Chip and Dale

Said by this child at the Bangkok airport:





















"Look, its a squirrel. I mean a chipmunk. Err, whatever it is."

Looking around for a rodent, Nate finally realizes that he is talking about a Buddhist Monk.

Ah, the joys of coming across things that are culturally foreign to a child.

Phuket wrap-up

Going to Phuket was like wrapping myself up in a big white fluffy robe and hanging out with a good book. Nate compares it to Swiss Family Robinson gone 5 star chic.

Since there is no direct flight from Manila to Phuket we had to spend the night in Bangkok before our flight the following weekend. I haven't traveled much since the H1N1 virus hit but in Bangkok they are pretty serious about it. So when we go through immigration with a 5 year old who is shivering because of the strong air con, has dark circles under his eyes from allergies and has just been woken up from a deep sleep on the plane and is moaning about it you can imagine they were a little suspicious. As we are in line, I can see them eyeing him like a hawk. After touching him and talking to us in Thai (which, clearly, we don't understand) they allow us through. Little do they know, we came from Manila! There is no swine flu in Manila (according to the Philippine Government anyway)

Out to the taxi stand we hope into a pink taxi with a driver nodding yes yes to our hotel address. Not 5 meters from the airport he stops and pulls over to look closely at the address. We know there is trouble when he is looking all over the sheet. He literally turns the car off, gets out and walks back to the airport with no explanation. The four of us, 11:30 at night sitting in the back of the abandoned cab with shocked looks on our faces. Life truly is a comedy. Fifteen minutes later he is back and we are speeding along landing at our hotel safe and sound.

The next morning found us up bright and early and back at the airport heading to Phuket. No problems this time and the airline had muffins and yogurt (perfect, since there was no time for breakfast!) A short hour and half and we were descending into the most beautiful view. Rock formations and islands jutting out all over the sea. A few minutes after arriving at our hotel, Naman, the resident 3.5 year old elephant, made her first appearance. Cute as can be, we spent a good amount of time feeding her bananas and being amazed by her all together. While Finnley slept on the sala, Holden took a little ride around the resort and then we headed to our room. It was 9am and we had a whole day to do nothing....bliss. By hotel room standards, this was by far, as good as it gets. Middle of the jungle, a upwards trek the whole way found our little cabana by the sea. All the things you want in a vacation; deck, big bathtub, huge comfortable bed and enough techie apple appliances to keep Nate busy for days. We could have spent the whole vacation in our room...really.

Our following days were peppered with the pool, ocean and around the town, with a trip the beautiful island of Khai Nok where the fish were plentiful, the sand is white and the water is clear. Holden and Nate snorkeled around the rocks while FinnRo and I hung out beach-side. Venturing out into the water, the fish mistook Finnley's feet for bread and took a few nibbles on his toes.

The last day we were there the skies opened up and it rained and rained and rained some more. It was gorgeous. Even better to hang out for a while in the room reading and sleeping. We have been taking a lot of vacations that are go-go-go so we soaked up the opportunity to have a nice relaxing beach getaway without the stress of trying to see all the sights and fit everything in. Great Thai food, warm weather and family; it was paradise.

Well, hello beautiful

We are leaving for Thailand this afternoon.
In need of some R&R, we decided Phuket fit the bill for a long memorial weekend. Enjoy yourselves wherever you are. I am hoping for blue skies, warm water and a baby elephant at the resort. I'll let you know how it goes.
XO
M

Happenings

Nate doesn't travel much but when he does, thank heavens for skype! He was suppose to be home late last night but after a five hour delay in Minnesota while they flew a part in for the airplane from Detroit caused him to miss his connection in Tokyo. Luckily they put him up on a bus to a hotel for 5 hours of sleep and he is now catching a flight to Manila this morning on another airline. Don't feel too bad for him though, first class perks make it so nothing is ever THAT rough!

