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.

Busy

To all of you nice people who still read our blog, I am sorry I have not posted anything recently. We have been busy. I will get back on the wagon soon.

Also, a picture of my Kristen Stewart mullet haircut has been requested...ummm I am working it. I first must not wash my hair for a few days to get the full effect. Just kidding! I could never say that about Bella, I mean Kristen's hair. Who else is excited like a teenager about Eclipse (or Twilight 3 as KB calls it) coming out this month?

Milkman

We lived in this city for two full years before we found out we can have fresh milk delivered daily to our apartment. It was not laziness that kept us from finding out. We really tried, but everyone we asked said fresh milk was not available in our city. For two years we drank shelf milk.

Shelf milk is basically just what it sounds like. It is milk in a little juice box type carton that sits on a shelf until someone buys it. I think they are good for up to 2 years. Although they do the job when it comes to cooking, if you want to use milk for cereal or drink with cookies, shelf milk is not the milk you want to have available. We were milk deprived. In fact, when we went to Thailand the very first time after arriving here, KB gain like 10 pounds from drinking so much fresh whole milk.

Earlier this year we found out that our city does in fact have fresh milk, but you cannot buy it in the store. We found a friend, who found a milk man, who puts 5 bags of fresh milk in a little "milk box" outside of our first floor door every morning at 8am. This has been wonderful. Not only do I feel better giving AB milk that actually expires in the amount of time milk normally should expire, I do not have to go to the store to buy it. KB really enjoys using it with his cereal.

On a side note. I have recently learned how to make ricotta cheese from whole milk. It is super easy, and we are now able to eat a decent Italian meal again.

To add to our wonderful milk experience, we love our milkman. He is quite possibly one of the sweetest and hardworking men we have met in this whole country. Unfortunately he only speaks dialect, so our communications are a bit strained, but we are convinced whatever he says to us is probably really nice anyways.

New Favorite Pictures

Newest Light Fixture

Living here is an adventure, and expectations in the service industry are quite different.

Recently our dining room light broke. This was not surprise. All the rest of our lights have been breaking one by one. The question was more of when it was going to happen. While we were traveling a few weeks ago we purchased a fun new light at Ikea to replace it.

We got a guy with the job title of "decorator" to come install it. In the US we would do this part ourselves, but the wires are not wired very friendly in our apartment. We preferred someone else electrocute themselves than us.

I gave him the Ikea directions. He looked at them for about 2 seconds and discarded them. He did not even look at the second page. He left our apartment and then thirty minutes later brought in a HUGE drill that is capable of drilling through cement so he could put a hook in the ceiling to hang the light on. I made the mistake of going into AB's room while he used the drill. When I came out I saw, in horror, that he did not drill the hole in the same hole all the wires are hanging out of. He drilled it beside it. I then watched in horror (again) as he hung my pretty new light off center in a room in which everything else is centered. It reeeeaaaally bugged me.

He attached the wires and looked at me as if to say, "finished." Oh no no no. The light has an adjustable lengths. Since we selected the shortest length there is a ton of extra cord. It must be threaded through the light and cut. Then that new end of the cord must be wired to the power in the ceiling. He said it was not possible (if he had looked at the instructions he would see it was possible, grrr). I gave up and decided I would chance electrocution rather than convince the "expert" I knew better than him.

Then I asked him about the nice big hole in the ceiling that my light was hanging beside. He said it was no problem, meaning that it was not problem that it was there. He had no intention of doing anything about it. I told him it was ugly. He told me to tape a piece of paper over it. I said no. He told me to put some red (b/c red is the lucky color) wall paper over it because it will look "beautiful." I said no. In the end I used some sheets off of my lint roller to cover the hole while I figured out something permeant. You can still see the whole through the lint roller sheets, but it catches the bits of cement that randomly fall out of it.

What I have planned to fix the hole and center the lamp is very simple. However getting it done here is headache inducing. Who knows when it will get fixed. I gave up on getting rid of the extra cord until I can fix the hole. I want to really only chance electrocution once. I wrapped it around the lamp...I think it looks a little trashy, but really what else was I going to do with it?

Speaking of people who think they know better than I do, two days ago I went to get my hair cut. I told the guy I wanted to grow my hair out, but I needed a trim. I walked out of that salon with a haircut just like Kristen Stewart's mullet...not a trim. I also now have bangs, which are super annoying. I have regretted every single hair cut I have gotten here. Twice my hair was cut uneven - like shorter or one side. Twice I have been given bangs without asking for them. The other two times I really do not know what happened, but they stylist was very proud of what he did to me. When will I learn to just let it grow, and wait until I see my mom to cut it? On the bright side, I went to the most expensive salon in town and it still only cost $10.

