He...He...

In the past couple of weeks, I've been wondering out loud to Wil about whether or not John McCain has seen that episode of "Friends," in which Joey uses the air quotes for pretty much everything from "how are you doing?" to "I know." Since we only have one news channel on AFN and I now try to avoid it like the black plague because the sight of Sean Hannity is beginning to make me queasy, I really thought I was the only one seeing this. Apparently not. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has the most hilarious and cringe-inducing montage of this abuse. If Wil weren't such a fabulous husband and Mark Bittman turned down my offer of servitude, Jon Stewart and his writers would be next on the list of people I would shamelessly abandon my family for. No, not really, but they came very close.

The Perfect Storm

Fever as a side effect of previous day shots
+
Yet another round of teething
+
"Fall Back" daylight saving time
+
Apartment living woes originated by loud neighbors, who love to move furniture and play with their loud dog during my baby's nap time
=
A sad, sick, off-scheduled and endlessly fussy baby
+
A sad, exhausted, stressed-out momma

If the neighbors decide to move their furniture during my kid's THREE different naps again tomorrow, I'll be pitching a tent outside for good. Stairwell living blows a big one.

6-Month Well Baby: Still Perfectly Petite

Chase had her well baby appointment this morning and 4 shots to cap off her last visit for a while. She's about 13 lbs and 25 1/4" long. A few days before each of her well-baby visit, I always got a little nervous that the docs would tell me that she needed to gain more weight. Thankfully, they all practiced a principle, which took the whole baby into consideration and not just a growth chart. As soon as her pediatrician walked into the room and saw her today, she proclaimed "she's perfect!" It made the whole visit much easier on momma. Now we have her blessing to really start solids, even though we cheated and gave her some food a month ago. Also, her doctor didn't think that the rash Chase developed was a result of an allergic reaction to the cereal. Hmmmm... Well, now that we have to start, I guess we'll find out soon enough.

My Beautiful Children

I've Been Tagged

Mari tagged me to share 6 random fun facts about myself. I really didn't think it was going to be this long. Alright, get your mug of coffee/tea/soy milk (hi, Rebecca!) and get comfortable.

