We're leaving....on a jet plane

We introduced Gretta to tinsel....maybe this bodes well for the Christmas tree! Hopefully she won't like the feel of that either and won't tear it down!

Or maybe she just needed a nap.

Or if its far away that helps....

Christmas in our lobby

Christmas in the mall


Christmas outside! Ahh...bubbles and sunshine...

We're leaving this....

and are going home to something like this!

Looking forward to being home soon!

Firsts....

Josh is in Bangladesh again until next week so its up to us to get ready to go home a week from today!

Right before Josh left, this little tough gal got her first "shiner". It looks worse in person I think. She and I were playing on the floor and her confident self didn't think she needed to hang on to something when she was standing and unfortunately or luckily (not sure which would be worse, the floor or my nose) she face planted onto my nose, we both cried it hurt so bad!! I really thought she might have broke my nose, but all is well.

FIRST TOOTH! Finally!! The first week of December we noticed that it was starting to break through and she doesn't let us look at it so I finally caught her making faces and you can kind of see it, its just barely breaking the skin on the right side.

A woman said to me today "Her eyes are so beautiful, what color do you call that?" I said "Blue", and she repeated "Blue".....I watched her amazement and awe at trying to understand what the color "Blue" was by looking at Gretta's eyes and it was like what she was looking at was something never discovered before!

Note to parents everywhere: The votes are in on most popular toy for babies this year! Gretta gives two thumbs up on this plastic water bottle. She loves to look through it and have others look through it at her, or roll it around on the floor and chase it, or gnaw on the top, or bang it on the table. She is entertained by it in so many ways. It's a very practical, versatile toy and also gives you another use for plastic water bottles before recycling! So throw out that Toys 'R Us catalog and go out and get yourself a water bottle.

*Bonus for parents is that it doesn't play annoying music or cost that much!*

8 months old!

Time flew by since Thanksgiving! Josh got to have pretty much a four day weekend that weekend of Thanksgiving with all the political drama so we had some fun family time. He didn’t have to leave for Bangladesh thanks to the PAD and the airport being closed for a week. Thank goodness we weren’t planning on going anywhere and good thing Josh’s parents got out when they did.

This week, on Friday, we did some Christmas shopping. Josh had the day off as it was a holiday. It was the King’s 81st birthday and Gretta turned 8 months old! We did take pictures that day, but we just haven’t had time to post them until now. She is keeping us more on our toes lately with her new found mobility. She has discovered there are other rooms in our apartment. She was content just crawling around the living room, but now she has found out that when people leave the room, she can follow! She is also still having fun with food. She is starting to like a more solid texture to food, so we got some Cheerios and then we have been giving her little bits and pieces off our plates and these new indulgences have included pasta, ham, eggs, bread, hummus and couscous. All of which have been greeted with much enthusiasm! Her other favorite is applesauce and she will eat pretty much anything mixed with it.

Also, has acquired a taste for paper and thinks it is the funniest thing to eat it.

Ah Ha! I've got it!

When JOSH was "watching" her, she got a chunk and we couldn't find it anywhere so we're pretty sure she swallowed it. She seems to know that she did something wrong by the expression she has, hopefully her first and only "mug" shot.

What we saw a lot of today....she gets sick of the camera sometimes.

Fireworks for the King's birthday celebration (or for Gretta, whichever you prefer to think)

Just in case you thought she was ALWAYS smiling......

We’ll be home in less than 2 weeks now and can’t believe how fast it actually went if we think about it. We are really looking forward to eating some comfort foods we’ve missed, CHRISTMAS COOKIES, seeing friends and family, snow, skiing and wearing cold weather clothes….not necessarily because we like the cold, but we do enjoy snuggling up on the couch with a favorite blanket in our cozy sweaters, with a cup of hot chocolate and the Christmas tree lights and candles as the only lighting in the room.

Now that the drama is over and the airports are open, Josh will be heading to Bangladesh sometime this week but only for a short trip. Then before we know it we'll be heading home!

A little something extra...