Decorations

I have mentioned in the past that AB LOVES to put my undergarments around her neck and wear them around the house. I sometimes even find a stray, but thankfully always clean, undergarment in her bedroom...usually in her tent. When Kristy was visiting, AB even blessed her with the honor of wearing her undergarments as well. Maybe getting to wear her own undergarments around her neck will be a motivator to potty train?

Anyways, when undergarments are not available, she often finds other things to strewn on herself. On this particular day she had me put her rain jacket on her, and she did the rest. She is wearing a pair of white tights, a fleece hoodie, and a sparkley grarland thingy around her neck. She was so proud.

Playing with Hats

AB got a hold of her daddy's hat, and decided she needed to put it on and take it off of my head a over and over again. It was actually really sweet. It is the first time she has ever done something like that with me.

She briefly decided she should try to stick her finger in my mouth. I wash her hands all the time, but between washings I am never sure where those hands have been (i.e. Toby's mouth or some other place).

Then she did not like how my hair was falling in my face. It was maybe one of the sweetest things she has ever done - she gently moved my hair away from my face without ripping any of it out.

She spent about 2-3 minutes trying to clear it away. She was really focused.

It was a really sweet moment for us.

Playing Around

She can't help herself. She just loves to play...and so does her daddy.

Is that Toby's ball? That dirty, nasty, saliva covered ball? What are you planning on doing with it...

Yep, too bad it took me a second too late to realize what she was doing. So nasty.

Just Gotta Dance!

So I turned 29 a few weeks ago. When did I start qualifying as someone in their late twenties? Ouch that hurt to commit to writing. Next year I won't even be in my late twenties...I'll be 30. 24 years old felt just like last year. Sigh.

Anyways, the best part about getting older is still getting to have a party every year. Essentially we like a good reason to get together and eat great food. What better time to do this than at a birthday party? While eating cake, AB got a little rowdy when her daddy started his, um "rapping." Apparently she could not contain herself, and guess who had their camera handy for once?

Desperately Hoping for Spring

Although it finally hit this past Sunday, we have been dying for Spring to show up for weeks! It has been slowly warming up outside, but our concrete walls and floors have just held the cold in. It was chilly all the time. The new warmth has been great. I even stopped wearing my flannel PJs this week too - you know, its not like it is May or anything.

These pictures were taken the day it snowed a couple of weeks ago. AB found this dress in her closet. It was as if she was saying to me, "mommy when will it be warm enough for me to wear this dress?" She carried it around for about 30 minutes, refusing to even put it down to play in her kitchen.

Sleeping With the Dog

Yep. It is official. She really does think she is also a dog. We need to get her some human friends.

There is "Bad Luck" and Just Plain "Stupid"

Unfortunately both KB and I fell into the "stupid" category this week. By my definition we have bad luck when it comes to computers. No one can tell us why our computers keep crashing, and they always tell us that "these things just happen" and it seems that "these things" happen to us a lot. But this week it was ALL our fault.

On Monday we had to go buy my third cell phone since we came here. The first one I left in a taxi in Bangkok. I called it about 5 minutes after I realized this, but whoever found it had apparently taken it apart and was probably already selling it on the street corner. My second cell phone almost met its fate once before when I dropped it into a bowl of water while washing out AB's cup, but it was saved by quick action and a bowl of dry rice. I finally killed it this weekend when I left it on our bathroom counter that spontaneously fills up with water (we truly do not know where the water comes from). When I sat my phone down the counter was dry, and it was pooling with water when I can back an hour later. Nothing could save my phone this time. Even the screen had water in it. On a bright note, I got a super cool pink phone this time!

KB finally had his stupid turn yesterday. He plugged in our wireless internet router that runs on 110 volts (that can only be bought in the US, thanks KB) into the outlet...not the converter. He said to me "Hey do you hear that popping noise and see the smoke? Where is it coming from?" That would be the sound of the inside of our router being cooked to death by 220 volts of electricity. Looks like we will be using internet the old fashioned way until we can get another new router. Yea.

I could not get mad at KB for his stupid moment. He was such a good sport when I told him about my cell phone, and he even let me get the super cool pink one.

Trying to Get a Family Picture

On Easter we desperately tried to get a good family picture. Since it was too cold to take a picture outside, we settled for our living room. However the weather was not the only thing not cooperating, AB refused to give us a good picture.

As we prepared I put the bow in AB's hair. You can see in the photo she is already getting ready to yank it out.

We decided to hold down her little hands so she could not yank it out, and so she gave the camera this sour look.

