Dinner Out

Recently we went to a local Thai restaurant. Like most foreign food, it was an East Asian version of Thai food. I cannot be too harsh on them though, most East Asian restaurants in the US are just American versions of East Asian food...I just cannot figure out the disparity since most of the East Asian restaurants in the US are owned by actual East Asians. Anyways, it was decent, but the decor was extra fun. It was also at this restaurant we figured out DB has entered into the "I want to grab any and everything in front of me" stage. It is beginning. The easy low maintenance baby stage is passing.

Also, AB was born in Bangkok, something she has not seemed to grasp yet. The "where are you from" verses "where were you born" questions just confuse her. She will answer Texas (I realize Texas is a state and not the name of our country) and Thailand for either of the questions but usually just Texas. We want her to have some sort of connection with the country she was born in and could have a dual citizenship with if she wants, so we hope by the time we visit Thailand early next year she will have a better grasp of "I was born in Thailand." We thought going to a Thai restaurant would help introduce AB to the concept of Thailand. It is the best we can do right now, even if the food did not really taste like Thai food.

DB loves his lay and play, but it too will be put away all too soon. He is now scooting across the floor and is managing to grab things that I put out of reach. Bring out the baby gates and child safety locks. Sigh.

Glutton for Punishment

I am not delusional enough to believe people visit our blog to look at KB and myself. Let's face it, it is all about our cute kids, so I leave it them to be the face of our family. Also, if I do venture into talking directly about myself I generally try to avoid talking about my weight or appearance, because unless someone is really really funny, insecure or overly confident rants about one's appearances are usually really annoying more than anything. I do not think people consider me funny, so this post might fall into the category of lame. Sorry. This post is about my hair.

I have lived overseas for 3 1/2 years and had my hair cut in this country 5 times. All 5 times I have regretted it and vowed to never cut my hair in this country again. Alas, I just cannot seem to help myself. I am apparently too optimistic and continue to give them another shot at cutting my hair and it always turns out wrong. The most recent mistake was yesterday.

My hair has gotten long recently, like about halfway down my back. KB likes it because he has a thing for long hair, however he could see pass the longness of my hair to the fact that it was stringy and looking sparse. For the last three months my hair has been falling out like crazy. I expected this to happen since I lost hair like this after I gave birth to AB. I also expected I would need to cut it and planned accordingly. During our last visit to the capital I was planned to visit Tony and Guy, but our schedule did not allow it. So when I sat at our dining room table day after day starring at my stringy hair in the mirror during language class I decided I could not wait three months until we went back to the capital. It had to be cut immediately.

My language tutor set up an appointment at her salon and went with me. I told the guy I wanted my hair to be cut just below my collar bone and did not want any layers shorter than my chin. I said I did not want my hair thinned out since it was already very thin and under no circumstances did I want bangs. Tisk. Tisk. Tisk. Where did I go wrong? I know where I went wrong. I went against past Leslie's advice. FUTURE LESLIE, DON'T DO IT!!! The sad thing is, I know future Leslie won't listen. She will get her hair cut in East Asia again.

Basically, my hair was cut to just below my collar bone and feathered up to my chin. Yes, he had the audacity to feather my baby fine hair up to my chin. Ironically it is the exact same haircut I have had 2 other times. Both also disasters. The only difference is that this time I was thankfully not given bangs...well actually he did give me bangs, but they are long. He also curled my feathered hair under. It created a 2 layer triangle shape. It was bad and he was confused when I asked him to straighten it out. He said it was more beautiful curled and left it like that.

I have come to the conclusion that this haircut must be some sort of standard haircut. I cannot explain why three different men in 2 different cities would give me the same haircut (with different instructions and photos) each time. Tomorrow I am going to go back and have him cut off the feathered hair. My collar bone length hair will become chin length hair. I knew this was the inevitable outcome, but I just could not seem to help myself...and next year when my hair gets ridiculously long and stringy I will probably do it again.

Afternoon at the Park

Recently we once again visited the city park. Here are some highlight pics. I like this first picture because there is a random truck driving down the walking path and the passengers were a family, not park workers. I still do not know how they got in. We had to lift the stroller over several barriers just to get it in.