Finally got some video of all the things Gretta is doing, so here is a little show for you set to a little music of course!

We are thankful....

On our way to lunch.

Here was what we got to choose from to eat on our Thai Thanksgiving Day, it was a buffet and it was delicious! We got our fill of traditional turkey, potatoes and pumpkin pie, but also got to try some other things that were fantastic as well!

Josh making his choices and Gretta thinking about it.

Mmmmm...first taste of turkey.

Pumpkin soup!

Josh enjoying some oysters....

This year we have many things to be thankful for. We are safe and sound here today and glad we're not stuck at the airport or worse! We are thankful for our families whom we miss very much and wish we could be with! We are thankful for eachother and for our baby girl on her first Thanksgiving.

Despite all the reports of the crisis going on here, we are doing fine! Nothing is going on in the area we live. Josh was scheduled to leave for Bangladesh on Friday (tomorrow for us) but that has obviously been canceled for the time being (not too sad about that!) Hopefully they will have this all cleared up in the next couple of weeks so we can be home for the holidays as planned.

We miss you all very much and hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving with family and/or friends, wherever you may be in the world!

HUGS!!

Yay for babies!

Jess's little brother Jeff and his gorgeous new daughter Petra.

Such a little peanut.

This is just an AWWWWWW......moment.

We are an aunt and uncle for the first time! Jeff and Angelie welcomed Petra Jo on November 21, 2008 at 4:10 a.m. Congratulations to the new family, we are so excited to meet her over Christmas!

Cambodia and beyond

Josh’s parents left today and we had a really fabulous time with them while they were here! We got to enjoy just some hanging out time in Bangkok. They took a cooking class, Fred got a suit made, we spent some time by the pool, enjoyed LOTS of good food and also spent a long weekend in Cambodia. Josh and I had both been to Cambodia, he by himself and I with his sister Molly, to see Angkor Wat so we did that again, but also took a trip out to Tonle Sap Lake and went out on a boat, had lunch with some local villagers and got to see a lot of the countryside which was our favorite part of the trip. It was funny to see the total lack of modernism in their living quarters (some with no electricity or plumbing) and then to see some with cable TV and a cell phone, living on the water. While we took great pleasure in taking pictures of their primitive lifestyle there was a moment where I saw a little boy taking a picture of us with his phone! Gretta was a fantastic traveler and we were so grateful for that! She fell asleep easily in the front pack carrier while we were out hiking around and even fell asleep on a tuk-tuk ride one night on our way back from dinner!

Angkor Wat

Lastly, Josh and I finally got a little time to ourselves and went out to see the new Bond film while Grandma and Grandpa watched Gretta. She didn’t even notice we were gone and really enjoyed her time with Grandma and Grandpa! Thank you so much for a wonderful visit! Can’t wait to see you again when we’re home for Christmas, we might have a full blown walker by then!

While Josh’s parents were here Gretta learned to do SO much, this is the most we’ve seen her learn to do in such a short time! She has learned to sit up by herself from lying down and from there has figured out how to pull herself up on things! It is quite entertaining, kind of like watching her play a private game of Twister! Walking has become so much more fun than crawling. She will walk along the edge of the coffee table or couch or around her crib! She does crawl a little bit, but much prefers to be standing and she will just stand at the coffee table looking around. She also likes to get under the glass table and try to grab for things on the table that are unattainable because of the glass (yes, we laugh at her!). She has started taking drinks of water from our glasses and does quite a good job, doesn’t spill or choke! She enjoys the sound of us clicking our tongues and snapping our fingers, usually brings a big smile to her face. She likes knocking over the stacking cups and will flinch before she even knocks them down. All these new skills we believe have made her sleeping habits a little random. She had a great 2 months of sleeping through the night and now she has been waking up more at night again. Her brain must just be going a mile a minute or she is going through a growth spurt or both. Still no teeth, so we’re tired of blaming it on that!

Following are what I call the "Gretta Series", illustrating (hopefully) to you almost a flipbook-type look into the daily activities of our little daredevil!

The stand.

The head-butt.

The walk-around.