1. I'm not a very good housewife. When it comes to cleaning, the only thing I'm religious about is vacuuming. With two hairy dogs in a tiny apartment and a baby who puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, I get every penny's worth out of our Dyson Animal. I cook, keep the kitchen clean, and love to scrub the tub, but that's about it. When Wil's home, I rarely do laundry. I hate to dust and I don't make the bed EVER. My parents taught me way better than that but I'm just lazy. If Wil comes home to the perfectly polished furniture and all the laundry has been put away, he knows to bolt because the only time I put my energy to a good house work is when I'm super pissed about something.
2. I had a piece of 1/4"-long splinter embedded in my right big toe for almost two decades. I think I was about 6 or 7 and at my grandparents' house when it happened. I was running around barefoot playing with my siblings, and somehow this small piece of wood just lodged itself in there. I yanked out what I could grab, managed to shove the remaining bit up so far and deep beyond a care of a child, and just left it there to lay peacefully without getting infected. During a particularly rigorous exfoliating session in my senior year of college, I somehow unearthed the thing. It just sort of came off with the other ten layers of dead dry skin that I just scraped off my body. I carried it around on a tiny piece of tissue paper for a few minutes after the shower and had a moment of silence remembering all the good times we saw together over the years before flushing it down the toilet. It just didn't seem right to throw it away in the trash, so it got the same treatment as my childhood goldfish. And yes, I briefly thought about keeping it as souvenir. Just very very briefly.
3. I was petrified of dogs until Conner came along. When I was in the first or second grade, I was nearly attacked by a pack of roaming strays. It was about 6 o'clock in the morning and I was getting ready for school. I remembered that I needed something in the car, which was parked on the street by our house (we lived in a townhouse then), then went out to retrieve it. As I was getting out of the car, I saw a mean looking stray approaching me. Then I realized that it was one of many. Like ten, maybe. It all happened very quickly and the next thing I knew I had my back against the side of my house with the dogs closing in on me. They were loudly barking and baring teeth and I was screaming my little head off for my dad. I was sure I was going to be mauled, when I heard someone yelling at the dogs and a distinct sound of something solid hitting something that was not. I opened my eyes to see one of my neighbors towering over me in my fetal position. He was holding a broomstick, which he so skillfully used to fend off the dogs. Up until that point, I never really spoke to him. He was an older gentleman who lived a couple of houses down. I think he was retired. We always traded polite smiles and waves, but that was all the contact I had with him. I just started bawling my eyes out when I saw my dad running toward me. The rest of that day was a blur. I know dad called the animal control people and they brought a few trucks to take away the strays the following day. Ironically dad's action of ensuring that nothing like this would ever happen again to anyone in our neighborhood made him fairly unpopular with some other neighbors because they were feeding the strays and enjoying their companies. Until this day, I would get completely freaked out and have a mini panic attack when I'm startled. Wil now knows to loudly announce himself home as soon as he comes through the door.
4. I got mad at Wil when I was pushing Chase out. I was at it for nearly three hours already and found Wil's giggle unbearably infuriating. I was already screaming at everyone, so he just didn't realize that I was actually directing "STOP IT!!!" at him. He later told me that he got so uncontrollably giddy when I was pushing because he could see the top of her head that was covered in dark hair trying to poke out. When I stopped pushing, she would slide right back. So on and on it went, him giggling every time I was pushing (and getting more mad) and stopping when I had to catch my breath and try to remember to use my frustration to bare down and not choke my husband.
5. If you read my "Fun with Papa" post and the comments, you might remember that my sister Kwan said that Chase inherited my stubborn chin. I had no idea what a stubborn chin might be, so I wrote her an email asking what in the world it was. This is her reply: "the chin and face that you do when you are about to be really stubborn. Mom has the same one too." Good to know.
6. I met Wil through an old roommate, Kay, who was actually trying to set me up with another friend of hers, who turned out to be gay. Together, they all were in the play "The Laramie Project," which was produced by a fabulous community theater group Gilbert Theater in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Those days, I was working 12 hours+ and had been up since about 4:30 A.M. when I went to see the show later that night. I'm a little ashamed to say that I was nodding off a bit (really, it wasn't the play, I was just really tired). Then Wil came on stage and I was awake. We kept eyeing each other after the play was over but never had the chance to speak. We met again the following week when the group of Gilbert folks went out to support the friend that Kay was trying to set me up with, who happened to be in another play at another theater. I was sick, had a temperature of 102, but got dolled up to go out with them anyway because I was hoping that Wil would be there. We sat on the opposite sides of the aisle in the theater and kept playing peek-a-boo through out the whole play. Sorry, Matt, I was a bit distracted. You were very good though. Anyway, we went out to a bar afterward and I thought he was taken because this girl was all over him. So I sort of gave up and just had a friendly conversation with him for a little while until I had to leave because of a fever spike. Fast forward to another week and another theater party, where he assured me that he was very much single and interested. I had to leave the party early again because I had to work the following day. He walked me to my car, which I never got in because I didn't really want to leave, so we took advantage of a beautiful night and walked to my apartment, which was about 10 minutes away. I didn't go inside once we got there because I didn't want the night to end, so we sat in the park by my house and talked until almost 4 A.M. Then we stayed on the phone until the sun came up and I went to work. I came home from work, he came over, and we took Conner out to the park. He came over that day and never left. Con loved and approved of him immediately and I knew Wil was a keeper when he didn't even blink when dirty Conner hopped into his shiny 3-day-old truck. And that's how we became a family. Now all together, AWWWWWWWWW.

So, now I'm going to tag Carol, Meghan, and Eurolush. I'm curious to learn new things about you girls.

