Wednesday: To Bangkok – This Is Our Blog

At 4:40 he woke up and went out to Carly in the parlor. Can’t remember if he said anything to me, but on his way out of the bedroom he closed the door behind him. He then slept until 8:40. While nursing, after a short break, he said “No touching mama. No touching mama.” (Reminding himself he’s not supposed to grab at her.) He then typed on her computer. We were packing, and he took the Thailand book, and “stole” it. They nursed again, then he was being silly and hiding, and said to Carly (for no clear reason) “I’m going to hide from you. Cuz you’re crazy.”

They Skyped with Cherie and Chuck. I took out recycling (mainly bags of old baby clothes).

Carly had nachos, and he walked around eating a chip and making his loud “num” noises. He then hummed the sounds from the orchestra book – the trombone is his favorite. I took a shower. When I came out he was wrestling with Carly. He then got the hammer thing from class and was fixing everything. That ended for awhile when he wanted to hit he windows.

Carly took a shower and he went back to hammering. He then moved on to playing chords on piano (he spreads his fingers out to play intervals) and then on my iPad. Used that app for quite awhile and was asking a lot of questions. Then switched to Pages and was typing symbols and singing them. I was packing, and he saw the thin markers that we haven’t used in a long time. So he used those to write letters on the paper, but then found the little stylus with them. He wanted his iPad and used it to draw shapes in Paper.

Carly came back from taking out the compost and getting cash, and decided to take him outside on his bike. He stood up to use the toilet, and said “It’s a fountain.” That was new.

They went outside a little past noon and I finished my packing. They rode the bike, and went on the swings and were back at 12:45. He needed some cheering up, which led to me hiding, which led to the invention of the “privacy game”. I would hide, and talk about how I was having privacy, and he would come and interrupt it. After a few rounds, he switched roles and he was the one getting some privacy.

He and Carly read a couple Berenstain Bear books. She tried to brush his teeth. He said “I’m a fox now. I do things on my own.” and insisted on brushing himself. Before we left, he peed. I heard “I peed everywhere.” He had made a bit of a mess this time. As we got ready to head out the door, he was asking a lot of ‘why’ questions about why we were going to Thailand, or why we had the suitcase, etc. etc. Finally, we left Puff and Angeles in charge and headed out at 2:50.

The trip to Bangkok was long, with oh so many lines to stand in. Always more lines. But it went really smoothly. On the bus he got his own seat, and played a bee buzzing game with Carly, waking her up. As we got close to the airport, an airplane went right over us, low. He said “Oh, maybe it’s going to help someone.” We’d talked about that with an ambulance we saw while waiting for the bus. Again, a lot of why questions: about the bus and the seatbelt sign (which he seemed to know said ‘seatbelt’, as there was no picture of a seatbelt on it, and it was on the wall of the bus) and Thailand. Wondered what an island is. “Thailand is an island”, he said, because it rhymed, and I showed him a map to show that it wasn’t.

Both on the walk from home and then in the airport he was singing is patented nonsense ABC song, which he hasn’t done so much recently. Took about 40 minutes to check in. He mainly played with the dividers for the lines, and rode on the suitcase while Carly pushed. He also hit/touched a couple people that were close to us in line. We stopped at Burger King. He ate fries and chicken finger things and then we made it through security – the play dough gave us a bit of a problem, but they let it through. Stopped at Starbucks for some sandwiches for the flight and got a banana and a blueberry yogurt drink for August (he chose the drink). Finally made it to our gate. Carly took him to the bathroom, then they played some hide and seek.

On the plane he kept asking to “open” the back of the seat. The tray table wasn’t enough. Figured out he meant the movie screen, which this plane didn’t have. He then kept asking “Where’s the movie thing?” Played with the air vents, then once in the air played with play dough, watched some Puffin Rock, and nursed. I noticed that the woman across from me had a coat that said ‘Live life as if you were to die tomorrow’. Which seemed like tempting fate on a flight that literally landed just after midnight. Anyway, we got out the markers and did some art and writing, then Carly read him the Berenstain Bears new baby book, then he fell asleep. Carly and I both slept decently, and got a couple hours of sleep (her more than me, but I was up later, watching The OA on Netflix). Soon after he had fallen asleep we hit some minor turbulence and they wanted us to buckle him up. We managed to sort of stretch it around him as he lay on the seat and made them happy. He was still dead asleep when it was time to land a little after midnight (after 2am to us). He slept sitting up, buckled, with his head bobbing down then standing back up. Did that a few dozen times, then he leaned over and laid his head against my leg. Let him sleep like that until we were the last people getting off the plane.

I picked August up and he was still mostly asleep as I got off the plane and onto the gangplank. We stopped to wait for Carly, and I told him we were in Thailand. He perked up and got a big smile on his face. Carly caught up and we headed to immigration. August was again very patient, just lying in the stroller as we waited. The immigration guy was a piece of work – barking at me, for example, for opening the passport up for him. I was supposed to leave it closed for some reason. Anyway, I had to pick August up out of his stroller for his immigration photo. He objected to it, but then put his hand up, saying “erase” and pretending to erase the photo so that was pretty amusing.

We got our cell phones (less that $20 each for unlimited internet, and more minutes than we’ll need) and then found our hotel representative. More waiting. August finally questioned why we weren’t moving, saying “go, go”. Then into a van (he didn’t appreciate when the woman tried to help him in), and 15 minutes to the hotel.

There, he liked the dogs we saw as we went in, but the approach to the hotel was kind of dark, and he didn’t like the lobby. That was a bit of a breaking point. As I checked in, he was coming over and pulling on a strap of the backpack, telling me he wanted to go.

But once up to our room on the fourth floor he nursed and calmed down. Went to the bathroom and said “Its a worm poop”. I turned on the TV for a minute and he started ‘reading’ the Thai words. When I turned it off he said “I want more TV”. Oh my.

I asked “Do you want to read Gaston?” and he replied “I’m hopping right now.” as he hopped on the bed. We did read a couple stories in Frog and Toad Are Friends, then he climbed down to Carly (she’d set up a bed on the floor for him) and fell asleep around 3am.