No bow, but for some reason I am still holding down her hand and I cannot remember why.

Oh yeah, she wanted to yank on my necklace.

Our friend tried for a quick shot before she got to my necklace again, and this was the best he could get. As you can see, she is going for it. AB!

Coming Back from HK

At the beginning of April I had to make a quick trip to Hong Kong. Since we have had problems with AB's visa when we travel outside of this country, we decided she and KB should stay at home. They were together for all of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and I returned that Thursday afternoon. KB specially dressed her for my homecoming. He said he honestly did not intend to mismatch her socks, but he could not find the mate for either of them in the 10 seconds he looked for them. Obviously she did not care, but it was very cute and he was proud.

One of the perks of HK is the H&M. Most places to buy clothes in this country will make an averaged size American girl pretty depressed. I jumped 4 dress sizes just by being in a land where most everyone else is smaller than me. I know I am the same size I always was, but on bad days it really does not help the old confidence. That is why I love H&M. Although I have to always figure out what I am in European sizes, I am not wearing anything other than my normal size. I also love H&M because the clothes are a lot better quality than in this country, they are decent priced, they are pretty youth-full and trendy (and I am totally afraid of looking 30 after someone guessed I was that age already), and they have a children's section. I got her this cute little hat that was apparently too big for her tiny head. It did not bother her, and she took it off and put it on for the rest of the day.

I also got her this little stroller for her dolls at Toys R' Us. I was so confident that it would fit into my suitcase, but it did not. I had to carry it on the subway, on the speed train (they made me check it because it had wheels - nuts), on the bus, and on the plane. It was little, but I accidentally hit a lot of people with it.

She spent most of the day I got home angry at the stroller because she could not find a way to get into it (and almost hurting herself as she fell over while trying to climb on it), but after she finally gave up it became a fun new toy for her. Totally worth the trouble.

Catching Up

I am playing catch-up right now. The grandparents are itching for pictures, so these are from about a month ago.

This is AB's favorite baskets to play with . It is on the bottom shelf of a metal rack I have in the kitchen, and it holds all of my pot holders. She likes to throw out the pot holders and climb in. I do not know what the allure of it is, but this is absolutely one of her favorite activities.

Busy

Good grief. It has been a while since I last posted anything. I have been busy, we have been traveling, but I also was really just avoiding getting on our old computer. It is really slow. However, last week we made the trip to a big city and got our Mac fixed! We apparently misunderstood the terms of our warranty, and we still had about 100 days left on it. (Thanks Phil for clearing it up for us)

Our Mac is working again (for now) and is running on its third hard drive. We are hoping if it decides to terminate another hard drive that it does it in the next 98 days. KB almost had them convinced they should just give us another computer, but ultimately they did not fall for it. I have spent almost the entire day reloading everything onto our computer and e-mailing people asking for them to resend me all sorts of important e-mails that I need again. It is a bit embarrassing, and I hope that I do not have to do this again soon.

Anyways. Last week we flew up north to see our great friends Kristy and Jeremy. They were on this side of the world for a requirement for Jeremy's MBA program, and we were not going to pass up a chance to see them. We had a great time exploring, getting rained on, arguing with taxi drivers, and getting cheated by extremely talented salespeople - all great stories. Then on Tuesday evening Kristy flew back to our hometown with us. She is now officially our first friend to come visit us, which is super cool!

She was here for too short of a time, but we tried to cram as much fun in those two days as possible. This morning she flew back to join Jeremy and some of his classmates in exploring. She took a ton of great pictures, but of course I forgot to really take any. Here are a few from a party we had at our apartment. It was a camping theme, can you tell? I will share more with you when I get them from Kristy.

Thanks Kristy and Jeremy!

My Little Trixter

This is now I know for sure (other than the more ovbious reasons) that AB is truly KB's daughter.

On Friday two friends came over to watch AB so KB and I could go on a date. I was running a bit late and was just getting around to straightening my hair. If we are in the bathroom and the door is open, it is guarenteed that AB will join us. She loves to play with the door that separates the sink area from the toilet/shower area, weigh herself on the scale, and to attempt to open all of the drawers. Just as I walked out of the bathroom to talk to our friends, AB walked in. She shut the door and opened the drawer that is just on the other side of the door...effectively locking herself in the bathroom.

We were able to crack open the door by about 1/4 an inch, enough to see that she was enjoying herself. She emptied the contents of this particular drawer, beat on the toilet seat lid, unrolled toilet paper, and felt around in the trash - all the while I was absolutely freaking out! I kept thinking about my super hot hair straightener (thankfully the cord was not hanging over the edge of the counter), her trying to drink the toilet water or falling into the toilet, choking on something small, or finally figuring out the baby lock on the cabinet that holds bathroom cleaning supplies - you know, worst case type of situations.

