Evidence

AB is slowing taking apart her baby bed, piece by piece. It started when she was teething and has developed into a nasty habit that we just cannot break. Here is a picture of AB just after we got her out of bed the other day. That is a strip of wood going across her forehead. We find little strips just like this in her bed every morning.

By the way, see that eczema rash around her mouth? Anyone have any suggestions for how to treat that? I have tried Eucerin, Aveno, and Vaseline whipped with water, and so far the Vaseline works the best.

Eating Out

You never realize how normal it makes you feel to eat food that is familiar to you until the option is taken away. So, as pathetic as it sounds, when we travel to the big city, we plan our days around doctor appointments and restaurants. We have the Big 4 (our 4 favorite restaurants) that we like to hit up every time we are there. Ideally we eat at one of them a day, eat/drink Starbucks for breakfast and blessed Subway for dinner. That means we get four wonderful days of awesome food. The biggest letdown of whole trip is coming back here and realizing that I am now going to have to cook again and it will be another 3 months before we can hit up the Big 4.

We have discovered that AB loves pizza. This is great news since one of the only western restaurants in our city is Pizza Hut. However even in the big city among awesome food AB still stuck to her pizza. She also likes decaf lattes, and one morning she drank half of mine before I caught her - it had a straw in it. Plainly it was too easy for her. It was not problem. I was on vacation and just bought myself another one. Like I said, 3 months until I can even smell Starbucks again. I was not wasting a good opportunity.

I should tell you, the city we call the "Big City" is an extremely historical city. You could spend days sightseeing, and even though I have been there 12 times, I have yet to see even half of the historical sights. KB on the other had has seen all of them like 3 or 4 times. Our friends or family come in to meet us and KB plays tour guide. My local friends 1. cannot believe I have been to the big city 12 times - it is a big deal for them to go, and 2. cannot believe I have not gone to see the historical sights. Clearly my priorities are different from most other people who go there. I just want to eat, go shopping, and hang out at the really clean hospital.

Below we are at two of our favorite restaurants in the big city. If you ever make the trip to see us, we will gladly introduce you to them as well. So far all of our friends and family liked them.

Repairman

A few weeks ago one of our neighbors drove into our garage door. Poor guy. He really is a nice guy and speaks slowly and clearly for us - not louder like so many other people do. Since he drove into the foreigner's garage door, more than 20 people gathered around to watch him as he called us to come down and see what he had done. They stood looking at our doors for 2 hours. At one point KB even looked out of our balcony 3 hours after the incident and a few people were still looking at it. I guess it is more entertaining than TV on a Friday night?

Since we do not actually use our garage to park a car in, raising and lowering our garage door on a daily basis is not that necessary to us. We can actually access our garage from an inside door on the bottom floor of our apartment building, so the fact that it took 2 weeks to get our door fixed did not bother us. Just as long as it was closed and locked. Also, most of the junk in our garage is not even our junk. It belongs to some friends. Let's just say, if someone needed to fully stock a mostly empty apartment, we have what they need. Then when they leave, we just put it back in our garage.

KB took these pictures when he realized how the repair man was plugging in his power tools. He just stuck stripped wires into the holes of the outlet. How do more people not get electrocuted in this country, and what do they have against using plugs? Anyways, he survived and our doors are the whitest doors in the apartment complex.

Cultural Lesson #11300664

I am so glad I looked up the definition of "Indian Summer" online before I called what we are experiencing an Indian Summer, all 10 of my blog readers would have been horrified to know I guessed the definition.

We are experiencing the opposite of an Indian summer. Today it was in the mid 70's and windy. Much to the bruising of my ego, I think if I actually went outside, I might have needed a jacket. (Bruising because I refuse to wear a jacket in August no matter what the temp) We live in a city where the temperature is below freezing for three months out of the year. I admit, there are much much colder places in the world, but for this girl from Texas, that's cold.

KB, myself and most other foreigners I know would consider today "cool." However as expected our language tutor came in today and declared the weather was "very cold." We have learned that the locals refer to the weather as either very hot or very cold. Everything is "very" and if it is not very hot, then it must be very cold - nothing in between. I think there is a wide gap between these two descriptions of temperature. Lots of other descriptors could be used like hot, warm, cool or even just cold.

Our language tutor, Kitty, has a great sense of humor. I said (in the local language, so please excuse it if sounds a little Kindergarden-ish), "Kitty, three months every year the water is frozen on the ground. That is 'very cold.' Today is just cool." She thought about it for a second and started laughing. She then rephrased herself. "Today is a very cool." I guess they just cannot get away from using "very."

