July in Dhaka: hot days, wet days, hot wet days, repeat.

The kids continue to grow up - Atlas is now crawling and pulling himself up to standing on any available object, from dad's legs to tables and chairs. Time to start using the safety gates on the staircase!

Crystal and Adham celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary by spending a night without the kids at the fancy hotel in downtown Dhaka, the Sonargaon. It was worth it if only because of the high-speed internet in every room; we've unfortunately gotten used to incredibly slow dial-up speeds on our home connection that have been unknown in the US since the early 90's. Oh, and it was romantic too to have a suite overlooking Dhaka at night.

Tasman will soon be starting a new preschool program; this summer he's been working on pre-writing skills like cutting shapes out with incredibly dull kid scissors (patience is a virtue, we were always told) and tracing circles, curves and straight lines with crayons and markers.

No trips out of town this month, but we're starting to look forward to trips we're considering later this year: Sri Lanka and Australia in the fall. We'll let you know how those shape up.

We did take one short trip to Dhaka's zoo - we don't think we'll return anytime soon. The animals seemed sad and their cages tended to be small and concrete floored. Once again, we gathered a lot more attention than any of the animals on display. The fun never ceases in Dhaka!

A few of our recent photos -