Juliet 15 month snapshot

 My computer will be packed up in our air shipment in 2 days so who knows when I'll be able to do an update again. Air shipments are *supposed* to take about 7 days to arrive, but we've never been so lucky and usually get ours in the 4-6 week range. I'm packing my camera and crockpot in the air shipment as well so hopefully this one gets to CA quicker than previous air shipments. Juliet turned 15 months on Wednesday. She is still full of energy, spunk and opinions but she's also a delightful little girl who is joyful and adorable. Everyone says kids are so different, but so far my two are freakishly similar. 

Stats: She's a big girl. 27 pounds and 32.3 inches, 97% for both.  She's mostly between sizes 18 M and 24 M right now. 

Teeth: 16 teeth are finally in. The last canines and molars took forever. Seriously, the molars took over 3 weeks to fully come in and the canines were especially miserable. Luckily it doesn't effect her sleep too much but her attitude during the day was difficult! We should get a bit of a respite for a few months before the 2 year molars start. Good thing we'll be using that eye of the storm to combat 14 hour jetlag. Sighhhhh. It's ALWAYS something. 

Schedule: Juliet decided to make the 2-1 nap transition 2 weeks before the big jet lag switcheroo. Not ideal, but Juliet does what she wants when she wants. It's gone relatively smoothly and I think it will actually help get her over jet lag sooner than taking 2 naps. It's only been about a week but right now the schedule is:

6/6:30 wake up

7 breakfast

11 lunch

12-2/3: nap (her naps vary from 1.5-3 hours with 2 hours being average).

3: snack

6: dinner

7/7:30: bedtime

Feeding: Food is not a problem with this girl. She is our little foodie and kind of obsessed, honestly. She acts like we are starving her most of the time. Its so different than Forest where I stressed about him not eating enough, and if we didn't have a feeding schedule we'd forget to feed him because he'd be so busy/happy just to keep on playing. With Juliet I worry it's too much! She's constantly begging at the fridge for snacks. 

Our doctor says as long as we are feeding her healthy foods, we should give her as much as she wants, but sometimes my mommy instincts tell me it's excessive. It's interesting but I wonder if I'd be worried about her voracious appetite if she were a boy. I don't think I would be, honestly. Isn't that absurd? Anyway, she's technically overweight but if the doctor isn't concerned (especially in Asia) then I guess I shouldn't be either. She's super active and healthy. And those chubby cheeks are delicious! Her favorite foods are yogurt, any fruit, sweet potatoes, and salmon. 

Favorite book: We've come a long way with literary appreciation in the past few weeks. Her absolute favorites are her Sandra Boynton books, especially Dinosnores. She loves Jimmy Fallon's MAMA and DADA books, and Brown Bear, brown bear. Also, she's getting into Little Blue Truck. She doesn't like to sit still for reading so we mostly read after meals while she's still strapped into her highchair, and we read 5-6 books at bedtime which is the only time she's content to sit and cuddle. But she'll contentedly flip through her books independently for 10 minutes or so (for her that is a loooong time). 

Favorite toy: She's not super into toys really. She loves her stuffies and books, but she mostly just enjoys taking every single thing out of every drawer and cabinet she can reach. She also enjoys climbing anything she can possibly climb. Sometimes she will empty a drawer and then use said drawer to climb up a piece of furniture. Two birds with one stone and whatnot. 

She likes to color, and also enjoys putting on accessories. 

She really likes to be outside and enjoys her small slide. I can't wait to get this girl to CA where it's actually enjoyable to be outside all day everyday. 

Words: Juliet is slowly but steadily building up her vocabulary. She has about 20 words in English and a handful in Nepali. Her most common words are still 'momma, daddy, brubba, hi, bye, uh oh, this and that', but she occasionally will throw in a 'banana' 'up' 'yes' 'dog' 'apple'  etc and has a myriad of animal sounds including her favorite 'cockadoodledoo'. She says 'hi daddy' and 'love you' but that's the extent of her 2 word phrases. She will say '3' if you count 1-2... and sometimes she'll also say 6 and 10 if you pause in your counting. 

New skills: She can walk down stairs and she can actually jump! Her gross motor skills are very advanced which makes sense since that's what she works on the most. 

And it's not really a new skill, but her hair is now long enough to put into piggies, so I consider that a pretty important milestone.

Oh and she knows various body parts- ears, hair, belly, toes, nose, eyes, etc.  

Other favorites: Playing peekaboo, following Forest around like an imprinted duckling, shoes, Sesame Street music videos.