As a side note and in Kitty's defense. This language actually uses the word "very" a lot. When someone asks you how you are doing, you cannot just say "good." You must say "very good," or it is grammatically incorrect. In the beginning had a difficult time with using "very" to describe things when we did not feel a "very" was necessary. We are getting more used to it though, and I will probably embarrass myself when I overuse the word while speaking English in the US.

Fancy Lady

More pictures from our phone. Here AB made good use of her links and dolled herself up.

Laundry Help

I just discovered this pictures! When Kristy visited us in April AB decided to help sort the laundry in the washing machine while choosing a few articles to adorn herself with.

Swimming

HEADS UP: BATHING SUIT PICTURES BELOW!

While taking our trip to the big city, we splurged for a hotel with a swimming pool. It was totally worth it. I now know why parents love hotels with swimming pools. It gives the kids something super fun to do without having to leave the hotel and all your stuff is nearby. Before AB was born we stayed in the dumpiest hotels in order to save money, no more of that crazy stuff. Traveling with kids is hard enough; I want a swimming pool! We will just have to make less trips now.

Despite her concerned face in the pictures, AB loved the water, she just did not love that floatie. She really enjoyed being tossed in the air, walking off of the side of the pool, and watching mommy make bubbles under the water. She did NOT like going under the water though. Not a fan.

We were not too thrilled with the mandatory swimming cap rule. They even required AB to wear one because they said it protected her hair? The cap was not waterproof, so we were a little confused how a non-waterproof cap was going to protect her hair. It would be easier to wear them if they just said, we don't like hair in the pool.

Also, I did not have swimmer diapers, but out of fear of embarrassment from a stray poo I kept AB's regular diapers on while she swam. When she got out of the pool, her diaper was so big she could barely walk. I took off the diaper for our walk up to the room and prayed she did not relieve herself on the way.

By the way, everyone should wear slippers in a hotel. AB peed on the carpet once before we got her into the bath. Even before we cleaned it up, it was hard to see it because of the camouflage flower patterned carpet. We cleaned it up, but maybe other people don't. Ew.

Nap Hair

Naps can be rough on the hair, especially when someone tends to be a hot sleeper and her hair curls when sweaty.

Bathing Beauty

Recently KB uploaded all the pictures from his phone onto our computer. They are not the best quality, but they were definately "in the moment."

Miss Kitty

Our language tutor's English name is Kitty, as in Hello Kitty, and today AB said her name for the first time! Kitty has been our tutor since February, so she is quite attached to AB and she was touched. The quality is not the best because we quickly filmed it on our phone, but you can hear her say "Kit - tee."

Is It Sugar and Spice or Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog's Tails?

The technician said it was a bit early to tell since I was only 14.5 weeks at the time of the sonogram, but he said there is something "there." He said usually that means it will be a boy. Considering the technician last time told me Avril was a boy, that he was 50% certain of it (get it?), we are going to wait until I can get a sonogram in the U.S. to confirm Baby Brown's gender. However we are already referring to it as baby brother.

KB's Birthday

Last month KB turned 29. Although I have never attempted to surprise him, I have always generally acknowledged it is very difficult to "pull one over" on KB...but I did : )

A week before KB's birthday two friends who have been studying in our city for the last 6 months were leaving the next day, so we had gotten together to hang out one last time. Conveniently, one of them needed to see something down in our garage, and KB needed to take them. As soon as KB was out of the door, I pulled out the decorations I had been working on whenever KB was sleeping or out doing something. Really, he had to wonder why I let him take a 3 hour nap, when I have never encouraged those length of naps before.

The theme was KB's Face, and I decorated our walls with various pictures of KB's face, and we all wore pins of KB's face. I was so creative...

When KB came back into our apartment, he was genuinely surprised, so it was a success! The cake was less of a success, and I discovered why it is 1. Best to ice cool cakes, and 2. The bottom cake should be absolutely flat. We affectionately called it "earthquake cake," and it got worse throughout the evening. It still tasted good.

Happy Birthday KB!

Hamburger

Wow is that not a messy kitchen behind me! I am glad I am sharing it with you all.

Recently a gracious friend living in a larger city sent me hamburger buns. I then got my other friend to grind some beef, and the hamburgers were awesome. They were so awesome in fact that I made some hamburger buns the next week and we ate hamburgers again. It was double awesome!