Eva

Eva is such a happy girl! She wakes up smiling, and when she goes down for the night or for a nap, she almost always reaches for her bed and then waves goodbye. Sometimes she'll blow a kiss or do sign language for "i love you!" Everything is so exciting for her! She trots around the house playing with whatever she can find, whether it's a can to roll across the floor or a chopstick to bang on things, or a broom to help with the cleaning. In between times, she's on the constant alert for animals in the front yard or mimicking the roosters or cows she hears throughout the day!! She loves Laos!

Oops, didn't mean to cut off part of the picture here! 

morning routine

One of our morning routines is to bring the motorbike back outside. Nathan brings it in each night so it's not stolen, and here Eva is helping him bring it back out again. She loves to help!!

Getting around

I took this shot in Vientiane, though I see this all the time. Kids travel on motorbikes with mom or dad or both, and sometimes we'll see up to five or six people piled onto one bike! This one cracks me up... poor guy doesn't look very comfortable.

I can use a spoon!

This is is Eva learning to feed herself oatmeal! As long as we have her covered in a bib, she doesn't do too bad. Thankfully all the floors here are tile too, so cleaning isn't that difficult!

We're getting settled!

We've been here in Tha Kaek now about five weeks I think, and we're beginning to get things settled and in place. When we first arrived, we looked at most of the houses that were available for renting here and didn't find anything that seemed to work. We eventually settled for a "fixer upper" thinking that we'd rather wrap up the traveling period of our lives and just get settled! As it turns out, it's just the perfect house for us!! 

We have had SO much help with giving the house a thorough deep cleaning, and we no longer feel like there are rooms we won't enter or places we won't touch. Thanks especially to the guys who cleaned the scary places under the kitchen sink and counter! We've also painted some of the bright orange, lime green, and turquoise blue walls, thanks again to much help.  Screens are on the windows to keep out the swarms of mosquitoes and moths (and snakes). We have air conditioning in each of the three bedrooms now, and they all work! And the electricity has been adjusted to provide adequate current to the house, though running at a low voltage. :) 

And, we have internet!!!!!!!!!!! Woo hooooo!!!! And we have a P.O. mailbox, for those of you who have been asking. So we're well on our way and will be posting pictures hopefully soon. 

Happy bday Nathan!!

Nathan and Eva after swimming in the water

Some friends singing happy birthday to Nathan at the swimming hole today

Swimming at the water hole

Eva with her new hair bow! 15 months old and sweet as can be. 

We spent some time today at a swimming hole close by to celebrate Nathan's birthday. The water was so refreshing, and Eva can never get enough. She kept standing in waist deep water, holding my hand and dunking her face under. At one point, she slipped and accidentally went under but came up happy as can be.  We had a blast- Happy Birthday Nathan!!

Eva keeping busy

Eva's favorite thing right now is learning animal sounds. One day after she saw a cow grazing in our front yard, I brought out an animal book and taught her the sound a cow makes. Since then, she loves to walk around the house making all the animal sounds she knows. Her favorite are the ones she sees here all the time- cows, goats, roosters. She spends all kinds of time with this book, and often animal sounds are the first and last thing she has to say in the day.

Something for Eva to play with

A couple weeks ago, someone brought over a little bird for Eva to play with. She brought the bird inside and showed Eva how to "pet"the birds face (which Eva began not-so-gently smashing with her finger) and then tied the bird to the leg on our table. So there I sat with a little bird hopping around my feet, tied to a string, trying to appear comfortable and at the same time trying to keep Eva from grabbing the bird. Later on when Nathan got home, he untied the bird and I took his picture before he took the bird back outside again.

A gift from our neighbor

Our neighbors brought us dinner the other night, a special dish which Nathan had told them was one of his favorites. Bamboo soup is probably on the bottom of my list of food options here, but I will admit that the more times I try it, the more I get used to the taste. This one was a no go though, for both of us. Sweet neighbors, but fortunately they didn't stay to watch us eat!

Elephants in Asia

But it took off and began barreling towards me and my camera!!! Aaaugggh!!! I got out of there fast, and most likely did the worst thing I could do which was take off and run, but this seems to be an instinct of mine that I'm unable to control and is just something I do when a wild animal comes at me. I may over-react a little, but several women standing around me took off running too until the owner got its elephant back under control again with the little instrument you may notice dangling from its skin.

The elephant's owner got distracted as he and Nathan began talking and the elephant took off, because they're certainly not chained or contained in any way.

After we were back in Laos for a week or so, we headed down south to our new town in search of a place to live. We took a couple days and attended an annual festival for the "So" people learning about their customs, history, and dance... we had so much fun. Eva and Nathan stopped to feed an elephant, which Nathan loved, though I'm not sure how much Eva was into it.

What do do when it's hot

The temperatures here have been hovering around the 100s each day, and it's as hot as can be without a/c during the day. Eva was playing with a wet towel one day and we realized it's a great way for her to stay cool. We put it on her head for fun and she began trotting around the house wearing the towel. Here she's trying to put it on her head herself. 

Internet again!

Eva riding around on a vehicle we found in our back yard when we moved in. 

Eva with neighborhood girls. These girls come by every day and play with Eva.