The Girls in the Tropics

We went to Thailand to visit with Greg's parents and to have some R&R away from our jobs and the cold, dreary winter. The girls had a great time with Nonna and Pop. I enjoyed seeing Darcy in her bathing suit with all her chub out to see. Some pictures of the girls:

One water baby 

Ignore the bug bites on her face and just look at her chub!

Breakfast in her bathing suit. Look at those big brown eyes.

Darcy's first dip in the pool - or one of them

While relaxing after lunch, Ava drew this, which amazed me! She learned how to draw simple smiley faces over 7-8 months ago but is now adding details like hair, arms, and legs. I once suggested adding legs and arms and she drew them immediately without struggling to figure out how. Pop suggested cheeks for this picture and she just added circles and filled them in. Considering that Greg and I have some propensity to art, it's not surprising that she is turning into a little artist. 

Ava making friends everywhere she goes, regardless of nationality. She played with Spaniards, Finnish girls, and Danish girls. There was a Swedish baby but she was too small.

Chillax'n 

Other water baby

Riding on Mommy's stomach while swimming 

Nonna and Ava

What is it about grandfathers who can put the baby to sleep?

It was hot in Bangkok and with Darcy flush against my body in the Ergo, I was even hotter. I bent over to let her dangle away from my body for some relief and gave her a little kiss on the nose.

Ava and the Reclining Buddha

One of the many sculptures at the wat where the Reclining Buddha resides.

While in Thailand, Darcy cut her first tooth, started babbling "ma-ma-ma", and started bearing her weight on her legs. Three milestones in two weeks.

Ava is a seasoned traveler, a good kid to travel with. While she only flew short flights twice as an infant, she has become an expert at flying from the age of two because she has done so much of it . She knows to put on the seatbelt immediately. She pops on her headphones and watches movies on the international flights. She can entertain herself on domestic flights in our country. She knows how to yawn and pop her ears. She curls up in her seat and sleeps. Our trip to Thailand was overnight so she watched a movie or two and slept the rest of the way. When we changed planes in Dubai, Greg carried her while she slept with her head on his shoulder and then slept the rest of the way to Bangkok. On the return flight, much to my chagrin, she watched movies for 6 hours total. I was pretty helpless about it since Greg was sick with a horrendous headache and nausea and Darcy was incredibly fussy so it was left to me to keep Darcy calm. Towards the end of our flight home, I looked over and saw that Ava had turned off the movie and put herself to sleep. Greg was already conked out, sleeping off the headache, so I imagine seeing him asleep gave her the idea to go to sleep also. Another thing about Ava being such a great traveler: she recovers from jet lag very quickly and adapts well.

This trip was Darcy's first time flying and it was an international trip, bless her heart. That screaming baby on the plane that you endured? That baby was mine. It was her bedtime when we boarded the plane and she couldn't sleep with the lights, noise, meals being served, etc. She cried most of the way to Dubai and slept on my chest from Dubai to Bangkok. I only got about an hour of sleep when we got to Bangkok the next morning. Greg had a bit more sleep than I did and it seems that it will be my fate for traveling with my family: I will be the one with less sleep on a trip.

Darcy adapted to the new time zone in Thailand pretty quickly. It was a 5 hour difference so it wasn't too bad. The first night was rough for me since I was operating on 1 hour of sleep the previous night on the plane and 1 hour of sleep the first night in Thailand when Darcy woke up and decided her bedtime was actually nap time. I stayed up with her and she fell asleep at midnight and I stayed awake with her until 3am, checking on her when she cried out intermittently. I quickly woke Greg up (after he'd gotten 4 hours of sleep to my zero) to take second watch of the night. He got a couple more hours of sleep and stayed awake the rest of the day without naps while I caught up on sleep, from 3am til 10am. What a great guy. The second night, Darcy went to bed on schedule and slept through the night. I was surprised to see her adapt so quickly.

And now, it's been a couple days since we've been back. Darcy is still waking up and fussing during the night but last night, she was putting herself back to sleep without needing us to get up with her. Hopefully tonight, she'll sleep soundly without making a peep. It doesn't help that she's teething, too. Poor baby.