Our little 'gearhead'

Wow, all this toddling makes me thirsty!

He may be only 16-months old, but he can spot an authentic CamelBak a mile away.  Might have something to do with the similarity in nozzle on his favorite bottle by the same manufacturer, so when our little man spotted the familiar blue squishy cap dangling from mommy's MTB hydration pack, he didn't skip a beat... 

Luka with the life jacket

Hey gorgeous! Whatsuuuuuuup??

Daddy carries me to the pool in
my new swanky flotation device

A good friend of ours always says - "he with the most toys wins".  While Chris and I have amassed our own collection of mountain bikes (Cannondale all the way!), snowboards (Arbor thank you very much), hiking boots (Asolo's are the way to go), and an array of kitchen equipment, some of which I am not entirely sure how to use yet - I think Luka might outdo us soon.

We figured, since we live on a tropical island that involves copious amounts of water-related activities - now is perhaps the time to invest in adequate flotation equipment - and so, after some (okay, quite a bit) of research, we settled on procuring a life jacket, or personal flotation device, for young Master Luka.

Mommy gives Luka the quick pre-flight briefing

We opted for the 'Lil Legends' jacket that says it is for infants under 30lbs.  We are very grateful for our friends in DC and Arizona who hand-carried two of said flotation devices (because of course we had to get one for young Master Adrian, aka neighbor and twin) from the US to Sri Lanka.

And "Launch!" - Luka the floating one in action.

We tested the device this  past weekend in neighbor "uncle Paul's" pool, just to be sure it works....

Luka, as always, was the perfect model and product tester.

IKEA!

When you live in Dili, you learn to procure necessities any which way you can (remember our fresh organic turkey flown in and wrestled from the claws of customs for our Thanksgiving this year?)  So it was that we had a much-needed stop-over in Singapore to pick up a few critical items, including new towel and toilet roll holders, new eating utensils and a high chair (yes, seriously).  We stayed in a lovely hotel off Orchard Road, the main shopping and dining destination in Singapore - and hit the stores early on January 2nd.  I am happy to report that we survived both Toys R' Us (we had a very traumatic experience there last year when my dad tried to buy his pregnant kids a stroller and all we left with were latches for our fridge to keep the baboons out), and IKEA, in one day!  Luka was a trooper, riding along in his stroller, stopping every few hours for a breast or other feed.

Test-driving a sporty high chair in IKEA in Singapore.

While we were unable to find a mattress to fit his third-hand cot in Dili (who knew the Australian 'standard' cot size is different than just about everywhere else in the world?).  We did find a nice high chair though, which, thanks to bumping into Chris' former colleague in the check-in line, we managed to check without paying any overweight charges.

Now we just need to figure out who will bring us a mattress from Aus...  

Camp Christmas Eve at Changi

Camp Christmas Eve (post spit-up, hence the additional
laundry in the background).

While most of you will be snug in your homes around a warm fire and Christmas tree, surrounded by presents and family - the three of us are in fact someplace much cooler - in TRANSIT.  That's right.  We presently find ourselves in the 'Rainforest' Lounge (so called for the green painted trees on the white walls) in Changi (or SIN or if you really don't get around much, Singapore International) airport.

We have had to adapt our 'strictly one bag each' travel motto slightly since adding a new addition, leading to the rather 'IDP-camp looking setup' in the lounge area.  We have learned that when you travel with an infant, trying to stick as closely as possible to a 'normal' schedule is key.  So we pick flights that coincide with nap times (whenever possible) and have become quite skilled at bathing him in airport lounge sinks.  Yes, this also means we will favor one airport (SIN) over another (DPS), for instance.  We've also learned to pick our gear carefully.  For this trip, we opted for the Chicco Capri Stroller in 'Tangerine' and pitched before you is our little man's home away from home, his Peapod travel bed from KidCo.  In preparation for this trip, we have been napping him in here every day to make sure he is comfortable with it.

Today's travel started with a pre-flight trip to the airport where Susan managed to convince the Air Timor staff to check us in hours before the gate opens - securing not only the bulkhead, but also weighing and tagging the luggage - meaning that we got to avoid the line when we showed up 45mins before the flight departed.  The flight coincided with what should have been Luka's nap - but hey - if you're 9.4kg and have to sit in mom or dad's lap, WHO wants to nap when you can JUMP for 3.5 hours.  So Chris and I pretty much played defense for the entire flight (yes I know my father is smiling as he reads this).

