and her name is.....

First I have to say that great deliberation and prayer went into this name.  We want to give our children names that will mean something, and names that have a life prayer for them included in them.  I had come up with a girl first name before Silas was born (actually before we got married) and like it because it was a family name, pretty, and I knew no one under 70 with the name.  And then it got popular (#24 on the list).  I hate following trends, I go against them- and so we thought a lot more, but still came back to the name.  So this is just a disclaimer that I thought of the name first and am a little bitter toward those who stole my idea :).

First Name:  Evelynn  JP's paternal grandmother's name was Faith Evelyn but she went by Evelyn.  This is where the idea first came from.  I never met Evelyn, but JP thinks of her fondly.  I changed the spelling however to honor my mother Patti Lynn (who I happen to think is an amazing woman).  After deciding on the name, I then found out that my paternal grandfather's great grandmother was called Eva (probably Evelyn) and his aunt was Evelyn.  

Meaning: Hebrew- life ; French- a bird (possible nursery theme?)

We plan to call her Evelynn.  Sure I may shorten it every once in a while, but she will not have an official nickname.  

Middle Name: Sophia  Wisdom in Greek

The middle name is where the bulk of my prayer for our daughter is based.  I have been studying a lot in my times with God about what he desires for me as a woman, and he has impressed upon me that he also desires those things for my daughter.  Proverbs 31: 30 says "...a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised".  and Proverbs 9:10 says "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..."  I pray for my daughter that she will fear the Lord above all else.  That she will not seek first to please men, but to please and honor God.  I pray that she will have wisdom that comes from heaven "pure, peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere" James 3:17.  There are many more verses that I could mention, but I will stop there for now.  Please join us in praying that Evelynn Sophia would be a woman of wisdom who fears the Lord!

One other note: Evelynn means bird, Sophia means wisdom- and in America a wise bird is an owl.  I am thinking she may be our little owl.  It is interesting though the in this country the owl is considered to be a foolish animal.  But as 1 Corinthians says, the wisdom of God is foolishness to the world.  

My Baby is 2

I am over a week late on this post, but Silas is now 2!  In some ways he seems so grown up and yet in other ways he is still a baby.  Silas has a large vocabulary, especially when it comes to modes of transportation, animals, and fruits.  This is partly because he sees things on a daily basis that kids in America only see at zoos or at the farm.  Just today, in addition to the normal cows, pigs, goats..., we say an elephant and a horse walking down the main street of town.  Despite his large vocabulary, he says a lot of things that make absolutely no sense to us, though he is starting to form intelligible sentences.

Right on schedule for 2, the tantrums have started in full swing.  If Silas doesn't like something he lets you know about it with loud sobs.  This generally has to do with not being able to watch a video, play outside, eat a cookie, or go in the auto/car with mommy or daddy.  Silas has learned to ask for things with "please" though sometimes we have to remind him that he needs to do so in a nice voice.

Silas is small- I don't know how much he weighs, but he is about 34 inches tall.  He wears mostly 18-24 month clothing, though pants are often too big in the waist.

He still has the most infectious laugh and sweetest smile.  He love to give eskimo kisses (rub noses) and touch and name all of the parts of your face.  He is very friendly- goes up to strangers and says "hi" but if mommy and daddy are out of sight he doesn't like it very much.  He is a ball of energy and loves to play outside.  He loves to "go, go, go" and run down our street.  "Come here" is not a command he enjoys very much, but he is learning.

Silas still sings all the time.  From worship songs, to ABC, to Happy Birthday, to Hindi.  He has now started to make up his own songs to familiar tunes (often having to do with mommy or airplanes/helicopters).  Speaking of airplanes and helicopters, he loves them.  He has flown in many planes recently and he loves flying (he also enjoys getting scanned at security check).

Elephant for sale at a souvenir shop

Jungle Birthday party.  We celebrated his 1st birthday on the go, so I wanted to do something special for his 2nd birthday.  Unfortunately I wasn't feeling so great and had just returned from a medical trip, but we did pull off a small party with American friends and a monkey cake.  He loved it!

