Fun at a Park and Other News

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.

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.

While Mama Was Gone

A few weeks ago (actually this was while Roger and I were at the doctor checking out our newest son) Asher spent the morning with our neighbors, Aunt Marsha and Uncle Tony. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but all of the kids in our company call the adults aunt and uncle. This way even though we are far from home we are always surrounded by family. I think by the last count Asher has around 5000 aunts and uncles living all over the world.


Anyway, Aunt Marsha and Uncle Tony usually watch Asher when I go to the doctor. In fact Aunt Marsha usually volunteers to come over extra early so I can go to Starbucks and get some coffee before I go to the doctor. I love having awesome neighbors. On this particular morning they had a lot planned for Asher. From what I was told as soon as Asher finished his oatmeal they headed outside to do some yard work. Asher helped Uncle Tony pull up some weeds and pick up some big sticks. After that they got to wash the car. Asher was having a blast. Much more fun than being at home with Mama and cleaning the house.


Evidently Marsha and Tony had been looking for a good reason to go check out Lumpini Park. Lumpini is a huge park right in the middle of the city. There is a real playground (with safe playground equipment!), a lake and lots of grass to run around in.



I love these last three pictures. Marsha called me while we were at the doctor and said they were going home to eat lunch and that they were a bit wet. I didn't quite catch all of what she said, but when I got home and saw the soaking wet pair of shorts hanging up to dry I started to figure it all out.

First, Aunt Marsha decided to be brave and go down the slide with Asher.


Evidently she didn't check for puddles before going down the slide and didn't take into account that it's rainy season and there are always puddles.


The Aftermath. I'm surprised Asher stayed so calm about being wet.

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.

Slide Show

At the Park

Here are some pictures of Asher at the park today. We found this park near our house and I imagine that it will become a regular place for us.

Asher ran around in the sand near the playground, but he did not like it when the sand got on his hands.

He watched the big boys play takraw.

After that he watched some more big boys ride skateboards. He really wanted to get out there with them, but we held him back.

There was an Asher-sized maze in the middle of the park, so Asher took a walk through it. Don't worry, he didn't have any trouble finding his way out.

Probably the oddest thing we came across today was this statue of babies.

I really don't know what it is or why it was there, but please make sure you see the baby butt crack in the upper left hand corner of the picture.

Asher, It's Cold Outside

After almost a month of rain we have had almost 2 weeks for sunny days. Vancouver is a beautiful city when it's not raining, there are snow-capped mountains all around us and even in December the grass is still green. Since it hasn't been raining I wanted to take Asher to the park to play. Although it's not raining it is still cold (after all it's December in Canada), so Asher has to bundle up before we go out.

He started out running around in his diaper while I chased him and tried to put clothes on him.

The first layer is his Christmas outfit from Aunt Beth.

Next comes his shirt and blue jeans.

Add on the coat, mittens and froggy hat.

Into the stroller and zip up the Asher bag, ready to walk to the park.

As always we had a great time at the park and we even had a project: collecting pine cones and branches to decorate the house with for Christmas. If you want to see the finished project check out our Journal (www.rogerandcourtney.blogspot.com).

Boys in Chairs

Asher has developed a love for sitting in chairs. I think it all started at school where he gets to sit in a chair to eat his snack and do crafts.

We have been wanting to get a little chair for Asher, but kept putting it off because we knew we would have to leave it behind when we left. But our neighbors saw how much Asher loved their daughter's chair and they went and bought him one. We were blown away by their thoughtfulness and Asher is blown away by having his very own chair.

Asher also loves the chairs at the library.

He prefers to sit at the kids table and read books, but when he gets bored there he likes to go sit in the bigger chairs by the big kids books. From there he has a better view of what all goes on in the library.

And for your enjoyment, a self portrait of me and Asher.

Playground Pictures

When it's sunny outside Asher gets to go to the playground while Roger and I are in class. Our friend Amanda took these pictures of him at the playground (wearing his new hat).

The Swing

The Monkey Bars

Riding the Car

The Slide

The Balance Beam