My Big Brother is SO Funny!

The other day Zachary sprayed both of the boys in the face with the hose…mama didn’t like it…but neither did they!  Today, we were relaxing and ending the afternoon with some water play and Zachary flicked water at me and hit Brandon…well, let’s just say, it didn’t bother him today!  I only wish I could have gotten the first flick…Their laughs are music to my ears!

Oh, Zachary! You give me smiles!

Oh to be 3 again…when your fears of the day consist of not wanting to get a haircut, where we are going to get chocolate, which stand we will get fresh sugarcane juice from and which songs you want your mama to sing to you at night…

Zachary hates hair on him…any hair…for the past 2 years, I have given him his haircuts…but since every corner has a barber on the street or in a shop, I thought it was time to quit fighting that battle!  3000 Riel (aka, $.75), a manual set of clippers and a very patient barber~Zachary was “so handsome” and ready to eat his chocolate and trade up the sugar cane juice for some “Bitenam” coffee!

…and I have to share a few funny Zachary stories:

• While staying at the hotel, I gave him his own “razor” and comb.  He was standing in front of the mirror, naked, combing his hair when he LOUDLY exclaims, “OH.  I am just SO handsome!”

 

• Mommy:  Zachary, don’t drink water out of the bowl.
• Zachary:  I’m a doggy.  I need to drink water out of the bowl.
• Mommy:  You are a little boy, now please stop drinking out of a bowl.
• Zachary:  I’m a little boy, but I want to be a doggy.  I want to poop outside, wash my butt and drink in a bowl.

 

• For the first time, I let Zachary choose his lullabies…here they are…in order of request:
• Jingle Bells
• Old McDonald
• ABC’s
• Barbara Ann
• Ba Ba Black Sheep
• ….and….drumroll…Lady Gaga...and I just started chuckling...I told him I couldn't sing Lady Gaga, so he made up a song and told me to sing it to him!
• Not exactly the sleep inducing medley I normally sing to him!

 

• He is quite proud of his accomplishment of peeing and pooing on the toilet…so much so, that if you are here and he has done a job, you will be asked to “show you”.  Speaking of his job in the WC…he is a pro at using the sprayer now after going # 2…Big Boy Z!!!

Wasn’t that long ago I was carting you around and kissing your little baby face…I’m so happy you still WANT my cuddles and ask for them everyday!  You are my sweet/ornery boy!!!

Food in the high chair!

 

We have been dappling with food for the past couple of weeks…but the chairs we were using were not conducive to eating first foods and the DOUBLE BOB didn’t quite cut it either…another shopping experience…I was on the look out for some decent high chairs…Vichet picked me up and took me to about 17 different stores…I prefer the street vendors, as I can negotiate the price…but I figured I would check some “baby stores” as well…Well, I could get he Chicco like I had at home…for $300…not really in the budget for twins!…off to the street vendor (for the record, it was shop 16).  They had a high chair alright…I wasn’t thrilled with it, but I felt like I wasn’t going to find anything under $200…We finally negotiated a price from $48 to $40 each.  They brought another chair from some other store or bedroom or something…I have no idea where it came from, but someone showed up in a Camry and they pulled it out of the back seat.  Upon inspection, I could see they were used, there were exposed wires underneath the tray for music in the tray that actually didn’t work and some of the plastic protectors were missing from the metal ends (I could just see another visit to SOS in my future ala Zachary!!!)  At this point, it wasn’t about the price, but about the pieces of crap they were trying to sell me…They looked like something I sat in as a baby 37 years ago *GASP*…Who knows how we kids from the 70’s survived!  HA!  Anyway…I decided I was done, get me home…stopped at one more stop…and Voila…reclining, crotch post, adjustable height, easily folding, BRANDNEWSTILLINTHEBOX high chairs!!!  Negotiated the price for $70 each!!!  Yippee!!!

Sooooo…in cheers to the new high chairs, the boys enjoyed some sweet potatoes, watermelon and some kind of biscuit:

 

Makes me a little bit sad while I am excited…my last babies~eating food, holding their own biscuits, sitting up, raising their arms to me to pick them up, cutting teeth, laughing at funny faces, rolling over and starting to give up the tata’s. 

