Halloween

Spidey and the Butterfly Fairy

After the Halloween 5K, my first race in years...

Trick or treating at the US Embassy

Rickshaw trick-or-treat: Odin was quite unimpressed by the unauthentic Spiderman 'mask' that came with his costume. However, putting the nylon swim cap over his face was an acceptable fix.

Buddies

Odin and Lily are the best of friends... usually. Here are a few photos of them at their best.

Documentary interview

A few months ago I was interviewed as part of a Discovery Channel documentary on emerging viruses. This is one of the many 'takes' in various locations around Bangladesh. I hear the documentary was well done- still have to make time to watch it myself.

Go, Daddy! Go!

In November we enjoyed a fabulous beach vacation in Lombok, Indonesia. For the first time in a long time our 'holiday' actually felt like a vacation (see my post from last year's beach trip). But there was more to the trip than just sun and fun- Eric was there for a triathlon. An 1800 km swim, followed by a 25 mile bike and a 7 mile run in 95 degree heat. The Lombok triathlon is touted as one of the most beautiful and the most difficult triathlons in the world and delivers on both counts. But Eric had plenty or moral support to help get him through! Our dear friends Tara, Phil, Solene and Amelie joined us which made the trip even sweeter. Here are a few pictures from this family adventure:

Puri Mas Resort- a fabulous place to stay

Odin, getting into the holiday mood

Lombok island was formed by a volcano leaving black sand and steep mountains behind

Solene and Odin in the waves

Go, Daddy! Go!

Half way through the run

Lily and Amelie supporting Daddy and Baba

Sweet relief

Post-tri family portrait

Exploring the garden

My tired little travellers

Odin's birthday

Ok, his birthday was back in June, but I never posted any photos. Here's my happy boy on his happy 3rd birthday! I can't take credit for the lovely cake- it's the handiwork of our cook, Mina. What could be more fun for a 3 year old than cake, singing, and fire combined in one event?

Stranded in paradise

We recently went to Phuket, Thailand for a weekend beach get away. Local political demonstrations closed the airport and we were stranded in paradise for an extra day and a half. Doesn't get much better than that.

Claude the Yard Knome

Claude the Yard Knome visited us from a 2nd grade class in LaGrange, GA. We tried our best to show him a good time in Dhaka and then we sent him back to the class with photos and stories to share with the kids

Our children and house staff are familiar enough with the concept of Santa Claus to know that he wears a pointed hat and has a long white beard. They are not familiar enough with the concept, however, to distinguish Santa Claus from Claude the Yard Knome. The name similarities didn't help, either. So, they called him Santa Claus. Here are a few photos from Santa's visit.

When the cold is too hot

Sometimes, during the hot season, even the cold water it too hot for a bath. The water sits in a very long system of outdoor pipes and arrives in our house too hot for wahsing kids. No worries, though, we have ice. This is Lily and Odin preparing their bath by adding ice cubes.

Measuring up

We measure the passing of time by marking the height of our children on the wall. Odin decided that he wanted to get in on the action. He took responsibility for measuring Lily. Figuring out how to measure Dad was a little more challenging...

Odin and Solene

We so enjoyed a visit from some friends in May. Odin and Solene, who knew each other in infancy, became friendly again. Odin even agreed to show her his camera.

The double stroller

Since I became a mother, I've asked myself more than once, "Who am I?" I had another one of these moments when we purchased our first double stroller. I didn't recognize the woman pushing this contraption around the neighborhood. One part of me mourned my former identity, who used to travel light. The other part of me was simply thrilled with the notion of being able to stroll with both of my children at the same time.

Yoga-ing

I love to watch my kids strike yoga poses. They enjoy rolling out the mat to do "yoga-ing". They're both pros at downward dog, shown here.

Shubo Nobo Borsho!

Or, in English, Happy Bengali New Year! Bangladesh celebrated the New Year yesterday with festive cultural celebrations all over the country. We took the kids to see some singing and dancing at the park new our house. Everyone was dressed in their finest red and white clothes.

Considering the stressful months that have passed since western New Year's on January 1st we're looking to the Bengali New Year to bring us a fresh start. This includes a renewed commitment to the blog!

Gloves

My son doesn't know what winter gloves are. Therefore, any 'gloves' are used as a sporting goods.

And miles to go before we sleep...

Wow, it's been a while since the last blog. A lot has been going on and this is part of my excuse.

In the first week of March Lily and I were back in the USA for 2 weeks. She received endless love and affection from great-grandparents, grandparents, cousins, aunties and an uncle while I attended a pneumonia surveillance workshop and presented some of my data on bacterial meningitis and hospital acquired respiratory infections at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta. I must admit, nothing says "Moms are scientists, too!" like a stroller at a scientific conference. However, I'm not sure that I'll be bringing children with me to the next one. The travel was absolutely brutal- 36 hours door to door each way. And it took 2 weeks to get over jet-lag when we returned to Dhaka. But the visit was wonderful! My professional work went very well and the time spent with family and friends was fabulous. Aunt Lori and Grandma and Grandpa Adams get a special shout out for taking on Lily care for very long hours!

So, we recovered from the trip a few weeks ago. Here are a few pictures and highlights from our long adventure.

Lily celebrated her first birthday in Greenville, SC

The cake says it all

Mimi feeding Lily some birthday cake

Lily with a birthday gift

Posing for Mommy

Lovin' with Aunt Lacey- girls in their jammies

Emily with colleagues in Atlanta

Emily presenting her poster at the conference

Lily discovers that she loves, loves tutus. Aunt Lori isn't sure how any daughter of mine could be "so fancy".

Lily hanging at the United Airlines business class lounge in Hong Kong

Lily up at 2 am to play in Dhaka- baby jet-lag is serious business

Public hospitals

We're currently conducting surveillance for hospital acquired respiratory infections at three public tertiary care hospitals in Bangladesh. Specifically, we're interested in the role that hospitals might play as places where infections like influenza could easily spread from person to person. These hospitals are typically very crowded places, as you can see. These are a few photos from wards currently involved in the surveillance study.

A pediatric ward on admission day

An adult medicine ward at night

Patients hospitalized on the veranda

What not to put on your CV

At the end of last week I went through about 300 CVs to shortlist candidates for 3 junior researcher positions we have open. As I general rule, I suggest that when preparing a CV you focus on key experiences you've had which are relevant to the position advertised. If you find yourself tempted to include on your CV other intangible qualities, similar to this beautiful excerpt from one CV I read, please do your best to fight the temptation.