Silas’s First Months

We welcomed Silas Daniel Peet into our family on August 3, 2011 at 9:51pm. Since that time we’ve been a little busy and I didn’t make blog updating a priority. I’ll attempt to make up for this lapse with what I have to share today. It’s Silas’s 5 month birthday and this video, put together by Corey, covers some of the highlights and adventures from our little boy’s first months.

Only You

After starting off our trip in Nusa Lembongan with much fun and relaxation, we made our way to the Eastern coast of Bali hoping that our stay there would be equally successful. We were not disappointed. We stayed at a small resort in Amed that really only had the two of us staying there so everything felt really private. The place was called “Onlyou” after all, so I suppose the name was quite appropriate.

Every morning we just had to roll out of bed to eat the delicious breakfast that was delivered to our bungalow’s front porch. Then we would spend a good chunk of the day swimming and lounging by our private pool. We went snorkeling once, but the site was not as nice as that of our previous experience in Nusa Lembongan and the water was not as clear, so….. back to the pool and our books. Although Amed is absolutely stunning and there are indeed other things to do there, we were content not to do much beyond lounging, swimming, and going out for dinner. We were incredibly lazy and it was fabulous! Apparently we didn’t even take very many pictures during our stay here since there were slim pickings when it came to choosing photos to share.

Our fancy villa

The breakfast that magically appeared for us every morning!

Our host and her adorable daughter

Want to know one of the main perks of having a private pool at your disposal? Nobody else is watching, so there’s no need for shame…  no matter what you may be doing.

Corey doing an inspiring water ballet performance in our pool.

Hello, third trimester!

I’m interrupting the Bali posts to do a bambino update since we had our last appointment with our fantastic doctor in Bangkok yesterday morning.

I had another ultrasound, which confirmed that our little dude is indeed a bit above average in size, however, not as gigantic as I thought he might be. Since my last appointment, where I was measuring a little large for 28 weeks, my subconscious has clearly been concerned about this since I’ve had more than a couple of dreams that he was born at 10+ lbs. I also had a nagging and, yes, slightly irrational concern that somehow during the previous 2 ultrasounds and numerous regular appointments they may have missed that another baby was in there or that my due date was off by a few weeks. Whew! Neither is the case. He’s measuring more in the late 32 week averages rather than early 31, but my doctor assured me that all is well and since Corey and I are giants (especially on Thai standards), he’s growing as he should be.

Our little guy's profile

We also did another photo shoot of me this past week to document the progress of my increasing waistline. In order of increasing body exposure:

Two Weeks of Vacation!

We used some of our frequent flyer miles to get from Bangkok to Bali for a full two weeks of vacation. It was our first getaway in two years during which Corey did not have to do any work and was even able to leave his laptop at home. It was great to unplug and fully relax together, kicking back and reading when we weren’t swimming or snorkeling.

To keep the traveling to a minimum and the relaxation to a maximum, we decided to limit our destinations to 3 places. This made it possible to settle into each place for 4 or 5 nights before moving on to our next spot. We started our holiday on an island off of the southern end of Bali called Nusa Lembongan. We stayed in Mushroom Bay, which proved to be a great choice due to its gorgeous beach and quieter atmosphere than some of the other places we saw.

The low-key resort where we stayed created the perfect start to our holiday. With no internet access to tempt us into checking our email and all the fresh coconut and fruit juice we could handle, what more did we need to unwind? We decided to treat ourselves by staying in one of their cute little honeymoon bungalows. As completely dorky and vomit inducing as the pregnancy magazine term is, I suppose this was our “babymoon” after all….

My favorite features were its private outdoor shower and the gorgeous ocean view from our front porch, where we spent much of our time enjoying drinks over a game of Scrabble. Of course, swimming also took up a big part of the day. The waves were really strong at our end of the beach, so Corey had fun battling them on the hotel’s flimsy boogie board. The only small downfall of our stay was  the slightly dysfunctional mosquito net over our bed, but that was only a minor blip in our otherwise fabulous stay and we still managed to remain relatively un-eaten.

