ahhhh The Concrete Slab

Bangkok is a huge slab of concrete. But it's my favorite slab of concrete in the world. This city will forever have a special place in my heart.
We arrived here yesterday evening exhausted after a long day of travel with a 4 month old. But Eden did great on the flights and was a huge hit with most of the passengers due to her laid back personality.
As soon as we stepped out of the airport, the heat wave of Bangkok hit us straight in the face. We suddenly became aware of our long sleeves, jeans, and socks and shoes. Working up a sweat just waiting in line for a taxi, our minds wandered back to the freezing weather we left back home. As we drove from our home to the airport that morning, we crossed a bridge over a frozen lake with several men ice fishing. And now suddenly we were sweating.
As we pulled up to our hotel last night, the same hotel we stayed in for 2 months just 4 months ago, we remembered why we love this city so much. Thai people are amazingly friendly. Their "wai" and "Sawatdeekaaaaaa!" greeting will make even The Grinch smile. Thai women have an obsession with babies too, so every girl we pass does the, "ahhhh little baby!" coo and makes weird faces at Eden. After so many Chinese faces and so many Thai faces flirting with her all day, I wonder if she even knows that people with other hair colors exist.
And of course, Bangkok is the home to our most favorite hospital in the world, Eden's birthplace, Bumrungrad International Hospital. Which in essence, is the real reason this city holds such a special place in my heart.
Other factors include:
Fresh flowers and fountains on every street corner.
3 Amazing malls within walking distance of our hotel.
An Outback, Tony Roma's, Starbucks, Au Bon Pain, & our newest additions: AkBar (indian food) and Beirut (Lebanese food. duh) right around the corner.
Cars that look and feel like what I imagine the Indy 500 feels like.

I could go on and on. But in order to make this blog shorter...I won't.
We're here for a few weeks, which means our blog may go to the wayside for awhile. Hope you'll stick around as we hope to update again once we're back home.

Crispety Crunchety Peanut-Buttery

We've been to a lot of places.
We've handled a lot of money.
The Euro.
Hong Kong Dollar.
Canadian Dollar.
Australian Dollar.
Thai Baht.
Chinese Yuan.
Korean Won.
Indian Rupee.

But this past week a new currency was born in the Chancler household.

It all began one Monday morning when the post office ladies informed us that we had a package awaiting our eager little hands. Soon after we opened it, our eyes gleamed with excitement. My mom sent us four of the much coveted Butterfinger candy bars. Brandon immediately decided he was going to use at least one for making his own version of a "blizzard." I thought about eating one the way my sister eats them...first by licking all of the chocolate off and then chomping down on the crispety crunchety part. But we decided to wait a little while before indulging.

That evening was also another much anticipated event. Rachel C's Masterpiece Quesadillas. (I know, we talk about food a lot) It was going to be my first attempt at the cheesy folded goodness. And I worked hard...because I had a lot to live up to. First came the homemade tortillas, then the slicing of onions and bell peppers, then frying up in precious olive oil. I did it just as I'd been so carefully taught. I even whipped up some homemade guacamole with our frozen stash of avocados. I went all out.
And they turned out amazing...even if I do say so myself. There's no way they were better than the Mastermind herself :) but they were really good.


So on with the story.
Brandon eyed them carefully, his palate remembering back to the day we first tasted the Masterpiece Quesadilla. I could see on his face that he was questioning whether they'd really be Masterpiece quality or not. He slathered on some guacamole and two bites in he mumbled through a full bite, "Oh my gosh. Holy crap. I have a new favorite. And just for this, I'm paying you half of one of my Butterfingers."

And so the Chancler Butterfinger was born. And our economy thrived for several days as we went on a spending spree of Butterfingers. But it's as they say...All good things must come to an end. We spent our remaining Butterfinger last night after Brandon brought home two cups of McDonald's ice cream. We chopped up the last one (something I don't recommend doing to the currency you are currently using) and sprinkled it ever so carefully over the vanilla ice cream.


So we're butterfinger-broke now, but it was our favorite currency we've ever owned. The most fun kind. The edible kind.

Crowded Streets

Last week I went over to our personal tailor's dress shop to ask them to make me some khaki pants. These women are awesome. And they are surrounded by bolts and bolts of beautiful Chinese silk. It's incredible. They've made several things for us, including a few Christmas presents sent back home to family, but this was the first time they have made anything specifically for me. Their faces lit up today when I walked in the store because last time I told them that when I came again I'd bring my daughter. Much to their disappointment though, I left Eden at home today since the temperature has yet to rise above freezing for the past few days.

Pants in hand, I made my way back to our apartment on foot...sacrificing ever having feeling in my fingers again so that I could maneuver the camera well enough to satisfy you, our reader's, desire for more pictures of Silk City.

So here it is readers. A few views of Mei Shi Jie...the street that has (almost) everything.

Sorry. I know that's a little blurry. But I thought she was cute in her blue hat and yellow gloves.

I approached the sweet lady in the purple scarf selling these "mini-sweet-oranges" and discovered a secret to photo taking in China: Don't ask, just do it. I asked her if I could take her picture and she replied, "No no no! I'm not good to look at, but these oranges are. Take a picture of the oranges."
So I reluctantly took a picture of the oranges. But just know, the lady was far more beautiful than the oranges.

