I'm Asher and He's Jack

Project 365: 22-28

2012-01-28T09:19:00.002-06:00

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

2012-01-21T08:55:00.003-06:00

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

2012-01-15T09:13:00.000-06:00

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Project 365: 8-14

2012-01-14T01:43:00.002-06:00

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

2012-01-08T06:37:00.002-06:00

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

2012-01-07T01:08:00.002-06:00

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, 2o12.

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.

12 Months

2012-01-02T02:35:00.003-06:00

Although I absolutely love having a picture of Jack every month, I am glad to be done with the project. I'm out of ideas and he's done sitting in one place.

Jack weighs 20 lbs. 5 oz. and is 29 inches tall. The boy loves to eat and will pretty much eat anything. Especially if the older Thai women are feeding him. I love watching everyone's face at church as this little baby boy puts away plates of rice and veggies and eggs. His current favorite foods seem to be Basil Chicken with rice and Pork Omelette with rice. Coincidentally these are mine and Asher's favorites as well. And as we saw at his birthday party, the boy loves cake.

He is still sleeping great, usually I have to wake him up in the mornings and from his morning nap.

I'm not sure when the boy will start walking. He crawls so fast that I think walking would really slow him down. Jack gets into everything. It's like he has a danger radar: if there's something on the ground that could hurt him he can find it (and then proceed to chew on it).

Looking back on the past year it's almost hard to imagine the tiny baby, that last year fit into his stocking, is now our big, sweet Baby Jack.

And, yes, he is still Baby Jack. He always will be.

The 2011 Picture in Front of the Tree

2011-12-28T09:01:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas!

For previous years see 2009 and 2010.

It's Your Party Baby Jack

2011-12-26T09:29:00.000-06:00

We celebrated Jack's 1st birthday last week with some friends and some cupcakes.

Mimi even joined up via skype so she could see some of the party.

I had to wake Jack up from his nap so we could start the party. He was a little sleepy at first.

I thought it would be fun to have a Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party, so we had a caterpillar cake and some snacks from the book. Confession: I've never read the book and I have no idea if these are really the same snacks, but I did like making the little signs for all of the food.

We also printed out all of Jack's monthly pictures so that everyone could see how much he has changed in the past year.

We sang Happy Birthday to Jack and then big brother Asher blew out the candle for him. Jack really didn't care about anything, but getting his hands into that bright icing.

Asher was very careful cupcake eater on his first birthday. I expected Jack to dig in and get dirty and he did not disappoint.

At first he just picked at the icing, but then he got going and didn't even stop to use his hands.

He was a very messy birthday boy.

But so sweet.

Happy Birthday Baby Jack!

The Last Time

2011-12-19T02:22:00.003-06:00

We started moving last Wednesday morning about 5:45 am. Why so early? Well, to beat the morning traffic that starts around 6:30 am and lasts until about 10 pm.

The first day Roger and a friend took two cargo van loads to the new house. We really don't have too much, so this got all of our furniture and most of our stuff. Since then we have been bringing a few things over at a time and buying everything we need to furnish this house.

Today we brought the final big load over, the boy's beds and our clothes. Yesterday the fridge was delivered, an AC was installed, the hot water heater was hooked up and the internet guy finally showed (two days late). Tonight we will spend our first night in our new home.

Last night the boys took their last baths at the old house.

First little brother.

Then big brother.

This morning Jack woke up early to go with me and drop Asher off at school. Jack's last time to sleep in his first home.

I guess with the job we have and the life we live we will continue to move often, but I think the hardest moves for me are when we leave a house that we brought a new baby home to. This makes home number 5 for Roger and I (Louisville, Surabaya, Vancouver, 1st Bangkok House, 2nd Bangkok House) and home number 4 for Asher.

So far we are loving the new house. Extra space, good Thai food near by, a little less traffic and there are kids everywhere! Pictures and more to come once the dust (literally) clears and we get our stuff unpacked.

Jack Loves Cake

2011-12-17T09:48:00.004-06:00

We celebrated Jack's 1st birthday yesterday with a party at our house. I'm still sorting through the pictures and videos, but here's a sneak peek of what's to come.

That boy, he loves cake.

Back to School

2011-12-10T02:35:00.002-06:00

Asher's back in school after a long break. We were a little nervous to send him back after having him at home with us for 10 weeks.

Tuesday morning he walked right back into school and took off running when he saw his teacher. He did give a little whimper when Roger started to leave, but actually ended up leaving Roger once he saw his friends were already on the playground.

Here's our little Thai school boy on his first day back.

Just so you know last May when he started school those shorts were well below his knees and during the past month he has grown out of his school shoes. Turns out it is really difficult to find school shoes unless it is the beginning of the school year. Jack and I finally hunted down a pair at a Big C five train stations away from our house.

The week went well. The main problem we faced was convincing Asher to come home from school each day. If it were up to him he would stay there all night to play on the playground with his friends and sing songs with his teacher.

Of course, Asher's favorite day of the week continues to be Jesus Shirt Day (also known as Thursday).

He found some red sunglasses in the toy box to really complete the ensemble.

The older Asher gets the more we learn about his school. He will know give us somewhat of a report at the end of the day. For example, we learned that he ate noodles for lunch everyday except Thursday, on Thursday he ate rice. Also, one of his friends threw up during nap time on Friday. At first Asher told us that he tried to throw up in his bed, after a few minutes of questioning we got to the real story. We additionally learned while singing Jingle Bells that he may have a friend named Bell because every time we sing that song he starts jabbering about, "that my friends name."

Sneak Peek

2011-12-07T08:40:00.000-06:00

Here's a sneak peek into our new house.

The house actually flooded a few weeks ago during the Great Bangkok Flood and we are waiting for the owner to get it cleaned up and do a few repairs. We are hoping to be moved in by the end of the year.

This is the main downstairs area. I guess the front part will be living room and the back part dining room. The house we live in now has lots of windows and not a lot of empty walls for hanging pictures. This house has lots of space for pictures and I am really excited about getting to display some of our new family photos.

Off the back of the main room is the kitchen. Lots of space for cooking, but it needs cabinets, a fridge, an oven and some counter space. That very back room you can see is the maid's room. We will probably just use it for storage. Our washing machine will also need go somewhere near here.

This is the downstairs bathroom. In a house full of boys we couldn't ask for anything better than a urinal in the bathroom. Nice touch.

This will be our office/guest room. I'm really excited about having a place for Roger to work and for people to stay. If you have visited us lately you know that our current guest room is our living room couch and our office is the kitchen table. With Roger starting to teach a lot more this will be a nice place for him to keep his materials and prepare for class.

Now on to the upstairs. This is the top of the stairs and the spot that is going to make me finally have to buy a baby gate. We've made it this far without having to ever buy all that baby-proofing stuff, but I'm pretty sure somebody will fall down these steps if we don't do something.

This is our bedroom. That little space in the back of the room will probably be our closet. We are soooo excited that Bangkok finally got an IKEA, it is going to make this move much more affordable. We are thinking we can buy some shelves and stuff to turn that little nook into a nice closet.

The other side of our bedroom and the bathroom. I really have this dream of one day living somewhere with bathroom cabinets, but I will settle for this nice set-up. If I turn the AC on in our bedroom I will be able to get out of the shower and not sweat! I am really very excited about this.

This is Jack's room. The perfect size for his crib and changing table.

Asher's room is pretty big and I am thinking it will look pretty empty with just his little toddler bed in it. If we still live here in a few years there will be plenty of room for the boys to have bunk beds and share this room.

As you can see it's completely empty and there's a lot we could do with it. Unfortunately we have no idea if we will be in this house for more than a year, so we are really in a weird spot as far as deciding how much work to do. We really would like to paint, but are going to hold off on putting in a bathtub or getting bathroom cabinets.

We will keep you updated as we move and get settled into our new home!

The Hampton Family Pictures

2011-12-05T08:21:00.003-06:00

While we were in the States we had a photographer friend take some family pictures for us. This was the first time we have ever had professional pictures taken of the boys.She did an amazing job. Thanks Makenzie!

Here's our current favorite, it has been framed and is hanging right by our front door.

This picture makes me want to get married again so we can have Makenzie take engagement pictures for us.

The boys are making funny faces (we were finished soon after this) but I still love this picture.

Another favorite that is already framed and displayed in the house.

We got a few pictures with Mimi.

And then we took some pictures with the train, this was by far Asher's favorite part of the day.

Check out her website: Makenzie Lynn Photography and give her a call if you are in Western KY!

The Latest Hampton House (Part 3)

2011-12-03T07:40:00.001-06:00

So, maybe a year ago I started a photo tour of our house. And then I had a baby, learned a new language and got really busy. Now a year later I really want to finish up this house tour because we just might be moving in the next few weeks.

Here's what we have already covered:

The Latest Hampton House (Part 1)

The Latest Hampton House (Part 2)

Here's Asher's room.

It's probably one of my favorite rooms in our whole house. Probably because it's one of the rooms we've done the most to make our own. When we moved in he had floral curtains (that were definitely not blackout) covering all of his windows. My neighbor took me to China Town, helped me pick out fabric and then made his curtains. Her husband went to the hardware store, bought the curtain rods and hung them up for me. I did help a little, I sewed about 100 key rings on the top of the curtains so we could hang them. I was very proud. Also incredibly blessed to have awesome neighbors.

Here's a picture of the other side of the room.

We got Asher's bed second-hand and almost everything else is from Target. Ideally I would have loved to have hung a bunch of pictures of cars, motorcycles, etc. on the wall above Asher's bed. But I think that wall must have been added after the house was built because it appears to have the consistency of cardboard and I'm pretty sure it couldn't hold much more than the one little sign that's already on it.

We actually had this changing table made at a local shop. We took a picture of two different tables we liked, told him we wanted it to be taller and gave the guy an extra sheet from Asher's bedding so he could make a cover for the cushion. He made it perfectly. Jack's cloth diapers live here and I think once we are done with diapers it will be a big toy shelf.

