I'm old today! I'm as old as Dad!

Before we get into the birthday festivities and general Langston update, a quick disclaimer. All of the cakes and cupcakes mentioned in the following blog post were NOT baked by me. As Langston's birthday was drawing nearer, I considered baking a cake and decided I needed a test run with the 'oven' here in the apartment - it's a microwave / convection oven - so I made some brownies. I had no idea you could have brownies that were half raw, and I mean runny-raw, half nicely baked, and a thin layer of burn on top. It was really quite amazing.

On to the birthday celebrations!

We got a a jump start to Langston's birthday this past weekend. On Saturday we invited the Abadillas out for a movie - Rio - and pizza - Modesto's. After dinner we had a cake and Langston got two new cars from Audry and Theo. Movie was fun, pizza was good, cake was yummy, and the new cars Langston got were a hit... A good time was had by all.

Then yesterday, on Langston's actual birthday, we had not one, not two, but THREE celebrations. The first was at Superland Monetssori. Jay and I took over cupcakes, balloons, and goodie bags for all of Langston's classmates. When we got there, the teacher asked us a few questions about Langston's first three years on earth. Then the birthday ceremony began... there was a candle surrounded by all the months of the year. Langston held a globe and as he walked around the candle / months three times (representing his three trips around the sun) the teacher told stories about his life. I believe this is a standard Montessori birthday ceremony and it was quite touching.

After that, we sang happy birthday and everybody had a cupcake. Then was The Handing Out of Goodie Bags. This was a very formal process. All the kids had to sit along a wall and wait their turn. Then the teach would call on one of the kids to come up, shake Langston's hand and tell him happy birthday. Then Langston was to give the kid a goodie bag, making sure to use two hands when giving it away. Then that kid sat at the end of the line while the next child got their turn. As Jay said, it was a little like watching foreign dignitaries in training. After his birthday party at school, Langston opted to come home early with Jay and I rather than staying and playing with his friends.

Celebration number two was a tea party with a couple of the kids from here in the building. Elizabeth also goes to Superland and rides the bus with Langston, but she is five and in a different class. It is hard to see in this picture, but she is wearing a beautiful red kimono dress. Maitreya, who is a few weeks older than Langston, also joined us. The kids had a good time with their tea time snacks and juice (nobody actually had tea :-). Then we played with toys and did a round of Freeze-Dance - I had a song playing and the kids danced... when I paused the song, they had to freeze. They thought that was a great game.

And the final celebration was at dinner. It was just our family and we ate in. It was nice to all sit at the table together and chat. After dinner we sang Happy Birthday again and had cupcakes. Then Langston got to open his gifts from us and Grandma Ettie. The boys stayed up later than usual playing with the new toys. When bedtime finally rolled around, they were happy to go as Langston also got new books and everybody wanted to hear them. All in all, a great birthday day!

Now for a few notes on Langston. I don't have our wall marks at home to compare to, but I think he has recently gone through a bit of a growth spurt. He seems taller, but has not lost any girth... there is a large energy reserve on that boy :-) He has quite the vocabulary... I think even bigger than Kahlil's at this age. Lately he has been excited about moving his body in new ways... lifting one foot in the air while bending over, hopping backwards, and attempting jumping jacks. He doesn't want and, on most days, doesn't need to nap any more.

And I'm making it official... he is potty trained! There is still the occasional accident but they truly are accidents and he is very upset when they happen. He has a dry pull-up almost every night and if we were at home I would have him sleeping in underwear. I'm keeping him in pull-ups here because I don't want Helen to clean up a wet bed if he has a nighttime accident. So it took 5 months... MUCH better than Kahlil's 12 months!

So that is our little three year old!

By the way, the title of this post is what he said when he got up this morning... he he he!

