Visitors and Vacations

 It is crazy to think that two months have passed since we brought home Eli.  We have greatly enjoyed getting to know him and he seems to show us more of his personality each day.  We were so blessed to have both parents make the long flight out to visit the newest addition to the family.  My parents were able to come the day after we got home from the hospital and Nate's parents when he was a month old.  The help that they brought, along with the gifts and goodies from America, were a HUGE blessing.  He was properly spoiled throughout both visits!

nap time with Pop Pop

Grammy doing the signature "Eli Bounce"

Virtually visiting with Uncle Evan, Aunt Meagan, Aunt Rachel and cousin Kale

Grandma and Grandpa Krupke loving on Eli

Three generations of Krupke men!

Just this past weekend we were able to take a retreat with our team to a nearby city.  This city is known for its beautiful lake and tea plantations.  We had a very fun and relaxing weekend hanging out with our team and enjoying the sites of this peaceful place, not to mention the western breakfast buffet at our hotel every morning!  It was Eli's first train and hotel experience.  He did a great job.  We feel spoiled to have such an easy going baby.  Here are a few pictures of our trip...

Eli spent most of the time in his stroller, but he didn't seem to mind!

We took full advantage of his portable bed, except for the few times that he napped in the bathroom in his stroller so that we could use the room for entertaining!

Playtime in the hotel with Eli's first friend, Charis, who is 3 months older than him.

Picture Perfect

An acquaintance of ours, who also happens to be our pediatrician, has a hobby of photography and offered to take pictures of Eli for practice.  He also did all the editing and ordering of the photos.  It was fun to have him capture our little guy at the early age of two weeks old.  You can go to the link below to see our little man captured on film.

http://www.tingfamily.ca/Sharing/Sharing-11-Krupke-Edited/26180324_2mbTJd#!i=2179487620&k=pJ9b5bt\

the password to access the site is: MinChunLu

Our bedroom was turned into a makeshift photo studio! 

 

He is here!

We welcomed our beautiful son into the world on September 17th, 2012 at 2:15 pm.  I am realizing how time consuming newborn babies are, because he is 2 1/2 weeks old and I am just now updating this blog on his birth.  We could not have asked for a smoother labor and delivery.  The Lord was continually present and answered every prayer along the way.  He was 9 lbs 2 oz and 20 inches long.  We are so thankful for this big, healthy baby boy!

Since I had reached my due date with no baby and because I had been dilated for 3 weeks, our doctor decided to schedule a time to induce.  We are so thankful that we did this because the morning of our appointment it took almost 2 hours to get to the hospital due to a traffic jam. Getting there on time had been a concern of ours, so the Lord completely answered that prayer.  

Here is one last belly shot...I was HUGE!

The whole day flew by before Nate or I even knew what happened.  I was only in labor for about 4 hours with 30 minutes of pushing.  We had downloaded movies and TV shows and were all ready to settle down for a long day of waiting, but he came so fast, we didn't have time to watch any of them.

Once my contractions started, they noticed that his heart rate dropped with each contraction.  They couldn't figure out why and told us that if it didn't get better in 30 minutes they would have to do an emergency C-section.  We started to pray and sent out a few text messages for people to pray.  Within minutes his heart rate picked back up and we were able to have a natural delivery.  It was evident that the Lord was with us every step of the way.

 First photos with mom!

When he was born, the doctor immediately laid him on my chest.  They then handed the scissors to Nate and ordered him to cut the cord.  Which is funny, because I don't think Nate was completely prepared for this task, but he handled it like a pro.  I got to hold him for a few minutes and then they handed him to Nate so that they could finish working on me.  When they handed him to Nate, our doctor, who is small, crazy, Asian lady, started yelling that the baby needed to have skin-to-skin.  The next thing we know, the doctor is ripping off Nate's shirt while he is trying to juggle holding this tiny baby.  It was pretty funny to watch.  Eli and Dad got to have some skin-to-skin time for about 20 minutes.  Nate can calm him down as easily as I can and we wonder if it has something to do with this initial bonding that they got to share.