The boy's closet is a bit disorganized at the moment. It has good days and bad days. Since I try to buy all of their clothes in the US I have those storage bins at the bottom for storing clothes that are too big at the moment.

Now on to Jack's corner of our bedroom.

His sweet little crib is holding up well and he uses the same bumper that Asher had. I found those green storage cubes at Target and when we move Jack should have his own room and a place to put his stuff.

And, now the other side of the room. Formerly known as our bedroom, now known as a place to keep junk and feed the baby.

And finally our awkward little space at the top of the stairs. Easily the hottest place in our house and usually the messiest. This is where I throw junk, keep the dirty laundry and store our suitcases when we are threatened by flooding. See that big dest on the left? It's too big to fit down the stairs, same thing with that bookshelf in the back, so we are pretty much stuck with this set up. Oh well, it's a great storage area and we use it as a place for visitors to store their luggage.

Also, the home of our linen "closet" and our new towels. That video on YouTube demonstrating how to fold fitted sheets has seriously changed my life and these new towels we got at Target are amazing even when line dried.

Hopefully our series will continue with our new house in a few weeks! But seriously, I've been saying that for 18 months so try to not get your hopes up and then be really disappointed when it doesn't happen...again.

No Comments, Please.

2011-12-02T07:30:00.000-06:00

Jack wore this to church last week.

This is what they said to me:

Baby Jack is so sexy today.

Did you forget his shirt?

He's so pretty wearing girl clothes.

Really? I thought it was just a cute little duck outfit.

Eleven Months

2011-11-30T07:11:00.001-06:00

Month eleven has been pretty low-key for Baby Jack. Besides one new tooth (bring the total to 8) not a lot has happened. He's still not walking and he's still really good at crawling around and getting into things.

I'm not sure how much he weighs, but I am going to try really hard to finally make it to the doctor for his 9 month shots this week. I assume he still weighs around 18 pounds.

*Okay, I was almost right. He weighs 19 lbs (8.7 kg) and is 28 inches (71 cm) long.*

His new favorite thing is the dog.

He also has learned to jump up and down while holding on to the edge of the couch or a small table. When music comes on or he gets excited he really gets going.

The baby sign thing was pretty easy to start with him. I signed "milk" and then held up a cup. He signed "milk" and then took the cup. We pretty much use that sign for anything in a cup. And really I think he uses it whenever he wants something to eat or drink. I keep trying to teach him to sign "more" but he prefers to stick to his own language and just bang his hands on his tray until we give him what he wants.

The boy loves to eat and will pretty much eat anything. I prefer for him to feed himself and I think he likes that, too.

Jack is still all baby and since he is my baby I think it will be a long time before he looks like a big boy to me. This next month should be fun as we celebrate his birthday and see if he will walk as early as Asher did.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-28T06:58:00.002-06:00

We hosted our second annual Bangkok Thanksgiving Feast at our home last week. We had almost an entirely new crew after a lot of turnover and moving around from last years group.

The food was plentiful (an un-photographed) and the company was wonderful.

I decided to finally make something from Pinterest, the famous Thankful Tree.

And another shot because we just got a "copy" of Lightroom and it's so much fun to play around with all of the presets.

This is Asher's new friend Emma. He calls her "My Emma" and I think that's just too sweet.

After all the food was eaten we caught an action shot of Asher all crazy from eating nothing but pumpkin cookies for dinner and all of the adults in their post-feast food coma.

We can't blame this on the turkey because this year we had chicken. Turkeys at the store near my house started around $65.

Somehow we got a decent picture of all the kiddos.

And a pretty good picture of the four of us. Jack was newcomer at this year's Thanksgiving Dinner.

Breaking News: The Dog

2011-11-27T08:31:00.002-06:00

Turns out the dog speaks Thai.

Roger tells him "sit" and the dog just looks at him. Or occasionally collapses on the floor and goes to sleep.

Roger tells him "sit" and offers him a treat and the dog still just looks at him.

Our friend En came over and tells the dog "nang" and the dog sits.

Then just to make it better she says "kaah muuh" and the dog shakes hands.

No joke. Just turns out we have dog that doesn't speak English yet.

Meet Oatmeal

2011-11-25T09:58:00.002-06:00

This is Oatmeal, our new dog.

He's a 9 month old Yorkie/Pomeranian. Which, yes, means that he is in fact a Yuranian.

Obviously he has some new buddies.

Asher goes back and forth from loving him to being terrified of him.

Jack just plays with him like he's another baby. They crawl around together, poke each other and chew on stuff together.

We let Asher name him and of all things he named him after his favorite breakfast food, oatmeal.

Here's Oatmeal's best trick: being a mop.

So far, he's a good puppy and pretty calm. He doesn't bark very much and doesn't seem to mind that he is constantly getting poked, prodded and stepped on by various members of our family. He did appear to have an adverse reaction to Target brand Puffs which is unfortunate because, well, we eat a lot of Puffs around here.

Here's a video from Oatmeal's first morning at our house. After sniffing Jack's bootie he started to get settled into his new home.

Buddies

2011-11-23T09:47:00.002-06:00

These two hit it off when we met up in Nashville. I think next time they are together it will be here in Bangkok. We can't wait for the Jacksons to join us on this side of the globe!

Some Asher Faces

2011-11-16T07:35:00.002-06:00

One day Asher woke up from his nap with some serious bed-head.

Amazing, right?

While the camera was out Roger decided to take a few more pictures of his sweet 3 year old face.

If you are wondering what Asher's been up to lately, here's an update.

Due to the flood all schools have been closed in Bangkok for the past month. That means between our trip to the States and the flood Asher has been out of school for two solid months. I think we are all pretty excited that he starts back on Monday. During his extended fall break he has spent lots of time driving cars, bugging Jack, eating, running around outside barefoot, going to IKEA, reading books and learning the letter A. We've done some crafts (he loves glue and otherwise could care less about crafts) and we've taken lots of big rides in the car.

Asher weighs 15 kilos now and sort of thinks he's a big boy. Recently he's been a big fan of drinking water from water bottles, but has decided he doesn't want to drink milk. Pumpkin butter and toast are one of his new favorite snacks and his current favorite fruit is Dragon Fruit. He still prefers rice or noodles to most other kinds of food and will do almost anything for a glass of juice or a chocolate chip.

He still takes a long afternoon nap most days, usually he will sleep for close to 3 hours. Thanks to his new alarm clock he will stay in his bed until he sees the green light come on in the mornings and at the end of his nap.

Almost everyday we talk about flying on the airplane to America. He especially likes to recount the beginning of our trip when the airport car picked us up and took up to the airport, and then we got to get on a big bus, and then a big airplane, and then Asher sleep on the airplane, and Asher eat on the airplane, and Asher poop on the airplane! I think it was a life changing trip for him.

After such a long break from school I wondered how his Thai would be, but during dinner tonight he showed us all that he can understand everything we are saying. One of our friends was asking us (in Thai) when Asher's school would open and he answered her before we could.

Asher is such a sweet boy and a sometimes-fabulous-sometimes-terrifying big brother. He's a mess.

Shopping Carts and Babies

2011-11-09T09:45:00.001-06:00

Here's some fun that the boys had while visiting Mimi and Granny.

Mimi obtained a shopping cart for the boys to play with at her house. After Asher spent some time pretend shopping at Big C (sort of like Wal-Mart) for 3-in-1 (sort of like coffee) he went shopping for a Baby Jack.

They both loved giggling as they went up and down the hall in the shopping cart. I chased them back and forth the whole time convinced that Asher was going to have one of his little "moments" and decide to dump Jack out of the cart.

The night before we left America we got out some pliers and pulled the shopping cart apart and packed it in our suitcase. It may seem silly to bring back something like that, but we felt quite justified when we went by the toy store the other day and found a similar cart priced at close to $50.

In case you were wondering we also brought back a disassembled bike, a play stroller, 4 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, Duplo blocks and squash seeds. Plus most of Target.

Granny had a great surprise for Asher when we first got to her house. Actually, her first surprise was a new Lightning McQueen. Then she brought out three wooden cars that were Roger's when he was a little boy. A few days later Asher started carrying them around calling them his babies. So, I did what any mother of boys would do. I got out my sling, put it on Asher and showed him how to carry his "babies" just like Mommy.

I only regret that I didn't get a picture of him "feeding" his babies when they got hungry. It's not often that you see a 3 year old boy attempting to nurse a wooden car.

An Update From (a partially flooded) Bangkok

2011-11-07T09:09:00.002-06:00

Well, the flooding continues in Bangkok.

Did you even know it was flooding here? If you look outside our house you wouldn't know. But a few miles from here there is water washing away neighborhood after neighborhood.

Here's a video that's very popular around here. It's in Thai with English subtitles and does a good job of explaining just what we are dealing with.

Remember how we were supposed to finally move to a wonderful Thai neighborhood? But then we just went on vacation to America instead? It was a great neighborhood. And a fantastic house. It had 3 bedrooms, which meant that Roger and I would actually have our very own room!

Well, we didn't move before we left because it seemed silly to pay rent and not even live there. And then this flood thing started. It wasn't anywhere near that house for a few weeks. We even talked to the landlord and began getting ready to move. Then the water started moving and moving and moving. Now that part of town is under almost a meter of water.

Here's a few links if you are interested in what is going on around here:

Crisis Chic - Bangkok is a very fashionable place and like this site says, "Style shouldn't go out the window, just 'cause water's coming in."

Bangkok Post - An English language newspaper, but really you can't believe much of what they say.

Bangkok Under Water - Amazing photos from around the city.

Do My Shoes Match This Flood? - Roger says the shoe of choice among relief workers are Crocs. They dry fast and still protect the bottoms of your feet.

Other Tidbits:

We are sitting tight at our house waiting to see if the water makes it this far. We've been told to expect everything from a meter of water to nothing at all.

After two weeks of bottled water shortages we are able to sometimes find water in stores. Luckily we still have our trusty lady on the side of the road that somehow always has water for sale. Our home delivery of drinking water was suspended almost a month ago and the tap water is getting yellower by the day.

