Daily Life

I've been busy with school work and life, and so I've only been writing blogs about big trips and holidays.  The little daily moments don't seem big enough for a whole blog, but when you start to add up the little moments, they get big fast.  One of my main reasons for doing this blog is so that the girls will have a record of this part of their childhood, and so this entry is about their daily lives.

First of all, no record of Vivian's life would be complete without mentioning the day she came home with her two front teeth in a bag.

Apparently, one was loose, but she wasn't expecting the second one to fall out as well.  She said that she got hit in the mouth with a jump rope during recess and both teeth just came out.  We're figuring this is okay, and grownup teeth will grow in, but I was pretty traumatized when she first came home and showed me.  She seems to have taken the whole thing in stride and is fine with her gap.

One of the main Vivian/Mommy activities lately has been Girl Scouts.  Vivian REALLY wanted to do Girl Scouts last year, but I missed the sign up at the beginning of the year.  That guilt, combined with the fact that two of our neighbors (and the moms of two of Vivian's best friends) run the Girl Scouts here in Bangkok, convinced me to volunteer to be a troop leader.  Yes, I have teaching experience, but with middle school, not second grade.  Luckily, the troop is just seven girls, so even when they get crazy, which they do every week, it's still fun.  Of course, I find myself spending time doing things like cutting out almost a hundred little keys, so that they can each have their own Girl Scout Law key chain.

But seeing Vivi's smile and her pride in being a Brownie, make it all worth it.

Last weekend was the Girl Scout Lock-In at the school, the epitome of awesome for them and semi-painful for me.  Luckily, it was really well organized.  The girls rotated through stations on arts and crafts, rope tying, first aid, and using a compass.  We were sleeping on the floor in the gym, so my co-leader and I pulled down some gym mats to put under all our sleeping bags and tried to get comfortable.  Vivian, of course, was in heaven at this super sized slumber party.

Since I'm not a super picky sleeper, I did manage to get in a few hours.  Of course, if the girls were awake, I was awake, and I did wake up one time in the middle of the night facing away from the girls and had a half asleep panicked moment where I thought I'd lost them all.  I was barely coherent the next day, but the girls were all happy, so again, worth it.

Jeff puts in his parenting time too.  He likes to keep his hair short as much as possible, so he and Vivian have discovered a fun activity for them is to go to our unisex salon here in Nichada.  Jeff can get his hair cut, and Vivian can get braids.  Elena has also gotten into the hairstyle thing.  She sees that Vivian and I usually have pony tails, and so she has begun demanding a pony tail of her own.  This is challenging, to say the least, but Young and I have managed to mass together enough hair for a pony tail or two that usually last about ten minutes.

Elena's vocabulary grows daily, as does her insistence on not being left out of things.  She sees that Vivian wears goggles, so she tries to put some on herself, achieving more of a flapper look as a result.

Not only is she a flapper, but she's also a Duplo architect.  She loves to build towers and then knock them down.

She has also taken to hovering in the kitchen during cooking time.

The other day, I ended up giving her a bowl with some flour and water in it just to get a moment's peace.

When she's the only one at home, she also insists that all her "friends" sit on the sofa with her to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, her favorite show.

All of these are hand-me-down toys from Vivian, so it's nice to see them getting a second life.  One new thing we did invest in was a chair for Elena.  She gets demoted to that when Jeff comes home and wants to watch some HGTV instead of Mickey.  We have a Kindle Fire if Elena really insists on Mickey, but it's not as though she's uncomfortable.

She also has regular play dates with her two January club buddies, and we rotate houses and try different locations to make sure that they're getting out and about.  Elena takes full advantage of the opportunities presented by new toys.

She is much more of a climber than Vivian was, a fact that simultaneously makes me proud and terrified.  I'm super proud though of the fact that she can count to ten already and she recognizes the letters that start her family and friends' names.  I think a lot of her rapid vocabulary acquisition has to do with trying to catch up to Vivi.  Elena absolutely worships Vivian and wants to do whatever she sees big sister do.

When Jeff is traveling and it's just the Goerss Girls at home, we try to have fun with it.

No day is ever perfect, but I feel like, overall, their childhood is wonderful, and I hope they will remember it as such.

Happy Halloween!

