Tent

One morning while Gigi and Grumpy were in town we built a tent out of old curtains.  This was a first for our kids - not sure what has taken us so long to do it, but the kids loved it.  

 We all got a kick out of how our hair reacted to the static in the tent.

Not one to be left out, Gigi's hair also got in on the static action.

Morning at the Park

While my parents visited last month the weather was still nice and the heat had not yet hit, so one morning we stuffed all our bodies into a taxi and headed over to our favorite park.  It really is a beautiful park - kind of like a botanical garden, and since it is nestled into a residential area, it is usually just visited by people living nearby. 

This was our attempt at a family picture.

My dad did his best.

This is the smile AB likes to give me when I tell her to smile - it totally looks fake.

Have I ever mentioned that for several reasons the school schedule here is a little different than in the West?  They start later, end later and have quite a bit of time off for the New Year - that is not really different from the West, but what will leave an American scratching their head is the fact that no one knows the exact date schools start or finish until a few days or day before it actually happens. There is a general "understood" calendar but nothing you can rely on with absolute accuracy. The day we went to the park school was supposedly still in session. However apparently a rogue local elementary let out a day or two early. Because as we approached the play area I grew a bit apprehensive as I heard a loud roar of kids happily (and some not so happily) playing.  So much for our quite morning at the park.

I feel like this picture can in no way capture the chaos that was this play area.  There were kids everywhere.  Since we came all that way to visit the park and really our kids probably have can only remember crowded parks, we just dove right in.  I was super proud of my dad.  If all those people phased him, he did not show it.  My dad is the tall one in khaki shorts, dark hat and grey shirt. 

The lady in white shirt and jeans with light brown hair that is taking pictures is my mom, well at least the back side of her. 

You can see KB helping AB cross the bridge.

My Little Guy

My little DB is 18 months old now.  As any mother might wonder, where has the time gone?  Thankfully he is still squishy in all the right places and generously comes to me several times a day just for me to hold him.  He says phrases such as "here you go" and tells me when he has a messy diaper by saying "ba-poo."  He is a pro at yelling "momma" and refers to most objects as "ball" - which is unfortunately not very helpful when he wants something other than a ball.  I love my little guy. 

My DB is also energetic.  He loooooves to climb on anything.  He likes to push our kitchen stool all over the apartment so he can reach those forbidden and wonderful things he wants so much.  Unfortunately my little climber also falls off of tall things a lot.  I am thankful we have "wooden" (fake) floors - as opposed to something less forgiving, but the sound of his head hitting the ground in his inevitable once-a-day tumble still sounds terrible. 

While my parents where here, one day DB was apparently ready for dinner and decided to help himself to the casserole cooling on the table.  I cannot blame him, the Ritz Crackers and butter topping is my favorite part too.  You can see in the first picture below that he actually put the food he grabbed on a plate...when you think about it, it was really was considerate of him to do that, or just plain precious.  You can see in the second picture that he seemed pretty proud of his accomplishment.  

Next to milk, bananas are his favorite.

Dash, the Glow Worm and the Wardrobe

Earlier today KB could not find DB, but when he walked into AB's room he heard something coming from her wardrobe.



Hi. It has been a while...

I have no excuses for my unplanned (more than) month-long break from posting.  I had some stuff going on, and since things are getting back to normal, here are a few recent pictures during all of that "stuff."

You might ask yourself (or not) "why is AB fully decked out in her pink princess outfit while sitting in our junk room/office?" 

Answer: She somehow felt the need to dress up to watch two men put their life in danger to install an air conditioner in our office.  You know, this situation somehow feels familiar...

Oh yea, it was just a couple weeks before that some other guys put their life in danger to repair one of our other air conditioners.  We live 5 stories up.

AB was there for that too.  Whenever our air conditioners seem to break one-by-one every single year, and one-by-one we (my helper) must call a repairman to come and fix them, I get nostalgic for central air and that one enormous unit that cools the whole home.  However, it is not too long after that I get smug when I remember I have the luxury of just moving to another room when one of my air conditioners breaks, and I get to sit without sweating while waiting for someone to come fix it for me.  Gosh I am lazy. 

"Uncle" J dropped in for a two day visit.  It was just like old times. 

