Dispatch from Malaysia

Been here in Malaysia a couple days. My friend Tay and his sons took me out for a marathon day of sight-seeing around Kuala Lumpur (Malay for "Lumpy Koala Bear" . . . not) today. Tomorrow we head out to the historic city of Melaka, where the western world first intruded upon Malaysia 500 years ago. I've posted some photos out on Webshots, if you're interested.

I hear Hannah is quite fond of squash (the vegetable, not the game) and has three teeth on their way out. And it sounds like she's getting pretty loud and rambunctious while I've been away, and thinks paper fans and shaken bottles are uproariously funny. Here are few pictures that Carla and Mom have taken and sent my way:

News Flash on Carter!

I just learned that Carter has received his multivisceral transplant, and is doing well! Check out his web page for updates and details. This is great news, and hopefully the turning point toward a healthy future for Hannah's birthday twin. Carter was born the same day as Hannah and Steven and they were NICU-mates for 105 days. Please keep him and his parents, and the donor and family, in your prayers as they go through the long recovery process.

Greetings From Taiwan!

Yesterday was our 18th wedding anniversary, and Carla celebrated with Hannah, Mom, Jon, and Cat while I hung out here at the Taipei Sheraton. It's a very nice hotel, but it doesn't have a Hannah, so I'd rather be home. That said, I really do enjoy travelling and visiting my overseas colleagues, so in the moments between missing Hannah and Carla, I'm having a good time. I could have done without the bones in my $27 pizza tonight, but when there are people starving around the world, I can't muster much indignation.

The Hannah deficit is made more bearable by the flow of snapshots from Mom and Carla . . . so many adorable photos of Hannah that I have a hard time deciding which ones to post. She's taken to sticking her bottom lip out a lot, which unfortunately reminds me of my old friend Neal when he's contemplating a challenging billiards shot. I think he drooled a little less, though.





On an unrelated note . . . in case you've ever wondered what you get when you pay $150 for a single load of laundry:


They actually packaged up all my shirts so I could sell them as new on the street corner if I wanted to, with little cardboard collars and cellophane wrappers. This was not an option, by the way; this was the cheapest laundry service they offer. I would guess the next level of service includes delivery of the finished garments to your room on mannequins.

One final note: today is my father's birthday. He would have been 80. We miss you, Dad.

Carrots!

I'm here in Baguio, Philippines, wondering what the hell I was thinking when I agreed to 2 and 1/2 weeks away from Hannah. Every little girl I see is Hannah at some point in the future (though with slightly darker hair, on average) , and it's fun to look forward to.

It's a world of difference from the last time I was here, four years ago, right after we had noticed Carla's MMD symptoms but months before we got the diagnosis. My Googling of symptoms led me to believe that ALS was one of the likely causes, so I was a nervous wreck the whole time I was here.


I've been getting a steady stream of reports and photos from Carla and Mom, and it seems that Hannah is going to town on veggies and rice cereal, but is not too keen on fruits yet. And I talked to Hannah on the phone a couple times . . . thank goodness for the 9-cents-a-minute international calling card.


Hannah's also putting in a lot of the time at the office . . . her activity center equipped with a toy laptop from Uncle Neal.


Carla's parents sent the pictures above of the new memorial garden at their church (Noel United Methodist in Shreveport). Steven has a plaque there, and it looks like a beautiful place to keep his memory.

One more note . . . please pray for Hannah's NICU friend Carter. He's recently been placed on the liver transplant list. Hopefully, he'll bounce back enough to be taken off the list, but until then, it's the best route to bringing him back to health.

First Tooth!

Well, I'm off to the far east tomorrow, and Hannah decided to mark the occasion by cutting her first tooth. I did a routine weekly tooth check, where I stick a finger in her mouth and she tries to bite it off, unaware that she isn't yet equipped with the dentrificial apparatus to do so, while I feel around for something other than gums. To my surprise, she's got a lower right tooth breaking through. Which explains why she's been chewing a lot on one of her activity center toys that's shaped like a cookie on a stick. So we gave her one of her chilled teething rings and she went to town on that for a while.


She's doing much better with tummy time these days, holding herself up and reaching for toys. She hasn't found her forward gears yet, though, and can only move slowly in reverse. Which frustrates her a bit, since it inevitably moves that toy she's wriggling for farther away.


Mom's here with Carla while I'm out of town, and from all indications, all three of them are going to have a blast. I've set up the camera and PC to make it easy for them to send me pictures of Hannah, because I'm already going through Hannah withdrawal, and I haven't even left yet. Assuming I have a few minutes free overseas, I'll update the blog remotely.

Uncle Butch came through last weekend and met Hannah. As we expected, she was fascinated by his beard. He left her a new favorite toy, Charlie the monkey, who I'll have to share video of when I get back.


I could go on, but I've been getting ready for departure all day and am too tired to think straight.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who are eligible. The day certainly means a lot more to me this year than it ever has before, probably because the most important little person in my life at the moment could never have happened without my three perfect moms; I love you all and will never take you for granted.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Rena!

"Where's the party?"

Up til now, Hannah has been treating feeding time (rice cereal) like a game. She'd take a spoonful of food in her mouth, smile big, and let most of it dribble out of her mouth. Great fun, but not particularly nourishing. We mixed the food a teaspoon at a time, because she lost interest in the game pretty quickly.

Last night, she suddenly realized that she could swallow, and that this stuff was actually food. We went through the first teaspoon and she yelled for more. I kept running back to the kitchen to mix more teaspoons, with her smiling and hollering for more, until I finally dumped some of the cereal into a bowl and mixed a bunch (it's cheap).

Unfortunately, she also learned to blow raspberries yesterday, and can't yet see any reason not to do some between and during spoonfuls of cereal. This makes for messy feeding times. Our counterweapon is to keep her smiling, since her raspberry spray pattern is somewhat less far-reaching when she's grinning.