Old McDonald's Crazy Farm

One of the presents Peter got for his birthday was a great set of little plastic animals. They are big enough that he can't choke on them, but small enough for little hands to grasp. He loves them. He walks around with them, or finds them and brings them to me. I try to keep one in the diaper bag for times that it is too hard to sit still on the metro. We talk about them and he growls, because that is the sound all animals make. I love that Peter loves these little animals, but I really love how they were packaged. 

It is clearly labeled as a 'Farm Set'. I see that and the picture next to it, so I'm thinking cows, sheep, horses, chickens, maybe goats or ducks. 

These are the animals that came in the "farm" set. There are some that fit the label- pig, goat, horse, cow and chicken. There are a couple that I could stretch to fit that category of farm animals- the rabbit, dog and mouse. But then we have the monkey, tiger, snake, and the dragon to worry about. What kind of farm set has a dragon?! Just imagine singing that song to your kids, "Old McDonald had a farm...and on that farm there was a dragon...with a RAAAAAAA!" While we were joking about the packaging at the store, it dawned on us that this wasn't a set of farm animals, but a set of the Chinese zodiac animals! Everything simultaneously made more and less sense. 

But, farm or zodiac animals, Peter loves them. Here he has his snake and tuzi (rabbit- it sounds kind of like too-zuh). Jonathan tells him the Chinese words for the animals, but rabbit is the only one I remember. 

Although his animals are in this picture, I mostly just like his wide-eyed face.

So, let this package of animals be a warning to you all, if ever invited to a Chinese farm, keep an eye out for the dragons and tigers...

Things Peter Loves To Do

It's been a little bit since I've done a post on Peter and his life, and I know how much the grandparents like posts about the little one, so this one is for you.

Peter is still a little guy. He can fit just fine into his 12 month clothes...even though he passed that age mark 2 months ago. He weighs somewhere around 22 pounds. He has mastered walking up and down small inclines and up small steps and has recently tried to jump- which he cannot do, but it is fun to watch him bounce up and down just bending his knees while he thinks he is jumping. He can throw a ball, but only if he really wants to. He is getting more observant and can watch us do something and then copy it, which means he can get into things faster and I have to be sneakier sometimes if I am doing something that he shouldn't do. He is really smart and clever. He is persistent in figuring things out and he doesn't give up easily. He still doesn't sleep through the night, but most nights he only wakes up once, so he's getting there. He loves eating foods, and will eat Chinese noodles over spaghetti with marinara sauce any day. He also loves bananas, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, rice, beans, chocolate, crackers and eggs.

Words:

mama and dada- for me and Jonathan

nana- for banana or any sorts of food, or to indicate he wants to eat or drink something

da- for dog and most animals- he also will growl when he sees any animal, so sometimes people think Peter is super smart when he growls if he sees a picture of a lion or tiger, but little do they know he will make the same sound if he sees a bird or a cow.

dan- the a sounding like apple, for done

He will also mimic many things that Jonathan says. Jonathan said that Peter has said truck once, I don't think he knows what it means, but just repeated it.

He also does signs for water/food and a sign for all done. 

I try to capture pictures of things Peter likes to do, mostly because I know some of them will be short phases and I want to keep them in memory. So, here are some recent photos of things Peter loves....

Peter loves to bite boxes.

The aftermath.

Peter loves balls, any size, any kind. He finds them and bites them or shares them with me.

One in the mouth, one in his hand.

Peter loves his dad. He wakes up in the morning and says, "Dada, dada?" Peter will looks for Jonathan if he's already left for work and just walk around calling for him. He is thrilled when he comes home at night.

Peter loves playing with dad.

Peter loves going under the bed and getting things. He flattens himself down and just goes right under. He's bonked his head a number of times, but he doesn't even cry, just keeps scooting until he has what he wants and then comes back. Only once has he gotten 'stuck' when he tried to bring back something that was too big for him to hold and army crawl. He panicked until I helped him out. But other than that time, he's good and getting toys that go under the bed.

Maybe it's a good thing he goes under there so much, he cleans it up pretty good.

Combining the love of going under the bed with the love of his balls.

