Tour of the Traveling Snoozers

Okay, okay. So I know we finished our Asia trip awhile ago. But I'm still going on and on about it aren't I?

I just can't help it.

And I think this is this last time I'll go on and on about it in another post.

At least for now.

This time it's all about my wee ones who slept in lots of places, and always looked super cute doing it.

SOOOOO what that means is that this is a long series of photos basically only of my kids sleeping in various places. And what THAT means is that if you're not a grandparent... you're probably not gonna care. And I'm okay with that.

Here goes nothin'...



First night on the 'road'= airplane sleeping. Not easy to achieve, but nice once it happens. It's easier for these three to achieve than myself. Ever since I became a Mom, my ability to sleep on most any form of transportation had ceased. It makes me sad. And tired. Mostly it just makes me tired. Can't a tired Mama get a bit of rest when her little loves do?

Apparently not.

Why God?!?!

Oh well. Moving on.



Night 1 in Nepal was at a guest house in Kathmandu. Yes, H apparently had a crazy flip flopping night and yes, we did put N's tent on the bed. It's great when there is an extra bed to use!



Nepal night 2 is in Pokhara. Small hotel room was perfect for us!

What you don't know from this picture is that H fell out of the bed in the middle of the night, smashed his face on the hard floor and had a nose bleed all over the bed and pillow.

Poor little dude.

So that explains...



Nepal nights 3 and 4. H's mattress on the floor. Smashed face and bloody nose averted.



Nepal night 5 back in Kathmandu. Back at the same guest house as before. If you squint your eyes, my boy H could be 12 months old again.

*tear*



Nepal night 6. Last night in Kathmandu. Tired pups.



Night 1 in a new place... storytime in Bangkok! This makes me smile.



Night 2 in Bangkok. Sweet N's tent covered on the floor in the corner. H's bed on the end of ours provided a wonderful extra-large jumping surface. In case you care.

With the extra bed and the sleeping tent set up, it left about 10 square feet of walking space. But we made it work!



Thailand Night 3. Hellooooo Cha Am! Girlie on the floor. Boy on the lounge chair pad that we took off the lounge chair and put on the floor. Hey! Whatever works!



Thailand night 4 in Cha Am. My boy really wanted to sleep in the pink crib they put in the room for sweet N. Why not?! She didn't know what she was missing and happily snoozed in her tent on the floor yet again.



Thailand night 5. H couldn't resist watching Mom and Dad's movie.



Nights 5 and 6 in Thailand. Still Cha Am. Arms behind the head. Love it. Bye bye beach.



Our last Thai sleep. Back in Bangkok. H in a big boy cot aaaaand sweet N is still in her tent on the floor.

Have I ever said how glad I am that we have taught our kids to sleep in a folds-up-super-teeny-tiny travel (sun) tent?!

I AM SOOOOOO GLAD!!!

There, I said it. (again)



Nighty Night on Day 1 in Taipei! Amazing room with a whole double bed for my boy H. Thanks Tavo and Chingju! Here we have some flip flopping from my boy and some tent-escaping from my girl.



Taiwan nights 2 and 3 . Loving his big bed.



The morning after night 4, which included another bloody nose, which explain why H's bed is stripped. And look at my girlie. She loves her tent. She's snoozing away.



Taiwan night 5. Back in a clean bed. So cozy. Sad to say goodbye that day.



Nights 1 and 2 in Colorado after a double-long day flying over the International Date Line!

We are LOOOVING the home we are borrowing in Colorado. H sleeps on the bottom (nevermind the pink covers) and sweet N is in a pack n' play... which is what she has slept in in Africa since she was a wee babe.

But we didn't settle in too long before we headed...



...Camping!! Night 1 of camping. This is the kitchen table folded down with N's tent on one side and H blocked in on the other side with the duffel.

Don't judge that we're in a cabin (with a toilet, fridge, hot plate and sink) and not roughing it in a tent. We're tough travelers, but we're not stupid. Ha! This is the way to do it folks. Take my word!

And yes, I am STILL allowed to call in camping. Just sayin'.



Night 2 camping. I love that they sleep so well in close proximity to each other. They are serious snoozing troopers!

After those two nights, we returned to the lovely borrowed home in Colorado. We've been here since.

And thus ends the tour of the traveling snoozers.

Thanks for comin'.

The Easiest Card

I recently posted about some genius ideas I noticed Taiwan. Well, this genius idea gets IT'S OWN POST because it's just that amazing!!



The EasyCard!!

The EasyCard is one card that gets you everywhere and can buy you almost anything!



Tap it to rent a bike.



Tap it to buy ice cream at Coldstone.



Tap it to ride the Metro.



Tap it to ride the bus.



Tap it to ride the Gondola!



And tap it to do whatever it is this photo is showing.

Use your imagination cause I can't remember.

I'm sure it was great.

You can use it at lots of little restaurants and even 7-11! It's pre-paid and so stinking convenient. No digging through your wallet for cash... just a little tap and you're through. Or just a little tap and that skinny soy decaf vanilla latte extra-hot can be yours. Or just a little tap and you'll be zipping off underground for your next meeting. I saw one lady had her card just inside her briefcase, cause she just held her briefcase up to the scanner at the Metro and the doors opened and off she went.

Let me clarify that there actually is no swiping, waiting, signing or showing of ID necessary. Literally it's a 'tap' and a 'beep' and you're done.

You're DONE and you're off to the next thing.

If that's not convenient, then I don't know what is.

