Time is flying

I am starting to realise that we only have just over 2 week left here in Thailand. There are still a few things I want to do before we leave so I said to Adam today that we should make a list of the things we want to do and plan them in. We have been talking about maybe taking a ferry to another island for one night, I want to go to Phi Phi islands, Adam wants to go fishing one day, I want to have more massage, some more shopping, maybe a cooking class for Adam, visiting some other beaches on the island, trying a few restaurants that I have wanted to try but still haven't etc etc. There are so many things to do here and time is running out...

Saladan

Today we all had lunch in Saladan. It is nice sometimes to leave the resort and go in to town, but it is even nicer when we come back to the resort after a few hours in Saladan. Today we tried a new place on the water, can't remember the name of it. The food was average but the staff was super nice. As soon as our food came in they picked up Isak and walked him around until we had finished our meals. It means a lot to be able to eath without worrying about him crawling off the edge of the restaurant (it was on poles in the water). Isak is not scared at all of new people, he just seems to like it.

Elephant riding

This morning Jakob and I went elephant riding. I have been wanting to to something fun together with Jakob, just the two of us, and elephant riding was a good choice I thought. He was really excited when he saw the elephants and it was no problem getting him up on the big elephant. When the elephant started walking I could see and feel (I had my arm around him) that he thought it was pretty scary but after a while he started relaxing. The guide was good and stopped a few times so we could look at things in the djungle and that made the ride more fun and relaxing.
After the ride we watched a baby elephant show and Jakob got to feed the little baby with bananas.
We had a really fun time Jakob and I and it is a great memory to take with us back home!

Another early morning

I know it is pretty good to have a 9 months old baby who sleeps from 7pm until 5am without waking up. But 5am is just insane. I don't want to get up at 5am in the morning! Normally Adam and I take turns in the morning but the last few days I have been getting up since he has been sick. This morning he actually went back to sleep when I fed him in bed, but woke up when Adam asked what time it was. I was not happy. Anyway, leaving the room to not wake Jakob up at 5.45 is so much better than 5...
Isak seems to be feeling much better and his day sleeps were back to normal again today, which means us having to wake him up.
After a few days with not so much exercise I have had my morning walk and my laps in the pool today, since Adam is feeling better. I love it!

Colds

Adam is sick and Isak is sick. Adam has a sore throat and is very tired and Isak is coughing and has a runny nose. Yesterday afternoon and today Adam has spent in the air conditioned room and I think he is feeling a bit better now. Isak has not been sleeping so well but is still happy as always. This morning he woke up at 5 am again, not fun, and didn't sleep as much as he normally does during the day. I am sleeping badly since Adam is moving around a lot in bed. Luckily I don't feel so tired here and getting up at 5 in the morning is not as bad as it sounds even though I would much rather be in bed....
Isak can now crawl about 4 steps before he goes flat on his belly and rests before getting up again. His fifth tooth is almost through. He can now wave with one hand when someone says good bye. He goes from laying down to sitting quickly and easily. And he is pretty much always happy!

Living life!

So, what's been happening here the last few days? not much really. We have our wonderful routines which means walking or running in the morning, taking turns having a couple of hours off before lunch, lots of swimming and playing with the children, good food and early nights. At least most nights are early nights but the last to evenings I have been out a bit later than normal.
THe other night the staff at the resort asked if I wanted to go with them to a festival at the other side of the island. I said yes of course and at about 8pm we left. It was a very traditional Thai festival with music, thai dancing, markets etc etc but the main thing was to light a little "boat" made of banana leaves and push it out in the water. It means good luck and getting rid of all the problems. That's sort of how they explained it to me but I need to look it up a bit better to understand the meaning of it all. It was a very beautiful tradition and I am so glad I got to go.
Last night after the kids were in bed, another Swedish girl and I went to have a massage on the beach. I had a foot massage and I loved it. We had dinner after.
There are some really nice families staying here at the moment and lots of children. Jakob is hanging out with two older boys and most of the time it is going well even though I can see that he sometimes feels a bit left out when the games are too advanced for him.

