Church Time

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.

Three Months

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.

Two Months

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.

1 Month

Jack turned one month old on Monday. At his one month check-up he weighed 10 pounds (4.55 kg) and was 21.5 inches (54.5 cm) long.

So far Jack is an easy baby. He doesn't cry much and he sleeps pretty good. A few times last week he slept through most of the night and even when he doesn't sleep all night he goes right back to sleep after eating. We swaddle him at night and he seems to really like that. He is eating great and obviously gaining lots of weight. Mimi gave him a bottle for the first time while she was here. He attacked it, drank 4 oz. and then got handed over to me to eat even more.

During the day he mostly naps on the couch or in my lap. It's not that he won't sleep in his bed, it's just that I am having so much fun laying around in the afternoons holding him. We have started putting him in his bed for naps in the morning and as long as we put him on his belly he sleeps really well.

My mom brought all of the cloth diapers with her, so within the past two weeks we have started using them. They are pretty bulky, but seem to fit Jack for the most part and they give him a sweet cloth diaper booty.

After a month Asher still really likes having Baby Jack around. He likes to know where he is and what he is doing at all times. I am so thankful that Asher adjusted well to his role as big brother.

Boys at the Park

A few weeks ago Roger, Asher and Num took a little trip out of the city. As is the norm with these kinds of things, we had no idea what they were doing or where they were going. In fact, it wasn't until they returned home and Roger did some research that he found out where they had gone.


Asher was super excited because he got to go somewhere with Num in the Num car car (not to be confused with the Spiderman car Num gave him for his birthday that is also referred to as Num car car). Num has a white Honda and Asher can pick it out in a crowded parking lot.


They drove out of the city and went to a big park with a big Buddha statue. Evidently this is near the area where Num used to live when he was younger. He took Roger and Asher there to show them where he used to hang out.


Since this was more out of the city, Roger and Asher stuck out a bit more than usual. From what I hear Asher used this to his advantage when he saw something he wanted to play with. He would take Num, go up to a stranger, Num would tell him to wai and then the person would give him anything he wanted. I think Asher pretty much has this whole white-boy-in-Asia role figured out.


Asher has also figured out how to show us his belly and be silly.

The boys had a great time at the park and when that adventure was done Num took them to eat some pig. Roger brought home the leftovers and we got some BBQ sauce and had quite the feast the next night. I think they finally made it back home around 9:30 pm. Asher stayed awake the whole ride home so he didn't miss a second of his time in the Num car car.

Exploring with Asher

Last Saturday morning our friends Num and Apple showed up at our house and announced that we were going out for the day. They have a car and this, of course, made Asher very excited about the trip. We didn't really know where we were going or how long we would be gone, so we grabbed our stuff and jumped into their car.


After driving for a long time and realizing we were still in Bangkok we ended up at a giant Chinese temple. We all took off our shoes and went exploring.


Asher found Lion Statues everywhere. There are a few near our house and he gets so excited when we drive by them. He was beyond thrilled to get to see so many of them in person.


Asher smiling in front of a garden.


Asher had fun playing with Num and Apple all day.

After exploring the temple for a while we loaded back up and went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. We have now added Vietnamese food to the ever growing list of things that Asher loves to eat.

Roger and I sort of thought we were heading home at this point. After all it was nap time and we pretty much plan our entire lives around Asher being at home around 1 pm each day. We were far from done.

Our next stop was Ko Kret, an island full of pottery villages just outside of the city. We got to ride a boat, which Asher loved, and there was lots of food to eat, which Asher also loved. We didn't take many pictures, but just picture a 2 year old boy eating lots of strange things. Roger and I were just happy to watch Num and Apple tote Asher around and feed him strange Thai snacks.


Asher just kept on going, even without a nap, and never once got tired of exploring the island and talking about the boats.


After all that we headed back home and put a very sleepy Asher to bed early.

Old Friends in a New Place

During college Roger and I had some great friends named En and Nung. They are from Bangkok, but at the time they were both studying at the University of Louisville. We would spend almost every Friday night with them eating Thai food, singing Thai karaoke and hanging out. They even spent Thanksgiving at our house after we got married.

En and Nung finished their studies at U of L and moved back to Bangkok. They are now married and working here in the city. They were super excited to find out that we were now living and studying in their city. Unfortunately we are all much too busy to hang out every Friday night, but we have been able to see them a few times recently.

Last weekend we went with them to eat with En's parents. We had some wonderful seafood and enjoyed getting to know their family and getting to practice speaking Thai. Asher was, of course, the center of attention. He started the evening off right by wai-ing En's parents. They thought he was so polite and so Thai. He did great sitting through a long Thai dinner and eating practically anything they offered him. Everyone was very impressed (we were too).

The restaurant was on the river so after dinner we went outside so Asher could see the boats and so that we could take a few pictures.


Asher and Mama watching the boats go by. Asher thought the Chao Phraya River was his own personal swimming pool and he kept asking to jump in.


Asher and En. They are big buddies, Asher insisted on sitting in her lap in the car while he told her all about the different vehicles he saw on the road.


En took a nice family picture for us while we watched the sun set.

Five Years Later

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

Here we are on our Honeymoon in 2005.


And here we are in 2010.


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


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


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




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


Asher splashed around with us for a while...


Then he found Uncle Mel and had even more fun.