Learning to Write

Last night Kahlil told me there was a gift for Jay and I in our room, we each had three pieces of paper on our pillows. I said that was great and continued with the bedtime routine not thinking much more about it. He has been busy lately cutting pieces of paper into smaller pieces of paper so I assumed his 'gifts' were the product of one of these sessions. So you can imagine my surprise, delight, and near tears when I found these:

These needed a little explanation this morning. Apparently they are people riding on elephants:


Langston has been asking me to draw rocket ships lately. These are very close to what Langston's rockets look like:

These needed no explanation and are the ones that almost made me cry. Jay didn't think he could do this alone and that I had helped... but I didn't:

The Elephants in the Resort

With excitement and numbered post-it notes, we counted down the days until we saw the elephants. We flew into Phuket (pronounced poo-KET, not the way you want to say it) last Saturday amidst much excitement. The boys were AWESOME on the plane... Kahlil got a new number / math book that completely absorbed him and Langston was busy playing with his new cars / airplanes. Everything was off to a great start.

When the plane started to land, there was quite a bit of cloud cover and once we hit the ground it was rainy. Hum, should blow over by tomorrow. We'll just spend today getting settled in. So we did... we checked in (at the Sheraton Grande Laguna), got our bags unpacked, took our first excursion out of the hotel room and ran into Lucky, the three year old elephant!

Luck was out for his afternoon visit. It was so fun to interact with him. He wrapped his trunk around my shoulders and gave me a kiss on the cheek. He landed a kiss on Kahlil's tummy, gave us high fives and was generally a sweet boy. Baby elephants have always been one of my favorite animals and Lucky just confirmed that my affections are well placed.

Even though it was raining, our excitement carried us out to the beach where we were the only crazy people there. But after a little while the sun was setting and the temperature cooled so we stepped into one of the beach restaurants and had a fantastic Thai dinner that included the best dessert in the world, mango sticky rice... YUM!

The next morning we started the day with a visit with both Lucky and Lilly, the 4 1/2 year old elephant. Lilly is a little bigger but just as sweet. We got to see more of their tricks... harmonic playing, massaging your back, waving, giving rides (which K and L weren't up to yet), and posing for photos. It is amazing that an animal so large is so gentle and kind.

After breakfast we spent some time in the endless pool... seriously we didn't think we would find the end. At the start is a sandy beach area so you can get sand in your suite but not get salty. Floating under a couple bridges would take you to the main swimming pool that included a swim up drink bar. Off of the main pool was a canal that wondered though the grounds so we were off to see where it took us. Kahlil was on a boogie board while Jay was helping Langston along. I followed on land and took pictures. After many twists and turns though the garden, we ended up at the final pool that was topped off with a waterfall. After lunch we were tuckered out and took a nap. In the afternoon the rain was a little more persistent and it was cooler so we didn't venture back into the water. Dinner again was the beach side restaurant... yum!


Then the next three days happened... each day was a little more rainy and cooler. It was too cold to spend time in the water so we wondered the grounds in the covered walk ways, hung out at the kids club (a play room), and watched TV. Not how we were expecting to spend our tropical vacation.

But it wasn't all bad. We did get to visit with Lilly and Lucky every morning and after a couple days the boys were confident enough to go for a ride on Lilly. Such a special activity and something I hope they both remember for a LONG time.

In the evening after dinner we found these AWESOME beetles laying about on the walk ways. It was strange as they would just be laying in the middle of a landing as though they had been paralyzed and dropped, waiting to be stepped on. At first we thought they were already dead, but after a strategically placed leaf poke we realized they were alive if not very lively. This gave us purpose... find the beetles and move them out of harms way. I'm not sure how many we 'rescued' but I'm sure the beetle population saw a small dip in die-off rate for the time we were there. We also saw a few huge millipedes and a pond full of talkative frogs. Some of the frogs were smaller than my pinky thumb nail. Of course there were geckos. What we did NOT see (thank GOD) was a snake.

On the day we were scheduled to leave, the day broke with some bird song and sunshine. That morning we said goodbye to Lucky and Lilly then ran back to our room to put on swim suites. We got in a quick kayak ride and some time in the surf. Then the rain started again, but no matter. We had to shower and pack.

All in all it was a bitter sweet trip. Jay's scuba adventure and the family snorkel day never happened. But we got to hang with Lucky and Lilly, see some cool bugs, and eat some fantastic food - YUM! It wasn't all we hoped for, but it was still a vacation to remember.