DB's First Birthday

Although DB's actual birthday was while we were in Thailand, here are the pictures from his little party we had almost 2 weeks after he turned 1. He won't know the difference and he still got to eat a cupcake on his birthday, so all in all it turned out well for him.

I wanted to make him a Curious George cake. This was quite ambitious of me since I have never decorated a cake more than to make polka-dots, which are almost foolproof, and to make a simple butterfly. I do not have the steadiest of hand, and I have never had very pretty handwriting. In the past I have asked my mom or friends to do the writing on the cakes, but this year it was either KB or me, and I figured I would have the best shot of it looking uniform. My goal was for it just to be legible and for it to be obvious it was Curious George. I received confirmation when our single guy friend said, "Hey that's Curious George." I practically beamed with relief.

I made him a little cake that he could destroy in whatever manner what he saw fit. Per usual, DB was quite suspicious of it at first...he would not touch it.

In fact, he tried to get away from it.

When all attempts to flee from his birthday cake failed, he melted down.

That's when Sami showed up. He was probably saying, "Hey man, if you are not interested in that cake, why don't you pass it over to me? Looks good."

Finally I cut him a little slice of his cake. He tasted it, and he liked it. Apparently the whole cake itself was intimidating, but just a piece was more approachable.

Finally he dug in and enjoyed eating more sugar than he has ever consumed at one sitting in his 1 year of life.

More Thailand Pictures

Most days of the week I exercise during the kid's afternoon nap time. However today I allowed myself to think too long about how I did not feel like doing it today, and well, here I am doing a blog post in the middle of the afternoon when I should be halfheartedly sweating it out of my elliptical. Whatever, I still have two more days this week to make my quota.

One of the reasons I do not feel like working out is the consistent lack of sleep I have been getting because I just discovered The Hunger Games trilogy. When I find a book I like, I get a bit obsessive about finishing it. I do not like suspense, and I just want to get to the end to find out what in the world happened. Also, since I am reading these books and then trying to sleep, I end up dreaming about them and wake up in a frantic state of panic (if you have read them you will understand why). Last night I even dreamed I was Katniss and KB was Peeta during book number one. More than once KB has had to stop me from frantically leaving our room in search of our kids...while I am dead a sleep. I sleep walk and talk - imagine my husband's surprise when he found this out the week after we got married. Apparently I did not know about it, so he had no warning when I started walking around our house, looking for things while dead a sleep. Freaked him out.

Anyways, below are some fun pics from Thailand.

These first two are from when I took AB to get her nails done. I told her if she pooed in the potty I would take her to get her nails done. She finally did and there she is getting them manicured. She had a little trouble staying still, and the little flowers they painted on her nails were gone by the next day, but she still talks about it.

Here we are at a restaurant we ate at probably 5-6 times while in Thailand. It is called Salad Concept and it was awesome! KB and I love salad, and we love it even more when we do not have to wash all that lettuce and prepare all those toppings. It was perfect for us.

No bathtub in the guesthouse. So I sat him in the floor. Sprayed him down. Soaped him down, and rinsed it off. Like most things with DB, he was not a fan at first, but in the end it was one of the day's highlights.

AB's Other Birthday

Because AB's birthday fell so soon after Christmas, so soon before our vacation, and so close to the biggest holiday of the year in East Asia, some of her birthday presents did not make it in before we went to Thailand. It all worked out though. The whole time in Thailand we egged her on by saying, "there is a surprise for you when we get back home." It drove her nuts as to why she could not have them right then.

These dress were made by her Gigi, and this is her Cinderella dress. Every time she wears it she insists on carrying around her Cinderella doll. The band aid on her toe even matches the dress. (We learned the hard way what happens when you do not treat a cut that was made by a fence in Thailand...who knew skin could just peal away like that? She still has her toe, it is no longer infected, but even 3 weeks later it still shows the effects of the past infection - bad parents indeed.)

Notice the matching bear...

...and shoes. Bless the people who live below us.
Who says pink or red does not look good on redheads?

This was her gift from us. Playgrounds with slides and swings are not easily found or are free where we live, and the girl loves to slide. She has been using the slope on my elliptical as a slide, so we figured it was finally time to get her (albeit small) a real one. She does not know it is small and seems to really enjoy it.

The Park

You see this park? We went there while in Thailand. We were so confused. Where are all the people? We have apparently lived in a very crowded part of Asia so long that it confuses us when we visit places void of people. Once we got over the weirdness, it became very relaxing.
By the way, it is a Lions club park. Who knew the Lions club was in Thailand?

AB jumped right into a swing so excited to not have to wait in a 10 minute line for a 2 minute turn. This was DB's first time on a swing. We were a bit concerned since AB's first time on a swing was when she was about DB's age, and she just held her breath and then screamed like she was falling. DB absolutely loved it. In fact, he fell a sleep on it.

One of the most handy gadgets on this trip was KB's belt. Most restaurants did not had high chairs, so we often grabbed bar stools and strapped DB in with KB's belt. It was always a sight to see him taking it off in the middle of a restaurant. Anyways, here it once again served as a strap, holding DB to his swing.

Funny moment of the day. While in Thailand, both of our kids had runny noses. It must of have been allergies since it started as soon as we got to Thailand, and stopped as soon as we returned home.

While at the park, apparently (apparently because we did not see it) AB face planted in the sand, and since sand likes to stick to moisture, this is where the sand stuck. Also, apparently her mouth was open when she fell because she was spat sand for quite a while. Is it bad to laugh at your kid's expense? Maybe, but it was really funny.

AB's Birthday

So AB turned 3 last month...like more than a month ago. We had a little party for her that included her foreign and nationals friends. It was a nice little one hour thing that included cake, balloons, some fun singing, and a rousing game of find the pieces of the flower and put if back together - they thought it was fun (I think).

I forgot to take a picture of her cake. It did not turn out how I planned, but in the end it was not as ugly as I predicted it would be while I was in the process of decorating it. Let's just say I did not foresee very yellowness of our butter effecting the color of frosting as much as it did - it was supposed to be a very bright purple, not brownish purple. Whatever, it tasted good.

This little (big) guy was in attendance, but not in any other pictures.

So were these two. DB napped during the party.
The next day was her actual birthday, so that morning she got to open some gifts.
I did not manage to get a better picture of it, but this doll was made by her Loli.

After we got dressed, AB and I headed over to a mall where I let her pick out a dress for the first time. She got a cute one I must say. Then I let her pick out which flavor and toppings (strawberry ice cream with graham crackers, strawberries, and bananas) she wanted for a little birthday treat at Cold Stone. Afterwards we came home to her favorite lunch of carrot and egg dumplings. Life could not get much better for the girl on her first birthday overseas - that is unless you can throw in a couple sets of grandparents for the day : )

She is a girl after my own heart.

DB enjoying one of his favorite activities - helping daddy push around the empty water jug.

New Friend

While in Thailand we finally got to meet one of our newest friends...and possible future Mrs. DB? I mean, look at her! What a striking beauty she is. Plus is if she has a mix of both her parent's personalities, how could our DB not fall head over heels for her?

Is it young love?

I think he is looking more and more "boyish" every day.

AB's curls were super fun and had quite a mind of their own while in Thailand. They needed no encouragement to curl up during our 2 1/2 weeks there.

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.