Tree Hugger

Teaching Children about the natural world should be treated as one of the most important events in  their lives.  ~~Thomas Berry

He loves to be outside.  A sign of a day well spent, a good day, is dirty knees and muddy bath water. He will fill his pockets with rocks and sticks and any other "treasure" he can sneak in.  Yesterday it was a dried out dead worm.

He has conversations with the trees and the wind.  Stops to smell every flower he passes.  Thinks dandelions are beautiful and dandelion seeds are magical. 

The Earth has music for those that listen.~~Shakespeare

He walks slowly and sometimes I want to rush him along.....but I try not to.  I try to let him just soak it all in.

In every walk with nature one receives more than one seeks. ~~John Muir

I won't pretend that he is always unplugged and never watches TV, but it's a balance.  I like that most of the time when given the option he chooses to be outside. I love to watch his imagination unfold with something as simple as a stick.  I love to see how kind he is to even the smallest bug.  It makes my heart happy to know that our love of the outdoors is becoming part of him.

Logic will take you from A to B.  Imagination will take you everywhere else. ~~Einstein

Faith

I say all the time that God knew exactly what He was doing when he gave us Zane.  I joke that he knew we needed a baby who was relaxed and easy to deal within our old age. I comment often that he completed our family.  Zane makes us laugh, he exhausts us with his questions, he challenges us to not just give him a simple answer, he wants the truth.

This morning when I woke him up to get ready for school our conversation went like this....
Z: I dreamed about God last night.
ME: Oh yea! What did you dream?
Z: God told me I should build an ark!
ME: WOW!  That seems like a big job to do in our apartment.
Z: But, He wants me to do it. And He said I could bring my dinosaurs.
ME: Well I'm not sure we can fit an ark in our apartment they are really big.
Z: But Mommy, we are supposed to listen to God, Ms. Emily and Jeff told me.

God has a sense of humor, right? Granted I felt a little like Noah's neighbors for a minute. Laughing in my head at the idea, immediately thinking what a silly idea it was.  Why would God ask my three year old to build an ark?  I even let the thought enter my head of why would God talk to Z, he is just a little boy.  I mean seriously, why? But then I realized I haven't been listening.  God had been trying to talk to me and I wasn't listening.  He wasn't saying what I wanted to hear, so instead of listening I was pretending like HE wasn't listening to my me!  Sneaky, but effective.

At church on Sunday our Pastor was talking about Moses and the Israelites  crossing the Red Sea. Just a quick recap if you don't know the story. The Israelites basically begged God for a way out of the life they had.  He sent them the answer in the form of Moses and so they fled their homes and followed Moses into the wilderness.  But then things got bumpy and they questioned what they were doing.  They tried to convince themselves that their life had been ok and perhaps they should just return to it.  They came to the edge of the Red Sea. They were being hunted and were cornered.  God parted the sea and told them to cross....and some questioned Him. Todd, my pastor, pointed out that he was sure that some of the Israelites didn't hesitate and ran to the other side, praising their awesome God.  They were gung-ho in their faith!  But then there were those that were skeptical and stuck a toe in and then pulled back, questioning the direction they were given, was it safe, wasn't there a better way.....couldn't He help them in another way.

Now Todd may not have been pointing a finger at me, but I am pretty sure God was standing behind me gripping my shoulder as if to say, "are you listening?".  Like the Israelites I am guilty of asking God to help and then not trusting His answer.  Since we got back to Taiwan I've been struggling with us being here. Nothing specific just in general.  It's not something that can be fixed externally.  I've been praying about it and haven't been listening to the answers.  I want the answer to be a quick fix, maybe even something that someone else could do to make me feel better.  I want to be one of those gung-ho believers, to have that strong faith.  This morning Zane reminded me what I am missing...."but mommy you have to listen to God." And he is right.  I will try harder to listen to what God is saying to me instead of listening for what I want to hear.

Well played God.