Roger went with a group from our church last week to deliver supplies and food to a community near the city. This community was under almost 2 meters of water. After riding in cars, trucks and boats they finally were able to tie up to a dock built at a 7/11 and pass out bags of food to those living there. Millions of people in the city are being displaced by the flooding. Our church (and many others) are housing people and using the flood as an opportunity for outreach.

10 Months

2011-11-02T08:02:00.003-05:00

Well, after another long day of flying, Baby Jack made it back to Bangkok to celebrate turning 10 months old.

He is all over the place! Jack can crawl pretty fast and when he really gets going he does this funny one legged crawl. He pulls up on everything and can sort of take a few steps while holding onto the edge of the bed or the couch. Although he is far more mobile than Asher was at this age, I think he will walk later. Probably because Asher spent a lot of time roaming around in a walker and Jack's walker got all moldy when we were in the States.

Jack loves to get into stuff. He tries to take toys from Asher, he pulls over garbage cans and he has been known to pull up on the toilet and try to stick his hands right into the water. He's also been caught a few times in various dog bowls going after food and water.

I've mostly stopped making baby food and I've just been giving Jack small pieces of whatever we are eating. So far we haven't found anything he doesn't like. For breakfast I can give him a whole banana and he will just eat it. It's sort of funny to watch the whole thing just disappear. He also loves dragon fruit, carrots and rice (of course).

When we left Bangkok at the end of September Jack had two teeth. By the time we got back last week he had 7. Of course, they are all in various stages of breaking through and this has left him looking a little lop-sided at times.

After a rough month of jet-lag and sleeping with me, Jack has turned a corner and has become quite the little sleeper. I don't have to rock him to sleep anymore and he's been taking good naps. I did enjoy having a snuggly baby to keep me warm in America, but it is nice to know that he can fall sleep on his own.

Jack is such a content little guy. He loves to just sit and play. He loves toys and he loves trash. Anything can keep that little guy entertained.

So I Never Forget...

2011-10-31T03:14:00.002-05:00

...that Baby Jack's toes are so chubby he has one toe that sticks up in the air.

At Mimi's House

2011-10-29T08:09:00.002-05:00

While we were at Mimi's house we took advantage of the wonderfully clean air and the fabulously cool temperatures and spent a lot of time playing outside.

Oddly enough, some of that playing involved a ball from Thailand.

Asher loved having all of that green space to play in.

And I loved that we could wear long sleeves! I think fall clothes are so fun.

Mimi borrowed a bike from a friend and Asher spent hours going up and down the driveway.

He also waved for a taxi to stop and pick him up. He was sad to learn that there are no taxis in America.

Baby Jack enjoyed the outdoors as well. Most of his time was spent watching Asher or trying to eat leaves and fingers.

Jack really learned to pull up and stand up while we were in America.

Welcome Back to Bangkok, We're Having a Flood

2011-10-26T08:33:00.002-05:00

Well, we survived 29 hours of travel with two little boys to arrive back in a panic-filled Bangkok full of sandbags and void of bottled water.

We were thinking ahead when we left the States and brought instant noodles, granola bars, Pop-Tarts and a few other supplies with us. Our main problem was trying to find bottled water. Store after store had empty shelves, but by the end of the day we found a lady on the side of the road selling water. We bought a bunch from her and started boiling water at home.

We didn't have a problem buying food earlier this week, although tonight Roger went by the store and found mostly empty shelves. For now we are well supplied with eggs, peanut butter, crackers, bread, fruit and meat. And Girl Scout cookies. I mean, what crisis can't be made better by Girl Scout Cookies.

Besides our food and water we have filled all of our extra containers with tap water for bathing and flushing, charged all of our electronics and made sure we have plenty of diapers. And, speaking of diapers, I have found a major disadvantage of using cloth diapers. They are not too handy when you don't know if you will have water or electricity to wash them.

So, for now we are hanging out in Bangkok. Watching Thai news, following breaking news on Twitter and praying for the best while preparing for the worst. So far we haven't seen any flood water, but we hear that may change tonight or tomorrow or this weekend or last weekend or next week or sometime during the next month.

Well, for now me and my 108 bottles of water are going to get some rest. Below is a video about what has caused the floods. It's in Thai, but has English subtitles.

Uncle Mel

2011-10-20T22:21:00.003-05:00

One of Asher's favorite things about America...Uncle Mel!

Mel and Asher went to Chuck E. Cheese.

They took pictures.

Rode rides.

Played games.

Ran around and giggled.

After all of that fun, they headed home to spend some time driving the golf cart around the yard.

Play Time

2011-10-09T09:35:00.002-05:00

Last week I took the boys with me to visit some high school friends and all of their kids. We had 5 mamas and 9 kids...the oldest was 3 and the youngest was 3 months. It was a crazy morning and it definitely didn't leave us much time to talk, but we had a blast watching all of the kids run/toddle/crawl/roll around the house. There pacifiers, goldfish and sippy cups getting passed around and lots of diapers that needed to be changed.

We managed to get 8 of the 9 kids on the couch for a picture.

And I managed to get pictures of those 8 before we left.

Alex, 3.5 years.

Asher, 3 years.

Emmett, 2.5 years.

Olivia, 2 years.

Carson, 18 months.

Elyse, 15 months.

Jack, 9 months.

Grayson, 4 months.

Luke, 3 months, didn't make it into any of the pictures. He was giving his mama a nice break and taking a nap.

When we were last in America Olivia was about 1 week old, Asher was 1 year old and Alex was 18 months. What a difference 2 years makes!

9 Months

2011-10-06T19:42:00.002-05:00

The last month has been crazy for Baby Jack! He has gotten 3 new teeth, flown 10,000 miles and learned to move.

Jack is crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything. We always find him standing up in his crib. Like in the middle of the night. Or the middle of nap time. Not so fun, but it is fun to watch him explore and get into stuff. Asher was in full time childcare when he started crawling, so we didn't really get to see him go through this stage as much.

Jack weighs about 17.5 lbs and still has chunky thighs. He was sleeping great before we left Bangkok. Most nights he would sleep 7:30 pm - 8:30 am and take two good naps. I think one reason he has been sleeping so good is that he now has his own room. Unfortunately this means that Roger and I don't have a room to sleep in. So we sleep downstairs on the couch. Totally worth it. And we have an amazingly comfortable couch.

He's still a good eater. I made some baby food and he likes to eat that, but most of the time we have just been giving him little pieces of rice and whatever we are eating. Dragon fruit has been the big favorite lately along with some little rice cakes that we bought at the park.

Jack was pretty easy on the flight over to America. He mostly slept and grabbed stuff. And one time he flipped my entire meal tray on the ground. Oops. Hopefully the return trip will be just as easy.

Asher's (3rd) Big Day

2011-09-25T03:45:00.000-05:00

We had a blast celebrating Asher’s birthday this year. Here are some pictures from the big day so you can follow along and see what we did.

There was, of course, much talk about the big birthday the night before. Asher was pretty excited about going to his “Happy Birthday to you.” I think most of his excitement came from the mention of cupcakes.

I made cupcakes to take to Asher’s school. I was going to splurge and buy the box of cake mix and the tub of frosting. But then I saw how much it cost and I turned to my best source for all thing baking: The Pioneer Woman.

We went to Asher’s school at the end of the day and created chaos when we took cupcakes into a room of two and three year olds.

Asher’s teachers got all of the kids gathered around the table and broke out the candles.

After clearly establishing that Asher is 3 years old one of the teachers lit 4 candles. I still haven’t figured that one out.

All of the teachers and Asher’s friends sang Happy Birthday to him and then one of his favorite teachers prayed for him.

Baby Jack came along for the festivities. He alternated between screaming when he was whisked away from me and giggling because he absolutely loves it when Thai women start going crazy over him.

Asher had to give cupcakes to Roger and I first. This confused all of us, very contrary to the American idea of the birthday boy being the one to go first.

After he served us and his classmates he was taken around to serve cupcakes to all of his special teacher friends. Evidently being the only white boy in school makes you quite popular.

Cupcakes can get pretty messy.

A few of Asher’s school friends. If you look at the far right side of the picture you can see the back of a mullet. That mullet belongs to a boy named Big Boss. Seriously.

School clothes and school shoes.

Asher’s class. Big Boss is on the far left.

Asher and his favorite teacher. He calls her Khum Khum.

Asher and his other teacher. She looks friendly in this picture, but I feel like I am constantly disappointing her. Asher seems to like her.

After school Asher found some presents in his room.

Of course, little brother got in on the excitement.

To end the day of celebration we had waffles and juice with a few friends. I think that might have been Asher’s favorite part of the whole day.

And We're Off...

2011-09-23T01:35:00.002-05:00

The Boy is 3

2011-09-20T08:18:00.001-05:00

I can't believe that this boy is 3!

Happy Birthday Asher Boy!

Jack and Jill and Pictures from July

2011-09-12T09:52:00.003-05:00

One of our volunteers this summer was a photographer.

Her name is Jill. She may be one of the funniest people I know.

Jack and Jill.

Of course there is much to be photographed around these parts.

Mostly my kids.

And the beach.

But she took a few pictures of the Thai life, too.

Jill: I will go ahead and apologize now if I shouldn't have stolen your pictures from your blog and posted them on my blog.

The Friends

2011-09-08T10:58:00.002-05:00

Most recently our dear friends Sarah and Woody have held the title of "The Friends." They celebrated their 5th anniversary by coming all the way to Bangkok to sleep on our couch (and go to Phuket).

They played with Baby Jack and introduced him to the iPad.

There are no pictures of them with Asher, but they made quite the impression. Asher even hugged Woody before they headed back to Chicago.

We had a blast taking them to our favorite restaurants, going to get massages and spending lots of time sitting around talking.

The highlight of their trip (for us) was a big date night. We got a babysitter and set off to conquer Bangkok. Or to go to dinner.

Roger and Sarah got the camera ready for some pre-date photos.