AB was proud of this leaf.

AB and daddy played this game of daddy hiding, AB finding him and then daddy throwing her up in the air. It was a hit.

After all that fun of getting tossed around, AB was in no mood to stand still and take a picture with mommy and DB.

Firsts

Here are some of DB's firsts -

First time he poop sprayed mommy. He was about 2 months old. Our friends who live here with us are probably not surprised about this at all. I am quite known for my fearlesness when changing my little boy...which leads me to picture #2.

This was recent and absolutely not the first time he wizzed on me (note the wet spot on my shirt).

This is the first time he met his new buddy Sami. Although Sami weighs as much as DB's older sister, they are just 3 little months apart in age. They plan to become great friends and are anxiously waiting for their newest little buddy Caleb to be born, maybe even this week!

First time to drink from a sippy cup. He has been drinking his sweet citrus reflux medication for 4 months now and I am afraid water was just too plain for him. He was not a fan.

First solid food. Although quite unconvinced he would like it on day one, it was a different story on day two. Now he cannot seem to get enough.

Few More

DB's battle wounds.

Usually Ikea gets it right, but their children's play area was definately lacking this time.
AB still managed to hurt herself on the one thing in the children's play area. As she was sliding down the slide, she put the brakes on and went over face first. It was one of those moments that you hold them close becuase they are in pain and also so they cannot see you laughing at what they just did to hurt themselves.

Relaxing.

Yep. She still cannot successfully count completely to 10 (five and nine apparently sound too similar) but she CAN type the password into my iPhone.

More Vacation Pics

I realize going to the hospital is not what most people would consider something fun to do on vacation. However I enjoy going to the international hospital almost as much as I enjoy going to Target...I miss you Target! Sigh. I think my appreciation for great hospitals grew exponentially after I visited some of the smaller local hospitals in our old city. They were scary, chaotic and intimidating. With that said, I know hospitals in the US are crazy expensive, but you get what you pay for and being able to see a great doctor in a clean hospital is a privilege I am glad we get to have. Below AB is hanging out, waiting for DB's well baby check-up. At this appointment we learned DB is still a little guy and will probably be a little guy for quite a while. However, he took his injections like a champ and tried to flirt with his doctor. What a heartbreaker!

Later that evening we went swimming.

Poor AB. She is so skinny that her little butt cheeks do not hold her bathing suit in place. I think this just might be AB's first wedgie pick ever.

DB's first dip in the pool. He liked it for about 5 minutes.

AB is freezing, and thank goodness we "accidentally" left that scary goat floatie at the hotel.

Vacation Pics

We spent far too much time in the hotel during our vacation, but DB did not seem to mind. In fact I think he prefers it to going all over the city.

AB is eating her oatmeal, and by the spots on the sofa it is safe to say she did not successfully get it all in her mouth. Thankfully it was easy to clean up.

While waiting for a taxi at our hotel, we watched the morning rush go on in front of us. Our hotel is conveniently located just 20 feet from a subway entrance. However the subway crowd insists on cutting through the hotel parking lot on their morning commute, so the hotel puts up a little barrier. It was there everyday we stayed at the hotel, so I believe it is safe to assume the barrier is always up. Therefore it humored us that the commuters seemed very surprised by it and consistently tripped over it, knocking it down. When it fell over it made a loud metal on rock sound. This occurred almost every couple minutes and it amused not only us, but the other people waiting for a taxi, and especially the hotel workers who no doubt witness this every single morning. I think they might have even had a bet going.

Since we were on vacation we treated our sweetie to a sweet while we killed some time at Starbucks between our doctor appointments.

Satisfied indeed!

Arrival

I think this is funny. Jo our helper told us she wanted to help us get to the train station the morning of our trip. We thought, "great!" She showed up at our apartment at 6:30am with a taxi waiting for us. She watched Avril and helped us get loaded. It was awesome. When we arrived at the train station she got out of the taxi and started to help us get inside. Then she helped us through "security" - a metal detector that no one monitors and up to our gate. I thought she was really going above and beyond the call of duty here, but if she was willing to help, I was going to take it.

