I'm coming home

"I'm coming home" by P Diddy

I'm coming home, I'm coming home

Tell the World that I'm coming home

Let the rain wash away

All the pain of yesterday

I know my kingdom awaits

And they've forgiven my mistakes

I'm coming home, I'm coming home

Tell the World that I'm coming

Catching up

Well classes are back in full-swing, Chris is out of town, the baby had his 4-month immunizations and we're all hanging in there just fine (still sleepy but overall ok). Chris was home for less than a day between trips but it was good to see him for a few hours at least. I'm looking forward to next month when he's around a little more... especially so he can change the diapers. Plus Daniel misses bath time with Daddy. I get too much soap in his eyes, the water is too hot and he ends up drinking half the tub by the time I'm through with him. While you Kalnins may not believe it he even treated me to a "me" day before he left for his trips in which he watched the baby so I could get my hair cut, get my nails done and go shopping all afternoon. I came home to a nice candlelit dinner prepared by him. Here's proof:

Despite Chris being out of town, it's been a pretty good week. I didn't feel like driving so I've been taking taxis everywhere. I saw parts of Bangkok I never knew existed and learned some great back roads for getting around traffic. Plus I got to snuggle in the back with Daniel instead of listening to him wail in his carseat in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic.

Also, we had some really good play dates with friends and family this week. It is always great having "play dates" with my friend Courtney because it's more like "mommy dates" where we can actually have adult conversation while Jack and Daniel "play" on the floor. And, one of the great things about Bangkok of course is having cousins around. We got to see Aidan and Jacob a lot this week which has been entertaining to say the least. Aidan has a love/hate relationship with Max and is obsessed with knowing where Max is at all times. He won't step on the ground if Max is there so he spent nearly 4 hours playing on the couch at his house because he didn't want Max to get him. At our house all the boys go swimming together and Aidan's newest joy is to put Max on the inflatable raft in the pool and splash water on him. Here's some recent pix:

Best buds

Dads and their boys

Complements of his cousin Aidan

Playdate in our pool

At least one Lim likes Max

Came home from a quick trip to the grocery store to find Anen taking pictures of Daniel like this (don't ask me what's going on because I have no idea... but his butt is cute)

Daniel's 4 month check- up was great. He's average on the weight scale (6.6 kilos) and 75th percentile in height (66 cm). The Dr said he's developing just fine. One funny thing he brought up without me asking is that he said Daniel is not actually cross-eyed. He says he appears cross-eyed sometimes (especially in pictures which is why you guys in the US all think he's cross-eyed) because of how the skin grows over the eye. Apparently this is more common in Asian babies than Western babies. Sorry Jesse, you aren't going to have a cross-eyed club member joining anytime soon ;)

Well that's all the updates for now. More to come next week. XOXO Bec

Thankful

The last couple days have been a little tough since Daniel has decided to no longer sleep through the night. To make matters worse I kicked my coffee habit for him and so I have no "quick fix" for the morning sleepiness right now. I've found myself being a little crankier and also have felt the slightest depression settle in the past couple days. It's nothing major but it's there pestering me when I don't want it around. But, in the midst of all of this I have been reading a great book called Calm My Anxious Heart. The timeliness of this book couldn't be better as I'm facing classes starting up again next week, volunteering for our summer Bible study and have a husband who is traveling to Mongolia, Canada and Australia all within a 3 week period. I find anxious thoughts lurking in my mind and am reminded in this book of the following verse:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Phil 4:6-7

So, I've spent the past few days trying to switch my thought process from entertaining negative thoughts to dwelling on everything I have to give thanks for. (Forgive me, English majors, for ending my sentence in a preposition but this won't be the only time it happens in this blog). And to my delight I've found myself truly grateful for so many wonderful things. Here are some of the things I spend my time thinking about and being thankful for throughout my day:

- a rock star husband

- a son I'm head over heals for

- the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom

- a supportive family and a great set of in-laws

- a network of friends in Bangkok that encourage and lift me up

- friends in the US that I miss dearly but get to talk to regularly over Skype

- a housekeeper who is incredible

- a ladies church group that helps me grow immensely

- a cute, fluffy dog

- the time and energy to work on my Master's

- play dates!

- Thai food available all day/everyday

and on, and on, and on...

While on the outside I may look haggard, worn-out and exhausted (which all of these I am), on the inside I have a heart overflowing with gratitude for each and every gift I've been given. That is what I praise God for today.

Trips to Pattaya

We've had a busy couple weeks with 2 fun visitors. Mary visited from the US for a long weekend and Lizzy visited from Canada for 2 weeks. We took two different trips to Pattaya. Here are some pictures from the trips.

Mary and Daniel poolside.

