18 month snapshot

Happy belated half birthday to our girl! Juliet turned 18 months on January 21. Our baby is a fully fledged toddler in both motor and language skills. She's a running, climbing, jumping bean with a vocab of over 100 words! She still has the attention span of a fruit fly with approximately 0% interest in conventional toys, but we now that we area bit more settled we are figuring out some things that keep her entertained and happy. Let's dive in!

Stats: Funny story. At her well check I was expecting Juliet to fall somewhere around 34.5 inches tall which would keep her on the 97% trajectory. When they laid her down and measured her she clocked in at 36 inches. Which is like 2 standard deviations off the chart. 

The doctor didn't believe it and quickly remeasured her standing up using a tape measure. It still came out around 36 inches but she said the bow was probably throwing off the measurement so she 'shrunk' her 1.5 inches and put her at 34.5. Very scientific. I'm gonna call it 35 inches which is 99%. Her weight was 27.8ish pounds which is 95% and her head circumference was 75%. She's a VERY big girl and I've got the backache to prove it! 

For comparison, at this age Forest was 34.5 inches and 26.5 lbs, so pretty close in size except his head was only 37%.  

She's wearing 2T clothes and could probably move into 3T in certain brands (why is Cat&Jack so small???). She's wearing size 7 shoes but I think could switch to size 8s soon. 

Teeth: Still holding strong at 16 teeth but she's showing signs that the 2 year molars are on the way. I remember having some false starts with these when Forest was the same age so I don't expect her to cut them for another few weeks or so. 

Schedule: Sleep issues have been like a game of whack a mole recently. A few weeks ago we were having obnoxiously early wakes where she'd get up at 4:30 and just cry off and on until her stubborn parents would finally get her up at 6 am, at which point she would promptly fall asleep in our arms for an hour. Now we've gotten that sorted out and she's sleeping better than ever at night (don't get too excited- 'better than ever' means sleeping 7:30-6:30 vs 7:30-5:30 but I will take it!) but her marathon naps are now only averaging 2 hours with many 1-1.5 hour days sprinkled in. She used to be a 2.5-3 hour nap kind of girl. 

Forest NEVER regularly napped more than 1 hour and 10 minutes so it still feels like a good nap to me! It's just when other people smugly brag about their babies that sleep 13 hours at night and take a 3 hour nap that I'm like 'really?!?!'. 

It's just like she's suddenly become a very light sleeper or something. Something wakes her up nearly every day- whether that's Forest not obeying my commands to slink around the house like a ninja during naptime or the neighbor using their leaf blower. I'm hoping it's a phase because the girl slept fairly well through mooooonths of construction in Bangkok. 

Forest is the lightest sleeper ever and it made things really tough as a baby/toddler, esp since naptime is the time I need to get things done like cleaning/calls/exercise. We had planned to get a peloton to put in my office but my office is directly above her room and has very creaky floors so we know that's not gonna work since I'd exclusively be using it in the early mornings or naptime. Anyhoo- average schedule is as follows:

6:30- wake

7- breakfast

8-8:30- school drop off, followed by errands, chores, trips to the park

11- lunch

12-2 nap

3-3:30 school pick up followed by snack and outside time

5:30- dinner

7- bath, bedtime snack and books

7:30- bedtime

Feedings: Juliet's appetite fluctuates so much but we are in the pickiest phase we've faced so far. She's suddenly turning up her nose at foods that used to be her favorites and the veggies she will eat are down to sweet potatoes, carrots and cucumbers. She will not be convinced to try a bite if she doesn't want it. I think it must be teething related bc she's gravitating towards purees as well. 

Her favorites are chicken, clementines, watermelon, tortellini, string cheese, hot dogs, scrambled eggs, sweet potato/black bean. That's about it! 

We do a lot of chicken dishes bc she will eat anything chicken! She's still top of the charts as far as size and weight go so I just try to trust her appetite and keep offering a healthy variety of choices. Her doctor said not to worry about her being too heavy because 'once they become more active they tend to slim down.' Um, have you met Juliet? Home girl literally hasn't stopped moving in 9 months and her cheeks are as chubby as ever. 

