Boy Oh Boy

That's right, there's going to be another boy at the Hampton House.


The ultrasound today showed us a healthy, growing baby boy. This one is a bit more modest than Asher, but we managed to get the proof we needed.

While this does mean I need to stop perusing Baby Gap for dresses I do finally feel justified in lugging every bit of Asher's baby clothing from Indonesia to Kentucky to Vancouver to Bangkok.


Trucks, snails, cars and dirt. I think having two boys is going to fun!

Another Kind of Bubble

Our new dishes arrived from Chiang Mai last week! I'm really excited about them because they are mine, they match and I will now have more than four plates. Really, it's the little things that make me happy.

Asher was also really excited about our new dishes because they came in a box full of bubble wrap. After we unwrapped all of the dishes we threw all of the bubble wrap on the floor and let him have some fun.

He jumped right in and had a blast jumping on the bubble wrap and rolling around in it.


In this picture he looks like he just got caught doing something bad.


The best part was that when he was finished he insisted on picking up all of the bubble wrap and putting it back in the box. We are saving it for when we move (not that we have plans to move, but we move a lot and I like to stay prepared) because in the past 3 years I have spent way too much money on bubble wrap.

Have I mentioned that Asher loves to pick up stuff and put it away? At church I have to watch him because he wants to pick up toys the whole time and he has a bit of a problem understanding that other kids want to play with the toys, not just put them away. The other moms at church know how much he loves to pick up toys so they always let him put away all of the toys after church.

Tomorrow we go to the doctor for a check up and an ULTRASOUND! We are hoping that we get to see if this baby is a boy or a girl. I will hopefully have an update and pictures soon.

The Dusit Zoo

Today was a holiday of some variety, never figured out exactly what it was, but that meant no school.


So we went to the zoo.

The last time we went to the zoo Asher was 8 months old and he slept while we looked at animals. This time he was wide awake and making animal noises.

Of course our first stop was to see the elephants.


He was scared to death.


It was understandable because the elephants were just right there and they were loud and excited. They kept running at the barrier trying to get more food. It was sort of sad because he really loves elephants, I just think they were a bit overwhelming in person.


We retreated away from the real elephants to the elephant statues.


Asher was thrilled and we spent a long time letting him "pet" the elephants statues. I think we actually had a bigger crowd watching Asher with the fake elephants than the real elephants did.

There really weren't a lot of animals at the zoo. In typical Asian fashion there were exhibits featuring exotic animals such as deer and skunks. We didn't even bother to stop and look.

Asher did love the monkeys. They were getting wild and Asher was screaming right along with them.


We ended our time at the zoo with a trip to our favorite exhibit.


Evidently we were the first people to put a white boy in that cage because again we drew a crowd. Asher certainly helped the situation by dancing and yelling car car.


This is Roger's favorite picture. Asher got out of the cage and saw the wheels, so he decided to push the car car. He seemed to be absolutely confounded as to why a car with wheels wouldn't move.


We made it home before nap time and spent the rest of the day asking Asher about the zoo. He must have forgotten about the elephants being scary because every time we asked about the zoo he would say "na na na" and get really excited.

A Boy and His Chaang

This Asher and his chaang (elephant). Chaang may very well be the only Thai word he really knows at this point. Well, he does know hello, goodbye and thank you and how to wai. He can't quite say chaang (it's a high tone for those that care), so he says "na na na" (and he says it correctly with a high tone).


The boy loves elephants. He can find them anywhere. Last week we stayed in a hotel with elephant statues in the lobby and he would start every day by running over, yelling "NA NA NA!" and kissing them.

This particular elephant is his favorite.


He carries it around the house and loves on it all day long. Recently Asher came into the kitchen, took a bowl and spoon and went back to the living room. I looked over to see him sitting on the couch with Chaang sharing a pretend bowl of snacks. So sweet!

17 Weeks

I'm pretty sure by this time in my pregnancy with Asher I had probably posted 17 separate belly pictures. Oh well. Here's the first and hopefully they will come weekly after this...we'll see.


I'm feeling good and everything seems to be moving right along. I'm still just wearing my regular clothes and waiting for my belly to get really big. I did wear a maternity shirt today, but I admit it had more to do with a lack of clean clothes than a need for a bigger shirt.

I think I have felt this new baby kicking a little lately, but I'm never quite sure. Soon enough I know I will be feeling kicks and pokes all over my belly.