We went snorkeling near a mangrove forest and saw some of the most amazing reefs either of us have ever seen. As is often the case with such things, the photos and videos we attempted to take with our camera don’t even come close to doing it justice. The number and diversity of fish and coral was really impressive and the colors were amazing! It was by far the best place I’ve been snorkeling so far.

Feeding the fish to get a closer look

The tasty coconut we bought off of a guy that passed by our boat

On our way to dinner

At the end of our stay here, we headed back to Bali and made our way to Amed, another coastal paradise. More on that to come….

Elephant at dinner

While in Hat Yai we went out for dinner with some of Corey’s colleagues and shrimp farm operators. One of the farmers was an ethnically Chinese formerly Catholic but now a fairly spiritual Buddhist. Got all that? He was a delightful guy to spend an evening with, even though we couldn’t directly communicate due to the language barrier (Corey’s colleague was kind enough to act as translator for the evening). He was taking great pleasure in making all kinds of predictions about our little dude’s upcoming birth and what type of demeanor he would have based on mine and Corey’s Chinese birth year animals (apparently I’m a dog and Corey’s a tiger) over the bottle of whiskey he brought to share with the table. Throughout the evening various people kept stopping by our table to sell us one thing or another. All offers were declined until, at one point, a man came over with a bag of what looked like it might have been bamboo and asked us if we wanted to buy some to feed to his elephant – a bit of a gimmick that I wouldn’t normally support due to my concerns over the lifestyle and welfare of such animals. However, our friendly shrimp farmer friend felt that this was very important for me to do based on some tradition that I didn’t quite understand… something about pregnant women needing to give to others as much as possible and elephants being good luck. I think the whiskey might have been doing most of the talking at this point. Nevertheless, we paid the elephant’s owner and I wandered over to the street to have my face-to-trunk encounter.

Looking a little apprehensive

After I fed the elephant, our shrimp farmer friend informed me that in the old days pregnant Thai women would walk under the belly of an elephant for good luck and to ensure an easy delivery. He laughed and said I was lucky he didn’t inform me of this before I was sent over to feed the elephant. Lucky indeed….

Easter on Koh Ngai

Last weekend we flew down to Krabi and made our way to Koh Ngai, a small  island off the southwestern coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea. We stayed in a bungalow on the beach and spent the holiday weekend swimming and lounging under an umbrella. The sun was intense and our white bodies turned a bit pink despite having constantly slathered ourselves with sunscreen. I’m pretty sure we will need to invest in superior sunscreen before returning to the beach in a couple of weeks. That, or I’m going to start sporting a WholesomeWear swimsuit (thanks to my sister for discovering this due to her perhaps unhealthy fascination with the Duggar Family)…. or not. I’ll try my luck with a sarong.

Me, my stomach, mismatched bikini, sunburn, and the view.

We went snorkeling in the afternoon on Easter and nibbled on some peanut M&Ms that Corey was able to locate to partake in the age old tradition of promoting rapid tooth decay and diabetes for the holiday. That evening we ate some tasty seafood barbecue for dinner and called it a day.

The long tail boat that we hired to take us out snorkeling

Fish!

Pretties. (Corey has a shirt tied around his head in an attempt to protect his neck from the sun)

One of the sites where we snorkeled.

Après-snorkel

On Tuesday morning we left our little beach paradise to make our way to the southern city of Hat Yai, where Corey met up with colleagues to begin their crazy week of shrimp farm visits. I stayed in the city for a day before flying back home to Bangkok.

Corey enjoying a Thai massage before getting back to the grind.

24 Weeks

I’ve officially put my regular clothes on temporary leave in favor of stretchy-waisted maternity bottoms and tent-like shirts. My belly button is slowly disappearing and the postures in my yoga classes have become a bit more of a chore, so I find myself lying on my mat a lot more (and going less!). Some of you have been prodding me for photos of my increasing dimensions and today you’re in luck! Since I’m now into my 24th week, we decided to have a little photo shoot. Some dancing was involved… and Corey joined in at the end.