Oh, how sweet. It's just like college. Only now we are all married and we live in big cities.

Roger and Woody still accidentally dress alike, just like they did when they were roommates. At least this time it was just matching shoes (bought on opposite sides of the world) and not matching jeans, polos and jackets.

We took them to dinner at Your Mom's House, our absolute favorite fancy-ish Thai place to eat.

They tried to take creative photos of their beverages while Roger and I attacked our food. It's like even though there were no kiddos with us we still ate as quickly as we could before anyone started crying.

After dinner we headed to the Sky Bar to check out the best view of Bangkok.

Amazing.

And even more amazing that these two were here with us!

Mother's Day 2011

2011-09-04T09:17:00.003-05:00

Mother's Day was like a month ago...oops.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun celebrating Mother's Day this year. Last year Roger sent me to the super nice spa for a maternity massage day. Lunch by the pool included.

This year I got to celebrate two times.

First, I celebrated at Asher's school. They had a Mother's Day programs that basically consisted of all the older kids singing and dancing while Asher's class sat with their parents and watched. Roger had to work and luckily I had friend come with me to entertain Jack. Overall: pretty boring. But next year when Asher is on stage it will be the most amazing thing ever.

The next day the celebration continued. Since Mother's Day is a public holiday Roger did not have to work and Asher didn't have school. After nap time Asher and Roger went and got me roses!

Jack didn't get invited on the trip to go get the flowers, but he volunteered to take a picture with me.

We finally found Asher driving the Own Car and he (sort of) joined us for a picture.

We ended the day with a trip to the mall in the Own Car (that only happens on holidays due to traffic jams) and dinner at Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen is Asher's most favorite place to eat because they have hot dogs and booths that overlook a busy road. Car and hot dogs! What more could Asher ask for!

8 Months

2011-09-01T07:43:00.003-05:00

Baby Jack is 8 months old! We haven't been to the doctor recently, but I would say he's still pretty chunky and probably a little bit longer than last month.

He can't quite crawl, but he can get around. For now he's sticking to the scoot-flop, but I think crawling will be soon. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth before throwing himself towards what he wants.

I still haven't found a food that the boy doesn't like. Tonight he had homemade banana ice cream for the first time and it was a big hit (calling it homemade is a bit misleading, click here for the recipe). Sarah and Woody brought us some of those wonderful Puffs and Jack figured out how to feed himself pretty quickly. Puffs have changed my life. I get to eat dinner without Jack crying and trying to steal my food.

Sleep has been a bit of an issue over the past few weeks. Jack has been sick several times and really hasn't been sleeping well. The other night Roger and I finally gave up and moved downstairs and let Jack cry himself to sleep. Since then we have slept downstairs on the couch and Jack has slept all night long in our bedroom. I guess he was waking up during the night and seeing us and crying. Either way, I am very thankful for a comfortable couch and we are praying even harder that we can find a place with three bedrooms.

Four of Jack's top teeth are coming in. It looks like the right side will be through any day. This has definitely made him fussy (or at least we are blaming the fussiness on teething).

Enjoy a video of Baby Jack trying to crawl!

Asher's Songs

2011-08-28T10:22:00.002-05:00

Friday night we had Asher perform his favorite songs for us. Enjoy this video of him singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Jesus Loves Me, The ABC Song and The Chaang (Elephant) Song.

One of my favorite parts of the video is when Asher sings, "Jesus loves me this I noor." Every time he says the exact same thing. I also like that he just grunts through the middle of the alphabet.

The Chaang Song has been a favorite for a long time now. Roger and I learned the words a few weeks ago and I think Asher learned them at school.

Sunday Morning

2011-08-26T11:01:00.002-05:00

Now that we have a car (an Own Car* in AsherSpeak) our Sunday mornings are a bit more leisurely. Instead of rushing out the door to jump on a motorcycle or a taxi or the train we just jump in the Own Car and drive to church.

Last week found us with matching clothes and some time to kill before we left for church.

Asher in his Car Bear* shirt.

Asher even took a picture with me because on this day taking pictures be so much fun*.

Asher Boy* and Baby Gack* both wore Car Bear shirts.

Daddy tickled Baby Gack and got a big smile.

All of the boys wore matching shirts. I don't think any of The Friends* at church even noticed.

Glossary

Own Car: a vehicle for personal use, originally referring to Mimi having her own car, most importantly this means a car that is not a taxi.

Car Bear: the Brennan Bear from Baby Gap that Granny bought for Asher before he was born, currently the bear rides in the back of the Own Car with Asher and is used to distract him while we sit in Bangkok's notorious traffic.

Be so much fun: Basically how Asher describes anything that he likes, very popular with our summer volunteers who often describe things on facebook by saying, "it be so much fun."

Asher Boy: how Asher refers to himself due to the fact that he does not yet understand pronouns, also to make sure we know that Asher is a boy and not a baby like Jack.

Baby Gack: how Asher refers to Jack.

The Friends: anybody that Asher knows, we have The Friends at school, The Friends at church and The Friends that come from America to visit us, most commonly this refers to our summer volunteers.

Around Our House

2011-08-20T07:23:00.002-05:00

Our washer is outside in a little building next to our house, so as I was making my hourly trek from upstairs to outside with the laundry I just threw Jack in with the clothes. Saved a little bit of time and kept poor Baby Jack from having to cry when he couldn't see me.

Jack can't quite crawl yet, but he tries. He can occasionally get up on his knees and he was getting pretty good at grabbing the top of the crib and trying to pull himself up. That made me nervous, so Roger had to move the crib down to the lowest level. This was one of Jack's last times to sleep in the crib when it was still up high.

Jack has huge eyes. On Friday I was helping a friend run errands and we had to stop by a local church. One of the church staff came out to say hi and see Jack. The first thing she said: his eyes are too big and pretty for a boy, he should be a girl. Thanks.

August 12 was Mother's Day in Thailand. Asher's school had a program and he was supposed to wear handsome clothes. We actually had him in the right outfit on the right day. He willingly wore a button down, jeans, socks and shoes. This is the child that normally refuses anything besides shorts, t-shirt and sandals.

Asher and Jack post-Mother's Day program. Asher loves his little brother and Jack thinks Asher is the funniest person on earth.

Jack loves his walker. He spends a lot of time following us around, trying to get in the trash can and looking out the front door.

Asher has a great smile. And he has pointy canine teeth. Often Thai people will see him smile and say "wampie." Eventually we figured out this meant "vampire."

The Past Few Weeks

2011-08-06T03:31:00.003-05:00

We've been sick around here the past few weeks. It's like as soon as one person gets well another person gets sick. And on and on it goes.

Jack and I have been the most recent victims, but I think we are finally on the mend. Our most recent round has included croup for Jack and a stomach virus for me.

I blame Asher. He goes to school and brings home all this little preschool germs. But, the thing is these are not normal preschool germs, they are Thai preschool germs, unlike any these Americans have ever experienced. Somehow Asher usually gets the mildest illness and Roger and I get it the worse.

After so many weeks of having sick people around we are really behind. I haven't studied Thai in two weeks, Roger has been teaching a government English class and has yet to go to class healthy. The house is a wreck, the clothes are not clean. But, we have had plenty of time to sit on the couch and watch movies. That was definitely the best part of being sick.

In one of our non-sick moments we had some friends over. Braidynn and Asher spent quite a bit of time together when we were in Vancouver. Now they each have a little brother to hold. I think Jack looks like a giant baby next to sweet little Aben.

Now I'm off to re-wash my laundry (it got rained on) and get ready for another day.

Asher's Big Balloon

2011-08-04T06:45:00.002-05:00

Ahh, Daddy's out of town. Just Mama and her baby boys at home. Driving cars, doing laundry, reading books and playing all day long.

Here's what was going on earlier this week while Roger was up north picking up our car.

Jack's Guide

2011-07-31T10:06:00.002-05:00

Jack's Guide to Keeping a Chunky Baby Extra Chunky

Feed them.

The end.

7 Months

2011-07-28T09:48:00.002-05:00

Jack is getting so big! I think his legs get chunkier every single day. Today he weighed an even 8 kilos (17 lbs 10 oz), almost the same as Asher at this age.

As chunky as Jack is he's still mostly getting by on milk. He's been eating solid food once a day, unless we are busy. Then he doesn't get any. Oh, the second child. So far, Jack loves it all. He's had carrots, pears, avocados and a little bit of rice. I tried to make sweet potatoes for him, but I think I bought something that wasn't a sweet potato. Perhaps it was a giant piece of ginger. I'm still not sure. Green vegetables are the most difficult to get here. There's no green beans or green peas to be found. I did, however, find three jars of baby food at the store last week. $3 a jar! Crazy! Not to mention I paid $2 for one avocado. Luckily we have lots of wonderfully fresh fruit around.

Jack's new favorite toy is his walker. He is just like his big brother, he absolutely loves rolling around the house. And just like Asher, he likes to get under the kitchen table and play.

One day after nap time we took the walker and Asher's bike outside and had a great time. Asher and Jack loved rolling around chasing each other and banging into each other.

Jack's newest skill is screeching and screaming when he doesn't get his way. This, of course, goes hand in hand with Asher's newest skill of bugging the snot out of his brother. See below for an excellent example: Asher rammed into Jack therefore Jack squealed.

Night time sleep has been an issue for the past few weeks. Jack does not like to go to bed. Once he gets to sleep it's fine, but lately it has taken a very long time to get him to sleep. I think it was mostly because of all the craziness that came from having 13 college students around all summer. Things seem to be getting back on track, Jack even took a 2 hour nap this afternoon.

Jack hasn't figured out how to crawl yet, but he can pretty much scoot around on his belly to get where he needs to go. I think he will be crawling soon. And I think we will all be in trouble when that happens.

More Beach Pictures

2011-07-26T10:35:00.002-05:00

Did I mention that one of our recent visitors is a photographer? She snapped a few pictures of us on the beach last week. I edited them, so, Jill, I am so sorry if I have ruined all of your wonderful pictures.