It's Like High School

We have new downstairs neighbors, so Paddy no longer gets to play fetch in the house.


The saddest puppy.

I thought we should be neighborly and go over to introduce ourselves. Now I sort of wish we hadn't. The wife answered the door and she looked like she was harassed. It's totally understandable since we all know no one enjoys moving. Then she started talking, with a hint of a Valley Girl accent, which made her camouflage clothing all the more confusing to me. She also used eye-rolling like a form of punctuation. Like after I informed her that they were dogs in every apartment in our stairwell. Or that there were about 10 babies in our building (she asked if that 4:00 A.M. cry was originated by ours, which thankfully wasn't). I thought it was weird that she would roll her eyes at the baby info then immediately after volunteered to babysit my child.

Thank you kindly, but HELL NO, ma'am.

Worst of all was that she seemed to be bringing drama and old feuds to our previously semi-peaceful building. On-post housing is a requirement in Baumholder for married soldiers. So now I want you to picture lots of lonely spouses of deployed soldiers, who suddenly find themselves an ocean away from everything they know and love (for the first time ever for some of the younger ones). Now they have to deal with being both moms and dads to kids, who don't understand why their parents have to go away for 15 months, running the household, and dealing with daily hiccups without the help and support of their families and friends back home. Making new friends and maintaining those friendships in this environment shouldn't be difficult as they are all in the same boat, but unfortunately there's always DRAMA. You military spouses know what I'm talking about. It's not like we can get away from each other either since we have to live on top of one another, literally. Apparently, she and another set of new neighbors, who moved in just a few months ago, had some issues with each other at their last place of residence and looked to settle the score here.

Why does this concern me?

My Beloved unfortunately happens to be the building coordinator. Not by choice. We always dread a knock on our door after 10:00 P.M. They expect Wil to referee the arguments and calm the situation before the punches fly and the MPs are called. And since most of the husbands are gone, he would not go into their apartments without me. You see why I'm already exhausted waiting for this to blow? Once again, where is my order?!?

Fun with Papa

Her chariot/babysitter.

"Giddy up, Paddy!"

I woke up from a nap and saw that Wil had changed her into this. I'm sorry to say that you won't be seeing Chaster in an Auburn gear anytime soon, mainly because it's against my cheapskate principle to spend $27 on a onesie.

She looks pretty happy to be a Buckeye, doesn't she? The poor child will have to learn to live with disappointment. Ha. I really shouldn't talk smack because my beloved Auburn football team is not doing so hot this year.

It's never too early to booze the baby.

What's in your sippy cup, Chaster?

She's Doing Better

Yes, Kun Yai, you can stop pacing now and might want to take a nap. She's still pretty congested but there's no projectile vomiting to report tonight (hooray!). The poor child has developed a great dislike for the bulb syringe now and started to wince every time I come at her with it. Chaster missed her friend Christian's first birthday party today and we're a little bummed about that. Better be safe than sorry, and there will be plenty more time for future play dates since we have no idea when Wil will get his order. We were told "5-10 days" about two months ago. Gotta love the Army.

In other news, Chase finally sat up by herself today. I noticed that she was balancing herself pretty well on my lap while I checked my email this morning, so I sat her down with her new toy on the play mat and she just carried on like a pro. Sometimes she was so engrossed in the toy and perhaps forgot that she was actually sitting up and would tip over like a drunken sailor. I had been impatiently waiting for this but am now a little sad that she's really moving too quickly away from her brand new baby days. It got a little more bittersweet when I had to search her big tub of clothes for some 6-9 months stuffs. I'm still holding on to a few of her favorite 0-3 months onesies that I can't bare to put away just yet. It feels like I cry at least once a week now thinking about her going off to college. Wil just sort of shakes his head when he sees me doing this. I am going to be one of those uncool, clingy mothers, who completely lose it at the first day of kindergarten. I know I have gone Care Bear soft.

