Ups and Downs

The title explains the last couple of days in a nutshell. We've had epic tantrums and fun play times. I am really glad we left Bangkok for the beach. This resort is amazingly beautiful as well as being pretty big. The Pantip is wonderful, but it is in the middle of the city and the garden area can only be so big. Here if he is having a fit, we can walk down the beach where no one can hear. :) It is the slow season here too, so not very crowded and the staff has been great!

To backtrack a bit, yesterday we went to the embassy in the morning. Tut woke up crying and stayed pretty grumpy most of the time until we left. He enjoyed the taxi ride. At the embassy, it didn't take too long to go through security, they even had us leave our umbrellas at the security desk, and then we headed in to wait. We were only there about an hour and a half total, but Tut did not like to sit in the air conditioning and wanted to be carried around outside. So, it was also a hot and sweaty morning. Pat and her assistant gave the embassy staff the paperwork they needed, so all we really had to do was entertain the kids until the short interview at the window number 5. 

Tut was not happy and wanted to have us carry him around back and forth. After a while of crying, he suddenly decided he wanted to play with the ball we brought. So we threw it back and forth for a bit and he was happy. Then he was done and went right back to fussing. The other family went first and their interview seemed to take a while. Then it was our turn and Tut did not want us to stand still in the air conditioned room so he cried and screamed the entire interview. That is probably why ours only took about 5 minutes. :) The officer just wanted our verbal assurance and signature that we really wanted to go through with the adoption. With Tut's little display, I think he wanted to be extra sure so he asked us twice. :) We got a piece of paper to bring back on Tuesday at 1pm to get the visa! Now all of the official appointments are over.

Right after we got back to the hotel, we ate the leftovers we had in the fridge and finished packing up the bags. Tut was still crying, but he let me hand feed him most of his scrambled egg in between crying. Then when we knew the taxi was coming to take us to the beach, we got everything together and headed down to the lobby. When Tut figured out that we were leaving, he stopped crying and became playful. He didn't even cry in the lobby. He played with a teddy bear in the taxi on the 2.5 hour drive and fell asleep pretty easily.

He was only fussy after we stopped for a bathroom break and he woke up from his nap prematurely. When we arrived at the Marriott resort, he wasn't too happy that we stopped "bpai" or "go" which is his favorite word. 

The resort is amazing and, best of all, free because of all the Marriott points I earned from all of my training this past year. It is a bit isolated, so the only real food choices are the hotel restaurants but it has been great so far.

This is the bathroom in our room. It is very Asian with lots of multipurpose space and sliding doors.

This is the view from the room.

They upgraded us to an ocean view room probably because of the slow season. Pretty amazing view and the daybed next to the full length window is a great idea. If anyone wants to honeymoon or second honeymoon in Thailand, you should stay here! It is also great for kids, other than Tut, because the kid's club area is really neat.

After checking in and watching Tut hang on the door handle, we decided to go for a walk around the property. He cried most of the time, but we had a nice walk on the beach and exploring the different pools. 

Tut was not quite brave enough to be set down on the beach, but he looked interested.

We bought a couple of sandwiches from the sandwich shop and ate them in the open air bottom floor of the hotel where Tut could stand and cry at us without bothering anyone. He did eat some chicken and ham from our sandwiches. Then we headed up to the room hoping that Tut would cry himself to sleep before too long. After an unhappy bath, I wrapped him in a towel and sat on the daybed with him. I don't know why, but he got quiet and then became playful. We played for an hour or so with the pillows on the bed.

Then he fussed a bit more, before playing himself to sleep on the bed. That was the first time he fell asleep without crying other than in the car.

He had a bit of a restless night and now seems to have the start of a cold, so he woke up crying at around 6am. He cried non stop in the room for about 2 hours before we finally decided to go try breakfast. He was vey discontent at breakfast so we asked to sit outside. The breakfast buffet is a bit expensive, but it is huge and the staff were worth the price. They all tried to make Tut happy and one took him to tour the buffet and find something he liked. It didn't really work, but we were able to eat in peace for a few minutes. He seemed a bit consoled by this huge bear of candy they gave him. :) He has been enjoying the marshmallow candies today.

We took some leftovers in case he got hungry later, he had one of the muffins for dinner.

After returning to the room to change into bathing suits, we took him to the kid's club for cookie making. 

He was not interested in playing and did a lot of crying, but there were some moments of playfulness. It was a much better place for his crying than our room. I made some cookies with him on my lap and he seemed interested, but not to participate. 

This place was a kid's dream! It is all open with a second level that has a ball pit (like at McDonalds), a dress up area, tons of toys, some video game stations, a movie room, etc. the resort is less than a year old, so the place is in great shape. Tut was not interested.

He did eat a lot of peanuts from the trail mix we brought. He would go cry by the door, come get a peanut from me and repeat. Robby got to go swim in the nice pools, but Tut has become anxiously attached to me, so he doesn't like it if I am out of his sight. He still lets both of us care for him though. He also seems to be a bit confused, because later today when he wanted to go back to Robby, he said bpai Mommy. It took me a minute to figure it out. :)

After a couple of hours of the kid's club and it stopped raining, we decided to try the kiddie pool. At first he wanted nothing to do with it, but after sitting on the edge with him, he started enjoying it and let Robby go through the "rain" part with him.

He wasn't quite ready to stand in it on his own, but we had a good time there for a while. He even ran around a bit. At lunchtime, we got more sandwiches and he actually didn't cry and ate some of the food. He very sleepy, but he still didn't want to go to sleep. He cried himself to sleep and slept for only 40 minutes before he woke himself up by coughing. It was obvious he was still exhausted, but he wouldn't go back to sleep. We finally went out and did a lot of walking around before going back to the kiddie pool.

He cried most of the time, usually endlessly repeating one of several favorite phrases. Bpai noon (go over there); bpai gin nawn (go eat or drink 'word we don't understand') all the Thai people we've asked don't know what nawn refers to. He also uses gin nom to either mean drink his milk or eat a snack.

He had an epic tantrum by the kiddie pool.

Finally we decided we had to bite the bullet and try to get him to eat something and go to sleep in the room. We headed up to the room and somewhere on the way he decided to stop crying. When we got to the room, he played, ate part of a muffin, and fell asleep. All without crying. Then we ordered room service for ourselves. :) Hopefully he sleeps better tonight, but there have definitely been a lot of ups and downs.

Isn't the teddy bear cute? Good night!