Checkup TIme

Ryken had his 4 month checkup yesterday. He’s doing great on growth and development and is a healthy, happy baby. For those who are interested, his weight is 8.1 kilograms, height is 67 cm and head circumference is 43 cm. This is how measurements are done here. The conversion is 17.9 lbs weight, 26.4 inches long and 16.9 inches rounded head. That’s all healthy! He’s not rolling completely over yet, just to his sides. His favorite time of the day is bathtime – he loves splashing in the water and talking. He got 2 shots yesterday and did good. He screamed a lot but that was mainly because the nurses were holding his legs down – not something he likes. They had 3 nurses – one to hold his legs and 2 to give the shots at the same time. He promptly fell asleep after crying for about 2 minutes.

Liz is doing good at her new school. Anthony took her yesterday and for a show, she screamed and cried and yelled “DADDY” not wanting him to leave. Apparently, once daddy was gone, she cried for 3 minutes, then went on to have fun the rest of the day. She was happy and excited when I picked her up although she wouldn’t tell me what she’d done during the morning. But, she did tell Ashley, and I listened in as she described playing with dolls, playing outside, painting her feet, eating lunch and not playing with playdoh. Too cute!

Ashley is in soccer camp this week – in the mornings from 9-12. I’ve been using my bike to take her – it’s about a 15 minute bike ride away. The first day I took her, I found out she is the only girl in the camp! I think there are about 20 kids – all boys. Luckily, they have a female coach and Ashley has befriended her. The coaches say Ashley is doing great – she’s trying hard and having fun. She says she’s enjoying it and likes to play soccer, but she doesn’t like boys.

We are now in mosquito season full swing! We’ve got bug zappers which don’t seem to be working and plug in the wall mosquito repellant and have finally found a mosquito net to put around Ryken’s crib. He’s been getting eaten up by the little buggers, as have Liz and I. It’s been hard for me to sleep at night due to the buzzing going all around my head. If this keeps up, we’ll have to get mosquito nets for everyone else in the house too!

It’s starting to get really hot here everyday. A few nights out of the week, we’ve had lightening and thunder with a little bit of rain. For some reason, when it gets hot out, the Chinese men like to show off their stomachs, usually if they have rather large ones. They tuck their shirts up under their chest and stand outside next to their cars on the side of the street. Nice….not…