Dislikes:  The car. This makes life hard. We are hoping for some road trips once we return to CA so I hope this is a phase she grows out of quickly. On the way to the doctor's office this week she actually did ok and only had one little fussy period in 45 minutes. The way home was not as great but was also post 3 shots and getting close to lunch and nap time. So there's hope!!

General observations: She loves people and offers a friendly smile and wave (or wai) to everyone she sees. She loves dogs, especially those that are barking at her (we've had some close calls of her not understanding dog body language). She always wants to be outside and gets very stir crazy if we are having a homebody day. 

She's similar to Forest in many ways, but they differ here. Forest loves nothing more than to bum around in his pjs and read books and watch TV all day. Juliet does not have time for that! She likes to do things for herself and gets frustrated if someone tries to help her. She is kind of in a whiny phase but at the same time she is mostly a happy girl, as long as someone is interacting with her. She just hates being confined or being told she can't have something she likes- so...pretty normal toddler behavior! She's Paci obsessed and will hunt down pacis in all of our secret hiding spots. If you take her Paci away she will suck on the inside of her cheeks like a fish face. 

Happy 15 months to you, Juliet. You are a delight. Fierce and joyful and opinionated and oh so cute!!! 

Going to California

 Oh boy! We found out a month ago that we were being relocated back to San Ramon, CA and we are leaving in TWO WEEKS! While we are thrilled to be going back to our favorite location we have ever lived, it's not without it's complications, especially during Covid times. 

California has been playing things very conservatively (never thought I'd use conservative and California in a sentence together) and very low risk. Things are just starting to open back up but most people I've talked to feel very wary about it and public schools have voted to remain closed until at least January. After coming safely out of lockdown and returning to our normal school activities, this was quite the blow to face for Forest. 

We had decided I would stay in Bangkok with the kids until Christmas break and then would likely homeschool Forest for the remainder of 1st grade. Out of Hail Mary desperation I reached out to our old church to see if we could possibly get him on a waiting list for their highly-in-demand private school and unbelievably they had a spot for him! Since they are private they can open under California regulations and are moving forward with reopening this week! 

They are holding Forest's spot until he can start on November 2. Which is ahhhhh-mazing! But also AAAHHHHHH because it pushed our moving timeline up by 7 weeks. 

Also AAAAHHHHHHH is the housing market there. Last time we lived there we were on a TDA (Temporary Domestic Assignment) which meant Jon's job was helping us pay rent and it made zero sense to buy. With rent supplemented we ended up in a big house in a new development with tons of parks and trails. 

But this time around we are really hoping we can be there for at least a few years so we are hoping to buy. The market is INSANE. Most houses have multiple offers for significantly more over asking. We've made an offer on one house for 50,000 over asking and the other realtor told us we weren't even in the ballpark of being competitive.

 

You may offer 100,000 over asking and still get outbid. You also have to waive your right for an appraisal so you are on the hook in cash for the difference between what you've offered and what the house appraises for. It's so nuts and high stress. 

And yes, we are bidding on houses sight unseen. We have a great realtor who Facetimes us while she views houses and I also have a great friend who stakes out potential houses for me as well. Closing will likely happen really quickly (21 days) and we have an airbnb until mid-December so as long as we have an offer accepted by Thanksgiving I think we won't end up homeless. If we don't then we may have no choice but to go the rental route. 

PS. Even at the top of our budget we will likely be significantly downsizing to move to this area. If we want something sizable it would be a gut job. Some of the smaller homes in our budget still need some work. 

In other news, Juliet has decided this is the perfect time to switch from 2 naps to 1 nap. So yea, I'm a tad frantic. 

Juliet 13 months snapshot!

Juliet has grown and changed so much this month! She went through a bit of a difficult patch right after her birthday that had us pulling our hair out with her, but now we are realizing it was just huge developmental leap and now she is just such a full-fledged toddler. She is super smart and super active; a mountain goat climber and foot-stomping tantrumer. Here is just a few highlights of what daily life is like at this stage in her development. 

Stats: I'm not sure of her exact stats but she's gained at least an inch in the past month which would put her around 32 inches and somewhere north of 25 lbs. She's hovering at the tip top of the chart for both measurements. She's so tall and she's mostly legs just like her brother (though she has a bit more cheeks than he ever did). 

She's wearing 5.5 shoes and depending on the brand, size 18 month or 24 month clothes. Today she's even in a Cotton On 2T shorts, but like I said, her legs are freakishly long so that makes sense. Speaking of Cotton On, we just got one right next to our house and I am so excited!!! I've been paying to have clothes shipped from the US because H&M was just not cutting it (what's the point of having a girl if you have nowhere to shop for them?!?!), but now that we have the Australian version of Old Navy I am pretty pumped!!  