I cannot seem to get enough of my dead asleep DB in the baby carrier pictures.  It is just so cute. To accomplish this picture I simply bent over on my (unmade) bed, unsnapped the carrier and he never moved.  His body is positioned exactly as it was when he was smashed up against me.  He was tired. 

My Mother's Day Gift

All you people living in America, just...don't even read this.  I do not want your pity, that is unless you are willing to contribute to my Dr. Pepper fund.  Dr. Pepper contributors and ex-pat friends, you may read on.

Look at what my wonderful husband gave me for Mother's Day, and because they were shipped over on a boat and will expire in 6 months, he has promised to buy me more so  that I can have a Dr. Pepper every week for a year.  Rocking thoughtful husband indeed.

Sharon and Photo Time

So, Sharon (KB's mom) has been to visit us twice this year.  For some reason during and just after her first visit I was unable to upload pictures from her visit, but I can now so here are a few.

The series of pictures below deserve and explanation.  Sharon wanted a picture of the family together.  Since I was probably still in my pajamas when this happened, I volunteered to take the picture.  Here is how it went down.

First they tried to coral the kids...

 ...they were not successful.

I like this picture of AB.  She is all ready to pose pretty.

Next, I managed to take 5, that is  F-I-V-E, pictures of Sharon, my kids, and my precious husband with his eyes closed.  I have posted all five pictures of KB with is eyes closed below for prosperity. 

Finally things began to unravel...

...and this was the last picture I took.  AB has clearly checked out. 

I am not sure if it was the subjects or my rocking photography skills, but it was because of this attempt at taking a family photo that we took Sharon and the kids to a real photographer when she came back the second time and came out with nice looking photos like this.  Slightly better for sure.

Swimming

In honor of our 7th wedding anniversary next week (wow), KB and I stayed without the kids at a swank hotel one night while Sharon was in town.  The next morning with the help of Zhou Mei, Sharon brought the kids up to the hotel for a swim before checkout.  It is by far the nicest pool I have swam in during our stay in this country, but it was also probably the coldest.  KB does not seem to mind the cold, but gosh I am a wiener.  I can never get past it.

DB was a bit suspicious of the cold water when I first dipped in his little toes, but once KB jumped in and splashed DB, as far as DB was concerned he was not getting in the water, ever. This first picture is DB just after KB splashed him.  Poor scared baby.

Tired of me coddling him, KB took DB from me and apparently DB did not think the water was any better once he was in it.  He takes after mommy.

However, this girl loved swimming so much that she still wanted to stay in even after she began shivering and her lips began to turn blue.  She takes after daddy.

Even after a while DB was still not happy with the cold and terrified to let go of his duck floatie.  We seriously had to pry his tiny ice-cold hands from the handles when we tried to get him out of it.

 This is how we spent a lot of time at the pool, KB taking care of DB and me trying to help AB blow bubbles and also trying (failing) in my attempts to teach her to hold her breath under water. 

 I guess when you only get to swim 2-3 times a year, it is a lot to expect of the kids to do the things they had no fear of doing last year.  Pity.

See this picture?  It is standard in our family that KB will ruin half of all of our family pictures by closing his eyes.  Too bad we only took one.

 In the end we got out of the pool because AB seriously needed to warm up and DB never got over his fear of the icy cold water (can't blame him).  Poor baby.

Getting Older

I added a 1 to my 30 a few weeks ago.  Dash decided to forgo giving me a drawing on paper and created artwork on his face instead.  He was so proud.

My friend and her helper made me a yummy cake and were gracious enough to only include characters that I can read.  

These guys were pretty excited about the cake.  Too bad AB did not eat all of her dinner and was only able to watch us eat our cake.  Seeing that this happens often, I would say she did not learn her lesson.

Fun Fact: There are some crazy candles here in our country.  I few years ago I was given a miniature Roman Candle that I thought was just a fancy, slightly scary, looking candle.  I lit it and it surprised me - here is the video 2009 Birthday Candle. This year our friends attempted to find another flame throwing candle, but alas they had to settle for a candle that plays "happy birthday" over and over again and the candle below which had colorful flames.  I still thought they were cool.

 A few days later KB and AB made me this cake together.  It too was yummy.