two peas in a pod [father's day 2012]

[t-shirt designed by the talented, zany, & all around fabulous friend, zack rock! ]

[16 months]

cedar is running full speed ahead into toddlerhood & so far, we've really been enjoying this phase with him! he's able to walk solidly now, so we have much fewer spills & tears. he can communicate pretty well what he wants, which makes life easier for all of us. he's split pretty evenly between english & khmer vocabulary (although its very possible that he knows some khmer words that we don't recognize as words!)

 the last few months cedar has been happiest when playing with balls, looking at books, cuddling with his blanket & teddy bear, following ming kohm "yay, yay" (grandma) around the house & most of all, when playing in any sort of running water. he's started the beginnings of temper tantrums (which are nearly 100% correlated to times he has had to stop playing with running water) & seems to have learned very well how to dramatically throw himself on the ground when he doesn't want to do something/stop doing something.

most of the time, he's still our mellow & sweet little guy & (although we didn't think it was possible) even cuter, now that he has his own pair of suspenders!

koh thmei [island escape]

one good (is that possible?) thing about the hot season here is that is comes with lots of holidays.  after our april travels to sihanoukville & mondulkiri, we still got to celebrate the king's birthday in may with a 4-day long weekend.  so, we hopped on a bus & then some moto taxis & finally a boat with our friend lisa to check out koh thmei, an island off the coast of cambodia.   it was remote, relaxing & refreshing & went by in a flash!  before we knew it we were sailing the fishing boat through a thunder storm on our way back to meet our bus to phnom penh.  we got a bit nervous when the driver started bailing out buckets full of the rain water collecting in the boat, but all's well that end's well!

snapshots [may 2012]

seven

2 x 7 = more love, adventures & blessing than we ever could have imagined.

gratitude [o canada]

[thanks auntie jamie sue for the reminder of canadian pride, even if i've haven't been there just yet!]

international workers' day

On May 1st we were privileged to join with thousands of Cambodian workers to celebrate International Workers' Day.  Interestingly, it was a holiday that originated in Chicago, but is no longer celebrated in the USA.  

The workers, from several unions in Cambodia and largely young women from the garment factories, were marching to present a petition to the government asking for the monthly minimum wage to be raised to a living wage of $131.  Yes, you read that correctly, $131 per month.  I know purchasing power parity is at play, but still that's less than my previous job in Canada paid per day.  Something about that just doesn't seem right.

I think their signs speak for themselves.

:: a decent wage for workers is the simplest form of justice::