Summer Plans

Jet and I lately have been working on what we plan to do for this summer.  We had planned on taking an extended trip back to Thailand, but had not determined how that should take place.  Jet was interested in leaving shortly after Kristin, Dad, Josh, Ty, and Sam come to visit in April and was planning on staying for several months until I would be able to travel in July so that we could fly back together.  I am teaching a summer course in the month of June, else I would be traveling back to Thailand much earlier.  After much consideration, however, it is beginning to look as if Jet and Ben will be the only ones making the trip and is tentatively planning to return back to Alabama in June, spending about a month and a half to two months in Thailand.  In May, while Jet is away, I was planning on driving back to Milwaukee to stay for about a week so that I can catch some of the birthday celebrations of the month.  These plans are only tentative and may change, so I will keep you updated as things progress.

The weather has been fantastic the past week and a half.  In fact, today is supposed to be the best day of all, reaching 80 degrees.  However, rain is on tap for tomorrow with the chance of severe storms as well.  After this system passes through, temperatures are expected to dip to the 60’s for the next few days.

Today (Wednesday) Jet will bring Ben up to JSU!  One of my colleagues in the Math department will have a baby shower today at noon.  She is Korean, very nice, and she and her husband (both faculty in Math) played a major role in convincing us to come to JSU as we had lunch with them several times when we visited the area before I accepted the position.  This will be her second child (girl about 5 years old) and first boy.  This should be a fun event as it gives Jet and Ben a chance to get out of the house and enjoy the day. 

One embarrassing “parenting” note to post (the first of many I’m sure).  On Monday, Jet had thought that Ben was running a slight fever so she asked me to check his temperature.  We called Kristin to confirm how to properly use the thermometer.  Jet couldn’t bring herself to “insert” the thermometer, so rolled up my sleeves, bit my tongue, and went to work feeling awful the entire time.  After about a minute, we still did not get a reading and Ben (as you can imagine) was getting more and more uncomfortable.  After taking the thermometer out without a reading, I checked the directions and realized that our brand new thermometer had dead batteries.  Poor Ben went through all that for nothing.  Since we didn’t have another thermometer, we did not get Ben’s temperature, however, Ben has appeared to be just fine in the days afterwards.  On the other hand, I may never be “fine” again.

A Different World

Wow!  More and more snow.  I remember that the toughest part of living in Milwaukee this time of year was the exhaustion and frustration that winter was still here even though there might have been a stretch of “good” days that had you feeling optimistic that spring had finally arrived.  Alabama is truly a different world this time of year.  All week we have been in the 70’s and on Thursday, it got up to 80.  Yesterday (Saturday) we traveled to Atlanta for my first footy match of the season.  Hard to believe that I am already playing Aussie Rules in February!  Back in Milwaukee, we couldn’t even think about playing outside until April due to the cold weather, snow, and muddy fields once the snow melted.  Like I said, it’s a different world.  I play for the local team, the Druid Hills Highlanders, and we won convincingly.  I actually scored the first goal of the season, but my accuracy was far from perfect as I also scored three behinds.  My conditioning was also far from mid-season form as once the second half began, it felt as if I had concrete blocks on my legs and I was gassed several times after exchanges of play.  After the game was over, we went to “Korean Town” just north of Atlanta for the first time as we recently received directions from a fellow Korean faculty member.  It is a pretty large strip mall with a large grocery store, “H-Mart”, anchoring it in the middle.  Honestly, I had not seen Jet so excited about grocery shopping since we found the “Farmer’s Market” in Atlanta.  The “H-Mart” seemed to have nearly everything that the “Farmer’s Market” had, but it was in a newer building (albeit smaller) and had many different food stations and novelty shops throughout.  Jet was in love immediately after visiting their fresh Sushi shop, Korean bakery, and authentic Korean dishes.  I am certain that we will visit the “H-Mart” many more times.

