A few interesting things of note...

I went to the doctor Wednesday and carried out the entire appointment in Khmer...

this surprizing exchange happened:

This your first child?

My second

How old is your first?

8 months

Only 8 months! Is your husband Khmer or another nationality?

!! Go figure! What connection?!?
I was hoping to be fitted into the local system of caring for pregnant women, but either it doesn't exist or I don't know how to ask for it correctly. So, although the appointment was a success in receiving some advice and help for nausea and weakness (I've been losing too much weight from not being able to eat), I'm still on the hunt for an English-speaking Doctor to follow me through this pregnancy.

Yesterday we discovered that I put our cell phone through the wash...

The one time I don't check Michael's pants' pockets because he always empties them himself! As it was on when it went in, there isn't much chance it can be resurrected :o( But we are still trying - it wasn't a cheap phone, unfortunately. Thankfully we are finding it more amusing than devestating, though it is rather inconvenient to be without a phone at all!

I went swimming today at the nearby fitness club in the "mall."

One of those places they expect you to know how to do everything! I had to keep on asking each step of the way for a locker key, where to go next, where the showers were, etc. Managed to make it into the pool in the end and had a lovely swim in a nearly empty pool. Surprizingly for the price ($6 an entry), it is obviously more frequented by Khmers than foreigners and receives quite a number of users.

My language tutor landed a full-time job while we were in Mondolkiri.

So I'm on the hunt for a new tutor; not an easy quest as so many are busy with numerous jobs and/or students. if the university wasn't so far away, I might consider taking a course there. But with limited energy right now, I have to stick pretty close to home.

A few interesting things of note...

I went to the doctor Wednesday and carried out the entire appointment in Khmer...

this surprizing exchange happened:

This your first child?

My second

How old is your first?

8 months

Only 8 months! Is your husband Khmer or another nationality?

!! Go figure! What connection?!?
I was hoping to be fitted into the local system of caring for pregnant women, but either it doesn't exist or I don't know how to ask for it correctly. So, although the appointment was a success in receiving some advice and help for nausea and weakness (I've been losing too much weight from not being able to eat), I'm still on the hunt for an English-speaking Doctor to follow me through this pregnancy.

Yesterday we discovered that I put our cell phone through the wash...

The one time I don't check Michael's pants' pockets because he always empties them himself! As it was on when it went in, there isn't much chance it can be resurrected :o( But we are still trying - it wasn't a cheap phone, unfortunately. Thankfully we are finding it more amusing than devestating, though it is rather inconvenient to be without a phone at all!

I went swimming today at the nearby fitness club in the "mall."

One of those places they expect you to know how to do everything! I had to keep on asking each step of the way for a locker key, where to go next, where the showers were, etc. Managed to make it into the pool in the end and had a lovely swim in a nearly empty pool. Surprizingly for the price ($6 an entry), it is obviously more frequented by Khmers than foreigners and receives quite a number of users.

My language tutor landed a full-time job while we were in Mondolkiri.

So I'm on the hunt for a new tutor; not an easy quest as so many are busy with numerous jobs and/or students. if the university wasn't so far away, I might consider taking a course there. But with limited energy right now, I have to stick pretty close to home.

More Christmas Pictures

Of course, we musn't forget the walking toy YeYe and NiNi sent Grace!
Learning what this strange toy does...


Trying out standing...


not too sure I can do this...



maybe I can, yes, I can!

Christmas Pictures

Afternoon party for all those without family in our group. Out of 8, 3 came: not too many, not too few- just right. We all pitched in to cook as close a Christmas dinner as we could. Not bad results! No flops except maybe the cooked eggnog I tried... the gas burner cooked it too fast and it was more like custard. Those candles? They burned so fast they were gone before the food was! Beginning on the left we have: Christina from Canada, Rachel from the US, Kristen from Finland, then Grace and Michael.

We all enjoyed the food and company, especially this little outgoing one!
Doing the dishes was a group affair as well, and one that required a bit of imporvision as we had too many dishes for our one small sink... Grace decided she likes being outside the basin looking in than inside getting a bath!

