Baby Shower

Things are done a bit differently around here, and I have certainly never heard of a baby shower in this country. There are just so many babies and not enough money that I think baby showers are not customary. I had just accepted that I would not have a baby shower. This made me sad, but I figured getting my hopes up would just disappoint me.

However, our wonderful American friends knew that a baby needs to be celebrated. So, they threw us a baby shower (a bilingual baby shower)! It was a complete surprise. It was a hot, rainy Sunday afterno

on and my friend lives on the 5th floor, so when we arrived a bit late for what I thought was a get-together I was all apologizes. Then I looked over and saw a pink and blue table with goodies on it and my local friends surrounding it, and behind the table was a sign that said "Welcome Baby Brown." I could not believe it. I was stunned. If you know me, it is not hard to pull one over my head, but I still could not believe that my friends would go through the trouble.

We had pink and blue cupcakes, finger sandwiches, and other goodies. They even filled a basket with baby lotion, diapers, a

nd toys. We played typical baby shower games, including one that has determined that our baby is a girl named Trecarya Heather Brown, has hazel eyes, blonde curly hair and will be a flight attendant scientist.

Today I am at 22 weeks. The baby kicks a lot and has its own schedule for how things are done. I visited the doctor this week and she said the baby is healthy, on schedule, and I am gaining weight as I should be (So please no one tell me I need to gain more weight. I hear it daily from every female who has had a baby or will have a baby and they are everywhere).

 

Lastly, as you can probably tell from the photos, I cut

 my hair.  All the baby books told me not to do anything drastic to my hair, that it won't make me look like I am not pregnant or feel better about myself.  I did not listen, and I thought I was the exception for the rule.  Turns out a new haircut will not make you feel less pregnant or make you feel better about yourself.  Also, the hair stylist here have a inability to cut one side of the hair at the same length as the other.  So, I have now 

gotten 3 haircuts in the past month (none of the above photos show the most recent one - it is shorter now) in efforts to correct the attempts by the previous genius who whacked at it.  I am probably going to grow it out since my longer hair was a lot less stressful to maintain then this, but I guess I needed to learn the lesson for myself.

We miss you all.  KB and L

Busy Month

We love receiving boxes, especially big ones!!!  One of KB's good friends from college got some of her friends together to send us the biggest box we have ever received.  Unfortunately Toby also enjoyed one of the delicious gravy packets, resulting in the included bath photo.

We have been trying to be busy getting ready for the baby.  We start school next week and so we want to get most everything done before that begins.  It did not look like much would get done though since things either move really fast here or extremely slow.  Well just last night, we got a call that a painter was available to paint the baby's room (It is like a putty paint that you smear onto the walls with a spatula, something that other foreigners have encouraged us to not consider doing on our own).  Then also last night the carpenter came by to measure for new doors in the baby's room (Toby is able to open the sliding doors himself, so I have reason to believer our kid could do it too).  Most amazingly, the factory that has been building the furniture we ordered in JANUARY called and said they wanted to deliver our furniture last night.  Everything is happening all at once.  

We still have a lot to do, and order, and make, and let other's make, but it is nice to see something happening in the future baby's room other than just a baby bed.  

On a sad note, a couple of our foreign friends who have been here since before we arrived are leaving our city in the next couple of weeks.  There will be no foreign ladies here at all after they leave, and they were really special to us.  

A Couple More Shots...

We love this photo and are considering making it our Christmas card! This bumper sticker is stuck to an air conditioner at a Tex Mex place down south. They even had Dr. Pepper there! (The bumper sticker says "Someone in Texas Loves Me!)



Lastly, we had to go to a big city to purchase our airline tickets to Thailand and to get our teeth cleaned. So, as usual we tried to go the cheap route on the hotels (we prefer to spend our money at western restaurants). This hotel was not the worst we have stayed in, but it had the worst view though. Below is a picture of what we saw when we looked out our window- used toilets.

