woohoo!

Yay for me!!  I figured out how to link a youtube video to our blog ALL BY MYSELF!  I am very proud of myself.  ::pat pat::  So, now, you can see videos of our sweet little boy!  Hooray!

By the way, please ignore all the other stupid youtube videos that show up at the end of ours... I haven't figured out how to make our youtube videos private while still allowing us to post them on our blog.  I also have to use the youtube video player on our blog so you can see our videos... comes with a price, I guess.  Just ignore the others!

wrestling with Daddy

hello, followers!

the Tylenol bottle-- a favorite toy :)

"Sink bath" in Bangkok :)

(playing with "new" toys at Grandma Mary's house, after being gone for a month)

Thanks to those of you who wrote to tell me you were following our blog... definitely motivates me to keep writing!  Here are a couple more recent photos of Will to share-- he turned 11 months old today!  (Where does the time go?)  Recent tricks include: waving goodbye (when he feels like it), scooting the 10 metres or so from the living room to the kitchen, enjoying banging on his new highchair (we broke down and bought one, finally), 

I'm still working on figuring out how to upload videos to youtube and make a link here so you can see them.  Slowly but surely I'm getting blog-savvy... Why does this process make me feel so old?  Also, I'm frustrated that when I insert pictures they always appear at the beginning of the post, no matter where I put my cursor... not sure why that is.  And the fact that when I copy and paste text from word documents, it shows up below the posting window but won't appear in the window itself... grrr.  (Also, I can't use my computer keys to make things bold or italic, I actually have to move my mouse to the blog toolbar and change it manually every time... this blog thing isn't all it's cracked up to be, in my opinion.  Has anyone find a more helpful bloghost?)

I'm still working on a trip summary-- should appear later tonight, hopefully.  Just had to get on and say something-- feel like I need to keep myself oiled or I'll run out of blog-steam! 

Anyway, enjoy the photos of our sweet boy... he gets sweeter every day.  :)  

in the spirit of...

in the spirit of keeping up family communication, let me recommend my sister's literary blog (to all 2 of you who follow this site): http://potentiallynonfiction.wordpress.com  

kt is amazing.

in other news, no trip summary to post yet-- sorry-- but if you want to be on our email list and aren't, email me at jamcar@cotse.net and i'll add you.  we just sent out an update a few days ago.  more soon...

Safely "home"!

We have arrived safely back in New Zealand, our current "home", completing our marathon trip to Central Asia.  I'll post a summary of the trip in a day or so, but suffice to say that everything went really smoothly-- thank you for praying!  Below are a few pictures of the trip... As you can see, Will is a veteran traveler already!  Six countries in his first year of life... He has done so well.  We are so proud of him!  He's such a special little guy-- he made friends with people in every country we visited!  More on our adventures later, when I've had some sleep... enjoy the photos!

visiting local friends in our old home

Will with a new U friend in Central Asia

Family photo by a lake in Central Asia

Suitcase riding- the new pasttime!

God's generosity

I am sitting in our air-conditioned hotel room in Bangkok (it's blistering hot outside, so we're thankful for AC), while our precious baby naps next to me in his little cot... he is such a good boy!  Such a trooper while traveling, and an absolute hit with all the Thai people.  He stops traffic!  They all love to stop and smile at him and call him "da'ee" (cute), and ask "boy? lady?" and "how many mun?"  The receptionists downstairs have learned his name-- "Wil-lee-yum"-- and love to shake his hand or tug his little, chubby foot when we push him by in his stroller.  It'd adorable!  Even cuter is his response: he squinches up his face in his cheesy "Aren't I cute?  So...whaddaya gonna give me?" smile, and milks it for all it's worth.  I hate to think what life will be like in another few months when he figures out the concept of manipulation! 

We arrived safely in Bangkok on Saturday night, having already seen God's generosity at work.  We asked the Thai Airways desk in Auckland whether we could have aisle and window seats (leaving a seat in between), but she said it was a really full flight and there weren't any window seats left.  So, I resigned myself to 11 hrs 40 min in a middle seat with a 24lb 10-month-old on my lap, James on one side and a stranger on the other.  ::sigh::  But then, when we got to our gate and were waiting to board, the desk attendant came over to us with 3 new boarding passes in her hand and said, "Broughton?  I have a seat change for you-- 45 A and C."  My hopes began to rise, but we weren't sure what that mean until we got on the plane and found ourselves sitting in...aisle and window seats, with a seat in between!  We held our breath while everyone else boarded the plane-- and no one else sat down!!  What a gift.  So, Will got two good catnaps and a 4-5 hr sleep on his own seat, and James and I got to sit next to each other in our own private movie theater!  (Jealous yet?  Well, long overnight flights do have a few perks-- not many, but a few.)  

When we arrived in the Bangkok airport, at 2:30am our time, here's our son in perfectly happy spirits, smiling away and making friends with the 5 Thai cleaning ladies next to our baggage carousel.  He let them take turns holding him, pinch his chubby legs, exclaim over how cute he was, and take pictures of his squinchy smile on their cell phones.  (Yes, apparently even Thai cleaning ladies have cell phones.  I think every Thai has a cell phone, actually.  It's the 21st century, after all.)  What a little "mish kid"!  "Who cares what time it is or how much sleep I've had-- there's people around!  Let's party!"  This little guy is amazing.  He definitely was made to be in our family.

All in all, a very successful beginning to this big trip.  Thank you Lord!  And thank you to everyone who prayed for that extra seat... God said yes!