Frisbee with Daddy

2011-07-24T09:52:00.002-05:00

We took our volunteer group down to the beach last weekend. The weekend was filled with sun and sand and swimming and frisbee.

Asher joined Daddy for a little frisbee fun.

Being 2 did not stop Asher from thinking he could play frisbee like a college student.

As Asher loves to say, "Oh Daddy! It be so much fun!"

Of course, I think Roger had just as much fun as Asher.

The Grand Palace

2011-07-20T08:53:00.003-05:00

While Mimi was here we decided to go check out The Grand Palace. Besides being the most famous touristy place it is also the hottest touristy place. And the hotness is only intensified by the dress code: pants and closed toe shoes. We had some good sweaty fun, but I am not planning on going back anytime soon.

Mama and Jack.

Daddy came with us, too!

The famous Emerald Buddha.

Jack finally escaped the carrier.

Of course, he was soon captured by a group of Chinese tourists so that they could take pictures with him. (We were at a gas station earlier this week with some volunteers when a Thai woman walked up, asked for Jack and then took him back to her food stand while she finished making drinks for the other customers. The volunteers asked if this was normal, I assured them that it was completely normal for strangers to walk off with my baby.)

Jack was returned to Mimi after the photographers were finished with him.

And a family photo. Asher was at school so he didn't come with us.

Thank you photoshop, Asher was able to join us after all.

More from Asher's School

2011-07-09T09:53:00.002-05:00

We are about two months into the first term and Asher is still loving his school. He's been going 3 or 4 days a week just depending on what we have going on. Some weeks he goes everyday, but that leaves him pretty worn out by Friday afternoon.

Asher and his friends in their classroom. He's the little white boy on the right.

His favorite day of school is Thursday because he gets to wear his Jesus shirt (sports outfit) and his Jesus shirt shoes (white shoes). He also likes Fridays more now that we bought him a new Thai outfit to wear. It's a little more comfortable and fits better. I was getting used to seeing Lightning McQueen underwear on Friday afternoons because his pants were always falling off of him.

So, you know those stereotypical immigrant parents? The ones that dress sort of funny, talk sort of funny and always seem clueless? Yeah, that's us.

For example, a few weeks ago they had a special day called "Wai the Teacher and Bring the Teacher a Flower Day." Basically the day was like teacher's appreciation day except instead of gift cards you were supposed to bring the teacher a flower. So, we were confused about which day it was and didn't send him to school with a flower. Oh well, he's 2, he doesn't care. Turns out this always happens on a Thursday. Never, ever would this occur on a Friday.

So, the next Thursday was another special day. It was "Health Check Day." There was nothing we needed to do, but we read carefully. We knew it was happening. The day before (on Wednesday) Asher's teacher made a big production of telling Roger something. He heard, "Wear polite clothes tomorrow." In reality she said, "We are checking health tomorrow." In Thai those two things sound a lot alike. Like, polite is "soo-phap" and health is "soo-kha-phap" (I think). We are talking one little vowel sound. So, while the other two hundred students showed up on Thursday in their Jesus shirts for "Health Check Day" Asher showed up in his normal uniform. We had no idea what she could mean by polite clothes, we figured his normal uniform was much more polite than his sports uniform. Again, oops, he's 2, he has no idea that he looks different (okay, more different, he is the only white kid).

Asher getting his "soo-kha-phap" checked while wearing his "soo-phap" uniform.

Then, the next Thursday was "Dental Health Check Day." We didn't mess anything up. Asher got a new tube of toothpaste. Victory.

Some Pictures

2011-07-06T20:40:00.002-05:00

Here are two pictures of my two favorite baby boys.

And a picture from our night our with Mimi.

We left the boys at home with a friend and took Mimi to hip, new Thai restaurant near the river. It's always fun to get dressed up and leave the boys at home! We tried to give Mimi the full Bangkok experience that night, including a ride on a motorcycle taxi during rush hour.

The Baby Club

2011-06-28T10:42:00.003-05:00

Jack and I had a pool date with Rebecca and Daniel a few weeks ago. We got everybody all sun-protected and spent a good 15 minutes in the Thailand sun before retreating to the shade (and eventually indoors so the babies could eat).

Jack and Daniel had a baby conference concerning this water bottle.

They both looked up at the same time, so we got a good picture of them. I think they look like complete opposites.

Daniel and his mom are heading back to the States soon. Jack and I are going to miss them so much!

6 Months

2011-06-28T09:39:00.005-05:00

This has been a big month for Baby Jack. He started sitting up, he started eating a little bit of food other than milk and he got two teeth. He weighs 7.4 kg (16 lbs 5 oz) and is 67 cm (26 inches) long.

The sitting up started several weeks ago. I sat him up and he didn't fall over. We still have to keep the Boppy around him because he sees a toy, dives for the toy, crashes and knocks his head on the hard floors. Either that or he sees Asher and just gets so excited he falls over.

He is also trying to crawl. He flips to his belly the instant he gets put down and is pretty good at turning in circles and scooting backwards. I don't think it will be long before he is chasing Asher around the house.

Jack's first food ended up being papaya. We went to lunch and had some papaya. I had been reading about Baby Led Weaning and decided to just give Jack a piece and see what happened. He gnawed on it for a while, ate a little bit and was quite pleased with himself. Since then we have given him cucumbers, carrots and avocado. I think he really likes having food to play with while we are eating and the cold carrots seemed to feel good on his new teeth.

So, these new teeth. I had no idea the boy was about to grow teeth. Last Thursday afternoon I checked and he still didn't have any teeth. He was fussy from getting some vaccines (or so I thought) and I rocked him to sleep so he could get some rest. An hour later he woke up with a tooth. The next morning he woke up with his second tooth.

Baby Jack is still sleeping good and has fallen into a little bit of a schedule. He wakes up around 7:30 and then takes a morning nap about an hour later. Normally he will sleep for an hour and a half or two hours. After that he will stay awake until around 12:30 and then take another 2 hour nap. He needs to take another little snooze before bedtime, but it usually doesn't happen. Bedtime is around 7 or 7:30 and typically we don't hear from him during the night.

Jack's favorite person is still Asher. He absolutely loves being around him. I can't wait until he gets a little bigger and they can really play together.

And did I mention he also met Tom Cruise?

Let It Start With Me

2011-06-19T09:59:00.002-05:00

Here's a video showing some of the amazing city and wonderful people that are around us everyday. Check our this crazy place we live in and see some of the people we get to work with.

Some Pictures of Asher

2011-06-10T08:59:00.002-05:00

The insanity that is our living room on a rainy day.

Stuck at home with nothing that needs to be done. Asher had a blast getting out the blocks and the cars and taking Baby Jack's play mat and throwing it across the room.

The best way to watch TV with Daddy.

When Asher really gets into a movie (currently Toy Story 2) he loves to cuddle with whoever is closest to him.

An Asher Video

2011-06-02T02:37:00.002-05:00

Here's a video Roger made last night while I was at the airport picking up Mimi.

A few notes on the video:

1. Asher with his finger up his nose. What?!? That was so random. I don't think I've ever seen him do that before, but it was hilarious.

2. The singing is a new thing. We think he sings lots of songs at school.

3. The crazy babbling is him starting to learn a new language (we think). It's like when he was a baby and he was just learning English, you can hear all the different sounds and tones that go into making up Thai.

4. He throws in a few random Thai phrases that pretty much mean "and then..." and "do you agree?"

5. I don't know where he picked up "see you a minute" but he says it all the time.

Asher Boy

2011-05-29T10:27:00.002-05:00

Asher, Asher, Asher. He's a handful these days. He can be so sweet and so funny and he can be, well, a two year old. Two year olds seem to be quite dramatic.

He is potty-trained I suppose. I guess I should say that my definition of potty-trained is wearing underwear when he is awake. I have absolutely no interest in dealing with pee while he is asleep. After dreading the whole potty thing for a long time we finally took the plunge and it was pretty easy. I put him in underwear, gave him lots to drink and then he yelled POTTY! We went to the bathroom, he went potty and that was that. There were also M&M's and a stuffed bear in underwear involved in the process.

There have been a few accidents here and there. There have definitely been some fits about not wanting to actually have to go to the bathroom, but we are dealing with it. Most of the accidents happen at school and I'm not sure if that's because Asher is busy and doesn't remember or because Asher yells POTTY at a teacher that doesn't speak English.

At this point I really don't care if he sleeps in diapers until he goes to middle school or at least until it's not rainy season and I have a chance of getting sheets to dry quickly. We are really proud of him for catching on to the whole thing so quickly and we are constantly amazed at just how long he can hold it when he really needs to finish playing cars/watching a movie/eating/riding his bike.

Way to go Asher Boy!

Fridays

2011-05-27T07:43:00.002-05:00

Fridays are Thai outfit day at Asher's school. The first week Asher didn't have an outfit, but some friends from church took care of us and made sure he had what he needed.

He wasn't too happy about the new outfit when he first put it on. He's finally gotten used to all of his other school clothes and didn't appreciate having another new thing forced on him.

Of course, he forgot about it soon enough and was just excited about going to school.

And finally, some Photoshop fun.

5 Months

2011-05-23T10:31:00.004-05:00

Here's a rambling update and lots of pictures of Baby Jack at 5 months old.

Baby Jack is getting so big and chunky that his legs keep getting stuck in the Bumbo chair. I'm not sure how much he weighs now, but it's definitely more than he did a month ago.

He drools and likes to have something to chew on all the time. His hands are preferred, but he will sometimes chew on his toys if he can get them into his mouth.

We spend our afternoons studying Thai with Jay. She loves Jack and Jack seems to like her quite a bit, too. The rest of the day is spent playing and occasionally making the journey to pick up Asher from school. Wednesday's have become our special play date day with Baby Daniel. Jack and Daniel love to look at each other and giggle.

This month we started using cloth diapers at night. I didn't think they could last the whole night, but they actually do better than the disposables. During the day I try to use the cloth as much as I can. I think I need a few more diapers so that I can not run out of clean diapers while washing the dirty ones.

