The Tragic Ear Piercing

The Wednesday before we flew back overseas we had AB's ear pierced. I had been planning all along to get them done while in the US, but truthfully I have been putting it off primarily because I couldn't bear to purposefully inflict pain on her purely for the sake of vanity. But alas, for her at least, vanity prevailed and I could not put it off any longer.

I myself had just turned 2 when my ears were pierced. However from what I understand my mom's motivation in getting my ears pierced was to stop people from thinking I was a boy. Apparently I looked so much like my dad that even pink clothes could not convince people that I was a she. I wanted to get AB's ears pierced when she is young because the holes are a lot less likely to close later on when she is supposed to be responsible for herself and forgets to put in earrings for months at at time. Also, I do not want her to get a crazy earlobe infection, therefore she must have them done in the US and not where we live right now.

So, my mom, DB, AB and myself took off the the mall late that Wednesday evening. AB had no idea what was coming, not that I did not tell her she was going to get her ears pierced, she just did not know it was going to involve pain. I was told to go when there would be two technicians available to do the piercings. I figured during the week there would be a greater chance of two workers at night, you know, since during the day at at least half of all adults are at work and get their shopping in a night. My reasoning was off because we arrived about 30 minutes after the second technician left for the day. Oops. Sorry AB. It physically hurt you more than it physically hurts me, but I was totally with you emotionally.

AB was excited to get to sit in the tall chair...the piercing chair. She watched with curiosity as the ear piercing technician (is that what they are called?) prepped everything to pierce AB's perfect, unmained ear lobes.

She cleaned AB's ears, marked them with a purple dot, then... WHAMO!!!! AB got her first earring.

Clearly it hurt. While she was dealing with the pain... WHAM-O!!! She was slammed with one in the other ear! Poor AB. Beauty is pain.

After getting both ears pierced the technician needed to clean AB's ears. However, fool AB once, shame on you. Fool AB twice, shame on mommy. Fool AB three times, shame on AB! AB had learned her lesson and she was not about to let the technician touch her again. She used every evasion technique she had acquired in her 2 years of life, but alas Gigi (my mom) was stronger and the technician was quicker.

Do I detect a faint smile? Perhaps you like what you see?

Maybe one day she will thank me for it.

This is how DB spent the whole ordeal, and his facial expression sums what what he is probably thinking, and I think it might be a little cocky. He is thinking "Stinks to be you AB. At least I know mom is not going to damage me when I am 2 years old." That is okay DB. Be a little cocky. Apparently you have forgotten that little procedure that happened to you the day after you were born, ya know? I think AB might have gotten the better deal compared to what happened to you little guy. AB's pain was short lived, but even today AB is convinced her ears still hurt every single time I put the antiseptic on her earlobes. What a drama queen.

Toby Dilemma

Guess who finally came home on Thursday? Toby the family dog. Guess who was ready to send him back to where he came from Thursday night? Me.

We got Toby about 4 1/2 months after we arrived overseas and 1 1/2 months before we were surprised with being pregnant with AB. He was my baby for 10 1/2 months. I bathed him probably more than he needed. I brushed him just like the Bischon books said to. He took naps with me on our bed. We played with him all the time. I carried him around like he was my baby (remember I was pregnant and needed a baby fix). It did not bother me to clean up his pee and poo, and I had the time to disinfect the area where he used the bathroom (he was paper trained). Then we had AB.

We were in Thailand for 2 1/2 months when AB was born. We paid a girl to live in our apartment and take care of Toby. She took care of him to the best of her abilities, but we came home to a dog who had lost all of his manners. It took months to get him to stop barking so much, but an even wost offence was his angry peeing. Like a cat he peed on our bed when he got into trouble. After he lost bed privileges, he then he took to peeing in other undesignated places. After several months we broke him of that bad habit too. However over time an angry little dog emerged. We did not beat our dog, so we are confused why he had began to react in extreme self defence when he got into trouble.

Now when Toby gets into trouble we send him to his home. When we go to close the door on his cage Toby growls and snarls at us like he is going to take our hand off. He has never snapped at us, and I honestly do not think he will bite us...but what if he does and what if it is one of the kids?

