Saturday, February 16, 2008

Capriciousness...

Several posts ago I published a picture of Maisy and her new Cambodian friend (captured at Siem Reap). At that time I foreshadowed this little guy's triumphant return to our blog. His fifteen minutes of fame roll on in this entry.

This video was taken on top of one of the temples of Angkor (I know, I'm sick of writing about them too). We used the digital camera to record this, so consider popping a Dramamine prior to partaking. You'll notice in the first five seconds of the video her new friend pulling her pig tails. Not to be outdone, Maisy patiently waited for the right moment to showcase the Irish martial arts moves that she and I have been practicing before bedtime (as shown at the end of the clip):





For the record, I also had a really cool video of Dianna doing aerobics at sunrise along the banks of the Mekong, but I have been forbidden (and frankly threatened in a way that kept me awake for several hours last night) to add it to the post. I have no qualms about showing it to anyone in person though...

In other news we wanted to send a shout out to Maisy's cousin Eliza who was born just 10 days after Maisy, and who celebrated her birthday in the long lazy interval between our last post and this one. The two girls have a lot in common including the talent pictured here:







































Finally we recently made the trek to the top of Thailand's tallest peak: Doi Inthanon. It is on the range of mountains that forms the tail end of the Himalayas. Sadly with my Nepal obsession at least temporarily curtailed, this may be the closest we get to Everest. Anyways, in honor of the National Parks system a few pics of this too:





The road to the top was dotted with waterfalls. If you're curious why Maisy is no longer wearing any pants, look no further than the previous picture (which shortly preceded Maisy experiencing the river shown from the waist down).


The temperature at the summit of Doi Inthanon can drop into the low 50's so for the first time we were able to use the sweatshirts that we had hauled over 12,000 miles from Chicago.


This is a temple near the top of the mountain dedicated to previous Thai royalty. 15 seconds after this picture was snapped Maisy took a spontaneous stroll through these flower beds.




Until next time...

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Happy Birthday Maisy!!

Maisy turned One on January 26th!

We had a little party last weekend to celebrate. We did a combined birthday party with Maisy's two best friends: Kyla, a Thai-Malasian girl who was born the day before Maisy, and Valeria, a Columbian girl who was born one week before Maisy. With the three girls providing all the entertainment, the party was a blast.

From L to R: Puum and Kyla, Brenda and Valeria, myself and the birthday girl




The girls spent most of their time trying to strong-arm away whatever toy, object, or food item the other girl had. Things really started to heat up when Valeria confiscated the red cherry ball:


This next picture illustrates Maisy's strategy, 'the sneak attack':



As part of her Birthday present, Maisy convinced her Babysitter Nook to give her a ride on her scooter:


Maisy also convinced her Dad that she needed some shopping money...



We Love our little girl so much. We are so grateful for the Joy and happiness that she brings into our lives!