7 months old and eating apples

We marked Nicholas' 7 month birthday by introducing him to his first fruit--apples! He is also very close to sitting up on his own--he can for 10 or 15 seconds if he's focused on something, but sometimes he just forgets he's sitting up and falls backwards, so we have to be there to catch him. Or, he'll see a toy to the side that is out of reach and lean over towards it, and then just roll over. Nicholas has also discovered the Moe cat and smiles and laughs whenever he sees him. It's really cute.

mmmm apples....

Nicholas' first reaction to apples... we weren't so sure at first but he did decide he likes them

Nicholas at 7 months, looking cool in his Adidas warm up suit (thanks Sara and Cam!)

He's actually sitting on his own, I just have my hand there to catch him if he decides he's done sitting

my favorite pic

hanging with daddy

In other news.... well ok there is not much other news. Christy had fun at a girl's night out at Movietown on Friday, and David tried out a new golf course Saturday morning. It even had golf carts. And caymens.... (aka small alligators)

We do have some fun things coming up as Christy will host book club this month and we will host the embassy monthly wine and cheese in May. We are also getting ready for our upcoming trip to go to Macy and Elizabeth's wedding. We practiced having Nicholas sleep in the pack 'n play but that didn't go very well and mommy didn't get much sleep either. At work we are looking forward to the new ambassador arriving soon as well as Christy getting to move from the non-immigrant visa section to the immigrant visa section.

Staches and Grills

It's been a low-key week. We celebrated Easter with a basket for Nicholas (full of candy for mom and dad, of course) and enjoyed Easter dinner with friends. David started working this week. This weekend, we enjoyed the monthly wine and cheese evening on Friday and Game Night - Pictionary - on Saturday. We also did a little shopping, visiting a local gourmet grocery store called Malabar Farms, joining PriceSmart, which is Trinidad's equivalent to Costco or Sam's Club, and buying a new grill.




Like David's new mustache? You can vote on our new side panel feature to the right!


our new grill--can't wait to test it out!

Baseball's Opening Day. Nicholas and David enjoyed the Indian's game. Thanks, Mike Hartt, for the Indian's onsie!

Mommy's technique for sleeping in on the weekends.

More peas please!

Our Easter cards.

Nicholas with his Easter basket.

Adventures on the island

So on Nicholas's first trip to India....





Just kidding. But he did get to see his first Hindu temple. Today we went to see the temples by the sea.

it's a bird!.... it's a plane!..... it's an 85 foot tall monkey statue!.....

After the temples we went to a place called Pitch Lake(the worlds largest tar pit). There is one in Venezuela and in California as well. The one in Trinidad is actually connected to the one in Venezuela under the sea, according to our tour guide. As it is the dry season, there isn't much lake left--it was almost entirely dry except a few small streams. We will have to check it out again during the rainy season to compare.

Nicholas on Daddy's back in his backpack.

so we actually walked out to the middle of what would be the lake in the rainy season. We also saw sulfur fires. It was kind of smelly

By the end, Nicholas was tuckered out and ready for his nap.

We then went over to Petrotrin, Trinidad's oil company, to visit their Bird Sanctuary. The Petrotrin complex is huge with houses, the bird sanctuary, an oil history museum, tennis courts, and a golf course, along with all of the machinery and these smoke stacks spewing firey gas.

The bird sanctuary was small, but very pretty. It was a loop around a lake.

They also have a resident cayman-- glad he was behind bars.

the lotuses were really pretty. Apparently one can eat all parts of the plant.

bird house, made of old natural gas pipes

we took a bottle break in the shade

We saw our first Trinidadian waterfall. During the wetseason, there are a few different waterfall hikes that we plan to do, but right now they are all dried up. We did actually get rain today--we missed it where we were but we came home and there were some puddles on the roads in our neighborhood--first rain since January, so it was much needed. Hopefully that slows down some of the wild fires burning in the hills.

A rather ugley bird showing off his feathers, and a turtle sitting on the log.

A red ibus. There are other places on the island where we can go to see these beautiful birds in their natural habitat, which we look forward to doing.

All of the signs throughout the bird sanctuary were beautiful painted tile.

Now we are watching the Final Four games and going to get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is Easter brunch at the Hyatt and Easter dinner at our friend's Rich and Maren's apartment.

The Diplo-Cat is home!

After an extra month in Ohio and 30 days in the awful quarantine, the Diplo-Cat (AKA The Moe Cat) is finally home! His first activity upon arrival? Straight for the bath. He and David must have had a battle because the aftermath was not pretty....

Did we mention we don't actually have any bathtubs, just showers? Christy misses her bubble baths and Nicholas is about to outgrow his baby bathtub so we are going to have to buy a bigger one.

On the up and up, now Moe is all clean and fluffy and exploring his new home. We thought he'd be hiding under the bed for a week mad at us but he couldn't be more affectionate. He's completely back to normal and enjoys exploring his new house.

Nicholas is also doing well at 6 1/2 months old. He now has 3 teeth that are visible, although not all the way in yet. This has resulted in some rather wakefull nights over the past week or so but we are surviving.

Nicholas has also discovered the TV remote and thinks it's a great thing to play with. David is not sure if he is ready to share.

Tuesday Nicholas had barley cereal and Friday morning we introduced him to sweet potatoes. Next up: carrots, then we'll introduce some fruit: apples, bananas, and pears are in the plan for this month too.

splish splash in the pool

Sunday was daddy's turn to get in the pool with Nicholas.