Since Toby came home he has spent the majority of his time in his cage, in the bathroom. His barking wakes up the kids so we cannot let him roam throughout the house while they sleep, but when they are awake we are afraid of him around them. Also, the other day he peed on DB's activity gym/lay and play. What if DB was there, would he have peed on him?

We are in the midst of trying to potty train AB. Her brief spell of holding her pee until we put a diaper on her unfortunately ended as soon as I wrote about it on this blog, and now she pees whenever she needs too, no matter what where she is. I feel like I am constantly cleaning up pee, her pee and Toby's pee. Cleaning up her pee has purpose since ultimately she will be potty trained, but what about his pee? He is older than her and has had known where to go for years!

I feel like we have failed Toby. I do not know what we did to make him so defensive. I do not know why he refuses to pee where he is supposed to. I do not know why he continues to bark even with that darn bark collar on. I read that Bischons are very intelligent but also stubborn. I need to find a dumb dog, one that will just do whatever we tell it to do. Actually I do not want a dog at all now. I spend the day cleaning up after and taking care of two kids. I do not want to have to take care of a dog now.

What do we do? KB has a friend who said he will take him. AB was so excited to have him back. I feel awful taking him away again. I feel like such a failure!

Few Pics from the US

We attended a family fun night at our church. They played the movie "Up" and served goodies for the kids. I think AB liked the movie, but I am certain she enjoyed the treats even more.

My little motor mouth is talking away while she and her friend Madeline enjoy the movie.

It was my plan all along to get some new jeans before we left the US. Of couse I could not try anything on before DB was born, so while he was just a few weeks old he began to take trips with me while I tried to find jeans. I just tried to make him comfortable, and he seemed to like shopping with me everywhere we went, except for Old Navy. I do not know why, but he cried everytime we went there. Below is a picture of him napping at the Gap.
DB is just a newbie here. He still is a bit yellow from his jaundice. These are his two girl cousins. Paige is 4 and Presley is about 8 months old.

I like DB's expression in this one.

This Post Is All About...

This girl.

New mommies tend to focus almost entirely on the new baby. This comes primarily out of necessity but I do not want to neglect my daughter and therefore want to take a few moments and talk about AB.

My first born is well into being a 2 year old. She is slowly falling into the category of "strong willed child." Can you blame her? She got it from both sides. Our biggest adventure with her right now is potty training. We took a hiatus when DB was born and are now back in full swing of things. She is sooooo close, but she refuses to use the potty. One of the benifits of living in an apartment that is entirely tiled is easy clean-up, so we have been letting her run around without a diaper. However, we have not had a single accident, not one, but that does not mean she is using the potty. She is holding it for when we put a diaper on her to take a nap and for when she goes to bed. We know she needs to pee. She knows she needs to pee. In fact she asks us to put a diaper on her because she needs to pee, but alas, she is bound and determined to hold it until we put a diaper on her. Even bribes of chocolate and watching Dora cannot coax her into using the potty. Obviously she is now capable of being entirely potty trained, but she refuses to do it.

I am amazed and a bit scared at how observant she is now. The other day DB pooed in his diaper, and at his age it sounds like a rocket going off in his pants and is hard to miss. I was out of the room when this happened and AB was playing with him. I came back into the room and AB said, "Baby DB (substitute in here your own version of poppie sound)." I had never heard her mimick even an animal sound she heard first hand, and this was her first choice of sounds to mimick. Priceless.

She learned to pick her nose a few weeks ago and then she learned to stick her finger in her mouth afterwards. I am horrified.

Her favorite food is cheese pizza and anything sweet. She refuses to eat almost all veggies except for fried potatoes, aka, French Fries.

AB is very concerned that we get everything done concerning her bedtime routine. While we are giving her a bath she is asking for her allergy medication. While giving her the allergy medication she is asking for her teeth to be brushed. While her teeth are being brushed she is asking to have her ears cleaned...and so on. She will not let us forget a step.

She calles all cake like things (including but not limited to pies, brownies, cupcakes, and fruit pizzas) "happy cakes." Ever since her birthday that has been her choice name for deserts, and it makes sense to me. They make me happy too.

She calls Christmas trees - "Baby Jesus Tree" which seems more appropriate if you think about it.

