Zachary Arrives!

Zachary Christopher Verdaguer was very keen to enter the world, so much so he arrived 3 weeks early, Friday 7th March!

Manuel was still in Kalimantan, in the middle of the jungle when my water broke. I was sitting up in bed reading my book when it all began. Thankfully my friend Crystal was ready to take on the role of Birthing Partner, so at 2am Crys and her husband Dan made the mad dash to pick me up and take me to the hospital.

Everything went well and little Zach joined us at 8am. It was certainly a very vocal entry as the boy was a bit cold, which was not surprising considering his early arrival and rather small size of 2.78kgs (6lb 1oz). However, after a short time in the incubator he was a lot quieter and warmer.

Sebastian was very surprised to hear his little brother had appeared so early but was overjoyed and a little overwhelmed to meet him.

Manuel had a fantastic excuse to come home early, but unfortunately due to his location and the fact Zachary was born on an Indonesian holiday, he was not able to make it back to Jakarta until Friday night.

By Saturday night Zachary and I were home, both doing very well after all the excitement.

Returning to Jakarta

Sebastian's first term at primary school has flown by. After the initially couple of weeks, which saw poor Seb exhausted from his full days and need to concentrate in class, we have settled into an easy routine. I have been working three mornings a week, running the ESL program and covering any classes when the other teachers are absent. But this also gives me one or two days a week to get and few things done. I have also started going to a social welfare playgroup for children from a local orphanage. It has been an amazing experience but also a sad one as well.

Now Sebastian has officially reached 'big boy', school kid status he has also started a few new activities. On Mondays he heads off to tennis lessons, Tuesday its swimming and piano, then Bahasa lessons on Thursdays. But with a weekend to fill up he has also begun Aikido and even Rugby! He absolutely loves it! And of course the more energy used up, the less he comes home with! We have to keep this boy busy!

Manuel has settled in well to his new job and has started to develop some of his ideas. The initial transition between chef jackets and suits took a little adjusting but he is happy with his move and looking forward to all the new projects to come. The first of which is a trip to the jungle! He will visit three of the company's operations at mining sites on the island of Kalimantan. He should be gone about 3 and a half weeks, but back in time for the new addition to the Verdaguer clan!