Bangkok, Tuesday

Lessons learned today:

1. Don't mess with naptime

2. Beware the peppers in your Thai curry

In honor of S--'s 1st birthday, I decided we must venture out. Boat - Skytrain - Mall to the aquarium in the basement. At full price for myself and half price for L-- (being over 80 cm tall), the price was pretty steep. But it provided a good place to while away an hour or so. L-- set the pace, deciding which tanks to cruise by and which fish to study. I decided that when I am an architect specializing in public spaces, I will design museums with two tracks to keep the schools of children separate from the rest of us. A tank showed a school of fish moving together as with one motion, much like the swarms of children piling past us. Still, the larger tanks kept everyone occupied and the aquarium had a toddler area blissfully free of school uniforms.

Proud of myself for managing to feed the three of us in the mall food court - a shopping cart for both stroller and high chairs, and unidentified food - I ignored the clock and shopped for treats. Bears for the girls - after all, it was S--'s birthday. And novels for me - I read an impressive amount when keeping toddler hours. It was after 3:00 when we arrived back at the room, but my real downfall was that I had allowed S-- to sleep on the boat. Although it would have been mighty hard to prevent. Crying in the backpack, she threw her head back to howl and fell dead asleep. Head thrown back and mouth wide open. By the time I stepped off the boat, her whole body was limp and she was in a heavy sleep. Those sound 20 minutes prevented both her and her sister from napping the rest of the afternoon.

Dinner at the onsite restaurant, I shot for affordability. The girls shared macaroni and cheese, and I ordered Thai vegetable curry. Mighty tasty, but one bight of a red pepper and my mouth burned for the next hour.