Life Update and Grandma Sherry’s Visit

Hi Friends and Family,

We hope you’re well and enjoying the fall season. It’s been about two months since we last wrote and that time has been filled with us settling into life as a family of four humans. It has been extremely challenging and incredibly amazing all at once. Here is a not-so-quick recap of Grandma Sherry’s visit and an update on everyone.

Grandma Sherry Visit

Grandma Sherry flew to the Philippines through Doha, staying for about two weeks (03 August to 16 August). Our time was mostly spent living everyday life together with a newborn and toddler, which was wonderful. For her, the days were filled with: Arden snuggles, bottle feedings, and bath time; fort construction, Legos, DreamPlay theme park, and pool time with Merrick; and quality catch-up time with Samantha and Travis. We ventured out for a few tourist activities including exploring the Walled City of Intramuros by foot and by horse-drawn carriage (kalesa), road tripping to Tagaytay to explore Taal Volcano’s crater lake via a bangka (type of boat), followed by a Tagaytay staple… a hot bowl of bulalo. Travis also enjoyed giving a private tour of his manufacturing facility to Grandma Sherry, as manufacturing is something they both enjoy and work in.

As you all know already, when Merrick was born Singapore and the world were in full COVID lockdown and our family didn’t meet him until he was about 10.5 months old. It was heartbreaking at the time. That experience made us more aware of how special this visit was with Grandma Sherry. We’re incredibly thankful she could share in the early weeks of Arden’s life with us. It was such a precious time and something we’ll never forget.

Merrick Update

Philippines ended the longest school lockdown in the world in September, which allowed Merrick to start school full time. He goes to class at a local school 5 days a week, for two hours a day, with his little besties, Zadie and Atticus. After establishing a drop off/pick up routine, he settled in quickly and is now thriving. We’re so proud of him. One unfortunate part about school is that he gets sick more often but we chalk it up as a good thing for his pandemic baby immune system.

In the last couple months, Merrick has also learned to use the potty. As you can imagine, at the beginning it was challenging for him and us. For him because he was learning a new skill and trying to forget anything and everything diapers. For us because we had to learn how to be the right kind of support, flex our patience to the max, and get comfortable quickly with turds and pee being everywhere. Now he’s consistently using the potty and we have very few accidents. It’s an on-going learning process that he’s tackling like a champ. All of us feel so proud of this new learned skill, especially Merrick.

Merrick has settled into big brother life. He’s helpful and becoming more and more comfortable around his little brother. For the most part, he’s gentle and considerate but as expected there are moments where we are reminded he’s a toddler who is still navigating how to deal with big feelings. As Arden is becoming more interactive, Merrick is enjoying him more.

Right now, Merrick’s favorite things are constructing Duplo Legos, all things “BIIIIG trucks”, picking fresh vegetables and fruits from our property, surveying for insects and animals in the yard, and swimming. As we all know, big feelings are hard and parenting an unregulated toddler is extremely challenging at times, especially as you have to figure out your own triggers and downfalls as a parent. Regardless, the incredible times outweigh these struggles. Merrick’s imagination and affection continue to expand. He has a kind heart, an infectious giggle, he has the best squinty full-face smile. He loves you to rub his tummy and back before bed and to hold his feet while he’s falling asleep. If I were to ask him what he’d like to add here, he’d likely say “purple grapes”… his favorite silly answer.

Arden Update

Our smiley little dude will be 3 months old in a few days. He’s filling out and developing well. Both his nonstop coos and smiles warm your heart and his little squeaks are almost a proper giggle. Thankfully his sleep patterns have become fairly consistent and he’s close to sleeping through the night (thank you, SNOO!). He loves punching and kicking the toys on his gym, having little “conversations” with his grown ups, and watching his big brother in awe.

Since birth, his eating hasn’t been great… both on the breast and on the bottle. He had a poor latch, was messy, made smacking sounds constantly, and he never seemed full. His inability to fully drain the breast led to mastitis for Mama in August. Mama was fairly certain he had a tongue tie and sure enough, her suspicions were confirmed. In mid-September he had his tongue tie cut and we’ve seen drastic improvements in his abilities and quicker weight gain. He’s starting to develop the cutest rolls on his arms and legs like his big brother and Mama had when they were babies. More recently, he’s learning to hold his head up and has started chewing on his hands.

