Ben, Em, Diana, and Helen

Our internet has been cripplingly slow this week, so we haven’t been able to get any pictures uploaded, but during a window of acceptable internet speed we did manage one. 

Yummy!

This week started with a wonderful “Father’s Day” brunch at the club with our friends from Chile, and Jamie who we knew from Morenci. Diana was able to try a few new things like barramundi and grilled chicken, and seemed to really enjoy smooshing her food around. She also likes gnawing on cucumber slices, so we’re making some headway on the vegetable front. Ben’s birthday was Wednesday, and as per Indonesian (or maybe just Tembagapura) custom, he hosted his co-workers for dinner at the café here in Hidden Valley. There were also some presents to be opened and brownies to be eaten, so it was a fun afternoon. Diana enjoyed being cooed over at the café, but it is hard for her to sit in one place for very long these days. She has mastered the Army crawl, although she looks a little more like someone crawling through the desert looking for water. But once she gets her eyes set on something across the room (a toy, the vacuum, my foot) she goes for it. She has suddenly developed a big interest in stuffed animals as well, and particularly likes Ben’s childhood rabbit puppet because he can wave to her and clap when she does something exciting.

We’re planning a little trip to Timika for this weekend to get some sun and give Diana another chance to swim in the pool. Plus it gives us a chance to practice packing, kind of a dry-run for this summer. We finally got our e-ticket information from the travel agent, so things are starting to feel real now. We’re in the list-making stage (list of things to bring to the US, things to bring back to Indonesia, things to buy, things to do), so that’s exciting. Weather here has been pretty grey (we’re in the “rainy season” now, which means maybe 10 or 15 minutes of sun everyday and cloud/fog cover the rest of the day), so we’re looking forward to our weekend in the sun, and a trip back to the US where it (hopefully) doesn’t rain as much.

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Now that Diana has passed the 9 month mark and is fully recovered from her roseola, we’ve been keeping her pretty active.  We’re still going to language classes twice a week, and are working on getting Diana to take two naps a day instead of three so we can do more during the day.  So far it’s working well, and the two slightly longer naps actually seem to make her happier and better rested in the evenings.  She’s also got her appetite back, which means we’re trying some new foods and working on finding a new vegetable that she’ll tolerate.  She’s loving cheese and yoghurt still, but her new favorite food is whole wheat toast with a smear of pureed fruit (or squash or sweet potato) on top. 

Diana has been sick all week with what we think is roseola, aka “baby measles.”  It’s been a draining week for all of us, but here’s a little video of her in the bath in happier days.

bath-squeek

Diana has undergone a sea-change this week. She started eating twice as much food at every meal three days ago and shows no signs of letting up. Maybe she’s finally decided it’s time to grow a little! Her eighth tooth is coming in on the bottom, so she’s drooling a lot more again, but she’s staying hydrated with her improved use of her sippy-cup. We’re both very proud of her, although Emily is most proud of her recent improvements in sleep habits! She has been truly sleeping “through the night” from her 6:30 bedtime until 6:30 or 7am without feeding, and even without waking and fussing in the night. Em still doesn’t know quite what to do with herself since she’s still waking up instinctively at 1 or 2 in the morning, but hopefully that will go away soon.

Since she’s eating so much more, we’ve been able to get her interested in rice cereal and more vegetables. She really liked holding and looking at broccoli, but she’s not quite sure what to do with it yet. It did make it in her mouth, but she mostly just enjoyed squeezing it until it broke apart. The spiral pasta and whole-wheat toast fared a little better, but they both also got squeezed a lot before they got eaten.

We just finished our fourth week of Indonesian language class, which we have been attending twice a week as a family. Our guru (teacher) says that Diana is a very serious student. We have learned several interesting things, such as: you don’t travel “by car,” you travel “up car”; there is no Indonesian word for “sweater”; you don’t “turn off” the light, you “kill” it; and that overalls are called “monkey pants.” One nice thing about learning Indonesian is that there is no verb conjugation. There are, however, many different ways to say the same thing – it sometimes even makes it hard for our teacher to remember which words she has taught us.

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She’s been as happy and friendly with strangers as ever. The receptionists at the hospital, the librarians, and the ladies who work at the café and grocery store all know her name and talk to her every time we go out. Now that we know the Indonesian words for “very cute” – lucu sekali – we hear strangers saying it about her all the time. Still no progress on crawling, but she enjoys when we help her stand up, so maybe she’ll go straight to walking. Her eighth tooth is cutting through on the bottom, so her smile should even out soon.

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We were going to take a walk along the little jungle path behind the houses in town, but the bridge was out (see picture #5).

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And a little video to prove that Diana is feeling better after being sick for a few days:

laughing-girl

Here are three pictures from a recent department trip underground to look at faults in the Mill Access Level (MLA) tunnel.  This tunnel was mined in about 1980 to give geologists good access to drill diamond core and explore for a new orebody.  We didn’t find any faults, but we all had a good walk and one of my co-workers brought along his camera.

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Diana’s been sick for the past two days with a cough and runny nose, but here are some pictures of our big-headed girl from happier times.

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Village People audition

1st Mothers Day

My first teething biscuit!

See how good it is?

Omnomnom...

In my PJ's and nightcap

Our week has gone by fairly uneventfully, but Diana did get her weigh-in at the hospital.  She’s 15lbs 12oz, which puts her in about the 10th percentile for weight (she’s the weight of the “average” 6 month old).  Her height is in about the 30th percentile, but her massive head is in the 90th percentile.  So she may be petite, but she got a melon the size of the average 1 year old!  No wonder she can’t crawl yet, she’s still too top-heavy!!  She’s actually been a little cranky this week, we think because she’s a little frustrated with her lack of mobility.  She tries to crawl, but ends up just pushing herself backwards.  We’re trying to burn off some of her energy with her jumper, but she just really wants to move.  We’ve introduced a few new foods this week – potato, tofu and cinnamon.  None were big hits, but they all went down without a fuss.  She still seems to prefer sweet potato and homemade applesauce and pearsauce best.  Still no sign of that 8th tooth to even out her smile, but she seems happier now that all the top teeth are in (and her shirts a staying much more drool-free!).  

There was one other exciting piece of news from this week – Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream at the store.  There was only one pint there and Em snatched it up.  We even made it last for two nights! 

No other news.  We’re headed to the Lupe club tomorrow morning for a nice Mother’s Day brunch to round out our relaxing weekend.  We have a few other pictures to post soon, but just one toothy-grin photo for now.