Project 365: 85-91

Day 85

March Madness is alive and well in Bangkok. Roger stayed up for the tipoff of the UK game at 1:40 am. I  decided to just sleep in my UK shirt. I will be up at 5:00 am tomorrow morning to watch THE GAME. Even though we both went to UofL we are true blue UK fans.

Day 86

Roger arranged for some babysitting and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and movie. Considering this was our bi-annual trip to the movies we splurged and went for the recliners in the nice theater. Hunger Games did not disappoint and a night out without the kids is always fun.

Day 87

These roses were the first part of our date from the night before. Roger picked them up on the way home and they are actually still looking pretty good after almost a week. Since there is no AC downstairs at our house the flowers tend to wilt very quickly.

Day 88

I tend to get a night a week to go out with friends for dinner or dessert and this dessert was enough to last me a whole week. We celebrated a birthday with Oreo cheesecake, regular cheesecake and a piece of chocolate fudge cake. There were four of us and only crumbs left at the end of the night.

Day 89

Have I mentioned that it's hot here? Hot season is starting and after a week of temps near 100 degrees I am already looking forward to the rains coming in June. My poor boys look like they just got out of the tub and all they were doing was sitting in front of the fan watching television.

Day 90

I sort of love and sort of hate bath time. I love it at the end when I have two clean boys, but I hate the process of getting them in the tub, washed and dried off. Everyone tends to get a bit dramatic in the evenings.

Day 91

I bought our yearly swimming pool. Seriously, it's our third hot season in Bangkok and our third pool. I'm not sure what happens to them, but every year I need a new one. I guess $5 plastic pools just aren't made for the long haul.

Around the Town

We sat at a red light for 22 minutes yesterday. 22 minutes and it never changed from red to green. The average commute time in the US is 21 minutes. The average commute time in Bangkok: 2 hours. I'm proud to say we have a shorter than average commute (most days).

While it was a long light, the boys didn't seem to notice. I guess that's sort of sad. They actually think it's normal to sit in traffic. Actually, they were very entertained by some new tubes of toothpaste. We have another friend heading back to the US and we are, as usual, inheriting the things she doesn't want to take home.

Hot season is here and along with that comes sweaty little boys. They look like they just got out of the tub even while sitting in front of the fan. Hot season also brings prime clothes drying times. I can get my diapers and blue jeans dry in mere minutes.

We had some new friends over today. Their little boy is 7 and Asher was so excited to get to play with a big kid. They had a blast running around the house playing all of those games little boys love to play.

After nap time Asher started crying because he couldn't open his door. I went up to see what the deal was and found he had managed to lock himself in his room. For some reason his room has three separate locks on the inside of the door. He got the bright idea to play with them and then he couldn't get them open. I spent a few minutes calmly talking to him, a few minutes freaking out and then he finally managed to unlock his door. Crisis averted. I had no idea how we would have gotten into his room.

Jack occasionally accidentally walks. Like at playgroup: he had his hands full of food and walked right across the room. Then he ate his snack and had his hands free, so he plopped back down and crawled back to the snack table.

After a rough few months Jack does appear to finally be healthy. After two ear infections and a case of salmonella that just wouldn't go away he has returned to his normal smily self. He also came out of all of that with 6 new teeth.

Project 365: 78-84

Day 78

We headed to the Train Park Sunday evening. It's this huge park right in the middle of all the skyscrapers and yes, it even has an old train. Our favorite thing is to rent bikes and ride around for a while before buying some amazing grilled chicken and heading home for dinner. This night we took a pit stop at the playground and let the boys climb around for awhile before we finished our bike ride.

Day 79

We are enjoying Asher's summer break (most of the time). The boys spent a whole morning playing in Asher's room. Jack's favorite part was sitting at Asher's little table. He thinks he is so big when he sits in that little chair.

Day 80

When Jack gets tired of trying to climb on top of the living room air conditioner he crawls on over to the bathroom and starts going at the toilet. He is obsessed with the toilet brush and every time I hear a little splash, splash I know where to find him.

Day 81

Asher got hold of the extra cell phone we keep for visiting friends to use. He was a little upset we didn't have an extra iPhone for him, but he was making do with the old Nokia.

Day 82

We headed up to our neighborhood restaurant to order our rice for lunch. It's rather rustic, with dirt floors and some old plastic stools at wooden tables, but the food is amazing.

Day 83

We had a bit of a traffic jam during playgroup. Asher sat behind Jack saying, "Red light Gack! Stop! Ok, green light. Go Gack. Go! GO! GO! GACK! GREEN LIGHT!" I intervened before Asher's road rage completely took over.

