As much as. . .

Taylor told me he was pretty fond of his new mustache and asked what I thought about it.

"As much as I like mustaches and all..." I said.

And my response was mostly in gest of the comment he made the other night when I made chicken pot pie for dinner and he wasn't too enthusiastic about it.

"What's wrong with it? Tell me why you don't like it?"

And his reply, in all seriousness, made me chuckle.

"As much as I like bland food and all..."

Here's Big Willy

This is William's size, relative to an average 9 month old baby.
William is 2.5 months old. We love our Big Willy!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Last year Jen and I were in Korea for Thanksgiving. We sat on the floor of a restraunt, chairs were not an option, and we ate Korean bbq and kimchi ( spicy, cold, fermented cabbage). Then on the day after Thanksgiving we went to a family friends house in Korea and had a wonderful traditional American spread.

This year we stayed in Shanghai and the whole weekend was full of adventure. Since Thanksgiving isn't a recognized holiday here I still had to work, but I worked from home instead of going into the office. On Thanksgiving day we went to a friend's house with about 10 other families and had a huge feast with all the fixings. There were even two turkeys there. One deep fried and one smoked. We stuffed ourselves silly but everyone called it an early night because we all had work the next day, no Black Friday here, and all but one of the couples at the party had a baby under 9 months old - 4 of us even used the same doctor!

The next day we helped put on another Thanksgiving dinner for some of the single adults and other couples. This one was pretty good too but it was minus any turkey. Turkey isn't something the Chinese eat so you have to get them at the import store. They are between $100-$130 USD! So we settled for a $3 duck instead and lots of pumpkin pie.

On Saturday morning we had a baptism for two ladies in our branch. They are both in my Sunday school class. I teach the Chinese Gospel Principles class at church. The one sister is Canadian-Chinese and the other is from China but is married to an American so they are allowed to be baptized in Shanghai. We baptized them in a swimming pool and held the meeting in a clubhouse. After the baptism about 15 of the guys in the branch got together for a Turkey-Bowl. We are all fat and out of shape but that didn't stop us from playing football for 3 straight hours. By the time we were done we only had one person get knocked out, one bloody hand, the wind knocked out a few people and a few scrapped hands and knees. Not bad for a game of two hand touch! Don't worry mom, I didn't get knocked out, but I'm partly responsible for the guy who did.... Sunday morning was the day of the Shanghai Marathon. I opted to switch to the half marathon because of my intense travel schedule these past few weeks left me unable to train. However, when I woke up this morning I was SO SORE from the footbal game that I had a very hard time getting out of bed. I made it to the starting line and used the first 5k as my warmup. The race went well and I made it to the end. The other good part about switching to the half was it allowed me to finish early and get to church. I miss Utah and all the Saturday races. Next up will be the Xiamen full marathon on Jan 2.

On Saturday afternoon Jen took her first run outside. We drove to the park where I ususally do my long runs and Will and I sat in the car while Jen went for a run. She loved it. She did a 5k loop and finished a few minutes quicker than I thought she would for her first 5k back. Once she finished she quickly started asking when she can start training more etc. I laughed and told her to settle down and take it slow. Will is the same way. He looks like he's ready to start crawling/running! He has so much energy that it will be very interesting when he is moble.

Long post with no pics. sorry. next time.

How old is this kid???

Will and I share a quick smile with each other.

Will hoping that mom doesn't let go!

Here is Will after church on Sunday. This outfit is a 6-9 month outfit from Gma Price. His eyes are often open this wide. He is always trying to see as much as possible.

Will had his 2 month checkup recently. The doctor determined that he is...big. He weighed in at 16lbs and was 25 inches long. My friends Tyler and Seth have babies that are 4 months old. Will is the same weight as Tyler's and bigger than Seth's. How did Jen and I end up with a big baby? If he keeps this up he will be bigger than me by the first grade or he'll be like me and stop growing when he's 12.

