Good bye Kathmandu, Hello Thailand!

We left Kathmandu today for Thailand. I have been telling Elijah for a few days that we will be leaving Kathmandu, getting on an airplane, and heading for a new place called Thailand. Because he has been fascinated with airplanes and has been signing it whenever he would hear a plane flying by (even while nursing), I have been telling him that he will get on one soon.

He is so much more aware of his surroundings and this time around, it felt as though he was aware that something different was happening as we packed up all our stuff. We made sure that he got to say goodbye to our neighbor who has become really fond of Elijah. Every morning they greet each other as he stands on his veranda and Elijah looks out the window. It has been really sweet to watch the two interact. I can tell that the man and his wife love being greeted by Elijah every morning with a big smile and a yell that sounds like "Hey!" And, Elijah, whenever we walk by their place, he looks up to see if they are there. Before we left, the man got to hold him and got to say good-bye. I am certain that their mornings will not feel the same.... It has been really fun to see kids calling out "Elijah, Elijah!"in front of the flat. Elijah is a people magnet.

Elijah LOVED being on the plane. He played around with the headphones (swaying his body to the music), and loved pushing all the buttons, walking up and down the aisle, taking out magazines in the seat pocket, and watching all the people around him and their busy activities. He loved it so much that he refused to take an afternoon nap, even though he was extremely tired. Through yawning, rubbing eyes, pulling on his ears, and nursing, he did not want to sleep. Dad = play while Mom = sleep, so he kept wanting to go to Paul. When we arrived at the airport, he saw the escalator and he wanted to his dad to go up and down on it. Oh boy, did he love it! I assume by now he is aware that he is leaving a place. A month is long enough to establish some sense of "home" and we were leaving again. We will see how he does with our current lifestyle as he gets older. For now, I am very grateful that he seems to be a kid who thrives on being in new places because he is so intrigued by all the new things! I am also thankful that generally he is a good sleeper wherever he goes.

On a different note, I can tell that we are getting really good at packing because each time we do it, it goes even more smoothly. Somehow we have figured out a way to make traveling a little less stressful. It is encouraging to see that we are improving and learning to make this lifestyle work with less stress.

Ride Park

There is a "ride park" near our place so we took Elijah there. This kid is obsessed with motorcycles, cars, and airplanes. He loved being on the rides.

First Steps!

Elijah took his first two steps! Yesterday, he was constantly practicing getting up on his own. Today, he got up on his feet and took two steps and fell into my arms. I felt so proud of him. And, I also felt emotional because it meant that Elijah is really entering toddler-hood....I wonder how it feels for him to take steps and know that he can move on his own without any aid...He will get to explore the world on his feet independently. Watch out! Mr. Explorer is ready to venture out!

Words, words, words...

Elijah is working so hard to communicate and I am working hard to understand what it is that he is trying to say. He can be very emphatic sometimes! But in the last week, Paul and I have had moments where we just looked at each other because we were having that moment, "Did you hear what I thought I heard?!" So some of the words, we are certain that we heard him say are,

"All DONE!" with the sign language. We were surprised to hear two words, "All done" so clearly enunciated. If I try to feed him, he emphatically says, "DONE!" as if he is trying to say, "Mom, I know that you know what that means....I'm done so get me off this chair now!"

"This/That" as he points to things that he wants or wants me to identify for him.

"Ah-pa!" He said this word for daddy in Korean so clearly the other day at the hospital that even the Nepalis looked at him and smiled. (The word for daddy in Korean is also used by some ethic groups in Nepal too.)

"Chaek" which is the word for book in Korean. Although Paul swear that he thought he heard the word, "book" a few weeks ago too.

"...te!" he is trying to say, "Namaste." He hasn't quite figured out how to say it, but he does the hand motion and says, "te" to our neighbors.

"Vroom.." for cars and motorcycles--he is obsessed with them.

The other day, I read to him and then, I gave him the book and said, "now, it's Elijah's turn to read to mom." To our amazement, he began imitating reading page by page. Paul and I were pretty blown away!

Some other funny things he does that are worth remembering:
He constantly blows whenever he sees candles now because he knows that you blow a candle out. He must have blown out his number one birthday candle a dozen times by now....

I showed him how to breathe on the window and draw pictures. He sits by the window, breathes out hot air, and draws!

Paul drew some random pictures of faces on a piece of paper and whenever he sees them, he laughs.

There are more but I can't seem to remember them all at this late hour.... we love watching him grow!

Oh yes, we can't forget--Elijah now stands up on his own and is trying to do it quite frequently. So, perhaps in a month or two, we might see this kid walking/running? I think as soon as he can walk, he will be running!

Yummy bites!

Here is a video of Elijah enjoying his chocolate birthday cake. I tried giving it to him without a fork to see if he would smear the cake all over his face, but he didn't. He didn't like having the frosting all over his fingers and was trying to get it off. But, he loves the challenge of using the fork. Once he got a really good bite of the cake, his eyes got all big and said YUM with me! (Hopefully, you can see it on the video.)

Happy Birthday, Elijah!

Our sweet and energetic son turned one year old today! Here's a video of Elijah's birthday celebration. We have been tutoring at a learning center for at risk kids three days a week. The organization we connected with works with street kids in Kathmandu. Although we have been in Nepal for longer stretches of time for language study in the past, we have never stayed in Kathmandu for more than a week. Since we didn't have family or close friends to celebrate Elijah's big day, we decided to celebrate with the kids at the learning center. What joy it was to celebrate with them and bring laughter and fun on this special day. May you, Elijah be the bearer of joy of God wherever you go.

Happy Birthday Elijah! We are so proud of you and we love you so much!