Jack can roll over when he really wants to get something and he is getting closer to being able to sit up on his own. He is pushing up higher and higher when he's on his belly and he tries to grab and bat at everything near him.

Still no teeth and no solid food, but I'm really not in a hurry for either. I'm pretty satisfied with Jack staying little and low maintenance for a while longer.

He is sleeping better than he was a few weeks ago. At night he always sleeps good and he usually will take at least one long nap and a few shorter naps each day. I keep trying to get him on a schedule, but things are always changing and it's been hard to be consistent with his nap times. I did try to take him out of the swaddle blanket recently. After a few nights of him waking up a lot we decided he wasn't quite ready to sleep with his arms free.

Jack's favorite things are getting tickled by Daddy and being near Asher. He is always giggling when he is around those two.

School Days

2011-05-22T07:47:00.003-05:00

The new term started last week and we sent Asher off to school again. He was so excited to get to go back and see his teachers.

The first day of school he wore his regular school uniform.

The second day of school was a sports day, so he wore his sports uniform.

His school logo is picture of Jesus with some children, so Asher refers to his sports shirt as his Jay-sus shirt and his backpack as his Jay-sus packpack. He has somehow picked up this strange accent, it's like he's an old southern preacher/rapper. Throw in the tonal sounds of Thai and he has some pretty unique ways of saying words.

Asher says....paints. Asher means...pants.

Asher says...heeer. Asher means...hair.

Asher says...Jay-sus. Asher means...Jesus.

Asher says...turn it on. Asher means...Tylenol.

Asher says...buur. Asher means...bear.

Asher says...hainds. Asher means...hands.

Anyway, he's doing good at school. When Roger picked him up he pointed out some of his friends and told us he ate noodles and chocolate. Actually he tells us that everyday, but I don't really believe him. I think they eat rice, too.

On the potty training front, Asher has been doing pretty good while ate school. I think he's only had one accident at school and I'm not sure if it was a language problem or just an accident. I tried to teach him some Thai words about going to the bathroom, but he made it pretty clear that I was not allowed to try and speak Thai with him.

Because we're brothers. And we sorta like each other.

2011-05-16T08:57:00.004-05:00

It's fun to watch Asher and Jack start to act more like brothers. Jack smiles and giggles every time he sees Asher. Asher must know where Jack is and what he is doing every second of the day. Of course, the other side of being brothers is the fighting over toys. Anytime Jack can get close enough he grabs whatever Asher is playing with and sticks it in his mouth. This, of course, irritates Asher to no end.

I guess Asher finally got tired of Jack taking cars from him and decided that Jack just needed to start playing. He asked me to put Jack on the bed and he went and got two trucks and started telling Jack exactly what to do.

Asher drive big truck and Baby Gack drive dis truck.

No Gack, no drive dat way. Drive dis way.

Jack already thinks Asher is the greatest thing ever. Asher also thinks Asher is the greatest thing ever.

The other night we stuck Jack in bed with Asher after bath time. Asher was afraid Jack was going to snatch his blanket and dog. He had good reason to be worried, Jack grabs that stuff anytime it's near him.

Little Brother

2011-05-15T10:06:00.003-05:00

It seems like the Little Brother is starting to get a little bigger.

January

May

Fun at a Park and Other News

2011-05-09T10:23:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday night we went to a new park on the other side of the city. After a train ride and a long, hot walk we finally found it. Jack rode in the baby carrier and Asher rode in the stroller. When we got to the park I took Jack out of the carrier and had to walk around with a sweaty imprint of him on my shirt. If you look carefully you can see it in the picture.

The reason we went all the way to this park was to rent a bicycle. Roger and Asher got a bike and had a blast riding around. I think in the picture Asher was yelling "Go Daddy go!" in a not so patient voice.

While they were enjoying their bike ride Jack and I strolled around, ate some fruit and sat on a bench by the pond.

In other news, school starts next week. Asher finished up his summer school term and has been enjoying a nice break at home with me and Baby Gack. Asher loves his school, loves his teacher and loves eating.

We now have Asher's uniforms (with his name sewn on the front) and we have his black school shoes, still need to get white shoes for sports day and socks. Next Wednesday Asher will join millions of other Thai school children on the first day of Term 1, Year 2554 (Thailand even has it's own years).

In even more news, Asher is potty trained. He's such a perfectionist. He refused and refused and refused the past few months and then all the sudden he was like, okay, got it. And that was that. It was very typically Asher.

And in Jack news, well, nothing new to report. He's still chunky and sweet and he has really big eyes.

Show Us Your Life - Favorite Vacation Spots

2011-05-06T01:46:00.003-05:00

This week's Show Us Your Life topic at Kelly's Korner is favorite vacation spots. We love vacation and we love Bali, I thought it was the perfect time to reminisce about some of our past trips.

We have taken several trips to our favorite vacation spot, Bali! We used to live a short (30 minute) flight from there. Here are some the links that tell about our trips.

Our first trip to Bali was to attend some work meetings and celebrate our 2nd anniversary. We stayed in a hotel in Nusa Dua.

Part 1

Part 2

Vacation

Our second trip was a long anticipated vacation that took place the day after we found out we were expecting our first child. We stayed in a villa in Seminyak.

Family Trip

Our third trip to Bali was when my mom and brother were visiting and I was about 27 weeks pregnant. We stayed in a different villa in Seminyak.

And our last trip was when our baby boy was just 6 weeks old. We went with some friends and stayed in a villa in Seminyak.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Now that we live in Bangkok we are a little further from Bali, but we are hoping to take a nice family vacation there sometime in the next year.

Easter Pictures

2011-05-01T08:34:00.004-05:00

Easter pictures! And only a week late!

Asher and Jack before church in their Easter outfits. Thanks Mimi!

The annual family Easter picture. This year's actually turned out pretty good compared to some from the past (see 2010, 2009, 2008).

Later that afternoon the boys all sat down together for a picture. Thanks to Photoshop I was able to put together two different pictures so it appears that Asher and Roger were both smiling at the same time. Baby Jack was just in his own little world.

Asher was being sweet to Baby Jack.

We finally got Jack to look at the camera. Actually, I think I finally moved the camera to where Jack was looking.

Daddy and Asher after a rather intense round of Run and Kick the Ball.

Soft & Sweet

2011-04-30T03:15:00.000-05:00

This week's photo challenge at I Heart Faces is Soft & Sweet. Of course, I thought of this picture of Baby Jack when he was just a few hours old.

I think the most amazing thing about this picture is that it required no editing. Roger took some amazing shots of Jack over the first few days, but I think this is one of my favorites.

Baby Jack's Hospital Adventure

2011-04-29T07:33:00.000-05:00

Jack and I had a crazy 24 hours earlier this week.

It all started after a late afternoon nap. Jack woke up and I put him down to play while I finished up dinner. I heard him start making some sad little moans and when I went to check on him he was super hot. We took his temperature and it had gone from normal to almost 103 in about ten minutes. Little guy looked awful and felt awful, he wouldn't even eat.

After a quick call to the doctor we headed to the hospital to get Jack checked out. Of course, this was rush hour in Bangkok and it was just about to rain. I grabbed Jack and a bag (remembered the Kindle, forgot the diapers) and ran to try and get a taxi before the rain started. I found a taxi, but he didn't want to take me all the way to our hospital because of the traffic. I held up the sick Baby Jack and he quickly changed his mind.

The monsoon came almost as soon as we were in the taxi. I was glad I didn't try to get to the train. During the hour (HOUR!) it took us to get to the hospital Jack just moaned and lay in my arms. We had one of Bangkok's most talkative taxi drivers. He told me all about his family and his village. At one point he even pulled out a Buddhism brochure and gave me a lecture on something about good karma and his new taxi car. I really need to study more Thai. Finally he got us close to the hospital and told me I was better off walking in the rain than waiting for the taxi to make it. So, off across six lanes of stopped traffic I went with a burning hot infant. I splashed through some puddles and made it to the children's clinic.

Our doctor had already left, but the doctor on call checked Jack out (high fever, dehydrated), asked how traffic was (awful) and decided that it would be best if we just spent the night at the hospital to make sure Jack didn't have any of those weird mosquito/tropical illnesses. I absolutely love our hospital. As soon as the doctor said we were staying 4 nurses and a customer service lady popped in the room. They gave Jack a sponge bath, some more tylenol and had him admitted before I had time to dig my phone out of my bag and call Roger. Ten minutes later we were up in our room with an IV started and blood drawn.

Jack perked back up after about an hour of fluids and finally started eating again. The test results came back a little later and showed that Jack had some kind of infection, so they started some antibiotics. After a long night of watching his fever go down I woke up to see my happy Baby Jack looking a little more lively. The doctor came by and said he thought he would be just fine, but he wanted us to stay the rest of the day so Jack could get another dose of his antibiotics. Jack slept almost all day and by the time the doctor came by to discharge us he was pretty much back to normal.

Here are some pictures of my sweet boy that I took while we were hanging out at the hospital.

Awake one minute.

Asleep the next.

4 Months

2011-04-27T09:23:00.001-05:00

Daddy and Baby Jack had a little time alone one morning while Asher and I went to the grocery store. After they finished smiling and giggling at each other they decided to get the camera out and make sure Jack had a picture at 4 months old.

Jack weighs 14 lbs. 2 oz. (6.4 kg) and is 25 inches long (63.5 cm). He loves to smile and giggle, especially if he sees Asher. He has rolled from his belly to his back two times, both times it was to see Asher. He's so close to being able to roll over from his back to his belly, but he hasn't quite made it yet.

Baby Jack is still sleeping great at night. He goes to bed right after Asher, around 7:30 pm, I feed him when I go to bed and sleeps until 7 am the next morning. We are making progress with his naps, the hardest part is just not always being at home for him to sleep. His first morning nap is always good and lately he's taken a good afternoon nap as well. Usually we are gone during his second morning nap, but he will usually sleep in the carrier for a little while. The biggest change in the past month (actually the past week) is the discovery of Baby Jack's blanket.

