Elliette and Sawyer are starting to enjoy each others company, of course we were responsible for framing this shot!

Daddy and Sawyer clown around

The most wonderful woman in the world who helps us get through each day and keeps us happy and organized, it's LYDIA! We are so thankful that we have such a wonderful helper to take care of Elliette and Sawyer.

Dinosaurs and Air Fresheners

Well, I think you can tell that Elliette chose her costume idea, but Sawyer wasn't as fortunate to have a choice. But he sure was a cute Air Freshener! We enjoyed carving pumpkins this year at our friends house with a Pumpking Carving Party. Perfectly unsafe with plenty of toddlers and sharp knives. Luckily, no casualties were reported! Sawyer also was able to add to our Pirate theme this year. I tried for the Captain Jack Sparrow look and probably pulled it off a bit better than David attempting to look like Kiera Knightley in "Pirates of the Caribbean".

Elliette's School Sports Meet

We couldn't have imagined that a 2 year old would be involved in a serious Olympic style track meet, but when we signed Elliette up to attend her Chinese pre-school there were definitely high aspirations for the Olympic spirit! She wasn't in the best spirits at the meet as she had a rather bad cold but she managed to be a good sport about the whole thing and lasted through a couple grueling events! The school divided the students into the red and blue team and marched them onto the track with some very rousing John Philip Sousa type music. We decided that if Elliette ever defected to North Korea she would blend in very quickly with the training she has received!

Uma Visits!

Who makes the cuter dinosaur?

I wish I could wag my tail!

What's up?

Someone is learning to eat and thinking this is a great idea. Why didn't they think of this earlier?

Our wonderful Uma is currently visiting for almost a month (aren't we lucky) to help us out while everyone is busy with graduate classes and laptop initiatives. We get to have her here for Halloween. In fact, she even brought the costumes. As you can see Elliette and her dad are enjoying getting ready for Halloween. Sawyer continues to love mommy time and is starting to enjoy Uma time as well!

A visit with Kingston (Stinkin') and Chloe

In October we had a wonderful whirlwind visit from our Shanghai friends. Elliette got to spend a little time with her new friend Chloe who she hung out with in KL this summer. Kingston (AKA Stinkin') and Sawyer had their eyes open more frequently this time and at least "saw" each other. Kingston was renamed "Stinkin' " by Elliette who told us one evening, "I want to go kiss Stinkin'! " It might be nickname that sticks! We'll see. Wish we were closer to these two sweet little people. Sorry to make you jealous Nadia, we wish you were closer too!

Toddler Friends- Busy as little Bees!

Noni Helps Out

Our Noni arrived on August 5th to help us as we got started with mommy going back to work and Daddy working hard on the TAS laptop program. We were excited to see her and she loved meeting her new grandson Sawyer. Noni learned quickly that we don't get a chance to sit down in this house. Between entertaining Elliette, rocking Sawyer, and cooking dinner she did still get a daily walk! We loved every minute with her and wish she had been able to stay longer! :(

Papa Meets Sawyer

Papa Benedict was supposed to arrive on September 12th, however because of the typhoon that hit Taiwan he took a three day "vacation" in Narita, Japan. After visiting impressive Buddhist temples and nearly joining the Buddhist priesthood he decided to come to Taiwan and visit his new and ONLY grandson Sawyer. Unfortunately, Papa's time here was way to short and we were sad to have him leave with the next typhoon that came. There was love at first site for the new little guy in his life and of course, the amusing Elliette!

Welcoming Sawyer Benedict Sinclair

Born May 23, 2008 in Taipei, Taiwan at 3:41 pm at Taipei Adventist Hospital. Sawyer arrived almost two weeks earlier than expected. We were quite lucky that Sawyer's Uma (Darby's mom) arrived the evening before. Early the next morning at 4 am my water broke. What a surprise as David had a dream three nights before and had woke me up saying my water broke. I called our Doulas in Kaoshiung and they arrived 3 hours later at 8:30 am. Around 9:30 am we left for the hospital expecting to have a long wait as I was not in any pain. At noon I finally started feeling a little bit of labor coming on and my mom arrived around 2:45 pm, everything progressed quite quickly after that and Sawyer arrived peacefully and safetly into the world at 3:41 pm with his father and grandmother right there.