Early mornings

Isak woke up 4.50 this morning. That is too early for me. He did have a small sleep when I breastfed but at 5.30 we gave up and Adam took him outside to not wake Jakob up. That didn't help because only seconds after Adam had left Jakob woke up and his first words were: I want to go outside and play. I managed to keep him inside the room until 6 but after that it was impossible and his day of hard playing had started. I swapped my morning walk for a sleep which was amazing! haven't done that for a while. We go to bed so early that we get enough sleep even when we have to get up between 5 and 6.
The last couple of days Jakob has been playing with two other boys and they have so much fun together, they feed the fish, they have running races, the go snake hunting, they swim in the pool and the ocean, they fight over toys etc etc. Today for the first time since we got here, Jakob played insied our bungalow in the middle of the day with his friends and they even watched a dvd! Or the truth is that Jakob watched for about 10 and then left, and the other boys watched for half an hour.
Jakob did not want to go to bed tonight but he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Snake

This afternoon one of the guys working here saw a snake just outside the restaurant. When we came back from lunch the staff was putting up a net around one of the fish ponds where the snake had been spotted. A snake hunter came to the resort to try and find it but had no luck. It was very fun watching them all working and of course we were dying to see the snake. Unfortunatley it wasn't found so as far as we know there is a snake very close to our bungalow (our bungalow is the one closest to the snake area). According to the snake expert it can't get out of the area they had closed in. I hope that because I don't want to meet an angry cobra tomorrow morning at 5.30 when I take Isak for a walk.

Saladan

Today we all went in to Saladan for lunch. We picked a pizza place and my pizza was delicious! we eat so much thai food here (of course) so it is nice to sometimes have something different. Saladan is a really nice little place with lots of nice restaurants and cute shops with a mixture of nice things and crap. My plan was to go in there by myself tomorrow but there is a muslim holiday tomorrow and most places will be closed.

Time off

Adam and I have started taking turns having 2 hours off every morning. We start the day by taking turns getting up with Isak, and as soon as Jakob wakes up one of us goes for a walk or a run on the beach. When that person is back the other one goes. That way we have both excercised before 9 in the morning. Between 9.30 and 11.30 (when Isak is asleep) on of us spends time with Jakob and the other one is free. It is a great system! It is nice to have those hours when you can switch of the brain and have no responsibilities. It is also and opportuinty to explore things by yourself. The day your have Jakob is also nice because you get some real quality time with him. Good for everyone!!

Isak

Isak is now just over 9 months and he is growing and getting stronger. He is trying his hardest to crawl but is not quite there yet. He eats like a horse (maybe that is just a Swedish saying?) and likes everything. Jakob was not quite as easy to feed so it is nice with a child that just opens the mouth to everything you give him. I still breast feed morning and night.

Isak has two sleeps during the day. One between 9.30 and 11.30 and one between 2.30 and 4pm. We always have to wake him up, if we didn't I don't know how long he would go for but he is sleeping much better at night now when we try to control his day sleep a bit.

At night he is sleeping really well now. He goes to bed around 7 and wakes up between 5.30 and 6.15 and doesn't go back to sleep. Sometimes he wakes up at night and can be awake for 45 min or more but he doesn't complain, just talks, plays in bed, moves around and finally goes back to sleep. Adam and I are now taking turns in the morning to take Isak out of the room when he wakes up so he doesn't wake the rest of the family up.

Life

Today Adams parents and brother with family left the island. Life is back to normal which means me not having ice cream every day.

Jakob

Jakob loves Lighting McQueen and do I need to say that he loves this t-shirt and that it is a struggle to get him to put on any of the nice PoP t-shirts that we have. It is not just a struggle it is nearly impossible.
Jakob is doing so well with his English. Last night he ordered a meal all by himself, he said Can I have a hamburger? This morning he ordered his breakfast as well, all in beautiful English. For the first time he has started to use the language to speak and he often comes up to us and ask how to say something in English.

