Thursday, March 22, 2007

When I grow up...

"Holden, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"Ummm, a superhero."

"Do you want to be a Daddy when you grow up too?"

"NO! Daddy doesn't have any hair!"

Ah, nothing like a child to state the obvious and make you feel really great about it!

Thursday, March 15, 2007

We're adopting a baby

Ok, not for keeps, just for a week! There is a small children's home here that tries to give their employees the week off over Christmas and Holy Week. To facilitate this, they look for foster homes for the week. We have volunteered and went to the orphanage today to fill out the paperwork and meet the children.

We called to see what supplies they were in need of and stopped by the store for jugs of purified water, milk, cereal and diapers and were off to "pick out a baby" as Nate said.

We took Holden and while he wasn't allowed in the nursery with the babies, he played with the older children in the toddler area. There were 6 babies under 11 months old. All beautiful! The home is run by women, so to have a tall white man around the babies was an experience for all! One of the little girls, whom I fell in love with, Sheila Mae, was terrified. Everytime she looked Nate's way her lower lip quivered and tears streamed down her face. The other little girl, Angielyn was in love with him! Big grins, trying to get his attention whenever he turned away, but she wanted nothing to do with me. In fact, she cried whenever I tried to hold her!

I truly couldn't decide which child should come stay with us. I would have taken two if Nate would have given the OK, but then we certainly would have needed another yaya! We finally offered to take Christian, who is 3 months old. Since we have stairs, small parts to toys, electric outlets and no crib, we thought it best to take a child who can't walk, crawl or roll! Plus, they said he was the best sleeper! When determining whether or not to have a second child, it is certainly best to take the easiest so as not to scare "he daddy"into not having anymore offspring EVER.

We will have little Christian from the 4th of April to the 10th and will be certain to take lots of pictures. I am in full baby hunger mode after being there. I found myself wandering the baby aisle today at the market looking for the things we will need for him. Uh oh, Nate's worst fear is that I won't want to give this child back. Good thing there are laws against kidnapping here!

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Bollywood




This past weekend we went to the New Zealand/Australia Ball where the theme was Bollywood. Nate asked guy from his company in India pick us up some authentic garb and had it brought over.


After a few "tries" at the tying to the sari, and about 80 safety pins later we were off to the party. If there had been metal detectors, I would have lit up the screen with pins! There was so much fabric, I didn't know where to put it all, it just kept wrapping and wrapping! Who knew a sari could be that hot either?


All in, it was a great party, great food, great band and of course, great people. Everyone was dressed very festive, even the guys. As you can see, Nate is dressed like he owns India himself.










It's Holden...er...HolBen


It's all happening too fast. Holden is growing and learning so fast! This is what he wrote tonight.
Here are a few things that are happening in his little world right now.

He has taken on the huge responsibility of being a fish owner. After what happened to the D-O-G we figured it was best to start over with something easily replaceable. Fish seemed like a reasonable solution. We are going on 3 weeks and all three are still alive, no replacements called upon yet! They are pink and they live in a beautiful bowl on the side of his bed with pink rocks of course. Better yet, their names are Ho Chi and Minh, that's right, our child is now Asian thinking. Better yet, the fish have the last name of Jeepney. What, you didn't know that fish need last names? How else would you look them up in the phone book?


Holden is very busy swimming. He says; "Dad, lets go swimmin with women!" and off they head to the pool. He rarely uses any kind of flotation device and manages to stay above water most of the time. Very brave, in fact, too brave for our comfort!
Favorite Color: Still pink.

Favorite thing to do: play board games, art, swim, and of course watch movies

Favorite foods: CHEESE sandwich (Tyler...Nicole, I am blaming you!), strawberries and edamame.

Favorite thing to talk about: "my friends back in Utah."

Favorite thing about Manila: "all the huge tall buildings."

What he is looking forward to: Nama coming to visit.

Favorite books: Green Eggs and Ham, Berenstain Bears, You are Special

Favorite new toy: harmonica and guitar. We have our own family band, we are good! haha

Person he talks about the most: Grandpa Stromberg.

Can't get him out of: the bathtub

Number of excuses each night at bedtime: 8
Thing he does everyday, besides eat cheese sandwiches, and wants all of our guests to participate in: push-ups and Yoga for kids

People he always is asking about: Grandma Susan and Grandma Shirley and Nodie.

Constant companions: Barkley and Barkley 2 (stuffed dogs)

Favorite thing for Mommy to do: sing songs that Grandma Susan used to sing to her.

Favorite thing for Daddy to do: Be a horsey and roughhouse and play superheros!

Cutest thing he does here: speak Tagalog. Every where we go: Salmat Po, Ingat. Basically, thank you, take care.













Thursday, March 01, 2007

Back on American Soil



It's strange to think that not more than a 30 minute drive from our house there is American soil...in the form of the US Embassy where we had dinner last weekend.