Teeth: We are currently counting 12 (8 on the bottom and 4 on the top). It appears as if there is some swelling up top in the canine area and we've recently started seeing copious amounts of drool and an uptick in clinginess so I expect by 14 months we may have a few more sprouting. One more big push and then hopefully a few months of respite before the 2 year molars appear. 

Schedule: Schedule is basically the same with occasional morning nap fighting. I'd say every 10 days or so she only takes one nap. We are thankful (knock on wood) that she seems to fight her first nap so at least we can adjust the day, whereas Forest would skip the second nap and then be a mess and have to go to bed at like 6 pm. So a typical day is:

6/6:20- Wake up

6:45- get out of bed

7:00- milk and breakfast

9:00- milk

9:30/9:45-11- nap

11:30- lunch

2:00- snack

2:30-4- nap

6:00- dinner

7:00- milk

7:15/7:30- bedtime

She seems to max out at 10.5 hours of sleep at night so a little below sleep needs of most kids that fall in the 11-12 hour range. She happily stays in bed until closer to 7 so I honestly just try to ignore the fact that she's up. I use this time to exercise and get everything ready for Forest to get to school. Most days she's a napping rockstar! 

Forest would generally sleep 11-11.5 hours at night (which I would grumble about since all his friends slept 12) but then his naps were maybe an hour. So it all evens out but I'd rather the good naps, honestly. It's not like I'm sleeping until 7 anyway! 

Feeding: It's feast or famine with this girl. She's either insatiably ravenous or on a hunger strike. She recently acquired 4 new teeth in rapid succession so I'm sure that played into it. She now loves her milk so we aren't stressing about that and we dropped the bedtime bottle since she's drinking plenty during the day. She's not a fan of veggies recently so I'm sort of stressed about that. 

She's suuuuuper stubborn so there is no getting it even near her mouth if she's decided it's inedible. The only thing that works is hand feeding them to her while she's roaming free. She won't touch the stuff when she's in her high chair but once she's down she will gladly eat whatever you offer her. So I'm not sure if it's the veggies or the high chair that she truly hates, but at 13 months she's learned the art of compromise. These strong willed children are going to break me, I swear. 

She's still an avid consumer of all fruits, proteins (except tofu- bleck!) and pastas. Her favorite thing on earth is Peanut Butter and Banana milkshakes. If she hears the blender she is in there begging like a puppy and she throws a fit when she drains her cup and I tell her there is no more. 

Favorite book: Juliet has started liking books a bit more! She mostly likes to flip through them herself and I've caught her mimicking reading to her dolls and stuffies which is soooooo cute! 

Her most favorite favorite is Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs by Sandra Boynton which is thrilling because it isn't a touchy feely or lift the flap book!  You better believe I went and bought a dozen more by the same author! She also loves Dear Zoo and still loves the Usborne 'That's not my....' series. 

Favorite toy: Still balls for sure! She also loves her shopping cart and her brother's light saber. She's still struggling with a short attention span and is definitely more into movement than sitting down and playing with toys. But she will pause for brief moments to play with Duplos or stacking rings which is an improvement over the last few weeks! 

Words: I still feel like this has plateaued a bit but she's still saying quit a bit for a young 1 year old. New words this month have been 'bubbles' 'Bump bump', 'night-night', 'bee' 'yea/yep/yes', 'please' 'welcome' 'milk' 'ball' 'ah ah (like a monkey)' and 'ok'. 

It's just that she'll say something as clear as day but when we try to get her to repeat it, she won't. Like one day she'll clearly say 'fish' when playing with her fishy bath toys but the next night I'll say 'what's this?' and she just looks at me with a blank stare. So it isn't very consistent! 

Her most frequent words are still momma, daddy, brubba, hi, bye, that and this. And her babbling is different these days. Instead of repeating syllables, it sounds like she's speaking a bonafide language. She's mimicking conversations and responding verbally if I ask her a question. So I think she's on the cusp of being quite the verbal little one. I can't wait! One of my favorite things about toddlers is watching their language explode. 

Also her receptive language is clearly taking off. She is truly getting and following directions. The other day I was reading her a book with a tiger and she got up, went to her toy basket and grabbed her stuffed tiger. And counting to 3 when I want her to stop doing something has been pretty effective! Though sometimes she looks me right in the eye and does it anyway (or even better, excitedly exclaims 'THREE!' after I count 1,2). She has a defiant streak already! Very cheeky!

Also, she's signing 'more' and 'all done' like a champ. Sometimes she says 'all done' as well. 