Peter LOVES sitting in these buckets in the sun room. He has face-planted a handful of times while getting out of them, and has earned a couple of bruises from his face meeting the stone floors, but it doesn't stop him.

Sometimes he uses the silver one like a drum, but usually like a boat.

The basket is just as good.

It is not the most comfortable of spaces, but he still climbs right one in and just plays quietly.

Last, but not least, Peter loves his shoes. We got new shoes a few weeks back as he has worn through his soft soled shoes. Now he has real shoes, and he loves them. He will go get them if I tell him to and he sits nicely when we put them on. Maybe he likes them because he equates shoes with going outside, but sometimes he wants them on even when we aren't going anywhere. 

That's Peter in a post. He's a good little boy and we love him.

Pineapple Man

Here in China, it is pineapple season. Various fruits and vegetables seem to be more seasonal here. I haven't seen teeny oranges or sweet potato the last week or so, but pineapple has taken its place. We see people all over selling pineapples from little stands or from the backs of trucks. One day, we decided to buy one to try out a dish we'd seen. It was time to cook something new, and pineapple seemed like a lovely addition. We went to the little fruit stand by our complex and talked with the fruit man. We've bought fruit here once before and I'm pretty sure the guy remembered us. Jonathan asked him for a pineapple and the fruit man picked a good one for us, and then proceeded to cut it up for us. 

I asked if I could take pictures and he seemed pleased that I was going to photograph his handy work. First, he used a very sharp knife and shaved the skin off.

He's done this a few times before. 

Then he used a half circled chisel/knife to cut grooves around the pineapple to get all of the hard spots off. This creates a really neat spiral pattern on the pineapple. Then, he put the pineapple in a bag and lopped the top off. It took him maybe 2 minutes to do everything. Now, I've bought a pineapple in the states before and had my own adventures trying to get to the fruit inside its hard casing. I know that it took me much longer than 2 minutes to make any good progress- there is a reason I usually stick to pineapple in a can. Watching this guy was pretty impressive. We used the pineapple in our dinner, which turned out delicious. I have a feeling pineapples are going to become a regular part of meals for a bit. Thanks pineapple man, for making eating a fresh pineapple way more easier than it ever has been before.

Abandoned and the Sleeper Bus From Hell

*Warning: This post is an extremely long story of a day of adventure in Cambodia, as we were trying to get from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.

Louis L'Amour said, “Adventure is just a romantic name for trouble. It sounds swell when you write about it, but it's hell when you meet it face to face in a dark and lonely place.”  

That pretty much sums up the next part of our trip. The Angkor Wat and Thom day was our last full day in Cambodia. When we were done there, we went to a small store to get some supplies for our 5-6 hour bus ride back to the capital. We felt pretty prepared. We were pretty sure Peter would sleep for the last 3 hours of the ride; we had food and we had done this before a couple of times, so we were set. We got our food and had our tuk-tuk driver take us back to our guesthouse to pick up our bags and bus tickets. 

Our guesthouse owner said he would get bus tickets for us, which was a huge help. When we got to the guesthouse, he wasn't there, and the people who were there did not speak any English. But we had an hour or two to kill, so we were not too worried. Emphasis on the 'too' part. Anyway, our guy finally showed up and had the tickets. He told us the bus was not leaving until 4.50pm, instead of 4.30, so we were totally fine on time. He called a tuk-tuk to come and pick us up and take us to the bus station. 

We got to the bus station and it looked abandoned. Correction: It was abandoned. There were no other people waiting there, just a really dirty dog, and there was only one bus there. The driver of that bus was sleeping in the luggage compartment under the bus. The tuk-tuk driver told us to wait for the bus here. He said to look for the logo on the front of the bus and that it would be there soon. There were a couple of shops nearby the station and some chairs. We went over to the chairs, put our things down, fed Peter some yogurt and waited. We waited some more. Then, we kept waiting. Nothing had changed. There were no other passengers waiting with us. No buses had pulled up. There were some kids playing nearby, so I guess that changed, but nothing promising. 4.50 came and went. Fifteen minutes had passed since the time our bus was supposed to arrive. We were all nervous by now. Leigh took her ticket over to the sleeping driver and showed it to him and pointed to a phone number. He called the number and talked for a minute, and then pointed over to the chairs we were sitting in. We took this to mean to wait there for the bus. 