1 Timothy 4:12
Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set and example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

Thailand Adventure/ Part 1

When we decided to travel for Chinese New Year we knew it would be hectic and crazy at least at the airports and we planned accordingly but I was still so surprised when I walked into the airport the morning of our flight. It was SO packed....very long lines, people and baggage everywhere. We had allowed ourselves a little under 3 hours which would normally be more than enough time.  I often make fun of John and his "status" on the airline.  He takes it pretty seriously, we try and fly United or Star Alliance Partners when we can to get our points.  I will say that this particular morning I was SO happy that he had Gold status because the line for Thai Airlines was super long, but because he was Gold  we waited behind one person prior to checking in.

If you have never flown international, and I assume it's for all international not just if you are flying in Asia, you have to present the credit card you bought the ticket with when you check in.  We planned and purchased these tickets months ago and John rarely carries a credit card except the company card.  SO when we got to the counter we didn't have the card he purchased them with and were not even exactly sure what card he used. He generally uses only one card and they said that was not it.  He convinced the lady behind the counter to tell him the last four digits and through process of elimination we determined that he used a card that we NEVER use and is actually laying on the dresser in Oklahoma.  Luckily she said they just needed the full account number, he located that fairly easily and we were checked in.

We made our way to security with Zane setting in his stroller.  When we got close we noticed again a VERY long line, but they quickly let us bypass the line because of the stroller.  What could have easily been an hour in security was only a few minutes.  Z will look a little silly in his stroller when he is 10, but he may have to continue to ride!

We flew Thai Airlines this trip for the first time.  They were great.  It was clean and organized.  Our only issue, and it was going and coming, was that we wanted the stroller when we had a layover in Bangkok.  We asked several times and several different people if we gate checked it would have it in Bangkok, the whole reason for gate check. We did not on either side of our trip.  But other than that, and that was really no big deal, they were great to fly with.

Our destination was Phuket, Thailand.  We chose our resort based on a recommendation from a friend and it was perfect for us.  We stayed at the JW Marriott.  We had arranged for a driver from the resort to pick us up and he was waiting when we came through baggage claim.  From the moment we arrived at the resort I knew we had made a good choice.  The lobby was open air and beautiful and we were greeted immediately by name and taken to a comfy area and served a fresh fruit drink while they got us checked in.

Our room was amazing, seriously.  We splurged for a bigger room than your standard hotel room because we were going to be there a week and if you have ever traveled with a toddler you know you need a little extra breathing room.  We tend to spend a little more time in the room when Z is with us than if we were alone.  There isn't a lot of laying by the pool sipping fruity cocktails and reading a book when you travel with Tiny. The room had a view of the ocean and a deck that wrapped around the side of our room so there was shade almost all day at some point on the deck. We also had a private covered hot tub that came in handy when Z was tired of the sun but still wanted to play in the water.  We turned the temp way down and he had his own mini pool!  He was in heaven. We actually spent a lot of our time on the deck.

the view from our deck

The view from our deck

Just hanging out 

Loving the "hot" tub!

The first evening we just walked around and got familiar with the property, ordered room service and got ready for the next day!  The resort offers a variety of restaurants and cuisines.  There really was something for everyone. Plenty of Western selections.  We ate poolside for lunch many of the days we were there.  It was convenient and tasty. The Siam deli offered easy carryout and the room service was good. It is resort pricey, but not outrageous. The Siam deli had my daily iced Latte which made for a happy momma. Adults traveling without children or families traveling with older kids would have a very different experience than I will describe, but it is genuinely a resort for everyone.

Checking out the place

Iced Latte and the biggest donuts we have ever seen!

The resort as a whole is very family friendly.  They have a daily calendar full of activities for all ages.  The kids club offers the opportunity for parents to drop their kids, older than 4, off for activities. We arranged a babysitter twice during our stay for Z.  Once so we could do a Thai cooking class and once while we went to dinner.  You can have the sitter take your child to the kids club and watch them there or you can have them come to your room.  We chose to have her come to the room.  It worked out well for us both times.

The resort property is beautiful. And the staff is very friendly, most speak some English, we never struggled to communicate while there.  They arranged any of the offsite activities that we did and they went smoothly. The staff that we interacted with frequently while we were there quickly learned our names, especially Z , and made it a point to call us by name.  I liked that.

