Emmy

Emmalynn is a busy, busy girl these days. At 3 years old, her imagination is HUGE. Most days she's a dog, occasionally a fish, and every once in a while another animal. If you call her something else, like "little girl", she will fix you with a stern stare and say, "I am not a little girl. I am a little doggie. " And you stand corrected. She's also very rough and tumble now. This week alone, she busted her lip and skinned both of her knees. She loves to play outside with her friends on our street, and she has learned in the last few months to pedal so she tears up the road on the little green "Ultraman" (Asian superhero) bicycle that was loaned to her by our next-door neighbor. She also loves to swim and play with her babies. She's quite motherly, especially with the addition of Asa to the household. We're so thankful to report that, as of yet, she has shown no animosity toward Asa. She showers him with love, saying "swee-eet baa-be", and "little Asa bo-oy".

She also surprised us in the last couple of weeks by writing both her name and Asa's. On seperate occasions, she said, "Look, Mommy", and, out of the blue, she had written first her name, and then Asa's. We were blown away by this, as it's not something we've worked on, but she's put the pieces together little by little. God gave children such incredible minds. Emmy just makes us laugh with the way she talks and the things she says. She often narrates her activities in third person. For instance, she'll say, ""Hi, Mommy", Emmy said, as she took a drink of milk." Then she'll take a drink of milk. So our days are like one long storybook.


Dress-up is a favorite activity these days. Here, she was initially wearing a "winter skating outfit". It morphed into a "winter ballerina" with the addition of the tutu. Then it all got to be too much activity for her and she had to take a break to eat some swiss cheese.


Here's Emmy with her friend PJ riding the racecar ride at Yoyo Land. Yoyo Land is this big kiddie fun park at a local mall. Emmy was pretty scared of the rides at first, but had fun after she warmed up. This ride really zoomed! You can see the look of mixed excitement and fear on her face, while PJ is all concentration.

The Kids are Asleep

We love it when the kids are asleep, and we love this time of day. It still amazes us that we have children, plural. It's one thing to be a young family with a first new baby, but it seems that having children catapults us into this whole new, very grown-up category. It's tiring, but we love it. These kids could not be greater, and we are truly blessed. In the next few days, we're going to give a little update on each of them, for the benefit of grandparents, aunts, uncles and other interested parties. The picture above was taken a few weeks ago before church. Doesn't Asa look dashing in his little shoes and "My First Khakis"?

Loi Krathong

Last weekend, Thailand celebrated Loi Krathong, a festival traditionally held on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar, in the western calendar this usually falls in early November. Loi” means “to float”. “Krathong” is a raft about a handspan in diameter traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk (although modern-day versions often use styrofoam), decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, incense sticks etc. During the night of the full moon, many people will release a small raft like this on a river or other body of water. The act has been explained to us as both a way of asking forgiveness of the water for taking care of it poorly and as a floating away of one's sins.

Crystal made krathongs with PJ and Emmy, and Tim and Emmy went with several of our neighbors to the pond in our neighborhood. They floated Emmy's krathong and prayed to God, thanking Him for this place and these people. Here's Emmy in her Thai hilltribe costume that our neighbor brought for her to wear for this occasion.

Trick or Treat

We had not expected to trick-or-treat this year, as Halloween is not much of a holiday in Thailand. There was some interest among a few neighbors, though, so we threw together some costumes and joined in. It was a new experience...everyone met together at one house and traveled en masse to each home (5 homes participated), standing at the gate and yelling, "trick or treat!" all together. Emmy's most interesting treat was a bag of seaweed-flavored Lay's potato chips. You know you're in Asia when...

Here's the whole group...

And our little puppy dog. I just love this boy.

Retreat!

Last weekend, we went on a retreat with our team. It was a special time, as it included both the Thai and farang (foreigners- that's us!) staff. We went to Khao Lak beach, which is a 45- minute drive from Phuket. Kim got a great deal on a really beautiful place, so we were so blessed to be able to spend time all together, away from Bangkok, in a lovely setting. Asa had his first flight at 7 weeks old, and he did great. We were thankful it was only an hour long!

Khao Lak is one of the areas that was hardest hit by the tsunami. It was sobering to stand on the beach and contemplate the disaster that had occurred there. On a lighter note, Irene told me that Emmy had talked to her very seriously about how scary the "salami" that had happened was!

Emmy enjoys a tropical drink...

Hangs out by the pool with Gracyn...

Enjoys the water with two water wings on each arm-
she feels quite secure this way...

And we're not sure what's going on here, but it's pretty funny!

There was a great water slide, and the kids couldn't get enough of it. Out of all the water slide pictures, this on was my favorite, of Paul and PJ having a great time!

Asa is becoming so responsive, smiling and vocalizing...

Asa's first time on the beach. He slept through the whole thing!

We're Back!

Life has been full the past month! But it's been great...hosting grandmothers, being together as a family, and getting to know our little boy. Things have picked up again, as Tim has started back to language school and I'm learning how to care for two little ones on my own during the day- not a unique task by any means, but one that's a new challenge for me! Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks...


We love this picture of Asa! He's almost 6 weeks old here, showing his newfound smiling skills, and his dance moves, too! He's wearing a sleeper gown that was Tim's when he was a baby.

One huge blessing from this month was that Tim had some time off of language school, and he spent some great time with Emmy. It helped her so much in the transition. Here, she's getting ready to go on an "Art Walk" with her Daddy, looking pretty funky! He always thinks of the best things to do!

We celebrated Tim's birthday at the beginning of October, and we gave him the new Thai version of Monopoly. Instead of "Park Place" and "Boardwalk", it has different Sky Train stops and places around the country... I wonder how many other countries have their own editions of Monopoly? It would be interesting to find out...

This is a main street downtown on a Monday night, the night we went out for Tim's birthday. The traffic is amazing. We sat in it until we were sure we knew where we were headed, then we got out and walked. We walked a long way, but we could have been sitting in a taxi indefinitely!


We've been wanting to take a picture of this guy for a while- Ronald McDonald doing the "wai"- the traditional Thai greeting. When you say hello to someone, this is what you do to show respect. Isn't it fun that Ronald does it, too?