It's just like Asher's blanket, just a different color. I gave it to Jack one day while he was laying on his play mat and I was studying Thai. I looked over a few minutes later and Jack had snuggled up to the blanket and gone to sleep. Since then he has taken some wonderfully long naps holding on to his blanket.

Jack has gotten pretty good at putting his hands and toys into his mouth. He loves to suck and chew on his fingers, his blanket and any toy that he can get close to his mouth. The Bumbo chair is getting a lot more use these days, Jack sits in it while we eat or play outside.

Baby Jack is still the most laid back baby and he almost always smiles at everyone we pass. When we stroll around I always hear people saying the Thai word for "doll" as they come over and squeeze his fat little cheeks.

Friends From All Over

2011-04-24T09:44:00.004-05:00

Almost five years ago Roger and I went off to Virginia for a few months of training before moving overseas. While we were in Virginia we lived in a dorm, stayed up late playing cards and made some great friends. At the end of our training time we all said good-bye with plans to meet up later on the other side of the world.

Well, five years later several of us ended up in Bangkok and decided to get together to catch up and eat pizza. And let all of our kids run wild.

Five years ago none of us had children. Now there are five little ones that were born in three different countries. What a difference a few years makes.

(All of the little girls were going crazy with all of our cars and trucks. Asher and Jack seemed to be very unimpressed with everything and everyone).

Asher's First Day of School

2011-04-18T08:00:00.003-05:00

This morning Asher got up and ate his oatmeal and got ready for his first day of school.

He was very excited about going to school, but I think it was mostly because he knew that he would get to ride a motorcycle and the train to get there.

The night before Roger made a name tag for Asher's backpack.

We managed to get a few quick pictures with Baby Jack and Mama before he ran out the door with Daddy.

He was so happy to get to go with Daddy, he smiled and skipped all the way down the street.

Asher loves to ride motorcycles, so this was the perfect way to start his day.

Roger said that Asher cried when he left him with his teacher, but a few hours later when he went to pick him up he was sitting in a circle playing with some new friends.

The Teacher's Report: He didn't cry after Roger left, he was very good, he wouldn't let anybody help him eat, he's really good at eating.

Asher's Report: School! Wash hands! Eat noodles! Motorcycle! Train! Go back to school?

Overall I would say it was a very successful first day of school. Asher will actually be going to school everyday for the next two weeks (it's summer term), but when the regular school year starts in May he will probably only go a few days a week. Also, in May he will wear the little Thai preschool uniform. He looks so sweet in it! Roger said that his backpack alone got a lot of stares today, I can't imagine what it will be like when he's in his uniform.

As for me and Baby Jack, we just hung around the house. I did some cleaning, caught up on some reports for work and enjoyed being able to walk outside to hang up laundry without finding Asher's shoes, putting on Asher's shoes and then corralling Asher out the door to "help" me. I was so excited at lunch time when Asher came running through the door and I enjoyed his pre-bedtime cuddles even more than usual tonight.

Daddy Time

2011-04-15T09:06:00.003-05:00

Here are the boys watching Toy Story 2.

Asher wore his Cowboy pajamas (thanks Granny!) while watching the Cowboy movie. He thought that was amazing. We think it is amazing that Asher has now discovered a new movie he likes and we can quit watching Cars.

These two look alike, don't you think?

And Roger's other look alike, Asher Boy.

Ayutthaya

2011-04-13T10:51:00.005-05:00

We made a day trip to Ayutthaya earlier this week to check out the old temples and have some out-of-the-city fun. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

Roger pushing over an old chedi. He's so strong!

Asher exploring some really old stuff.

Jack also joined us. He looked cute and was generally adorable and easy going, even when an old Thai grandma got a hold of those big cheeks while we were eating lunch.

There were lots of headless Buddhas. It is impolite and against the rules to stick your baby behind them for a funny picture.

The old stuff we went to see.

There has been much debate as to whether Asher is screaming in this picture because he is happy or if he is screaming because he is 2. I think the consensus is that he was currently enjoying himself.

Jack's First Flight

2011-04-07T09:59:00.001-05:00

Jack took his first airplane trip a few weeks ago when we went to Chiang Mai.

We took the new airport link train. Love it. Definitely recommend it if you are traveling in and out of Bangkok.

Baby Jack hanging out in the stroller waiting to board the plane. Of course, he was wearing The Hampton Family First Flight shirt.

Asher was soooo excited about the airplanes. He still talks about them, "Asher Boy ride airplane, take off, up sky, go Chiang Mai, go Krungthep (Thai name for Bangkok). See CLOUDS!"

Jack slept and ate and then slept some more. Easy.

Church Time

2011-04-05T09:47:00.002-05:00

This is Mini (formerly known as Baby Mini, also formerly known as Asher's favorite baby). She loves Baby Jack. She loves to sniff him (it's an Asian thing). I think she also loves that she is no longer The Baby in the nursery.

Min (as she is often called) was trying to creep on Asher's Pretz last week. He was not pleased.

Another Sunday, another snack. Sticky rice is a Sunday favorite for Asher. Usually he gets some grilled chicken to go with it.

And finally, Baby Jack after a long morning at church. Little guy was just worn out.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

2011-04-03T09:38:00.004-05:00

We had a cold spell last week in Bangkok. It was freezing. We got to sit under blankets at night, we almost froze on the motorbikes and Baby Jack got to wear a hat. A hat!

I guess I should mention that our idea of cold may have changed since The Great Ice Storm of 2009. It was around 70 degrees and we were wearing sweaters and jackets. Jackets!

This week we are back to normal March weather in Bangkok. High of 93, low of 91. But last week was fun. We had cornbread muffins and soup for dinner and pretended, just for a few days, that we lived in a temperate climate.

Three Months

2011-03-31T08:22:00.004-05:00

Happy 3 months Baby Jack!

I'm not sure how much Jack weighs at three months, but he definitely looks chunkier to me. He is still sleeping good and eating good. And drooling good, he's getting better and better at that.

This past month he took his first airplane ride and started sitting in the Bumbo chair. He really hasn't reached any big milestones. I keep waiting for him to roll over, but it hasn't happened yet.

Baby Jack is doing much better at bedtime (meaning that he has a bedtime and actually goes to bed before 11 pm). He goes to bed right after Asher, I feed him before I go to bed and he sleeps until close to 7 am most days. In the mornings he takes good naps, but in the afternoons he likes to be awake. I still swaddle him and put him on his back at night and he sleeps on his belly for his naps. The thing I like the best is that Jack actually falls asleep by himself for all of his naps and at night. I love getting to hold him while he gets sleepy and I love not having to rock him to sleep and hope he stays asleep when I put him in the bed.

Here's a few more pictures from Baby Jack's 3 month photo shoot. Feel free to add your own captions.

We Bleed Blue

2011-03-29T10:41:00.003-05:00

These two Kentucky boys (one of whom has never even been to Kentucky) are being brought up and trained in the way of March Madness.

Of course our March Madness is a little different: we get up at 4 am and eat waffles while watching the game.

Thanks to Granny Asher was well dressed as we watched UK make their way to the Final Four.

And this little guy was pretty happy to be wearing blue as well (he was also wearing his UK blue cloth diaper that I bought just for tournament time).

This coming weekend we are planning another morning of waffles and basketball with our boys while we teach them a few things about being from Kentucky.

Just so you know: Roger emailed the UK athletic department and said he would fly to Houston from Bangkok if he could get a free ticket to the Final Four. He even found a ticket from BKK to Houston for $1100. No luck with getting a ticket to the game, but the guy did email Roger back and tell him that a plane ticket from Lexington to Houston was $1100. How crazy is that?

Something About Asher

2011-03-25T09:31:00.000-05:00

Roger is trying to make sure he knows how to spell all of our names in Thai so we can fill out forms to register Asher for preschool and make sure that Asher's name will be spelled correctly on his uniform.

Now you know:

1. Asher is starting preschool in May.

2. He will be attending a Thai preschool.

3. We are definitely going to be the parents that send our kid to school in a red shirt on blue shirt day because we confused the words for red and blue.

4. Even preschools in Thailand require a cute little uniform with matching shoes.

Rainy Days and Laundry Days

2011-03-24T09:09:00.001-05:00

This is what happens when it rains on laundry day.

Added bonus: we were leaving to go out of town the next day, so I actually needed everything to be dry rather quickly.

Don't worry, everything dried and we got it all packed up for our trip. I never did figure out why it was raining during hot season. It actually was 65 degrees the next day. I've been told that it's one of the coldest days anyone remembers experiencing in Bangkok in the past 10 years.

Sidewalk Chalk

2011-03-22T08:49:00.003-05:00

We spent most of the past week in Chiang Mai going to meetings and hanging out with friends. Now we are back in Bangkok and trying to have some good, fun, stay at home days. We got sidewalk chalk, courtesy of some wonderful volunteers from Mississippi, while we were in Chiang Mai.

Sidenote: These volunteers were so stinkin' generous. Besides the fact they came all the way here to take care of our kids they brought us a lot of stuff. We ended up with new toys for Asher and Jack, bags and bags of snacks (supposed to be for Asher, but we didn't share), a new beach towel for Asher, and lots of Mary Kay make-up. They brought us Honey Buns! And those little white powdered doughnuts! And they watched our kids from 8 am - 5 pm!

So, back to the sidewalk chalk. We have a sidewalk and decided today was a good day to open it up.

Asher had fun drawing moons and scribbling all over the place.

Later in the afternoon Jack joined us (and he tried out the Bumbo chair for the first time).

I think Asher missed Jack last week, he seemed pretty excited to have him around today.

Roger got in on the fun and wrote us a little message in Thai.

To save you the trouble of going to Google Translate:

Step 1 - Daddy loves Asher, Jack and Mommy.

Step 2 - Jack, Asher

Step 3 - Courtney, Roger

I wish I had pictures to share from Chiang Mai, but Asher didn't sleep while we were there (Baby Jack remained perfect and slept perfectly) and we were all tired and grumpy and not in the picture taking frame of mind. And let me tell you, there is nothing as scary as a two year old waking up at 2 am, looking at you and saying, "Asher done sleeping!"

