Playing

She's also taken to playing with toys lately...and sucking her thumb! 

Growing so Fast!

Elinore is growing so fast! She's already 3 months old and about 12.5#. Her clothes are starting to look more "little girl" (as Kevin says) rather than little baby. She's so much fun. Her hair looks a bit red in our photos lately...we'll see... 

Love and Satisfaction

Kevin and I have a tradition of eating fondue on Valentine's Day. It began several years ago when we were dating...We had Brian and Amy over (Sam was only 3 months old), and we all ate a three course fondue meal (bread and cheese, meat in oil, and chocolate). We all felt so sick afterwards that we've never done it again. Normally we just stick to bread and cheese. Anyway, I tried a German fondue this year made with Emmentaler and Smoked Gouda. We dipped bread cubes and smoked kielbasa in it! Yum! The flavor was great...however, the cheese took on a strange consistency that Kev and I weren't too fond of. We probably won't try that one again. Anyway it was fun as it always is.

I managed to finish my quilt today!!! It has been a long process (my first one), especially since Elinore came along. I am so excited to sleep under it tonight! Next project will have to be a couple of pillow shams... 

Naptime

Usually when I put Elinore down for a nap I leave the door cracked open. If she's been quiet for a while then I peek through the crack. From the angle in the doorway I can just see the top half of her head from beneath the blanket. Sometimes she's still awake. When I peek through the crack she's staring straight at me, as if she was waiting for me to peek at her. 

Chiang Mai

Once in Chiang Mai, we stayed at Eric and Ang’s house. They took us to the Queen’s gardens, which was a botanical garden. It is in the mountains, so the landscape was beautiful!! We were surrounded by orchids and other tropical flowers. Truly breathtaking – the gardens and the view.

We also visited the elephant camp. You can buy sugar cane and bananas in the entrance to feed the elephants. We bought one bunch of each. Even Elinore fed an elephant (with help of course), and got her arm totally slimed with elephant gook. Gross! The dexterity they have with their trunks is truly unbelievable. We watched the show, where they have elephants playing harmonicas (with their trunks), playing soccer (actually getting it in the goal), and painting pictures (that actually look like flowers) which you can buy at the end of the show! There was even a baby elephant born on Dec. 22 that we saw. Amazing that that baby was born after Elinore, and is so much bigger and walking!! I wonder if you compare how much they grow based on their birthsize, would they have grown a similar percentage? Crazy how independent most animals are so soon after birth. By one year old, many animals are near their adult size, but humans take so much longer. Why is that?

Some of the best time we spent was just sitting around with Eric, Ang, and Gabe. It is so good to talk with them and be with them. To see a glimpse into what their lives are like these days. Gabe just loved seeing his cousin. He was a little afraid of her at first. He doesn’t really know any other babies, so he didn’t quite know what to expect from her. We began to hear him imitating us with her. He bend over her in her carrier and say, “Hey, cutie!” Then he’d turn around to Ang and say, “I said hi to my cousin,” in this adorably happy voice. Next time he sees her, she’ll be so much bigger!

What a wonderful trip we had. Thailand was a wonderful experience, and seeing our family was the best part of it. As always, it is good to be home, despite the mess and piles of laundry that I am greeted with.

Trek to Chiang Mai

After a couple great days in Hua Hin, we began the trek to Chiang Mai, where Eric and Ang live. We rented a van instead of taking the "slow" train, which was much more comfortable. Back to Bangkok. However, we ended up being stuck in traffic in Bangkok…so we decided to ditch the van in the middle of the road. So we grabbed our baby…and our luggage, including two huge rolling suitcases and ran across the road to a mall where we ate at a humongous food court, picked up our checked luggage at the hotel, and headed to the train station.

Rather tired, we boarded our night train and got ready for the night ahead. I have never seen someone so excited about a night train as Gabe was…and Baby Elephant. We all slept pretty well, and woke as the sun rose around 7am. Not long after the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. No big deal. After an hour of not moving, we began to wonder. Ang questioned a passing conductor. Her translation: “The train broke. It will take five hours to fix it or replace it.” Oh boy. A bit later another conductor came by to let us know that we could get off and get to the bus station to get to Chiang Mai. Ang decides that we’re getting off. Of course, we have gigantic, heavy luggage (next time we’re bringing our packs). Eric, Ang, and Gabe had decided to walk towards the front inside the train. As I tried to get from one car to the next, I could not fit Elinore’s car seat through the door. So instead of tipping her on her side to maneuver her through the door, Kevin suggested that we get off the train right at that point. We climb off the train and start walking in between the tracks towards the front of the train (we were in the last car of a very very long train). We came upon…a bridge…over a river…with only a small footbridge to cross. I walked on, petrified, carrying Elinore…no handrail, unsteady boards…some missing, some loose…it was something straight out of Indiana Jones. I wish we had a picture. Kevin followed behind me dragging our giant luggage. I didn’t know whether to be more afraid for me carrying the baby or Kevin pulling all that extra weight. In my mind replayed every movie with a footbridge where someone goes through a broken board. Eric & Ang had a hard time finding a place to get off and as they made their way through the train, the passengers, most of whom were European backpackers, passed along various rumors. Some said the train was already fixed, some said it would be fixed soon, some said it wasn’t going to be fixed. None of the officials seemed confident that the train would be running any time soon. Safe across, we met Eric and Ang, and board probably the oldest Song Tow (sort of like riding in the back of a pickup, only with planks for seats and a roof) in existence along with several Thai guys and a couple backpackers.

We arrive at the bus station to find that the 9:30 bus, as well as the 10am bus, are sold out. We lay our stuff near the large group of backpackers to sort through our options. We’ll have to write our observations on backpacking culture later. They (the backpackers) have all purchased tickets for the bus. The Thai guys from the Song Tow are interested in splitting a taxi van with us. We agree. As the taxi pulls up and we begin to move our luggage towards it, all of the backpackers move in like vulchers. Since none of them speak Thai, they seem to just follow any white person who looks like they know what they’re doing. My favorite part was when one American backpacker keeps trying to give the taxi driver his bus ticket, while the taxi driver just looks at him like he is crazy. Then he turns to us, holding up his ticket and says, “Do your tickets look like this?”

The moral of the story is:
1. You don’t have good stories unless things go wrong.
2. If you’re going to a foreign country, learn some of the language.
3. Search out all of your options instead of going with the first thing.
4. Footbridges are just as scary as they look in the movies.

The beach

This is a photo from the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand. We spent a few days there at the beginning of our trip with Eric, Ang, and Gabe. It was wonderful to be in the warm sunshine. The first beach we went to was overrun with tourists, lounge chairs under umbrellas to rent, and Thai vendors selling anything you could want including yummy snacks. There was literally no beach to sit on. In a couple spots the waves were lapping against the legs of the lounge chairs. There were even a few horses that you could pay to ride on. We ended up trying a beach Ang had heard about farther down, and found a much quieter spot. With the tide out, we had lots of space. We even order some roasted corn on the cob from a vendor that was mouth watering! The relaxing beach time gave us a chance to talk with Eric and Ang, catching up, and to build a sand castle with Gabe surrounded by a treacherous moat and an army of headless turtles! The small tourist town of Hua Hin also gave us a introduction to Thailand and its culture.