A dozen things to be thankful for here in Vientiane

Pre-Script: I wrote this post yesterday and was telling Mike about it last night, when he informed me that Thanksgiving is next week. Oh well. I’m gonna post it anyway, because things have been going really well, but I saw pickups and workers arriving at the unfinished houses next door this morning and now the sweet strains of electric power tools and nail guns are serenading us. If this becomes the new norm, then next week it might have all gone to hell in a hand basket and I’ll want to write about that, so I better get my happy thanksgiving post in while I’m still feeling the vibe.

On that optimistic note, here’s my happy thanksgiving post…

We’ve been back in Laos four weeks today and it’s American Thanksgiving tomorrow – my favorite US holiday. I adore the combination of turkey, cranberry, bean casserole, and sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top (a truly ridiculous, but delicious, concoction).

Over here in Laos, Mike and I are celebrating by … eating spaghetti.

It’s our own fault, really. We didn’t move fast enough during these last four weeks to make American friends. Hence, no one has issued us the “newbies-in-town-pity-invitation” to join them for dinner (an invitation which I would have accepted with shameless alacrity).

Also, I didn’t realize it was Thanksgiving this week until two days ago. I had already recklessly agreed to host a playgroup for about 30 people at our house tomorrow, which is going to leave exactly zero time and energy for doing things like finding (not to mention cooking) imported delicacies like butterball turkeys, French fried onions, and marshmallows.

Sad.

But in the spirit of rising above deprivation and striving to remember that the reason for the season is not all about the food, I thought I’d write a post about things I’m thankful for right now. In no particular order, here goes …

1.  Baby laughter. Best sound ever.

2.  I’m officially living in the same country as Mike again for the first time since April. And tonight we’re going on our first “date night”. We’re hoping to make these weekly events, but since it’s the first time we’re leaving both boys since we arrived, tonight we’re just ducking up the street to a local Thai place for a quick trial run.

3.  Dominic has finally stopped telling me he wants to go “Papa home” “Nana home” a dozen times a day. We’re down to once or twice, which is great progress. Now, when we get in the car here he says “new home”. He also says “gap ban” which is kinda the same thing, only in Lao.

4.  Alex is generally only waking me up twice a night to feed (2 and 5). Daytime naps are a different matter, but he’s a decent night sleeper at the moment. Mike and I are dividing and conquering when it comes to the boys and sleep. Mike is sleeping in our room with Dominic’s monitor. I’m sleeping in the guest room with Alex in bed with me. I’m loving it. Seriously. I am. The fact that I love sleeping with my babies right next to me has been one of the most surprising personal discoveries of my thirties.

5.  The weather here at the moment. I haven’t had to turn on an air-conditioner during the day for three days now. Absolutely stoked.

The front of our “new home”

6.  When I cook a thousand cookies (like I did today) our maebaan, Pok, washes all the dishes. And when I have to pee, or clean baby spit up off my clothes, or deal with Dominic, I can usually hand Alex to Pok. In fact, let’s just say I’m hugely thankful for Pok all round.

7.  We hired Pok’s husband, Sisana, as a driver because I made the strategic decision that I did not have the spare energy or emotional equilibrium to learn how to drive a stick shift land cruiser and pilot it around Vientiane when I can’t even read the Abugida script the street signs are written in. I still have to figure out my way around here because Sisana can’t read, write, or speak English. Communicating exactly where I want to go is a challenge, but we’ll get there. As an added bonus to having a driver, after three weeks of hanging off me like a limpet Dominic has taken to wandering outside and playing in the sand with Sisana sometimes. Win.

8.  With Mike’s help, I’ve figured out where two local veggie markets are located and not one, but two grocery stores. And, guys, wow. You can buy heaps more stuff in Vientiane than we ever could in Luang Prabang. There are even a couple of toy stores here. You’ll pay for those imported luxuries, mind you. But it means that if you have a sudden craving for something like fajitas you can buy a packet mix of fajita spices for $2.50. Today I spent $5 on a box of chocolate chip cookie mix and made them for tomorrow’s playgroup. Then I ate six of them. It’s a bit demoralizing when cookies that came out of a box taste better than most things you’ve painstakingly made from scratch during the last month.

9.  We have an oven in this house. And it heats to the temperature on the dial. And there’s (usually) warm water at the kitchen sink. Rock on.

10.  The house is single story and the kitchen, dining, and living areas are all one big room. It’s super easy for me to watch the kids while I’m making dinner, and I don’t have to worry about anyone falling down a long flight of stairs.

11.  Skype and email. As always. We often Skype my parents for a quick “NanaPapa” fix, and last week Dominic’s cousin, Tahlia, who lives in Washington DC read him a story via video Skype. Isn’t that amazing?? I mean, when you really think about it’s just mind-blowing.

12. Last weekend my sister in law, Lou, was unexpectedly in town for work. We got to hang out and she got to meet Alex. Sweet serendipity.

13. Playgroups!! I’ve made it to a mother’s group here four times now. Consequently I’ve met more mothers here during the last three weeks than I met during my entire time up in Luang Prabang. I’m looking forward to these regular group meet-ups with other mothers. I’ll be watching to see how other mothers deal with it when their child bonks another child on the head, then turns around and bites their parent while he’s being sternly scolded, and then laughs when he gets smacked for biting, for example…

 It’s Thursday afternoon here now. We survived hosting the playgroup just fine, although Dominic made an ignominious exit to his crib – slung over my shoulder and shrieking with glee – after the aforementioned behavior. I’m scrambling to get this post up before he wakes up.

For all the Americans who are reading this, I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving next week. Oh, and if you know any Americans over here in Vientiane, drop them a line and tell them to invite us around for dinner :).  Tell them we might be brazen when it comes to soliciting dinner invitations but we’re good company (when no one is biting anyone, anyway). Also, we’d bring wine.

P.S. Bonus photo. Ever wondered what happens when you take a two year old who’s never really been in a toystore before to the Chinese market where there are cheap plastic toys galore? This…

“Smile, Dominic”