After the dishes were done, we headed outside to try out the bagminton sets we had bought for the occasion. In short order the two shuttlecocks were lost over the fence, and I was sent to ask the neighbours for them back... after that we played on the street like everyone else does... providing entertainment for the neighbours all around - they came out to watch and laugh!


Did you know just how far reaching Grace's "fame" is? She got a present from Rachel's parents in the States!! These beautiful bibs... Michael had to challenge the "one size fits all" label!

She also received Michael's favorite storybook from when he was a kid: The Hungry Catepillar. A wonderful book for her as she can turn the pages because they are different sizes. And the holes to poke fingers in...More following....

More Mondolkiri

Grace and I hung out with the team members. Here is Grace meeting 4 month old Jakob Smith in his favorite chair.

We did manage to get in one touristy thing. Thursday morning we joined a visiting Swede family on their trip to one of the many waterfalls.

I jumped in with the others for a short, chilly, strenuous swim up to the base of the waterfalls while Grace stayed with daddy on the shore.

We ate lunch there on one of the many grass-roofed bamboo platforms there. We had many "guests" hoping for a peck to eat!
This picture is for everyone who thinks Grace is ALWAYS happy and smiling :o) After the initial wonder at the noise and sight of the waterfall, she was no longer too impressed with our stay there...

Mondolkiri Holiday

It was a LONG journey up there - 8 hours or so, but the roads weren't quite as bad as we were led to believe, and Grace behaved much better than we expected. There was maybe two hours or so of horrible roads, another two hours of moderately bad roads, and the rest was paved. It was neat to be able to see the countryside changing from built up to rice fields to fruit gardens to wild jungly stuff to high, hilly grasslands.

We were told quite often how "middle of nowhere"ish the town was. Somebody there obviously felt quite differently about it!

Not sure who to believe, when this is the main street of the town...

It was much cooler up there. I got to use some of Grace's colder weather clothes, and they were needed! Mostly because of the constant wind.

It wasn't that much greener actually, because of it being the dry season: the red dust blowing around and the browny grasses outnumbered the green trees! Still, it was a wonderful change from city living.

Michael spent most of his time here:
the ICC office. Working to fix their computer problems, of course!

Much more to come - uploading this much first cuz internet is terrible today...

Grace is teething full-time... She's gone from being a smiling delight to a fussy,
"I don't want to sleep,"
wailing,
squirmy,
diarrhea-ry,
biting baby :(

The better news is that we can feel and see her bottom two front teeth pushing through. She isn't cooperative enough for us to get a look very often, let alone a suitable picture to post here! Maybe when they are fully through...

December Days

We now have internet access from home! So hopefully blog updates will become more regular now. This accomplishment took Michael over a month of planning, negotiating, and trying... we are very thankful it was possible in the end.

We are fighting a mosquito war right now. Unfortunately, Grace is getting the worst of it... bites all over. But - she doesn't seem to mind too much. We now have a "cake cover" mosquito net to sleep her under (thankyou Phil and Emily!) and lots of soothing anti-itch and other repellants (thankyou mom and dad Hu!) to add to our weaponry. As dengue fever and malaria are carried by mosquitos, it is imperative that we win this war!

Grace's latest accomplishments:
falling on her face trying to get from a sitting position to a crawl position
standing up holding on to -- whatever is there to hold on to
rolling and squirming underneath the furniture -- wherever it is most dusty
flapping her arms while eating and so giving the ants a heyday picnic :o)
and of course, looking cuter than ever:

New hat

After bath play time


Afternoon nap


Hairdo time

We are going to Mondolkiri province for a week - I feel like it will be my Christmas present - even though it is the 16-22. Lots of preparations still to be done for that, but we've found out we can hop a MAF flight for our return journey, which makes me more eager to go knowing I
won't have to face the 9 hours of the nasty roads with a squirmy Grace one way at least! Looking forward to the cooler, greener, quieter hill country - I'm not the best city-dweller! Look for lots of holiday pictures when we get back - not before, as we won't have internet access there.

All About Food

First get your hair out of the way...

Then get into a comfortable chair...

Try out some peas... verdict: fun to play with but hard to get in my mouth by myself

The infant cereal was much more messy - and much more tasty!

Bananas are extra yummy, easy to eat, and wonderfully mushy!