Opening his present from his "aunts and uncle"- it was a ball tent.

Sliding in the park.  He loves to go "weee"

Eating chicken nuggets at the airport.

Island Vacation

We have to leave the country we live in every six months for visa renewal, so while we were out this time, we decided we needed a vacation.  When I was single this meant that I wanted to explore new places, have an adventure... but now it means that I want to relax.  I have never been much of a beach person, but the beach sounded like a perfect place to take Silas so that I  we could relax.  We found a good deal on a nice hotel right on the beach.  One highlight of the hotel for us was the breakfast- complimentary buffet with waffles/pancakes/beef sausage/pork bacon, and every kind of pastry you can imagine, plus fresh fruit juices, omelettes...They also had a really nice pool that Silas has a lot of fun swimming in.  We enjoyed eating beef and other western foods at the restaurant too!

The view from our hotel room

We took a tuk tuk around to visit different sites (driver is in the picture).  This monkey really wanted  Silas' airplane but he settled for the leaf that Silas had in his other hand.

Mommy didn't spend too much time at the beach, but Silas and  Daddy had a great time.  Silas was mesmerized by the waves.  I think he could have just stood and looked at the water for hours.

I preferred the pool- much less sandy.  It was nice to go at sunset and watch  the sky change hues.  One night there was a rainbow in the sky as the sun was setting- it was so beautiful.  We also met some Chinese people at the pool one night so it was fun to talk with them (though it is sad how rusty my Mandarin is).

We went to a Sea Turtle hatchery.  It was interesting learning about  the turtles and seeing them at different ages.  Because only 1% of eggs hatched are female, they keep all the girls here until they turn 5- then they release them into the ocean where they can reproduce.  I am holding a 1 day old male turtle who will be released into the wild at 5 days old.

On our way back from the turtle hatchery and batik factory, we stopped and ate at a restaurant right on the beach.   We had some good food with a great view!

Aside from seeing Silas have so much fun, my favorite part of the trip was getting to see my good friend Ann in her home country.  Unfortunately our time together was short (bad planning on my part), but it was good.  We also got to see some other friends and eat dinner with them in their cute apartment (I have to confess kitchen envy).

Photo Shoot

I decided that we really needed some family pictures taken while we are still a family of 3 and thought that it would be fun to go to the park for a photo shoot.  I recruited a friend to take our pictures, chose a time, picked coordinating outfits, and off we went to the park.  We had never been to park because we could not figure out their hours of operation, but a friend told us they opened at 4, so we arrived at the time of perfect photo lighting only to find that the park did not open until 5.  Unfortunately it was getting a little dark at that point and I had my camera set on manual and did not tell my photographer how to adjust the exposure, so most of the pictures are too dark.  But here are few that turned out ok.

First I wanted to scope out the park and Silas wanted to slide on the slides.  The slides at this park are so much nicer than the one in our neighborhood playground.

Our one acceptable family photo

But we had a lot of pictures like this one- because I had made the mistake of letting Silas discover the slides before we took our posed shot - he did not want to stay still.

After taking a hundred or so pictures of Silas playing on slides and us going down with him (all too dark), we ended the night with a picnic.  It was a fun family outing even if we didn't get many photos out of it.  We will try the photo shoot again.

Bed Rest

I am currently on bed rest- which means that it is the perfect opportunity to update the blog with family photo shoot pictures, vacation information, and gender reveal.  It is ironic however.  I had just resolved that I needed to be more diligent about taking care of the house and meeting my husband's needs as well as Silas', and now I am stuck in bed and JP so graciously takes care of all of us.  I am thankful that we have a few people around to help us with Silas and a friend is bringing a meal over tonight, but it is certainly challenging none the less.  I am trying to get people to come visit me in my bedroom so that I can continue practicing Hindi and building relationships, but I don't know how cultural that is.  Hopefully I will find out soon that I don't have stay confined to bed.  We have so many plans for this month.