Random Thailand Pics

We leave for the airport in a few hours and I wanted to take advantage of faster internet (but still not fast enough to upload videos). Here are some random pictures we took while in Thailand.

This first picture is AB excited about seeing the tigers.
No words needed for this one.

AB picked this orchid off off a plant at the hotel. I felt really bad about it, so we kept it in water for a long time. When the petals began to fall off I let her play with it and took a few pictures as AB qickly destroyed the remaining flower. Also, that was the last day we saw the hairbow she is wearing. Later that evening she stuck her head out of the window of a songtiao and the wind blew off in an instant. Drat.

This is how DB spent most of his meals in Thailand. I have learned that most restaurants do not have high chairs.

Part of our time in Thailand was spent staying at a guesthouse. It was quite comfortable, and this was the view from our balcony.

What We Did Today

We went to Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai, Thailand - it was rocking awesome! I just want to make sure you notice that in the picture below KB and I are petting month and half old tigers. Baby tigers guys!

Tiger Kingdom is kind of a tiger petting zoo. Although there was one random lion and a few parrots, the rest of the place was crawling (litterally) with tigers. Unlike some internet websites claim, these tigers are not drugged so that tourists can safely pet and play with them. These tigers are loved and cared for by their trainers.

Although they also have adult tigers available for your petting pleasure, Tiger Kingdom only allows children into the baby tiger cage. They are heavy sleepers and I guess are less annoyed with the little ones. That was fine with me since all I wanted to do was cuddle a baby tiger anyways.

Each group was given 20 minutes in the baby tiger room. We each had to wash up before entering and were not to let the tigers lick us. They said they did not want us to make the tigers sick. Serriously the cub room was cleaner than many human homes I have been to in my life.

AB was a shy at first, but eventually she got brave and even tried to give them a hug.

These tigers are 2 months old. Next to them are the 6 week old cubs. It is amazing the difference 2 weeks can make.
DB was a bit more wary of the tigers and only let me put his hand on them once.
These little guys are less thand a week old. I saw their trainer feeding them with a Nuk bottle...just like DB drinks juice from.

Look below the tip box. In case you cannot read it, the sign says to not put anything into the cage, especially fingers...guess someone tried it once so they had to put of the signs. I will refrain from sarcastic comments about that trailblazer.
This tiger wanted to eat AB. The trainer said because she was little the tiger thought she was a toy to play with and that was why he stalked her up and down his cage, but we are pretty certain he wanted to eat her.
If you ever go to Chiang Mai, Thailand, you must put Tiger Kingdom on your list of attractions to visit. I have heard of places before that allow you to interact with Tigers, but I cannot image a more safe and clean place than this one. Also, the tigers are very well treated. Thus far we have visited the Elephant reserve, the zoo and now Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai. We have been quite impressed by the cleanlines of the grounds and amount of respect the workers seem to have for the animals. I was geninely suprised, and it adds further to the reasons that I love Chiang Mai.

Funnies

My kids have been cracking me up lately. I managed to take a few pictures of such events. Most of them require a bit of explanation.

This first picture is not one of the funny pictures, but I wanted to include it because most of my recent posts have included pictures of my cutie boy but not my sweetie girl.

The night before AB's 3rd birthday I went into her room to tuck her in as usual, but instead of her sleeping in her bed, this is what I found. I think she was laying beside her baby doll bed, trying to help her baby fall a sleep. We are still not clear on this, but we laughed so hard it eventually woke her up.

We finally started playing hide-and-seek last week. I am not sure why we waited so long to teach AB, but she loved it. However, her innocent perspective of "hide" was quite precious. When KB and I finished counting, this is what we found - she was hiding. Since then she has started hiding behind our huge air conditioner unit, but apparently the anticipation of waiting for us to find her is too great because she usually comes running out of her hiding spot saying "I'm here!" before we even have a chance to pretend to look for her. It is quite endearing.

A couple weeks ago we had dinner at a friend's house. DB fell a sleep on the way home. I needed to change him into his PJ's before putting him in bed, so I took him out of the baby carrier and laid him on the ground. The boy did not move. This too cracked us up.

Lastly, just before we came to Thailand we kept on of our friend's baby, Sami, so they could have a lovely anniversary evening to themselves. Check this out, Sami is just 3 months older than my DB...but like twice the size. I hope they will become best friends because my DB is little and Sami is not, but no one will mess with DB if he is besties with Sami.

Anyways, Sami takes his milk in a bottle and prefers it fed to him. No problem. However, DB did not like seeing his mommy holding another baby and he certainly did not like seeing her feed another baby! No sir! So every time I fed Sami, I had to hold DB just like I am in the picture below.

I love this picture. It is like DB is saying " are you done yet?" Sami is cool though. DB did not bother him one bit.

DB and the Eliptical

DB Sleeping

DB Waking

DB Playing

DB About to Fall

DB Crying

DB Recovering

DB Playing

DB Not Learning His Lesson

My Adventurous DB

What We Did Today

We got to spend the morning with some elephants! It was totally awesome!