He is going to be exhausted, so I guess we will matching exhaustion. Even with helpers this single parenting thing is not too easy. I have always known Nate was a big help. Always appreciated his hands-on parenting. Always always always. But after this week, the appreciation is even more solid! Also for our helpers. Truly I would have been insane this week without them. I got just a sample of what it would have been like last night when I sent Jasmine (our yaya) out to pick up some things from the store. I was running between one shower, two bedrooms and one bathtub trying to get both boys bathed (without drowning) dressed and ready for bed. Between the squirmy Finn, Holden calling for a towel, and percy yapping at the doorbell I looked a little frazzled! In the span of the week I hosted a book club, made it to one tennis lesson and one pilates class, arranged a jeepney tour dinner and tickets to a cabaret show, purchased one wig (for said cabaret show) took Holden on two commercial castings, had an American womens general meeting where Finn and I worked the catwalk modeling, shopped and volunteered at one bazaar, made one volcano out of plaster, had a foot spa and manicure, made it to two movies, three dinner dates and school activities, and arranged one Sunday brunch. Could I have done that alone? No. So huge thanks to the nannies!

Holden had "wacky Wednesday" at school last week. If the kids wanted to wear wacky outfits they could bring 50 pesos (about 1 dollar) to school to help out a less fortunate school in the area. Here is what he chose to wear. Wacky? Yes.

Poor little Finn watches us eat and just licks his chops begging for some these days. It's about that time I guess. Here is how he hangs at the table. Poor kid, no food and just has to eat the chair instead.

You be the judge

To me, Finnley is beginning to have a striking resemblance to his big brother.

***edited: For the record, Holden is the baby in the sink and Finnley the baby on the blanket. Nate just said: "Which sink in our house is Finnley in?" Even the Daddy can't tell them apart.

Look what we found

A call from a friend saying she saw Holden's new billboard had us out on the town today to track it down. We found a few of them as well as the "Back to School" catalog which is hilarious since Holden is STILL in school. Local schools here are out during April and May, hence the back to school ads. Oh. and don't you just LOVE the fashions. HAHA. It's no Gap ad, but they sure are colorful!

Happy days, kind of

Finnley has some new tricks around these parts. Sitting and teething. One makes him happy, the other miserable. In Holden's words, "MOM! I can't believe Finn is growing a tooth! How many will he grow?"

This picture was taken before the teething started and the sitting up for that matter. Just to remind us that he is happy baby, most of the time!

Swimming

It's Summer here in the Philippines. Lately you wouldn't know it though due to all the rain! Every afternoon this past week it has clouded up and poured down. It's disappointing as we are more acclimated to the weather now and this is swimming season for us! Most of our days and especially our weekends are spent relaxing poolside with mango shakes.

Holden has always been a water bug and is getting really good at diving now. At his school last week his class had a swim party and they were allowed in the deep pool where Holden decided to dive to the bottom. Later Nate was informed that it wasn't recommended that the young kids dive to the bottom as it is 15 feet deep and could hurt their ears. Oops, I had no idea when he told me that he went to the bottom that the bottom was quite that far away! But the fact that he could do it is still amazing to me.

Finnley has taken to the water too and is a regular at the swimming pool. Yesterday he even fell asleep rocking away in the water. He loves it when Holden will swim up to the side of the pool and pop out at him. So cute to watch them together even though they are so far apart in age their relationship is very sweet.

Going Green

Happy Earth Day. Finn loves his Mother and his Mother Earth!

Finn is a growing; today at his doctors appointment he weighed in at a whopping 13lbs 13 oz and is 25 inches long. Still on the small side but a big change from the 3 percentile he was in at 3 months old. Thanks to a combination of breast milk and formula he has taken off!

Easter Happenings

For the last two years I have searched high and low for egg coloring kits here in Manila to no avail. When we were stateside this year we left just on the cusp of the stores changing over their Holiday swag from Valentines to Easter and I was able to buy a few Easter essentials, cadbury cream eggs, peeps and of course, an egg coloring kit. I was clearly more excited than Holden for this but he obliged me and we got together with some friends who hadn't received their egg kit via the US postal system yet for a night of festivities.

Early the next morning when the "Easter Bunny" got up to hide the eggs, he/she found out just why they may not sale egg dye here! The cold eggs mixed with the high humidity made for some serious condensation and re-activated the dye. It was a lovely and by lovely I mean mess. Holden was excited all the same to find his and Finnley's gifts gathered together in one big basket. The big bunny remembered the yearly tradition of shoes and of course threw in a little star wars between the chocolates.

