And then there were more ants.

Day 66:

Wednesday, I'm typing the day of the week for my own benefit, so I can remember what happened.  Sorry I keep not blogging, call it laziness or depression. Just teasing MOM, I'm not really that depressed, I'm just adjusting to a new normal.  Usually when I get a wild hair to run to the store I invite Alicia to go along.  So when I did that Wednesday night, I tried to remind myself that she might would have been busy or too tired to go, maybe if I pretend that's the case, I won't cry in public. Okay, I might be dramatizing a tad. I haven't been weepy since the day after she left.

Kora has been running a fever and we cannot figure out what's wrong with her. She seems angry about her teeth, like they are hurting her, but her fever seems too high for just teething and she's been sleeping a lot...if you know Kora, you know this is strange!  And she likes to snuggle a lot more when she's sick I've realized. Which I will never complain about, although it is HOT and it makes us both sweaty, I'll gladly take what I can get when I can get it!

In other news, Kora hasn't been eating very well for me for a few weeks now and because there's a weird balance my children must keep, Kees has been eating a lot more.  Has anyone else noticed this with sibling, they have to be different and even the score.  If one is sleeping, the other one is starving or has tons of extra energy to burn. They can't be tired at the same time, or hungry at the same time, or heaven forbid plan bathroom business in a way that would make it easier on road trips.  So, after breakfast, (Kees had eaten a WHOLE bowl of oatmeal), I was snuggling Kora and she was sleeping.  It had been 20 minutes since breakfast, but Kees was hungry and wanted malt ball (that oatmeal power ball stuff I make). He kept asking if I'd make some more and I told him 5 more minutes.  He's at the age where he's just figuring out how clocks work and about time.  So he watched the clock for 5 minutes and then helped me make the malt balls.

How long does 5 minutes take...because "I'm starving, mother, really I am!"

Making malt ball

After the malt ball he had yogurt.

Then he played trains for while.  This is one of the few toys that we brought with us to Thailand.

Making the sounds!

When we moved here we had 3 large suitcases, 2 large tubs, and carry on luggage. So we didn't bring a ton of stuff with us.  Kees's toy collection started out with these take along Thomas trains and cars.  It's insane how much he has now!  We've gotten a lot of packages from home, and when Doug's mom visits she always brings the best stuff (and even makes sure it's what I think will be durable in the humidity here).  So when Kees pulled these trains out it made me nostalgic for when we first arrived here!  Crazy to think he was just 18 months old then, and now he's 4!

This was right after we landed in Chiang Mai at our hotel room.

After Kora woke up from her nap, Doug found some Yo Gabba Gabba on youtube for the kids to watch. He always picks the one about not biting since Kora does that a lot.  It's catchy and fun!

 

I decided to make tortillas in the afternoon and guess what I found...

I was getting water from the hot pot for tortillas and all these ants came out of it!

I may have eaten about 3/4ths of all the grapes we had while I was making dinner, and I don't regret it.

It also rained quite a bit, and I ran over to the little shop that was about a block away from our old house to pick up a few things we needed for dinner.  I saw all our old neighbors out talking and stop to visit with them a little.  Both of our kids were napping. In fact Kees took a 4 hour nap!  And went to bed just fine at bedtime too.  Love that kid! I love Kora too, despite her sleeping hiccups.

Rain

Old neighbors

Love how things look all glisteny after the rain.

This weekend we are hosting our good friend Amanda, and as I was planning the meals I realized we have a busy couple of weeks coming up and I wanted to get my shopping done. We have the baking class this Sunday. And then next Friday is our day to volunteer at the school for kids with special needs. We usually play a game and pass out snacks.  My evaluation is Tuesday and Wednesday of next week and I was worried if I didn't get my shopping done ahead of time for Friday I might forget.

So I ran out to the store and bought all the stuff.  I may have a hoarding problem.  The store had buy one get one free and I bought 6 packages of baby wipes and a bunch of granola bars.  I was super thrilled with the deal I got on baby wipes.  They aren't cheap here and people don't use them as often so the variety is slim.  I made sure I explained to Doug that I needed him to act excited about my wipes purchase and he played along better than he usually does, but I think that was because we had friends over. They are moving out of the city this week and we won't see them for 5 months or so.  We didn't even realize it was the last time we'd see them until they were leaving and we realized the dates they'd be "in town", we will be in Phuket and then before we get back they are headed back to the states to have their first baby.  Guess I'll be a pro at good-byes before it's all said and done.

At the store, checking out the prices of Crisco spray going to compare with the baking shop next time I go.

Day 67:

Pest Control day! We hired pest control to take care of our ant situation.  When they come we have to leave for 3 hours.  We decided to go to the mall and were able to catch up with some old friends to Doug, but new friends to me.

At the mall

We went to this nice place that had a salad bar.  Kora was really fussy because she's not feeling good and she was wanting to sleep. I forgot to grab a paci and had to run to a store to buy one.  Let me just say that today was not a banner day for parenting.  I was so flustered and hot and sweaty.  I was wanting to be able to talk and get to know our company better, but I just kept feeling scattered and HOT.  Once I got the paci for Kora, she slept and I ate with my one free hand.  I guess in all the hub bub of trying to get Kora to sleep without a paci, and incessant and insane amount of fussing and me having to leave the place to go track a paci down, I wasn't paying attention to Kees.  He had a glass of water that was full the brim and was plunging things into, thereby soaking the table and his food.  I passed to glass over to Doug so that he could keep away from Kees, but when Doug was gone to the salad bar he got it back. Yikes!  Not to mention, I think it was supposed to be my glass of water.  I had a cup I brought in from home that had a tiny bit of water in it, but by the time we left I was so thirsty and the water that should have been mine was wasted because Kees was playing in it.  Now everyone should know why I hoard spill proof cups. I'm swearing to myself and all of you that I will not be letting Kees have water in a glass like that (in public anyway) for the foreseeable future.  Then Kora woke up, slobbered watermelon ALL over the place and dropped a glass dish, which made a loud noise but didn't break, but that's okay because not two minutes later, Kees dropped one and broke it. 

Needless to say I was tired, had a terrible headache, and was in need of a nap when we got home.  Fairly certain my headache was just a bad sinus thing, but I did have a lot of tension built up in my neck and shoulders after all the charades at the restaurant.  I never wanted to be one of those parents who never went anywhere, but sometimes when we go out, I seriously consider staying home for the next 7 years or so.

After my nap, I cleaned house and made a cinnamon coffee cake. That's the recipe I'm planning to teach at our baking class, but I wanted to try it out at home again to make sure what all the steps are and make sure the recipe makes sense.  And then we can eat it with our company!  It didn't come out of the pans very well, but it's yummy!  No pressure, our guest just went to pastry and baking school or some nonsense like that.  She's actually got a ton of helpful hints and we all know I need some help in the kitchen, cause if I'm not careful I explode things in my oven.

Sick baby girl.

We had a nice chat with Amanda, now everyone is sleeping and I am blogging, THEN sleeping. Hope you're having a great Thursday...in the states.

This one is for Kristee!

I saved the "Happy Milk...It's your happy time" poster for the end. When I saw this it reminded me of my sister because she LOVES milk. When we were growing up it was one thing we could not run out of and I was almost afraid to drink milk because I didn't want to make us run out because she loved it so much.  I'm sure my mom would have loved for me to drink as much milk as I wanted, but I think I might have been a little famous for pouring a big glass and not drinking it all.