First photos with Dad!

We enjoyed our stay in the hospital for the next 3 days and 3 nights.  We got great care and they even treated us to a candle lit dinner.  It didn't actually have a candle, but it came with a bottle of wine, steak, and salmon.  We also had a lot of visitors, physically and virtually.

 

First family photo!

All dressed and ready to go home!

E is for...

 All summer I have been sewing and crafting to prepare for our little man.  One project was to turn our guest room into a nursery for him.  I had so much fun sewing his bedding and creating artwork for his walls.  I kind of did an E is for Elephant/Eli theme, but mostly just stuck with gray, green, brown, and orange and went from there.  I realize that he won't care much, but walking into his room makes me happy. 

 

We were so blessed to get a free crib from some friends!  

I had so much fun making the mobile, name pictures, and bedding.

 

 Thanks to some wonderful friends who pooled money

 together during our shower for this great rocking chair

 

I'm working on a "family tree" so that Eli can become

 familiar with family even though they are far away.  Thanks for the free changing table, Kindreds.  We painted it gray to go with the room and love it! 

 Needless to say, it gets a lot of use! :)

Already starting on his book collection!  

Thanks grandma Cheryl and Great Grandma Bundy! 

 He also got a hand made panda from some friends.

  Wardrobe fit for a king!  

Thanks friends and cousin Kale for the gifts and hand-me-downs! 

Still have room for a few visitors! Come on over!

I Love Packages!

I love packages in all shapes and sizes.  I especially love surprise packages, when you don't know that one is coming your way.  We  have recently received some wonderful packages for Baby Krupke from friends back home.  It still amazes me that something can travel around the world in sometimes under 2 weeks.  To receive a package, the postal service will ring our doorbell and bring it right up to the apartment.  However, if you are not home to welcome your parcel, it becomes a little more complicated.  We ran into this problem a couple weeks ago.

There was a note in our mailbox that a package had tried to be delivered, but no one was home, so it gave us the address of the post office where we could pick it up.  The next morning, in 90+ degree heat, Nate and I jumped on our electric scooter for an adventure in retrieving our goodies.  I must say, seeing both of us and my big baby belly on our little scooter, must be quite a sight. We lovingly refer to this bike as the 'Black Beast' which is quite ironic considering its size and power. Several people stare as we ride past, but it sure beats walking in the heat. Upon our arrival of the post office, the entire building was gutted and by the looks of it, about to be demolished.  (This happens a lot in our city.  Construction is a constant process and with all the man power they have, they can tear down and rebuild a building in just a few short weeks.  We have often tried to go to a favorite restuarant or store, only to find a pile of rubble.)  Plan B in this case was to try another post office in the area, thinking maybe all the postal business had be re-routed to one location.

Of course this other branch has different hours, and was yet to be open at 8:30 in the morning.  That is another thing that you run into in this country.  Most businesses don't post their working hours, it is all relative, so sometimes things are open, sometimes they are not.  We thought we would try back at 9:00 am, so to kill some time, we rode on over to the food street in our neighborhood to get some breakfast.  It was getting pretty warm, so I enjoyed a cold Gatorade and some Birthday Cake Oreos that I found on the shelf and had to try. (a new favorite I might add) and Nate enjoyed a steamed bun filled with meat and veggies called a baozi.

We headed back to the 2nd post office, only to find a line waiting outside the door.  As soon as the gate opened it was like a gun was fired at the starting block. Everyone ran to be first in line, I just ran to find some air conditioning.  Nate got in line, only to find out that the post office that was a pile of rubble was actually still running.  You just had to go around back to a little room they were operating out of.  Needless to say there were no signs anywhere.  So we hoped back on the 'Beast' and rode back to the first location, only to be greeted by about 50 of our closets friends and neighbors all waiting to take care of their shipping and mailing needs.  We took a number and waited our turn.  Within 15 minutes and several forms of ID, we were able to get our goodies and head home.  I have to continually remind myself that simple things, like running to the post office, just take more time here.  When it was all said and done, it took us an hour and half to get our package, but it was well worth it.  Our sweet friends, Jessica and Bridget, sent our little guy his first Ball State gear.  :)  

Don't worry, Steve and Megan, some Washington friends, made sure that both parties would be well represented...