Traveling Again

We went down south and now we are back. We had a great time, and I don't think we ate anything but foreign food for an entire week. It was awesome!
Thank you for thinking of us during this time. The bus rides were not the best, but L managed to make it both there and back on the bus. However, she has asked to not make her do it again. The good new is that our next scheduled trip is on the way to Thailand to have our baby, and that flight has already been booked. We can't believe that we will be heading to Thailand in less than 4 months!

We took some photos of some things we looked at along the way.
This was on a boat ride down a water canal.

Giant water lilies.

Since coming to this part of the world, L's biggest indulgence is pedicures. She has only gotten a few, but she really likes them. Because the regulations on cleaning the tools for manicures and pedicures are not established where we live, she has to get them at nicer places - usually called spas. They are still relatively cheap, and she feels extra special while getting them.

Fans of "The Office"

This is for all you fans of "The Office." If you are not an Office fan or have never see this episode, this photo will look very strange to you. Yesterday K went into the bathroom for a much needed shave. When he came out I noticed that his face was only 1/2 shaved. I asked him what happened. He said that I had called him to lunch so he stopped immediately. I thought that was a bit strange, but if you know me, you probably know it is really easy to tell me something and I will believe you. I had no reason to believe he purposely left his face looking as it did. However, hours later when I noticed his face was still half shaved I asked when he would shave it, and he would just ask why he needed to shave it. K tends to take people in circles when asked with questions he does not want to answer, so finally I just told him that he looked like Moes off of "The Office." He laughed. When our friend arrived for the party, KB told both of us to turn around. KB went into the bedroom, did something, came out and turned on some scary music and began talking to us about fear. Our friend and I both being Office fans immediately knew what he was doing. However, we did not expect what we saw when we turned around. KB looked like Moes!!! It was so funny. Later on he gave us a quiz on himself to see who could eat first. It was just like Dwight's quiz about Michael; both our guest and I failed

KB's Birthday

Yesterday was KB's 27th birthday. Only one of our American friends was in the city with us, so it was a very small birthday party. Nevertheless we had a good time. L spent the day making sure that KB had all of his favorite foods. This should go without saying, but all of this food was 100% homemade - including the tortillas. He had biscuits, gravy and eggs for breakfast. For lunch we ate chicken barbecue pizza. For dinner we ate chicken soft tacos, with queso and lime cilantro rice. For his birthday cake we had brownies, with ice cream and homemade chocolate sauce. We were quite full and satisfied!




I think this picture looks like we are two good future parents in training, but the truth is that our dog is scared to death of balloons. They completely freak him out, so we are trying to introduce him to the balloon (by the way look at the scary picture on the balloon). For the rest of the evening he sat still and stared at the balloon, and if you have ever met him you know that sitting still is a miracle in an of itself.


Although L has still 3.5 pounds to gain before she even gets back to her pre-pregnancy weight (she lost 5 pounds as soon as she found out she was pregnant), somehow she is beginning to show. Tomorrow she will be at 16 weeks.


Tomorrow we have to board a bus for a 7 hour trip down south. This is potentially a very bad trip for L. Right now she is visiting the bathroom every hour, and is incredibly thirsty all of the time. The bus will probably only stop one time in the 7 hours. Also, people smoke on the bus, so she will probably have to wear a hot mask the entire time. Lastly, she is having a lot of trouble with headaches. If the trip is really bad, we will have to pay to fly her back for the return trip. Since this will be out of our own pocket, please think of L and hope that she will be able to enjoy the bus trip and be able to return on the bus as well.

We love you all, K & L

June and July Fun

We finished school for this semester on June 20th. That evening we boarded a train to our capital city to eat and shop. It was a lot of fun. Getting home with all the stuff we bought for the baby was a different story though, essentially we almost missed our train home.





Right now we are relaxing and getting the house prepared for a baby. L just entered into her second trimester, but she is not really showing yet. Her clothes are getting pretty tight though. All the locals stare at us anyways, but she is especially self conscious now thinking they believe she is becoming just another fat foreigner.