New skills: Quite a lot. She's coming along with her fine motor skills so getting much better at stacking things, unzipping, unlocking, figuring out switches and buckles, etc. She's a climbing expert and has figured out how to get on her bum and scooch forward to go down slides. Unfortunately she's already figured out how to take her sleep sack off and is beginning to attempt getting out of the crib. Since she easily climbs over the back of the couch I have no doubt she would climb out of the crib if given ample opportunity. 

Our goal is to keep her in the crib to 3 years old and beyond so to have a 13 month old attempting to escape is freaking me out more than any other thing! We've since put the sleep sack on backwards so the zipper is on her back but it has button snaps too that she's trying to work out. So far the backward trick is helping her to sleep better, as before she'd take the sleep sack off immediately and then couldn't seem to get comfortable. 

She's also walking up stairs and can walk down one or two stairs. Unfortunately, our stairwell is a toddler deathtrap so she doesn't get much practice with mommy and nanny hovering over her. 

Other favorites: Stuffies, pillows, blankets, swings, water, brother, zippers, Sesame Street music videos.

Dislikes: Still mainly the car or being confined in general for any length of time. She just hates being still. She will tolerate the highchair if I read to her or put on cocomelon, and that is progress. 

General observations: Juliet continues to both wow and worry us with her persistence. If she wants to figure something out, she will figure it out and then she will practice, practice, practice until it's mastered. She is paying attention to *everything* and is a creative problem solver. 

Tantrums have kicked up a notch and include occasional slaps, foot stomping, nose breathing and arms crossing. It's frightening and adorable at the same time. 

She is incredibly friendly and happiest when surrounded by adoring fans (not hard to come by in Thailand!). She charms the stuffing out of everyone she meets with her radiant smile, sparkling blue eyes and adorable waves. And I dare you to try to resist kissing those squeezable cheeks. 

School in Thailand

It seems that globally schools are in quite a fluid predicament. Thailand was super conservative in closing schools at the hint of an outbreak and not reopening until our community spread was basically zero. They actually allowed international schools to reopen the week that Forest's Kindergarten year ended anyway, so there was no return after March 6. 

He began 1st grade on August 13 and seems to be loving it, despite complaining about the all day mask requirement. I was a bit surprised that they are requiring masks during PE and recess since I'm pretty sure WHO and CDC have come down on the side of 'that's a bad idea'. But the rules and restrictions are constantly adjusting so we will see if there is any relaxation in the coming weeks (edit- they can now take their masks off in PE during the actual activity but must wear during any instruction time and may take their masks off if playing on the soccer fields at recess- but not on the playground equipment). 

Forest's school messed up big time last term in misinterpreting one of the government regulations and since they didn't follow it, we had to close for 2 weeks and by the time that period was over, schools were closed across the country. I am fairly sure that ISB is now being super-duper careful and since the Thai government hasn't said anything other than 'masks are required at school', they are really following that to the letter, even though other schools in our area are more laxed about it. 

The Thai government has also relaxed social distancing rules, but ISB is sticking pretty firmly to that as well. The music teacher posted a video in which they are all in their taped off boxes and wearing masks. 

Because of their cautious approach, we are very worried that Thailand will shut down at any sign of local spread, sort of like Auckland, New Zealand. So we are very grateful for the freedoms and safety we currently enjoy but are also anxious that it could all abruptly be taken away. The borders are closed here so we can't visit the US without jumping through crazy hoops to return. Being cut off from family and the USA is such an unpleasant feeling. We just pray every day that nothing tragic happens while we are stuck over here and even though it's such a mess in the US I think we'd jump at the chance to re-patriate. 

I think this Covid-19 stuff has spoiled any remaining innocence or naivety I had remaining regarding how adventurous and romantic an ex-pat assignment might be. We appreciate our experiences and the opportunities they've afforded to us, but will surely be hesitant to accept another job that keeps us separated from our family and country by an undrivable border anytime soon. It's already a situation where you give up so much control and comfort and this has ratcheted it up a notch (or 20). 

But back to Forest... I haven't been allowed on campus so his first day he had to navigate the new thermo-scan turnstiles on his own and a teacher's aid led all the 1st graders to their classes. Since then he hops out of the car/golfcart, easily and confidently heads onto campus and then beelines for the playground until the bell rings. (Unless he forgets his wristband to activate the turnstiles. Then it's panic attack city. Mom fail.)

I preemptively warned his teacher that he may display some anxiety and drastic shyness but she let me know that hasn't been the case at all. From videos that have been posted it looks like for the first time ever he is letting his energetic and boisterous personality show. One thing they did this year was to keep the classes intact, so all of Forest's kindergarten classmates are in the same 1st grade class. I think this was HUGE for him in being able to come right out of his shell from the get go. 