So, we waited. We saw a couple of men, who were tourists. I approached them to see if they were also going on our bus. As I was talking with one of them, a Cambodian guy came up and started talking to our group really harshly. He kept saying that it was our fault we missed the bus. He said we were late. He kept saying, "I saw you come here at 5.15, the bus left at 4.50, you were late! You were late!" We tried to tell him we had been there since 4.30 but he would just yell at us. I took comfort in the group of men who were trying to help us. They were big- turns out they were Russian. One guy let me borrow his phone so we could try to call the guesthouse to see if they could help. But I couldn't get the call to go through and then they had to go. So, no luck there. 

They left, and the Cambodian guy kept badgering us to buy a new bus ticket from him. He seemed pretty shady and rather mean, so we tried to ignore him the best we could. Any time he spoke to us he seemed mad at us. It was rather obnoxious. By now, we've been at the bus station for about an hour. We have only seen one bus drive past and it wasn't the company we had booked with, and it didn't really stop, just drove past and parked. Leigh and I decided to go talk with some women nearby. The angry Cambodian guy kept hassling us, so we felt like if we were by other people then he might leave us alone. The women were in charge of a small restaurant and appeared to be setting up for the night. I asked if they spoke English. They did. I explained what was going on and asked if I could use their phone. They were happy to help. I called the guesthouse and got a hold of our guy and explained what had happened. He told me he would call the bus and the driver who had taken us there and then call me back on the number I had called him on. Good. I asked the women if I could wait there, and they said, "Yes, of course." So, back to waiting. 

A while passed, and even though I had learned a bit about flying snakes from a program on the tv, I hadn't heard back from the owner, so I called the guesthouse again. The reception wasn't the best and he talked really quietly. After many calls back and forth, I thought I understood him say that he was sending someone to help us. I thanked the woman for her phone and went back to where Jonathan, Peter and Leigh were. Soon, a bus arrived and a few people boarded. The angry man who kept trying to sell us tickets came up again. He was relentless. This time, he told us to get on the bus and they would take us for free. The driver was standing with him and he agreed that we didn't have to pay for it, and that the bus was going to the capital and we could speak to his supervisor if we wanted to, and he held out his phone. Our small group had 2 polar opposite reactions. I said, "Awesome, let's go get on the bus and head to Phnom Penh. Let's get out of this station and on the road." Jonathan and Leigh said, "Are you kidding?! Robin, this is how people get killed. We are not getting on that bus." 

Now, before you think I have no travel sense, I was planning on talking with the other bus riders, checking their tickets and speaking with the driver's supervisor before going on that bus. I wasn't going to get on willy-nilly without doing some checking first. Also, I had no bad feeling about getting on the bus, and I feel like if it had been dangerous then I would have felt differently. But, I didn't have time to explain myself before the bus left, because Jonathan was sure I was going to get myself killed. We decided to get a tuk-tuk and drive back to the guesthouse to sort things out. It was getting darker and we felt less good about being there. We got a tuk -tuk but he didn't know the address, so he called the guesthouse to ask how to get there. He then handed the phone to Jonathan and they conversed for a minute. Then I heard Jonathan say, "No, it just left. What?! We didn't know that." Turns out, our guesthouse friend had called the bus company and explained our situation and we were supposed to get on that bus, for free, because they transferred our tickets over. Of course, we learned this mere minutes after the bus was out of sight. I could have died. We just missed our ticket out, and that was the last bus with this company for the night. Our return flight left the next morning at 11am. The earliest bus left at 7am, and it was a 6 hour drive. If we didn't get out that night, we were not making our flight. Had this problem occurred at any other point in our trip, we would have just spent the night and left the next morning, but that was no longer an option.

We started negotiating a price with the tuk-tuk driver, the sooner we got to the guesthouse, the faster we'd have access to technology to figure something out. We had been brought to the station for $3, and this guy wanted $10. We said no. He went to $7; we said $3. He laughed at us. Exasperated, I said, "Fine, let's walk home." We started walking and this guy followed us down the road, slowly lowering the price. He refused to go down to $3 and I refused to get in his cab for any more. He finally went to $3.50. I still refused. We all refused. I recognize that I was being incredibly stubborn at this point. Should I have been less proud and taken his offer? Yeah, but I didn't. It was a matter of principal at that point and I wasn't going to relent. Finally, he found another customer and left us alone. We walked for a while more and recognized the guesthouse was much further than I wanted to walk, so we got the next tuk-tuk we saw and headed back. 

