This is how one enjoys noodles!

At least according to Ben. See it for yourself.

Chatterbox

Ben has a lot on his mind these days. Last night, he woke up at 3 a.m. and was just there first in his crib and later in our bed chatting away for an hour. Now this is unusual because he has been sleeping through the night pretty much every night for a while now. It reminded us of the few nights after we came back from Bangkok when Ben, jetlagged at the time, would wake up in the middle of the night to play.

We have noticed that he's been extremely talkative the past couple weeks. He can repeat most simple words we say to him. This week he constantly says daddy, mamy, mae, bye-bye, ai-o (for hello) yummy. 'guk'--one of his very first words--remains his favorite, which he uses to refer to dog. From time to time, he says doggy but not dog. So perhaps he needs that extra chat time? Who knows.

Also he has been spending a lot of time on the phone lately. It's cool that he can now seamlessly handle the phone. He used to put it in the back of his head, turned over or upside down. Now looks like he did get the phone skill down. Check out Ben talking on his toy cell phone.

Spoon work

Double B decided that he's now a big boy and needs to be able to eat on his own. He has been insisting that he use proper utensil while he's at a dining table. Starting with using a spoon, he is totally excited and proud that he now can use the spoon and actually get the food in his mouth. Up till now, it's been kind of hit and miss. Sometimes he managed to get food in his mouth, other times and a lot of times, it ended up on the floor, on his face, his shirt, his lap etc. Mom still does some intervention (of spoon feeding) to make sure that Double B gets enough food. But he's pretty psyched with this newly-mastered skill. Note that he uses his left hand in this video. On other occasions, he's as good with his right hand. So no strong indication yet as to his left vs right hand preference.

Big Ben at the Beach

Once we're all rested and adjusted to local time, we were headed toward Hua-Hin beach town about 2.5 hours southwest of Bangkok. Little Big Ben had a blast dipping his feet in the warm Pacific ocean, walking on the white sandy beach and tasting yummy local seafood like fresh crab fried rice. He still didn't want to go into the water. Maybe next year. But the best part is just to hang out with Khun Tas, Khun Yai, Uncle Paulie and Na Pui. The Dusit Thani was awesome and Dad said we definitely have to go back there when the ear doesn't bother him. Dad was such a good sport.

Check out some photos of Ben.

Off to the land of Smiles

Too excited to sleep..

Little Big Ben went to bed as usual only to be awaken at 10 p.m. as Dad picked him up from his crib to get into the car in order to catch the midnight flight to Bangkok. Despite the sleep interruption, Ben was as awake and happy as can be. Well of course, he will see Khun Yai, Khun Ta and everyone in only less than 20 hours. Mom and Dad, meanwhile, were nervous. It turned out that Double B only slept for five hours as he was more interested in making new friends or moving about the cabin. MAD somehow gave it an A- and thought that it wasn't so bad after all. There were plenty of other babies for Ben to play with and those five hours were...well, something.

Once there, all Ben had to do was sleeping a lot for two days before adjusting nicely to the new time zone. All he needed was his all-night sleep, his two naps and the awesome baby food Khun Yai and Khun Yai Aae made. They both are angels. Mom gladly enjoyed this unexpected break for baby food duty and even brought home some awesome recipes.

1..2..3..and Yippeeeee!

Morning Stroll with Khun Yai Aae

Oakland Zoo

The weather was nice last weekend so little Big Ben went to the zoo. Grandma, Grandpa and Na Som, who's visiting form Korea, also joined--which made it all the more fun.

It seems that Ben was most impressed by the monkeys, although Mom and Dad thought the giraffes and the zebras were so awesome.

Little Big Ben had a great time checking out the animals, watching big kids run around and wielding some random stick. What a great day!

Tumbling tower