Isn't it ironic that now that my kid can sleep for a really long stretch, I suddenly find that I can't? It seems that my poor body has gotten accustomed to the sleep deprivation since the beginning of the pregnancy and I just can't get a good night sleep even if the baby does. Normally, she would wake up to nurse once before going back down for the second half of the usual 10-12 hours of sleep but I would be wide awake after that. This is how you keep getting updates from me at 2:00 A.M. I constantly find myself laying wide awake in the dark listening to the baby monitor and all the little sleep noises she makes. I read that a new mother's brain is so wired and sensitive to her baby's cry and sound, which is very helpful and reassuring, but how do I train my brain to not response to her thumb sucking noises? I swear I can hear it even without the monitor and with a thick concrete wall between us. I am far too paranoid to turn off the monitor, so that's not an option. With that said, I really should try to lay down again. And maybe I'll have a better luck catching the child showing off her new sitting skill on the camera tomorrow.

A Case of the Sniffles

I have been dreading the start of the school year and the inevitable spread of monstrous germs, which would have already mutated 5 times in a month thus rendering any kind of medicines useless. It never fails to happen every single year whether or not one has any school age children, because she bounds to know/work with/walk by someone who does. This year I have a very good reason to be paranoid and think that I have subconsciously pseudo quarantined the baby for it.

Well, apparently that one day, which I thought she might benefit from some fresh air, sunshine, and other human contact at the park since she was beginning to look like a wilted flower from being indoor for almost a whole week straight (hey, it was raining, too, but then again when isn't it raining in Germany?), did my kid in. She's not really sick yet but is getting pretty stuffy and uncomfortable. She had a rough night and we found ourselves sitting with the poor child in our steamy bathroom at midnight. I'm not ready for my baby to be sick. I'm not sure if I'll ever be. From now on she will be living in a sterilized bubble.

The only upside to this is the fact that she's too exhausted to put up a fight during her naps. I'm far too wired to nap with her and now always armed with a bottle of saline spray and a bulb syringe for a quick relief should she start having trouble breathing as she did last night. This really hurts me more.

LOUDER! I Can Barely Hear You SCREAM!!!

We've been letting Chaster baby cry herself to sleep when she wakes up at night. Up until last weekend, we would get up with her whenever she was up and pat her on the back until she fell back to sleep. She went from waking up once or twice a night at four months old to an average of 5-6 (and 8-9 on really bad nights) at five months and a half. I will say that's a very big step in the wrong direction. After re-reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" for the fourth time, mainly to ensure myself that I would not be ruining my kid's life by leaving her in her crib to cry, I sat on the couch in the living room listening to her scream for the next hour and a half until it was time for her to get up for the day. I think half of my hair went gray that day. Not to bore you with the rest of the story, but we are now on day 10 of the Cry It Out routine and on most days we see a significant improvement in her. That doesn't mean she's not being her stubborn self some nights, but things are definitely looking up. Looking back, why did I ever think that she would go to sleep when she could have our company whenever she wanted? Sorry, Baby Whisperer, but this is where we must part. Thanks for teaching us to stick to a structured routine. You really have been a life saver.

My New Favorite Blurry Picture

Smelly Schmelly

I made Japanese curry for dinner last night for the first time. I liked the way it tasted but not so much the smell and attempted to disguise the stink with the lovely aroma of some kind of lime pie scented candle. Now my house smells like a pungent pot of lime-curry concoction. The kid can't wake up fast enough from her nap so we can get out of the house for some fresh air. The sun is out and it's not raining. Looks like the bribe of my soul has finally paid off.

I Know You Missed Me

I missed you, too, My People. It took me a whole hour to catch up on all of your blogs. Looked like I took a busy week off! As you may guess by now, Deutsche Telekom is on my *h*t list. Why they should think that their customers would be okay living without phone or internet for over a week at a stretch is beyond me. Freaking monopoly. The best part was that I had to pay to call their customer service EVERYDAY only to be informed that they hadn't gotten a clue what the problem was, how to go about fixing it, or when it would be fixed. I'm going to conclude my rant now because this is only jacking up my blood pressure.