There is one other AB-isim that is super cute, but I cannot remember it at the moment. Mom, can you?

Once she had a hole in her footie pajamas that her bit toe stuck out of. Hoping she would not notice we put them on her anyways. After putting her down for the evening we heard her yell from her room "toe!" She continued to yell "toe" until it turned into a pitiful cry of "toe." We eventually realized she was so unnerved by her toe sticking out of her PJs that she was absolutely not going to go to sleep unless we changed her PJs.

AB loves to help. It is hard for a mulitasker like myself to step back and allow her to "help" sometimes. Her sweeping tends to spread the dirt more than piling it up, and when she stirs the brownie batter it often turns into a big mess. However, I want her to be involved as much as she would like to be, and I hope she will remember the moments we spent doing things together and cherish them.

My little girl is a skinny little thing. She is in between 18 month clothes and 24 month clothes. They need to make an 18 month in long, because they clearly are not making kids clothes to fit my kid.

AB is a little mommy. She loves to pretend she is putting her baby doll to bed. Once we get settled in to our new apartment I plan to get her a little baby bed from Ikea.

When I nurse DB she often points to my...um breast (it is once again akward to write about my own body parts on our blog), and says "ouchie boobie." Yes AB, it is most definately an ouchie boobie.

AB is quite handy these days. She brings me my phone when it rings. She can get me a tissue. She turns off the vibrator on DB's bouncer, and she managed to drain the entire baby bathtub in our dining room floor - I was bathing DB in the dining room floor because our bathroom is a cold as it is outside.

I think she is hilarious. She makes crazy facial expressions and she does the funniest things. Once when in Old Navy she saw some shoes. Since she was riding in the cart she reached down, pulled off her shoes, threw them both over her shoulder, yanked off her sockes, looked at me and said "shoes?"

AB also melts my hearts when she randomly looks at me and tells me she loves me in both English and our Asian language.

Her favorite song is "The Wheels on the Bus," but she also likes "Jesus Loves Me," "Deep in the Heart of Texas," and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." Everytime she sees a bus, AB insists we sing the song while doing the motions of course.

Right now AB is working on learning her colors. She astounded me the other day when I handed her a brown crayon. I said "this crayon is brown." Then she said "Avie Brown" (she cannot say her real name yet, just her nickname). Who taught her that? Also when we were in the Hong Kong airport she saw the sign for baby changing area and she said, "change diaper" while pointing at the sign. KB and I were stunned.

Anyways, this is our girl. She is so fun. We love her and are alwasy proud of her.

A Few Early Pictures of DB

These pictures were taken when DB was about 2 weeks old.

The day his umbilical cord fell off DB got his first real bath. He loved it! However his favorite part is the lotion by far. Check out his boobies. The doctor said they were from my hormones, but they are gone now.

Big sis and dad are taking a break from living with a new baby.

I zoomed in on this picture so you cannot see that he is sleeping in a pink cradle. No need for anyone to know about that. Aren't sleeping babies so peaceful?

This is DB when he was just a few days old. Soon after this picture was taken DB pooed in his diaper and AB politey pushed him off of her lap while saying "baby poo poo, nasty."

The Long Way Back

We are here! We arrived here at 7pm on Wednesday. In case any of you knew our itinerary, that is a day later that our tickets said we would arrive. Altogether we traveled for 2 days and 13 hours. Yikes. If you want to know the whole long story, read on.

First off, we found out the day before we left that AB had an ear infection. So she was a bit cranky from the ear pain, and we never knew if she was not herself due to the infection or sleep deprivation. I am pretty sure it was a icky combination of the two.

It turns out we accumulated a lot of stuff over the past 5 months. We came to the US with 3 suitcases, and the entire contents of one suitcase was handed over to my sister for her baby girl. So, where did all this stuff come from? Friends, family and LB's awesome bargain hunting skills.

It took FOREVER to pack everything. This was primarily because we had to make optimal use of luggage space and this entailed taking everything out of packages (like dumping a box of Mac and Cheese into a baggie), labeling the baggies, taking tags off of everything and weighing everything. Then once we realized we had more stuff than we had space, we had to go pull out all of the clothes for the kids that they would not need for the next year. We were allotted 8 pieces of luggage. The day before we left we realized we needed 9, then the day we left it got bumped up to 10. Extra luggage fees are cheaper than mailing. We really could have filled up 12 or 13 suitcases, but we can only manage handling so much. When friends come later this year they will bring all the things we left - hopefully. When we checked-in at the airport on Sunday we had 10 - 50lb bags, 4 carry-on's, 4 personal items, 2 car seats, and 1 stroller.

