The Tomlinsons: At Long Last, Night Bizarre and more!

Catching up!

Our little getaway was full of excitement and humor!

Every morning at the hotel Kees has gotten up way earlier than usual, and Momma is feeling worn out! Late nights plus early mornings and busy days without Daddy...whew! I was definitely needing a nap by the time we got home. Funny how having kids makes a "getaway" feel not as restful. It felt like more work in some ways, but it was still really fun!

Like I already mentioned, Kees woke up early. It's like we were in an alternate universe at the hotel. Kees normally sleeps through everything, except, apparently sunlight at a hotel. The first night I stayed up late...blogging, so when he woke up about 3 1/2 hours earlier than normal, I tried my best to convince him to go back to bed...no luck. Kees is a cautious, calm kid, and I don't worry about him getting into stuff or taking advantage of situations...for the most part. So I tried to go back to sleep and told him to play quietly while Kora and I slept. That lasted 20 minutes, then he woke me up and said, "Momma, is it morning time yet? You've been asleep for ages and ages and ages!" In my mind, I replied, "Oh really, that 4 hours of sleep I had sure didn't feel like ages, but if you say so." At this point, I realized it was a losing battle, so I got up with him. Kora woke up too, so I decided to put them in the amazing bathtub at our hotel. They LOVED it!

While the kids were contained (in the tub), I decided if I was going to be up at this obscene hour, I might as well pamper myself a little. I painted my toenails and did a mint julep facial mask (that I bought at least a month ago and never used). I considered taking a picture of myself in the mask for this blog post, but I don't really need anymore photos of me on the internet where I look like a witch (the mask was green).

And, for about 5 minutes, I thought to myself, I got this! I should do this more often, I'm great with these kids and I'm taking care of myself too. Everything's so mellow, this is FUN! Then Kora wanted out of the tub and in the two minutes it took me to round up the stuff to dress her she pooped on the bathroom floor. At home, this is when I yell for Doug and ask, "Do you want the baby or the mess?" (Okay, I should clarify, Kora does not go around pooping on the floor at our house, just in general if she makes a huge mess and it's on her, and the house, we split the workload.) So to re-cap, I have Kees in the tub, Kora out of the tub, and a pile of poop on the bathroom floor. Very glad she pooped on the tile and not the carpet. I had to think quickly, I took the drain out of the tub, got Kees out, wrapped him in a towel and put Kora back into the draining tub. I sent Kees to the other room, he's easily disgusted by bodily functions that don't belong to him, he's the Kora poop police at our house. That girl doesn't fart without him noticing and reporting back to the head of the stink department. I sprayed Kora off and gave her some little shampoo bottles to play with, then I scrounged around and found a plastic baggie, which conveniently turned into a plastic glove for poop extraction. I also used some of the half ply toilet paper. Crisis averted!

We got dressed, and went to breakfast. We got downstairs, and before we even sat down to eat, Kees had to go to the bathroom...also number 2, I guess he was mumbling to me about it and it didn't register to me that he was talking. So the first thing I hear out of his mouth in regards to the bathroom is, "I guess you just want me to poop on the floor like Kora!" No, I most definitely do not want that! So, Alicia kept Kora and got her started on breakfast, by the time Kees and I came back from the bathroom, she was no longer interested in food. I spent the entire meal, standing up holding her, and the second portion of that she was on my shoulders. She tried to rip my earrings out, so those had be removed. Either she's really fast or I'm really old, or maybe both. Not sure I ate very much and I'm certain I got a lot of exercise. Guess she's helping me lose those extra pounds...just wait there's a story later about that...

Once breakfast was over, I got the kids dressed and ready to swim. I put all their swim gear on in the room and even sunscreened them before we went down to the pool. That way we could get right in, have I mentioned Kora is a busy little girl?!