We spent the bulk of our time at the kids pool which was awesome.  It was waist deep for Z throughout a big portion.  There were bubbling fountains that erupted from a raised area that he could crawl and play in.  There was a dividing wall made of stone turtles and the coolest water slide.  He liked the slide the first day but then we couldn't get him to go again, not sure why.  but it was shallow enough at the end of the slide that John could wait at the bottom and catch him and not worry about him going under.  There was ample seating with plenty of shade.

We spent time at the beach as well.  The resort has a long stretch of private beach that is beautiful.  early morning and early evening just before sunset were our favorite times to be there.  The sand is nice and the surf while we were there was mild.

I would definitely recommend the JW Marriott to anyone going to Phucket.  I would especially recommend it if you are like our family and want to spend most of your time at the resort.  It is not in the center of activity so it is a bit of drive to go anywhere or do any sightseeing, but that isn't really what we were after on this trip. We were in for relaxing and sunshine and we got that for sure!

In the next few days I will share more details about our activities, specifically our Elephant trekking Excursion and lots of pictures of our boy on the beach.

This week in pictures....

Just a look at our week....

Jurassic Adventure

While we were on our visit to the States Venus had sent me a photograph of a dinosaur exhibition going on in Taichung.  I hoped that it would still be here when we returned.  After a few days of being stuck inside and trying to recover from our jet lag the Tiny American and I made a plan to visit the exhibit.  The day of our scheduled visit we woke up to rain.  Since we walk almost everywhere we go, this was a problem.   We waited it out for awhile, with only about a thousand questions about when we were going to see the dinosaurs.  Note to self....do not inform the Tiny American of the plan until we are actually walking out the door!

The rain finally stopped and the sun tried to peak through so we headed out.  In Taiwan we are in what is technically their winter. It is a tropical island so that means it isn't really THAT cold.  It was cooler than normal this day so I did dress Z accordingly, he had on a light sweatshirt and jeans and I packed his jacket in the stroller.  Our destination was about a mile maybe a mile and a half from our front door.  We made it almost all the way there before the sky opened up once again.  I have learned from my time here to never leave the house without an umbrella so I pulled it out and we walked quickly to the nearest building which happened to house a Toys R Us.

After wandering the aisles of the toy store and trying out all the cars and scooters we decided to see if the rain had passed.  It had indeed blown over and so we walked the last little bit of our journey and arrived at the Taichung Jurassic Exhibition.  He could see the largest dinosaur over the fence and could hear the rest, needless to say his excitement was evident when he ROARED back at them!  Taiwanese kids are as a rule pretty quiet....the Tiny American is not!

We paid our $250 nt ( about $8 US) and went in.  Im not sure what I expected but I was pleasantly surprised. There was lots of space for Z to wander around.  Some of the dinosaurs you could go up and touch others you could not, but the paths were clearly marked and he had a great time exploring.  The dinosaurs were animated as well as making sounds.  The news had suggested that small children might be afraid, some of the exhibits were of one dino eating a smaller one.  And there were a couple of fight scenes, but it didn't seem to phase him.

I convinced him to climb inside the Dinosaur mouth for a photo op!  He even gave me the surprised look!!  The Taiwanese love a good photo op, most of the people participating in this activity were adults, not the kids.  It's funny how things like that are just a cultural thing.

So we hung out for awhile  before it started sprinkling again and then I started to load Z up to start our walk home.  A lady that had been watching us fairly closely while we were there shuffled over to me and gave me a disposable rain poncho for Z.  I guess I failed yet again as a parent in the eyes of the locals....oh well!  I just said thank you and we headed out.

It's funny because in the States we might talk about what another mother is doing or not doing and most likely not do anything about it unless a child is being harmed.  Here they have no reservations about pointing out that I should have him dressed differently, warmer, cooler, or that he should wear a raincoat.  I just nod and go on...he doesn't even own a puffy coat.

The Dinosaurs were a big hit!  Jetlag is finally gone and we are back in a normal routine.  Life is good.

Notice everyone but the Tiny American is wearing a puffy coat!