Tummy Time

2011-03-17T11:04:00.001-05:00

Tummy time from the front.

Tummy time from the back.

Tummy time finished.

Baby Dates

2011-03-14T10:53:00.004-05:00

I invited my friend Rebecca to come over the other day. She has a sweet baby boy a few weeks younger than Jack. The night before she came over she had the following conversation (that I am probably mostly making up since I don't really remember exactly what she said) with her husband.

Rebecca: Tomorrow I'm taking the baby to Courtney's house for a play date with Asher and Jack.

Husband: Play date? He's five weeks old. He doesn't play. Why does he need a play date?

Rebecca: Play dates are not for children. They are for mothers.

I told her that I completely agree. After all a 5 week old and a 10 week old don't play. They just lay there while the 2 year old runs around like a wild man. But, us mothers, we had a nice play date. We ate muffins and watched our babies lay there and talked while the 2 year old ran around like a wild man.

And then we took pictures of the boys.

Jack and Asher see the camera (or more likely Mommy). Daniel smiles.

Jack and Asher still see Mommy. Jack also grabs Asher's ear.

Daniel and Asher stare lovingly (or mischievously) at Jack. Jack still sees Mommy.

Asher must now see something exciting, like a bug or a muffin. Jack is unfazed.

Daniel finds his Mommy. Jack has his eyes on the prize. Asher is probably asking for more muffins.

And finally the spell is broken. The babies spot something off to the side and Asher is either really happy or really sad. Mostly likely sad because we ran out of muffins.

Escaping the City

2011-03-11T09:17:00.004-06:00

Last weekend we escaped the city and went to the beach for a few days. We went with several of our friends and had a great time hanging around the pool, getting massages and pedicures and eating a lot of food. The best part of traveling with friends: they help out with boys so Roger and I can have some fun.

And now lots of pictures of Asher and Jack.

Asher spent two hours in the pool, most of it was spent driving this boat.

Still playing with the boats. He did briefly enjoy jumping off the side of the pool before returning to the boats.

Asher post-pool in his towel.

Beach bum Jack.

Walking back to the room after swimming.

Jack sleeping on the beach.

Asher wasn't really a fan of the sand.

Jack's first time in the ocean.

Asher ate almost the entire time we were there.

Asher was scared of the water (amongst other things).

Baby Jack napped by the pool and even though he was in the shade he got burned.

Jack in his vacation clothes.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

2011-03-07T02:40:00.003-06:00

Outside my window... motorcycles are going back and forth to pick up kids from the school down the street. When Asher wakes up from his nap he will hear them and ask, "What's that noise? Go see?"

I am thinking... I already need another shower.

I am thankful for... friends and co-workers (mostly these are the same people). We went to the beach this weekend and our friends pretty much held Baby Jack the whole time we were there. They would take him to their room to nap so I could go get a pedicure or just lay by the pool and read.

From the kitchen... salad is ready for dinner tonight, I just need to fry some chicken (Pioneer Woman's Homemade Chicken Strips) and make some potatoes.

I am wearing... sweaty clothes. Hot season is returning and we are re-adjusting to sweating all day long.

I am creating... memories, or at least we tried to when we went to the beach this weekend.

I am going... to visit Asher's new preschool on Wednesday. I'm sort of nervous and excited about getting him registered and seeing what a Thai preschool is like.

I am reading... my friend's blog. I love getting to see pictures of people I don't get to see in person very often.

I am hoping... that Asher will sleep better when we go to Chiang Mai next week than he did when we went to the beach this weekend. Sleepy Asher = crazy, screaming, crying ~~parents~~ Asher

I am hearing... Asher clapping for himself and giggling, I guess nap time is just about over. And there's Jack grunting. Yep, nap time is definitely over.

Around the house... all is quiet now. I started writing this during nap time this afternoon, now it's 9:15 pm. Both boys are in bed, Roger is going to the store to grab a few things for tomorrow and I just got home from my Monday night coffee date with a good friend.

One of my favorite things... Fringe. We just started watching a few weeks ago and we are pretty hooked.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Birthday party tomorrow, Bible study and visiting Asher's school on Wednesday and a going away party for a good friend on Friday. And, oh yeah, language study almost every afternoon.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing... I picked Asher up after Bible study a few weeks ago and found him covered in Band-Aids. None of the other kids had them on and his teacher said something about helping our friends. Asher also said his friends helped him and he gave me a little craft he made about Jesus helping people. I still don't get it.

Christmas in February

2011-03-04T08:35:00.000-06:00

Aunt Beth sent her two favorite nephews a package last week. Once Roger got the box home Asher was super excited to see what she had sent.

A Lightning McQueen toy!

And Lightning McQueen cups!

He was thrilled (this is a thrilled face in case you were wondering).

Baby Jack was pretty happy, too.

He got an elf (Asher also got an elf, but an elf really can't compete with McQueen) and a new singing bear.

Thanks Aunt Beth! Asher and Jack loved all of the gifts and they can't wait to see their cousins the next time we go to Kentucky.

Mothering

2011-03-01T08:13:00.003-06:00

Last week Jack was wearing his (formerly Asher's) cute little monkey shirt.

I put him down on his belly for a nap and 2 hours later got him up. I lifted up his shirt to change his diaper and found this:

Mothering: Fail.

This morning I went to get Asher out of the bed. We played around for a few minutes and then I went to the changing table to grab a diaper. No more diapers. And I'm at home alone with Asher and Jack. And it's 8 am, both of the stores by my house open at 10 am. And I don't have a car.

Mothering: Fail.

Thank goodness for Bum Genius one-size diapers. I enjoyed cloth diapering two little boys in green diapers this morning. And I enjoyed washing an extra load of diapers this afternoon.

But then tonight came. Everybody had a bath. Everybody was in their pajamas. And by 8 pm everybody was in their own bed sound asleep.

Mothering: Success!

Two Months

2011-02-25T09:57:00.004-06:00

Baby Jack is two months old. We went to the doctor this week so he could get some shots and he weighed 11 lbs. 10 oz. (5.275 kg) and was almost 23 inches (58 cm) long. I always think that Jack is bigger than Asher was at this age, but at two months old Asher already weighed 12.5 pounds and was 24 inches long.

Jack is still an easy baby and really doesn't cry unless he gets really hungry. He's on a good schedule, eating every 3 hours during the day and taking 2 hour naps, and he sleeps all night long. For a long time he liked to be awake from about 6 pm - 11 pm, but the past few nights he has gone to bed around 8 pm, woken up to eat at 11 pm and then slept until 7 am. I definitely can't complain. During the day he sleeps on his belly in his crib and at night we swaddle him and put him on his back. When we are out during the day he will nap in the Moby Wrap and when my Thai tutor is here he usually naps while getting passed back and forth between the two of us.

Asher gets excited every time we go get Jack up from a nap. He can't wait until he can see him, but then as soon as I pick Jack up Asher starts asking (and demanding) that I put Jack down. It's a little love/hate thing, but overall I think Asher sort of likes having him around. Jack definitely loves Asher, he gives Asher the biggest smiles and giggles.

Now that Jack is bigger the cloth diapers fit him even better, he even wears them out of the house (I was a little scared to do that at first because Jack was too skinny and the diapers would leak a little bit). He still wears a disposable overnight, but I think I'm going to try cloth one night and just see what happens.

Jack spends most of his awake time playing with the play gym, hanging out in his swing or sitting on the couch with me while Asher plays cars. We have been taking him to the park in the evenings, but he has yet to stay awake long enough to actually see the park. The taxi ride puts him to sleep every time.

We are having so much fun with Baby Jack and this next month should be even more fun. Baby Jack is taking his first trip to the beach next week and then his first airplane ride the week after that.

Asher Counting (ภาษาไทย)

2011-02-20T08:33:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago I realized that Asher can count to 10. I guess it had never occurred to me that I should teach him stuff like that or that he might already have figured it out.

So, we moved on to trying to learn some colors. He really can nail red and blue, but doesn't seem to actually care to learn anything else. Also, squares and circles. If it's not a square or a circle then it just doesn't exist to Asher.

Somehow in the middle of me attempting to be a good mother and teach Asher things we started counting in Thai and he decided he really liked doing that.

My favorite parts of the video: when he gets stuck on 7 (jet, jet, jet) and his upside down and somewhat disrespectful wai.

Enjoy.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2011-02-18T09:51:00.003-06:00

We started getting ready for Roger's birthday celebration on Thursday while he was at school. I wanted to make a Happy Birthday sign to hang up for his party. My big idea was to have Asher paint each letter of the sign. Then I realized that would be 13 paintings. I am a realist and realized this probably wouldn't happen.

I got Asher set up outside with his paints and lots of paper. I found this little table in our storage shed/maid's house and it was the perfect size for him to work on.

He actually painted 4 or 5 pieces of paper, which was plenty for the sign I decided to make.

"HBD นะ (nuh)" is Roger's favorite Thai way to wish our friends Happy Birthday.

Friday night some of our friends came over and we had a party to celebrate Roger and two of our other friends that had birthdays this week.

They had to share a cake, but they each got their own candle.

Our food selection ended up being all cheese. We had Rotel Dip (thanks Mimi!), Doritos, and fancy cheese and crackers.

Asher and Jack had fun hanging out with everybody.

Jack was his usual easy-going self and seemed to enjoy being passed around among our guests.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Normal Days

2011-02-16T07:17:00.000-06:00

Last week we had some friends over for dinner. By the end of the night Braidynn and Asher were getting sleepy and decided they needed Daddy/Uncle Roger to read them a book.

While on the other side of the room Jack snoozed.

The next afternoon Jack was awake while Asher was napping. He had some good tummy time.

And posed for a picture with his Boppy.

After Daddy got home from work he got his boys on the couch for some man time. Asher was thrilled, Jack was less than impressed.