A Much Needed Break

While it's true in a rather unfortunate way that we've been averaging about 4 hours per day at the hospital, we have been having fun while being stranded in Thailand.  For one thing, there is cereal.  And milk that doesn't have the weird UHT aftertaste.  Kevin has also been loving the pad thai for a dollar.  For another thing, the sky is blue.  Really blue.  It even has fluffy white clouds.

Plus there's a zoo.  A pretty rad zoo.  I think "zoo" might be too narrow of a definition for this place though.  It's more like a maze of hills weaving through a jungle that has occasional animals.  Buying bus tickets to view the zoo would never in a million years have been something I would have done in my pre-parent days.  But when you strap a 20 pound baby to you in the sticky Thailand heat, why, yes, I'd love to pay 80 cents for someone to drive me around, thank you very much.

We started off with wild notions that we would actually trek the zoo.  Kevin studiously poured over the zoo map while Micah wandered about.  Do you see the two chicks in pink in the background of the top picture?  That hill was our first clue that the bus was a good idea!

This was Sami's posture for the majority of the day.  Between the hospital visits and our family outings, that boy has clocked so much time and taken so many naps in the Ergo that he gets fussy when he's not being held.  

It was a super fun day filled with all sorts of wildlife:

 

And not-so-wild life:

Sami also got a to leave the Ergo for a moment to mingle with the wildlife.  I can hardly believe that this perfect little face is struggling with seizures!

But then back up in the Ergo he went!  It's a rough life when you can't move by yourself.  On second thought, he doesn't look like he minds too much.  Maybe it's not so rough after all...

My favorite thing about spending so much time with Micah in Thailand is watching the world through his eyes.  I imagine that every two year old has a heightened sense of curiosity but based on Micah's time at the care center in Ethiopia, I wonder if his is even more acute.  They did a wonderful job of caring for him there but I'm sure the nannies weren't able to take him outside all that often, if ever.  So every truck, every animal, every shiny Buddhist statue he see here stops him in his tracks and inspires at least of minute of pointing and saying "oooo!"  I just love getting to be a part of it.

The funny thing to me about this picture is that everyone in it (minus the baby elephant I assume) is now on daily medicine: Micah is taking hormone supplements for his thyroid issue, Sami is taking anti-convulsants, and I'm taking meds for my TB exposure.  I'm just a regular old apothecary now!

We're still not sure when we'll be able to leave Thailand.  Sami had a second seizure on Friday, which forced us to push off our departure a second time.  We're hoping to be back home within a week, but there's no way to know for sure.  Meanwhile, we're thankful for cereal, pad thai, blue skies, and having so much family time together.