Wil had a four-day weekend and we were in a desperate need of some fresh air and new sights and decided to head out to Heidelberg. Chaster Baby had a rotten night (more on that later), so we made sure to travel around her nap time, which worked out perfectly. We got to the famed Heidelberg castle just as she was waking up from her 2-hour nap. Yay for a happy, well-rested baby. We couldn't have picked a more perfect fall day to go up there. The weather was gorgeous and the turning leaves were breathtaking. There are no words to do this place justice.







And to think that this majestic castle and ground, which sat atop one of the highest Heidelberg hills, was built without any help from modern technology! The most hilarious thing that happened was in the midst of these amazing surroundings, a group of Japanese tourist decided that the most beautiful thing in town was my baby. We were trying to take some pictures of her with the fallen leaves when a man asked if it was okay for his wife to take a picture with Chase. The next thing we knew, the child was mobbed by a gang of cooing Japanese girls. I was laughing so hard I cried but managed to snap a few pictures of the moment I would forever use to brag about my kid's cuteness.

It started out innocent enough...
Then they came.
And took lots and lots of pictures... They asked if we wanted to charge money. Should have said yes.
Chaster didn't quite know what to make of this.
They really didn't want us to leave.

We spent more time at the castle than anticipated and had to head back home to the boys before getting to see the rest of the vibrant Heidelberg. We definitely will come back, perhaps the next time on our bikes just like all the cool college kids :). Here are some more pics from our day:




This face made me laugh.











I have about a million more pictures of us in Heidelberg, but I should perhaps stop here before crashing this site. Wil is telling me it's time to go. I shall come back after he goes to bed. Must make up for lost time.

Back to Our Cave...Again

We don't have phone or internet AGAIN. It's been going out and coming back briefly this past week, but I think we are out again at least for the whole weekend and possibly the beginning of the next. We are going stir crazy so we'll be driving around a bit this weekend. Will post pictures when we are up and running again.

Vocabulary

Chase definitely knows at least two words that I know of. She knows to stretch out her legs and bare her weight when I say "stand up." I thought it was pretty cool when I first noticed that she actually comprehended what I was saying, and it came in pretty handy when I was carrying one grocery bag too many in one arm and the baby in the other. The other one is "Paddy." I can ask her "where's Paddy?" and she will start scanning the room for him and smile broadly and laugh when she finds him. She knows "Bubu" for Brutus, too, but does not always seem to take the same urgency to look for him consistently. "Momma" and "Papa" also get pretty decent response. I've been paying more attention to her babbling, and my own potty mouth, since realizing that she's beginning to pick up our language. I'm making a real effort to speak to her in Thai, but it's been a crapshoot since I speak to the pups and Wil in English but don't always remember to switch back to Thai when talking to her. The other day I fell asleep on the couch and was woken up by this "BAAAAAAAAAAA" sound. I opened my eyes to see Wil sitting on the other end of the couch and holding Chase, who had both her arms outstretched in my direction while loudly voiced "BAAAAAAAAAAAAA." I'm hopeful that it's the beginning of "Momma" as she's been using it consistently to get my attention. Wil is also convinced that she can say "hi" and "ok." No, we don't have high expectation of our 5-month-old at all :).

This reminded me of a story my friend, who became a kindergarten teacher, told me. She and her colleagues always had a bet going on how many "my child is gifted, so please feel free to give her more work" they would get on kindergarten sign up day. It was always a lot and apparently it took all she could to keep a straight face before replying "of course." I told Wil this story and he said "but our baby REALLY IS gifted." Speak like a true doting father.