We arrived at the guesthouse and Jonathan started making plans with our friend, the guesthouse owner. Bless his heart, that guy did everything he could to make us comfortable and happy. He gave us tons of water and bananas for Peter. Peter had a blast playing with some people in the lobby while we made arrangements. The owner didn't seem to truly understand our predicament though. Maybe it was a miscommunication due to languages....who knows, but he kept trying to get us to take the bus in the morning, the bus that would make us miss our flight by 2 hours. Finally, he gave us the option of buying a ticket for a sleeper bus. Yeah, it was more expensive than a regular bus- by a few dollars, but it was cheaper than a taxi and much cheaper than buying a new flight home. We jumped at the option. Sleeper bus?! Of course. It would be great. We could sleep on the way there, and then just check in late to our next place. We didn't have to get up really early in the morning, so it would be awesome. It left at 8.30pm. We killed time at the guesthouse and called our next guesthouse to inform them that we would be checking in much later than expected. 

The time finally came for the bus to arrive, so we went out to the street with all our things, and waited...and waited some more. I played with Peter a game of "Spot the Geckos on the Walls" which was pretty exciting, and tried to keep him from fussing. It had been a really long day for him and he just wanted to sleep. The bus finally arrived and we climbed aboard. As soon as we got on, I realized that this was one of those situations where things look one way in pictures and a very different, usually more negative, way in reality. The bus looked awesome in pictures. It looked comfortable, spacious, and cozy. In reality, it was dark, confusing and smaller seats than expected. 

A guy led us to our seats/beds as the bus started going. We were trying to get everything situated, bags in the back of the bus, except Peter's bag and the food bag, and where do we put our shoes, and everything felt hectic. The seats were "70% reclined" like a lounge chair you see at pools. But the ceiling is just low enough that you can't sit up straight. I climbed in first, and set Peter down. Peter started exploring and in the process began to steal someone's blanket, and then proceed to tickle someone else's feet. Once I realized what was happening, I wrangled him. He did not want to be wrangled. He started crying, I was still trying to figure out where to put a bag and bumping my head on the ceiling, and Jonathan was still getting our bags situated in the back area. Hectic. Stressful. Verge of tears.

The screaming baby finally nursed and quickly fell asleep between Jonathan and I. At last, it was peaceful. We were on our way. We could put the entire crazy day behind us. We would fall asleep and wake up 6 hours later in Phnom Penh, all would be well....HA! Little did we know. 

I tried to fall asleep, but I was sleeping with a wall of windows next to me. There were curtains pulled shut, but I kept envisioning the window breaking and me falling out and being left behind in Cambodia. It was such a bumpy ride I was sure I was going to fall out of the bus. So, needless to say, it was hard for me to fall asleep. When I did manage to fall asleep, a bump or two later would be all it would take and I'd be awake again. Also, we had a little boy tucked between us in a space smaller than the width of a twin bed. I was scared to move because I might squish or awaken the babe. Finally, I drifted off to sleep. I woke up a little bit later with a numb arm from sleeping position and a cold body. This is basically how I felt the rest of the night. Sleep and then wake up with a cramping limb and cold. Jonathan was also awake just as frequently. At one point, we ate some bread, and Jonathan got my wrap skirt that I'd bought at the market to use as a blanket. The bus was supposed to have a blanket per seat, but we had none. The bus also had some pretty fantastic air conditioning. So fantastic, in fact, that it felt like winter all over. You couldn't turn the vents off, so there was constant freezing air blowing on us. At one point, I touched Peter's arm, and it was like ice. I have never felt his skin that cold before. So now, along with trying to sleep, and trying to stay covered with a thin skirt, I could add keep my baby from freezing to death on the list. Jonathan ended up stuffing the vents with plastic bags to stop the air flow. This helped some, but I never got warm again until we got off that bus, the damage was already done. 

