Baby Grace is Born!!!

Today at 2:12 pm July 29th Baby Grace made her arrival. Here are some photos. Baby Grace is breathing a little too fast. And so just to be careful our Dr. has decided to keep her in the incubator for the rest of the night. (It's possible that fast breathing can be a sign of infection. But it also can just be a Baby Grace adjusting to breathing on her own.)

Here is her Incubator.

And here is a closer picture. Sorry if it is blurry. I turned the flash on my camera off, I didn't want to disturb her sleep.

And these are of course her feet. I thought they were really pink!

Stay tuned for more!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention Baby Grace was 3.550 kg (7lbs 13oz that is)

UPDATE: It seems I forgot to put down her full name. This is what happens when Dad's do the posting. Anyway her full name is Grace Virginia DeJarnette

Christmas in July!

I feel like it's Christmas! Hunt's parents are finally here! That's the best present, of course, but they came laden with other goodies, which Archie is already enjoying.

Archie's first project with Grandpa was helping to open the suitcase. He says "key, key" and understands the concept but doesn't quite have the dexterity to turn it.

Unpacking new books with Grandma

Cousins Mack, Melanie, Amy and Laura sent this giraffe puppet. He was quite a hit! You can see how many pictures he's featured in. Thanks so much!

Meet the giraffe:

After awhile, Archie evidently decided he needed to defend himself from the wild animal and started chasing him with the broom. GIRAFFE ATTACK!

Archie's first backpack. Giraffe goes to school.

This is Archie approaching the giraffe (worn on Grandpa's hand) in utter delight.

Even with Grandpa and Grandma, there's still time for fun games with Daddy. He loves to be swung around. Preparing to launch!

Blast off!

This morning I proclaimed myself "fat and overdue." (Hunter jokingly asked me if that was going to be the title of my blog post.) Actually, I'm not overdue. Today is the magic day (supposedly) but still no Grace. We are planning to go to the hospital so our doctor can help her come out (induce) if she's not here by tomorrow. He assures us she's ready. I am, too, but I'm kind of glad we have one day to play with Grandpa and Grandma and for Archie to adjust to them (which only took a matter of moments) before Grace comes.

39 weeks and 6 days belly shots:

This is the way we water the lawn so early in the morning!

What delights a 22 month old more than an early morning knock-on-the-door from a neighbor requesting baby help watering the lawn? Not much! Archie LOVED it! And, we're benefiting from the nice way they're growing grass and clearing weeds.

The Merry Monitors

Yes, it's roaming loose my friend. No cages, no safety bars. I feel just like a National Geo photographer inching closer while trying not to scare it away (or get eaten for lunch). What is it, you may ask? A monitor lizard. Some of the monitors that roam free in Lumpini Park are quite large - maybe four feet long. Others are so petite they're almost cute. What do they really eat? I've seen them devouring fairly large fish on the bank, but unfortunately couldn't sneak in any of those shots today.

And, at the same park with the Merry Monitors, there is a nice playground where merry children can also roam free. Archie certainly enjoyed the slide and the new Thai friends he made today.

And, the question of the day: Where is Grace? We kind of thought she'd be here by now as the doctor has assured us during the last two appointments everything's ready to go, but she's evidently wanting to wait a little longer to make her appearance. At this point, we're kind of hoping she'll hold off until her July 28 due date when her Grandparents DeJs arrive.

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem

Since arriving in Thailand, Archie has developed quite a fondness for sandwiches. And, what goes better with a grilled cheese sandwich than a nice bowl of tomato soup? Archie is making slow but steady progress toward learning to use a spoon. (Home is the best place to practice so he can get nice and relaxed without a shirt to spill on.)


I love to dip my sandwich in the soup, too!

Sometimes it's easier if Daddy helps a little.

Yummy!

It's Table Time!

Archie has finally caught up on the sleep he missed out on while in the hospital so new adventures are beginning! Archie had his first session of "table time" today. I couldn't believe he played reasonably quietly at the table for over 3o minutes. What better way to start off his first table time than by a FIRST time playing with Play Dough? (His Daddy was pretty amazed when he came downstairs and found Archie playing with rather than eating the Dough.)



He also practiced writing his name - Huang Hai Tao - in characters. (Ok, Mama did this one.)

