One year on

It is hard to sufficiently express gratitude for the past 12 months. Despite some initial challenges in getting this whole parenthood thing started, I would say we made out like bandits. Judging by the speed with which Luka is acquiring mobility, babblebility, dexterity and a whole lot of other 'ity's - we're in for an interesting ride.

Today we got to celebrate the first of many joint birthdays for my boys, and I couldn't help but think back one year ago to when I was a terrified, first-time pregnant mom in a foreign country, dreading going into labor.  Yet, here we are today, celebrating the first birthday of many more to come!!  Here are a few of my favorite photos from today...

If my year of baking results in a book I will call it 'A Year
in the Baking' and this recipe will feature - Serious Eats'
Brown Butter Pecan Carrot Cake - yummie! And I go back
to my belief that I now need a cake decorating class.

The BIRTHDAY BOYS!

Happy Birthday to y'all! Happy Birthday
to y'all...

With mommy/mamma...

Ah yes - daddy and mamma's birthday gift to the little
terror....a HELMET - (with that mischievous look, how could
you NOT want to put a helmet on him...)

What a lovely day, with two amazing people....

Luka's LA Premier

Well, turns out that we didn't pick the best weekend in LA, weather-wise.  Unless you prefer your weather Chicago-style.  Our initial plan of a simple beach gathering had to be slightly altered for fear of Luka and his balloons going airborne.  So we shifted the whole deal indoors to the Cheesecake Factory right next to the beach.  Despite the blustery weather, more than 30 of our close friends, professors, neighbors and kids showed up to see Luka (we know it had nothing to do with us).

Thank you to each of you that braved the weather to come out and catch up, in many instances, it has been years, in all instances - it has been too long.

Despite his jet lag, Luka seemed to enjoy the party (and the various naps he took in people's arms).

Good times, good friends. Thank you all

(And apologies to those that could not find us, we made multiple trips to the beach to make sure we let everyone know that we moved indoors)

Here are a few photos from the party:

LA-babe

Hmmm cheesecake

Luka napping in aunt Sherril's arms

Birthday boy

Professor Bender - the instigator of it all!

With  uncle Eric and aunt Cinnamon.

Exhausted boy in the car afterwards.

Luka in the City of Angels

Luka finally set foot on his other homeland today.  As usual, it was interesting explaining to customs the purpose for our trip to the US was to 'visit' family - when we are all traveling on US passports, and Luka has about five other countries, other than the US in his passport, with no US exit stamps.  Customs notwithstanding, I am happy to report that we arrived in Los Angeles in one piece, and that Luka was an absolute superstar. The 3.5 hour flight from Dili-Singapore was uneventful, the plastic cover on the mattress in the Ambassador Transit hotel was unfortunate (meaning none of us got any sleep) and the 03:45 wake-up call brutal - but our upgrade on Delta came through!  So it was the Luka flew lie-flat from SIN-NRT, and in Seat 1B (for 1 B-day thank you very much) on the flight from SIN-LAX.  Out of nearly 24 hours flying (not counting transit times) he fussed for exactly 20 minutes, and after a change of scenery, he was back up and running.

We are at our dear friends home in Marina del Rey where Luka finally got to meet his other cousin, Riley.  To amuse our little jet-lagged peanut we took a stroll to a lovely local park in the Venice canals where Luka got to ride in a swing for the first time and pretend to steal a car (thanks in part to the borrowed hoody from Kaito).

Here are a first few shots of Luka in LA...

Chris and his 'twin', Doug with his little girl Riley

First swing ride...

'Ride it like you stole it!' Luka sporting
it LA gangsta style in his hoodie (thanks
to Kaito)

Our little jetlagged man.

Birthday Hats

About two weeks before our departure for the US, I realized that if we were going to throw Luka a party, mommy had better get on it.  So in my panic, I frantically ordered party supplies from Amazon and other online retailers.  To be sure that the goods arrived on time, I emailed the lady at Make it Mine Parties, who was so lovely and rushed the order for me to arrive at my office in San Francisco the next day.  Here are a few shots with his very cute 'Luka is One' party hats...unfortunately the party treats for guests did not show up on time, so we will have to distribute them at a later stage....

Nostalgic Baking

Since I am a complete sentimental fool, I decided to bake the same cupcakes for Luka's 1st birthday as we made for his 1-week anniversary in hospital in Darwin.  Only this time, instead of being in an incubator - Luka was helping me in the kitchen which was, to say the least, awesome!

Luka helping mommy mix the batter

Corny shot with the blog post from the 1-week birthday

My very poor attempt at decorating these (I've decided
that a cake decorating class is in my future...)

The end result

Luka turns 1, Dili Style!