Also, remember the 70% reclined seats. Turns out that was a horrible idea. They were slanted just enough that the upper half of your body would just slide down into the part designed just for your legs. But your whole body couldn't fit into that space without some limb cramping horribly. So, I was constantly pushing myself back up the seat to stretch out cramping legs. I don't even know how Jonathan made it through this ride. Peter woke up twice during the ride. Each time he would just cry and cry and cry, not just a sad cry, but a loud screaming death decree. He hated being held. He hated being set down. He was cold. He was uncomfortable, and he let us know. A couple of different ladies tried to hold him...nope. Didn't help. He would eventually calm down and fall asleep again. It was awful. I very distinctly remember at one point in the ride thinking, "If hell was cold, it would be this sleeper bus." 

We were in and out of unrestful sleep for the next few hours and finally we reached Phnom Penh. I have never been so happy to be off any mode of transportation before in my life. Blerg. But at least me made it to the capital so we could fly home. I guess we should be grateful that we didn't miss our flight, even if the way to get there was an adventure.

“Adventure! People talked about the idea as if it were something worthwhile, rather than a mess of bad food, no sleep and strange people inexplicably trying to stick pointed objects in bits of you.” ―Terry Pratchett

Right on Terry. Right on.

Shopping at the Wats

Another fun part of being at Angkor Wat was doing a little tourist shopping. As we were walking out of the Angkor Wat area to meet our driver, there were a long line of shops with their owners outside trying to coerce tourists to come in and have a look. Jonathan said, "Well, if you see anything you like, you should buy it, because we probably won't come back here and you won't have another chance to get it." Pretty much from then on out if I saw something and said, "What do you think Jonathan?" He said, "Buy it." It was great. It works for us because he knows me well enough to know if he hadn't encouraged it, I wouldn't have bought anything, and would have regretted it later, so he can say "Buy anything you want" and he knows that I'll only buy a few things. 

I knew I wanted some sort of clothing that I could wear in normal life- not a "I Love Cambodia" shirt, but something I could wear that would mean something to me, but not just scream "I am a tourist!" Well, I was almost derailed from this desire when I kept seeing these ladies selling these pants that were thin and light- excellent for the weather, with amazing prints on them. They were mostly brightly colored. Some were "Ali Babba" pants (their words, not mine; I call them MC Hammer pants), and others were the same material, but normal pants. Well, I got sucked in and bought a pair of the normal ones (should have gone for the MC Hammer pants). I'll probably wear them around the house once it gets warmer here. But you won't see me sporting those bad boys in public, and if you do, then you know I've hit an all time low, or that I'm doing laundry. 

We kept going and I saw lots of amazing artwork, that I considered getting, but we didn't have room and didn't want to carry that along for the rest of our trip. There were lots of people all selling similar things. Then, I noticed some vendors selling skirts. They were beautiful to me. Just a very simple wrap around skirt in lots of different prints and colors. One in particular stood out. It had elephants across the top and peacocks on a row further down. The colors were muted, which is not what I usually go for, but there was just something about this one. Then I saw a couple of others that I liked, and the debate began in my mind. Do I go for the muted colors with the print that grabs me, or the amazing colors with the print that is just so-so. I asked the shop owner which one she thought was better. First she tried to get me to buy both- smart woman. Once she was convinced I only wanted one, she opted for the brighter colors. She told me that I needed to get the one with bright colors because my skin is so beautiful and white so I can wear bright colors. She informed me that she cannot wear bright colors because of her dark skin. She was convinced that bright colors don't look good on her. She told me over and over that I was beautiful because I was so light. She even told me she uses skin lightening cream so try to be lighter. This is something that will likely forever frustrate me. She was a pretty woman, convinced that she would be prettier if her skin was lighter. She buys creams to bleach her skin. Meanwhile, over in America, people sit out in the sun- or in tanning beds- for the express purpose of making their skin as dark as they can. We think it's crazy that people use lightening creams, while we are baking our skin. People! Just be happy with your skin. Cambodians- you have beautiful dark skin. White Americans- you have beautiful white skin. Own it. Stop acting crazy. Rant over.

