Tornado

It struck our house at approximately 0615 this morning. Total storm time was about 2 hours with moments of calm followed by others of sheer destruction. I haven't spotted the funnel cloud in the last few minutes, but the devastation of her wake is great.

I'll do as the meteorologists do with hurricanes and give her a name. Let's start with the alphabet and call her Avocet. Very appropriate.

Daily activity of pushing the hamper all over the house, proceeded by yanking all the snorkel gear out of the cabinet :)

Phew, she is a whirlwind. Should I be doing other things than blogging about the episode now? Yes. But taking into account the 24ish hours of sleep in a week's time, I am taking advantage of my likely brief moment of brain clarity. It won't likely be a frequent occurrence until her sleeping pattern improves. How much is she sleeping, well enough, but not of hours in a row. How much are we parents sleeping? Not e-damn-nough.

She, all ten months and 32 lbs of her, really is a whirlwind. She is everywhere, all the time. Since taking her first steps at 8 months, she hasn't stopped, and neither have we. Any box, chair, toy, couch, leg, sister, parent... she attempts to climb. This morning, I was in the kitchen packing lunches while Ceiba and Avocet were playing in the (we thought) child friendly play room. I heard her cry and ran into the play room to find her spread eagle on her back on the carpet with the (luckily) small kitchen set on top of her belly. She wailed for a second, I removed the kitchen and off she bounced to inflict more havoc. I just looked in Ceiba's direction and got "I didn't do it", while she sat on the couch.

So now she's napping, thank goodness. And no I shouldn't be writing, because there are things to do. There is always something to do. The floors are clean, but I don't recommend eating off of them. There is still laundry to be done. There will always be more laundry to do unless I do it naked, which the neighboring construction men would have find amusing, but the house geckos would not. There are lots of errands on my list on any given day. And where we live, things take a LOT longer to accomplish.

And when she fell asleep, even though I could have laid her down and returned to clearing the wake of her destruction, I chose to rock her instead... for just a while longer. Because though I can have noneat off of floors and non naked laundry for the rest of my life, she will only be a baby for a tiny while.

On Holiday

Where we come from, when you go away for relaxation, you call it going on vacation. But we don't live where we come from anymore. Here, people say they are going on holiday. A holiday to us is usually a paid day off work for something like Independence Day or Thanksgiving. We have acquired this new wording, along with others like - you don't stand in line, you get in "que".


Speaking of holiday, it is crazy how our children see our little getaways. Where I used to be happy if our family slept in the woods and ate over an open fire and less than a handful of times in my childhood ever stayed in a hotel, and Chris used to go to Disney or the Ozarks, maybe Chicago or Washington D.C., our children now think Singapore, Hong Kong, Bali or Nepal getaways are normal for everyone. Ceiba sees airplanes and asks if they are flying to China or India. I fear a Tennessee Red Roof Inn, even with the light left on, will never suffice for our worldly youngsters.

Last week we returned from 5 nights in Singapore, 8 nights in Bali and 2 overnights at the Novotel Airport in Bangkok. I'll post pics, but they won't be as lively as last year's Bali trip, as this go round 99% of the time we lazed by the pool and beach. And it...was...nice.

In Singapore, we did peruse the Botanical Gardens, take in some restaurants and shopping. Ceiba got her ears pierced, though weeks ago I was adamant on her being 8 or 9 before the big event. Honestly, several days of nonstop blabber about wanting earrings finally broke us both.

Ceiba and Chris enjoyed an amazing night at the Singapore Sands Theater watching Wicked. And as a family, we spent an evening at the Singapore Night Safari, which is a cool night zoo with trams through  natural looking animal enclosures. It was fun to see, but we returned way past bedtime for our two little animals.

Bali was beautiful, as always. The airport is under major renovations, as is much of the Nusa Dua area where we stayed, but all will surely be amazing soon again. Our hotel the Nikko Bali Resort and Spa was beautiful. We chose it for its location away from the crowds, beautiful beach, large pool and family friendliness. The pools (tile and sand), water slide and beach kept us busy daily and sleeping well each night.

 Above is the neat beach pool, outfitted in sand and beach chairs. The girls both enjoyed this unusual feature. We were all fish all week. Ceiba has the good fortune of tanning in 5 minutes, the rest of us put on our 70+ spf every day and still couldn't hold a candle to her outdoor time.

As with our Bali trip last fall,  Ceiba's favorite part (other than the swimming) was the chance to see the Balinese dancers. She was mesmorized for over an hour, watching them float around the stage. Ceti and Chris camped out in a chair during the dancing, while I played with my new camera and sat beside Ceiba.

 Our room was very nice with an amazing view of the sea. The resort is perched on a cliff overlooking a beautiful stretch of beach with just enough rocks. The wing we stayed in is actually built over the side of the cliff on the sand, so it makes for a cool location. We made friends with a local boy who lived in a hut by the beach. He picked us shells with us and played with Ceiba in the surf.

 Ceiba also had an oceanside camel ride.

Chris is already teaching Ceti to be tough and hold her own against her big sister. The giggles out of all three of them during the sparring sessions was priceless.

Above, Ceiba was on the kiddie pool slide. There was an even cooler and very long slide into the bigger pool, which we were on LOTS over the week. By the end of 2 weeks away, everyone was asking to go home to Bangladesh. And it felt pretty nice when we finally returned home.