At Changi, our stroller was handed to us exactly as we walked past the door on the ramp (again, why we fly through SIN and not DPS), and we headed straight for the lounge with our Priority Pass cards (we are afterall only Silver on Emirates, can't wait to make Gold one day when I grow up).  It was about an hour past Luka's bedtime, so time was of the essence.  Mommy and Luka took a shower (interesting endeavor in a small space let me tell you) while daddy erected Camp Christmas Eve outside.

Tucked in for a nice nap.

Following his shower and bottle, all snug in his PJs, Luka went down for (what we hope) will be at least a four hour nap before we very gently try and transfer him to one of our shoulders and onto the flight.  What an awful time to be flying on Christmas, to arrive at 0140 in Colombo on Christmas morning - but with only three weekly flights between DIL-SIN, so be it.

Anyway, from all three of us, we wish you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE.

A painful proximity to poverty

One of the less appealing things about being an expat in a poor foreign country is the constant reminder of the inequalities in the world.  Since looking out for an infant I have become more acutely aware of the disparities that exist between the us and the them.  Compare a single, clean, vaccinated, insured, white baby in a sea of multiple, health and education-deprived local kids content to play with whatever is discarded as un-useful from their local malai family.

As we watched the DHL truck haul up six perfectly packed boxes of 'necessities' for our precious bundle this past week, I could not help the intense feeling of guilt in my own prosperity over the reality of those in who's neighborhood I am a guest.  Unpacking seemingly essential items including a specially designed chair to ensure comfort, ventilation and safety in this warm climate; followed by a specialty backpack to save my precious back from having to return to the chiropractor once more; to the UV hats and sunglasses to prevent the harshness of the equatorial sun; augmented by an array of mosquito nets and repellents to protect our bub against the devastation of mosquito-born disease that is par for the course here.

It is all sometimes too much.  How is it that human beings can live along a divide that means a single item deemed necessary to raise my child in comfort (not opulence) could equal the equivalent of a monthly income of my cleaning lady?

This is not meant to be a righteous post, but as we continue to strike a balance (or try to) between good and bad, necessary and waste, and in basically just doing the right thing in raising Luka, one cannot help but stop and ponder the realities of geobirthing-economics.  

God bless every child tonight. Rich, poor, every one.

Global gear for our global baby

Having Luka more than two months early on neither of the two continents we currently call 'home', has had an obvious impact on our level of preparedness.  Bearing in mind the comment by a good friend and colleague of Chris' when I mentioned to him all the 'stuff' it seemed we needed for the baby, he simply responded 'they didn't used to need that much', we figure that most of the 'stuff' we would pick up along the way.  The one thing we knew we had to have was an infant carseat.  Off we went to the only baby store in Darwin where, to our horror, we found a Chicco Key Fit for nearly $500 (USD)!

Whoops! How to have your baby re-confiscated by the
special care nurses in no time!! 

Now, I may have been unprepared for this whole ordeal, but I was not that unprepared.  As part of what little upfront research I have managed to complete prior to the birth, included a renewed subscription to Consumer Reports, a non-profit organization committed to testing and independently reviewing products.  As such, I have had our carseat picked out for months, and was intending to pre-order it to Cape Town.  Fast forward to our present location and the rather urgent need to obtain one unless we want to be seen carrying Luka from the hospital and to the airport on the lovely paved sidewalks.

Just kidding! He's with daddy!

Back to the story of the carseat in Darwin - needless to say, we were horrified that we would now have to pay more than three times the price of the same carseat available on Amazon for $165.  So what to do?  Well, Facebook the dilemma of course!  Within 20 minutes a friend and former colleague (well, boss really) of Chris' at the UN Office for Project Services in Afghanistan offered to hand carry the seat from his current base in New York City, to Brisbane, where he was headed, from where he mailed it to us.  Easter holidays included, our seat arrived in less than two weeks, and just in time for me to avoid having to walk Luka home on Friday (though 'arrived by plane, left on foot' does have a nice ring to it).

Million thanks Bruce!

My first car ride.