We had a 4th of July party at our place, and two other Americans attended (a good turnout considering there are only 2 other Americans here anyways). We had all the great food necessary for a 4th of July party, but we really wish we also had a pool. It has been really hot lately.



Recently we found a wonderful thing at the local supermarket - Dryers Ice Cream! All that was available before was Nestles (which is truly awful), and Nestles is only slightly better than the local stuff. Anyways, for $10 USD we get a little less than 2 pints of ice cream, so we have to really ration it.



In early December we will be heading to Thailand for L to spend the remainder of her pregnancy there and will deliver sometime around January 10th. L's mom will be coming to stay will us soon after Christmas, but if anyone wants to come visit us before she comes, we will gladly offer you our sofa!

This is a bag of cherry flavored candy.

About 6 weeks ago we took Toby to get his hair cut.




About 2 weeks ago we noticed the hair around his eyes grew back faster than anywhere else.

Mountain Climbing!

Yesterday we went with some friends to climb a local mountain. Since most of the mountains we have seen in this country seemed overrated (in this country's defense we have only seen 1 other mountain), we thought it would be no problem...especially since we were told the entire climb would be up stairs. It took us about 8 hard hours to climb that stinking mountain! These are not normal stairs. They are narrow and very steep. Since L is pregnant we tried to stop and rest often, but even our non pregnant friends needed just as many rests as well. The view from the top of the mountain was well worth everything, but more than once I think everyone wondered if we would survive the mountain. L's knee hurt really bad towards the end, and K thought he may have to carry her down.

This is a photo of us at the beginning - nice and fresh looking!

After about 5 hours of climbing stairs up the side of the mountain, we finally made it!!!













K taking in the view.














This is a photo of L "hanging" off of the side of the mountain.

















All in all, it was an exhausting but rewarding day. We started climbing the stairs about 8:30 am, and we finished around 4:30 pm. We thought the stairs up the mountain were never ending, but then we thought the same thing about the stairs down the mountain.

This is a bicycle repair “wagon,” since they don’t have bike repair shops here. People bring their bikes here when they get a flat tire, etc. There are many of these little wagons around the city. I am pretty sure they stole the KFC umbrella.

Big News!

So, in case you don't yet know, we are pregnant. In our simple little city they do not actually print off sonogram photos, so this is a digital photo of the computer screen. Also, they do not do blood pregnancy tests, so seeing this 3 weeks ago confirmed our pregnancy. It came as a bit of a surprise, but we are really excited. The baby is due in January 2009.













Recently we took a village trip. This photo of L is a good example of how much we stand out in this country...we don't blend in.













We wanted to post a bunch of other photos, but our internet is not moving too fast. We will try to update again in a couple of days. K & L

Parvo Puppy

Our precious little puppy, Toby, contracted Parvo a few weeks ago. We thought he was a little down and noticed he was throwing up and having diarrhea a little, so we assumed he maybe ate some grass or something. However, at the advice of a friend we took him to the local vet the same day he started acting like this. This turned out to be one of the most important things we did for him in all his treatment. Only dogs who begin treatment during the first day or so of symptoms survive. They did a test and told us he had Parvo. We did not really know what it was since we never had to deal with it in the States, but after going home and getting online, we realized how dangerous of a sickness our little puppy had. We were told that Toby had received all his shots, but the well-intentioned guy who we bought Toby from did not realize he only gave Toby 1 shot of Parvo out of a 3 shot series.

For his treatment the vets put him on a rusty table of which the top is made of wide weaved bands (These photos were taken on the first day of treatment; on all the following days I brought enough clean towels to create a barrier between him and that nasty table). They pulled each of his legs through and tied them with a strap to the bottom of the table. This was very uncomfortable for Toby. They shaved both of his front legs, and he received alternating IV's in each leg. For the first 5 days of his treatment he did not even flinch when he received his treatment, and we knew he was getting better when he started putting up a bit of a fight after 6 days.

