Sights, Sounds, and Smells

There is something about being in a new place that really makes you notice the little things. Everything is new and different and stands out in stark contrast to the familiar sounds and sights and smells that have become the background noise in our day-to-day lives - like the sound of the grandfather clock in your home you no longer even hear, or the smell of the cedars and humidity in Austin or the dry sage in Utah, or the sunrises in Arizona.

When first exposed to these sense experiences we are often amazed by them (or annoyed in the case of some dear friends and their grandfather clock), but over time the exciting becomes the mundane and the mundane moves into the background of our lives only to be noted on special occasions, or on return trips, or when I visit and make you turn on the chime of your clock.

As you might expect, we are experiencing a wealth of new sights, and sounds, and smells here. Some of them pleasant like the views of the city at night from our apartment, or the clouds on the mountains. And some of them not so pleasant like the warm odor that emanates from the open sewers we pass from time to time. Some of them are just noteworthy such as the lack of horns despite the congested traffic. But all of them are interesting and new and stand out to me as if this place is welcoming us and inviting us to get to know it better.

One of my favorite sounds is one we hear many times daily. A sound that is faint and will quickly fade into the background, but one that I stop and listen to whenever possible now because it is so different and beautiful. It is the sound of the Islamic call to prayer (or Adhan) that is sung from a loud speaker on a minaret at the Mosque 5 times a day. The faint echo of the call can be heard almost everywhere on the island. Here is a sample video with English subtitles in case you're interested.

Botanical Gardens

We are slowly starting to explore our surroundings more and more and have "discovered" yet another amazing place that is only about 3 km (2 miles) from our apartment: The Penang Botanical Gardens. I think it will become a weekend favorite.

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Since it is so close we took our time getting ready in the morning and arrived at the gardens around 10:30 - just when the day starts to get hot. The trails in the garden wind around for about 1.6 miles an are quite hilly, soI bravely volunteered to carry the camera, which left Tica to push the stroller up and down the hills. They say exercise is good for pregnant women, so I hope she appreciated my sacrifice.

The gardens are home to a wide range of wildlife, but our favorite were the two types of monkeys we saw there. These black monkeys were cute.

But this other one really had a peel - last pun for this post I promise.

Towards the end of our walking we found this beautiful "formal" garden where Emily could get close enough to the flowers to do one of her current, favorite activities - destroy flowers. Note the pedals on the ground to her left and right - she's only been there for a few seconds.

After the flowers we made our way down to the end of the formal garden where there was a pool with some fountains. Here is me doing my job as a photographer (capturing the moment) while Tica does hers as a mother (preventing disaster).

We let Emily play in the fountain for a little while before deciding it was way too hot to be running around out in the sun, so we packed up and headed home.

Not long after we got back to the house I received this irresistible request to take someone to the pool.

Emily's current favorite place is the pool and common area in our building, which is great because it gives me an excuse to go to the pool frequently. We normally only spend a few moments in the water to cool off, before heading over to the shady side of the building to run in the grass and play on the slides.

These little hills are her current passion and she loves to run to the top of them and back down over and over and over and . . . you get the point. It's funny how much of an obstacle those hills are for her right now.

I didn't take long for her to deliver a strongly worded request: Daddy! Put the camera down and come play with me!!!

Butterflies!!

Today we went to the Penang Butterfly Farm as our weekend excursion, and we have to say that we were most impressed with it. They have done a great job in putting together a very tourist friendly location that is easy to find, very clean and very professional looking. Besides the hundreds of butterflies, they also have: water dragons, an alligator snapping turtle, giant Malaysian millipedes (that you can hold), luminescent scorpions, some vipers, frogs, orchid preying mantis, and even some HUGE scarab beetles.

We all had a great time - Emily loved the butterflies and the lizards. She knows the spanish word for lizard (lagarto) and yells it anytime we see one. It's a very close race between lizards and dogs as to which one she gets more excited about.

Here are some photos from the day:

"Emily - I think the paparazzi have found us!"

All you had to do was dip a finger in the honey water and the butterflies would drop by and give you a few kisses. Emily wasn't the only one who enjoyed this part.

Looking at butterflies sure works up an appetite, so we stopped off at Tree Monkey a Thai-ish restaurant that "is nestled amidst lush tropical foliage overlooking the coastline, the Tree Monkey at Tropical Spice Garden offers guests a unique jungle dining experience." It's true. We liked the food, but loved the experience.

First Days In Penang

We've been in Malaysia now for about 10 days and are finally starting to feel settled in a little bit. We have:

• Internet installed
• Furniture (which required a 4 hour each way drive to Kuala Lumpur)
• Cable
• Someone to clean up after me and Emily (that's not Tica)
• Someone to take out the trash (that's not me)
• Have found the grocery stores, banks, places to eat, a day care for Emily
• Have been to the hospital twice - everybody is fine now, but there were some scary moments
• A new baby on the way (2.0 will be here in August)
• Have been the victim of a crime (hit and run)
• Have been to the police station (3 of them to be exact) to report the hit and run
• And have little Emily back on a sleep schedule - finally. I think she's the most adjusted of all of us as you can see from the photo below.