With the weather being as nice as it has been, we were able to get out for a walk several times with Ben this week.  One thing we have found out is that (or at least appears) Ben has photic sneeze reflex.  Every time we go outside or when we leave a dark room to a bright one filled with natural light, Ben sneezes.  Since it is supposed to be in the 70’s this week, I am sure that we will get many more walks in.  Speaking of Ben, he has still been “mostly” good.  Nearly every evening at 5:00pm he gets in a bad mood and it is tough to calm him down.  For no apparent reason he gets to crying and feeding doesn’t seem to help.  At night, Ben will either get in a pattern of eating, then sleeping for two hours throughout the night, or he will just not want to sleep for longer than one hour at a time and will be awake for one-and-a-half to two hours at a time throughout the night.  Needless to say, we enjoy nights when it is like the former and not the later.  We just hope that he will start getting used to sleeping long periods at night.

Big Ben

Jet took Ben in for his official one-month visit yesterday and found out that Ben weighs a whopping 10 pounds, 1 ounce!  This put him right on track with his scheduled growth chart and the visit went well.  The doctor ended up writing another prescription for an ointment to treat yeast infections for Ben to help clear up the baby acne.  The bad part of the visit yesterday was that Ben got his first shot (in his right thigh) and had blood taken from multiple spots on his feet yesterday.  I am fortunate that I was not there because Jet said there was a lot of blood and crying – I am not sure if I would have been as strong as Jet to take that!  Needless to say, both Jet and I were very nice to Ben yesterday and he seemed to do well, except for the trouble sleeping at night.  Speaking of trouble sleeping, Ben gives us a tough time sleeping simply from the noises he makes.  He will be sound asleep, but will continuously make loud “grunts” throughout the night which will wake us up.  I suppose after some time we will get used to the noises (hopefully) and get better sleep.  The next visit for Ben will be in about a month and Jet said that Ben will be getting four shots then!  Yikes!

Tomorrow Jet will make a fish-fry for me because it is officially Lent.  I have decided to give up all sweets (ice-cream, cake, snacks) for Lent this year.  I don’t know if I will be able to stick to it.  I was on a routine of eating a large amount of sweets every day before I went to bed for the past few weeks.  I will keep you updated on my status.

Bye Mom!

We said “good-bye” to Jet’s Mom on Sunday.  Almost immediately after she left our view after passing through the security check, Ben began to cry as if he missed his grandma.  This triggered emotions in Jet and has made things difficult since Jet’s Mom left.  However, Jet’s Mom is now back in Thailand and is doing well.  We enjoyed her company here and we look forward to seeing her again in the coming months as we plan to visit Thailand in the summer.  Jet took a short video clip of Mom singing to Ben (while cooking) for everyone to view.

The day before Jet’s Mom left, she put on Ben Thai jewelry (gold anklets and necklace). Jet’s Mom also performed a traditional Thai ceremony for babies that are one-month old that involved putting on string bracelets and snipping off some hair.  Well, almost traditional.  If it were truly traditional, a Thai monk would have performed the ceremony and Ben’s hair would have been entirely shaved off.

Ben is still growing by the day!  He is now nearly outgrown all of his 0-3 months clothes and he is beginning to get a little too big for the smaller crib we have set-up in our bedroom.  Jet and I are both excited about his next visit to the doctor tomorrow (Wednesday) so we can see exactly how much he has grown in the past week.

The Luckiest Guy in Alabama

I must be.  While walking outside on the JSU campus on Monday, I got “hit” on my right shoulder by a bird passing above.  Luckily I was about to head home, but I was obviously a bit embarrassed.  When I got home, I told Jet and her Mom about what happened, thinking that it would give them a good laugh.  Actually, Jet’s Mom said that for a bird doing its business on you is ”very good luck” in Thailand.  So that almost made me feel better.  Yesterday morning, however, I was walking with a colleague (originally from Romania) to the JSU library when all of a sudden, you guessed it, I got “hit” again by a bird on the left sleeve of my jacket.  My colleague saw this and also let me know that in Romania, it is good luck for this to happen.  Twice in three days?  What are the odds of that?  And for everyone to say that it means “good luck” in their home country?  Well, I live in Alabama and I can’t say that I felt real lucky about what happened.  I’ll just keep an eye on the sky the next few days, just in case.

