It is amazing how much babies (and their parents) grow in just months! The girls are almost a year old, constantly in motion, and beginning to stretch out! We are being stretched in many ways too as they adjust to new needs (solid food) and milestones (like baby-proofing the house)! It’s so special to see A&E becoming buddies and exploring together. The last few months have had many adventures, joys, and challenges. We are excited to share a few with you!
Tokyo (October Break)
For October Break, we went to Tokyo for a week! It was really exciting to visit a new country from our bucket list and a “test” to see how well the girls would handle an airplane. Looking back, this was a great time to travel with infants-in-arms because the girls were not super mobile yet and happy to sleep in our laps. It was more difficult than we expected in some ways and we learned a lot about how to make the process more efficient for Christmas (like not checking strollers so you can put the babies down for transfers and in customs lines).
We met Lyndsey’s parents there. It was SO sweet to see the girls, Gigi & Grandpa bond (Watching this was Lyndsey’s favorite part)! We stayed near Ueno Park and explored from there. It was wonderful to travel around the city on such a well designed and expansive train system! Finding the elevator for a stroller could occasionally be a challenge, but Jonathan and Rob could carry the stroller and baby up the stairs, if needed (which happened a few times).
Our exploration goals were usually focused on food or art, but we really enjoyed the journey through the city as well as the destinations. Some highlights for Jonathan were chilly walks through various parks in the mornings, sipping on a hot coffee from 7-eleven, seeing the giant Unicorn Gundam statue at the Gundam Base, and being inspired by a huge painting exhibition at the National Art Center Tokyo. Lyndsey loved family time, experiencing interactive art installations at TeamLab Planets, and eating really delicious and nutritious food (like the amazing traditional vegan set meal at Sougo).
Maker’s Fair
After October Break, we returned to Bangkok for the last few months of the semester, which is always crazy with projects, grading, holiday parties, and sharing festive meals with coworkers and friends. A fun new addition to the busyness was a holiday arts and crafts fair organized by our friend Asia. Over 50 booths sold food, drinks, arts, crafts, and all manner of interesting things over two days. Jonathan and Lyndsey shared a table and had lots of fun connecting with the community and seeing the numerous creative projects. Lyndsey made lemon zucchini cake, colorful marshmallow treats, and strawberry crumb bars. They looked amazing and very professional with stickers and really nice packaging. Jonathan had a big pile of ceramics pieces, framed watercolor sketches, and some postcard prints of recent paintings.
Christmas in America
The biggest adventure was definitely traveling back to The States for Christmas. We were very excited to introduce the girls to their extended family, in-person. Equipped with our Tokyo travel knowledge, we packed our bags and loaded the twins up for a 27-hour journey across the world. Logistically, we couldn’t have asked for a better experience. On all of the major flights, we had bulkhead seats with bassinets for the girls. The flight attendants were very accommodating and we had friendly passengers around us. BUT, that is a long time to hold/restrain/calm/entertain babies who would like to be crawling around. Jonathan didn’t get a wink of sleep (neither did Lyndsey, but she took an hour nap in the afternoon) and had worked a full day before we left for their airport.
By the time we finally touched down in the States we were worn out and severely jet lagged. Thankfully our wonderful families swooped in and made the rest of the trip go much more smoothly. It was so special to spend quality time with many groups of family and a few friends. All of the goodbyes were so hard, especially having to take the babies. We’re already looking to the next time to get together, but in the meantime, enjoy showing off milestones on video calls.
New semester
Jonathan started a new semester in January with only AP art continuing for the full year. It has been a clay filled spring with two sections of 3D design making pottery, but overall the schedule has been a little lighter. The fewer times he has to switch materials and classrooms the better! It feels like the semester just started, but we have already finished nine weeks of school and are closing in on the grading deadline of third quarter report cards.
A fun recent event for Jonathan was helping chaperone the 10th grade Service and Learning Trip (SALT) to Kanchanaburi province. He enjoyed designing and printing the student workbooks for the trip. These booklets included an outline of the schedule and activities, and reflection questions for the students to complete. Students served local children, visited the Hellfire Pass Museum, and toured a hydroelectric dam. The highlight is always hiking up and swimming in the pools of Erawan Falls. It was hard to be away from Lyndsey and the girls for 4 days but Jonathan was very thankful that friends and our nanny stepped in even more than usual to help!
After school, J has been wrapping up a few new paintings to share at the Faculty Art Show next month. Keep your eyes on his Instagram account to see them soon!
Lyndsey is also enjoying connecting with moms at the playground before school starts some mornings. She cannot believe her LifeGroup girls of 4 years just went on Senior Trip and are preparing for college all around the world. She is very proud and is still enjoying mentoring them in these transitions and their faith each week. Lyndsey has also received more opportunities to consult women of reproductive age 1:1 recently, so she is encouraged in encouraging moms!
She had the opportunity to give pre- and post-natal nutrition education workshops at a baby cafe in downtown Bangkok. She was so pleased with the turnout and participation! There was so much engagement and moms’ questions really made her think! Lyndsey did an instagram series on introducing solid foods, particularly common allergens, to babies. Now she is diving back into nutrients, specifically micronutrients like vitamins & minerals, and how busy moms can eat them easily, on a budget.
Thank you for your continued support. If you’d like to donate to the work we are doing here in Bangkok, please see the “Giving” tab at the top. Otherwise, we appreciate your prayers and hope you will update us on your lives in response to seeing this post 🙂
Sincerely,
J+L
