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!

A Few Pointless Random Thoughs

I must have a case of the pregnancy crazy forgetfulness, because today I washed a load of KB's nasty, smelly workout clothes and forgot to put detergent in the machine. They were hanging on our balcony for 4 hours drying, and every time I walked out to put in a new load of clothes they seemed to smell worse and worse. I thought the smell was from the dirty clothes waiting to be washed, but when I finally sniffed the hanging clothes I did not even get a whiff of the lovely laundry detergent that makes me feel so nauseous sometimes. I washed them again, this time with laundry detergent, and now they are drying and not smelling like sweat.

Dr. Pepper is wonderful. A friend carried a 6 pack for us on a bus for 11 hours last week. KB and I have been painfully sharing each can. I plan on getting one of those 48 packs of caffeine free Dr. Pepper the day after we step on US soil in two and a half months.

I cried three times while watching Princess Diaries 2 yesterday. KB saw and I was embarrassed.

AB has been a little helper recently. She knows liquid should be wiped up when it is on the floor, so she has begun to spit on the floor and grabs the kitchen towel to wipe it up. It is so helpful.

Although I thought the air conditioner units in this country and in the US were very different, they are more similar than I was lead to believe. It turns out the filters need cleaned or the air conditioners do not work properly. Imagine my embarrassment when the repairman show me my nasty filter last week. I could have avoided sleeping our sauna-like bedroom for the past two years. I also cannot believe how low a setting our air conditioner can be on and yet keep our room cool...I keep thinking about how much energy we wasted!

Tylenol does not work, and even if you did not get lovely pregnancy acne with the first baby, that does not mean you will not get it with the second baby.

We bought AB a little potty last week. It was the only training toilet that had a removable bowl for her to pee into. It is pink and has a splash guard for little boys (get it?). When you lift the lid there is a mommy bear and a baby bear dressed in pink. The mommy bear is wearing a hat with the highly political symbol on it. They start them young here.

Our bathroom smelled like sweet meat this morning.

I felt the baby kick for the first time yesterday. I think he/she has been moving for a while but it was the first time I was still long enough to feel it. They were not kidding about feeling the baby kick earlier the second time around. I start my second trimester tomorrow.

We are traveling next week, and we found an affordable hotel that has a swimming pool (hopefully clean swimming pool). I am beyond excited about this. We will also get our Mac fixed again (surprised?) and get to see a doctor that will give me an awesome sonogram. Kevin will even get to see the baby too.

Busy Girl

This post is all about AB's day. Do not feel bad if you go ahead and skip this one. It might not be interesting.

AB is a very busy girl. Most days she wakes up at 6:45 am by yelling "Da!" at the baby monitor. Da! is short for daddy. She only says mommy about once a week, and it is usually when she is in distress. I cannot even coax it out of her with bribes, she just won't say mommy.

AB's room has the best air conditioner in our apartment, so she sleeps in a fleece sleeper, while KB and I sleep in our hot bedroom. Since the unit in our living room is off during the night, it can be quite stuffy when we wake up, so I strip AB down to her diaper for breakfast. Most mornings AB eats oatmeal made with milk, cinnamon and a little bit of sugar (otherwise she won't eat). I try to get her to eat as much oatmeal as possible, because it is possibly the only whole grain she will eat the entire day. If it was up to her, her diet would only consist of cheese, milk, ice tea and chocolate. I still spoon feed her breakfast, but I suspect she is able to do it herself. My primary reason in feeding her breakfast is that she makes a huge mess when she does it on her own, and I do not want to start the day off with a bath.


At 8am Karen and Kitty come to our apartment. Kitty is our language tutor, and Karen watches AB so we can study. AB immediately runs to the front door as soon as Karen arrives because she knows she will get to go play outside. Maybe she does not feel the heat or something, because I am not sure how anyone could be excited about going outside right now. The weather is just like Houston in the summertime. To my horror, Karen tells me while outside AB runs around trying to steal other kid's strollers and toys. All the grandparents ask her questions about how we raise AB and talk about how white she is.


At 9:30 AB usually comes up from playing to take a nap, but unfortunately and against my best efforts, she is dropping this nap. All the books say the parents should facilitate dropping this nap, but she is doing this on her own. The morning nap is great. I am very sad to see it go.


AB usually eats lunch at 11am. Until recently she enjoyed eating eggs with spinach (the only vegetables she eats all day), but she has begun to reject them. I am going to go crazy if I cannot find a way to get her to eat something good for her. I try to withhold her milk to get her to eat other food, but she would seriously rather wait till her next snack/meal to get something better than to eat what I give her. I at least put nifty vitamin drops in her milk, at least right?

