A Vist & A Birthday, July 2008

One of the most wonderful things that has recently happened here is the recent visit of my wife's sister, Kit, and her family from Australia.



Here they are from left-to-right, John Wood, their daughter Alisala Rosa, and Kit.





Here's Little Nio enjoying an early seafood dinner on his mother's lap.



Not content to finish off dinner with his mom, here's Little Nio sitting on his auntie, Pa Kut's lap munching down on a bit of vegetable.



This is Alisala Rosa, Little Nio's cousin. She's younger than him by about four months, but she's a very big beautiful healthy baby.



A few days later, we were all out together celebrating my wife, Kanittha's, twenty-fifth birthday. Here she is with our son, Antonio, and you can see me reflected in the windows behind her taking this photograph.



My wife and Little Nio are standing at the back, with our friends, Khun Sak and Khun Jae and Tata Montilla sitting in front.



Here she is standing with Little Nio behind her two sisters, Kut and Kit.





Excellent dinner for all at Samsen Tavern. Even Little Nio is having an excellent time with the delicious food.



After dinner, because we didn't have enough candles, we brought out two cakes one with two candles on it and the other with five candles.





Cutting up the cake to share with our guests. It's a good thing we ordered two cakes, because they made for excellent dessert leftovers for a few days after.

Several days after the birthday dinner, Kit, John and Alisala came to visit us here at home to say goodbye. After several weeks of vacation in Thailand, visiting all their family and traveling the country, they're going back to Perth, Australia.



Here's Little Nio getting one more hug from his aunt, Pa Kit.



Group photograph, Little Nio with his aunt, Pa Kit, my wife, Kanittha, at center, then Alisala Rosa carried by her aunt, Pa Kut.



Another photograph, this time with the fathers — John carrying his daughter, Alisala Rosa and Little Nio carried by his father.

Dusit Zoo, July 2008

It was a beautiful day... too good to pass up, so we went to visit Dusit Zoo.



I visited this zoo once before, almost a decade ago, and while it isn't a top notch facility it's come a long way in improving.



Here's our son, Antonio, with my wife, Kanittha, all dressed up and ready to go to the zoo.







We started Little Nio looking at some of the birds... and while he showed some interest it didn't really get him all excited.



Then we went to look at some zebras...



Some deer...



And some kangaroos. Interesting stuff, but it just didn't really make Little Nio excited.



It was only when we got Little Nio to the elephants that we got a big smile.



By the time we got him to the lion cages, Little Nio was really excited.



But the really highpoint of our zoo visit was the big tiger. Little Nio could not stop smiling and pointing at the big cat, and calling it, "Sam".





I guess all the excitement took a lot of energy out of Little Nio. His batteries ran out by the time we hit the zoo tram and he was fast asleep in his Daddy's arms. After an hour power nap, he was up and about again.

Basic Skills, July 2008

Every child needs to grow up and acquire some essential skills for survival. It's never been very clear which skills need to come before others, so we tend to allow our son, Antonio, to develop whichever skills seem to take precedence.



Here he is sitting in front of one of my computers.





Checking out the monitor and typing up a storm on the keyboards.







Here he is reaching over to grab the mouse. Everything within reach of his little hands is fair game.



The other skill he's acquired is feeding himself with proper utensils.







Like all new skills, it takes a while to get things all mastered, but he's working on it.

Great Fun, June 2008

Almost four months in our new house and it's settled into a real home for us.





Here's our son, Antonio, checking out some of the reference books I have on my library shelves. He's fascinated with books. Let's hope that this fascination develops into a full blown thirst for knowledge and learning.



Here we are sitting together — Little Nio, his Daddy and our cat, Samuel. His first word isn't "Mommy" or "Daddy", nor is it "Meh" or "Pohr" (which it Thai for "Mom" and "Dad"). His first word is "Sam" — the name of our cat. He doesn't always get the "m" in at the end, but it's a start.





Not exactly the safest spot to sit, but Little Nio thinks that the steps are the perfect height for sitting on.



Here he is with his Mommy, sitting on the staircase.





We're happy here. The ends still meet, but it's a lot work keeping it all together. At the end of the day, when you get a smile like this, it makes it all worthwhile.









Another thing that Little Nio likes looking at are DVD's. He's very interested in watching stuff on television, but we try to direct this and get him to watch more intelligent things like documentaries. Here he is checking out some DVD's from the Discovery Channel.







Raisins are another favorite that Little Nio has and here he is spreading it all out and getting ready to share it with Mommy.



Big lopsided smile with his Daddy. It really, really does make it all worthwhile.