We also caught up with more old friends from Ecuador days who also teach here. Sojo spent most of the after-dinner time playing with everyone's toes under the table. 
Off to Koh Samui for 5 days tomorrow morning. Dale's mom and niece will join us there on January 1. Yippee!
This lady just killed me. She kept bringing me plates of food I didn't recognize and insisted I eat it. She reminded me of my grandma Moury so much, which I know sounds bizarre due to her being Thai, but I hardly notice when someone has Asian features anymore. There was some spark in her that I remember seeing in my grandmother. I also love that she insisted I take this picture of the potluck buffet. She is also in the midst of some hip-shaking dance move. 
Happy people partying. Momo is the second from the left in the back row, next to the woman who reminded me of grandma. Many of these ladies are women we hang out with on the playground after school everyday with Sojo. They are so kind, and I really loved seeing them in a different setting with their hair down, so to speak. A real treat. 
Sojo had a great time as well, mostly playing chase with her baba on the playground, but she loves Thai food and will eat most anything. Gotta love that!
While it seems that the majority of the U.S. is having a white Christmas, ours was pretty mellow and contained a lot of pink. The only thing Sojo asked for from Santa was a pink watch, and my parents arranged for Santa to send one from Arizona on his behalf(wink, wink). Only problem was her package didn't arrive until the 23rd, so we panicked and bought our own pink watch that we stumbled upon in Chinatown the other day. Two pink watches won't hurt. 
Hence the early Christmas gift of shakers and a mini dinosaur harmonica all for her. To say the harmonica was a hit is putting it lightly. The 'monica' is the instrument of choice first thing every morning. I am now entertained by both Dale and Sojo, although I must say Dale is a lot more skilled than Sojo at this point. A lot more skilled. 
a yummy breakfast discovery downtown dripping with tropical grooviness, and a whole lot of nothing on our plates for the next week. Then it's off to the island of Koh Samui on New Year's Eve with friends Pierre and Sharon coming from Turkey and Dale's mom and niece coming from the U.S.
Basically what Dale and I envision retirement to be like, with lots of guitar thrown in for Dale.
Dale made a great video of the show, but we are having some technical difficulties loading onto Blogger, so we went to YouTube. Poor quality, but you still get the idea of how much fun it was. The love from the teachers was so evident in every space of the preschool. We are so glad she is a part of the goodness there. 
Sojo's preschool class is having a holiday concert on Friday, and the kids are supposed to wear a costume for it. We first heard of the costume, and Sojo's aversion to said costume, via email when it was mentioned to us that Sojo is, and I quote, "not digging the costume, but no worries. She can just wear white that day." 
When I got home this afternoon, I oohed and aahed about the costume, especially the super cool bells sewn on (I personally LOVE clothes that jingle, even as a grownup). Forever surprising us, she put it right on and was in love with herself wearing the costume for a long time this afternoon. Lots of admiring herself in the mirror, some spinning dance moves to get the jingles going and overall costume love. 
Please also notice the new fashion accessory: the "Spirit of 1776" armbands that she is sporting. These are the new 'special bandaids' we are putting on her wrists to prevent scratching. It's just gauze and tape, but for some reason, it's working like a charm. She says, "can't open it...special bandaid" and they managed to stay on long enough today to let some wrist healing begin. Yeah for cheesy arm protection and kids who fall for it!
We put one up today in our "yard"- from the photo, it looks like we are fully in the jungle but there is a path right next to the hammock. As both Dale and I took a few minutes each to chill with a book and a beer, a bunch of kids were running by with water guns and asking if we saw so-and-so and yelling and screaming and doing all that good stuff kids do. I guess it's the parenting version of a hammock. Feels very full circle to be back in the tropics with sunshine, Dale and a hammock.
The best part of the doctor (besides hearing Sojo say, "shot in the butt, please") was coming home and watching Sojo pretend to be Dr. Somyod for a while. Every single stuffed animal took turns getting a shot in the butt as well as a prick test on the finger and a listen to the heartbeat. 
ezcema update: it's yucky right now, the doctor says she might just simply have it no matter what, and we are due to start another elimination diet next week to see if we can isolate some of the factors causing havoc.
The girl in the photo is our sweet friend Georgia. She's six and plays with Sojo in the nicest way. We adore her, as does Sojo. Almost every time Sojo sees her on the playground, she squeals with delight. 
Dale's ultimate kid game is Hot Wheel tracks, and he is constantly building some sort of ramp for Sojo to put her cars down. This weekend, he found the perfect Hot Wheel tracks at the hardware store (electrical conduit), and I must say they are way cooler than the cardboard ones he made before. Sojo felt the need for speed, I guess, and decided to wear her bike helmet while racing.
