Stunned

I put Crosby's Superman shirt on today simply because I bought it in Bangladesh and wanted to see him in it; just wanted him to try it on. But I got this feeling it had to stay on and now I know why: our baby guy decided to walk - really walk - today!



SuperCroz. Saturday night when D and I got home from Bangladesh he was walking 4-5ish steps at a time between people... pretty steady but still kind of unsure. We were thrilled! My parents said he must have been saving that for us since we've been gone for a month... they said those were the most steps he's taken. We've been doing it at home all day ever since because it is the ONLY thing he wants to do.



But up at my parents' this afternoon he just went to town with it and is the most proud little guy I've seen. We are so proud right along with him. He is such a focused little person. He concentrates and once he got the hang of it and was walking all over the place, pivoting, balancing so well, and STILL staying up (yay!) I tried to make him laugh, but nope. He stayed incredibly focused. I'm amazed. He just decided he could do it and now he wants NO help! Even Snoop couldn't get in his way; he just went for it. I am so oozing proud that it's almost ridiculous. D and I sorely missed Crosby while we were gone and, despite some setbacks with being quite sick, being completely exhausted, and having a sorry (messy) excuse of a living space, we are eating up every bitty second with him. I knew I'd be floored by how much he'd change in a month, but I can't get over how I am seeing him become such a real person with real feelings, ideas, strategies, and thinking. He AMAZES me!




I am stunned. Not just by my son. We just got home from a month in Bangladesh and though that is a short time, it was enough to see and feel quite a bit. I'm stunned by all kinds of things, good and bad. Strokes of bad luck that run in a constant string. The sheer comfort of home. Conditions that people survive in. How happiness abounds even in the poorest homes and saddest of circumstance. How certain looks explain everything. How 12 million people coexist in the most disorderly traffic I will ever witness. How being gracious can mean everything. That stickers can be the most valuable thing on earth! That traveling never fails to teach lessons if you're willing to learn...

I have a story for every picture, of course! One of these days I'll get a slideshow together. Who knows when, but for now here are a few pictures.

BANGLADESH

We'll miss you! (Kind of)



D bonding with his family in Belkhain village



The rickshaws - the humble rickshaw wallah, the work of art on wheels, the way it weaves through insane traffic - they are amazing and I would even say magical.



The fetching colors and fabrics that greet you at every turn... incredibly beautiful!



Squiggly geckos, enormous roaches, insanely huge spiders, stifling pollution. Adios.



No more nights out to the Buddhist temple in a sari



No more exploring the pirate ships



No more squat toilets day in and day out (including when diarrhea is POURING out of your body)



No more fitting seven - I repeat, SEVEN - people in a BABY taxi! If you've ever seen/been in one you will think I am telling a joke. It really happened on more than one occasion (;



The elders in white - Belkhain - D's family



Hard labor for dinner... food made over stoves built in the dirt



D's cousins' kids... Susmita and Plabon



More pictures to come someday... so many stories and sights and memories and happenings. It really is true when I say our heads are still spinning a bit. It was an awesome journey, and it will continue to settle in for a while now!