AB seriously loves tea. She loved it in the winter when I drank hot tea and now she cannot get enough of my ice tea. I have begun to sneak into the kitchen and drink it from a cup I keep in the refrigerator because she drinks like half of my glass of tea! She is 18 months old now, she can definitely pitch a fit when she does not get her way.

AB has a very tender spot in her heart for her toys, specifically her stuffed animals and dolls. She carries them around, pushes them in her mini stroller, and she is thrilled that I showed her how to make a little baby bed out of a basket, pillow, and a blanket for her baby. One of the few words she says is "baby," so obviously, her baby is pretty stinking important to her.

Because I am preggers and not much inclined to move if at all prevented, I often lay in her floor while she plays around me. I prop my head up on a small pillow and use one of her blankets to cover me, because once again her air conditioner is awesome. Last week she found a little pillow and blanket for herself then laid down beside me and covered herself up with the blanket. We laid side by side for about 10 minutes looking at books and "talking." It was genuinely one of my favorite moments with her.

AB adores Toby and Toby adores the way AB smells. He especially likes it when she has a dirty diaper - gross. He has trained her to throw his ball, and I think they are best friends.

AB's favorite toy of all is her daddy. He loves to toss her, chase her, and throw her onto the couch. When daddy gets that "look" in his eye, she knows it is time to play and she giggles and squeals the entire time. The only bad thing is when daddy gets tired, and she pitches a fit.

The computer is a significant point of fascination to AB. Not only does she get to see and talk to her grandparents on it, she can watch Baby Einstein while mommy and daddy eat. However, she really does not like it when one of us is on the computer doing normal things, like email. She would prefer our attention be on her. This can make things difficult at times to get work done. Recently she learned how to climb onto the computer chair, and we have caught her more than once "using" (abusing) the computer.

The trashcan has always been a huge temptation for her. It is big, it opens and closes, mommy and daddy use it all the time, and it smells interesting...however she has begun to understand that the only appropriate way to use the trashcan is to put stuff in it, not including her hands. Now she finds every excuse she can to throw something away, and so far we are think all she has "thrown away" is actual trash. I am waiting for the day I see my shoes or a shirt mixed in day old food scraps.

Bath time is fun time, and if my own personal appearance after her bath time is any indication of how much fun she had, AB had a lot of fun! I have to wear an apron when I bathe her because she splashes so much. Fortunately in most of Asia, there is a drain smack in the middle of the bathroom floor and most of the water that does not land on me goes down this drain...this is also the drain that lets in the weird uncooked canned chili smell that so often makes me want to vomit when I make my midnight bathroom runs.

I am not going to mention how healthy AB is because the moment I say that she has never gotten more sick than a cold or 1 ear infection she will come down with something huge.

AB is still a great sleeper. She goes to bed a little after 7pm each night, leaving the rest of the evening to undo the tornado effect she caused in the rest of the apartment. Our only issue is when she is not sleeping but is still in bed. My little girl is apparently part termite, beaver, or woodchuck....the inside of her crib looks like a mental patient attacked it. In the mornings I find little sticks of wood she has shredded from the inside of her crib. I will provide pictures at some point. I was hoping to sell this baby bed after I was finished having kids, but I do not see how I could ask anyone for money to take it off my hands. She needs a teething rail that covers the whole bed. I even tried using Toby's bitter apple spray on the areas she really likes to chew. Either she liked it or it had no effect on her at all. Apparently this weird wood eating things comes from my side; my niece is notorious for eating everything, including a baby bed that belongs to another baby and part of a play scape.

We love our little girl. She is super fun and we are thankful everyday for the chance to be her parents.

Evil?

I know we have never put our full names on our blog. It is for safety reasons only. I would much prefer to use AB's name. It took me 9 months to decide on it, and rather like using it. Anyways, this post has to do with a mistake a local made with trying to send us a text message containing AB's name. Hopefully you know her name or this may not be very funny to you.

Because we are technically still university students, we try to do our best to give back to the university who has helped us get a student visa for the past 3 years. On Friday afternoons the English department hosts an English Corner. English Corners are an opportunity for English students to speak in a conversational type setting with native English speakers, like us.

Usually just one of us goes to the English Corners. The university is a 45 minute taxi ride from our home, so taking AB with us is a bit stressful. However the primary reason we do not take her is because her presence shuts down the English Corner. Instead of various small groups of 10 people sitting around practicing their English, you see 50 girls following AB around with their cameras and trying to pick her up. She is totally a distraction.