Jen has started running again. She doesn't even look like she just had a baby! I have opted out of the marathon this weekend and plan to do the half marathon instead. But I did just register for the Xiamen marathon which is on January 2nd. This is the biggest marathon in China and rated as one of the prettiest marathon courses in world. The whole course runs along the ocean and they have bronze statues of runners lining the course. Pretty cool. Jen tells me that she plans to race the DesNews 10k this summer. It is great to have a training parner again. Last night we took turns running on the treadmill and working on the computer. For us this was a great date!

Wild Will

2 Months Old

William is two months old. He keeps us laughing all the time. I don’t think I’ve bounced, swayed, or rocked more than I have these past two months. Here are some things about him:

*He has a big personality that matches his big size. He is Mr. Squirrly. He is our little squirrel because if he’s awake he’s squirreling around. He won’t hold still. His legs are always kicking. When we first met him on the ultrasound screen at 8 weeks all you could see was a bean with two legs kicking. We called him our little rabbit. He likes to move his arms too, sweaty tight fists, punching anything in his way, including his own face. That makes him mad. When he’s happy he’ll throw out happy punches. He doesn’t allow these ones to hit his face. He is our busy wild Will. Yesterday I put him in the front carrier to go out and he did not like that. His arms and legs were kicking and punching while his head was turning as he was screaming in my face. I had to laugh at how silly he looked.

*He can only take naps, or fall asleep at night by listening to the white noise of the oven fan, car rides, or long walks (And the blow dryer worked wonders for us this past weekend. Since winter is coming, and we don’t always have places to go, I’m hoping he’ll continue to like the oven fan. His faze of falling asleep to running water didn’t last long, which was okay with me since I’m not really into wasting water. When he does sleep he likes to arch his head way back and throw his arms up by the side of his head like a football goal. This is his favorite sleeping position.

*He likes taking naps in his chair just outside the kitchen door while the oven fan hums.

*When we swaddle him he’ll usually fight hard for his hands to be free.

*He is wearing clothing for a 3 month old, and sometimes clothing for a 6 month old. Last night I pulled out a warm long pajama (size 3 months) for him since the weather is getting chilly, and couldn’t believe it when I couldn’t zip it up. His legs were too long.

*He talks to us using different tones of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahhs’.

*He likes getting baths in the bathroom sink. He loves the freedom of shedding the diaper.

*He sleeps well at night but is big into fussing during the evening hours.

*He is starting to smile at us and respond to our facial expressions.

*He has very expressive eyebrows.

For Halloween he was Santa Clause. We were his Elves. Taylor and my costume didn’t work out quite as planned, but Santa sure was cute.


I’ll have to get back with the height and weight stats once we visit the doc. Did we mention that at his 2 week appt. he was off the charts for height and weight? My big boy.

William is super sensitive to the foods I eat. I really have to watch it. It seems like I have cut out everything. The other day TP says, “Well, it looks like you’ll have to go on the BRATs diet.” After inquiring he replied, “You know where you can only eat Bread, Rice, Apples… Toast…” (Ha ha. I had to chuckle to myself) “…so I guess that would be under Bread.”

Layover

Well I made it out of Africa just fine. This morning I got up real early and did an hour run along the Cape Town coastline, very cool. My 12 hour flight fro SA to Singapore was nice and uneventful and I watched 3 movies and read a new Lance Armstrong book.

I was originally going to stay in Singapore for a day but when I landed at 5:30am and saw that there was a 7:30am flight to Shanghai I got homesick for Jen and Will and switched my flight to 7:30. I board in 30 minutes. Just a side note, if you ever do have a long layover the Singapore airport is the place to do it. They have a gyms, showers, movie theatre, shopping mall, go kart racing track, SPA, and a large pool. Certainly a step up from some of the other airports I've been in. I never thought I'd see so many stinking airports. In the past year or so I've been to 14 different countries. It is neat to see all these places and understand their unique cultures but it also really makes me grateful for my home country and the freedoms we enjoy there.

Well, the 12 hr flight is down, now just another 5.5 hr flight to go and I'll be home!