Last but not least, her teething is tapering off, I think. Saliva is not pouring out of her anymore, although she's still drooling pretty excessively. She's learned to grab our fingertip and use it like a toothbrush on her gum, especially the top one. She hasn't mastered moving our giant fingers, so most of the time she would just move her head from side to side instead. Pretty freaking adorable if you ask me. And one more picture that I LOVE:

Let's hope for more of that!

Body Image

I find it fascinating that I could weigh just about the same as before the pregnancy but look utterly different. I know vanity really has no place in the wonderfully grand scheme of things that my precious baby brings, but it would be a big lie to say I didn't cry the first time I looked at myself in the mirror (or the second...and third) after coming home from the hospital. My body hadn't changed much at all in the previous 20 years and I had grown to love it. Seeing what a wreck it turned into was very disorienting. Now five months and thirty pounds later, there are still days that I mourn my old self a little. But then I would touch my stomach and remember that my baby was there and feel thankful that I could nurse her with these new boobs. A few weeks ago I packed away old clothes that I knew I would never fit in again but not quite ready to part with. It was kind of therapeutic. It just made me realize that cloth sizes were pretty much like age: they only affected me if I allowed them to. I've been in size zero and I've been a twelve, and I can tell you that I worry just the same that a certain pair of pants would make my rear end look enormous. Good to know that at least there's THAT consistency in my life. That and a sweet and kind husband, who tells me everyday that I look beautiful even while wearing his t-shirt that is covered in breast milk and spit up. I know I'm lucky. Just need to get used to the old me in this new body. Work in progress...

Fall Colors

This time last year I spent most of the time hanging my head over the toilet bowl or a garbage can. By the time I looked up, all the trees were bare and bunking in for the upcoming winter. I didn't even get one single picture of the beautiful turning leaves. So yesterday when we actually woke up to a semi dry weather and sunshine, I insisted that all of the Steinhams go out for a stroll around post. It made me so happy to see the spring in the boys' steps, since the rain had kept them out of the park all week. Nothing is sadder to be around than miffed puppies.

September Redeemed Herself

I'm thinking that when Chase's teeth finally cut, I'll wake up one morning to her sporting all 20 at once. She's still so uncomfortable, fuzzy, and on some kind of napping trike, yet there's no sign of pearly whites to report. Wil has taken to rubbing her gum when she wakes up screaming at night, which apparently works like magic and calms her right back to sleep in no time. I wouldn't know because I've been sleeping through her crying. I have no idea how this happens. The first time I failed to wake up with her, I contributed it to a very delicious glass of Federweisser, my first drink since the beginning of my pregnancy last year. I personally think it's the greatest beverage ever created and have been drinking it by the gallon. Literally.
It's the one in the big container in the front. We have a vintner, who brings this divine drink to our little town in a refrigerated barrel. I'm going to say that trying to consume 3 liters of this stuff in a few days is a little beyond me at this point. It was still really fun to try though...

Last week we had the kind of weather I remembered September to be. We took advantage of it and took the kid out for some fresh air and sunshine. I've kept her inside so much lately it's beginning to feel like I'm growing a mushroom instead of a baby. We went to a farm festival at Hitcherhof on Sunday. There were lots of vendors and farmers selling everything from produce to handmade soap.


Her pooping face.
And this is what happened when papa left her hat in the car and it got windy.

I was especially looking forward to taking pictures of Chaster at a pumpkin patch, and apparently so were 5,000 other parents there. It was hard trying to take a picture of the baby with a stranger's elbow in my face, but at least she was in a very close proximity to at least one pumpkin.




My husband can change diaper ANYWHERE. Is that not porn for a new mom?


She was watching kids play in the hay with great amusement.
We found an even more yummy federweisser there and split a glass. And brought another liter home...
What a gorgeous day to be outside!

We came home and it was the boys' turn to enjoy the weather. We drove out to Frauenburg to let the pups play in the river and run on the bike trail. Fun was had by all!


What difference a year make!

These three are my new favorites.