No new pictures at the moment, but I thought I'd let you in on what Grace and i did this morning...

We sorted pictures! Grace was quite fascinated by her old pictures.... We also spent quite a bit of time comparing same age pictures....

Grace at 4 months

Jasmin at 4 months (sorry so blurry)

grace is clamoring for attention... more later maybe

Michael didn't take all that many photos, but here's a few from his Ratanakiri trip:

Since the road trip is about 9 hours of mostly horrible roads, he flew there and back on a MAF plane. This is fueling up before taking off from Phnom Penh.


A quick view of Phnom Penh area and the amount of flooding this rainy season - there are no lakes in or near Phnom Penh!


The Ratanakiri airport and runway....


Typical "townhouse" of Ban Lung, the capital of Ratanakiri province. Most of these older houses are made of teak wood!


A blue water - a rarity in Cambodia - view from his guesthouse room. Much nicer than the eternal construction here in Phnom Penh!

Friday was a long day as we waited for daddy to come home. He called us saying the 9 am flight was hanged to 10:30, but the number of stops meant he would be home sometime after lunch. At nearly two he called to say he had arrived but was needed to do a bank run... so it was nearly 4:30 before we finally got to welcome him home! But we had some fun while waiting...
We got all dressed up ready to welcome daddy, complete with braided hair!



But the shirts I had made for them didn't survive the drool and spills - the ink ran horribly! I was glad I took a picture in the morning and kept it, despite the odd expression! But Michael's delay also meant the proper shirt I had made or Grace was done and I could pick it up before he arrived...
well worth the wait! Once again dressed and waiting, Grace took up her current favorite activity... this time well watched to make sure the pen stayed on the whiteboard only!



And, the latest bedtime routine addition:

Sister time in the "crib"...

Last Saturday we attended a wedding of some church friends. Michael was there all day as one of the photographers, but the girls and I went only for the main banquet meal at supper time. Grace had gone to play group in the morning and only got an hours' nap after lunch because of loud guests (!), so she was tired. She wouldn't leave her blanket, and sat down when ever she could regardless of where we were - here in the parking lot!

The Celebrating couple...

Impromptu family photo... The nice background is actually all man-made. How strange we are to ruin what nature has to offer by covering everywhere with concrete and then try to emulate what we destroyed!

and a happy mom and tot at church the next day

Just a few pictures from the week...

Look at all that hair!

Grace's favorite neighbourhood perch - the local giraffe statue!

We bought a keyboard at a moving sale this week. Grace likes it for all the buttons to push - and all the noise she can make!


There was playgroup this Saturday! She is never still when we are there because there are SO many good things to play with. If only it was every weekend...

We also saw some fauna, but I was never fast enough with the camera to share them with you... I don't know all the names of these flowers, but still...

There were trees covered with these blossoms that were constantly dropping them to the ground in a sweet smelling gentle rain... the whole place was full of it's gentle perfume! Somehow, this didn't clash with the other smells from flowers.

The pathways were lined with bushes of these flowers. Pink, yellow, orange, red... beautiful! Curiously, instead of folding up like we usually think of flowers, these ones wrap their petals spirally and you can almost watch them unfold!

purple tubas?

here you can see one open and one wrapped up... not so clear, but can you see the spiral wrapping?

Spiders?

Banana flowers

Parrot beaks?

Frangapani - very delicate beautiful perfume, these. They grow on low trees shaped sort of like umbrellas. The flowers are constantly dropping to the ground...

fun leaves

fire flowers?

A Week in Chiang Mai

Michael had a leadership course to attend, and the girls and I went along or a little "holiday." It was at a beautiful hotel/resort place just outside the city; lots of green, very quiet,etc. For the first part of the week our group was the only one there, so it was very quiet indeed - especially while everyone was in sessions! Grace, Jasmin, and I got to go swimming, play on the small playground, explore the grounds, nap, etc. to our hearts' content.

It was rather difficult to keep up with Grace, keep Jasmin content, and take photos for everyone, but here are a few from the week:

The playground consisted of a merry-go-round (! such a LONG time since I've seen one!) and a small set of arching monkey bars with assorted types of swings. Grace enjoyed it all. She even climbed on the monkey bars herself - I'd have taken a picture if I weren't rushing to catch her from falling :oP


Swimming happened twice a day when it didn't rain in the afternoon. Even though she could hardly touch bottom even in the kiddie pool, Grace still had tons of fun. I was very glad she decided she liked floating around in the baby boat - without that, she wouldn't have had so much water time as Jasmin didn't often come swimming. But when she did, she also liked floating around in a "boat"...
When she didn't swim with us, she took her morning nap....



Other activities included exploring the badminton gym, finding fish in the fountains, wandering around the pathways, trying out grass-walking - Grace's first time to walk/play on grass! - joining daddy at break times... and photographing all the different flowers we saw: check out the next blog to see some of them.

Two pictures from the last week...

Grace, feeling tired and jealous, threw all her teddies into Jasmin's hammok and climbed in after them...

Grace is learning to dress herself... despite the fact that this is actually the bottom half of a too big bathing suit, she didn't do that bad of a job, eh?

A delightful article explaining why we don't drive ourselves in Cambodia can be found here:
http://www.talesofasia.com/rs-147-driving.html

Such is life in Cambodia!

We took part in a baby dedication last Sunday. Another family with two children and us with Grace and Jasmin did it together. It was quite the ceremony! We were all called up front to sit in a row while the pastor explained what we were going to do. We answered two questions, creating a covenant with God to remember that our children are God's and to raise them to know Him as best as we can. It was the fathers who answered, so Michael had fun trying to follow the Khmer!
Next we solemnly signed a certificate to post reminding us what we have promised (three signatures for each child!). Then we were given roses and a present. It was a bit of a laugh to see us trying to juggle babies, presents, flowers, and signed certificates! Amazingly all the kids were wonderful with no crying and not too much wriggling.


Later in the day, we went out for a walk in one of the very few green areas of the city....

It was a great end to a fantastic day until we realized on the way home that our phone was missing - yet another phone for the thieves :o(

Grace has decided that teddies are good companions: they can't complain, stay where she puts them, and won't try to do something else while playing. They also are wonderful naptime friends...
and a cute picture of Grace wearing her hat, even if you can't see her face!

And here's a fairly typical Jasmin expression...