Our "Most Outstanding Student"

Evan had his school concert last Sunday and he did AWESOME!! Not to be a bragging mom or anything, but I sure was proud of my little guy. The other 2 year old that attends school with him started crying when they started to sing so his mother had to go collect him from the stage...I sure was glad that Evan didn't get stage fright (I was the one with butterflies!!). In fact, after he was through performing and came down to join us at our table to watch all the other performances, he would say "E on stage next?!"....he was ready to do it again!! So looks like we have a true performer on our hands. We just got a couple of short clips of his performance on our digital camera (we also taped it on the video camera...which he loves to watch over and over again now!!), but you get the picture of how he did!! He is the only one not in costume because all the other kids had dance performances they were in...as if that is the only thing that made him stand out...he looks so tiny compared to all the other kids!!

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We actually only stayed through the first intermission and then bailed since E was only there to sing - the performance was actually part of the school graduation ceremony for all the kids graduating out of the school - so we had no desire to stay for the entire time. We were a little disappointed that we didn't stay though - we found out E received an award for being one of Premire's Most Outstanding Students of 2008, for being one of the youngest and most attentive students. His first award at the age of 2!! We were so proud of him....and as you can tell from the picture...he was pretty proud of himself too! He went around the house posing for me in different places - he's actually starting to enjoy taking pictures....finally!! He probably would have really loved being able to go back up on stage to accept his trophy..what a bummer that we missed that opportunity! I'm sure there will be plenty more of those "proud parent" moments to come!!!

Get Your Guns Up!!

Wow, how about those Red Raiders?!?!? It sounds like it was an incredible game!! Unfortunately our Slingbox hasn't been working (it's over at Andrew's brother's house and well, he has been a bit preoccupied with the birth of our new nephew, Max...which by the way is a doll and looks just like his older brother and who we can't wait to meet next month), so we didn't get to watch it....but we did get the play-by-play from ESPN's website and it sounds like we missed a great game! I was actually afraid to hit the refresh button during those last few minutes - knowing that Texas was going to score at the very end! I'd all but written off Tech, telling the boys we were going to have to go take off our t-shirts...when low and behold they actually pulled off one of the best upsets of the season...beating the #1 ranked UT!! Brooke, guess it was worth camping out for those tickets - wish I could have been there too!! Anyhow, we were pumped that we pulled off the win, so we thought we'd share our family picture...minus 1...we couldn't get Andrew to support the ol' Red Raiders!! We've decided we will split the boys during the TTU vs OU game later this month...he'll get Evan and I'll get Cooper! I have a feeling that might be a pretty good game too!

Brooke, Evan says thanks for his shirt!! And Cata and Shu, thanks for Cooper's outfit...as you can see, he looks adorable!! Sorry Shu about spanking your team....well, I guess "spanking" might be overkill given that Tech gave up a 20 point lead and only..barely...won in the last few seconds!! But a win is a win!! Go Big Red!

Showing off his 2 new teeth!!

Go Red Raiders!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone! Since we won't have an official treat-or-treating day, I decided to dress the boys up in some Halloween costumes their BeBe and Boss sent them and take a few pictures. I actually tried to put some face paint on them, but with Cooper once I finally got some tiger whiskers on him, he rubbed his face with his hands and smeared it....and with Evan, well, I got a "no, no, no" while running away from me when I told him what I was going to do - so after 20 minutes of "wrestling" with them, we decided to go face paint-less!! Guess I should have been glad they at least let me put the costumes on them. Then, it became impossible to get a good picture of both of them together....Cooper would be smiling and Evan would look the other way or try to get down from the couch, or when I was actually able to get Evan to smile a couple of times....Cooper would be turning away...uhgg!!! So, that is why I just decided to get a couple of good pictures of them alone!! Aren't they just adorable?!?!? Let me introduce....Cooper "Tigger" Thompson and Evan James the dairy moo cow!!

You can see I was trying every trick in the book....even letting Evan stand on the couch when he knows he isn't suppose to! You'd never guess Coop is just 5 months old...he looks so big here standing next to Evan!

At least I have one child who loves to smile!!