Tour of the island

One day we hired a van and a driver and took a half day trip around the island. First stop was at a gypsy village in Saladan. Felt a bit strange walking around looking at these people and their houses. We have so much and they have so little but I bet most of them are happier than most of us.

A short stop at a really nice beach called Klong Nin (I think).

The old town of Koh Lanta seen from a pier.

Cooking class

Karen and I preparing the vegetables to one of the 5 Thai dishes we cooked.

5 course dinner?

Can't promise that I will ever be able to cook these dishes again, but at least I have done it once and they tasted delicious!

Koh Rok

When Adam's parents were here Adam and I took the opportunity to have a day to ourselves when they kindly looked after the children. We had an amazing day snorkling and spending a few hours on the beautiful island Koh Rok.

Having lunch with our Swedish friends!

Visitors on the island

Adam's parents and his brother and family have been here for 8 nights. It was great to have them here and we had lots of fun together. Jakob and Isak loved having them here.

Jane and Isak

Karen and Hugo on the beach.

John and Isak

Cousin Hugo

Paradise

Most resturants on the beach have toys for the children. Going out for dinner with two children in Thailand is piece of a cake. Imagine doing it in Lulea or Adelaide?

Isak is still as happy as ever. He just smiles to everyone around him and is just so beautiful. We are so lucky to have such and angel in the family.

Walking along the beach in the evening. Now we also have a stroller for Jakob and he loves it. He even fell asleep in it the other day when we went out for dinner in the evening.

Towels

Our bungalow gets cleaned every day and every day the new towels are presented in a new formation!

Wow!

Adam borrowed some friends moped and took Jakob for a ride. To my surprise he wasn't scared at all!

Fish

Jakob looooves feeding the fish!

Rainy days

We have had some very sunny days and some very rainy days during our stay here. I like them all. I struggle a bit with heat so it is great with a bit of rain and clouds in between the hot days. Couldn't be any better especially for us staying 7 weeks. No stress and no pressure!

Massage

So far I have had 3 massages and Adam has had 2. This women works at our resort and she is amazing, she gave me the best massage I have ever had. It was extremly painful, but very good!

Jakob

This is where we found Jakob one night when we had spent a couple of hours with our neighbours after the kids went to bed... It is not the first time he falls out of bed...
We bought a dvd player for the trip and so far it has only been used a couple of times before Jakob goes to bed. He just doesn't want to be inside at all, which of course is a good think. Adam has watched a couple of movies on it though and I am sure I will too before the end of the trip.

This is where we live

This is the view from the veranda of our bungalow. You can see the swimming pool and th ocean.

This photo of our room was taken the day we arrived. I am very happy with the size of it as I had expected something smaller. It is a bit hard keeping the place tidy but the other day I bought 7 different plastic baskets to help us being a bit more organised. One for Isak's toys and one for Jakob's, one for dirty clothes, two for bathroom stuff, one for little things like sunglasses, keys, phone etc.

Snorkling

Today Adam and I were a bit wild and crazy. We were having breakfast when we saw a speedboat in the water coming closer and closer to our resort. A Swedish family that is staying here and that we have spent some time with had booked a day trip to Koh Rok and were just about to leave. They said to us Why don't you come too? Adam who normally likes to have things planned was the one to say: let's do it! And we did.
In less than 10 minutes the staff had phoned the boat to check it was ok, we got changed and quickly packed a bag, and while doing all this trying to tell Adam's mum Jane who had to run behind us when getting organised holding Isak, what the routines are for the children for the day. So Adam and I left everyone and also Jakob and Isak and had a wonderful day together on the ocean. We snorkled and had lunch on a beautiful beach. Lots of time for swimming, walking around on two different islands and just enjoying a day to ourselves.
It all went really well back at the resorts. Both Jakob and Isak had a great day playing with grandma and poppa and also Jason, Karen and Hugo. When Jakob met us on the beach when we got back he asked me, Mummy did you have a good day? and Was the boat ride good? and then he turned to Daddy and asked: Was the boat ride good for you too? He is so cute.
By the way, I got stung by a jelly fish. When I was snorkling I felt something stinging on my left lower arm. I didn't see anything but I knew it must have been a jelly fish. The staff on the boat put some cream on it and after about an hour it had stopped itching.