In our last post, we discussed the endless paperwork needed to apply for Arden’s citizenship documents. We’re happy to report, we have his passport and Consular Report of Birth Abroad certificate in hand. Despite being born in the Philippines, these two documents establish his USA citizenship. In addition, we need his Philippines dependent visa to travel home and return to the Philippines. This application is in process and should be completed by the end of October, pending no delays. Once we have that in hand, we can travel home as a family.

Travis Update

Travis thrives in the Philippines and has really settled into work. It’s clear he truly enjoys his team and his role, tackling many large projects for his site and working on the expansion of their capabilities. It’s wild to think he has been in his role for almost a year and a half already.

In mid-September, Travis and his company President were invited to represent Collins Aerospace in New York City at a CEO Roundtable meeting with the Philippines President, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his economic cabinet members. Collins was one of seven companies chosen for this meeting, which focused on industry and infrastructure, specifically their business presence in the Philippines and their plans for expansion. He presented at the meeting and was able to ask the President a question. He was only on the ground for about 48-hours but filled his off time with some gorgeous fall runs in Central Park.

This week his site is celebrating it’s 10-year anniversary. The celebration is filled with employee spotlights, a site history museum, lots of food, and in true Filipino fashion… many choreographed dances, including one led by Travis himself. Samantha will provide video evidence to the highest bidder. It’s an exciting time that has Travis thinking about his legacy here and how he can further develop his team to be their best selves.

In his “spare time”, he’s been training for a shorter Ironman event, the 5150 Subic Bay Triathlon which will take place on 23 October. He’ll be riding in style on his new triathlon bicycle he purchased last month. She’s his first brand new bike. He’s excited to get back into the sport. We’ll all travel to Subic Bay to cheer him on and enjoy some extended time at the beach as a family.

Samantha Update

Samantha spends the majority of her time as the primary caretaker of the boys and managing the homestead. Days (and nights) are spent breastfeeding Arden, pumping, school drop offs/pick ups, swim class, playing with Merrick etc. Over these last three months, she’s worked hard on establishing routines for the boys and that has really helped Merrick settle into school and life with a little brother quickly.

Outside of caring for the boys, Samantha has been primarily focused on healing and strengthening her body after pregnancy. After receiving clearance from her OB, she started a 12-week, 3-phase postpartum program focused on strengthening her core and pelvic floor in hopes to eventually return to triathlon. She hasn’t missed a workout yet and over the weekend, she completed Phase 1. Through this program, she has fixed her diastasis recti and continues to strengthen her pelvic floor and core. While it’s a struggle, she’s feeling motivated and hopeful given her results so far. She’s excited to compete in long distance triathlon again next year.

In addition to her health focus, she tries to maintain a social life for the family and manages the household. Recent big items she had to address were a two-by-four breaking a hole in the office ceiling (thankfully no one was hurt) and major roof repairs after 2/3 of the house had roof leaks from some severe rain. In her “spare time”, she continues to read and write.

Family Update

Travis and Samantha both deem this the most challenging time in their marriage. Splitting their time between two kids and work, Travis working out of the home and Samantha working in it, spreads resources thin leaving little time to focus on themselves personally and as a couple. We know many of our friends can identify with this struggle. We don’t ever doubt that we’ll figure it out together but right now, it’s challenging and takes intense daily effort. Only recently are we seeing glimmers of us showing through again, which is a welcome change. In addition, we continue to try to provide each other alone time as best we can.

The “-ber” months began in Septem”ber”, which starts the four full months of Christmas here in the Philippines. Decorations are up in the area, the malls are filled with decor and Christmas music, and people are already frantically shopping for their loved ones. We’re excited to host our annual ugly Christmas sweater party at our house again this year. We’ve been on hiatus since leaving Kansas.

A few weekends ago we spectated a short-distance triathlon, which felt good to get back to. We have big goals as a family to get back to competing and allowing our boys to see us striving for such goals. Over the weekend, we also mapped out family trips for the next 12 months. Experiencing the world has also been a core part of us and we’re excited to start traveling again and sharing those worldly experiences with our boys.

The truth is, our current reality isn’t perfect. We are constantly reminded that although a moment is not joyful, it can be meaningful… and those meaningful moments are ones we’ll remember. Joy is fleeting… so live in your present moment with unwavering intention and gratitude because in the future, that is what will mean the most.

All our love,

xo Team Jansen