The above picture and the two below are from our ocean facing balcony. We also have a construction site facing balcony and a balcony that faces the mountains and the town of Pulau Tikus (which means island of rats), but this one has the best breezes. And despite being on the opposite side of the house from the kitchen is where we like to eat most of our meals at home.


A typical day looking down and out from the same balcony


The photo below is the view that greets me every morning from my bedroom window. It's definitely a different experience living in a high rise apartment, but the views are stunning all day long. I find myself looking for excuses to gaze out the windows - and they're not hard to find.

This photo is the view just to the left of the one above that includes the Reclining Buddha temple(golden spire), and the Burmese Buddhist temple (across the street from the Reclining Buddha. There is also a Mosque there somewhere that I have yet to find, but I get to hear the beautiful echos of The Call to Prayer a few times a day so I know it's there.

We still have a lot to do before we'll feel we're completely settled, but it's nice to have couches to sit on, dishes to cook with, and many of the other niceties that make modern life so comfortable.

11 Months

Emily is a month away from being one year old!!
She gets funner by the minute and is so active that it's hard to keep up. Some of her favorite things at this point:

- Hats! Every time she's in our room she points to our closet so we take her to try all the hats.
- Ball. She loves to kick it and also knows how to play with us. She throws it at you and expects for you to throw it back at her
- Daddy - yes, as hard as that is to accept; she is daddy's little girl. She is crazy about him and so is he about her!
- Coo Coo clock. We have a Coo Coo clock that Tia Fantina brought us a few years back and every time she sees it she points at it so we make it sound. She dances at the sound of it.
- Dancing. This little girl can't deny her Dominican blood. She loves dancing and as soon as you start clapping and singing to her she's shaking her body to the rhythm.

Milestones
- Pulling her self up. She pulls up on everything and has started to let go for a few seconds with enough balance to stay standing.
- Top teeth. After a long and painful announcement the top teeth finally broke through.
- No. She understands the meaning of the word and shakes her head whenever she doesn't want any more food or water.
- Understanding. She understand certain phrases in both English and Spanish such as: Donde esta la pelota?
Let's go take a bath
Toca la musica
Where are your toes?
Where is the hat?
A bailar



Checkout all the rest of the pictures we uploaded to Picasa using this link.

Teeth and Bath

Emily recently turned 9 month old and it is hard to believe how much she has grown.

Milestones
- Master crawler. Emily has been moving around since she was 7 months in the cutest army crawl. Still to this day she does not lift her belly to move but she moves really fast.
- Pulls herself up. She can now pull herself up all by herself and enjoys walking by holding our hands.
- Teeth. Emily finally got her bottom two teeth just before turning 9 months. She bites pretty hard too.
- Sitting up. Emily can sit up by herself from any position. One day she just woke up and did it, pretty amazing.
- Clapping. At school Emily learned to clap at the sound of "If you're happy" song. As soon as she hears the beat she smiles and starts clapping
- My favorite, her tongue! Emily found her tongue today and it is the cutest thing ever. When I ask her where her tongue is she sticks her tongue out.


Her favorite things
- Water. She loves bath time since she was born and has now found a passion for the water park next to our house and the pool
- Stairs. She loves going up the stairs and whenever we're not watching she takes off and starts the first one but looks back to see if we're not going to stop her. When we come after her she giggles. Super cute.
- Daddy. She is still a daddy's girl and although she picks me sometime she is crazy for her dad and so is he for her. Arves would bring her to bed with us every day if I let him.
- Electric plugs. Since we go after her whenever she tries to play with the plugs this is now one of her favorite things to play with. She knows she gets a reaction from us and she loves it.
- Pinching. This favorite hurts. Whenever Emily is tired or we're putting her to bed she pinches the back of our arms or our necks super hard. As soon as she got the two finger grasp she has not stopped practicing on us!!

I can't say this enough, we are the luckiest ones to have such a wonderful little girl. We love her!

4th of July Milestones

This 4th of July weekend was amazing. We loved spending time with friends and family and being with Emily all day.

It is hard to believe how much she changed in just four days; here are a few of the milestones we captured:
- Starting saying mama
- Learned how to climb stairs, she has to work pretty hard since she doesn't have a lot of strength on her arms but she can do it all on her own
- Speed crawling after Millie (Videos to come)
- We can now see her bottom teeth! They're not out yet but are very very close


Cute Millie before she got tired of the stroller.



Daddy and his little princess. Emily ADORES her dad; I even got the cold shoulder today which was so sad. Cute but sad nonetheless.