We then found out that Evan was having a "Children's Day" party at his school this last Friday that required him to wear a costume, but since I knew the cow costume would be way too hot to wear, we picked up this Dr. coat (complete with stethoscope and surgical mask) in KL for him to wear. He looked just adorable. He told his teacher at school that he was "Dr. Evan Thompson"...it was too cute! I was surprised he actually kept on the "surgical cap" the entire time he was at school, but he did! Of course, there was no way I was getting him to put on the surgical mask, that was just asking for way too much!!

We also have a Halloween party to go to tomorrow with some of the other expat kids that we have crafts with, so he'll be going as Dr. Thompson again. So, while we might not get to do any real trick-or-treating, at least E got to have some fun dressing up this year and going to a couple of parties!!

Looks like he is ready to report for surgery here....serious face and all!!

And here are a couple of more pictures of my precious boys!

Can you see my 2 new teeth!?!?! Just barely showing here, but you can really see them now!

I sure hope they always get along this well!!!

Also, thought I'd share some more of E's latest ramblings that keep us laughing:

- This morning I woke up to " Mom, er are you? Treasures there!" I had to listen a couple of times before I realized what he was saying...it was too funny! He refers to his boogers as "treasures" because after Marte baths him, she cleans out his nose and says she is looking for his "treasures". So now, they are always treasures, not boogs....and this morning he wanted me to see the treasures on his bed...which actually turned out to be drool that had dried on his bed, but he was convinced they were "treasures"!

- "coopercumber" - Evan LOVES cucumbers and had always said it correctly before, but lately (now that he talks about his brother all the time) he has started referring to them as coopercumbers! Another thing that we laugh at, so he continues to say it incorrectly! We say "say cucumber" and he says "no....say coopercumber, Mom!"

- And oh yeah, we had our first curse word last week. His dad was walking up the stairs with him, tripped, nearly fell and said..S-H-I-T...and sure enough...we got a big "shit, shit, shit" from Evan. We did everything we could not to laugh. The last thing I want him doing is saying it at school or something! "Little ears" picks up on EVERYTHING these days. He is in quite the "monkey see, monkey do" phase.

We continue to be amazed at all the things E is doing and how quickly he picks up on things. We've started listening to Christmas music to get us in the holiday spirit...yes, I know it's a bit soon...but we are anxiously awaiting our Christmas trip home, so this helps make us feel like it's getting closer. Anyhow, we've only started listening for a week or so now, and he already knows most of the words to "Jingle Bells" and can sing at least parts of most of the other songs we've been listening to. It's amazing what great memories 2 year olds have!

And Coop, well he is always in a good mood these days and is growing so much each day. He is just about sitting by himself, and he has tried rice cereal, carrots, squash, pears and apples so far and loves all of them. We did have him give peas a go, but he didn't care for those too much, so we'll try some sweet potatoes next and then try out the peas again later. Don't know if it was introducing solids or that he is just a bit older, but he has consistently been sleeping through the night since we got back from Thailand. He sleeps from about 8:15 to 5:00, wakes for a feeding and then sleeps until 7 or so.....works for me! As long as I get in a good 5-6 hours, I'm good! Let's just hope he keeps it up and becomes a great sleeper all the time like his big brother!

Cooper has his 1st solids and cuts his 1st two teeth....all in the same day!

So I know I just wrote that we hadn't tried solids yet, but we went by the organic store yesterday while we were in KL for Gymboree and I picked him up some rice cereal - so we thought we'd go ahead and give it a try. Well....he loved it!!! It looked like he hadn't eaten in days the way he went for it. I only mixed up 1 tablespoon and he ate it up in no time at all. He had trouble the first couple of bites...spitting out more than he swallowed, but had it down by the last few bites. I think he's definitely looking forward to tomorrow's morning meal again. And afterwards he went down for a 3 hour nap. He usually only takes about an hour nap in the morning and then a 2-3 hour one in the afternoon, but he must have had a nice full tummy this morning because he was out. Or else it was that he finally cut his 1st two teeth and was able to get a good rest. In either case, we are through 2 major milestones and he did great! I actually had just checked his gums a couple of days ago when he was acting a bit fussy, but I didn't notice any redness or swelling so I thought it might still be awhile before they came in.....well, guess I guessed wrong!! We have two tiny teeth that have both poked their way through!! I was a bit sad actually....he is growing up way too fast!! I did tell him he could now bite his brother back when he gets bit. E's gone in for a kiss on the hand a couple of times now and decided to take a bit of a nibble instead....just love bites (you know those ones where he is just so cute you just want to ...mmmmmm bite!), but bites nevertheless!!