We tried all sorts of things to close this drawer, none of which worked, especially telling AB to close the drawer. She just kept laughing at us. After what seemed like an hour, but was probably just 5-10 minutes, KB decided to see if he busted his way in, if the drawer or the door would win. We have broken doors in our apartments by just by pushing them open in places other than the handle, so we figured the door would loose. When KB was sure AB was playing with the toilet again he busted his way in. The drawer lost, and AB seemed disapointed that her free play time in the bathroom was over. Somehow the drawer still works. It all worked out fine, and mommy can breath again.

So Scary

I heard kids often copy their parents, but I never really thought it would come so soon. Yesterday AB snatched the DVD remote off of the couch, pointed it at the TV and started pressing buttons. Before I knew it, she had started up Beauty and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite movies. I wanted to be Belle). I was so proud of her that I turned on the TV so we could watch it together. She sat in my lap, eyes glued to the TV for a full 20 minutes. I do not think she has been that still while awake since before she learned to roll over. I felt so guilty afterwards though.

I am not certain how she picked up the TV remote thing so fast. The ONLY time the TV is on while is awake is when company is over and we really need her to play quietly. Also the ONLY thing she has ever watched is Cars, Beauty and the Beast, and yesterday evening she might have seen a little bit of New Moon - that is all I promise. I remember my child development classes, and remember what they told us about hard wiring your kids with a short attention span with TV.

Back to the copying thing. Wow. It really has shaken me into shape. No more telling the dog to "shut up" when he barks. I cannot say things are "soooo stupid" anymore, and being critical of my body has got to stop. I want her to be a woman of God, and I refuse to make things more difficult for her by not trying harder to be one myself.

Little Joys in Life

Today while I filled up AB's bathtub, AB discovered how to use our digital scale. Apparently there is no end in the fun an almost 15 month old toddler can have when they learn how to make numbers flash at them. She figured out that she must step on the scale to "wake" it up, and then step back on the scale to be weighed. Also, I can easily tell you that as of today she weighs 19 lbs; she is a wee little one.

My Computers are Working Against Me

I am sure anyone who actually reads our blog is tired of hearing about it, just as I am extremely tired of writing about it. Yet another hard drive has bitten the dust, has fallen victim to living in our apartment... it has abandoned us.

Our Mac, who I mistakenly praised a couple of weeks ago, has once died again. I was simply updating our blog. It froze, and it has not come back since. All we get now is a blank grey screen, and sometimes it gives us a little circle with a line through it (which can never be good). Also, it is making a clicking sound just like it did the last time the hard drive needed replaced. I have tried all the little tricks my brother can help me come up with, but nothing. Also, unlike in the US, when this country has some sort of holiday the Mac support offices close for days and days at a time, so I decided to bite the bullet and make the international phone call to the Mac offices in the US. Their offices were open on Good Friday, but after waiting for 5 minutes I was unceremoniously disconnected. This was a low-point in my day for sure.

Here is our predicament. The Mac was our primary computer, when it crashed the second time last year we decided to get a back-up computer, our Dell. Our Dell has now crashed twice and is awaiting a new hard drive. So, where does that leave us since both our primary computer and our back-up computer are out of commission? I am typing on my Dell Inspiron 5100 that I bought in August 2003, and to think I almost did not bring it with me.

We treat this computer like a fragile piece of work. We do not load programs on it. We absolutely do not attempt to watch videos on it. We do not surf the internet (um, maybe except to update our blog), and we delete anything from it that is not necessary. Last year when our Mac crashed the second time I tried to load our camera software on it. It of course froze, and it took about 5 attempts to even get the thing to start back up. Lesson learned.

Also, do any of you know anything about the Mac warranties? I am really asking for input. Our hard drive was replaced free of charge last year because we bought a 2 year Apple Care. However, it has been more than two years now, but it has been less than a year since they gave us a new hard drive. Do you think we got any kind of warranty with the new hard drive?

We do not know why our computers chornically crash. In the 8 years I was a computer owner before I came overseas, I never once had a computer crash, and now we are assaulted with them on a quarterly basis. Someone said something about power surges in our apartment possibly being the culprit, but everything else electrical in our apartment is fine; I am so confused. Maybe the huge power plants we live between have some sort of magnetic pull that messes everything up.

Regardless, unless Mac graciously fixes our computer for free, we will not be posting any photos on our blog until sometime in June when our new Dell hard drive makes its way to us. For the grandparents that also includes no Skype phone calls. Sorry.