Anyway, I got Leigh in on the debate, and she said what needed to be said. Her words were, "Robin, you know you like the darker one better. Just get it." That's what I needed. I knew that I liked it the best, but then when someone else said that the other one looked better then I doubted my initial choice. I got the one with the elephants and peacocks, and I love it. I've worn it many times, and every time I wear it, I wonder why I don't own more wrap around skirts. They are so simple and can fit anyone. I can still wear it when I am pregnant again, I could lend it out to any friend and they could wear it. Simple. I'll probably be making some more of these when I get back to the states and can buy fabric without Jonathan coming to translate.

Peter helped me model the skirt. 

A close up of the print. 

The other thing we bought at the little market area were some of the cutest baby clothes ever. I am certain that if you take any item of clothing and make it small, it becomes exponentially cuter. It took about 3 seconds looking at some of the little shirts and I was sold. I still bartered with the woman, but, let's be honest, even if she didn't drop the price I probably would have bought the shirt. She bargained a higher price and threw in a pair of baby MC Hammer pants. Man, I'm a sucker. So, Peter has his own set of great Cambodian clothes to wear when it gets warmer.  

Here is Peter showing off his cute elephant shirt. I'll get another picture later when I put his pants on. It's cute. 

And, one more picture, because I'm the mom and I like this baby.

A Few Random China Things

There are some things that have happened that I need to write before I forget them. These are all separate stories, but I'm putting them in the same post because they are short.

# mylifeisazoo
Yesterday, Peter and I were in the sun room aka the laundry room. I was hanging up the wet laundry and Peter was playing with some toys. One of the walls is just window. It gets great sunlight, and it helps dry the clothes faster. As I was hanging clothes, I noticed an older Chinese woman standing on the sidewalk, staring at us. It took a second to register that she really was just watching us. She set her bucket down and just looked at us. I just sighed and kept going with the laundry. Then, she started to cross the lawn, walking towards us. She disappeared for a second only to reappear on the other side of the hedges, the hedges that block our apartment windows from the grass and the sidewalk! Yep, she had gone around and was standing directly next to our window, staring at my baby. I awkwardly waved at her so she knew I saw her. She kinda waved back, but mostly just watched us. She stayed there for a couple of minutes. Just watching. She smiled at Peter, who luckily found none of this creepy, was happy to have a new friend, and made cute faces back. Finally, she walked away, went back to her bucket, looked back one last time and was on her way. And by on her way I mean she made it about 15 feet and then stopped two other Chinese people to tell them something, pointing back at us the whole time. Spread the word! The foreigners are here. They do laundry and play with toys and everything. Now I know how penguins and bears feel like in the zoo.

These pictures weren't taken on the day we were being watched, but you can see the hedges, so imagine a Chinese woman standing on the other side of the glass staring back at Peter. That's where she was. 

Turns out I have tons of picture of Peter playing in the sun room. He loves it. He mostly loves sitting in the boxes and bowls there and playing with his dinosaurs.

Fish in the Metro
A few weeks ago, I was on my way home from a friends house. Peter and I had a nice hour long metro ride ahead of us, and we were chatting with another friend who had come with us. I was sitting a few feet from a man who was carrying some fishing poles and a 5 gallon bucket. A bit into the ride, I noticed that he kept looking into the bucket and was quite concerned with it to make sure people didn't bump it. He kept it pretty close to him. My friend was sitting closer to the man and took a look into his bucket. Well, turns out he had a successful day fishing, as he was bringing home some live fish in his bucket. You can bring anything on the metro.

Sick?
I started teaching at a preschool about 2 weeks ago. It's a nice set-up as I can bring Peter with me and he participates in everything we do. I'll write more on that job later. We arrived at the school and Jonathan took Peter's coat and hat off while I changed from my shoes to inside house slippers. Two of the Chinese teachers expressed concern for Peter's warmth. Jonathan, since he understood what they had said in Chinese, asked me if I thought he would be fine. We'd been at the school a couple of times already and I knew that the rooms we would be in would be plenty warm. I confirmed that Peter would be fine, said bye to Jonathan as Peter started walking around the corner towards the class. When I caught up to Peter, I found that the Chinese teachers wanted to take his temperature. Now, at this point, Jonathan was gone, so we were going off my limited Chinese and their much better, but still not totally great English. Pretty much they just asked, "Ok?" as they pointed to the ear thermometer. I said fine and held Peter as they took his temperature; they showed me the number- it was 36 or 37 degrees Celsius. (Good thing I can convert that to Fahrenheit in my head...wait, no I can't.) They said, "Good. It is normal." Then we went on with our day.