He's been such a happier kid since school has resumed and we are praying hard that it remains in person. Like I said, we assume that even if there is a modest outbreak of cases in Thailand, things will switch back to a virtual format. Until then, we are appreciating the heck out of school and not taking one single day for granted.

Private Villa on Koh Samui

We took a trip to Koh Samui the week before school started. Domestic travel is starting back up here but many hotels and restaurants are still closed. We'd been hearing mixed messages about how 'open for business' Koh Samui was, so decided instead of staying at a resort and risking that it's restaurants and pools weren't open, we'd rent a private catered villa with our own chef. It actually ended up being cheaper than getting a larger suite at a resort to accommodate all 5 of us. 

Our villa was AMAZING! 

Our view! Unfortunately this was the only time we saw the sun the whole trip. 

We rented 3 bedrooms of the 6 bedroom house and had our own pool and private beach. 

The beach was perfect! We were on the windy side of the island so the tide would come far in at night and then when it went out in the morning it left perfect little tide pools for Juliet to safely explore. 

We had so much fun hunting for hermit crabs and digging in the sand. She's a little water baby for sure so we were so pleasantly surprised by how ideal this beach was for toddlers. 

We figured Forest would get a little bored of just beach and pool for 4 straight days so tried to plan some excursions for a boat tour, snorkeling, zip lining, etc. So much was closed or only offered on weekends (we were there M-F). We did find an ATV tour to a waterfall and did that. It was quite the adventure! 

We rode for an hour in the bed of a truck to get to the ATV place. On the way we got to see a lot of the interior of the island including  farmers using monkeys to collect coconuts.  When we got to the ATV place it was VERY off road. Our wheels came off the ground several times. 

Such a cat person. 

We had a nice little hike and swim at the waterfall where our guide pointed out 'shy ferns', little plants who close up their leaves if you touch them. Forest was fascinated by this. 

Speaking of Ferns, we learned that 'Fern' is a common Thai name. Our concierge at the villa loved that it was Juliet's middle name. 

We also went to lunch at Crystal Bay Beach Resort which is situated on a beautiful beach with lots of rocks for climbing. 

The kids had fun exploring, but unfortunately I sliced my foot open on one of the rocks. 

Other than these two outings we mostly bummed around at the beach. 

Prior to arriving, the staff at the villa sent us a grocery form so that we were stocked with essentials from the start. 

Breakfast was included and then we would get a huge dinner cooked for us and use the leftovers for lunch. It was definitely the least stressful way to travel ever! Which in this season of life is much appreciated. 

We traveled with Forest around his 1st birthday and we still grumble about the experience. He was cutting molars, sleeping poorly and just super clingy and whiny. Juliet ended up being exactly the same! She cried so much on this trip. We brought our nanny along thinking it would be relaxing to have a built in babysitter, but nope. Juliet only wants momma so if she sees me, she will not accept any substitute. 

Nanu trying her best to let me have my morning coffee in peace. Ha! 

Plus she's a feral little tornado so being surrounded by water and other safety hazards meant constantly chasing her around. She's just in that age (12-24 months for Forest) where it's honestly easier to just stay home in a nice baby-proofed space. There will be no such thing as relaxation while traveling for a few years yet. 

Plus she's really turning out to HATE car rides. She becomes inconsolable but yet will not sleep a wink. So basically, it was as ideal of a vacation as it could have been and yet it was still hard. We had our nanny with us for Pete's sake and we were still like 'we are never leaving the house again.' Weenies. 

knock on all the wood she will still nap in a carrier for now!

Also, this was our first time flying in a post covid era. It wasn't too awful but the worst part is that the airport right near us is very limited in flights and didn't have ANYTHING to Samui so we had to make the hour long trek through Bangkok to reach the airport. Once there we had to fill out an extensive online travel history form for each of us (with seemingly irrelevant questions like 'yearly income'), and then we were asked to fill out a similar form once again when we went through security. 

PS. No one on the Koh Samui side ever asked to see these forms and we didn't have to fill out anything on the return trip. Of course, we had to wear masks during the entire ordeal and no food or beverages are allowed in flight (including bringing your own). 

no one said anything about our baby having milk on the plane. I can't imagine they can truly enforce that people can't even have a sip of their own water bottle while flying...

To summarize, renting a catered beach villa is amazing and I definitely recommend it. Traveling with a fearless, highly-mobile 12 month old who is cutting molars is never relaxing even in ideal circumstances and I do not recommend it.