Overlooking Pattaya beach

Sonya and Jacob after wading through sewage water to get on our boat. Disgusting, but worth the trip was worth it. Unfortunately Sonya's flip-flop broke and she had to go barefoot the rest of the trip.

Lizzy and Aidan on the boat

Aidan clinging to Jay for dear life

Daniel's first boat ride

The island we visited for the afternoon

The boat ride knocked out all the boys

Relaxing in the shade

Daniel's first dip in the ocean. The water was nice and warm so he thought it was a giant bathtub.

The Schmucks

Go-karting

My mother's day surprise... good husband.

Those Kalnins play hard. We came home with 3 sick kids and a couple sick adults but it was worth it now that everyone's on the mend.

Chiang Mai Road Trip

Last week was Thai New Year's so we decided to take our days off and drive up to Chiang Mai. The ride up was pretty uneventful and we made it in a little over 7 hours. Both Max (drugged with Dramamine) and Daniel slept a good portion of the trip. Then things started going downhill. Daniel got his first cold. Of course it came when we were away from home and I didn't have any of my nifty tools people gave me at the baby shower like a heavy duty nasal aspirator and a rectal thermometer :) Then Max got attacked over and over again by the ants. Although he is potty trained in Bangkok he wouldn't go in the grass in Chiang Mai anymore because of the ants. So, he had multiple accidents on Beverley's beautiful floors. Chris and I didn't get much sleep with a sick baby in bed with us and a howling Max outside our window. But, all that aside we had a fun and enjoyable trip. Daniel was dedicated at Beulah church by Pastor Pichai. We celebrated Beverley's birthday with a massive pizza party in which Chris order so many pizzas there was enough for each family to take one home at the end of the night. And we got to spend lots of time with friends, family and mission staff. Here are some of the highlights of the trip:

Daniel being dedicated at Beulah Church.

Atsi and grandson at birthday dinner

Daniel being loved on by Salika and the kiddos at Beverley's birthday party.

Playing Superman with Paeng.

Max sleeping under the oven

Max is probably looking for somewhere to pee on the floor.

Chris attempting to multi-task... working while babysitting.

The picture doesn't show it so well, but this is Chris getting spit up on while multi-tasking :)

Bath time

Meeting Ado's newest addition Tittapon (3 days old)

Mom and baby

Handome boy

Rawang feet

Daniel meeting the Akha tribal people

Hopefully not dinner

Akha Easter eggs

Daniel, Beverley and the some of the Akha workers at the land.

Where we were married a little over a year ago

Family photo. Daniel is still not cooperating in any of these.

The trip back to Bangkok was a little tougher. Max's dramamine didn't work and Daniel was awake for 9 1/2 out of the 10 1/2 hour drive back. But, we made it safely and are now back on track in Bangkok.

The boys recovering from the drive.

The Adventures of Max

Max has brought a lot of smiles to our already happy household (especially now that he's potty- trained). Even Chris likes him which is surprising if you know Chris. Here's some pictures of his fun this past month.

Tom helping Daniel ride Max like a horse.

This is not Max looking in a mirror. We were hoping Max and Lily would be boyfriend and girlfriend but she was too cool for him. He chased her around all night like a hormonal teenage boy and she was clearly not interested. We ended up having to separate them because Lily was so annoyed with Max. Poor guy.

Attach a stick to him and we have ourselves a mop.

Max caught red-handed with a train of bathroom toilet paper.

Cousin Jacob meeting Max. Max kept trying to eat those gorgeous locks of his.

There is a nice girl in our neighborhood who comes over and plays with Max everyday after school. He gets played with, tossed around and loved on. This is what happens every time she leaves... :) He's one pooped puppy.

Taking a stab at blogging

I'm creating this mostly so my family can follow Daniel's progress since I don't get to update them regularly enough. Unfortunately I've never been consistent about journaling so we'll see how long I can keep it up.

There's too much to write about since Daniel was born so I'm just going to start with this past weekend. We took our second family vacation in two weeks. This time we went to Pattaya with our friends Tom and Diane. While the boys were out golfing, Diane and I took Daniel to the pool. Diane gave him his second dunking and he did much better than last week!

On Sunday Chris took him dunking again. The water was a little cold but Daniel still seemed to be ok with it. He wasn't smiling but he never does unless its gas- induced so we think he likes it (or tolerates it at least).

He was quite exhausted after the whole ordeal.

We went for a Sunday morning stroll around Pattaya beach. This is one of few decent family photos we have so far. We can't get Daniel to look at the camera or smile but at least he was awake in this one.

After two months of photos with everyone else and Daniel we finally snapped one of Daniel and me!

That's all the updates from this weekend. I'll try and post as regularly as I can so you can see Daniel (and Max) grow. XOXO