On Sunday morning, Chris and I hosted an early (seemed fitting) birthday party for Luka for all his Dili bub-friends.

As one does in the Tropics, the festivities took place on the beach.  While we considered catering the whole thing, it seemed important and fitting for us to bake for this momentous birthday, given our history with baked goods at special anniversaries.  Specifically, we decided to bake the same cupcakes for his first birthday as we did for his 1-week birthday.

An amazingly large contingent of our bub-club friends and bubs showed up to celebrate this wonderful milestone.  We are so incredibly grateful for our friends, who are really our family away from home.

As I said in my brief remarks, to think that this boisterous bubbling young boy once weighed 1.5kg still blows me away.  But here he was, playing with his buds, smashing a cupcake and enjoying the good weather, cheer and wonderful atmosphere.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from that day...many more to follow...

The birthday boy and his mommy....

Chris sampling the goods

Luka's personalized decorations which came in JUST
in time courtesy of Susan's colleague from San Francisco

Emotional Susan...

The little party-goers enjoying the animal print balloons

   

Remembering...

...where we were almost one year ago on Darwin, and how far we have come....

First portrait of our brave little soldier, approx 1 hr after
birth - 22 March, 2011

How to enjoy a Maple cookie

Wholeheartedly!

Yummy!

Back on 'the' boat

...kinda like back on the horse.

Today, Chris and I took our first boat dive trip out to the island of Atauro since, well - that day on 20 March 2011.  It was my dad's 60th birthday, and I had chartered the newly arrived dive boat on that Sunday to surprise Chris for his birthday with a group of friends for a dive trip.  I was just 30 weeks pregnant, and joined on board by a friend about 2 weeks behind me in her pregnancy.  While our husbands and others dove, we had a lovely time relaxing, snorkeling and catching up on all things pregnancy and birth planning-related including when we would leave, what route we are flying, and how we both upgraded to business class for the long flight.  Little did I know the 'cramps' I started feeling at the kitchen table a few hours after returning from the boat would result in an emergency evacuation to Darwin the next day, and the birth of our beautiful boy the following day, nearly 2.5 months early, - just in time for his daddy's birthday.  I think you know the rest of the story.

Not to be nostalgic (well, I guess this is sort of a nostalgic blog), but today was somewhat significant in that it was the exact same boat where I was last happily pregnant before it all came to an abrupt end, with me, Chris and poor Luka unprepared in so many ways.  Sitting on that fly bridge, looking out toward the islands surrounding this vast ocean world we live in, motoring next to a pod of whales, it all seemed so similar, so amazingly recent...yet it is almost a year, and this time I had my boy waiting for me at home.  Incidentally it was the longest I had ever been away from Luka since his birth, apart from nights he spent in hospital without me by his side for a few hours....

In many ways I think it was an important trip.  The boat has always sort of signified the start of our journey with Luka, and I like to tease our skipper that 'he put me into labor'...so it was not without remembrance, humility and thankfulness that I boarded the same vessel today for a similar destination under wholly different conditions.

On another level, it was also important to have the time to connect with Chris doing something we both love.  We had two spectacular dives.  Those 20+m viz, no current, thousands of fish (including a 200+ school of barracuda), serene, 70+min dives that remind you of why we love this sport.

We got home to Luka having dinner with his nanny and her sister-in-law - he squealed as we walked in the door, arms outstretched - then immediately snuggled his face in my neck as I hug him in close and tight.  What our lives are, have forever been altered by the events that originated on the very same boat I just stepped off.

So grateful.  Such an unbelievable journey.  

Dili Bub Club 26 February 2012

In case you haven't noticed, there was a slight 'baby explosion' in Dili.  Yes, yes, we realize many of you think this is a 'post-conflict' country - just keep thinking that, so we can keep it all to ourselves.  In actual fact, it is a thriving community of young families all battling the unknowns of parenthood together, which from time-to-time does feel like post-conflict!

Here is a group shot of some of the regulars, and newer members of the Dili Bub Club!

Members of the Dili Bub Club hanging out
at the Irish Embassy

Luka in his man-jamas (aka Afghan Shalwar Kameez)

Our young man donning his Afghan
garb

Luka would like to thank his auntie Vic who sent him an authentic shalwar kameez all the way from Afghanistan to Cape Town.  Of course when we received the package in the mail, young master Luka was but barely 3kg and we were convinced he would never EVER fit into the outfit.  Low and behold... he was able to don the man-jamas to Bub Club on Sunday.  Of course, as with all of these pants, it does not come with a drawstring, but mommy quickly improvised by borrowing the handy draw-string with tie thingy from our TRX training system.

And Luka being very haraam trying to grab daddy's beer!