On another note...

Tonight we were in Matt and Andrew's room comforting Zach by looking over their balcony.  At one point, Andrew, Isabella and I were in the room while Zach, Matt, and Chris were on the balcony.  The following conversation ensued...

Isabella:  I like Matt.

Mommy:  Why?

Isabella:  Because he has a beautiful face.

A couple of minutes later...

Isabella:  I like Andrew.

Mommy:  Why?

Isabella:  Because of his blue shirt.

Andrew and I laughed and asked what would happen if he changed his shirt.  Her first crush, and she didn't seem too embarrassed about it.  But she also wasn't going to recount the conversation for Matt.  

My first crush wasn't too much later--all of Dad's students were pretty cute, especially one from down the road names Mark.  But when he came over to the house, I wouldn't even come down the stairs.  Please no teasing--I think it's cute, and don't want her to be self-conscious about it.  

Zach BooBoo

This afternoon Isabella, Zach, and I went downstairs to fill water bottles for the weekend.  Then we don't have to buy as much water from the store (no one drinks tap water--avoiding typhoid, I think it's a good idea!).  Each of us carried two empty bottles, and Isabella was very excited about filling hers from the filtered water station herself.  These stations have a "cold" spicket (sp?) and a "hot" (read:  boiling) one.  Isabella started filling her first one, but it was evident that she needed to take care of some other business first (filling water bottles can do that to you, you know :)  Zach stepped right up to fill his water bottle, and disregarded my warnings to not touch the "hot" spicket.  As soon as the water came out, it spilled on his hand, he dropped the bottle and started screaming.  First degree burn--treated with a cold washrag, aloe vera, bunny and blankie, lots of love, and McD's french fries and ice cream.  Maybe he will start listening to my warnings.  I hope so.  And am thankful this wasn't worse.

Market

After we had dinner last night and had a visit from our large friend, we went over to a local fruit market. It was pretty amazing. A huge array of fruits, some familiar and some not, that was fun to look at and walk through. We went for mango and sticky rice, a great dessert food, but had fun looking and taking pictures.

A view down the stalls of the market.
I like to call this "fuzzy fruit" because I can't remember the real name. It is white inside and kink of like a grape if you peel the skin. I don't love it, but I did think it made a cool picture.

A very friendly little poodle was licking Isabella's hands. She thought he was really cute.

I gave Isabella the camera because she wanted to take some pictures. You can tell that the angle is a little lower than when I take the pictures. I think she took about 10 pictures, but here are 2 of them.

Elephant

Last night we went out to eat about 30 min north of where we are staying in Bangkok where Rocky and Sunee used to live. We sat down at a resturant that was literally on the street. It was not a place I would have ever picked by looking at it, but Din, a Thai staff, took us there because it is one of his favorite places. It was really good. We had a great time eating. Then, as we were about to finish, an elephant walked up! Yes, really. His owner was selling bags of sugar cane for 20 baht (about 60 cents) so you could feed it. The kids were really excited to see it, but not so much to touch it. Zach was fine until we got close enough for its trunk to reach up to him and then he was shaking in my arms. He did still like it, just at a distance.

Isabella tries to work up the nerve to give it some sugar cane.

Here it is up close.
He was reaching out for some more sugar cane from Rocky. I never realized that they have things like fingers on the end of the trunk.

Here we are next to it. Zach really didn't want to get any closer. Below is a video that Liza took.

Fun with paper dolls

Aunt Nancy gave Isabella this wonderful set of paper dolls for her birthday.  Isabella loves them, but they are not great when Zach is around.  So we went down to the office where Isabella and Cana created dolls at the table while Chaa and I supervised Connie and Zach.

Fish are friends

Yesterday we all went to the pool that is right across the street from the guest house we are staying in. The kids love the pool and we were all having a great time. At one point, Isabella was working her way across the pool (they both have suits that let them float) and I swam over to her. I said, in an Aussie accent like on "Finding Nemo", "I'm a great white shark and you look like a tasty little morsel." She replied, "Fish are friends, not food!" which is what the sharks say on the movie. For the rest of the time Isabella was chanting that slogan, while Zach would say "Fish not food!" Today he's kept it up with variations like "Fish on food" or "Fish friend on food!" It's very cute.

Bangkok Movies

Here are a couple of videos from Thailand. The first is Isabella's birthday party...

This one is from Saturday at the children's museum...

Happy 4th Birthday Isabella!

Today was Isabella's 4th birthday. She has been looking forward to her birthday in Thailand for a very long time, and today it was finally here. She was very excited. We went to church this morning and she had a good time. Then we went out to eat and finally made it home about 3pm. She and Zach took a nap until 5 and then we all went out to eat at her resturant of choice... McDonalds!
Here she is enjoying her hamburger happy meal.

Can you tell that she was excited? I think she looks a little crazed in this picture. :-)

She got a very nice nightgown from her new friend, Caina. Her dad is Australian and her mom is Thai. They are on staff with CCC here in Thailand and joined us a last week for the media project. The nightgown had Disney princesses on the front and she was thrilled. She also got a princess ring.

Liza brought cake mix and icing from home and made the cake yesterday. The lack of AC on the apartment she was baking in made it a real challenge, but the "crumble" cake that resulted tasted really good.
Zach enjoyed the cake and icecream too.

Isabella got some head bands from us along with a new snap-n-style doll.

She got some new pjs from Aunt LaDawn and family.

She got a tea set from Grammie that she was very excited about.

Here she is in her nightgown before bed.


Zach gave her a goodnight/happy birtday wrestling before they went to sleep. She had a great birthday and we were glad that our friends, old and new, could celebrate it with us! Thanks to all for your birthday wishes and for those we got to talk to on the phone, she was really happy to talk with you.

one other thing

The kids are drinking alot from boxes--boxed milk, juice, even yogurt, although they weren't fans. Many parents out there know that the big problem with boxes is that when the children hold them, they hold too tightly and then the beverage comes out the straw onto everything.  I generally hate them.  But would prefer the children didn't get sick from spoiled milk in their sippy cups, especially since I don't have hot water or a dishwasher to sterilize them in.

So my mantra when I hand the box to them is "Don't squeeze the box!"  Isabella has this down so well that she gets offended when I tell her.  (She is 4 after all.  Of course that doesn't prevent her from getting distracted and squeezing the box!)  Zach tries to anticipate it and as I hand him the box will say "Don't skeeze the box!"  It is very cute.

Fun in Bangkok

Over the last few days, we have had a lot of fun with the kids. Working up to Isabella's birthday has been a lot of fun.

We went out to the mall a few days back and had Dunkin Donuts together. The kids loved the donuts and I loved the coffee. Here are Zach and I.

Liza especially loved it since she is such a big Dunkin fan.

Later in the week we took the kids to the mall to play. They have a kids section with some fun stuff to do. The kids really had a great time in this combination playscape and ball pit.

On Saturday we tried to take the kids to the Children's Museum. On the way we walked through a park and the kids had a great time playing on the playground.


We then walked on to the museum and Zach and Isabella were holding hands as they walked. Very cute.
When we got to the museum it was closed... sort of. All the buildings were dark but the outside was open and we could go in an play. They still had a great time.


Afterwards we went out to eat and Isabella had fun sticking stickers on her face.

All in all the kids have really enjoyed our time in Thailand. The culture can be a bit much for them sometimes, especially when they are tired, but for the most part they are enjoying it. We have had a lot of fun with them too.