Unfortunately we learned the hard way, just because you can do something, does not mean you should. Navigating the airport and getting onto the plane with all of our stuff was a disaster. Absolute disaster. KB and I got separated while boarding the plane in Dallas, and I was stuck with AB's car seat (and car seat dolly), DB and his car seat and 3 of our 8 bags. It was physically impossible for me to get on the plane while maneuvering all of our stuff. Finally 3 very kind strangers helped. I am positive I smacked every person on my right side with the back of the baby bag. I just kept apologizing and moved on. Also, it did not help that we were sitting in the very last row of the plane...guess that is what you get when you buy your plane tickets the day before you leave : )

American Airlines has a rule pertaining to car seats. I understand the safety reasons for the rule, but it is not very practical and it does not add to the other passenger's enjoyment of the flight when you have a upset child. Essentially when you have two car seats, they must be set side by side. We could not put AB by the window, me next, then DB on the isle. Nope. It could only be AB, DB, and then me. So when AB dropped her blanket and started crying (the flight was scheduled to take off an hour and a half after her bedtime - we could not expect her to hold it together), I had to unbuckle, crawl under DB's car seat, retrieve her blanket, crawl back under, get in my seat and then hand it to her.

AB is good on planes; she has lots of experience. In her 2 years of life she has flown more than most adults who do not fly for a living, but she is usually a bit restless until we take off. Therefore delays once we are in the plane are brutal. Guess who's flight was delayed after we boarded the plane? Our's. Apparently there was a bad seat cushion. For the sake of my sanity I will assume the integrity of the seat cushion's ability to serve as a floatation device was compromised, not that there was some junk of the cushion, because their 30 minute search for a new seat cushion lost us a window to land in San Francisco, and we had to wait an additional hour to take off.

Our flight to Hong Kong was an hour and 50 minutes after our DFW flight was scheduled to land. Of course we were the last ones off of the plane, and of course we have more stuff than anyone should have, and of course the one airport person we asked for directions to the international terminal gave us bad directions. We ran/speed walked for 20 minutes to make our flight. We arrived to security and it was closed. Our plane left without us. Now we were stuck a closed airport at 1:05am in San Francisco (that is 3:05 am Texas time), and what were we to do?

Two of us cried, and one of them was not under 3 years old or KB. Then we called American Airlines. They got us on the same flight the next day. I asked them if they could locate our luggage. They said no. They could only confirm where it was not - Dallas. They did not know if it made it on the HK flight or was still in San Francisco, that was helpful. I then asked if they would get us a hotel room. She said they would, but they could not give us a voucher until their counter opened at 4am. That stunk. We spent a miserable night in the closed cafe at the airport with our massive amount of stuff, a cranky 2 year old and a baby. At 4 am I checked the American Airlines desk, not open. I checked every hour until 8 am, and they were never open. Finally at 10 am we found out, oh there is no international American Airlines counter (even though there was a sign for it), only a domestic counter. KB went to their counter and got our vouchers. When he went to get the vouchers he rode the tram - that's right the tram. It took him all of 3 minutes to get to the AA counter. We ran/speed walked for 20 minutes with all of our stuff trying to catch our flight and the whole time there was speedy tram. I do not think the tram would have gotten us there before they closed the gate, but what was that airport worker thinking when he recommended we walk rather than take the tram. He said we could take the tram, but walking would be just as fast. Bad advice for sure or some kind of sick sense of humor.

Based on our experience I have a few recommendations for American Airlines.

1. Have extra seat cushions handy. If they are important enough to delay a flight, they should be easily accessible.

2. Let passengers with kids and most definately those with car seats board the plane first. Those first class passengers would probably be really grateful to not have to worry about being smacked by the car seat as we carry it down the isle. Also that way we would not slow down the line.