Here's a little shot of today's first bites (the one where he is spitting out more than he's taking in!!). I'll try to get a picture of those 2 precious, little teeth once they have popped up a bit more! I love it when babies only have those 2 bottom teeth...they are so adorable!



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Cooper is 5 months old today and Evan is practicing his ABC's

My little guy is 5 months old today....where does the time go?!?! He is quite the little smiler and gets so excited about everything....so unlike his older brother! I can already tell we are going to have 2 totally different personalities to deal with....E as an introvert (like his father... although he claims he isn't) and Coop as an extrovert (just like his mama).

Cooper is actually starting to sit by himself a bit now, although he still tumbles over after a few seconds...and is starting to like to stand alot more. He still isn't totally against tummy time, but he doesn't seem to show much interest in wanting to stay on his tummy for an extended period of time or pull his legs up underneath him to start crawling. So maybe he will end up skipping the crawling phase as well...we'll see! We've yet to start him on any solids, but he is definitely showing alot of interest in it. He watches his older brother eating sometimes and starts yelling until you pretend like you are giving him a bite and then he launches forward towards the spoon! I didn't start E on solids until he was 6 months old, but looks like I might be starting with Cooper a bit earlier. I wonder if he'll take to baby food alot easier than E did. Evan hated rice cereal and was slow to develop a taste for anything other than his fruits and a couple of vegetables initially....although now, he'll eat just about anything you put in his mouth. He loves almost any type of vegetable and all of his fruits (papaya is about the only thing we've tried to give him that he repeatedly doesn't care for!) So, while I was always so worried about what and how much Evan was eating...afraid he was going to be malnourished and that it was always going to be a constant struggle to get him to eat....I now know that isn't the case! So, I'm sure I'll be much more relaxed this time around about getting Cooper to eat, which will help put us both more at ease! Live and learn!

Check out E... somewhat... saying his ABC's - leaving out a few letters...and "l,m,n,o,p" sounds more like "elbow p"!! The other day he was just walking around saying them by himself and then at the end he would say "God bless you". We overheard him and asked him to say them again and he would continue to say "God bless you" when he got finished. So we laughed..and of course, this just made him want to say them over and over again. I found out the reason he said that at the end is because he and Marte sing the ABC song right before he goes to bed every night and she finishes up the bedtime routine with "God bless you", so now I think he thinks it's part of the song (or at least something that makes us laugh)! Anyhow, we thought it was pretty cute and that you might enjoy watching.

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Our trip to Krabi, Thailand

What a great vacation we just had!! As I mentioned, we went to Krabi, Thailand for our 1st trip with our newest Thompson and everyone had a wonderful time. We had some fantastic weather and Cooper thoroughly enjoyed all his firsts....1st airplane ride, 1st boat ride, 1st time in the pool, 1st time at the beach and 1st time in the sea!! The plane ride on the way there went somewhat smoothly....Cooper was a bit "crabby" (no pun intended), but that was because it was right in the middle of his nap time and both our boys only seem to nap well when they are in their beds and Evan, who now has to have his own seat had a bit of a time staying put for an hour a half, but other than that...we made it there with no problems. Although on the way back, Andrew was about to call off our Christmas trip when Evan had a bit of a meltdown while we were waiting in the immigration line. To Evan's credit, it was 3pm and he'd had no nap! Anyhow, I myself, did recognize we ARE going to have some fun on our trip back home in a couple of months with only one of us per kid....we had Marte with us on this trip and it was still complete chaos!! Oh what fun to look forward to! I just have to remind myself it is only 28 hours there and then we get a break since I'm sure grandparents will be ready to spoil them like crazy!

