We went to the playground to hang out, and while we were there another mom told me about a really good piano teacher who had some openings for the new semester. Vivian has been talking about wanting to learn how to play the piano for quite a while now, so I met with the teacher and Vivian had her first lesson Tuesday. She really liked it, and the teacher seems great, so we're both excited for next Tuesday. Gotta love the playground.
On Monday, my parents and my sister went to Kanchanaburi for the night. They made sure not to get back too late on Tuesday though, because we had sky bar plans. Our super sky bar friends helped me share the experience with my family. We all went downtown to try out Above 11, which is above Soi 11 off of Sukhumvit. It was on the 33rd floor, so it wasn't our highest, but it had a really cool vibe and the food was delicious.
The only strange thing was our drinks. We all ordered two rounds of drinks, and our second drinks looked totally different from our first drinks. For example, mine had rum in it, and the first time they must have used clear rum, but the second they used dark rum, so my two drinks were different colors. Less easy to explain was my mom's mango smoothie which was orange for the first one and yellow for the second one. We got past the color of our drinks pretty quickly though and just enjoyed the view and the company.
Wednesday was my family's last day in Thailand, and I finally got them to take it easy. The day's only adventure was a golf cart ride to the mall to get cash and pay bills. My mom, my sister, and I went for our second round of massages in the afternoon. I was so worn out, I fell asleep during my massage.
In the afternoon we had an early birthday party for Elena which also served as a goodbye for my family. One of my friends is fabulous at making cakes, and she has two boys, so she was excited about making a girl birthday cake. I told her to do whatever made her happy. The end result made me super happy too.
I felt like a cake that big and beautiful should have an audience, so we invited over a bunch of our neighbors to help us enjoy it. It was a lot of fun, and it was nice for my family to get to know some more people who are a part of our lives now.
Thursday morning my family had a 7:00am flight. Just to be on the safe side, I arranged a cab for them at 4:00am. By 4:10, when the cab hadn't shown up and the driver wasn't answering his phone, I figured we needed to move to plan B. The problem is, the only way to get a taxi here is to ask the guard at the gate to call one for you. He then calls the main gate guard who sends out a guy on a motorcycle to find a taxi. I wasn't sure what my chances were of this panning out at four in the morning. I went to the guard shack anyway, figuring it was worth a try. He said he had a friend with a taxi right there, and sure enough, there was a blue taxi right around the corner. I got all excited, but then the taxi driver kept trying to start the car and it just made this sad vroom noise, but didn't actually kick in. I gave him a few minutes to try while I envisioned my family stranded on the highway halfway to the airport. Finally, I decided I should just drive them myself.
It turns out that early morning is the best time to learn to drive to the airport. It's a pretty straight shot on two highways, and there's no traffic at that time, which came in handy when I tried to use my easy pass and discovered it was out of money. Since there was no traffic, I could back up from the toll booth onto the highway and cut across four lanes to the one open cash booth. Driving around here is never dull.
Other than the tollbooth mishap, I got to the airport and back smoothly. I got home just in time to have a cup of coffee before Vivi got up for school. Jeff, who had been waiting for me, took the car and drove it back downtown to work. I got Viv on the school bus, handed Elena off to Young, and crashed for almost four hours of much needed sleep.
I had told Vivian in the morning that she should take the bus home that afternoon. After school I got a call from one of my friends asking if Vivian was supposed to be on the bus. Apparently Viv was walking around the first grade quad seeing if anyone wanted her to come over for a play date. Luckily my friend was able to get my little social butterfly on the bus before it left.
Friday's adventure was gymnastics. A lot of Vivian's friends do Girl Scouts and gymnastics, so she's been begging me to sign her up for both. It's too late in the year to join a Girl Scout troop, but beginner gymnastics started their second semester class this week. When I told Vivian I had signed her up, she was super excited. We didn't have a uniform, but a lot of the new kids didn't have one either so Vivian was fine with that.
Parents aren't allowed in the gym, but there is an outdoor balcony with windows that look into the gym, so several of the moms and I went up there to peak in on the kids and see how they were doing. The class started with stretching, and I could see Vivian getting frustrated since flexibility and coordination are not really her things. One of the teachers saw that she was floundering and started working with her one-on-one. I was hoping that would solve it, but then I saw her wiping at her eyes, which I knew meant tears. Sure enough, the teacher walked her out, and I rushed downstairs to check on her. She was in full meltdown mode with tears and spluttering. Crap. My mom friends were really helpful and encouraging, but it took one of the coaches giving her a pep talk and telling her I could come in to watch to get her to go back in the gym. The coach put her in a group with girls who were also beginners. They were bouncing on a trampoline type strip. Then the teacher helped them flip over a pole. After that they climbed a little ladder to hang from an even higher pole and drop into a pool of foam cubes. No surprise, Vivian cheered right up, and I slipped out of the gym and back up to the mom viewing station.
The second half of the class flew by. Vivian's group worked through several other, equally fun little courses. Every so often she would look up at the mom window to wave and smile. At the end she got to somersault into the foam pool. She came bounding out of the gym with a huge grin on her face saying that gymnastics was SO much fun. The lady who sells the uniforms was there then, and one of Vivian's other friends was getting a uniform, so Vivian wanted one too. She did look cute in it, even if I put it on backwards the first time, and some nice girls in the changing room had to help us out.
She was so proud of her new uniform that she refused to take it off and wore it to play around the neighborhood. I finally convinced her to change for Secret Garden which was Friday night this month even though it's usually on a Saturday. Jeff was worn out from work, and I was worn out from the roller coaster that is Vivian, so we didn't stay too late. Overall, I think Vivian had a good first week back. She doesn't seem tired, but I'm exhausted.
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