Day 84

Saturday morning we hit up the play place with some friends for a morning of air conditioned fun. Hot season is starting and we are becoming more and more appreciative of climate controlled activities.

Project 365: 71-77

Day 71

We had a very special plan for the afternoon. First, we got to ride a big bus. Asher got his own seat next to the window and he was so excited. I was a little worried that he might fall out the window. The bus took us to the big park so we could run around and go over a bunch of bridges. Then we took the big pink bus back home.

Day 72

Our new favorite snack is applesauce. I usually don't buy it because it's pretty pricey here, but lately apples have been on sale and we have been making big batches of homemade applesauce. Asher was a big helper, he poured in the sugar and helped me stir.

Day 73

The boys went exploring in the yard. Evidently our water tank was very fascinating and required a bit of attention.

Day 74

Asher has some beautiful eyes and some very long eyelashes. When Roger first saw this picture he didn't realize it was Asher, he thought it was a little girl.

Day 75

We got a babysitter for Jack and took Asher out for a special morning with mommy and daddy. We hit up the play place for some air-conditioned fun before heading over to one of our favorite restaurants for some pizza.

Day 76

We got up and enjoyed some March Madness with our breakfast. Kentucky won and Asher was excited about seeing the cars in the commercials.

Day 77

After seeing the picture earlier in the week of Asher's eyes, I wanted to get one of Jack. He has some big, blue eyes just like his big brother.

Project 365: 64-70

Day 64

We got a little bored on Sunday afternoon, but thanks to a friend I had a new idea to try out: mattress sliding. It was sort of fun, but really the boys got a bigger kick out of just seeing the mattress laying on the floor. We spent a while wrestling around on it and giggling.

Day 65

My purse is now filled with these little tickets from my newest mode of transportation: the bus. I know, I know. It has taken me two years to get brave enough to ride the bus. Actually, where we used to live the bus wasn't really an option, but now we live near a bus stop and it's an easy ride down the street to the train station. Asher loves that we can ride the bus and begs everyday to ride the bus home after school.

Day 66

I think you could call this picture "Uh-oh, it's 11 pm and I forgot to take a picture." Roger has a nice tie collection going these days. Good thing because he has to wear a tie to work almost everyday. If you know Roger then you know that he absolutely loves it.

Day 67

It's mango season (I think?) or at least there are suddenly lots of mangos at the store. I like to get the sour ones because they aren't juicy and I can hand them out as snacks wherever we go.

Day 68

Jack was fussy. Asher was being mean. I put Jack in the shopping cart and it made him a little less fussy, but didn't help Asher's mean-ness.

Day 69

Jack and I joined a new playgroup. I'm pretty excited about making some new friends and having something to do with Jack during the week. There was even a little girl in the group that has the same birthday as Jack! What was even weirder was that her big brother and Asher were born one day apart. I think we were meant to be friends.

Day 70

We broke out the finger paints on Saturday morning. Jack just ate his before rubbing it all in his hair. Asher painted a few masterpieces that he wants to hang up in his room.

Project 365: 57-63

Day 57

Ahh, at least in pictures it appears that they play happily together. Actually they are getting better and managing to play near each other without driving each other crazy. Unfortunately they just both love cars and bikes and like to play with the same thing at the same time.

Day 58

We went to a birthday party and came home with a lot of leftover Indonesian food. I forgot how much I love mie goreng and Jack seemed to like it quite a bit as well. It was fun being around Indonesians after being in Thailand for 2 years. My friend introduced me to her family and told them I could speak Indonesian and they went with it. I could understand the basics of what they were saying, but for the life of me could only respond in Thai. By the end of the party I did finally manage to answer a few questions and figure out that they used to live in Surabaya just like us.

Day 59

Jack's first taste of cow milk. He seemed to like it, but preferred pulling the straw out and squirting milk everywhere to actually drinking it. The next day we went for a sippy cup.

Day 60

I bought these stickers at Target when we were in the States last fall. Just pulling them out reminds me of how easy (and well decorated) life could be if I just lived near a Target.

Day 61

Asher's new bedtime song is How Great Thou Art. He likes to sing the chorus in Thai and since it's a simple chorus we can actually sing along with him. Pulling up bilingual lyrics at bedtime makes me thankful for iPhones.

Day 62

Jack and I needed to pick up a few specialty items (you know, like flour and bananas, stuff that the normal store just didn't have) so we headed to the fancier grocery store in the basement of the mall. We perused the organic olive oil selection, daydreamed while checking out the cheeses and then bought our fruit and took a motorcycle home.

Day 63

Another day and another fight over Asher's bike. Finally tonight we reached the compromise of Asher holding Jack while they rolled around the living room and kitchen. It actually worked and kept them both happy for a solid 5 minutes. Can't complain about that.