Papaya salad

Today I tried a new meal for lunch that was recommended by the girl that works in the reception (the owner's daugther). I told them not to make it so spicy (it was actually called spice papaya salad). The meal was great but a little bit too spicy for me. I was told that they only put 1 chilli in my meal, the girl who works here said she normally has at least 15 in there!! Am I really that week! embarrassing.

Dinner

Tonight we decided to walk along the beach and try a new place for dinner that my friend Jenny has recommended. We were the only guests at the resturant (it opened for the season yesterday) but they had lots of toys for Jakob to play with so he was happy. Isak was not his happy normal though, Hugo did a poo all over his clothes just before we started eating and Jakob needed to do a poo just as they brought Adams food out. Dinner with children is always fun and exciting. At least it is possible to do it here, in Sweden we don't even try. The owner, a really sweet lady, carried Isak around for about 20min when we were eating, that would not happen in many other countries!
When walking home the tide was unusally high and the water was coming all the way up to the chairs at the resturants. That made it very hard to walk home with the prams so when back at the resort we were all sweating like pigs. Nice with a bit of excercies after a big meal though.

The sun is back!

Today we have had a warm, beautiful and sunny day. I have had a few swims in the oceans and a few in the pool. We haven spent the day at the resort just enjoying the warm weather. Jakob has been a bit off today, not sure if it is because of the heat or if he is gettin sick. Time will tell.

Sleeping arrangements

Yesterday when Adam and I were about to put Isak and Jakob to bed Jakob said he wanted to sleep in grandma and poppas bungalow. Luckily the staff here is amazing so they carried Jakobs matress from our bungalow to theirs and we set him up on the floor.
I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to try to get Isaks sleeping under control. The last week has been a bit tough. He has been waking up a few times from 2am and onwards with legs and arms stuck through the bars of the cot. I have had to put him back on the pillow and eventually feed him around 4am. He has then been waking up around 5.30 which is far too early for me. Especially when we all sleep in a small room. Jakob wakes up easily at that time so one of us has to quickly take Isak out of the room and entertain him somewhere else until about 7.
Anyway, Adam also slept in his parents bungalow and Isak and I had ours to ourselves. He woke up as normal at 2am, but this time I did nothing, just waited. I figured he has to learn to work it out himself at night. After about 45 minutes of moving around, short cries, shaking the bars etc he went back to sleep and woke up at 6am. I fed him and slept for another hour. I will try the same tonight. I don't have a problem with him waking up at 6 if he has slept through the night. It just gets hard if he wakes up a lot during the night.
Wish me luck for tonight!

Cooking class

The cooking class was great. We cooked 5 dishes in 4 hours and it tasted really good. So watch out everyone at home, from now on you will get only Thai food when coming to us for dinners!

Exercise

I am still doing well being more healthy and exercising. A walk every morning and laps in the pool every day. Today I did 60 laps. It is a very small pool so 60 laps is probably about 600m but for someone like me who normally don't like swimming much it is pretty good.
The best thing is that it is not even difficult living a healthy life here in Thailand. At home there are so many temptations but here I don't even think about chocolate cakes!

Cooking class

This afternoon Jane, Karen and I (and 3 other Swedish girls from the resort) are taking a Thai cooking class. It will go for 4 hours in the afternoon and we will chose 4 or 5 dishes to cook. Very exciting!

Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated Adam's birthday and the best present was probably the arrival of his family. They arrived after lunch and we had a really nice afternoon and evening all of us. Jakob was very happy to see grandma and poppa and loved the presents he got.
Unfortunatley it rained all day yesterday so we had to stay inside the whole day (apart from a swim in the pool). Today it is cloudy but no rain so hopefully the weather is about to get better again.