Clarification

Someone asked me if we were coming home for good in October. No. We are just coming home for an extended vacation and to deliver the baby. We will return to this side of the world mid March.

To tell our family we were expecting again AB wore this t-shirt. I think I bought it planning on her wearing it when the baby is actually born. That is the only way I can rationalize why I got her a size 2T and why it is long sleeve. I cannot remember what I was thinking.

Slide Saga

Although there are a lot of things we have to do without (hamburgers, baked cheetoes, dill pickles, sour cream, bag salad, scented candles...), living overseas where a lot of things are manufactured sometimes can be helpful. There is a website we can use to find "extras" of things that are manufactured for use overseas. Let's say a company from the U.S. orders 5,000 of something. Usually the factory will make 5,100 so they can discard the defective items, but in truth they do not discard them. They sell them on this website we use. Sometimes they cost the same, more or less as in the US, but really I do not understand their pricing methods.

I have wanted to get AB a slide for a quite a while. I noticed that Little Tykes says they are manufactured in the US, but I saw them on this local website. I figured maybe they are just put together in the US while their actual parts are made overseas. The picture on the local website was straight from the Little Tykes website, and the price was around the same. It is really nifty if anyone wants to get one in the US, it collapses and is quite handy for people who need to save space.

Anyways, we ordered it, and we received it 2 days later. As I put it together I noticed some parts did not fit together very well, the basketball net and the basket ball were really cheap (the lines on the ball were drawn in with a sharpie), and then I saw it. It was not Little Tykes. It was a faux Little Tykes.

I would have been perfectly fine with keeping it if: 1. The fake Little Tykes cost less than the real one, because it did not cost less; 2. They had been forthcoming with its faux-ness when we ordered it, and 3. They had not tried to convince me it really was Little Tykes when we confronted them about it (it has an entire different company name stamped on it).

We spent the next month trying to return it. It was a super pain, but for me it was all about the principal. I figure I learned my lesson and will get AB the slide I saw at Ikea next time we are there. Faux Little Tykes, humph, what has the world come to?

Small Steps to Victory

Today when AB was holding on to the end table and making that "poo face," I asked her, "are you pooping?" She nodded her head yes. I was so proud!

I ask her this every time I catch her in the act. She is 17 months old, and I have heard that big transitions (i.e. going back to the U.S.) can really mess up potty training, so I am going to wait until we are in the U.S. in less than 4 months to begin officially potty training. Still I am encouraged that she is aware of the poops. Way to go AB!

Also since I am pregnant, changing her diapers now presents a new challenge because of my tendency to gag at bad smells. So, I am also looking forward to not gagging every time she has a poo and I have to change it.

I Wish I Had a Hamburger

Recently whenever I thought of food, all I can think about is a hamburger - not a McDonald's hamburger, which is all we can get here, but a thick juicy handmade hamburger with cheese, dill pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, mustard, and tiny slivers of onions. Yum. Of course if I made one myself I would have to make my own buns and pickles, however it would be totally worth it...but I cannot even get decent ground beef here to make my own hamburger, ugh. The ground beef tends to be used for, well I am not sure what they use their ground beef for, but it is certainly not destined to be a hamburger. It has grisly, crunchy parts in it, like they just dropped an entire portion of the cow into the grinder. I have been craving a hamburger so bad lately that I have been unable to sleep for my growling tummy and attacking thoughts of a hamburger. While I am trying to fall a sleep, sometimes KB even has to rub my hand to distract me from my hamburger thoughts. It seems nothing else will satisfy me. All other food is just a Bandaid on a wound...sigh.

Why am I having these attacking hamburger thoughts you might wonder? Because just like last time, all my baby wants is beef : )

So to all of you who have not be told yet by one of my family members, we are expecting baby # 2 in January 2011. Obviously we are really excited about this. I am a little over 8 weeks along, and I will deliver in Temple, Texas in the wonderful U.S.A. - no need to translate a birth certificate this time! I really am surprised I held this in for as long as I have. I understand why, but I am amazed that some women keep the secret their entire first trimester. I am an excellent secret keeper when it has nothing to do with me, but I cannot seem to manage to keep any of my own secrets.

Anyways, we have already gotten to see the tiny little heartbeat...well the technician told me there was a heartbeat. I did not actually see it. Sonograms here are purely functional, not meant for the parent's to cherish. If my icky feelings and constant hunger but having nothing to eat status were not confirmation enough, my stomach is already sticking out. Hello, my neighbors have even noticed and told me my face looks thin, but my stomach is a little fat. I can always count on them for honesty.