I've started vaguely thinking of where everyone will sleep, but I can't really decide what will be best. Asher's bed can become a toddler bed, but then I need another crib. If Asher gives up his crib to the new baby I need either a toddler bed or some other bed for him to sleep on. Any suggestions from you all that have added another baby to your family? Either way Asher and the new baby will be sharing a room, we only have two bedrooms so this is a bit of a necessity.

In a little over a week we will hopefully find out if this is another precious boy or a sweet baby girl coming to join our family. We can't wait to find out!

Short and Spiky

We have been avoiding getting Asher's haircut because he hates getting it cut. He screams, he makes a scene, he acts like they are cutting off his head instead of his hair.

The other day I spotted a kids salon and we thought we would go check it out, after all the boy really needed to get his hair cut.


This place was wonderful. If your kid needs a haircut in BKK, I definitely recommend this place. It wasn't anything fancy, but the lady really knew how to work quickly and how to work with kids. It probably helped that she had a television. Asher was so good, he sat in my lap and watched Thomas the Train and only got squirmy when she trimmed around his ears.

We told her short, she suggested short and spiky. Here are the results.

The Aquarium, The River, The Tuk-Tuk and the Vacation That Wasn't

There is a big aquarium in the basement of one of the big malls in Bangkok. We have been wanting to check it out for a while and decided that we would wait until Mimi and Mel were with us. Asher has a DVD all about fish and the ocean, so he was very excited to see real fish at the aquarium. It was dark throughout most of the aquarium, so we didn't take many (good) pictures.




Oddly enough Asher's favorite part of the entire place was the musical about a horse and a mermaid. The whole thing was in Thai and he sat there like he understood and then wanted to go see the big horse when it was over.


We also enjoyed a boat ride down the river. We were cheap and instead of paying to take a tour we just hopped on one of the free hotel boats, rode down the river to a hotel and did some exploring near the hotel.


Outside of the hotel we found some tuk-tuks sitting around and decided to take Asher on his first tuk-tuk ride. We paid the guy about a dollar to drive us around for ten minutes. The longer we were in the tuk-tuk the more excited Asher became.




Definitely the best dollar I've spent in a while.


On the way back we checked out the super nice hotel lobby and the view of the river.




To end their time here we decided to drive down to the beach for the weekend. Hmm, how to sum up the beach weekend? Well we were back in Bangkok less than 12 hours after we left, we never saw the beach and for a while we thought Asher might have had a concussion.

We went swimming and Asher looked cute as always.


Then he slipped and fell on the super slippery tile that was everywhere by the pool and inside the house. Unfortunately he fell into the corner of a concrete wall and dented his head.

(No Pictures Available)

Because of that and a few other problems we decided to just head back home and enjoy our last few days of Mimi and Mel at home.

Five Years Later

Mimi graciously offered to keep Asher overnight so that Roger and I could celebrate our fifth anniversary. After spending weeks trying to decide what to do on our big night out we decided to be nostalgic and return to the Conrad Hotel where we stayed on our honeymoon.

Here we are on our Honeymoon in 2005.


And here we are in 2010.


When we checked in they found out it was our anniversary and soon afterwards chocolate and flowers arrived in our room.


We spent the evening eating some wonderful French food (we've wanted to eat French food ever since watching Julie and Julia), watching the season 4 finale of Lost and enjoying the view of the city from our room.


The next morning we slept in as late as we wanted to...until 7:30! Breakfast was wonderful and then our very best friend came to see us.




He brought Mimi and Mel with him and we all went swimming.


Asher splashed around with us for a while...


Then he found Uncle Mel and had even more fun.


You know it's been a good day when it ends with wrinkly toes!

The View From The Top

We had to do some touristy things while Mimi and Mel were here, so I took them to the top of the tallest hotel in the Kingdom of Thailand to see the city.


Of course Asher spent most of his time in the tuk-tuk. I should also mention that Asher has learned to say tuk-tuk and can spot one a mile off in heavy traffic.


This time he shared the tuk-tuk and let Mimi drive.


Asher posed for a picture with Mel.


Asher and Mimi posed for some traditional Thai pictures. Asher is a handsome little prince.


We out to the revolving sky deck, but Asher and Mel thought it was hot and bright, so we didn't stay too long.


Asher and Mimi went for a hot air balloon ride.



After that morning of excitement we had a very long ride home and everyone (except for me and Roger) took afternoon naps.

The end.