Swimming!

Forrest goes swimming. His first swimming experience was not the best. He was already tired and annoyed, so getting in the water for the first time was not top on his list of preferred activities. His second swimming experience was much more fun and he enjoyed it much more. He is still a little unsure but he did not cry and even smiled once.

O Forrest foi nadar! A sua primeira experiência na água não foi muito boa, porque ele já estava irritado antes de entrar na água (ele tinha um mês e meio). Essa foi a segunda experiência (2 meses de idade) e ele gostou um pouco mais. Ele ficou com o Pat na água por uns 20min e até riu uma vez.

Eu gosto de nadar! from Patrick Z on Vimeo.

After getting his fill of swimming, he nursed and slept in his towel while his parents swam.

Depois de nadar, ele mamou e dormiu, assim eu e o Pat pudemos nadar um pouquinho!!

Natação me cansa from Patrick Z on Vimeo.

Forrest aprendeu palavras novas

It's fun to see Forrest's development. For the last month he has been smiling and laughing. Now he is so inquisitive. He always wants to know what is going on around him. He laughs, gurgles, coos, and smiles.

É tão gostoso ver o desenvolvimento do Forrest. Depois de um mês de visa ele já começou a sorrir e com um mês e meio a dar risadas acordado, porque ele senpre sorriu dormindo desde quando nasceu. Ele sempre está prestando atenção ao redor dele, ele fala "angu" e vira o pescocinho procurando por nós quando nos movimentamos ou quando chamamos por ele.

O mais gostoso é que à uma semana ele começou a conversar comigo enquando eu amamento. Ele para de mamar e sorri para mim, conversa, mama, sorri, mama, conversa, sorri e mama novamente....eu não consigo resistir e também converso com ele, apesar de não achar isso bom porque eu quero que ele aprenda que a hora de mamar não é hora para conversar!

Novas palavras from Patrick Z on Vimeo.

Forrest gosta de conversar!

Here is a video of Forrest talking with his momma. He started to pay attention to us and and smile at us about a week ago. Now he loves to watch us and smile.

Untitled from Patrick Z on Vimeo.

News

Fishing!

A friend of mine moved into the ward and is a crazy fishing fanatic with 2 boats (bass boat and a 25foot mako). As time permits I go out with him on the ocean to do some fishing. The first time he caught 2 fish and I did not caught a single fish! (Though I had 6 huge bites on 15 inch long bait). The trip got worse. The huge fish that my friend caught I misidentified as a black jack. An undesirable fish that is known to have the algal toxin ciguaterra. We kept the fish for chum because it died before we could release it. I later correctly identified the fish as African pompano, which is one of the best tasting fish and often the most expensive fish to buy. We used 10lbs of it as chum! I have now become more serious in fish identification.

That was only the second time in my life that someone caught more fish than me. The next 2 fishing trips everything returned to normalcy when I caught 4 of 7 fish of the first trip and 4 of 6 fish on the second trip. We went out last week for sailfish and dolphin (mahi mahi) but no luck. We stumbled across a wreck and dropped down on it with live bait. No sooner than I dropped down, I caught a 30lb amberjack. They don't bite hard but rather grab the bait and hide in the wreck. I had to be very alert to when the fish bit and immediately start horsing the fish off the wreck. My friend would move the boat off the wreck to help pull the fish away into open water. If the fish makes it back into the wreck, getting the fish out again is nearly impossible because the fish uses the wreck as leverage. However, once the fight is on, it is arm-tiring, back-breaking work pulling him off the bottom because it wants to stay deep. They call them 'wreck donkeys' because pulling them off a wreck is like trying to get a donkey to walk forward when it does not want to. Altogether some great fishing.

Here are some pics.

Some fish with fishing poles and hooks, others with their bare hands...

An undergrad in our lab is going to graduate school, so she invited us to her father's home in the Keys for a barbecue. While we were there, we found a marina where a huge school of tarpon live. For those who don't know tarpon are huge fish (up to 8ft long and 350 lbs) that live in schools. There were several in the marina that were over 6 feet and probably 200-250lbs. They are considered great sport fish because they jump a lot when they are hooked. We found out how exciting jumping fish can be.

Imagine dangling a small fish in front of these hungry eyes.




Then more congregate to look hungrily at the dangling baitfish.

Then wham! One jumps up suddenly after the baitfish.


I must say it was difficult to keep from jumping back instead of letting the Tarpon grab the baitfish from my hand.



The girl's hands in this picture is another graduate student Xin who wanted to feed the tarpon but was completely clueless. She was trying to take a picture of the tarpon, while she was dangling a baitfish. However, a tarpon jumped out of water and grabbed her baitfish before she was even ready. It sure made for a great photo.

In the end only Patricia, Xin, and I fed the Tarpon. None of the other men students would even try it.

Though we do not have much room in our apartment, we do have a balcony that we decided to turn into a jungle. The start of it is 19 orchids, several pots of herbs, 2 palms, several other house-type plants, and a cactus garden.



































These first two are Phaleanopsis orchids. The one on the right I bought for Patricia for Valentine's Day.

















The red flowers above are froma a Cattleya (one of three that we have). The bromeliad is the largest of several that we have.



This next one on the left is my pride and joy, the slipper orchid Phragmipedium caudnatum. I got this orchid 7 years ago, which means that I brought it from AZ to WY and then to FL. The side petals grow quite long and can reach 2 ft. The petals grow down until they touch something. The idea behind these long petals is that they provide little ants and bugs access to the flower. They fall into the slipper portion of the flower and cannot climb out because the sides of the slipper fold down and trap them inside. The only passage out of the slipper is through the back where they pass by the anthers and get covered in pollen then pass by and pollinate the pistil. Basically the smart orchids (most evolved plant family) trick unsuspecting bugs into pollinating them. How can anyone not love orchids?!







The one on the right is another lovely slipper orchid from the genus Paphiopedilum.











This is a Phaeis orchid. It is a rather large, fast-growing orchid with 2 ft long leaves and grows in a large clumps of shoots. Next year it should have about 10 spikes with 25 flowers per spike. I can't wait!







The last is one of 8 Dendrobium orchids that we have.







Last here is our little piece of desert. With all these orchids and other lush green plants. I had to have a little bit of home, too.