This year we were better prepared for the crazy community event that is Halloween in Nichada.  I ordered about 700 Starbursts from the States and went to Makro to load up on  large quantities of sweets.  We had also gotten the girls' costumes well ahead of time.  Vivian was torn between being a princess or a super hero, so the obvious solution was Wonder Woman, who is both.

Elena seems to be finishing up her Elmo phase, and is in full on Micky Mouse worship phase.  She especially loves Minnie Mouse, and has been calling Minnie, Elena, so we thought, perfect Halloween costume for her.  One small problem though, she did NOT like wearing the costume.

There were ears and a bow too, but she ripped those off too fast for photographic evidence.  We were merciful and just took a couple quick pictures before liberating her.  Jeff just got back from a trip and he had gotten her a black t-shirt with an elephant on it, so we let that be her Halloween outfit instead.  

Some of our friends had friends from another posting in town, and they had invited them out to Nichada to see the show, but the show in our neighborhood is better than the one in theirs, so we invited them all over to our house.  They brought more huge bags of candy.  We had also invited some people from downtown, so we ended up with a large group of children and adults hanging out in our patio area as we gave away almost 2000 pieces of candy.  Yikes!

We started handing out candy around 5:00 and ran out shortly before 8:00.  I had gone into emergency mode, restocking our bowl with apple sauce squeeze packs, which was actually really well received, but I had to stop because I still needed some for Vivian's snacks.  

The bigger kids went to the haunted house at Secret Garden before trick or treating.  Vivian loved it, her friend seemed fine with it, and the visiting child was too afraid to go in.  They all enjoyed the candy though.

The little guys split their time between the party outside and the air conditioning and toys inside.  By the end of the evening though, they were lying on the floor and telling each other "night, night."

Our one set of friends left, and we got Elena to bed, but we let Vivian stay up late with our other friends to watch Inside Out.  It was a fun Halloween for everyone.

Phuket - Boat Trip in Phang Nga Bay

Even though our resort in Phuket was great, we wanted to make sure we got out on the water to see some of the cool islands that dot the region.  I picked a company that had lots of good reviews, and we were not disappointed.  They did a great job.

I knew we were off to a good start when I saw how excited Jeff was about the boat, because it was a "real" boat, not a Thai longboat like we've had on our last few water adventures.

When we got on the boat at the marina, Jeff and Vivian excitedly claimed spots right at the front of the ship.

It was a nice, calm spot at the beginning, but once we got moving on the water, it got windy and a bit more thrilling.

The slash and burn fires in Indonesia and the resulting regional smoke and haze have been big news items in southeast Asia, but they are also becoming news stories internationally.  Large parts of Indonesia are in a state of emergency because of the air pollution the burning is causing, and the haze has spread to Malaysia and Singapore causing school closures and event cancellations.  We haven't been affected in Bangkok, so it didn't occur to me that by going south to Phuket we would be within the haze, but as we got out on the water and looked at the islands in the distance the haze was obvious.

This blog isn't really the appropriate venue for me to rant about my thoughts on this, but it is a HUGE issue which impacts a lot more than tourist sight seeing and doesn't seem to have an immediate resolution.  Sigh.  Okay, back to vacation.

Once we got closer to the islands, you could see how cool they were and why they're heavily featured in tourist brochures.

The cliffs are limestone made of compressed shells and other marine fragments.  Along the edges, you can see the evolution from shell to limestone.

Our first island stop, Koh Phanak, was one that had cave openings around the outside that you could pass through to get to a lagoon in the middle.  When we landed the boat on the beach we were greeted by monkeys.

These monkeys are also billed as a tourist attraction, but I am NOT a fan.  They are mean, and we know at least one person who was attacked by this type of monkey going after food she had in her hands.  The tour guides gave us little bananas to give to the monkeys, but you could tell their hearts weren't in it, and they kept warning us to keep our hands open and just offer, not try to hold on to the bananas at all.

After the monkeys, we got to the fun stuff, hard hats and flash lights for our cave exploration.  The water started out pretty shallow, but we had to walk through some parts that were pretty deep, so monkey Vivian jumped on Jeff's back.

The walk through the caves was cool, and we used our flashlights to point out interesting rock formations.  Jeff tried to take pictures, but, because of the lighting, none of them really came out.  It's a good thing we had the hard hats though, because mine scraped the top of the cave more than once.  Of course Vivian managed to look up at the top of the cave and have her hat fall off into the water.  Luckily, it floated, so we got it back and on her head again pretty quickly.

