Bonus Birthday Post!

I'm skipping today for now, because I need to re-visit yesterday SLASH overwhelm you with the cuteness of my offspring.

Yesterday was little man's birthday.  He's officially 4.  So hard to believe.  What can I say about Kees? He's amazing.  He's kept me going so many times.  Being a parent has challenged me in so many ways.  I'm often left thinking, I'm trying to teach him all these things, and I'm still learning them myself.  I hope I don't mess this up.  I pray I don't mess this up.  Both my babies are so wonderful, and I can't help but think if they have any flaws...it's all my fault. Which completely disregards our sin nature, but I'll get to that can of worms another day.  So, my boy, Kees Daron, is sweet, snuggly, cautious, sensitive, shy, intelligent, silly, and caring.  I could literally write a novel about each of my kiddos.  They're great, but I'm sure all of us parents think that about our kids, and why wouldn't we. :)

Kees doesn't like new things, new people, or surprises.  I'm sure he'll outgrow a lot of these things, but for now,  he doesn't like chaos, he doesn't like noise, and he enjoys being around familiarity.  So, we asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday and who he wanted to bring.  He chose to go to Nic's (a playground/restaurant here in Chiang Mai...it's pretty new) and he only wanted to bring Pi Tone, his best friend...who, by the way is also growing way too fast.  I asked him several times over the past few weeks and this is what he wanted.  I love birthdays, and in some ways, a small affair at a quiet playground, seems boring, not BIG enough, but I had to remind myself that it's HIS birthday, I want HIM to enjoy it.  My instincts paid off, in a big way. It was so relaxing and fun for all of us, it was just our family, Pi Tone, and my friend Alicia...who by the way took some amazing photos of our day. ( There are tons of photos I'll be posting here that are decent, but if you want to check out the "professional" ones Alicia took, you can find them here.)

Okay, so Kees woke up early, and wanted to open presents right away.  He was with us when we bought all the stuff, and actually picked it all out.  We used birthday money from Grandpa Boo and Ginny.  He chose two play dough sets and an orange dinosaur.  The ice cream making playdough set was a HUGE success, he loves it so much.  Momma loves it too, but I think it's going to be relegated to the school room and used under close adult supervision from now on.  Pretty sure it's gonna take me a year to clean up all the little play dough bits around our house.  After opening presents, I showed him his birthday cake, he acted unimpressed, but that's typical for him in "pressure" situations when he knows we are looking for a response.  I've learned to not get my feelings hurt over it...well most of the time. ;)

This is his "Dino Volcano" play dough set.

Kora thinks it's her birthday, but I'm pretty sure she thinks that every day.

Doug was putting batteries in his orange dinosaur. Kora was excited!

Hurry up Daddy! I want to eat its head.

Kees showing us the scary eyes.

Whoa, it moves too!

Underwhelmed.

She was kind of scared of it at first, but then she just picked it up.

Kruu Jeab came for Doug's language session, I didn't have one because my ADD would never allow me to switch out of party mode.  Doug's a trooper for attempting to get his full time in even on birthdays when it'd be easy not to.  He always somehow manages to get all his time, and is doing so great with language, wish he could just put it all on a thumb drive and transfer it over to my brain. :)  It's fun having Kruu Jeab here, she's been here for the past three birthdays, so she's in the background of all our pictures, it's a tradition.  My mom was always talking about "traditions" growing up, and now I do my best to find or make traditions for our little family too.

Would you like some blue ice cream Kruu Jeab?

This reminds me of "A tiskit a tasket, a flower making basket..."