Here are their 5 month stats:

Brando:  20 pounds, 27.55”

Trev:  21 pounds, 27.16”

I have no exact idea where they are in the growth chart, as everything was actually measured in cm and kilos and I wasn’t given a handy little paper to tell my like Dr. Coit’s girls gave me at home…I will tell you they have yummy chunk all over their body, so my guess is that they are healthy baby boys!

Not for the Busty!!!

I have tatas…not huge ones, but I have them…Enter bra shopping SE Asia style…Not for busts over A cup.  I have wondered thru several shops on the streets, high end departments and specialty shops.  First, they “largest” offerings are 85C…don’t know what that means, but when I put it on, all of my “stuff'” was in one large bump in the middle of my chest…Second, the straps were equivalent of an F cup at home…Third, they had THREE hooks on the back…Finally, they had so much padding in them that if I chose to try the bra on with the padding, I would probably look like the Michelin Man.  I will not post pictures …HA…but I will say, if you are moving to SE Asia, stock up on bras.  I hit up Fredericks today and they are being shipped to my mom who will get them to me…once again, expensive import…like I always say, some things are really cheap here…some things are not!!!  (i.e…a tub of Vasoline, $12)  Cheers to the tata’s…

Just another day…in Paradise???

I don’t know if I’ve fully come to accept that … yet!  I do like it here…I like the people, the things Phnom Penh has to offer…but I don’t think I can call it paradise…just yet.  There are a lot of great things the city has to offer…great restaurants, bustling water front at the river, the markets, the people, the food stands, the parks, the shops…but I still call my home on Edinburgh…Home.  I like our home, I love the people who work for us…but in my head and heart…it’s still a “rental”!  All being said…here are some of the fun things we’ve done over the week!!!

We hit the water front with our “family”…Leak, Sok’im, Mr. To…and us Kochels!

Found some yummy yummy food and mats to sit and enjoy it at!…I might add…I love this way of “dining”…so much easier with 3 little ones…you take off your shoes, cross your legs and eat some food!

Zach really enjoys the market…as soon as we arrive on the weekends, he takes off his shoes and shirt and hits the streets with the local kids!

 

Mr. To & Zachary completed our back yard with some new banana trees…10 trees for $5.  I like that kind of deal!

The boys are rolling around, sitting up, cutting teeth and eating new foods!

We got a hammock in the front yard and it is a favorite for all of us!!!  We all love hanging out there and swinging under the mango tree!

I have some happy boys who love running with me!!!  After I drop Z off at school at 7:30, I head home and log 4 to 5 miles in with these little men!

We’ve had a little sicky in the house again…so off to the SOS for blood work and urine samples…he’s OK!!!  But this Mama is OVER CBC’s…

 

Our Princess Leak had a wedding to attend…when she got home from the salon, Zachary was shocked…he says, “AH…oh, NO…somebody did SOMETHING to Leak’s hair…me no like it!”…we thought she looked beautiful and Zachary didn’t want her to go!

 

Ahhhhhh…pomegranates…growing up in Alaska, these were something my mom ate and a treat she usually ate alone (I can relate to that!)…I’ve loved them since being little!!  How fun to arrive at my new house and have a pomegranate tree in my front yard…AND the ones that aren’t bright red…these are pink, tasty and don’t stain your hands!

Since the boys have had a little bout with diarrhea and have mastered eating from a spoon…I thought I would let them cool down with some Tuity Fruity (yes my SO Cal Moms…there is one here…it’s not the same without you…Nessie & Christina…but it makes me remember you every time I go!)…and enjoy it’s tummy aiding benefits!!!

Brandon LOVED it…LOVED LOVED it…he would sit and smack his lips and then cry if I didn’t get it into his mouth fast enough again!

Trevor wasn’t too sure about it!!!

 

So there you have it friends…we go to school Monday thru Friday at 7:25 on the “tik-tok”…come home, run a few miles…pick Z up at noon, buy a fresh pressed sugar cane/orange juice on the side of the street…take a nap…play with the neighborhood kids and hit the hay!…everything else is thrown in there somewhere!  Come to think of it…I’ve found my own little bit of paradise!  Life is what you make it!

Just Look…

…stop and take notice of your world around you.  If you want to find something to be thankful for, all you have to do is look.

After our ride on the elephant and long naps, we went to the riverfront to walk around, have some yogurt and hit the market…These are people’s homes.  These people work hard.  I’m sure they are thankful they have something to live in. 

