Post illness post

Post sickness and I’m still avoiding it, but with the ladies both on antibiotics, I should be in the clear.  Not smooching them has helped.  Washing my hands about 3 times a minute has helped as well, although my hands are pretty raw and cracked by now.  I haven’t washed my hands that much since the start of COVID when it was hard to find latex or nitrile gloves.  

The fun was that the girls got to the pool.  I had to run to Tops to get some pork for dinners (pork loin to make a stir fry, pork belly to make with brinner, and some pork chops for later in the week) and then caught up and floated for a little bit with them.  I pinched something in my back or torqued out my Sciatic, so that slowed me down a bit.  A 90 min Thai massage worked that out and I’m back to about 95% today.  I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to post pics of Kiddo in her swim gear.  She’s inherited J’s old hat and she is an absolute doll.  

Other than that, I was going through my email inbox and cleaning out some old and unneeded mail and otherwise.  I didn’t want to just nuke date ranges, because some of our Thai Visa stuff is in there and we might be able to reuse or recycle some of that info or have it for our records.  However, in cleaning, I found an email from my Aunt S.  Seeing as I had facial hair from the age of 16ish forward and I’m clean shaved here, I’d guess I’m about 15.  Look at what a baby I was!  

Who would have thought that 30 years later, I’d be the man I am now, with a wife and child, living in Bangkok.  At that point, I think I dreamed of a life like this, a life abroad and international, but it was all a dream.  Now, it’s reality and life and I love it.  We love it.

Kiddo’s got 13 days left until summer and she is ready.  J has 13 days until summer and she is ready.  I have 13 more days of seeing them off to school until summer and it promises to be a fun and adventurous summer. 

We are coming up on 2 years of this.  We made it through a global pandemic.  We’ve adapted and adjusted to the expat life.  We’ve made some friends and lost some family.   We’ve experienced some cultural and religious holidays here, accepting and being accepted in those rituals and celebrations.  We’ve learned some language and made some mistakes with that language, only to be corrected and learn from our mistakes.  Kiddo knows the alphabet.  I have some vocab and I’m solid with 1-100 in Thai and can use that to put together higher numbers, although it still takes a little focus and thought to put it together.  J is amazing with her Thai, considering that she’s never had dedicated study and only 2 years to learn, on the fly, while teaching and wifing and momming and all that.  

On top of that, we will travel to Vietnam this summer.  We have plans to see Seoul and see a KBO game there.  We have plans to get to Tokyo and see an NPB game.  Kiddo wants to go to Paris for the food (a 6 year old foodie???) and Belgium for the chocolate.  As I write that, I smile.  Because how many other 6 year olds know that the best food is in Paris, the best chocolate is in Belgium, that Korean and Japanese baseball is cool and interesting.  How many kids Kiddo’s age can name and give reasons they want to see other countries and places?  I’m so proud of her for that.  Of us, for giving her that.  

We hope to give her more, show her more, and experience more with her.  Besides, we’re all having a blast, so might as well keep it up and see what comes next.  Whatever it is, it promises to be exciting.

Let’s go, Kiddo… we’ve still got a baker’s dozen of school days left, but after that, you will be able to have some rest.  Some travel.  Some mumma and some dada.  And a whole lot of some fun.