Manna from Heaven...

..aka as 2 suitcases brought all the way from the US full of things for us!

Last week some friends from Houston came to our little city. With them they brought the two suitcases and a car seat for AB to use on our long plane trip home in October. We also bought a nifty little attachment for the car seat that essentially turns it into a stroller. AB thinks it is her new toy, and I am already excited about using it to wheel her through the airport. This is the first bigger purchase for AB that has been gender specific. KB was not too thrilled I got her a purple car seat, but really in my defense it was $20 cheaper than the neutral one of the same model : )

KB's mom decided to send along a spare Glow Worm for AB to prevent the travesty that occurred last week. Unfortunately she has already become quite territorial over it and likes to play them at the same time. I figure next time I will be replacing 6 batteries because they will probably die together.

What's a Tragedy to a 17 Month Old?

Answer: A dead glow worm. Read below for an explanation.

Recently I have been behind in my trips to the supermarket. We have two primary supermarkets in our city. One I call "Target" (real name: Silver Plaza) and the other I call "Walmart" (real name: Fu Mart). The Target (Silver Plaza) is a little more expensive, has better produce, less selection of everything else, but also has less people - a total plus like Target in the US. Fake Walmart (Fu Mart) is a bit cheaper, has wider selection, has some foreign food, but there are sooooo many people there. Someone once told me that the majority of people either do not have an air conditioner at home, or refuse to use it. So, when it is really hot or really cold, they go to the supermarket (usually Fu Mart since they have clothes and a book section) to hang out. I avoid going to both Fu Mart and Silver Plaza.

We get most of our produce from a little shop near our apartment, it is very convenient. However because I have avoided going to my most loathsome place with the wide selection, Fu Mart, I have been short on mustard, cheese, normal sugar, batteries, and ham. I was able to do without several of these things, but the batteries I really needed. I was unable to take pictures for about a week and a half because I did not buy batteries, but the real battery tragedy hit AB hard.

When AB goes to bed she likes to have her Glow Worm in the bed with her. She usually plays it until she goes to sleep. Sometimes we think she is sleeping but then from out of her room we hear Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, playing on her glow worm - totally precious. I am super impressed with the glow worm because it survives on 3 AA batteries for months, but all batteries run out at some point, and AB's glow worm batteries died yesterday. AB was very upset about this. She realized something was wrong with her glow worm during nap time, but she patiently waited until she woke up to show it to us. She carried her dead glow worm around our apartment pushing the button, and showing us that it would not play, sometimes even putting it up to her ear in hopes of hearing it. After a while it unnerved her so much she started crying. Her crying eventually turned into a full on melt-down with the hyperventilating and everything.

Quickly we started looking around for spare batteries. We ended up taking the batteries out of our smoke detector (just kidding, KB's remote control car) and put them in her glow worm. Somehow she was so overwhelmed with joy that this too caused her to cry. She pressed her glow worm, held it to her ear and wailed.

The only thing that could console her was me. I held her, played her glow worm, and we even turned on (aghast!) Baby Einstein. From the beginning to the end, this whole crying over her glow worm thing lasted about 45 minutes.

When AB gets in trouble she can be as strong willed as can be, but apparently she has a very tender spot for her glow worm.

My Birthday Party

I am still playing catch-up.

In April KB gave me a "Princess" birthday party, KB's idea. Everyone coming to our party was instructed to wear either pink or blue - you know, princess colors. As usual AB cooperated when we tried to take a family picture. By the way, I am wearing the pink dress that KB gave me for my birthday last year. He is irresistibly cute when he plans and goes all out for my girlie birthday parties.

There was a bit of confusion on the birthday cake, and I ended up with two cakes. I made one and KB made the other. The one I made was supposed to be a red velvet cake...but I did not have enough red food coloring. My mom warned me that other colors always end up looking a bit like dirt, but I apparently needed to learn the lesson on my own. I used green and blue. Also, the only cream cheese available in our city is unfortunately a very very bad substitution for real cream cheese. Let's just say that KB's cake was more popular than my (truly) nasty blue/green velvet cake with faux horrid tasting cream cheese icing.

She still ate it. She likes all things sweet.

After AB went to bed we played a rousing game of target shooting with air guns. I am proud to say that I kept my crown as the best air gun target shooter among KB and our friends.