We went out to eat at the one of the new restaurants in town last night for Valentine’s Day.  We went to “Longhorn” steakhouse and had the porterhouse steak and a full-rack of baby back ribs.  The food was delicious and Ben was cooperative for most of dinner, so we did have a good time.  It was a good thing that we arrived early and made reservations because as we were leaving, we heard people being told that it was a two hour wait to get seated.  Valentine’s or no-Valentine’s, that is too long of a wait for dinner!

Snow in Alabama?

That’s right, snow in Alabama!   It was a brisk 32 degrees out this morning at 6:00am and as I was pulling out of my driveway, I noticed something outside my window that looked like a falling snow flake.  I stopped, got out of my car, and stood there staring at the landscape around our house hoping to catch a glimpse of another flake.  No luck.  So I then got back in my car and headed off to school.  As I reached Jacksonville, sure enough, there were several flakes in the air.  Snow in Alabama.  It is true!  I took a picture of all the snow that accumulated outside at JSU as evidence to mark this unusual occasion.  I have also added pictures taken from the Anniston Star (local newspaper) at Mt. Cheaha – the highest point in the State of Alabama.

Happy Valentines Day!

Baby Benja

Jet re-scheduled Ben’s one month visit from Thursday to today because she was concerned about the spreading acne on his face and head.  The doctor said that the acne was getting bad, so she prescribed a topical cream to apply and help clear things up.  The doctor measured and weighed Ben as well during the visit … his is now up to 22 inches long and 9 pounds, 3 ounces!  He was supposed to get his first month shots today, however, Jet told me that she didn’t give him them because he is exactly 1 month old today, and that he has to be at least 1 month and 1 day old to get the shots.  I don’t get that.  As a result, Jet has to bring Ben in next week Wednesday to get his shots.

The weather had been pretty good around here the past few days.  It made it into the upper 60’s on Sunday and yesterday it was 72 degrees out on my way home from work.  As soon as I got home, I washed both of our cars and got a nice run in.  Too bad the highs will only be in the 40’s and 50’s for the next couple of days.  The 10-day forecast, however, has it reaching the 70’s again after the cold spell leaves.  I really am looking forward to that.

Goodbye Pookie

How quickly a week goes by.  Yesterday morning (Sunday), we drove Jet’s sister (Pookie) to Atlanta for her flight back home to Switzerland.  Good-byes from family members always seem to leave a tangible, hollow space behind and can become quite sad events.  As I like to remind Jet, however, if you are sad by your sister leaving (or any other person, for that matter), it only means that you enjoyed the time you spent together and you should be grateful for the wonderful memories that she left behind that you will always be able to remember.  I say this knowing that one week later we will have to bring Jet’s Mom to Atlanta for another difficult good-bye.  But on the bright side, we have many other family members scheduled to visit in the coming weeks and many great neighbors that will spend time with us and enjoy these new moments with Ben in our lives.

On Saturday, Ben got his first piece of mail – his social security card!  Today, Jet was planning on stopping by the Post Office in Anniston to apply for his Passport.  It is too bad Ben’s milia is spreading all over his face so that his Passport photo may not look the best.  I forgot to mention this earlier, but Jet’s itching began to subside almost two weeks ago.  Although she still gets some itching from time to time, it is hardly at the scale that it was at its peak.  I guess we’ll just chalk that one up to an allergic reaction – to what, we may never know.

Valentine’s Day is approaching quickly, but I am not sure just yet what to get Jet and her Mom for the holiday.  I have asked them to pick a place to eat dinner for the evening (Seafood, Chinese, Steak, Mexican, BBQ, etc.) but I have yet to get a definite response.  I will keep you posted on how things turn out.