It was a very stressful week for us. One of us slept in the living room with him each night to help him through his sickness (vomit and diarrhea). Then each morning we took him to the vet to receive a 1 hour treatment of medication and fluids. We then took him back each afternoon for the same treatment. Toby only moved from his bed to go vomit or to use the bathroom (which was in large quantities). Sometimes he was even too weak to move and threw-up or used the restroom on himself. He went down from 9 pounds to 7 pounds, and that is a lot for a little guy like him. We were constantly bleaching everything from our floor, to his toys and everything else he liked to touch.

It was a really emotional week for us. We were not sure he was going to make it through the 3rd night of his treatment. K stayed up almost the whole night as he was afraid if he fell a sleep that he would never see Toby alive again. Nevertheless, Toby made it!!! After a full week of treatment he finally began to eat and drink a little again. His personality has almost completely restored back to normal. He is still contagious to other dogs for 2 more months, so for 2 months he cannot leave our apartment. Furthermore, he will start receive his shots to guard him against contracting Parvo again in June, and he will not be fully inoculated until September. Therefore we have to continually clean everything with bleach - our shoes, our floors, his toys, and all the other things he touches.

After brainstorming and reading everything we could, we came to the conclusion that he probably was exposed to Parvo through something we brought in on our shoes. He had not been outside to play in more than 2 weeks, and he had gotten his hair cut just a few days before - not enough time for him to get sick. This explains our need to clean.

Three other dogs were receiving the Parvo treatment with Toby, and 2 of those dogs died. Toby was a very prayed for and a very lucky dog. Parvo is bad. Make sure your puppy has all their shots!

L's Birthday

L turned the big 27 this past weekend, so K and some friends threw a birthday party for her. However, much to her surprise on Friday K took her to a nice hotel in town that has a bathtub (L's birthday was on Saturday)! L loves baths, and our apartment only has a shower, so she spend about an hour on two different occasions soaking in a bubbly garden tub. K also treated L to a wonderful dinner at Pizza Hut that evening. There are only three options for fine American dining in our town - McDonalds, KFC, and Pizza Hut. Since we thought a birthday celebration was reason enough to not have to carry a tray, we decided to go to Pizza Hut since it is the fanciest : )













The next morning we walked to McDonalds for a wonderful pancake breakfast. Later that afternoon we went bowling with our American buddies. Then we headed over to a friends apartment who had made chicken soft tacos - L's favorite. Our friend went through the effort to make homemade tortillas, queso, homemade chips, Spanish rice, had crispy shells sent from American, and even made a double layer yellow cake with chocolate icing. Also the party had a theme - it was a princess party. She went all out!





























To top it all off K planned party activities including a ring toss, quick draw, write you initials on L's face, and target shooting. After the games we ate the cake and ice cream, headed into a sugar coma, and ended the evening by watching some of the first season episodes of the Cosby show. It was a great evening.

To Our Wonderful Friends!

We came home from a really long weekend out of town to a wonderful suprise...3 beautiful boxes!!! We want to give a HUGE thanks to our awesome friends at Lake Arlington for all the goodies they sent us. You sent us exactly what we have been needing. We have already dug into them and are really enjoying/rationing everything. Thank you so much for not forgetting us and for really going out of your way to show us how much you care.

K & L

So, one day we will post more photos of our selves than our dog, but right now he is just so cute! He is white, so he gets dirty often. Therefore he gets a lot of baths. Plus he has a skin infection that requires us to dip him in a medicated bath several times a week. He was very angry with us the first time he was given a bath. In fact he avoided us for an entire hour afterwards. Now he is a little pro! We love our little dog!

Fun with Toby

L's brother pointed out that dogs and owners often look alike and he specifically cited this photo. What do you all think?

Everyone who knows K will probably recall his lengthy afternoon naps. Toby is becoming more and more like K! Toby often sleeps on is back with all 4 legs in the air. It is really cute and funny. This is also a good shot to show how little he is.

Just a friendly reminder that our e-mail address has changed to eastasiabrowns@pobox.com.