the new hobby

Rudi got me (actually us) a violin for Christmas and it arrived in the mail today. We were like two kids squabbling over a Christmas present when we got home with it today: "You're not opening the box fast enough," "you're gonna break it, careful," and "it's my turn to play with it now, you've had it for a long time!"
I know this is one of the more challenging hobbies, but we thought a lot about it and decided to go for it, knowing we have the rest of our lives to work on it.
Here is why I decided on violin:
I took piano lessons for 8 years as a child/teenager but never got good at reading music. I would do most everything by memorization after struggling through reading a piece multiple times. So I quit piano in high school and my skills quickly atrophied, since I wasn't able to just pick up some sheet music and play. So why not go back to piano? Well, it isn't very portable. I would love to have an instrument that I can take where I go, and even into different rooms in the house (this will be absolutely necessary as a beginning violinist!!) The other thing about piano is that I was always worse at reading bass clef than treble clef, and reading both at the same time was extremely hard for me as a poor sight-reader. With violin, almost all the music is treble clef, the one I am better at reading anyway.
Now, my dad has always encouraged me to play guitar for its relaxing and portable qualities. I agree on those qualities, but the thing with guitar is that it is often not used to play classical music. I realized over the past few years that what makes my little musical heart flutter are classical pieces, and I think that is what I'd have the most fun playing.
All this is not to mention that I love the sound of string instruments, and I can't wait to play well so that I can make beautiful sounds (hopefully someday).
We are going to have a friend come over and help us set up the violin, since we know almost nothing about it. Rudi will teach her guitar in exchange!
Well, wish me luck on this. I have no excuse not to be playing an instrument since my family and extended families almost universally have music talent and since I was privileged enough to receive music lessons as a child.

Tarague Beach, 7 month-old boy updates

This is actually two posts. One is to tell about our Saturday as a family at Tarague Beach, the other is to make a few comments about Samuel as a 7 month-old (I ramble a lot in this second post, so you might want to just scroll to the pictures and video).

Tarague Beach

Rudi, Samuel and I went to Tarague Beach (pronounced Ta-rah-gee) on Saturday. This beach is located on the Air Force base on Guam. We ran a few errands on the base, then headed to the beach. This beach is beautiful with many rocky outcroppings along the water, and lots of shade. We had been there back in September, but it was really hot then. Now that we are in the dry season (Dec-Feb), the weather is somewhat cooler and breezier, making for a much more pleasant beach day. If anyone is thinking of coming to Guam to visit, the dry season is definitely the time to come--we can actually drive with our windows down in the evening and feel comfortably cool (never possible a couple months ago)!

Rudi and I each got in the ocean for just a little bit, got Samuel in briefly, and walked around for a little bit.

We saw some wild pigs walk by and I quickly took pictures, thinking this was a rare occurrence. However, we later realized that they were going to many picnic sites to beg for food. So anyway, not a rare occurrence after all. Unfortunately, some stupid beachgoers threw a rope around the black pig's body and were unable to get it off. So now that pig is running around with a rope trailing behind it, at risk for getting caught in some brush. We would have taken the rope off, but we couldn't catch it (and if we had, it definitely would have bitten us--a lot).

Rudi and Samuel watching the water (or the ground...I can't tell)
Samuel and me at Tarague Beach

Beautiful view...the view of the ocean when driving from up there is breathtaking

Wild (or not-so-wild) pigs going to picnics to beg for food

One of our few family shots

Samuel at 7 Months

Samuel is now 7 months old! Time really is flying by...it seems like just a few weeks ago we arrived on Guam with 7-week-old Samuel.

A few things about our son at this age...

1) He gets up on hands and knees frequently and rocks back-and-forth as if he is about to take off crawling. For the past month I've thought he'd crawl any day. He is very capable, but he just hasn't figured out that he needs to move his hands forward. I often try to move his hands forward for him to help him figure it out, but when I do, he lets his knees collapse out from under him so that he is resting on his stomach.

2) He babbles often with an impressive "vocabulary:" ga, day-da, mum-ma, uh-da-da-da-da. The worst is when he's crying in his bed and he lets out a "da-da" or "ma-ma" in the midst of his wailing. That makes it hard not to go pick him up.

3) He sleeps poorly. We are working on this. We let him get into some bad habits basically because we are softies. However, this past month he starting waking up every couple hours during the night and would cry unless he was in bed with us. So, we decided to start having him sleep only in his bed at night (which is in our room) and letting him cry in order to accomplish that. We still do feed him at night, but that is because he is not yet taking solid foods (see below) and we don't want him to go hungry. The sleep is getting better now. He is still waking up a lot, but he isn't crying as much when we put him in his own bed. Hopefully the awakenings will decrease, though if they don't now, I'm sure they will when he's eating solid foods better.

4) As mentioned above, Samuel doesn't eat solid food yet. We have heard from friends how their babies did or are eating a variety of solids at 6 months. Not only that, we keep hearing how much their babies are enjoying solids. (Even Samuel's 5 month-old cousin Sophia is eating cereal well). We have tried oatmeal, bananas, pears, squash, applesauce, sweet potato, and avocado--he refuses them all. He did accept small amounts of banana for about 2 days, then quit that as well. We try feeding him when he's hungry, and when he's full, morning, night...nothing seems to make a difference. But, we're not pushing it too much (only one feeding per day) so as not to give him a food aversion. Despite not liking to eat food, he does enjoy smearing it around.

5) He loves music--me singing (not sure what's wrong with him that he enjoys my singing), his dad playing guitar and singing, or cd's.  He recently started banging on a metal tub and he is so proud of the sound it makes.

6) He has started to get stranger anxiety. I've been called down to the church nursery several times now because he's been crying too long. I think we need to let him get out more!

7 months old!

Here he is refusing food. I know babies do this when they are full, or done eating, but Samuel does this even when I first show him the spoon.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve this year was lame, let's be honest. It wasn't lame because we didn't do anything fun...plenty of people stay home on New Year's, go to bed early, and get a refreshing start on the new year. Or they plan to stay home enjoying a quiet evening...maybe watch the ball drop at Midnight. All of those options are more fun, restful, and organized than our evening was this year.

Here is how our New Year's Eve went: Rudi worked 7a-7p that day and I did my usual (watched Samuel, ran errands, etc). I thought enough to go to the grocery and pick up some food to make a nice dinner at home in the evening. Rudi and I also thought enough to mention to one of our friends that maybe we could get together and that I would call her later. However, when evening came and Rudi got home, neither of us was in the mood for making or eating a big dinner. I also kept thinking that I should call our friend, but I refrained because the atmosphere was just so lame at our house. Besides, she could have called us if she really wanted to get together. Samuel went to bed. Rudi and I had generic Captain Crunch for dinner.

Rudi actually went down to a neighbor's for a while (they were having a real get-together), while I stayed home and Skyped my brother, sister-in-law, and my two neices (which is always genuinely nice). Rudi then came back home at 10:30, and we sat around trying not to give in to Samuel, who was crying in his bed (we've been trying to get him out of some bad sleep habits recently). I then finally took a shower at 11:45, then found Rudi sleeping on the couch just after midnight. We then got ready for bed and I insisted that we take a picture of ourselves to 

compare it to one of our most fun New Year's Eve experiences...the one on our honeymoon 5 year ago. (Rudi's parents purchased us tickets to a New Year's party at the resort where we were honeymooning--complete with a 5 course meal, a band, and open bar). So here are pictures of us on New Year's Eve 5 years ago, and this year!

New Year's Eve (after midnight) 2009

New Year's Eve 2003