After Kruu Jeab left, we finished getting ready and finally got to go back to Nic's.  I feel now is as good a time as any to share one of my BIG parenting fail moments.  It happened at Nic's.  I had been there one time before with my ladies bible study group and I knew my kids would love it. I felt guilty the whole time I was there enjoying my food, looking at their fabulous playground.  So I annoyed Doug for about 3 weeks to take us back.  My expectations were as big as Texas and so were Kees's, the only problem was that he was expecting the playground we usually go to, the bright colorful plastic one, not this bamboo boat thingy.  He turned into and F5 tornado, much like the one that happened on May 3rd, 10 years before Kees was born.  Coincidence? I think not.  First it was high pitched loud screaming and a lot of staring from the foreigners eating there.  Then it was Mommy taking Kees to the bathroom to discuss the situation and re-group, which led to him crying...even louder, scratching the bathroom door, and banging his head against the door (cautiously).  Okay, before everybody starts gasping and recommending therapy (believe me I thought long and hard about it), let me just say that he was 3 at the time and that behavior was not typical. Which is probably why I handled it so poorly.  I have never in my life wanted to tunnel under a place to get out and never see it again, more than I did that day.  So I sort of banned myself from going back, even though Kees did LOVE the place once he adjusted to the idea.  Oh and there was a mishap when I paid that time too, once again, idiot foreigner, some days I LOVE bein' me (sarcasm MUCH intended here).

This is what Nic's looks like.

My friend Alicia came over to meet us at our place and gave Kees a present!

Kees is opening his present from Auntie Lish, Kora is "helping". This picture reminds me of when my brother in law Tim got a fortune cookie that said, "You will crush the souls of many nations"

Kora, for real, it's not your birthday, but you can dance...you're cute enough to get away with it.

Daddy is helping. It's a POOL!

On our way! I gave Kees a small package to open on the way.

Dinosaurs! They glow in the dark.

She played for a good 10 minutes with the packaging! I guess I know what to get her for her birthday.

Right before we got to Nic's. Pretending it's your birthday is very tiring.

So here are the million pictures from Nic's, I'll describe them underneath, so be sure and read the captions or you'll miss something awesome.

Sand underneath the boat.

Helping drink Mommy's smoothie.

Kees and Daddy checking out the monster burger.

MMM...ketchup!

I walked over and he said, "It's just so nice watching those little plants grow."

Not too excited, eh?

I think he looks like an angry model in the picture on the left, and I love it.

Cake, notice Kora making her escape, this is the beauty of Nic's, she's just wandering off to a playground.

This is how Kees responded to the birthday song, "too much attention, please look somewhere else, anywhere else!" From what I understand, Doug is famous for hiding under the bed at his birthday parties when the birthday song got sprung on him

I put Kora in the basket, she didn't like it, so no smiley pics.

Both my kids are missing one shoe...

She's lovely, even with a tiny bit of ketchup on her forehead.

Please, someone pick me up, I'm so tired!

Ooooo, look what I found.

My mom sets no boundaries, she totally just put me in a sink.

After Nic's we came home and tried out our new pool from Auntie Lish (my friend Alicia).  Kees was excited to show Pi Tone his ice cream making stuff, so we set them up by the pool.  Doug, Kora, and I "swam", and Kees got in for a few minutes, but then went back to his ice cream shop.

Ice cream anyone?

It really is MY birthday!!

We ordered cheap and amazing Thai food for dinner and then we watched the Land Before Time.

Mmmm, stir fried veggies, garlic chicken, fried rice, and Kees got a special blue soda.

Classic!

Spoiler alert, the mom dies...who remembers that?!?

So sad!

So, after watching the movie, I remembered this...

Spike puppet from Pizza Hut

Remembering this, reminded me of this...

Book it!

When I said, I think I got my puppet because we went to Pizza Hut for "Book It".  Doug had no idea what "Book It" is and didn't have a clue what I was saying. Thankfully Alicia understood, but I'm still baffled about how Doug missed this MAJOR phenomenon in his childhood.  I guess he is like 100 years older than me, but still, his little sister, is my big sister's age, and SHE did "Book It".

One more tidbit, a few months ago there was another strange thing Doug got confused about: Amelia Bedelia!  Seriously?!?  I'm starting to wonder about his parents! Just kidding, love you both!

This is Amelia Bedelia, if you don't recognize her, I suggest you educate yourself.

And finally, to wrap the day up, Kees gave me a present! His movie was over and he crawled over to me and asked, "Do you want to snuggle me, yes or no?"  Um, I said, "yes", then he fell asleep in about 5 minutes flat. One of the best days I've ever had. Being a mom ROCKS!

Love.