Project 365: 22-28

Day 22

A great thing about living in Bangkok is getting to catch up with friends that come through town to have babies and get new visas. In this case we were able to spend a couple of months with Eden's mom and dad while they were waiting for her to be born and now we get to see them every 10 weeks when they come to get a new visa.

Day 23

My afternoon commute varies from day to day. I have to get from our house to Asher's school and back. Today I took a motorcycle to the train station and I even got to wear a helmet. The temperatures are rising in Bangkok and I am starting to get a nice tan while waiting at stoplights.

Day 24

Jack's favorite sippy cup goes lots of places with us. A cup of water is all the boy needs to be entertained.

Day 25

Wednesday morning Baby Jack woke up screaming. And screaming. And screaming. He's normally a pretty calm little guy, so we knew something was wrong. We got dressed and I headed downtown to take him to the hospital. On the way I was talking to Mimi and she asked me to give Jack a kiss for her. Turns out he had a really bad ear infection and we got to spend Wednesday laying around recovering from our early morning.

Day 26

Roger was out of town for the day, so Jack and I took Asher to school on Thursday. They can be a handful as we join the throngs of people trying to get to work. After a walk, a motorcycle ride, a sky train ride and another motorcycle ride we made it to school.

Day 27

Playtime is always more fun at our house if there are several feet between Asher and Jack, but they love each other so much they just can't seem to stay apart. Or stop hitting each other.

Day 28

Let me tell you about great friends: they come to your house, bring you Krispy Kreme doughnuts and hang IKEA shelves in your kitchen. Asher has enjoyed having Macy and Selah (or as Asher calls them Racy and Baby Stella) in Bangkok for the past month and he was pretty sad to say goodbye to them tonight.

Project 365: 15-21

Day 15

Sunday my boys did what they usually do: eat everything they can get their little hands on and then say they are still hungry. I guess we eventually got their bellies full because they came home from church and both slept for 3 hours.

Day 16

We met some friends at the park near our old house. Asher loves playing with his new friend Macy (he thinks her name is Racy) because she loves to run just as much as he does.

Day 17

On the way to Asher's school I snapped a quick picture of some of our lovely Bangkok traffic. It wasn't too bad this day, but later in the week it was awful. Asher's school is in the very heart of the city, surrounded by towers and malls and all the craziness of Bangkok.

Day 18

Jack woke up with bed head and a goofy grin (or maybe that's more of a smirk).

Day 19

We survived our yearly trip to immigration. Something about having to sit in an immigration office for several hours with two little boys makes me start dreading this day weeks in advance.

Day 20

We love to go for walks in the afternoon after Asher gets home from school. We join all the other little kids and nannies strolling up and down our street or Asher finds some other little boys to kick a soccer ball with. Asher usually rides his bike, but since he lost his bike privileges he settled for pushing Jack in the stroller.

Day 21

We were headed out to run some errands and I caught Asher relaxing for just a second. I'm just sad this picture didn't capture his Lightning McQueen watch, Woody band-aid and big red necklace. He was well accessorized.

A Year of Brothers

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Project 365: 8-14

Day 8

Sunday we spent the morning at church. I always have to take lots of snacks with us so that I can feed my kids and be prepared to feed anyone else that might get hungry. Asher is well known at church for his amazing ability to put away gargantuan amounts of food during church and still eat a plate full of rice and veggies at lunch. Jack is on his way to being just like his brother.

Day 9

I love taking pictures of Baby Jack when he is asleep. Every time I walk into his room and find him asleep I take more pictures. His little baby toes are so precious and amazingly don't look too dirty in this picture (it was early in the day).

Day 10

Tuesday Roger started a new term of teaching and the boys and I enjoyed an evening at home playing cars. Asher's favorite thing is to do is play "bad traffics" by lining his cars up in a single file line. Can you tell he lives in Bangkok?

Day 11

We headed back out to IKEA on Wednesday to get a few more big things for our house. Jack and I stopped for a quick photo before the shopping adventure began. That boy has a big smile and some big front teeth.

Day 12

Sports day at Asher's school was quite the event. After the parade of flags and students, Asher's class participated in a race. Asher didn't finish first but we decided to celebrate anyway by stopping for an Iced Cocoa on the way home.

Day 13

Another sleeping Baby Jack picture. Seriously, I can't resist him and his chunky little legs.

Day 14

Thanks to Skype the boys can talk to their grandmothers quite frequently. Jack loves to giggle and show off for the camera and Asher loves to just talk.

Christmas 2011

This was a fun Christmas, really the first Christmas that Asher has gotten excited about. We started off the season strong with a Jesse Tree. Then Asher went back to school and we moved and that sort of fizzled out, but we still enjoyed our decorating (two times due to the move), playing with the nativity set and getting to see lots of Christmas trees around town.

Christmas Eve rolled around and Roger and I got to play Santa for the first time. We told Asher to leave some cookies out for Santa, he was confused about exactly who Santa was and why he got to eat cookies. After a few minutes of explanations and negotiations, Asher ate the cookies and we settled on Santa being the guy that would bring presents from Mimi and Granny in America all the way to Thailand. Forget the sleigh, he rode a big airplane.

Christmas morning we arranged all of the presents and got ready for the boys to wake up.

A few minutes later, we had this.

In between there was this.

After that we packed up everybody and headed to church to see our friend Ton get baptized.

Jack took off with some girls and had his picture taken a few times.

And then the boys tore up a couple of plates of rice and veggies.

To top off an already fabulous day some friends joined us for Christmas pancakes that night.

Project 365: 1-7

The last time I did a picture-a-day project Asher was a 10 month old baby and I captured him everyday for 8 weeks while we were training in Virginia. I have been wanting to do a similar project again, but just never found the time time to start. Now, thanks to a new phone (with a great camera) and a new year, I'm ready to begin.

My goal is a picture every day in 2012. So far they are all Instagram photos, but we will see if that continues. And, I know there are 366 days in 2012, I just needed to give myself at least a little cushion in case I have a day of forgetfulness.

Before we begin here are my main subjects for the year: The Hampton Boys on January 1, 2012.

Day 1

Asher eating pizza for dinner because we moved and we haven't bought a stove yet. It's all Thai food (and the occasional pizza) for us until we are ready to make another big purchase.

Day 2

Asher got a train set for Christmas, he spends a lot of time building tracks and driving trains.

Day 3

Still on New Year's holiday, we enjoyed a lazy morning on the couch (also known as our bed, we are waiting for IKEA to deliver our mattress). Baby boys in footy pajamas are a great start to any day and poor baby Jack must have just woken up.

Day 4

The holidays are over and Asher and Roger are back to school and work. Jack got in the baby carrier and we headed off to the store to get our groceries. A good baby carrier is one of the essentials for living in this city.

Day 5

Our new bed finally arrives! We have been waiting a long time to have our own bed in our own room and after months on the couch we are sleeping good.

Day 6

Our new house is at the very end of the Sky Train line and I enjoy always getting a seat before the train heads in to town and fills up with people. In the afternoons I enjoy a nice quiet, calm ride on the way to pick up Asher from school.

Day 7

Asher and I stopped by the neighborhood restaurant to pick up lunch. Asher, Jack and Roger all had pork omelets with rice, I had fried rice with chicken and an egg. While we were waiting Asher had to have a big glass of ice water and go looking for the neighborhood chickens.