Favorite Book: This changes frequently, but when she has a favorite, she usually only wants to read that book over and over again. Right now it's Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton and We're Going on a Bear Hunt. She also LOVES her Hello magazine subscription (thanks Aunt Beth!). She's getting better at sitting through 2-3 board books in a row which is a big breakthrough. 

Favorite toy:   Juliet is still not very interested in toys. We've tried various types of toys and she might play with something for a minute or two but nothing holds her attention for very long. I'd say her favorite things are accessories and clothes, and she'll spend a good bit of time putting on and taking off clothes (she can put on shirts and shoes by herself), and putting on jewelry/hats/purses. 

This pack of ponytail holder/bracelets was the biggest hit on the plane. Thank you Aunt Alexis for the genius gift! 

She's very much a gross motor girl and is a very skilled playground goer. She loves to go for walks and be outside. Her favorite toys are her push lawn mower, balance bike and Cozy Coupe- so yea-gross motor/outside toys. 

She does love her ring stacker toy and she has this piggy bank toy where you put the coins in and she'll play with that a few times before losing interest. 

Words: I keep a running list of new words Juliet says and right now we are just over 120 and she's adding more all the time.  She isn't great with enunciation and she has a handful that are made-up approximations that she consistently uses  (she exclusively calls her Paci her 'bop' and Forest 'brubba' to the point where that's what we call them as well.) She is starting to put 2 words together more but I'm surprised with her big vocabulary that this hasn't take off more. Language-wise, she reminds me a lot of Forest at this age, though she has a lot more words comparatively. Some days I'll add as many as 10 words to her list! 

New skills: She's mastered hopping and can jump from a step down. She's galloping a lot and runs with her knees up now. She's super strong and a whiz with gross motor stuff. She loves to move her body and does it constantly! 

I had expectations that girls were less energetic than boys but that hasn't been the case in our house. She is busy! She's mastered her pop up surprise toy and loves anything with a buckle so that she can buckle and unbuckle it several times. She knows how to take all her clothes off and can put on her shirt and shoes. She still puts pants on her head like a hat though! 

Other favorites: Moana. Girl loves Moana and asks for it every morning. 

Morning Moana with brubba. 

She had no interest in TV before about 17 months so this is a big development! She also likes this show called Toddler Talk on youtube that's a speech therapy type of show. She's learned so much and has gained a lot of confidence by watching it and it has allowed me enough time to cook dinner or unload the dishwasher without her attached to my hip which is amazing! 

General observations: She continues to be quite fussy. We joke that she has reverse colic. Forest was such a hard baby but such a happy toddler. Juliet was an angel baby but a tough toddler. She just whines A LOT. She hates the car, stroller, shopping cart, high chair, etc. Anytime she has to be confined she is just fussing the whole time which has made running errands really stressful. 

She definitely doesn't like the fact that she can't immediately eat all the snacks she sees at Target. 

She's high energy but also quite extroverted so I think she probably doesn't have that internal thought life that F had from an early age that made him content to ride in a car or shopping cart just observing his surroundings. We'll see! As her vocabulary grows the fussing and the tantrums decrease so I just keep chatting her up all day in hopes that it helps get her there sooner! I definitely feel like we are entering an easier phase (knock on wood!). But she is still the boss baby and way more strong willed that her big brother ever was! 

Happy half birthday baby girl. I so enjoy watching you find your voice and I even enjoy watching you use it so fiercely. I try to reframe all the traits that are hard to parent as 'these attributes will serve you well in life.' You certainly have strong opinions and will not be easily swayed or distracted. You are hilarious and smart and your love for your brother brightens my world. You have the most kissable cheeks and the brightest blue eyes. Your resting grump face is a bit much but your radiant smile lights up a room. 

The face she makes when I ask her to smile...