After a while I asked her what she was going to do while we were out of town. She said she was taking the train to the capital too...I began to get concerned. That was when I also noticed her backpack; she never carries a backpack. I asked her where she would be staying - I was afraid she was going to say "with you." I began to fear a major breakdown in communication. Did we ask her to come with us and not know it? Are we paying for her trip? Fortunately she said in a hotel with her family. Whew! I asked when her what hotel? She said since our hotel was too expensive they would stay elsewhere. I love this culture's bluntness when it comes to money. Soon I noticed it was time board the train but her family was nowhere in sight. Eventually we had to leave her and hope her husband and son showed up before the train left. Fortunately they made it in time.

After arriving in the capital, Jo and her family met up with us after we got off the train. Jo strolled AB through the train station and her husband helped with our big-O suitcase. This was especially helpful since the escalators did not work (or were not turned on, which is very likely), but after living here for more than 3 years, this was expected and did not throw us off.

For reasons I have yet to figure out, we have to scan our tickets to get out of the train station. So, the couple thousand people riding on our train all needed to get through one of the 5 gates. Ironically the little scanners did not like the majority of the tickets. Most people just forced their way though or jumped over the gates. The workers did not care. They stood and watched. However with our stroller it was not possible. Eventually we rolled the thing under one of the gates. Below is a picture of me taking in this situation. In front of me are the gates that will not open, and Jo is in orange trying to get AB through.

After getting through the gates we said bye to Jo and her family. They told us the taxis were too expensive and headed for the subway. We actually think the subway is the best way to travel in this city. However with 2 kids, a stroller and a heavy suitcase, a taxi was for us. Unfortunately it was the choice for a lot of people that day. We got in line and began to realize the outlook was bleak. In the picture you can see a man in orange. He is at the front of the line and almost all of the people in the line were individual riders. We waited for almost 45 minutes for a taxi since the taxis trickled in one by one about 3-4 minutes apart. Our driver did not even want to take us, but our superhero, the taxi line guy, basically told him to have pity on us because we have 2 babies - they still consider AB a baby.

AB being a trooper while waiting in line. This stroller is great for traveling. It is light and has a carrying strap.

That evening we made it to one of our favorite restaurants in the entire country. If any of you come visit us, you too can eat there if you like : )

AB's poor face had a terrible allergic reaction to some misquito bites and then later sent her into a terrible chain of reactions to food she ate but was not previously allergic to. Fortunately we were in the capital and were given some awesome meds that have cleared it up nicely.

The Speedy Train

A week ago, against the advice of most of our local friends, we put our lives in the hands of Asian engineers that have now famously cut corners to build one of the world's fastest built bullet trains ever. We were scared, but alas our desire to not waste our tickets and the need to get to the capital was greater. Somehow we managed to score the best 1st class tickets on the entire train. We were in the last car (we are going backwards about 200 miles an hour) which only seats 5 people. Two of the seats were VIP and the other three were 1st class. Since we did not see the need for Internet connections and a flat screen on an hour and half train ride, we decided we would save the $100 and just ride first class. We generally avoid economy since in economy we get starred at like a monkey at a zoo. They also like to provoke us just as people like to provoke monkeys at a zoo. On the trains there seems to be a distinction between those who have had exposure to foreigners and those who have not, and that distinction is economy and first class.

That red suitcase with the neon strap is our most faithful of all our suitcases. It is a hard Samsonite and it goes everywhere with us. After our disastrous return trip from the US in March. We made a pact - we can only bring one personal bag per person capable of carrying a bag and one suitcase for the entire family. KB even went so far as to forget half of his shirts, you know, for the family. He had to wash his two shirts on this trip.

I looooove our iPad. It has so many great uses, but the greatest by far (in my book) is its ability to keep AB's attention for an entire train ride. Thanks friends for giving it to us!

Folks those are nice red leather seats and smelled like nice new red leather seats. However when we were done with them they were nice red leather seats with crumbs in the seams : )

All in all it was a very nice train ride and we are glad to have survived. However we have been sufficiently scolded by the majority of our friends for taking the train and might just fly next time. It costs almost the same.