3. You have a list of all your passengers who are trying to make connecting flights. If you know you have caused them to miss a flight, have a counter open so that you can help them rebook and get a hotel room right then rather than make them sleep in the airport. Better yet, have someone waiting when you get off the plane. That would be commendable customer service.

4. Telling someone you can only confirm where their bags are not is a cop-out of an answer. It was not the most frustrating part of our evening, but it just added to it.

Also, because our arrival was now a day later we had to find a way to tell our driver who was picking us up at the air airport 4 hours from our home that he needed to come a day later. That was an ordeal, but in the end it was Skype that saved us. Thanks Skype.

AA put us in the Hyatt Regency. For two people in our line of work, there are much worse places to spend a few hours, ya know? We all got much needed baths, the kids slept for a couple hours and room service saved us from having to venture out. Unfortunately we were only there for about 8 hours total, not enough time to catch up on an entire night of lost sleep. Due to our lack of sleep we all began to lose it a bit emotionally...at least the females in the family did, but none more than AB. She was so spent that when she was told "no" for the slightest thing, she burst into tears. She was exhausted and we had a lot more traveling to do. The only one of us who was absolute unfazed by the traveling was DB. Did not bother him a bit.

AB slept most of the way to HK. During the 14 hour flight she was awake maybe 3 hours. DB did excellent, and I can wholeheartedly recommend Cathay Pacific to anyone. They even let families with small children load first. I think this is a great decision. It enabled us to put in our car seats without worrying about slowing others down. This is typical of most Asian airlines (not Air Asia - avoid them). Our 4 hours in HK was great. We got a lot of exercise walking through that HUGE airport, but really it was a good thing and I am not complaining. Our flight in country was uneventful as well - except that they do not allow rear facing car seats on the plane. I was annoyed because that was why we brought DB's car seat, but fortunately it was only a 4 hour flight and they served Hagan Daz ice cream. Who can who can hold a grudge against an airline who serves that? I will say, the closer and closer we got to our final destination the more space invaders and starring we experienced. Once while on our flight into country I caught a lady lifting up the blanket covering DB's car seat to take a look. I also heard someone clipping their fingernails. Other than a crazy guy I worked with in Fort Worth, I have only heard that consistently in public where we live now.

After landing and going through immigration, we had to collect all of our luggage. KB filled 3 carts full of our stuff. Unfortunately I was holding DB's carrier in on hand and pushing AB with the other. He was stuck trying to get our carts through customs and to the door on his own. We decided the best course of action was to push 1 cart about 20 feet, go back and push the next cart 20 feet and then push the third cart 20 feet. Yep that is what he did. He is such a trooper! Finally just as we arrived to customs 2 people helped which was defiantly nice. Somehow our driver's van was just big enough for all of our stuff and 4 hours later we pulled up in front of our apartment.

AB remembered it and asked for Toby first thing - he comes home on Monday. Like I said in the beginning, altogether we traveled 2 days and 13 hours. Fortunately I think I messed my internal clock up so badly that jet lag has not been too bad this time. That has not been the case with the two kiddos but they are adjusting.

Thanks to all who lifted us up during our travels. It truly was a miracle that we made it here with every single thing that we left with - including our sanity.

Fun Rides

While mommy power shopped at the outlet mall, AB got to play on the rides. Too bad we are her parents and never put money in those things. Also too bad for us next time we come to the US she will probably realize they are meant to do things and will want us to put money in them. Drat.

Public Breastfeeding

For some reason breasfeeding in public embarasses me. Want to know something even more embarassing? Your husband posting pictures on your blog of you breastfeeding in public.

He has no problem sleeping or eating in public. Lucky.

Getting Ready

Best Place to Eat Ever...According to AB

Chick-Fil-A! She asks to go to Chick-Fil-A at least once a day. It is the only chicken she will eat and it has a playground. What more could a precocious 2 year old as for?

This is how DB enjoys his Chick-Fil-A.

Mommy and Her Little Man

Chilly Day

Strolling

While trying to enjoy one of Texas' beautiful days, our family decided to go for a little walk around our neighborhood. Since it was sunny DB needed a hat to protect him from the glare and his mommy just really wanted to put this awesomely cute hat on him. Awesomely cute - for sure.

Big sis has got wearing hats down.