Between our home and Mei Shi Jie is one of the craziest (among many) intersections in our city. It's not Number One on the Crazy Intersection Scale (that's gotta exist) by any means, but it's pretty chaotic as far as we're concerned. You can just tell there's no order to it at all. Bikes, pedestrians, cars, motorcycles...all just do what they please. But, well, that's normal for intersections in China.

Plethora of Pictures & a Request for our Readers!

Ok, so I realize that just about every other post on here actually is a "Plethora of Eden Pictures," so I'm taking a cue from a friend and changing things up a bit.

With a new blog look and our 100th post (woohoo!!), we need new blog stories...

I know you all love seeing pictures of Eden, but we want to know what else you'd love to hear about! (because otherwise, this trend will continue...picture post, filler post, picture post, excuse-of-a-post, picture post)

So tell us what it is you are dying to hear about living in Chiner, this crazy culture, or life without your Drive-In Sonic. Because honestly after a year and a half of living in Chiner, it starts to get normal (never thought that day would come!) The non-refrigerated milk and eggs, the endless fireworks, the fact that there are more bikes on the road than cars...it all starts to become normal. I've run out of exciting and culture-ific tales to tell.

And in a few months we'll be headed back across the Pacific Ocean and long gone will be the days of chopstick stories. So here's your chance, YOU tell us what you want to read on our blog! Leave us a comment at the bottom of this post...even all you secret blog readers out there (we know you're there, we see your dot on our cluster map, you're not so sneaky after all!)

And if there are no comments, then NO blog for you! Well, ok, that's a bit drastic. We all know I can't resist the urge to blog about nonsense. But then I'll just have to resort to more pictures of precious little Eden! :)


Trying on her new hat for Thailand:

Not sure what to think about Xiao Zhang:

Bath time:

First time in booster seat...and LOVIN it!


An ode to the previous Two-Step post, sportin her Texas Rangers outfit.

Discovering the art of making faces...

and as a result, getting drool on her shirt.

Texas Two-Step

Yesterday was one of those days. A whiney day. Eden wasn't crying, but she wasn't happy either. She was just whiney. We tried the bouncer, the swing, reading books, belly time, back time, playmat, pacifier, lights off, more clothes, less clothes...all to no avail. She just wanted to whine.

By the time dinner rolled around, my nerves were rattled enough that I just thought we'd whine together. I picked her up, put on some twangy (whiney) country music and did the Texas Two-Step together around the living room. She LOVED it. Sure the kiddo was born in Thailand and currently resides in China, but she's truly a Texan at heart. She was enjoying that two-step action and within 5 minutes was sleeping like...well, sleeping like a baby.
I always knew my parents taught me some excellent tactics for child-rearing, but who would have thought those Two-Step lessons from my daddy would come in handy with my little girl?!

So we danced, and continued to dance while Brandon finished frying up our tortillas for tacos (it was an all-around Texas night). And by the time we'd gone through six or seven songs, she'd had herself a long enough cat-nap to be happy the rest of the evening.

Call it colic, call it a gassy belly, call it overtired, wired, or just a whiney baby...but I'm pretty sure she just needed some time to return to her Texas roots and dance in her momma's arms.

Got Frozen Milk?

Has your kitchen ever been so cold that it freezes the items INSIDE your refrigerator? No? Well, welcome to our world. This morning we got two surprises...
Surprise #1: A nice thin layer of snow covering the ground. The first snow we've seen in Silk City!
Surprise #2: Frozen milk inside our refrigerator.

Our kitchen got so cold over night that even the food inside our quaint little ice box was frozen.
Here's a look at our kitchen:

Our kitchen is on the other side of that door. And it's literally freezing out there. It's closed off from the rest of our apartment. I'm not sure why the Chinese designed apartments this way (note: not all of them are this way)...I personally think it's an evil ploy to make people lose weight. (like the Chinese really need that!) Because really, what sane person is going to want to fry up an egg for breakfast in a kitchen that is below freezing? Our breakfast habits have really gone downhill since winter arrived...not exactly a healthy diet plan. Brandon has to put on his thermal underwear if he wants coffee in the morning! And the last few days I've cooked dinner with my coat on. I'm pretty sure that's not what the creator's of North Face had in mind when creating their "Denali" fleece. But on a positive note: our stove really is similar to a Coleman Camping Stove, so it's only appropriate that we truly get into the camping spirit by donning our winter camping gear!
Anyways, we've turned up the temp inside our refrigerator to let things thaw out a little. And there's really no use for our freezer right now. We could set everything out on the counter and it would be just fine. And you can imagine how the dishes pile up in the sink...washing them isn't easy when you have to wear a parka.

Some first laughs...

A week or so ago we got Eden to give us some pretty good laughs by shouting "Bacon!" really loud. (I know, she's a weirdo...maybe she's finding some identity in being born in the year of the pig...) But today we finally got some on video. Enjoy.

3 Months!

Eden passed her three month mark this weekend! She's growing lots and achieving all sorts of fun stuff! She's getting more personality, learning to roll on her side, and learning to sit up without help! All kinds of fun stuff...


and as promised, her Christmas photo we sent all the fam