After a good session of Play Dough there's nothing like a nice cup of pretend tea with Daddy!

Table time will, from now on, be an oft repeated activity!

We're Back!

Archie was discharged from the hospital yesterday afternoon after a three night stay. The doctor says his lungs look almost normal (but still sent us home with three different meds :). We'll go back for follow up on Tuesday. Thanks for praying!

Life at the Hospital isn't so Bad

This is Hunter posting again. After the first day they brought Archie a car that he could ride in. I think by the expression on his face you can see that he enjoys it.

Not only does he get to ride in a car, but they bring Archie sweets everyday. Below you can see him eating cake!

Mmmm... Tastes so good!

And of course there's time to cuddle with Mom.

One thing Archie particularly enjoys is that his hospital gown comes with pants! Anyway hopefully we'll be discharged from the hospital this afternoon.

A Day at the Hospital (or Two...)

Archie was admitted to the hospital last night for a persistent infection in his lungs. This is Hunter posting while Leslie and Archie are napping in the room. So any grammar mistakes are purely mine. I'm just going to copy and paste a little info that Leslie wrote about Arche:

Archie is in the hospital now. He had been having some breathing problems (phlegm sound in lungs) for several months. But we hadn't wanted to take him to the hospital so we hadn't really done anything. (We'd told our doctor in the states but without actually seeing/hearing him he couldn't make an accurate diagnosis.) When we first arrived in Thailand on July 1, we took him to the doctor and the doc put him on three different meds and gave him a nebulizer treatment. Today we went back for what we thought would be simple follow up and maybe some different meds. However, the doctor felt like Archie wasn't responding to treatment and ordered a chest x-ray. He found a pneumonia like infection that has probably been there quite awhile. Even though Archie doesn't act sick, he wanted to hospitalize him immediately and give him IV antibiotics and nebulizer treatments every three hours to try to knock this stuff out before it gets more serious. Archie obviously didn't like getting all the blood work and IVs and screamed like crazy all afternoon but he's been sleeping for a long time now. (He even slept through his last breathing treatment.) We're praying he doesn't get bored and stir crazy over the next 2-3 days (which is how long we think he'll be here) and that things heal quickly.

Archie isn't an any kind of danger. It's just a scary situation for him. So we just ask for prayers while he's here that he can go home after two nights. Sorry I don't have any pics with this post. I forgot to bring our card reader when I packed for the hospital trip. (I also forgot the key to our apartment but thats another story). So when we get back to the apt will post some pics of Archie in his hospital gown.

A day at the pool

What's better than seeing fish in an aquarium? Pretending to be a fish in the pool, of course. (That's our justification anyway for substituting the planned aquarium trip with pool time.) As much as Archie likes the water, he likes playing with the rocks in the poolside plants about as much!

You can see my 37 week pregnant belly in this one!

Fun with Mom!

Fun with Dad!

Archie's Big Day at the Zoo

Archie had fun on his first zoo adventure today. He ran around pointing to animals and calling them all the Chinese word for horse "ma". (Well, he called a few of the smaller ones the word for dog or cat.) What's the difference between an elephant and a horse after all?

Real elephants

Fake elephants. (Archie loved this little play area.)

Two of Archie's favorite zoo activities: eating cantaloupe and napping

As much fun as Hunt and I had embarking on this incredible adventure with our young son, we both noted his sleeping time was one of our most relaxing times of the day!

I had my camera set to way overexpose today so my animal pics aren't remarkable. This is a wombat. Whenever Archie doesn't want to do something and throws a fit, Hunt and I always say, "He's fighting like a rabid wombat." I wasn't really sure what a wombat was before today, but this little guy didn't look too fierce.


One thing I love about the Bangkok zoo is the skywalks. You can get right on level with the giraffe's head or the monkeys swinging through the trees. There was a baby monkey today. SO CUTE!!!

As long as Grace continues to live inside, we have many more exciting adventures planned. Sunday after church we want to take Archie to the aquarium. Monday we need to go to the hospital to check on Grace and let the pediatrician do some follow up with Archie. (He might have a "pre-asthma" condition, but we're not sure yet.) At some point, we also want to take him to this really cool park where giant monitor lizards (much bigger than Archie) roam free!