Sunday: Temples and park and river

He was up at 7:30. He had rolled off the bed and was sleeping on the floor. Nursed, then did some more coloring book, before watching Puffin Eock while I did the blog. Carly had an adventure getting change for the washing machines: one trip to the grocery store and then down to the front desk to get the correct coins.

Carly took him down to do the laundry and put th clothes in the dryer. H seemed a bit afraid of the dryer. I made eggs and toast for breakfast. Carly then took him up to the pool as he really wanted to go. Didn’t change into a swimsuit, so just a little wading. It was fine until he started picking leaves and throwing rocks.

They came back and he was a bit upset. Nursed, then Carly went and got the laundry and he stayed with me. He said “I’m going to make a fort out of pillows. That’s a good idea when mama’s gone.” But then he started to look under the cover on the bed:

“Uh-oh. I must be scared what’s under there…there’s scary animals under there…it grabbed me…they have hands and nose and teeth…the monsters quack…” We then played with the froggy under the covers as the monster. When I reached in, he said the monsters are pokey, like a hedgehog, I think.

We gave him a shower sponge bath. Didn’t go much better than yesterday, but no hair washing today, so that was easier. With the laundry done, we got ready to go and headed out. Our first effort to walk north through the narrow streets was thwarted by a couple of barking dogs. But we walked over by the canal and everything was fine after that.

To the north we immediately found a much more peaceful neighborhood than the busy street we are on. Although, it was always difficult to tell, as almost all the shops were closed, so we didn’t know how busy things would be on a usual day. I had mapped out a bunch of temples and restaurants and coffee shops, etc. that we could look for along the way.

The first was a temple called Wat Thong Pleng วัดทองเพลง. We admired that, then August got down and did some walking. We continued on walking until we got to Chaloem Phrakiat Forest Park at 1. The playground was old and rickety, and swing-less, but August still liked it. We sat and ate our bag of fruit chips, then he played picked up a stick and was hitting the bench (and Carly) to a nice rhythm. Headed over to the playground and climbed on several of the structures. Carly mainly helped him climb on the structures, and he kept being excited about scaring mama.

Carly needed to use the restroom, and we hadn’t seen much in the way of public facilities, or places that might have a bathroom (a coffee shop we hoped was open, Cafe a la Mode, was closed along the way). Carly went across the street to the 7-11, but they said no. We walked to the north end of the park, but there was a random guy who told both the people in front of us and us that we couldn’t walk over to what looked like a restroom. Very odd.

By this point we were close to the river, and Carly had the idea of taking a ferry across to the other side, which looked more developed and tourist-y. We walked west along the river, past the kuan Yin Shrine, to a ferry dock. But there was a long line, and we rethought our plan. We were right at the Wat Kalayanamit – a very large temple complex. We went in and looked around and admired the architecture and the bells. August was getting frustrated, as he really needed to sleep. We walked around and found the restrooms. Carly took him in, then we put him in the backpack and headed out. We watched a kid wearing blue mirror glasses and with a whistle in his mouth directing traffic that was parking at the temple (it was quite busy, and getting busier), then we started walking, more back streets, working our way southeast. I sang two songs and he fell asleep at 2:41.

We had headed to the big grocery store (Tops Market), and spotted coffee shop across the street, Siam Bakehouse. We got there a little before 3. We got drinks and a small Hawaiian pizza. We wanted August to wake up, so we got going about 3:50. He kept sleeping in the backpack though. We went to the grocery store and shopped, then woke him up as we left, at 4:10. I had bought an Italian sausage pastry thing, and tempted him awake with that. He ate it as we worked our way home, eventually passing the temple with which we had started our day.

We were home sometime before 5. After a rest we changed and headed up to the pool. Carly remembered the kickboards I had seen in a cupboard and took those. Carly entertained us by bravely getting in the water all the way. August was torn, as he kept wanting to go to mama, but when I tried lowering him in the water he always wanted to stop before his waist. He did, however, like playing on the boards, calling one his, and one mama’s (and then having fun when he ‘stole’ mama’s). I would hold him by the armpits and he would ‘surf’ on the board.

Did that for ten minutes, then Carly headed up to take a shower (we had picked up our second key, so now we both had one). August and I played for a few more minutes in the big pool, then he had the idea of taking the board to the shallow pool. Over there I observed that he could stand in it. So I lowered him in. At first he didn’t believe me. Didn’t really complain, but wrapped his legs around mine, even as I had him in the water up to his waist. Finally he realized that he could stand up and it was only to his waist. We spent 15 or 20 minutes walking around in that shallow pool, basically going back and forth. He climbed out a couple times, then got back in. Once he stumbled on the step when he didn’t see it and his arms splashed in the water, but he was fine with that and dried his face on my shirt. He spotted the moon and said it was a crescent. I pointed out the planet above it and explained what planets were, but he seemed skeptical, and suggested it was a star.

We decided to head up, but he stopped at the toys to play a few minutes. Back home he watched some Puffin Rock. I was typing and uploading videos, and he brought the iPad over right next to me on the bed to watch. They nursed, then Carly helped him in the bathroom. She put his shorts back on and he asked (this was at 7:35) “What we going to do? We going on a ‘venture?” He was excited by the idea for a minute, but then decided to do more nursing instead.

We played with playdough a bit, but then I remembered the frozen items I’d picked out at the store the other day. I heated up the black sesame dumplings and ginger soup. The broth was very ginger-y and had quite a kick. August tried one little sip; he handled it, but didn’t want more. He was willing to try the dumplings though, and ate two of them (out of four). He said the black sesame filling had a coffee taste. The ginger was affecting him a bit, but he ate both of them and wanted more, but Carly and I had eaten them. He drank a bunch of water afterwards, then wanted milk. Drinking his milk, he decided he wanted to mix something with it. He went in, opened the fridge, and picked out the orange juice. I let him mix it, and he drank it and wanted more, then drank all of that.

Then went and nursed, before coming back out to me. He asked if I was done with my typing, then played with the music lessons app on the iPad. We walked about intervals and identifying notes. Carly had made some soup for herself. August came into the bedroom to find that she had eaten it all, and gave her quite the look when he realized she hadn’t shared.

Eventually he agreed it was time to try to go to sleep. We got the bed together for him, and Carly tried to put him to sleep at 9:45. He has started to not like having the lights off, so took some coaxing to let the lights be off. Just before 10 they got back up. He wanted more mixed orange juice and milk, and Carly got him some. He looked in the mirror and we sang the “Froggy, froggy, froggy” song (Puffin Rock) using the frog.

Tried again, but he came back in to me in the bedroom around 10:20. I told the Baba swimming Puffin Rock st
ory and changed his diaper, then told the Oona fishing story. He then came up with a new story he wanted to hear: “I want, Bernadette’ shell is cracking.” So I made up a new one where Oona and Baba have to go to the other side of the island to find a shell for her; the shell plus Baba is too much for Oona to carry, so to get back Baba has to help flap. Finally, we read Everyone Poops and Creepy Carrots. He went to Carly at 11:11 and still took a while to fall asleep – I last heard them say something at 11:20.