We got on the elevator and Kees said he had to go to the bathroom. We had to walk right past the pool to get to the bathroom. Kora screamed the entire time we were in the bathroom because she loves swimming and how dare we walk right past the pool!?!

I just want to swim!

Kees was making different kind of footprints, I think these were "tiger prints".

Let me just tell you Kora is a crazy lady in the pool or anywhere. So we didn't last very long at the pool, maybe 20 minutes. We came back to the room, got dressed, hung out in the room a while, then went out for lunch. We had American breakfast at a place we walked to. I had an english mcmoofin. Yes, mcmoofin, but when I ordered it the lady looked at me funny and said, "Oh, you want an english mcmuffin?" "Um last time I checked this isn't Mickey D's, and your menu says MCMOOFIN!" Of course I didn't really say that. Doug laughed and laughed when I told him this story. ;)

My egg mcmoofin is in the top left corner. Alicia had biscuits and gravy, and felt the need to soil them with ketchup.

Kora enjoying some vanilla shake. She was pretty hard to handle at this place as well. We had to change a poopy diaper on the bathroom floor. Fun times. ;)

We walked back to our hotel and I managed to get a few pictures of people setting their stands up for the Night Bazaar. During the day it's not a market, hence the name "Night Bazaar". It's fun to watch them set things up. Some people store these carts during the day and then put them back on the main street holding onto them next to their motorbike!

A few of the carts

View of the street

Look closely, this cart is being moved by a guy on a motorbike!

This is a big square area that you can shop that's not right on the road. We had to walk through here to get back to our hotel.

Here's another way to get from A to B.

Kees really liked these bullfrogs.

This shop was right across from the back entrance of our hotel. This lady entertained Kora while we shopped. Don't worry Mom, I bought something just to make sure I thanked her for playing with the baby.

When we got back to our room, thankfully, my babies slept!

I actually fell asleep with them and right after I woke up, Doug showed up and surprised us. He took a break from working to come swim and eat dinner with us! I was so happy to see him and let him wrangle Kora for a while.

This is the view from our hotel room, Doug went to get dinner, can you see him? He's wearing a blue shirt and black hat.

We ate dinner and headed to the pool. We got to swim longer this time and I was able to take photos since Daddy was watching the kiddos. I cannot even tell you how much better we function when we are all together. So thankful for my one and only, Doug Tomlinson! He even volunteered to stay with the kids while I went shopping at the Night Bazaar with Alicia. I rarely go places without my kids and it was kind of weird not carrying 20 lbs of Kora, having Kees wrapped around my legs, and a diaper bag.

Fun at the pool!

Don't let her fool you, she's trouble. But she's the best kind of trouble. :)

Yeah, this about sums it up.

And finally here are some much anticipated photos from our shopping trip. I took most of them while I was walking rather than actually stop to take them. I guess since I live here I try to act like I'm just fiddling with my ipod and not actually taking a majillion pictures. So if the quality is bad, I apologize. :)

I forgot one more "funny", on my way out to meet Alicia, the elevator stopped to pick me up and there were already 5 people on it, when I got on an alarm went off because I exceeded the weight limit. Embarassing, right? It gets worse, I apologized, stepped off the elevator, but they insisted I get back on. And wouldn't you know, I really am the fat white lady that can't fit through the door. One of the guys on the elevator actually stepped off and took the stairs, so I could enjoy the longest most awkward elevator ride in the history of the world.

This is from the elevator, read line 4. "when, chip load exceed heavy, the door will don't close and have a signal warn" They weren't joking, apparently when I got added to the mix I "exceed heavy". ;)

Okay, so I met Alicia and we were ready to shop. We walked the whole length of the market, and had such a good time. It was past 11 when we got home, and I was ready for bed. Doug stayed the night with us, then left crazy early in the morning and worked ALL day long. He's doing his evaluation this morning while I'm playing with the kids outside enjoying the much cooler temps. It rained for about 45 seconds, but it's still cool and a little breezy. We're enjoying it!