Blog? What's that?!

Oh my...I can't believe it's been almost 5 months since I last wrote! So much for preserving memories and keeping people up to date!! I have a feeling I will really regret not having kept better record of these last few months with Joshua! Thankfully, we have been pretty diligent about taking pictures, so we at least have those!

our little dual-citizen :)

Family day trip this summer :)

So, what's been going on over the last 5 months?? Well, aside from Joshua growing like a weed, I've gotten back to language study (with a goal of 10 hours per week), we flew back to America and Canada for 3 weeks to introduce Joshua to our families, Joshua started solids, he got three teeth, we had a wonderful Christmas, Bobby's been busy getting ready for the two short term missionaries we're hosting for a year starting in March, I had gallbladder surgery, and we're getting ready to head to Thailand in two weeks!!

playing with our neighbor friend :)

Wow, so life's been a little more eventful than I realized when I sat down to start this blog!! Now I'm not sure where to begin! I have a feeling I'm just going to end up posting pictures and let them do the talking! ;)

We had a great time with both our families in Canada and the States! Three weeks was too short, but time with family is never long enough! Joshua did super good on all our flights...just required a few walks up and down the aisle! (Ok, more than a few!) we ended up not getting a bassinet for either of our long flights...but I'm not even going to go there because it's apparently still a sensitive issue for me! Let's just say there was a lot of drama, a lot of seat switching and ok, a few tears!

We ran into problems when bedtime hit the night we arrived in Canada though...jet lag hit Joshua hard!! He was sleeping through the night no problem, but after the flights, he was super mixed up. He cried ALL NIGHT LONG. He was a wreck! My mom graciously stayed up with him until we finally gave up on trying to get some sleep ourselves and we took over around 4am. We were not ready for that surprise! It got better every night though and I think he ended up sleeping through the night about 3 or 4 nights. And then he got messed up again when we flew to Maryland! I think out of the two weeks we were there, he only slept through the night once maybe twice! It made us realize how blessed we are that he's been such a good sleeper!! I do not miss those night wakings!

one happy Canadian girl.. reunited with Tim's!

We got family pictures done by a friend of my sister and loved them all! check her out if you're in the Regina area!

Actually this past week, he's gotten into a new habit of sleeping 12 hours! Either he would wake himself or we would wake him to eat around 10pm before, but the other day he flipped onto his belly when we were putting him to bed and it helped him stay asleep past the normal feeding time and he didn't wake up until 7:30 the next morning! Needless to say, I decided that we were going to try and make that a habit and so far the last four nights if we flip him onto his belly when we put him to bed, he has slept till morning! I feel sort of bad about putting him to sleep on his tummy because they say back is best now...but he knows how to roll over if he needs to, and he sleeps a lot more soundly on his belly.....

Anyway, we got to celebrate Canadian a Thanksgiving with my family which was super special! It was fun actually getting turkey for Thanksgiving this year! (We can't readily get turkey here and since I'm the only Canadian here, turkey dinner doesn't happen in October. (But we do get one courtesy of our teammates in November for American Thanksgiving!) 

American turkey

Canadian turkey

 Bobby also enjoyed introducing Joshua to "milk and cookies" on his parent's front steps like his Dad did when he was little! It was also great to be there in time for some beautiful fall colors!!

Joshua had a lot of "sink baths" over the course of our travels!

Nay Nay loved taking naps with her baby!

A trip to the Baden farm wouldn't be complete without a tractor ride with G-Daddy!

Joshua even got to meet his great Grammie!

Melissa and I with our "babies"

 His cousins on both sides absolutely adore him. B kept saying "hug! hug! hug!" anytime she was near Joshua! And little D kept saying "He's so cute! I just love baby Joshua!"

(this is what her hugs looked like!)

this one's also taken by Rachel

We did an English dedication service at our home church in Maryland

Enjoying his cousin's toy!

When we got back we started Joshua on solids! We started with okayu which is basically watered down smooshed up rice. He did not like it and wasn't "getting" it at all! I was pretty discouraged! After several weeks of trying, we gave up and finally tried some sweet potatoes and apples, and both of them were a hit! He finally caught on to swallowing and he started to like eating! But, he seems to be pretty particular because after trying out bananas and carrots and another type of sweet potato, he doesn't like them!! I haven't been too ambitious in making new food for him yet, so we have yet to try things like green peas, beans and avocado. Hopefully he'll expand his pallet beyond apples and sweet potatoes soon! Our neighbor who is just two days younger than Joshua is eating pretty much anything and everything now and it's hard not to be jealous! 

She's also a whole lot more mobile than Joshua...He's not really showing signs of crawling yet...even though he loves to sleep on his tummy, he hates to play on his tummy! A few times he's leaned forward too far while sitting up and ends up on his tummy and I've tried leaving him that way to let him explore his options, but he just gets mad and cries until I sit him up again! He enjoys standing up, but he can't pull himself up on things yet. I really am grateful for this extended time of "immobility" though...I know my life will get a lot busier when he's on the move!! We sometimes wonder if he'll just end up skipping crawling and just go straight to walking :)

play date a few months ago :)

We had a great Christmas... enjoyed a quiet day at home, Skyping with family...

Joshua truly is a delight! He makes us laugh all the time and his smile can brighten my darkest day! We are so blessed! Every time we're out people are always commenting on how cute he is...how he looks like a doll! I'm sure he will get tired of hearing that when he's old enough to understand. He is a great conversation starter though and we love it! :)

Nana made me lots of fun hats!

Around November, I started having gallbladder attacks again (they mysteriously went away when I was about 6 or 7 months pregnant) and when life got a little slower in January, we went to the hospital to get things checked out. They weren't as severe as they were when I was pregnant, but still painful, and caused me to lose a lot of sleep as they were happening at least twice a week in the middle of the night! It was such a blessing to already know what the pain was, and be able to get help so quickly.

this smile is the best medicine!

We ended up getting a great doctor who spoke a fair amount of English which was really nice. We got referred to a surgeon after confirming by ultrasound that there were indeed several stones present (when I had an ultrasound in the States, the technician said it was just several small stones or even just a "sludge" but this time, there were several large stones that could be seen). It was a incredible to be seen mid-January and find out I could have surgery later that month!!

Joshua waiting with Daddy while I had my MRI done

I had laparoscopic surgery on the 27th and all went well. Everything was normal, and now, 10 days after surgery, I'm feeling almost good as new. One of the incisions was in my belly button so that's still a bit sensitive. Overall, I'm doing really well though, and SO happy to have this behind us! I wouldn't wish a gallbladder attack on my worst enemy! We have such good medical care here in Japan and we're so thankful. We also have incredible insurance, and we actually make money for every night we stay in the hospital! We are blessed!!

pre-surgery cuddles (cuddles are a rare treat from him!)

Next up, we're off to Thailand on Feb 19th! (Joshua will have been in four countries before he's even a year old!) We have training for Christar for a week, and then we'll stay at the same place and take a week off. I'm looking forward to it, but travelling to a foreign country with a 9 month old is not exactly exciting. Especially when you have to worry about not drinking the water, and food making you sick!

Boy, I need to get better at writing more often...this turned out to be quite a novel! Kudos to you if you actually read all of that!! (So much for letting the pictures do the talking!) :)

Well, I think I'll finish off with posting all his "monthly" photos to show how much he's growing! Enjoy!

These stickers are not getting used for the next baby! (he ate this one and ripped it in half!)