We rode a little.
We saw some sights during our ride.

We fed a very hungry momma some bananas and sugar cane.

Best of all, we were able to do the whole thing with these guys!

Our Little Cinnamon Roll

Did I ever mention that DB can do this? Starting December 23rd he began standing on his own. However, he refuses to stand long since there is really no point to it, as far has he is concerned. What does standing accomplish for him? He can only take a step at a time and crawling is much more efficient at this point, so usually he quickly resumes his crawling position.

Also, notice his chubby cheeks? Maybe my little guy is finally packing on the lbs. I wonder what he is eating...

...raw cinnamon rolls.

A couple weeks ago Zhou Mei made a pan of cinnamon rolls. To help them rise she sat them by our radiator, a perfectly rational place to put them. However, every adult in our house forgot that DB is mobile and curious. While meeting with my language tutor KB called me out of the office to see what DB had gotten himself into - the raw cinnamon rolls. Don't get me wrong, these things are so good that I have been tempted to eat them before baking them but my rationality sets in and I hold off. However, the poweress of cinnamon, butter and sugar were too great and DB did not care a bit that he was eating essentially raw bread dough.

KB: Dash hand over the dough.

Dash: Daddy it is so good and you guys never let me have anything sweet.

KB: Son, hand it over.
Dash: Ok daddy.

Dash: Little does daddy know, I dipped my Nuk in those rolls...almost just as good.

Going on aTrip

I am not sure what is wrong but for some reason I cannot post pictures on our blog! What's going on? This is not the first time I have had trouble with this recently, and I am not sure why since my VPN is working but whatever.

At this moment it is not a very big deal because I can just make up for lost time when we are in Thailand this time next week! Can I tell you how blissfully excited I am about this? First, Thailad is warm and moist. Our feet will thaw out and our kid's eczema problems will fade away. It will be awesome. Second, it is AB's birth country. She was born in Bangkok and if she one day chooses, she can have a dual citizenship there. I think that is kind of neat and I look forward to her visiting it when she might actually remember it. Third, we are going to see and ride on Elephants! Fourth, Thailand has a superior internet connection and we will not have to use our VPN. Fifth, we need a vacation, and I canno think of a better place to relax. Sixth, and most awesome of all, we are going to see our longtime friends in Thailand. We have known them since we were married, but have been in different countries for the past 4 1/2 years, and so much has happened in that time (primarilly babies). However or Friday we will reunite with them, and this makes me the happiest of all.

This is going to be a one of our "planes, trains, and automobile" trips which would have been quite odd for me before moving here, but now it is quite the norm. Hopefully I will be able to post a flurry of pictures while we are there.

Present for a Day

I ordered this cute thing from what most people call the Asian version of Ebay, but I think it is more like Amazon.com. Anyways a lot of what we find online are things that were manufactured here but did not make it on the boat to the US or imported food from the US. This is one of the "did not make it on the boat" items. We were thrilled to get it for Dash and he was excited to play with it...AB was excited to take it from him. The day after Christmas I looked it up online because I wanted to see how much it would cost to buy in the US, and that is when I saw it. This item was recalled. In fact it is one of like 50 toys that were recalled in the US by Fisher-Price that were made in 2006 from this country for having toxic levels of lead paint. On the website it said if you have such and such numbers on the bottom of your toy, you are to discontinue use and return immediately. Yes, those numbers were on the bottom of DB's Elmo Jack-in-the-Box. Returning it was not an option, and since I know our trash is sorted through, and I feared someone wiping it off and giving it to another kid, I did the only thing I thought to do, I tried to smash it into pieces. Turns out it, other than the lead paint it was really well made. I hurt my hand before I eventually gave up and dropped it perfectly unmanned into our trash. Bye bye Elmo.

He will never even know Elmo was here...did I take him out again without wiping the food off of his face? Bad mommy.

Matching PJs

Before DB was born, I bought AB and DB some matching PJs at a after Christmas sale in the US - my favorite shopping time of the year. I love sales. Anyways, like any self respecting mom, I wanted a picture of them in their matching PJs. This is how it started out.

Below I am brusing AB's teeth. Usually this is done in the bathroom, but for some reason that evening she had her teeth brushed in bed. Already DB is seeing this as awesome playtime and is on his way to get us.

Once I handed over the pink Dora toothbrush, I decided to put DB in my lap for the pic as I did not think he would sit still on his own...

...or with me either, apparently.

If this is any indication of his energy level in the future, I am in trouble.

Eventually I put him back in my lap and this happened - cutest cry face ever.

It continued and AB added her two bits in.

Eventually he calmed down and although still slightly redfaced, he ended up looking more confused than anything. I decided this was the best we were going to get and gave up.

Clearly AB was happy about the forced photo opportunity ending. See DB coming? He was happy too.

It is playtime like this that reminds me why I wanted to have them closer in age.

Good kids.