The boys loved playing in the pool and Evan loved playing on the beach in the sand and looking for seashells. Andrew and I even got 3 or so hours every afternoon to ourselves while Marte stayed in the room with the boys while they napped. We spent one day just having a few cocktails relaxing by the pool (let me tell you how nice that was...we could have done just that everyday!), another day kayaking, and another day going into the nearby town of Ao Nang. It was a private beach we were on, so the only way you could get to town was by boat or trekking about 10 minutes over this mountain pass through the jungle (where we saw tons of monkeys!). Needless to say, it was nice to spend some quality time alone together. We also loved our rooms....we had two rooms connected by a large terrace outside that had 4 big loungers on it with overhead ceiling fans. With the breeze and the sound of the ocean, it was a perfect place to relax at night after the boys had gone down for the night. It was so comfortable in fact, that Andrew actually feel asleep outside while reading a couple of nights - only to wake about 2 or 3 in the morning to come back into the room...which was a good thing, because one morning we woke to a monkey on the terrace rifling through some of our things! Good thing he didn't come to join Andrew in the middle of the night!

Anyhow, we are back home again eagerly awaiting our trip home in December. They don't really celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving here so Christmas is the next big holiday to look forward to and we are! Hope you enjoy the pics from our vacation:

Happy 2nd Birthday, E!

Our big guy is officially 2! I can hardly believe it's been 2 years since we first brought him home from the hospital (and less importantly, but just as shockingly, it's been 2 years since my last day of work....which oddly enough, seems like forever ago!). E had a great time celebrating this year. He actually had 2 little birthday parties (and 3 cakes....of which he only had a tiny bite of each...what can I say, our child isn't that into sweets....we aren't complaining!!!) - one with his friends from school and then one on his actual birthday here at home with just us. The kids at school sang Happy Birthday to him in 3 different languages...English, Bahasa Malay, and Mandarin...of course all 3 sounded like a bunch of noise when you have 30+ kids shouting (sorry, singing) the Happy Birthday song. In any case, E loved it! After coming home from school from celebrating, he was surprised by his Dad with a new fish tank. He has always been totally into fish, so he loved it. He quickly went to naming each of them....which by the way we are on some #2s now...Nemo #2, Bert and Ernie #2, Frank the Fish #2 and Michael (we still aren't sure where he came up with that name)....fish upkeep has been a learning process for the ol' Thompson family!! So while we've actually been through "several" fish, we have been able to maintain the same 8 for the last week or so!! I don't think Evan seems to mind losing them just yet or wonder where they are going...he just knows he gets new ones to look at!

As for the small family birthday party, we set out his new little motorized dump truck for him along with all his other presents, some balloons and some cupcakes I made for him so that when he came down for breakfast he would be surprised....well, it takes alot to excite our little E...I asked him what he thought about everything when he first saw it and the only thing he could come up with was.... "cake"...which by the way, he doesn't even care to eat! He had one small bite and that was it and didn't even want to get the icing on his hands because they would get "all dirty"...as he always says! But once he got in the car and tried it out...that was it, he didn't need anything else. He loved it! We'd hoped to find him one of the bigger 4-wheel drive ones like they have back home, but they just don't make anything like that around here. So, we settled for this little dump truck, which actually worked out perfectly. It's just his size and small enough for him to ride around the kitchen...since our time outside is limited due to the heat and all the mosquitoes (which he is allergic to just like his mother!). So, since we returned from our trip to Thailand, he has been busy learning to steer and "park" his new truck. He has also been enjoying all the new books, puzzles and toys he also received. I do think he was "birthday partied" out though. We had been practicing singing and blowing out candles for a couple of weeks, so by the time the big day arrived and the third cake came out (he'd already had one at school, one in the morning and then this one in the evening)...he was through! He didn't even want to sit at the table to blow out his candles - we had to take it to him while he played in his truck....and then didn't even want to try a bite of the yummy ice cream cake (which was more for me anyhow since I knew he wasn't going to want any!!)


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While we love watching and listening to E learn new stuff everyday, we don't love so much how he is learning to throw bigger fits lately when he doesn't get what he wants. There must be something magical about turning 2 because it seemed like just a couple of weeks before his 2nd birthday, this bigger attitude emerged out of nowhere and my sweet, little angel instantly became this little stinker whose new favorite word is...NO!....and of course "yes", when you are the one telling him "no"!! We even had our first public tantrum in the Krabi airport on our way back home....that was nice and embarrassing! Ahhh, the terrible 2's...they're here!!

I'll be sure and try and get a slide show of pictures from our trip out soon. We had a fantastic time. The weather was great and the resort was beautiful.