Here are some other fun things that made it across the ocean in the last few weeks for our little guy...

A handmade crocheted blanket from cousin Rita...

Cute little socks and a bedtime story from Great Grandma Bundy...

A beautiful handmade quilt and some fun books from

Grandma and Grandpa Krupke!

However, my favorite package has yet to arrive.  We are getting close though....can't wait to finally meet this baby!

What I have been doing to beat the heat...

This summer I have been doing anything I can to keep cool.  Summers in our city are pretty miserable and I had been warned adequately about them, but I don't think I could ever have been fully prepared.  Of course, being 8 months pregnant doesn't help much either.  The other day, Nate and I decided to go on a walk and wanted to get outside in the early morning, thinking it would be the cooler part of the day.  We live on the 5th floor and do not have the luxury of an elevator, so I was already somewhat winded by the time we made it outside.  We quickly learned that there is no "cooler part of the day" when we were greeted by 98 degree weather before 8:00 a.m.  Not to mention the 75% humidity.  However, I am daily reminded of how thankful I am that our apartment has some form of air-conditioning.  Very few of the apartments or buildings here have central air, each room has its own wall or floor unit.  This is all fine, until I need to leave the nice cool room I am in and travel to another section of the apartment, namely the bathrooms which I tend to visit a lot.  These rooms get no airflow and have no units, so they get pretty hot and stuffy.  Regardless, I am still thankful and opt to spend most of my day sitting in front of the lovely man-made cool breeze with a glass of ice water. 

In addition to keeping cool, much of my time has been spent at my sewing machine.  It was a Birthday gift this past year that I have put to great use.  It has become a creative outlet for me and a way to relax.  My newest source of inspiration has been our son, who will be wearing and enjoying many homemade goodies from me.  One thing that I have loved exploring during our time here is the fabric market.  It is a street filled with fabric vendors, buttons, thread, and many other sewing necessities for dirt cheap.  Pretty much all of the fabric I use is from the fabric market.  I will have to post pictures of the market itself on another day.  It is quite the interesting place.

Here are a few of my most recent creations...

These are some fun blocks I made with scrap fabric, pieces of foam, and fabric paint and stencils.  I hope he has as much fun playing with them as I had making them.

 I was inspired to make these adorable elephants after window shopping at a really ritzy mall in our city.  I came across some cute stuffed animals, but because of the all organic materials used, each animal cost around $80....so I thought..."I can do that" and I did!

I hear that babies drool and spit up a lot and so I have been busy making my own burp cloths.  They have also become fun and easy baby shower gifts.

My newest talent has been learning to appliqué.  Here are a few bibs that were the victim of my appliquéing obsession.  The top two bibs I made, the bottom two I simply embellished.

I can't take credit for the adorable baby model, but my friend Ben is trying out this floor quilt that I made for playtime on our hardwood floors.  I got the log cabin pattern from an old Martha Stewart magazine.  It is my first quilt and I had a lot of fun making it.  This is how I spent many of my bed rest days early on in my pregnancy. 

Last, but not least I have pinterest to thank for teaching me how to make this nursing cover.  

Growing Baby...Growing Belly

Our little boy is getting bigger and bigger everyday.  I know that I have not been good about updating this regularly, but here are a few belly pictures from the last couple of months.  Lately we have been feeling him kick and move quite a bit, which has been fun.

The hot East Asian summer recently hit and with the humidity, the temperature outside has felt like over 110 degrees on some days.  I have been using this as a great excuse to stay indoors and keep cool.  We were recently beyond blessed with an amazing gift of a gym membership for the next year.  It has a really nice pool and so I have been taking full advantage of that.  Swimming around makes me feel weightless and definitely cools off this hot mommy-to-be.