I guess she felt that someone had to step up and give the kid clothes in the style other than bohemian, and this is one of those outfits I never would have bought myself but I loved by the end of the day. I especially love the buddha belly hanging out and the bizarre photo of her in motion. Always in motion, that girl.
We had a glorious long weekend because of the King's birthday. Here's a sneak peek at just one of the many colors we started to put on the walls to add some funkiness to the place. 
Third Culture Kids is a term I've been hearing more and more over the last few years. According to David Pollack, his definition is "a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' culture. The TCK builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership of any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the TCK's life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of a similar background." In a nutshell, it's military kids, missionary kids, Sojo, and our next President. In fact, the new Treasury Secretary is a graduate of our school here in Bangkok. Pretty cool! 
We've been super low-key all these years about Christmas when it was just the two of us, but it's quite fun getting it ready for Sojo. In the effort of still keeping it simple, we have only a few ornaments on the tree and we'll add to it as the years go by. I grew up with a box of ornaments I love that are cloaked in memories, and I am due to take those from my parents' house and bring them to our house for the next Christmas. But, for now, we start our own story. 
and a little something special. We discovered it the other day as I was unpacking the very last box from our move. It's a doll dressed in traditional clothing from Sojo's tribe, the Miao people. Kimbra, I'm 99% sure you gave this to us when you came back from picking up Mimi, so a big thanks again. Sojo loved the doll, and it even sat at the table and ate the infamous tom kha gai with us the other night. 
Tonight, when we had just finished putting on the ornaments we have, Sojo brought the doll over and wanted us to put her on the tree. Hmmm...too big to hang on a branch....how can we do this?...then sudden brilliance followed by a fierce welling up of emotions for me. It is the most perfect angel for the top of the tree, a constant reminder of Sojo's heritage: 
a people who believe the butterfly is the mother of all creation, hence the "horns" worn on the head, a people who drape themselves in silver jewelry and who are vibrant and colorful, and, most importantly, a people who gave us the gift of this fabulous kid. Awash in gratitude.
Hands down, Sojo's favorite Thai meal is Tom Kha Gai, a delicious chicken coconut soup. She could eat it every night, she makes it at her play kitchen, and now there is one more connection to Tom Kha Gai. We were looking at some of her Chinese books the other night, and she said, "this tom kha gai books." Took me a while to figure it out, but, I think that in her two-year old experience, both these books in Chinese and her favorite food are words in a foreign language. So, in her world, anything not English is Tom Kha Gai. I love it! 
The discovery of a new-to-us playground in the area. We renamed it the "dangerous metal playground" and won't be going back. Shocking how quickly we can analyze a playground for danger/edges/fun factor. I'm thinking metal pieces jutting out is never a good thing. 
Sojo's shoe obsession continues, although just in the last 24 hours, she insisted on wearing the SAME color of Crocs. This weekend, she discovered a pair of flip-flops on our playground and shuffled around in them happily for quite a while. This is sad news to Dale, who despises flip-flops, while I would wear them each and every day if I could. Perhaps a small pair under the Christmas tree...come on, Baba, please?
That being said, I hope it doesn't make me too evil to have caught her in full-protest mode last night. Those tears! A random sidenote that I find fascinating is that Asian eyes are shaped in such a way that tears tend to float around in there a while and then almost pop out like a cartoon character. 
Just a short bike ride away from our house, there is a small horse farm, so we headed out there this weekend for a mini-adventure. A teacher at school owns it, so it was no problem to wander aimlessly through the stable area checking things out. Sojo was fascinated by the horses, especially the ones who wouldn't pay attention to us. One poor anti-social fellow named Piper got many extra hellos from Sojo because she wouldn't take the hint. Highlights of the 'venture' were touching a horse's nose, the blowing he did on her hand, and seeing horse poop for the first time. We've been told that when we come back next, a pony ride is in order. Yippee!
On a botanical note, I've been coveting a neighbor's purple orchid for some time now and found one for myself recently at a weekend market. Just the perfect splash of color outside the window to make me smile every day. Look at those roots!
Preschool update: Rather hard to get an answer to "How was your day?" with a 2 year old. The day we saw the elephant, the only thing we heard was that she ate crackers. Today we got that she and a boy named Noah climbed (?) high on the playground and it was 'a little spooky.' Spooky is one of our favorite words from Sojo. She usually uses it when she enters a dark room, but when she said it today, it makes me think it's when she's feeling a bit scared. I love how she is becoming more able to articulate her emotions.