These kids ate our left over food, grabbed our cups with ice and straws, drank formula that I poured out of a bottle into a cup and played with Zachary.  They were happy.  I gave them all of riel I had in my change purse and we told the older girl to split it up.  Each one had about 800 riel, a cup of ice with a straw and something to drink and they were standing around laughing, hand in the pocket, one on the drink.  I am thankful I can feed my babies…that they don’t have to ask someone for their leftovers…

What I know is all these people I’ve met are happy.  They are kind.  They have big hearts.  They make do with one pair of shoes.  They can live and work with only 2 outfits.  They eat, they work, they play.  Most can’t afford to celebrate a birthday.  They are not ashamed to ask for a piece of chocolate if Zachary is eating a chocolate bar.  They love my babies.  They work…HARD.  I see all ages of people pushing and peddling their goods…and I mean ALL ages.  I’ve seen 6 year old boys selling fresh flower air fresheners in the middle of the street at 6 o’clock at night…I’ve seen 80 year old women pushing a cart of clams…I love the Cambodian people I’ve met.  They are proud of who they are and I’m proud to know them.  The life stories I’ve heard so far are amazing and heart wrenching…mother’s dying at young ages, left with no choice but to work to support the family at the age of 9, required to leave school for 3 years but still managed to graduate at the age of 18, drowned trying to save a piece of coal and saved by the man who gave it to her…And thru it all, still a smile on a face…a hard worker…kind…loyal…gentle…

All you have to do is look…there is always something to be thankful for, people less fortunate than the least fortunate…Look for your joy today!

Elephants for Peeing on the Potty!

Congratulations Zachary!  You have gone five days with no accidents!!!  Your reward promised to you back in December was that you could ride the Elephant, Sambo, once you went one day with no accidents…You really wanted to go with your Daddy on Sunday…but when Daddy had to stay away another day, you did not want to wait!!  I asked you if you wanted to wait until tomorrow when Daddy got home and you started to cry and said you wanted to ride the elephant today…that Daddy might not come home tomorrow!!!  SO BE IT!!!  You EARNED it!  We loaded up the tuk tuk with babies and our double BOB and off we went!

I thought $20 was a little steep, but a promise is a promise…and this was not your normal elephant ride (what elephant ride is a normal ride?)…it was a 1/2 hour long and we rode on the street!

You were FAR braver than me…with NO hesitation, you climbed the platform ladder and stood there waiting!

Mama was a little scared…I was hoping that the elephant was in a good mood and was not going to be one of the “rogue” elephants who decided they had had enough while we were perched on her back!

  

I walked right on his back to the seat…I was a little bit nervous about that too!!!

 

When we started walking this way, I was thinking, “He walks forward, he walks backwards a couple of times and we are done…”

…and then he stepped over that chain!

…into the street…cars just drove right around us

Yes…they led us right onto the street…we were two people sitting on this huge animal strutting down the street!  You were so proud to be up there.  You would wave at everyone and say, “HI!  I’m riding an elephant!”…”Sambo, slow down…don’t go too fast!”…”Hi!  I’m riding MY elephant, Sambo!”…”When we get back, I want to feed him some bananas!”…

We stopped a few times for tourists to give him food…he’s actually very very gentle…you noticed that he ate some bananas, a couple of apples and a blueberry muffin…at the end of the ride, you said “Sambo eats blueberry muffins, just like my Daddy!”.

I have to admit, I felt a little bit like a schmuck sitting up there on Sambo as we paraded thru town…if you’ve ever read “Water for Elephants”…you’ll know I kept thinking, “All Sambo wants is some lemonade or some gin and gingerale.”

   

…Whew!  That’s over…Mommy is literally walking on an elephants back! 

Sambo earned some yummy bananas for our fun ride!  You were brave and fed him and even touched him…he touched YOU with his nostrils and you just laughed!

 

Here’s what the brothers did while we were hanging out with Sambo:

Mr. To (our “Manny”…he is really Leak’s husband, but they both live with us and we love him too!)

Zachary James…you are such a big boy!  You just got up from your nap and pooped in the toilet and sprayed your own butt!  I love how big you are getting, how independent and how you learn so fast (when you want to!).  Thank you for learning to potty on the toilet and making mommy so proud…AND making me ride the elephant.  I probably would not have done it if it weren’t for you!  Daddy & Mommy are proud of you and LOVE you forever and ever!