one huge post...

I guess I'm a camel when it comes to blogging these days. I just can't bring myself to blog while someone is here to enjoy. Anyway, I'll go in order with pics from the last month or so.

I've decided that I'm totally not beyond taking pictures of any sort of special project I do (cooking, art with Sam, etc) and there will be several pics in this post. I guess it shows how not Martha Stewarty I am because I'm just so pleased with myself for accomplishing even little things. Anyway, for Valentine's Day, Sam and I made John linzer cookies because they're his favorite even though I've never made them before. They turned out pretty well, but not as good as the times that we've bought them in Israel and Morocco. They were pretty though and Sam and I had fun.


We watched as much of the Olympics as we could be it wasn't tons because of the time difference- we did manage to devote a whole morning to the opening ceremony though and Sam and Jeff sported their Vancouver Olympic shirts courtesy of Auntie Rae for the big day.

My parents gave Sam a ridiculous number of presents while they were here and I'm still finding out about some of them- like this Rabat shirt Sam's wearing... I'd never seen it before this week and they've been gone months!
The main highlight of the last two weeks has been our visit from the Steiners- they are just such great people and so relaxing and fun to be with. We did a lot of things we'd done before but each time we go is different because of who we're with and it was loads of fun with these guys. John was away on business for a few days so I had them to myself and we had to use public transport which is honestly quite fun.
They took Sam and I to the aquarium for the first time- it was totally awesome- really big, great tanks, etc. Plus I adore aquariums (even more than zoos)- plus I adore doing stuff like this with little kids because of their enthusiasm- plus we got the added bonus of the Drummonds and the crew they were hanging out with- plus Jason and Phil made the aquarium even more fun because of their huge knowledge base, love of learning, and general craziness (they tried to pet sharks in one of the tanks!, and they knew the names of all the fish and stuff). It made me miss Mike Sethi too who would have been so fun with these two. Here are Elijah, Sam, Maddie, and Lilian all lined up
We had a few meals together with the combined crew- here's the ladies table (minus Julie taking the pic)
And the guys table
We decided to try one of our favorite overnight outings as a day trip and it worked great. We went up to Chiang Dao to the caves and then to the place we usually stay for the delicious lunch and the gorgeous views. Chiang Mai has a lot of pollution this time of year because of slash and burn agriculture so it wasn't quite as brilliant outside as it has been but it was still lovely.

I really appreciate people who try to actually do things with their cameras other than point and shoot. Phil did this 3 second exposure picture and got a way clearer view of the caves than I've ever seen.
The next day we did another of our favorite outings- to the hotsprings and then up to a beautiful mountain drive and lunch by a river.
Of course, we went to our beloved "fish" park (I wonder if I'll ever learn the real name of that park).
Oh and then we went to the night safari (in the day) which really is one of the best deals around and we saw the baby black swans. (did I tell the story here about when we went with my sister and Lucy a few weeks back and the black swan's had made their nest on the chimpanzee's island and they were fighting each other? It was sort of traumatic, so I thought I'd post pics for my sister of the swans to show that they are well and have relocated to the marginally safer lemur island- though there was still some aggression from the daddy swan).

One reason everything is so fun with the Steiners is how Phil doesn't strictly obey normal rules (without being reckless or going too far). John has been feeding the miniature horses grass every time we've gone here, but this time he swiped cabbage from the turtles and then they fed them and then Phil put Maddie and Sam on their backs. Later, he figured out that we could feed the squirrel monkeys bananas through the side of their enclosure which made me really happy because we get to feed them in Bukit Merah in Malaysia and they have the softest little hands (next to Jeff of course).
Also, Julie (and Phil) did such a service to us by taking tons of pictures while they were here and they even got the hands down best family picture of us to date.
Another fun with Phil moment... he climbed the inside of the bushes in the botanical garden maze to snap this cool pic of Julie and Maddie working their way through it. Like I said, fun, fun, fun!
Then of course, there is the fun of having two more kiddos around. Maddie is older so we don't have to worry so much about Sam hurting her (not that he didn't- just that she can fend for herself or tell on him), plus she's got lots of fun play ideas and Sam loved it. Lilian is a really sweet girl (2 in June) and I enjoyed her cuddles so much. The last day they were here- our living room was transformed into a jumping pit with pillows and they stayed there for the next 3 days (Sam couldn't get enough of climbing onto our TV table and jumping into the pillows). So it was an awesome fun time, I adore time with the Steiners, and am thrilled that we'll get to see them again this year when we go to Chengdu in August!
So things got pretty quiet here on Thursday. John flew out for an 11 day trip to Malaysia, India and Bangladesh and the Steiners flew home. I had to come up with something to keep this from being just same old same old (it's just the way I am- I can't just do routine without a few extras thrown in). So I decided to tackle a few parenting tasks- sleep training for Jeff and potty training for Sam plus a little extra discipline for Sam (I've been having a hard time being obeyed and he's been hitting/biting me a lot). Sam went all day with no accidents- though with lots of regular reminders from me. I am excited to see how things go this week.

Then I made a list of special things to do together. Here's what we did today- Sam asked if we could make a dove because of a book we've been reading- here's our dove (made of clay and beads)
Here's the book's dove- made of cotton, wire and beads.
Then we did some sand art projects- this actually looked perfect- all cute layers and stuff but Sam couldn't help but shake it as soon as we finished. It was still fun.
And we played with glue and sand art too.

We took a trip to the big market for the sand art and beads this morning on our motorbike. Tonight we made jello for jello jigglers which I think he's going to love.

And then our day was made complete with a nice evening with the Drummonds who flew in again today for another week. We'll do some stuff with them this week too. All in all a good day! I feel like I should post more about Pi Pound and how incredible she is. She's incredible. I love her. I feel so blessed to have her working for us. I think she might just about be perfect. John agrees. Anyway, she's working both Saturdays while John is away and I've noticed that she's helping me out off hours too. Like when I got back from dropping the Drummonds off she came to help me get the kids out of the car (did I mention that she moved onto our property in January?). And she got a 3 month old puppy named Coffee who is so sweet and cute and deserves a post all to himself. She is just so wonderful- I could go on and on. Today would not have been such a good one if I hadn't had her help.

Okay here are a couple of videos:
Dinner with the Littletons- this was a few weeks ago and Jeff is totally blossoming now. He's into solids, can go from his belly to sitting to pulling up on things to a standing position. He's crawled hands and knees a little bit but it's going to be soon that it is all the time. Tonight Jason and Elissa both noticed that his features are becoming more defined.

This is how Sam plays Peek-a-boo with Jeff