Friday, April 24, 2009
Graham said the funniest thing....
When Graham woke up from his nap today he was fairly cranky so I held him on my lap while sitting on the couch, him snuggled into me. He finally warmed up and sat back looking at me. Then he leaned in close, pointed to my lip and asked, "Mom, what is that?" I asked what he meant. He said with a very serious expression and tone, "Mom, what is on your lip? Is that where Daddy punched you?" I burst into laughter and couldn't stop for several minutes, he finally decided it was funny too and laughed. After awhile I was able to ask him if he thought Daddy had punched me in the mouth and he said "Yes," like, "That's a stupid question."
For the record, Daddy has never punched me in the mouth. Have a good day! :)
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Cambodia Trip Part 2: The bike ride!
That night we had a nice dinner and some entertainment, at risk kids from Phnom Penh doing a breakdancing show. They were just adorable. Then, early the next morning we had our arranged taxi ride back to the airport in the city. We had been told the drive back would be a little shorter since we were in a car rather than a bus. It was still dark and a Toyota Camry picked us up. The driver (hardly any English) wanted $30 up front and the other $20 when we got there. I gave it to him and we drive about 4 minutes when he stopped and said, "My associate will take you the rest of the way." An almost identical Camry waited for us. I explained to him I had just given him $30 and he said, "It's ok!" So he got 30 for a 4 minute ride the other guy got 20 for a (supposed to be) 5 1/2 to 6 hour trip. This second car had no seatbelts in the backseat. He did have a little screen covering the rearview mirror that showed music videos and played the music very loud (all in Khmer). It's still dark and he starts driving. We asked a couple times to turn down the music (using charades since he doesn't speak any English). He is driving incredibly fast on these narrow roads. There are already people on bicycles, people walking and buses and trucks on the road. He honked his horn constantly for everyone to get out of his way and swerved around everyone, no worries at all at what may be coming towards us in the other lane. As daylight came more and more people were on the road, many holding children on their bikes or mopeds. This did not phase the guy. I yelled at him many times to slow down especially when we were driving through towns where people (many kids) were just steps off the road. He didn't. I thought we truly might die especially with no seatbelts and wondered if that would be better than surviving a crash in rural Cambodia with no doctors etc. We obviously did survive but a dog and a chicken did not. He slammed through both of them while we gasped in horror. We made the 3 hour trip in 2 hours and 5 minutes. Even in the city he continued to drive this way. I had planned to tip him as I thought he got the raw end of the deal but of course, by the time we got there, I didn't give him an extra cent. After he unloaded our suitcases he turned to us with a big smile and said, "Bye!" Just another day at the office for him. We tried not to think about who or what he hit on his way back to Kep. Other than that experience, we loved it all. We had to pay another $25 to get OUT of the country but had such a fabulous time. We can't wait for next year, we hope to bring our families this time to cheer us on and stay a little longer so we can be at the closing ceremonies. May even throw in a quick trip up to Siem Reap and Angor Wat so we will have really experienced all of Cambodia. I have to say every single person we met (besides the murderous taxi driver) were just as nice and sweet as anyone I've ever met anywhere in the world. Thanks for reading!!! :) I will send out my kodak gallery of pics now. If you don't get it and want it, send me a note tracyefaulkner@yahoo.com .
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Cambodia Trip!
On Friday, February 27th my friend Meredith and I flew into Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This is the capital city and we were going to spend the day there before taking a 3 hour bus ride down to the town of Kep for a bike ride the next day. After paying $20 USD to get into the country we found 2 guys trying to get us to take their taxis into town. We picked the $7 vs. the $9, the other guy laughed and said, "He doesn't have air conditioning!" Turns out $7 gets you a tuk tuk which we thought would be fun. Dara, our driver, said he'd take us around all day and bring us back to the airport that evening to catch our bus for USD 35. We probably could have bargained but decided that was a pretty good deal and off we went.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Milestones: Reed
Milestones: Graham
As 2008 was nearing it's end, I thought up several goals for Graham for 2009. 1-lose the pacifier (pop pop); 2-learn to swim without floaties; 3-be potty trained. While on our trip to Bintan, Indonesia, the day after Christmas, Graham woke up from his nap and we were headed to the beach. Jeff was pulling on the pop pop and Graham was holding it with his teeth, the soft plastic part ripped off. No more pop pop. I thought we would have a horrible vacation due to this but Graham did quite well. He asked for it a couple of times but never really cried (he still has Doggie). First goal completed and we had not yet hit New Years!
The second goal seemed to be met almost as easily, since we go to the pool several times a week, sometime in January Graham decided he no longer wanted floaties and poof, off they went and he's been swimming like a little fish ever since!
Thus far Graham is the typical 2nd child, doing everything just a little bit earlier than his big brother did because he copies everything he sees. And then there is potty training......
"Buddy, do you want to wear big boy underwear like Reed?" "No, I'm DIAPER BOY!!!!" This is no lie. Graham has not shown much interest in losing the diapers. He states he likes them and I believe him! He will sometimes go on the little potty, get all excited and do a little dance, but then asks for the diaper to go back on. His teacher at school has pretty much insisted that we send him in underwear (I have no idea why, he's only there for 3 hours and she's not ever had to change him). So, a few weeks ago, I started sending him in underwear. He has had an accident there and a couple on the way home but overall, has done fairly well. Yesterday he went all day with one pair of underwear (skipped his nap). Well, he announced to me that he did pee in the pool but he's not the first kid or the last to do that, right? So today I took him to the store with me and then the American club, didn't even bring a diaper, just an extra pair of shorts and underwear. After getting groceries he rode a little ride in the mall and then, boom, peed all over the floor. Ok, my fault, should have taken him straight to the bathroom before letting him get on the ride. Then we went to the club, he "went" about 6 times in the bathroom, so far so good. Finally, he was going to swim. We discussed at length about how important it is that he not pee or poop in the pool. I won't give you details, but he pooped twice in his swimsuit (luckily was not in the pool either time). I can only hope we meet goal 3 by mid-August when he's supposed to start at Singapore American School!!!!
Finally, I just have to say how loving and funny Graham is. He has hit his terrible 3's with the fake crying to get his brother in trouble and saying "I hate that!" about just about everything but it's not all the time. Today we were in the cab and I asked if he thought we were going to have fun, just the two of us. He answered "Yes because we really love each other" and then gave me a hug and a kiss!
That's the loving side, the funny side is how he likes to let us know when he can do something "easily," one of his favorite words, and his practicing his bowling anywhere, anytime, working on his form. The kid LOVES to bowl and he does it probably 2x a week at the club. He continues to worship his brother but definitely has his own mind and personality. That's our Graham-cracker!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Graham Dancing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lAA199pU4s
Not sure how to have the actual picture show up but at least the link works.
