it was totally worth it. It was beautiful, in spite of the fact that we didn't have time for even the short hike. I think we could visit them every summer for the next years, and still not see all of the beauty there is in that area!

And now, Reece is awake, he's going to be hungry, and I still haven't done many chores, so I'd better get back to the hum-drum!

Reece at 8 Months

Since I try not to worry about blogging during our time in the States, hopefully it came as no surprise that this post was not on time! It's hard to believe that two weeks from today, we'll be back in Korea, but we've been having a great trip so far! We started with a couple of days at my dad's that involved trading in our little Corolla for an Expedition, so that we could all fit in the same car at the same time. Then, we spent a few days with Eric's brother, wife, and our nephew. Then, back up to my dad's and over to the cabin on Whidbey for almost a week with my family. Then, a few days of re-connecting with friends and family in the Mt. Vernon area before my dad headed back to Alaska and we headed to Sun Lakes. Now, we're starting to slow down as we try to get a few things accomplished while staying at Lindy's, before heading to Oregon to visit friends and maybe we'll fit in a camping trip with family. Does that sound busy? hmmm...maybe that's why I haven't had time for Reece's 8 month photo shoot! These shots were taken during his 8th month of life, though...

Sleep: Reece has only slept through the night once since we arrived in the States. It's rough, but we're used to it by now, at least. The first few days of him being up once every hour or two were especially tough because, of course, he'd been sleeping through the night in the week before we left (in spite of our crazy trip to Jeju and a move!). Now, it's a good night if he only wakes up three or four times. He's been rolling onto his stomach several times throughout the night, and if I had to guess, that's what's bothering him. Of course, having him in the room with us doesn't help things much. We hear every little moan and feel an obligation to get up with him. So far, he's slept in five different places (not counting different rooms in the same house) and that can't be doing him any favors. Obviously, naps are pretty inconsistent these days, but he's still getting in two ranging somewhere between 45 minutes (usually when we're in the car) to two hours when the house is quiet and dark (oh so rarely!).

Eating: Reece is just now getting into finger foods and he.is.loving.it. I can't even begin to list the new foods that he's tried since being in the States, so it's a good thing he hasn't shown any adverse reactions. It could be tough to narrow it down! His recent favorite finger foods have been crab, avocado, tomato, pickles, homemade hamburgers, french toast (hangs head in shame), and any type of fruit. It's hard to know from day to day and meal to meal whether he will be willing to eat from a spoon or not. Sometimes, he loves the baby food pouches and sometimes he'll have nothing to do with them. I started the summer continuing to make purees for him myself, but after staying in three different places in the first week, I gave up. It's just so much easier to buy it.

Moving: Reece is now officially happier on his stomach than on his back. If I lay him down on his back, it won't be long until he's rolled to his stomach, but he doesn't often go the other way. He's starting to scoot backwards a bit, but not in a I'm-almost-crawling type of way yet. Hopefully, he'll hold out a little longer. He's also sitting up pretty well now, thankfully. I think if he got to choose, he'd remain in that position most of the time. I appreciate having carpet around, though, since he still isn't 100% reliable. He'll often see something he wants to go after and the next you know, he's fallen over again. It's a rough life.

Everything else: Reece's second tooth came in shortly after his first, so he now has the two bottom front teeth, which help with all of that eating! In spite of his massive amounts of solids, he's still taking four 8 oz bottles a day and has somehow managed to not outgrow the 9 month clothes yet (well, except for the pajamas). The other day, our waitress called him chunky and though most wouldn't describe him that way, I was oh-so-proud! He's still long and lean in the opinion of most people. He is still the happiest baby you've ever seen and is pretty much guaranteed to give you a smile, but sometimes you have to be a little more patient than before. We've had a couple of run-ins with stranger anxiety and he does have a tendency to be a little shy and bury his face in my neck when meeting new people now. Thankfully, it doesn't take him too long to warm up, though.

He's been a great little traveler and I suppose he's being raised to go with the flow...he certainly doesn't have much of a choice! Our trip back from Sun Lakes ended up being about six hours because we made a few stops, and he barely cried or whined at all, in spite of the heat and the traffic in the last leg. And the kids still dote on him, in spite of the "a baby changes things" talks we've had to have with them lately. We're so glad this little man is a part of our family!