So, I'm still not sure if they took his temperature because they legitimately thought he might be sick, OR (in my mind the more likely case) if they did because they thought he was chilly and that his temperature would register as low on the thermometer and so then they could prove to me that I was making my baby cold by taking his jacket off even though we were inside and it was not even that cold. Would that even happen? If you came in from outside and were genuinely cold feeling, would your temperature read lower than normal on a thermometer? I really don't think it would, unless you were dying cold. Oh, China. Please trust me that I keep my child safe even though he wears less layers than your red cheeked sweaty child.

In case, after reading the above story, you are worried about how we dress Peter, this is what he looks like most days. He stopped wearing his fat pants now that it's in the 50s most days, but he still wears a sweater and a jacket.

He's so small, he might get to wear that jacket next year too, which I would be fine with, because I think he's adorable in it.

Ages
At the same preschool that took Peter's temperature, I was trying to figure out the ages of the different kids. I felt like if I knew their ages then I could better plan lessons and games depending on what I thought their ability levels would be. They had asked how old Peter was, and I responded with "A year old, 14 months." I asked how old Shawn is. He is the oldest kid at the school. There was a bit of conversation between two of the teachers and then one of them told me, "He is 41 months old." My brain wanted to stop. What?! Don't do months at that age. I barely do months now. He's a year old. In a couple of months he will be -almost a year and a half-, then, a year and a half, then almost two, and so on. 41 months old?! Just say- three and a half years old. Not so hard. Also, I know the mental math isn't so hard (Jonathan says it is); I just hate the months thing. Not meaning to offend if you do this with your child, but stop.

Being Blessed in Bayon and our Driver

There was one experience at the Bayon site that was really neat for me. We had just entered the temple area and we walked through a small room with a seated statue, probably about 3-4 feet tall. The statue had a yellow sash on as many of the Buddha statues did. There was a small box of sand in front of it with a couple of incense sticks sticking out of the sand. There was an old lady standing next to it with some incense and she was trying to hand them to people so they could be lit and the people could be blessed.

Well, the little old lady happened to be adorable, so I took one of the sticks and put it in the sand. She then proceeded to bless me.  She said many things in Khmer and then she leaned over to the statue and pulled back the sash just a bit and grabbed a little orange braided yarn bracelet. She tied it on my wrist, the whole time she was saying things. Then she rubbed a little spot where the knot of the bracelet was and said something along the lines of "Bless you. Bless your family. Bless with health, love and happiness." Then she opened a small box in front of the burning incense, which had a few dollar bills in it and motioned to it. Should have seen that coming. Blessings don't come free. I gave her a dollar and she said, "Bless you and your family" one more time. So, I guess I can check "Being blessed by a Khmer priestess" off of my to do list.

This is what the statue looked like, but the one I was blessed by was in a different part of the temple area.

The other thing that was cool about this day, aside from all of the ancient ruins, was having a driver. The tuk-tuk driver who took us to our guesthouse from the boat offered to take us to the temple sites the next day. He gave us a price that we felt was reasonable so we took him up on it. That was a great idea for sure, it made everything go more smoothly the next day. He picked us up the next morning and took us to the area. He dropped us off to buy tickets and waited for us. Then he drove us to Angkor Wat, dropped us off, and waited until we came out. Then took us to Thom, waited for us, and then we told him we needed to eat something, so he took us to a little restaurant and again waited for us. When we were done eating and on our way back to the guesthouse, we told him we needed to find a small grocery store so we could buy some snacks for our bus ride to Phnom Pehn. We told him we needed a place with bread, fruit, yogurt, crackers, or things like that. He took us to a small store that was right next to a bakery. We got the things we needed and then he took us back to the guesthouse. It was super convenient. I would recommend doing that if you are ever in Siem Reap touring the ruins.

