Catch up and Kidzania

After Mom left, I cracked down on my school work and the blog totally took the back burner, so now I have to try and do a succinct update on the last week and half.

First of all, Mom left, which was sad, but we're comforting ourselves with the thought that she'll be back soon, and she'll be bringing more fun people with her.  I was very negligent of my school work the first part of the week, so I had to scramble the second half to finish my paper for my Research Theory class comparing two educational theorists.  I wanted to branch out and do something a bit unexpected, but without a good library as a resource, I had to stick to the basics, so I compared Vygotsky and Piaget.  I am officially turning into someone who reads theory for fun.  Oh dear.

I took a break Friday night to go to a new friend's birthday party.  She's German, but grew up in the States, and Vivian has made friends with her daughter who is also in first grade.  They're really nice, and their entire roof is a patio looking over the lake, so it's perfect for partying.  We stayed there until after midnight dancing and singing at the top of our lungs.  Young watched the girls, so we had a guilt free, great time.

On Sunday night I got to have my first Downton Abbey viewing party.  It turned out just being two of the closer friends I've made since I got here, which was actually perfect.  I won't spoil anything for my American friends, but we had plenty of things to offer commentary on, and we got through a bottle and a half of wine, so it was a good night.

On Monday, AtB had an outing to the Jim Thompson Outlet.  I really wanted to go, but I knew that Vivian would have Thursday and Friday off this week for parent teacher conferences, and I didn't want to get into another school work bind, so I decided not to go.  I figure I'll go another time and do a strategic hit instead of spending the whole day there.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were pretty quiet.  I did school work, tutored, and hung out with the family.

On Thursday, we had big plans.  Vivi and I were going to go to Kidzania (since we've already gone to the Funarium, love these names), and I was going to do my first drive downtown while my friend sat next to me as my copilot.  Unfortunately, the plan hit a slight snag.  By mistake, Jeff took both sets of keys to work with him.  I was really bummed, but decided to keep calm and carry on.

I figured my friend could drive, but she wasn't answering her phone, so Viv and I drove over to her house in our golf cart only to find that her car was gone.  Turns out her husband went into work late and took the car.  Whoops!  Vivian was oblivious, because by that point we were at her friend's house, so they just went off to play while my friend and I tried to figure out Plan C.

There was one other mom with two kids who was planning to go with us, and she had a big vehicle, but her husband was also going into work late and leaving work late, so he was planning to take the car.  It took some wrangling, but we finally figured out a husband carpooling system, that would allow the wives to have a car for the day to take the kids to Kidzania.  My take away from the morning was it's fine to make plans, but don't get too attached to them.  I had to keep that in mind throughout the day.

When we finally got to Kidzania both Viv and I were very impressed with the set up.  It really was like a miniature city.  The only weird part is that it was a night time city, which I didn't really care for, but you got used to it.

At first, Vivian was enjoying herself.  She went to the bank to get her Kidzania money.

Then she and her friends wanted to learn to be fire fighters, so we got in line and waited for a while until we realized that Vivian wasn't going to make the cutoff for maximum number of kids and would have to wait another 20 minutes.  She and I decided to explore and find something that didn't have as long a line, so she learned how to pump gas

and change a tire,

but it was really crowded and loud, and she started to have a bit of a meltdown.  I thought she might need some food and a change of venue.  I knew there was a Subway in the main part of the mall, because it's the same mall that has Ocean World, so I asked if she wanted to get a sandwich, and she said yes.  I also asked if she wanted to go to Asia Books at Central Mall, and she said yes.  She said she "hated" Kidzania.  I think it's probably worth another try on a day that isn't also a Thai school holiday, so it won't be so crowded.  

But, in the moment, I had an upset kid, so I went to plan, what are we on now, maybe J?  I got her to Subway and fed her which perked her up a bit, and then we walked on the sky path above the main street to Central World which is on the other side of the Wat.

We got to Asia Books, and she went right to her happy place with a book.

I sat next to her for a while until my stomach growled, and I realized that while I had been very diligent about feeding my child, I had forgotten to feed myself, so I bought her some books and we walked over to the dumpling place at the mall.  

She read while I drank carrot/celery/pineapple juice and ate dumplings, 

and then we walked back to Siam Paragon to meet up with the friends we came downtown with.  She was very happy by that point, so I think the day was saved.

Friday morning I had my conference with her teacher who had very nice things to say about her.  The only negative was that Vivian is a bit overenthusiastic and doesn't always wait for her turn to participate, but I know where that comes from (sheepish smile).  She's doing great academically and socially, and she really seems to like the school, so I'm very happy.

In the afternoon, we invited over some friends who don't live in the Prestige area and went to hang out at our playground.  We inadvertently drew our regular street crew to the playground too, so it was a big playground party.  The kids all had a great time.

Today we took it pretty easy except for an impromptu trip to the mall.  Apparently we get two True bills, but when I went to pay our bill a couple weeks ago they didn't mention anything about an outstanding bill.  Therefore I was very surprised when we no longer had cable television this morning.  I called our Nichada rep, and he called True, but the only way to fix it was for me to go to the mall.  A Thai mall on a Saturday afternoon is no joke, so I brought Jeff along.  It's a really good thing I did, because the parking lot was a bumper to bumper mad house.  He dropped me off and drove around the neighborhood, while I went in and paid the bill at the True store.  It was insane, and I have officially decided that I am never again going to the mall on the weekend.

Since tonight is the first Saturday of the month, it's Secret Garden time again.  They have face painting this month, and Young really wanted to take Vivian to get her face painted and Elena just because she loves Elena.  The party started at 5:00pm, and we were planning to meet up with friends between 5:30 and 6:00, so Young took the girls right at the beginning while Jeff and I got ready.  

By the time we got there, Vivian had had her face painted and then sweated it all off in the bouncy house.  There were slight hints of pink and white around her forehead and cheeks.  Luckily, the face painting was free because Vivian went through two butterflies (both of which sweated off) and finally ended the night as a cat.

We're getting the hang of the Secret Garden thing now.  There are long tables set up near the bandstand, and that's where you can get food and pitchers of beer.  We set up at a table with various friends we collected throughout the evening, and that was home base.  Vivian and the other kids could run around and do the free stuff like face painting and playing with play dough, and then come back for water and a hug.  Throughout the evening one of the other moms with a baby and I walked around the fair to check on the kids in their native habitat, but there were people everywhere who we knew and who knew our kids, so it was really safe and fun for them to have some independence.  We're already looking forward to next month's Secret Garden night.