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

Mimi and Mel in Bangkok

Mimi and Mel have come and gone. We had so much fun while they were here and we miss them so much already! Every morning Asher wakes up and asks for Mimi and then once we are downstairs he takes a walk around looking for Mimi and Mel.

We didn't know exactly how Asher would respond to Mimi and Mel when they first got here. He hasn't seen them in person since December, but he has seen them on skype and we have lots of pictures of them around the house. Asher was a little confused when they went to get him up the first morning, but after a few minutes he was excited to see them.


Asher took Mimi to see his car. He was using a branch to clean the wheels, he is very proud of his car.


He gave them lots of smiles and was generally pretty excited to see them.


Of course Mimi came with a suitcase full of goodies. Peanut butter Twix for Roger, Peanut Butter M&M's for me and clothes and shoes for Asher. Lots of shoes. Check out his Sperry's...he looks like a preppy little man.


Asher also had lots of kisses for everybody. He's just stopped the big open mouth kisses and is way into kissing everybody (and every thing) that he likes.

10 More Days

Mimi and Mel will be here in 10 days and we are getting pretty excited about their visit. Today we made a Countdown to Mimi and Mel calendar and put it up in the living room. I did most of the work, but Asher colored on a few of the pages for me.


Yes, I know my baby has sloppy joe on his face. But they were really good sloppy joes (The Pioneer Woman) and I can't blame him if he wanted to save some for later. He's still sweet and he still can't wait to see his Mimi.

My Baby's So Asian...

...he doesn't even like Macaroni and Cheese.

Really. He won't eat it. He actually won't eat anything involving cheese. He will eat fried rice and Thai omelettes. He will eat spring rolls and he absolutely loves Thai iced tea. He even eats all kinds of slightly strange Japanese food that our neighbors give him (tofu waffles anyone?). But he absolutely will not eat Macaroni and Cheese.


Here's a picture of Asher playing with his friend Prim at the playground. They swim together on Saturday mornings and then hit up the park after nap time. Prim thinks Asher is an over-grown baby doll. She follows him around feeding him snacks and giving him drinks of water. I think he's getting spoiled. Now Asher just walks up to Prim and opens his mouth and waits to see what kind of snack she will give him. Did I mention that Prim is only 3 months older than Asher? I think she is trying to spoil Asher just like her nanny spoils her.

And don't worry, updates on Baby #2 will be coming soon.

All By Myself

Here's a video of Asher's newest skill: eating with a spoon. A few days ago he picked up his spoon and fed himself oatmeal and then a few days after that he tackled the yogurt.

I think the yogurt would be easier if it were more solid, but it tends to melt and get really runny as soon as it comes out of the fridge. Welcome to hot season.

It's a messy afternoon snack, but I think he looks good in pink.

How We Survived

Here's how we survived a trip from North America to Southeast Asia with a very sweet (and active) 16 month old baby boy.

Actually Asher was great, so it wasn't really survival. It definitely wasn't fun, but that kind of trip is never fun.

I started taking pictures the afternoon before we left and tried to chronicle our journey from Vancouver to Bangkok.

Waking up from his last nap in Vancouver, we finally had to wake him up after almost 3 hours of sleep.

Our arrival at the airport in Vancouver. Final tally on the luggage: 3 trunks, 6 large duffel bags, 2 car seats, 1 guitar, 2 backpacks, 1 carry on suitcase, 1 small duffel bag, 1 diaper bag and 1 stroller.

Once we strolled through security we let Asher loose so he could burn off some energy before the long flight. The airport was practically empty at midnight, so Asher had plenty of space to run.

He did set down to rest for a few minutes before climbing down and discovering the moving sidewalks. We spent about 15 minutes going the wrong way on one of them.

Hour One.

On the plane and settled into our seats, Asher was exhausted, but wouldn't sleep. The lights were all on and a meal was served right after take-off and that kept him up even longer. He finally crashed about 4 am and slept for about 4 hours.

Hour Eight.

Drinking milk and talking on the phone, Asher seemed to be unaware that anything was different about today.

A video update of Asher's Airplane Adventures. There's something all over his face, I have no idea what it could be. Considering he ate Teddy Grahams almost constantly for 14 hours there's a good chance it could be crumbs.

Hour Ten.

Another video update. Asher took a good nap, he slept from the beginning to the end of, "The Informant." I was holding him at this point and appreciated his thoughtfulness and willingness to not wake up until the credits had started. When he woke up he was quite excited to see that Daddy was nearby.

Hour Twelve.

Almost there and Asher is still happy playing with Daddy, one last video update.

Hour Fifteen.

We made it to Hong Kong and raced through the airport to make our connecting flight. Roger and I were having some serious caffeine withdrawal, but didn't have time to stop for coffee. Asher kept his hands above his head the entire time we were in Hong Kong. I think this is his exhaustion pose.

Hours Sixteen - Eighteen.

Asher and Roger slept almost the whole way from Hong Kong to Bangkok, I read a book. Sorry, no pictures, we were all looking pretty rough.

Hour Nineteen.

Arrival in Bangkok. After being an angel for nineteen hours of travel Asher lost it while we were in line for immigration. Perfect timing. An immigration official came and got us from the back of the line and took us through to the front. Asher is amazing.

Hour Twenty.

Luggage collected and trip over. We finally made it to our new home. Somehow by the end of all of this Asher ended up with a baggage tag on his arm.

Pictures from Bangkok and the new house coming soon.