The weather has been fairly decent over the past few days here.  It has hit the 60’s a few times and it will again today and tomorrow, however, a cold front is approaching that will bring 40’s (highs) and 20’s (lows) later this week.  I hope things are getting better up in Milwaukee, but this “decent” weather down here is starting to spoil me.  I have started running again for the first time in about a month and I have registered for my first 5k run down here that will be held in Oxford on March 10th.  After chatting a bit with Donald the other day, I mentioned that I would like to starting training to run next year’s Mercedes marathon in Birmingham (February 10, 2008).  I have always wanted to run a marathon, but it has always been just that – wishful thinking.  I have never run more than 5k in a run before, and the furthest distance I have ever run is from Brown Deer Park to my apartment (about 6 miles) last summer, however, that was right after playing a full Aussie Rules Football match straddled with a backpack holding all of my gear.  Needless to say, I have never done anything close to 26 miles before, so it will take a lot of discipline, commitment, and training.  I will keep you updated on how this progresses through the year as well.

My Birthday!

Thank you everyone for calling me, mailing me, or wishing me in person a happy birthday.  The most embarrassing thing for me was leaving for school on Thursday morning and having Jet run out after me, stopping me, and wishing me a happy birthday.  I had completely forgotten!  I will attribute that to the baby, not old age.

Jet has had a wonderful time with her sister and Mom over the past few days.  While I have been away at school, they have been shopping both in Oxford and in Birmingham.  Ben has been such a trooper all along sleeping and being a “good boy” letting Jet enjoy time together with her family.  When they are all at home, Jet’s Mom and sister vie for time holding Ben, knowing full-well that there are only a few precious days left to share with him.  At night, they all stay up late watching Thai movies, talking, and laughing.  We will miss them terribly when they go back home.

For my birthday, we went out to eat breakfast at Cracker Barrel yesterday (Friday) morning.  It was the first time that Jet’s Mom and sister had ever been there, and it was a lot of fun.  We ordered pancakes, french toast, eggs, baked fruit (both peaches and apples), grits, biscuits, bacon, and sausage – a real “southern” breakfast.  Everyone had a great time and lots of pictures were taken.  Many of the servers and patrons loved seeing Ben.  In fact, one “old timer” customer there came up to Jet’s sister and told her that Ben was one of the cutest babies he had ever seen.  That response came unprompted, and made our day.

Yesterday evening Jet and her Mom prepared Thai food for many of our neighbors and Linda brought over a couple of dishes of her own.  Only Donald and Linda knew that it was my birthday, which was great since I didn’t want the gathering to be about me but about spending time with our neighbors, sharing a few stories and some laughs.  After everyone had their fill of food and dessert, the star of the evening (Ben) awoke and made a guest appearance for some face time with the neighbors and a few photos.  I have included pictures from last night including a few others Jet has been taking over the past few days.  There is one picture, however, that Jet’s Mom absolutely loves and brings everyone to tears laughing when they see it.  It was a picture taken two nights ago, and to give a little context to it, lately Ben has been having trouble “finding” Jet to eat at night.  Thinking on her feet, Jet’s Mom loaned Ben her glasses to be of some assistance.

I hope that you like the new picture featured in the heading of our blog.  It was taken at Mt. Cheaha in November when Jet’s cousin Da was in town.  I will try to change the image regularly with pictures taken from places nearby in “sweet home Alabama”.

Week 3

What a week this has been – busy as ever.  It started out very good because we finally had an opportunity with the Superbowl for Ben to wear some of his Packer outfits.  But really, when is it not a good time to wear a Packer outfit?  Unfortunately, Jet doesn’t feel the same way.  On Monday, Jet, her Mom, Ben, and I traveled to Atlanta for some grocery shopping and we picked up Jet’s sister Pookie who is here to visit us for a week from Switzerland.  It has been at least a year since I had seen her and this is the first time that she has seen Ben, so this has been a very welcome visit for us.  Since we were stocked up with groceries, Jet’s Mom has been cooking authentic Thai food non-stop for all of us – and we can’t get enough of it.  Tomorrow (Thursday) while I am at school, everyone else will be headed to Birmingham for some shopping and fun.  On Friday, we will be hosting most of our neighbors for a big get-together with some Thai food to thank them for all of the wonderful gifts they have given Ben and to show him off.  Unfortunately, Ben has started to get milia on his face.  Hopefully it doesn’t get worse and it cleans up soon.