You want to know something funny? I do not know if this is just AB or if she learned this "hands off" thing from us, but when people try to give her food (which scares us) or tries to pick her up, she swats their hands away. You have to understand, AB is the first white baby most of the 10 million people in our city have ever seen in person. They ALL want to hold her, love on her, give her food, etc. It is sweet they are so kind, but it overwhelms me and it overwhelms her. From the beginning I obviously let friends touch her, but I drew the line at complete strangers. Now with AB's apparent aversion to people messing with her, she does the work for me. I try not to show that this pleases me, but I am almost always laughing inside.

Back to my English Corner story. Although the girls at the English Corner asked about her every week, after AB's first trip to the English Corner, we decided it was best to leave her at home. Last week a girl sent us a text message asking if AB was going to come. However, she did not quite get AB's name right. She asked, "Is Evil also coming with you to the English Corner today?" We thought it was funny, but her classmates mercilessly teased her for her mistake. I told her that Evil is close to AB's name, and it was an honest mistake. KB and I thought was really funny.

AB's Adventure

I originally wrote this on Thursday last week, but I forgot to post it.

KB has been traveling since Monday morning, so it is been just AB and I for the past few days. As any parent knows, two parents are always better than one. When KB got home today all I could thinks was, "I am going to get a nap!" However, in truth KB was a bit more in need of one than me. After lunch AB and I played in her room for an hour while KB slept on the couch. I woke him up, told him he had slept for an hour, and he was surprised it had been that long. I told him "tagg, you're it" and went to our bedroom to for my sweet hour of sleep. On my way into the room I asked KB if it was okay for me to let the dog out to play with AB, and he said sure.

I overslept half an hour, but I thought KB was just being thoughtful and let me sleep. It was also 30 minutes into AB's nap time, so I expected not to see her when I walked out of the room. The first thing I saw was KB was sleeping on the couch, no surprise there since he had to still be tired from an exhausting week. I assumed he went back to napping after AB began her nap. Then I noticed the dog was no where to be found, strange. Then I heard it. AB's little hands banging on the bathroom door. I calmly (frantically) woke KB and asked him where AB was, hoping I was just hearing things, and he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about...NO IDEA WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT! He had absolutely not recollection of our conversation, meaning he never actually woke up, also meaning he had been out for the entire time I was taking a nap. Immediately all my worst fears began to play through my mind.

We opened the bathroom door to find AB and Toby covered in water...what water you might ask? Toilet water, yep. In the picture below you can see the water in the toilet is very low and it is brown, because she dipped my makeup brushes in the toilet, many many times. We still do not know know how she managed to empty the toilet.

One of the first things I checked for was the cabinet lock, and fortunately it was securely in place. That was one less thing to worry about. Unfortunately, and obviously, the toilet lock was not in place, but I am pretty sure it will be after today.

In the picture below you can see the little wet silver box on the ground, that is one of my Clinique things that I have been rationing for the last three years, and Oh! that little white box, it is also wet and it has my mouth piece in it. You can also see my eyelash curler on the floor, but you cannot see that there is standing water on the floor. I do not even want to think about what she has done with the toilet scrub brush, but I can tell you that upon finding her, she was holding the plunger, then she looked at me and put her face in it. The wet toilet paper speaks for itself.

In this picture you can see that she favored my drawer. Those are my makeup brushes and other things on the wet floor, and that bag is full of KB's dirty clothes from his trip. I still have not found all of my makeup, but after I saw the pink blush smear on the toilet seat, I am honestly a little afraid to look for it.

This picture is a little blurry because AB was dripping in toilet water and I was trying to keep her from spreading it all over the apartment. As you can see though, she decorated herself my makeup and since it is on her lips, I think it safe to say she sucked on the brush.

We quickly stripped her, bathed her, gave her some milk, put her down for her nap and prayed that she does not get sick. We emailed her doctor and he said the greatest danger is parasites in the water, something we would all have to deal with if we drink the local water, not just toilet water. He said to be on diarrhea watch for the next week.

In the end, we figured out that KB was in fact a sleep for our entire conversation...not the first time to happen. There have been times we have had heated arguments just before going to sleep only to find out in the morning that he was already a sleep and had no recollection of the argument ever occurring. So, even though I thought I woke him up, he never actually woke up.

We are still a bit unnerved by all the things that could have happened, but we are trying to work our way to finding it funny...most people we tell think it is funny.

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.

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.