March Meanderings

A few things captured on camera recently...

 

Many mornings Mommy was too slow getting up... so the girls got something for themselves... a breakfast anyone might like to enjoy: Nutella on bananas! Too bad they didn't clean up as well...

 

Friend Ella's birthday party in the park. Here, a game of pin the trunk on the elephant

And cupcakes and icecream.  We had to eat in a hurry as the icing and ice cream was melting really fast in the heat!  And afterwards, water balloons!  And then, song time with makeshift microphones of balloon bits stretched over plastic cups.

With a grand finale of a pinata ball: to be kicked and hit to pieces together instead of swung at with a stick.

The party ended about 5, but since that is traffic hour, we delayed leaving till nearly 7 when hunger was threatening polite playing together.  It was a fantastic experience, walking through the park at dusk: the huge groups of line-dancing exercisers, the flocks of birds twittering and tweeting goodnight as they settled in the trees, and the cool breezes of the night beginning.

But, even then there were no taxis free and still bumper to bumper traffic!  So we ended up doing the long trek of walk-train-walk-bus and Daddy met us at the bus stop with a bike to take two thoroughly tired, dirty, hungry kids home to a late supper and bed.

 
Another trip to Ocean World - to see new fish (and marvel over God's amazing creativity!) and play with the penguins ( and on the spot new friends)

  

And a pony singing contest with Daddy's new microphone. Daddy was all for teaching them how to record, but Mommy wasn't quite ready for that yet somehow!  But it was fun listening :o)

Not on camera, but a significant recent: 2 of our fans died in quick succession this week. Not a good thing in the middle of the hot season!  So we have gone swimming a lot, and have to spend most of the day all in one room with the one working fan.  Hopefully soon we get the other two back from the fix-it shop we took them to.  On the other hand, the girls are enjoying the necessity of using air con in their bedroom at night! And sometimes, Mommy really wants to join them...

Jasmin's Tooth

About a year ago, Jasmin fell and banged her top tooth badly enough that it died.  Only we didn't realize that until much later!  So it was 2 months later after it turned grey that we had a dentist look at it.  All seemed fine, so we left it alone.  The other options presented to us seemed rather drastic at that point: a root canal (!) or to pull it out.  And until recently we heard nothing about it from Jasmin.

Then, a week ago, she started complaining it hurt to brush her teeth, to eat hard or cold  things. So, even though we couldn't see any changes (except that it looked less grey), we took her to the dentist.  An x-ray showed substantial deterioration, so we agreed to have it pulled. Sweet Jasmin was brave through it all and came home with a mouth full of gauze and a bag full of prizes from the dentist:a tiara, rings, bracelets, stickers, hair clips, and even her tooth that got pulled out!

So today she fills up on smoothies and frozen fruit popsicles, after having tried unsuccessfully to eat with her head tilted sideways to keep the food out of the gap. And experiments with the different sounds the extra gap makes. Unfortunately, her lisp is much more pronounced because of it, but it provides her with impetus to work on it herself more!

Life's like that

For about a year now, we have been tossing around the idea of buying me a new computer.  I always managed to persuade Michael that I could happily wait - after all, buying a new mac is not cheap!  Okay, so I was dealing with a 4 year old computer that had it's own quirks requiring reboots, work arounds, or at the very least a bit of extra patience but nothing mandating a new computer.

Last week he finally persuaded me that this summer when we are in Canada would be the most prudent time to buy, since it likely will be a few years before we need to visit Canada after that (buying a computer is cheaper there than buying most places here in Asia). I still felt a little uncomfortable buying when I didn't really need a new computer.

Yesterday I had new problems. More serious problems. Hatched purple screens. System crashes. Michael managed to restore it to working order and made a fresh back up - just in case. All seemed to be back to normal.

This morning, while doing my usual email/blog check, the screen flickered, came back faintly hashed, with no mouse.  So I restarted as we had yesterday. Only it never restarted. And it still hasn't. Not after all the tricks of the trade that Michael tried. Not after prayer. Not after a visit to an iService store.

So. Am I happy that I now need that replacement computer that I agreed to? Or am I sad that it fully broke 3-4 months before we were planning to buy? Not sure. I guess it depends on how long I have to manage without my own computer :o)

Ramdom March Thoughts

The hot season has slowly begun. About the same time one of our fans died.  So we have been trying to get by without as we are not far off from leaving for the summer.  Thankfully, an out-of-season breeze is blowing through, keeping it bearable in the living room - and keeping the air quality excellent (for Bangkok).

Grace seems to be susceptible to heat rash, with it daily breaking out on her chest and back, but it is not bothering her that much.

Mommy is running out of clothes that fit. Seems silly to be waiting for our trip to Cambodia to buy some, but we have yet to find the right place here in Bangkok for buying maternity clothes.  Not sure Mommy is going to be able to wait till after Easter - the "necessities" of comfort and coolness means she is down to 2 1/2 presentable outfits... in weather that requires the daily changing of clothes.

Homeschool fun this week has included an attempt to play store to get familiar with Canadian money... a partial success.  Grace and Jasmin enjoyed the coin rubbing to create more coins for their cereal box cash register and arranging things in their store.  But then it kinda broke down.  Pricing was wildly ramdom: quoted in baht, pesos, cents, or dollars. Change giving hilarious: a handful of coins from the register drawer - "I'm being a nice lady, Mommy, and giving you lots of change!" Learning Canadian coins... well, still needs work: "I have four deer, 2 boats, and a duck (4 quarters, 2 dimes, and a loonie) so I can buy 7"!  Actually playing store: lasted about 5 min. The coins have then since been appropriated for magic tricks, and the cash register turned into a home for the ponies.  At least we can say they have an awareness of each country having its own money...

The count down dilemma is on. 5 weeks until our Cambodia trip for a visa run. 2 weeks there visiting old friends. 2 weeks back in Bangkok to vacate our apartment. Flight to Canada. (Why does our schedule always seem to be so crazy just before we leave??!!) When would you start packing? I always want to start too early. There is always a last week exhausting push to finish everything. I'm 6 months pregnant now and already slowing down.  I've started. At least the whole sorting and listing part. The girls have helped me pack two boxes, but it is sort of help as they either are suggesting and/or presenting eagerly all sorts of random items to pack or they are protesting each one, so sure they will desperately miss it!

Thinking of trying an Easter egg hunt in our gardens for the girls' friends.  We still have a bag full of plastic eggs to do the Easter story egg hunt with, but Mommy still hasn't figured out how to either fill the eggs with symbols the kids can keep or to make it okay that the symbols in the eggs that they find are not for keeping! Also is the trouble that it is a public garden space so we can't control exactly who will find the eggs!  But, there is time for sorting it all out yet.