After about a ten minute walk we made it to the middle of the island.

The best part was looking up at the jungle around us.

There were some fun things down below too.  Our guide showed us a good spot for a peekaboo photo.

He also pointed out the mud skippers hanging on the mangrove roots.  These are fish that can use their front fins to pull themselves out of the water.  They can breath both air and water.  In concept, they're really cool.  In reality, they're kind of brown and blobby.

After some exploration, we headed back out of the cave.  As we got to the exit, we could see that other boats were showing up for touring.

We left that island, and after a short trip arrived at Koh Hong for sea canoeing.  We docked at a floating station, and then got in our own canoe with a guide.

We followed the other canoes to a crack in the island's wall.  Vivian loved it.

There were a few low ceilings in these caves too, so we all had to lay back on each other in the canoe, so we wouldn't get our heads knocked.

Vivian flipped the laying down forward and just relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

In addition to getting us around, our guide pointed out rock formations that looked like animals, so that we could take pictures.  Here are the dolphin mother (on the left) and her baby (the shadow on the right).

Some were better than others, and Vivian got a bit skeptical, so I explained to her that it was like finding animals in the clouds.  That inspired her, and she started finding all kinds of things in the rocks.

Our guide also offered photography services.  He didn't speak much English, but he would stop the canoe and wave for our camera at good photo spots.

Our next stop was "James Bond" island where two James Bond movies have been filmed.  We were back on land and with our regular guide for that island, and talk about being prepared for photo ops!  He had two toy guns, one gold for The Man with the Golden Gun, and he told Jeff and Vivi where and how to stand.

It's not exactly the same as the movie, but it's pretty close.

Our guide also positioned Vivi for some cool perspective pictures with the little island in the middle.

Boats aren't allowed to go near that island, because they're afraid the bottom will erode and the whole thing will just topple over.

The main island also has some cool caves, big surprise ;-) Jeff and Vivi went exploring.

By that point we were ready for lunch, so they took us to Koh Yao Noi, one of the larger islands, the kind with roads.

We got off the boat and onto the back of a pick up truck for the ride to the restaurant.

We got family style plates of several traditional Thai dishes.  None of which Vivian was particularly interested in.  Luckily, there was some chicken in a sweet sauce, and they had banana smoothies.

We enjoyed as much of the view as the haze would allow us to, and after lunch Vivian played on the beach with the other kid on our tour.

On our drive to the restaurant, our guide had pointed out the "gas stations" which are basically drums of gasoline with a pump, measuring container and a hose attached.  The different colors tell you what kind of gasoline it is.  We were so intrigued, that he got the driver to stop on the way back to the boat, so that we could get a picture.

The colors make it look like juice or soda, but it's definitely not something you want to drink.

We had a bit of a ride to our snorkeling spot, and as we were going along, the guide came up to the front of the boat to ask if Vivian would like to drive.  At first we thought he was joking, but no, he was totally serious. 

The driver let her go straight for a while to get the feel of it.  Then he had her do some zig zags, and finally she took the boat in a whole big circle.  She was SO pleased with herself.

I'll be honest, I was a little worried while she was driving, but there were no other boats around, and Jeff kept reassuring me that driving a boat is nothing like driving a car.

When we finally got to our spot, it took Vivian a little while to get used to the snorkel gear.  She didn't like it at first, but once she got the hang of it, she really enjoyed it.

The water wasn't super clear, so it was a bit hard to see the fish, but they were there.

Vivian and I both got a kick out of swimming right through a school of fish that was zipping around the coral.  They all just swam around us.

There were also some clown fish.  Jeff got a great picture of "Nemo" and his dad.

As if we hadn't had enough fun already, they took us to one last island.  This one had a beach, and the boat docked a bit out in the water.  It was shallow and calm, so it was good for swimming or sunbathing.

Vivi played splash games with the other kid, and after a bit, I went back to sit on the boat.  I had reached my sunshine max by that point.  The haze protected us from the sun's full power, but it was still a lot of sun.  

Luckily, that was the last island, because by that point, Vivian was pretty much done.  She curled up in a little ball and asked us to help cover her with a towel for wind and sun protection.

We're not sure if she fell asleep or not, but I wouldn't be surprised.  It was a glorious, exhausting kind of a day.  We definitely want to do another boat tour if we go back to the area.