Sunday: Princess Mother Memorial Park and rain

Our first rainy day in Thailand.

He woke up a little after 6. Nursed and was lying on the bed for quite awhile but didn’t fall back to sleep. More nursing, then he was up after 6:30. He wanted yogurt for breakfast, so we are the strawberry yogurt. At one point I mistakenly called it ‘oatmeal’. He friend to me and said “You said oatmeal”. He then wanted more oopses and it turned into a game. He lay on the floor and scooted his legs under the bed. I’d say something like “Do you want more strawberry rice?” He’d turn and say “Strawberry rice?…okay.”

Carly left a little after 7. She was going downstairs to the lobby for one interview via Skype, then heading to the job fairs. August and I then ate one of the oatmeal cookies we got last night with dinner (Gary’s wife had given them to us). He started mentioning going outside or to the pool pretty early. He watched Puffin Rock while I took a shower, then he was hiding behind the curtain. I mentioned having to call the police if he got lost, and he kept asking why, then that turned into a game where he wanted me to call the police when he hid behind the curtain. I would pretend to call, and they would tell me to search different places in the house until I found him.

He wanted to read Everybody Poops, so we did that. Then we skyped with my parents. I checked the TV to see if the Seahawks game was available. It took us awhile to figure out how to turn it on. When we did, and it wasn’t on, August liked turning the channel and we listened to people talking in Thai. We then read the Double Dare Berenstain Bears book. I’m getting tired of the three we have here, so bought Go to School in the iPad and we read that. August read ‘My House’ in it on his own. We ate some corn flakes and then cut up and ate some apple. On the toilet, he unrolled toilet paper again, so I put it on a shelf. I managed to wash the dishes, and he did a good job of brushing his teeth this morning, and not just sucking on the toothbrush. I was counting seconds for him and we were doing rounds of 10 seconds. On the last one he kept going to a count of 19.

Finally, before we left he wanted me to feed the monsters under the bed poisonous things. So we pretended to feed them a variety of things to find out if the monsters liked them or not. As we left, he said “Bye, monsters!” We were finally out the door at 10:50.

We walked north through the small streets, past the local temple, much like we had with Carly, but took different streets in places. Things were more open this time, although being Sunday, not completely. But people’s homes were more open, and it was both interesting and odd to see people behind the metal gates in the dark rooms on the first floors. Along a bigger street, August read a ‘No parking’ sign and asked why there was no parking.

It started to drizzle. We were fine at first, but eventually, as we approached the park and walked through a neighborhood with a fair amount of art on the walls, he agreed to wear a hat. Then, as we got within a block or so it started to rain pretty hard. We got to the park, and a security guard actually pointed out the pagoda for us. We took cover there, taking our shoes off. We had a snack, and he played around on the pagoda. When the rain let up, we walked the labyrinth painted on the ground, with me steering him by the shoulders. I also learned that the big trees are ficus trees, and the national tree of Thailand. We walked around the park. Out on the sidewalk, August found a big green fruit. Unclear if it was from a tree, or someone had dropped it. We used the bathroom, and he played around in the center of the park, at times running along the circular lines in the pavement.

There wasn’t a playground here (it was more of a memorial park, with art in it and interesting buildings and broken walls) and he was talking about one. He was also tired, and ready for a nap. We got walking, and checked out a shrine to the north, and watched boats on the river. We then walked south, and while walking around another Buddhist temple he fell asleep at 1:03. I walked to Cafe a la Mode, which is supposed to be open on Sundays, but it wasn’t. Not a lot of options in the area, so I was checking Foursquare and there were some options to the west. To get there, I had to circle a big intersection, as there was no crosswalk on the direct route. Crossed the first street, then it started to pour, so I took shelter under an awning for several minutes and just read on my phone. It let up, and I crossed two overpasses to finally make it to the correct corner. The coffee place I found at 1:30 was actually in a little food court at a Big C hypermarket. Actually ended up getting a little dessert thing instead of coffee and sat and read.

He slept, and slept. I left at 3:03, expecting the picking up of the backpack to wake him. It actually took a few minutes before he woke up as I walked. We stopped at the big Tops Market for lunch. We checked out all the floors, then picked out things in the salad bar. Lots of crab and grapes and pineapple for him, and a salad for me. We also got more soy crisps. As I was paying, he read ‘Parking exit’ on a nearby door. We went downstairs to the food court area and ate there. It was about 4. A late lunch. He did a lot of jumping and running around on the floor after he was done eating. And was asking a lot of questions of himself: “Why you jumping on the chair? Why you put your leg up?…”

We walked home and checked out a couple of places for possibly eating dinner at a later date. We got home a bit after 5. He did a lot of nursing and just cuddling with Carly. Then we took him up to the pool. He got in a little, but then things started to get difficult, as he didn’t want to go down the stairs, but wanted to go directly into the deep pool. First, he walked over to the waterfall area with Carly, and stood on the top of that. She brought him back to the stairs, but then started to say he was going to jump in the deep part. He wanted to go in “all by my own.” After awhile, Carly said she needed to go up and take a shower. August said that was okay: “You’re going to take a shower all by your own mama. Bye mama. You can go take a shower mama.” But then as he really got out on the corner jutting out into the pool, I made him come back where I could hold him better. He got really sad at that, and never really recovered. A few times he pointed first to the shallow pool (which he refused to go in) and then the deep pool, saying “You go in there, I go in there.” And he kept repeating “I’m going to go in there now.” For the last few minutes I didn’t really even have to touch him. He just knew we didn’t want him by the edge/going in, and he knew he couldn’t just jump in. I wanted to give Carly time to take her shower, but it was now making him sad to just be down there, so we headed home.

Back in the apartment he recovered a little, and actually started joking about monsters under the bed. But then he tripped on the corner of the comforter and, mid-sentence, fell down. Had to nurse after that. Carly skyped with her parents a bit later, and August, randomly, wanted to watch Chinese videos. So we found Chinese children’s songs videos on YouTube and watched those, then watched some English songs.

We first tried for bed at 9:30. He was ready to be on the bed in the dark and nurse. But after awhile he came back in. We read new Berenstain Bears book, did some singing from the songbook, and read much of Frog and Toad are Friends. He wanted to go to sleep in the middle of the fourth story, “The Letter”, but was talking all about the story as he went back to the living room with Carly. That was at 10:20, and she told him Puffin Rock stories, but he tried getting back up at 10:35. Carly took him back to bed and did more Puffin Rock stories. But she was up again a bit later, and they got some toast. That done, they tried again. He just couldn’t get to sleep, and was kicking the wall. Finally, he came in to me a little before 11:30. I tried
to get him up on the bed with me, but he lay on the floor and said “But the floor is so nice and cozy.” Finally, he went back in to her at 11:40. Think it still took a few minutes, but this time he fell asleep.