Robin and the bug, sleeping in the tuk-tuk after a long day of sight-seeing. 

Angkor Thom Part 2

So, the area of Angkor Thom had many sites to see, so after walking around the Bayon, we continued walking around and saw many other amazing things. It was really nice to walk around in nature and see fantastic things. There were less people in these areas than there had been at Angkor Wat. Also, Peter continued to do pretty fantastic throughout the day. He ate many bananas and did a good job being held for so long and Jonathan did a great job carrying him all day. 

Giant Buddha statue. 

Another cool temple site. We weren't allowed to go in this one because Peter was too young, and we didn't want to split up and wait again. Maybe next time.

The temple we didn't go in. It was huge. 

Peter was a little grumpy cat here. But shorts and t-shirt weather. Brilliant.

Tree roots eating rocks.

These trees are so cool. Their trunks are so tall, and the roots reminded me of webbed feet of ducks. 

Young monks

More of the trees growing around rocks. I thought about teaching 5th grade all over and wishing I had this picture to show them to explain how tree roots can weather rocks. It's amazing that a plant can do something like this. 

As we continued wandering through ruins, we stumbled upon this place. There were the remnants of three trees growing from the base. I'm sure they cut the trees to try to preserve what they could of the building and yet the trees keep trying as you can see new branches growing out of the top. I can't imagine what it would have looked like to first find these places before anything was cleaned up or restored. 

It was fun to just walk around and see things that were unlike things we've seen in any of our travels elsewhere. We would see little food stands and shops selling tourist things as we walked. We also walked past a water pump by one of the places that had 4 little naked kids playing in the water, the oldest was probably about 7 or 8, splashing water on each other and having fun. I bet Peter would have loved to join them and just be free. So different from America.

Thom Part 1

After seeing Angkor Wat, our driver took us to Angkor Thom. They aren't too far apart, but it was nice to have the tuk-tuk and have a break from walking. As we drove along, we could just barely see the outside wall entrance, and then we saw this elephant!

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What a beaut. Elephants are such cool animals.

The path in front of the entrance was lined by these statues. The statues are all pulling on a snake; we saw this a couple of times, but I never learned its meaning. Most of the statues have lost their heads, but the people in charge of the area are currently working on rebuilding their heads. You can tell the the first four heads in this picture are rebuild. But, it looks like they are making the newly built heads look dark to match the rest of the statue as you can see in the 5th statue. I have mixed feeling about the rebuilding. It is good because then you can know what it originally looked like, which is neat. But then also, if you only saw it when everything is redone then it looks like an amazingly preserved ancient city when in reality it is lots of recently made things with a backbone of ancient ruins. I remember being in Russia and hearing- this is one of the oldest buildings, built in this year...except it was destroyed in WWII and has been rebuilt. Wait, so it's not really that old at all. But it is neat to see it in its glory.

The area of Angkor Thom is a collection of many different areas. The first thing we saw at Angkor Thom was the Bayon. It is a temple that was built around the same time as the Angkor Wat temple. It has over 200 carved faces all over and lots of pictures carved into the walls.  

Again, it felt in some ways so much like Rome, probably because of the columns. 

Find the faces; there are three.

Baby can't sit still for pictures.

Working on that walking, checking out those rocks.

On the main floor, there were lots of columns and archways and some carvings. Then, we went up a flight of stairs and faces....everywhere. One each post, there was a face on each side.

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And, like always, people took Peter because he is the cutest thing they have ever seen. One of the little Cambodian girls had the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. They were this amazing goldish brown color. She was so beautiful. They kept telling me how lovely Peter was and I just felt the same about their little one.

Faces with faces

People don't know the meaning of the faces, but this one is so happy.

There were so many tourists there, from so many places around the world.

Explorer baby.

He was so happy to climb.

The next few pictures are some of the carvings I saw. There were so many more than this. There were pictures of armies and fighting and others of just regular daily life. They don't understand which historical events they coincide with, but they are spectacular.

I liked the dancing people.

Bayon, you were really neat. All of the faces were amazing to behold. It was remarkable to know this probably means something to someone, and maybe someday I'll know what they were for. You were a place I will never forget visiting.