Sam updates

• I’ve been AWOL on this blog. Chock it up to the new move and a fair amount of transition. Here are some Sam updates:
  He’s still his normal charming self.
  He loves reading. Some favorites are Baby Baluga, Baby Toes to Baby Nose, etc.
  He’s made friends at church and GA, on campus, and elsewhere.
  He’s loving nursery school (“Three Jade Nursery School”), which is part of a local community center close to our language school. He has three or four classmates and three teachers. He’s pretty excited to be there.
  He’s been home with a cold the last few days. We both had the same thing. He’s been sleeping odd hours, however, and we wanted to give him time to adjust before we send him back.
  He gets fussy when: anyone leaves and he doesn’t get to go along, when he’s tired, when he’s sleepy
  When he’s sick he prefers to sleep on top of one of us.
  He can made some new noises now. He has a “pig” sound, a lip buzzing sound, and an artificial sneeze and cough (which make him laugh).
  He doesn’t say a lot of actual words but is throwing in some new ones now and again (“juice,” “again”). Pretty much fun to watch. We’re curious how Chinese learning will interact with this. We keep hearing that initially language learning can slow things down, but that in the long run the kid will learn both.
  He makes some pretty fun movements. He dances, stands up and down, stomps, walks backwards, and can turn in a circle.

Bubbles

I keep meaning to post, and actually started writing a week ago, but it didn't take. We've been through a LOT of changes. We've done the 24 hour trip, the arrival, car trips and walks in the city. I think that we are slowly finding our way.

I'm a little slow on the pictures. Here are some pictures I took on our last day in Cinci:

Visiting Family

Fun times in our last weeks in Ohio. Sam has been bonding with his first pet. We've had lots of walks and play and hanging out. He was especially enamored with some colored eggs my mom had around. Great times...

In Chicago

This is Sam teething--not happy at all

Here he is practicing his newly acquaired seat-climbing ability

This is his grandfather's baby chair, bought by his great-grandmother in Mexico for $1.

More climbing

Hanging out (early in the morning) with great grandpa

Sam versus the ottoman

Week 1 Orientation

We've now finished week one of orientation for our time abroad. Below are three pictures taken of Sam by one of the childcare providers.

He did very well in the program. He is still a pretty low-fuss baby, especially if he gets lots of time around others and playing. He liked following the two older toddlers around and talking to them. The other older kids also looked out for him. It was nice as times to be able to park his stroller next to a table of fellow orientees and dash off to get food at breakfast, etc.

I am sleeping very strangely. Tonight I slept 9-1ish and then just woke up. I think this is a consequence of life on the move. I find that I do this either (1) when I have a looming deadline or too much work or (2) when I am in the middle of something I need to think about. So far we are having a great experience.

Some more Sam updates. He is signing words more. In addition to "all done," "bye-bye," "high five" or even "shaking," Sam's adding in "more," which he does when wants more apple slivers. He's a pretty expressive baby. He continues to make his usual range of sounds ("dagedagedage," "oooooh," "doiy," "dadadada").

He's adept now also at getting up and down out of a chair, a skill he's been practicing on the hotel ottoman. He was willing to drink out of his sipicup this week, something he has steadfastly refused in the past (maybe this is the benefits of peer pressure). He received a pair of crocs from one of the couples who have a kid the same age.

Sam helps us pack...

We are now totally out of the apartment. It is not a proud chapter in the family history, and is probably best forgotten. Nonetheless, we're glad that we survived and we did complish a lot:

• Most of our things did make it out
• We left "clean"--out of my college office, out of our apartment, out of NJ
• We are basically surviving. Emily met advisor. I am at conference.
• We are all still talking to each other

Sam was probably the bright spot in the move. I know that other babies are disoriented by moving, but Sam did very well. He liked walking around and inspecting everything. He loved having barriers to his movement packed away. He expected the same applause getting off the airbed as the regular bed. He gleefully ate the remants of our fridge. He would sometimes "mimic" our packing. So, as Emily looked through papers, he would be throwing handfuls of them in the air. (I am sure this is what packing looked like to him--us throwing our stuff around.0

Some lowlights: packed my social security card and put it in a box to Ohio (I would ideally have used to send on my I9 today). We didn't get totally out of the apartment until 9:30 last night. We gave away--actually this felt kind of good. It helps that our meagre used possessions were going to people who appreciated them and will use them. I told Emily that somehow it is more fulfilling to see someone enthusiastic about taking, say, your boxing gloves from ten years ago which were very expensive, than, say, offering you $2 for them.

I slept last night. I think I will sleep well tonight. The paper will get delivered tomorrow. The documents will be signed. Things will, hopefully, get better and better from here.