Bag Boy

Does anyone else have problems with Blogger's new publishing page?  Sorry Sharon, it refuses to allow me to upload the pictures from your visit last month!

My son loves bags, shoes, play cell phones and, to AB's horror, her baby.  He usually carries AB's purse around in the crook of his arm.  I am not sure where he saw this demonstrated because since his birth my bag has been almost exclusively a baby bag, which in my case is a cross body bag. 

DB also likes to play-bake in AB's kitchen.  He puts on the play oven mitts, opens the play oven, and puts play food and dishes in and then takes them out when they are "done."  He also frequently steals my real oven mitts to play with, which has put me in a pickle when I needed to take something out of my real oven and could not find them. 

This picture shows four things:

1. AB loves to help DB.  This is usually fine and sweet but it becomes a little dangerous when she helps him climb things he should not climb. She does not realize she is unable to help him get down from those dangerous places and usually will just pull him down...ouch.

2.  DB is carrying his shoe which he brought to me to put on him.  He loves shoes and has always managed to keep the pairs intact. 

3.  Gosh he loves his backpack from Lolli!  Once he brings it to us to put it on him, he will wear it until we take it off of him.  KB is happier to see the backpack than the pink purse : )

4. DB still loves his pacifier.  I have decided he can keep it until he is 2.  It is a battle I am not willing to fight right now.  Do kids ever self-wean from them? 

Reading Together

Recently KB went out of town for what I think was the longest stretch of time we have been apart in 6 years.  It was during this time I severely lamented not having a car of some sort because getting out in the freezing weather to wait for a taxi that might never come seemed to take the wind out of my aspirations to be adventurous while KB was gone. 

So we stayed home almost the entire week, but thankfully the lure of seeing friends coaxed us out of the apartment a couple of times.  What did we do at home by ourselves for an entire week?  We mainly read books, took lots of bubble baths, played hide and seek, ate, played with Play Dough, put together puzzles, worked on pooing in the potty and many other exciting things.  When the kids went to bed, mommy stared at the wall while soaking in the bathtub until the water became cold.  I eventually started re-reading the Hunger Games. 

During the time KB was gone, the city shut off the heat that warms most people's homes 5 months out of the year.  It took a couple of days for the warmth to completely leave our home, but once it was gone it was apparent.  I let the kids stay in their fleece PJ's for the entire day the first few days.  We also somehow continually found ways to do activities while under blankets. 

One such day AB and DB had a rare moment cooperation and were happy to be near each other for more than a few seconds at a time (AB does not like to be crowded by anybody, and DB does not like AB messing with him - so she then really likes to mess with him).  AB has started to notice that many of her books come in sets, so she likes to get all the books out that are in one set.  She and DB spent about 10 minutes looking through the books together. 

In this first pic it is apparent that AB is still waking up from her recent nap.

Random Pics

Way back in January when we went to Thailand via the Capital, we visited the international hospital for the kid's check-ups and our dental visits. I love this dentist office. It feels like walking into a dentist office in the US, which I never thought would be very important until I visited a string of dentist offices with dentists and dental hygienists having questionable training and credentials. I also adore the dental hygienists who regularly cleans our teeth. She is great.

Since AB turned 3 in January, I thought it was time for her to get her first cleaning. We talked about it a lot in the weeks preceding, and let her watch me get my cleaning. AB did a wonderful job and afterwards her teeth were squeaky clean. Way to go AB!

This is DB and I on the speed train traveling to the capital. This was one of our "planes, trains and automobiles" trips.

The kids were lulled to sleep by the drive to the airport.OK. This is a cultural difference that all foreigners notice (I think) and find it to be quite different than our host cultures. People often bring their big fancy cameras to Ikea and take pictures of themselves and friends posing with the furniture. The most interesting part is the seriousness with which they take themselves. I would be so embarrassed to pose like a model with Ikea furniture so that every passerby can see me, but that type of self-consciousness must not plague these self proclaimed models. However, posing like a model for everyone to see is not the most unusual thing I have seen, every single time we have visited Ikea, we have walked by people out cold taking naps on the display couches, chairs and beds. This last time we found a grandfather who was apparently so overcome with the exhaustion that comes from taking care of a grandchild that he and his grandchild decided to inhabit one of the Ikea display rooms. The grandchild is sleeping in the toddler bed and as you can easily see the grandfather is under the white and purple duvet.

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.