Buuut I would have to have five EasyCards cause we're on the envelope budget and frankly I'd go crazy trying to keep track of how much on one card was used for gifts/food/misc/clothing/transportation.

Also, I'd like to say that I thought it a little Big-Brotherish until I learned that you purchase the card and re-load it and they never ask for your name. So there is no tracking your every move and your every candy (or coffee) addiction! Not like I have anything to hide...

Yes, I'd like this system to be implemented in every single place I ever visit.

K?

Thanks.

And thank YOU Taiwan... for being so amazingly genius.

Genius Taiwan

When in Taiwan... I regularly found myself saying "Ooooohh.... what a GREAT idea! This was followed by: "Why didn't I think of that?" or "Why don't they do that in Africa/U.S.A./any other place I've ever been?"

The place has got great ideas. Amazing ideas! It's like a hub of genius thinking and efficient stuff.

I have like, such a great way of describing things, huh?

I'll get to the point. I'd like to share some of these incredible innovations (might be a strong word for some of these) things we saw while in this super smart country.

1. Sealed drink cups



Um, is it just me or is this the greatest thing EVER? This is a made-to-order drink, not just an straight-outta-the-cooler one. When they're done making it (Bubble Tea, in this case) they just use the handy machine to actually seal the lid on. Then you poke a hole through the top with your straw and you've got a seriously non-spillable customized drink.

Would someone PLEASE start doing this in the rest of the world?!

Thank you.

2. Bus wait countdown signs



You can't tell from the pic, but this sign lists the wait time for the various buses. So you can glance up and know whether or not you have time to run to the nearest Mos Burger for quick bite before your bus comes. Maybe this is done in other places, I dunno.

Love it.

3. Menu ordering sheets



Lots of restaurants had these menu ordering sheets. So great. So instead of waiting for a waitress to come to the table to ask what you want, and then listing off a half dozen kinds of dumplings, a soup or two, some noodles, a rice dish and a type of tea...



...you just fill in the form yourself and hand it in when you're ready. Or in our case the one or two people in our group who could actually read Chinese and actually knew what it was they were ordering filled in the sheet and handed it in when we were ready.



Such a great idea!!

4. Space shuttle plate



This worked wonders. Maybe other places also serve food in cool containers for kiddos, I dunno.



But my boy even ate broccoli cause it was served in a space shuttle. BROCCOLI!

I need to get me one of these.



This was the place where the space shuttle flew in to serve my boy's dinner.

Thank you Royal Host. I owe ya one.

5. Elevator progress TV thingy



I realize this is a totally frivolous technology item. I mean, there is really no need to ever show the progress of an elevator to this degree (unless you're in an Oceans Eleven movie or something), but I thought it was neat-o.

That's all.

6. Fancy crayons



Also at Royal Host, instead of giving him three little crayons with his place-mat coloring sheet, they instead gave him one of those nifty pens with a rainbow of teeny crayons inside. My boy was exponentially more occupied because:

A. There were more than three colors
B. He could color with them
C. He could move them around inside the pen
D. He could crawl around on the floor looking for the tiny pieces when he inevitably dropped them.

It kept him so much busier than just three crayons!

This concludes my list of Taiwan Genius-ness. I am sure there is more where that came from, if I only had time to discover it. I have to say that I really appreciated the country's innovations and efficiency!

Gondolas and Ball Pits

Our last day in Taiwan was spent with Chingju as our guide.



To know her is to love her.

Just thought I'd tell ya, since most of you will never get to know her (sad for you).



She took us here,



where we got to do THIS!!

Gondolas!!!



Despite the dreary day, the view was beautiful. I loved it!



We chose the cabins with the glass floor which some may find freaky.

Not my son. He laid right on down and had himself a new perspective. No fear of heights in that little guy, I'm fairly certain.



I still like the rain, by the way.



And I like that my boy learned this in Taiwan.

Peace, dudes.



After our Gondola adventure, we took the metro across the city.

After I chased down my daughter, that is.



We spent a lot of time on the MRT.



Mid-morning it was so quiet. And it was ALWAYS so clean. One reason is cause they don't allow you to eat or drink in the MRT system.

Huh. Now there's a thought. It really worked. The place was spotless.



Oops. Guess Sweet N wasn't always happy about it. Silly girl.



We met Tavo for lunch here.



It was a busy place!



N loved the porridgy-rice.



And insisted on feeding herself. Which was fine except that I had no bathtub to throw her in when she was done.



We also ate dumplings, the kind with soup inside!

This was most challenging for the chopstick challenged.



We also tried sticky rice and other things that I didn't take a picture of because they were devoured faster than I wanted to put down my own chopsticks to take a photo.



After lunch we went to a mall where we knew the kiddos could have a little fun for themselves.



This was a little balloon room. I've never seen anything like it. So simple, so fun for littles!



Sweet N loved to just be in with all the balloons, My boy H loved to try to chase down a certain color that we'd tell him too.



Is she the sweetest, or what?



Then there was the ginormous ball pit.

Ball pits are one thing that the whole world has in common. Isn't that nice.

And yes, my girlie's nose is scraped. She falls down a lot. It comes with her age and the frequency with which she's been walking in new places, as opposed to places she's accustomed to walking...



She didn't fall down this, though!



And she could climb up the slide! Which is something my boy tried to do and couldn't.

She's a determined lil' thing with sticky pads on her knees or something...



We had a great day with Chingju! Thank you for showing us your city!