we went for a hike

We couldn't drive three hours outside of Bangkok without heading into the Khao Yai National Park. We clearly do a lot outdoorsy stuff as it took over five minutes to convince Violet it was OK to leave the pavement of the parking lot. 

After our 'born and raised in Bangkok child' finally came off the asphalt and onto the trail, she walked gingerly at first, trying to clean away the rocks and leaves. Then, feeling more comfortable, she took off at on a frenzied sprint and immediately tripped over an uncovered root--flying a good length and landing on her face. She got up and muttered something about the poor condition of the roads around this place and how this never would have happened if we'd brought her scooter on the hike. 

 We hiked over to this lookout. It looks out over a salt lick.  According to the posted signs, wild elephants come after they've eaten their daily 150 kg of fruit and plants to get more nutrients from the exposed salt and minerals.

We saw nothing. That makes us 0 for 3 on wild elephants in Khao Yai.

Though we did see some monkeys driving into the park. They were the wild kind, untouched by humanity. They were waiting on the road, when we rolled down our windows to get a better look, they stood up and put their hands out for food.

They were cool with us not giving them anything, they just started howling and showed us their two inch long fangs. Violet hasn't been requesting to sleep with her stuffed monkey anymore. If she gets rid of four or five more stuffed animals, there might be room for her to lay down in her crib.

 E really thought we were going to be OK with her bringing this stick back to our hotel and then home to Bangkok. She was quite confused as to why I wouldn't help her carry it to the car.

 I forgot to bring their protective eye wear. My bad.

 Isn't this how most hikes are supposed to end up?

We settled for seeing stone elephants while we cooled off at the pool. 

We packed the girls scooter and bike. When we first got to the hotel, I let them ride around the parking lot while Rocky checked in. It wasn't long before they were riding around the lobby and up and down the halls. We are optimal hotel guests. 

Winston rocks a seersucker pinafore like nobody's business. I bought it in the boy section. 

winston update

It's amazing what nine weeks can do to a newborn.

Winston is nearly 10 weeks old now and growing like crazy.

When he was born he was 35% for height and 40% for weight. At his one month check up he was 95% for height and 80% for weight. So, either they measured his length wrong at birth or he's magic. I don't think it's possible to jump up 6o percentiles in just four weeks.

I'll let you know how his two month check up goes, just as soon as I make the appointment...

He loves to sleep. He does not always sleep for long stretches--he is the catnap king--but he is soon ready to go back to sleep. He prefers to check in on me at nights. He did a long stretch a week or two ago (7 hours or so) for no other reason, I can gather, than to taunt me. He does almost always have a 4-5 hour stretch and he always falls back to sleep on his own, so I can't complain.

He loves to be held, is terrified of Violet and smiles a lot at Eliot. According to Violet his favorite toy is a plastic Stygimoloch dinosaur, covered in spikes. She insists that he always have it with him, preferably underneath him. She also gave him all of her trains the other day. The only stipulation was they had to all be on his stomach at the same time. It was like a human/train block tower.

He's very sweet. I think we'll keep him.

meet winston

Here he is, 

We are very excited to have him here safe and healthy. He was born on November 13. He weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. 

Birth by planned C section is not especially exciting or unique. Basically we went to the hospital early in the morning, they put in my IV needle and then we watched two episodes of White Collar. I told you it was boring. 

About two hours before the surgery was scheduled, they came and took me to the operating room. They insisted on wheeling me away on stretcher, despite that the only difference between when I got there two hours ago was a tiny needle in my hand, just the needle, not hooked to anything at all. I was cool with it. 

After the epidural, which is always so very pleasant, I laid on the table for the next hour. This is perhaps the most isolating experience in Thailand. Basically it's just me laying on the table while a bunch of nurses prep the room. No one talks to me and all I do is worry about all the things that can go horribly wrong with a major operation. 

In the operating room there was music that would come on every now and then, mostly classical. I'd been laying there for about 40 minutes when out of no where the song, 'Danny Boy' came on. Right away I started crying uncontrollably--I was already an emotional mess. I couldn't help but think about the Smart family St. Patrick's Day parties.  After all the games Ricker always wanted everyone to sing 'Danny Boy'. Rocky has a lot of talents, A LOT, so really it wouldn't be fair if he had a drop of musical ability. The Smart rendition of the song can sometimes be a bit of a struggle.  But Ricker always had this giant grin on his face like the singing was the sweetest sound in the world to him. It made me think of how excited he always was for every new grandchild and how he would be so excited for Winston to arrive in our family. 

The doctor finally came in a few minutes before the surgery was scheduled and Rocky was able to come right before it started. Everything went well and Winston came out screaming like crazy. Which is always the best sound.

He has our babies' signature black hair and square face.

When the girls first met Winston. We had been worried about Violet, she's pretty attached to us and gets really jealous but she's done surprisingly well. She gives him about 20 kisses a day, pokes him in eyes 30 times and gets really worried if he doesn't have his blanket. We'll see how long this lasts.

First family picture. These are always keepers.

So far Winston is very sleepy. Both are girls were born at 41 weeks and Winston was delivered at 39 weeks, so we've never had a baby this young or this small. We're taking advantage of it while we can. 

Rocky was in charge of the name and he spent a hefty amount of time researching. He had whittled his options down to three names when we went to the hospital (Winston wasn't one of them). After he was born we talked about a few different options and then he said a bit out of the blue that he thought Winston was the one. I loved it so we went with it.

People have asked us if we named him after Winston Churchill, I think they ask this because of the spot on resemblance. Winston Churchill was definitely a solid inspiration. He's always been one of my personal heroes and maybe this will inspire me to read the 3000 page biography trilogy that has been on my "to read list" for a few years--I'm not making any promises.       

                                            

Although, after we filled out the birth certificate paper work, Rocky pointed out to me that Winston means, "Joyful stone." So he had actually named Winston after himself. Which I'm okay with.