Later that day after breakfast crepes, we headed across the street to the Marriott hotel where we have our gym and pool membership for a proper egg hunt. It was just like a birthday party here in the Philippines complete with characters, face painting and magician. What fun. Things, of course, got out of control when the egg hunt started and parent and yayas "forgot" that they weren't supposed to participate. Argh. Luckily Holden is big enough now to fend for himself so we just sat back and enjoyed until someone ran by him with their kid under arm in a rush for eggs and kicked him in the cheek. It's all out war and chaos at these events here! The golden child survived and was excited with his fair share of plastic eggs. We met some friends for a mexican feast for Easter lunch and relaxed the rest of the day.

The city shuts down for the few days before the holiday and it's sometimes nice to have this forced relaxation. All of the stores and restaurants are closed all over except hotels, so we spent the whole weekend relaxing at the pool. It's a nice change from the cold spring that I remember back in the Western US.

Holdenisms while in Japan and beyond.

"What are you going to do when you turn six?"

"I don't know, maybe buy a car."

"Lots of girls like me." said very shyly when a bunch of young twenty-something Japanese girls were chatting with him.

"Maybe I need to get one of those doctor's masks." because EVERYONE is Japan has one.

"Well played Nathan May."

And today, while walking around in the heat of Manila.

"Mom, did you bring any water? I'm cooking like I'm in an oven back here!"

They weren't kidding

When folks told us there wasn't much English in Japan they weren't kidding. NOT. KIDDING. ONE. BIT. Luckily with the yin and yang of Nate and I and the sheer will to survive we kept each other cool calm and collected and were able to navigate rather well across 200 miles of southwestern Japan.

I was beginning to wonder if we were meant to go to Japan. In the beginning we struggled to even book the tickets. Between the airline and the bank not communicating over international credit cards that was a three day process. Followed by the joy of finding hotels that were either sold out or $480 a night. Just to give you an idea, in the five nights we spent in Japan we laid our heads in four different establishments all about the size of my closet. On the day of our departure the computer systems went down and we were in the check-in line for two hours and I stood there thinking, really maybe these are all signs. Our plane left in typical "Manila time" but at least it left and the rest of the trip seemed like smooth sailing in comparison. Knowing we would be shuffling around I packed light which is near impossible for me, and by light I mean clothing for our family of four all fit in this pack:

We landed in Osaka checked in, ate and hit the sack about midnight. The next morning bright and early we were up and ready to explore. The Spring Grand Sumo Tournament was in full swing so we were on the look-out for men the size of small planets. After we saw one they just came out of the woodwork.

We shopped around a bit and enjoyed the "look" of Japan. Each country seems to have its own style and Japan clearly has good style.
We had lunch at a ramen house with no English menu where ordering for Holden (plain noodles with no spice) proved to be a small challenge. This is also the first time I realized just how many strange looks we were getting by even considering bringing two small children into a restaurant. There were lots of businessmen out for lunch and they didn't seem too thrilled. One of the many pros of Manila is that it is very child friendly. No one would even blink an eye if you walked into the nicest joint in town with a brood of children in tow. Upon returning to the hotel to pick up our bags, Finnley launched into his first (of many) tirades on the trip. Screaming bloody murder only begins to describe it as we disrupted the entire lobby of the rather upscale hotel. Taking our cue we were off on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima.

The train was amazing. Fast and efficient, just like everything else in Japan, we were swept across the countryside. Past cities and villages through mountains and across valleys we flew. It was amazing to see Japan from the vantage and it was, as everything else we experienced, not what we expected.

Each hotel we checked into got smaller and smaller but each had the same endearing amenities of in-room pajamas, called yukatas, and warmed toilet seats! Just a little tip of Japanese toilets, don't push the buttons, unless you are up for a little adventure. We checked into our hotel and were off on the trolley to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and what is known as the A-bomb dome.

The nuclear bomb detonated almost directly above this building and it amazingly is still standing and a symbol for peace. We happened to get to the memorial right before sunset which made it even more moving in the light. After we wandered around the park for a bit we headed back towards our hotel shopping among the many night markets.

Thanks to kids who no longer sleep in, every day we were up and at it early. Day 3 found us taking a ferry and heading to the small island of Miyajima home of the Itsukushima Shrine and the giant torii gate which floats during high tide.

There were dozens of small deer on the island that were almost too comfortable with the crowds of people.

We spent the day sightseeing doing a little shopping and trying new foods like momiji manju, a maple leaf shaped bun filled with custard. This is also where Holden got his Hachimaki (headband) which he wore the rest of the trip.