Long Overdue Update

 Well hello there! After nearly 3 months of nomadic living, we are finally in our house and I have my computer set up. We were planning to have our shipment delivered in perfect timing with our move in date (which is why we were ok with waiting so long to move in) but alas, our plans did not work out so seamlessly. 

About a month ago we were informed that the ship carrying our shipping container was caught in a bad storm somewhere between Japan and Hawaii. Over 1800 containers went overboard and countless others came loose and were widely thrown about the ship, incurring who knows what kind of damage. A few stacks seem relatively unharmed. 

However, this incident occurred on November 30. The ship was then rerouted to Japan to be unloaded which has been a slow process since the ship itself was damaged and therefore a precarious work space for unloading heavy materials. So at this point we still do not know the status of our belongings. 

We were told we'd know something by Dec 21st but that clearly has not happened. Jon calls every week but there are no updates. So we continue to live in limbo and feel rather unsettled. 

*IF* our shipment did not go overboard and isn't completely structurally damaged then an optimistic estimate would be that it arrives here sometime in late Spring and we can assess the damage then. So that would mean best case scenario is 6ish months of living out of suitcases not knowing whether we need to replace certain items until they are unpacked. 

If it did go overboard or is obviously severely damaged then we will get some sort of insurance payout. We assume this will be somewhat based on the amount of valued inventory we claimed, but we were foolish and didn't put *everything* on our list (like ski clothes, various toys/books, an extensive starbucks mug collection, and literally thousands of dollars in LEGO) so we are hoping it is for more than the just the big ticket and fragile items we listed.

And who knows how long all the red tape will take for that pay out to come through if needed. The other bummer is that supply chain is so backed up right now. When we look at replacing things like our dining table and Juliet's crib we are looking at a June delivery date for our 1st choice items. And since we are in general limbo we feel like we can't move forward and order stuff until we have some sort of idea one way or another. 

We bought a used Pottery Barn glider and scooped up a free Pottery Barn crib to hold us over until we know more. A few people have given us some other free things when they heard about our situation which has been so sweet and helpful. 

Luckily we knew we were downsizing so did sell quite a lot of stuff beforehand. But of course there area ton of irreplaceable and sentimental items from our children and our travels that may have possibly vanished. I know that it's just stuff but it's still a grieving process! Before we got the call that this had happened, I was feeling at the end of my rope. I just didn't know how I was going to make it a whole 'nother month living in limbo. Now it's just...indefinite. 

So even though we LOVE LOVE LOVE being back in northern Cali, I would say given the pandemic, the MIA shipment, and the age of our youngest wildling, this has been the hardest move ever! If Jon's boss is reading- could we please not do this for awhile/ever again? 'Kay, thanks. 

Anooooother complication is that something weird with our house is it lacks any banister or railing on the stairs. 

This is a hazard for just your average person, but certainly a death trap for a dare devil toddler. When we bought the house we went ahead and lined up a carpenter to build a banister the day or two after we moved in- you know, the day we perfectly timed to be just after our shipment delivery. The problem is, the reason why there is no banister is because the stairwell is so narrow that you can't move furniture upstairs if there is a railing. So now we have to just live with a glaring safety concern in the middle of our living room until we get all furniture moved upstairs. 

Kind of reminds me of our move to Scotland if you recall... (Also, because there is no railing there is no way to baby-gate it off either but we are brainstorming if you have ideas.) 

For now we have gated off the family room/kitchen area so that I can just keep Juliet in there. 

our minimalist rental furniture

I am so ready to child proof this joint! I feel like I haven't been able to sit down or relax in months because she is at the most dangerous phase (and my kids take that to the next level) and she's super fast and smart and has the fine motor skills of a full grown adult (seriously can get a child safety top off medicine in about 5 seconds flat and we haven't met a safety gate that she hasn't eventually outsmarted or outwilled by either climbing over it or pulling it straight from the wall TRUE STORY). 

Alright, boss baby is up from her nap so I guess I'll live to blog another day. I am soooooo happy to have my computer. It just a little something that makes me feel at least a tad rooted somewhere! 

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.