The same day we braved the rail again and headed into Kyoto which was Japan's capital from 794 to 1868. Our 3rd hotel which happened to be a traditional Japanese guest house called a ryoken. Ryoken's usually have communal bathrooms and showers and slippers are worn inside instead of shoes. While it would have been great to pass the buck to Nate in all the bathing duties of the boys, lucky for us, we had the one room with it's own private bath and shower. While in Hiroshima I caught a bug, apparently from the one person in Japan NOT wearing a doctor's mask and that night in Kyoto found me sick sick sick! After venturing out for some hot tea at starbucks it was clear I was not heading on to dinner. Nate and Holden tucked Finn and I into the room with the heat turned up to a warm 30 degrees Celsius to fight off the chills and headed out for what they called "guys night" and as Holden said, "It's guys night dad, we can do whatever we want." I am not sure what they did but clearly it was a good time as "guys night" has become a weekly request around these parts.

The next morning we took it slow and easy and headed out to the Kyoto Imperial Palace grounds to enjoy the cherry blossoms which were just barely coming out. There were plenty of tripods and cameras set up apparently to catch the very moment it happened!

As we were looking around the ever-curious Holden showing us his ever-present super skills, jumped across a small moat separating the garden from the palace and low and behold off went the alarms. Loud alarms. Saying things in Japanese. Which, of course, we couldn't understand. I am assuming we aren't on a watch list as they did allow us out of the country a few days later.

After exploring the Nijo Castle, it's gorgeous gardens and its floors that squeak when you walk on them to warn of intruders we were off to check into our next hotel.

It is at this point we are on the search for diapers as well. I was packing light remember? We found ourselves into a drug store where, go figure, everything was in Japanese. Explaining the need for ibuprofen was easy, thanks to the ever-handy lonely planet guide and then the clerk read the box and tried to explain how many tablets to take per day. Ah! That would be a good thing to know. I understood 2 tabs and then from there on out it was all Greek to me! We bought what we assumed were diapers. Once we got settled into the hotel we realized rather than diapers it was eight boxes on wipes instead. Oops. I was still feeling sick at this point and so Nate went off on his own to find an ATM and diapers. A little info on ATMs in Japan; there are lots of them...in Japanese. There are few in English. Imagine just pushing a few buttons hoping cash comes out. Nope! There were only 3 in the entire city that were in English. Nate didn't find one of the three but diapers came home with him. In size medium. When I first saw the bag I thought, ah well, better to be too big than too small. UNTIL I OPENED THEM to find pull-ups. Pull-ups that are made for babies 10 kilos and up. On tiny 10 lb Finnley they certainly would not work. Off Nate went again and a few hours and 20 stores later he came back not with smaller diapers but with tape instead. In the many variety of stores he went to, from grocery to convenient, no one carried small diapers. So tape would have to do...that was fun!


The next day I was sicker than before and Holden and Nate went off on their own for more castles and shrines. This was the one hotel we stayed at for two nights and I was so glad that as sick as I was, I could just stay in bed. Holden voiced his disappointment as he was enjoying the adventure of a new "home" each day.

After lunch, the boys returned and Finnley and I ventured out with them to Gion. Gion is the geisha district of Kyoto. The streets are lined with preserved merchant houses that are shops, restaurants and teahouses. We didn't see any maiko, but there were many people in traditional Japanese clothing milling about and it was a beautiful experience all the same.


Shopping was on the mind afterwards and we found a few pieces of traditional Japanese woodblock art and writing to bring home and a traditional outfit for each of the boys. That night we tried to go out for sushi but Finnley made it clear he preferred to be home, so once again we left the older boys to it and little devil and I headed to the hotel room. Ah, once again we were reminded that he is certainly his own strong-willed spirit and NOT the clone of his brother.

Our final morning had us heading to one last castle, with all four of us now fighting the sickness that had spread. We decided, with Holden's help, to go to the Kinkakuji, the Golden pavilion which is covered in gold leaf.

It was over the top, but beautiful and the day was sunny and gorgeous as well. Here we tried cherry blossom ice cream. It tasted exactly how I would imagine cherry blossoms to taste. Strange, I know.

A little more shopping along the way for things to bring home to the staff and we were off on the train once again headed to the airport. Everything went smoothly and on-time and we while we had a great time, we were cold and fighting the sick and had never been more ready to be in warm humid Manila!