Frauenburg

Got a call from my mom this morning. She sounded concerned. She told me about the news of a poor mother in Thailand, who slept with her baby and ended up killing her precious one by rolling over the little guy. Naturally, the pictures of Wil and Paddy in bed with the kid gave her quite a fright. I guess then we shouldn't post the pictures of Chase hanging out with her brothers in their kennels. I kid, I kid. All joking aside, we are extremely careful with her, so nothing to worry about, Mom, Dad, Kwan, and the rest of you people. I'm looking at you, Grandmas. :|

So, let's see some other pictures that won't jeopardize my inheritance, shall we? I haven't been able to walk the boys by myself at all, because I am still healing and will experience a pretty sizable discomfort when running after two overly-excited monkeys (ask me how I know that). Wil has been taking the boys out to use the bathroom in the morning and mid-day and to the park after work. When the weather and kid cooperate, we all go out for a long walk after dinner. Yesterday the poor boys were suffering from a serious case of baby overload since Chase was having a crabby day, so we decided that a change of scenery would do them good. We drove to a near by town of Frauenburg, where we went biking with the boys last year. Perhaps you remember this? Besides having a gorgeous bike trail, Frauenburg is also home to another castle ruin. It's a small little one on a hill but it was just want we needed.




Luckily, we got out of there before the angry rain clouds got to us.
As always, my baby loved the Ergo and our outing.

And this section should be called "Grandma's Special." Chase is sporting a bodysuit from her aunt Kwan. Wil would like to point out that the sentence is missing an A. Enjoy.



Thanks, Kun Yai! I really like my present!
P.S. After exactly 14 days after I cut out dairy from my diet, my darling one's poop is back to marigold yellow. Oh, the German pastry and ice cream. This hurts me a lot more than you'll ever know.

A New Routine

I felt kind of bad for a while that we rarely put Chase to sleep on her own. It is so hard to let go of a warm sleepy bundle of love, and most of the time we just let her sleep on our chests. Stacks of parenting books would say that we really can't spoil her by doing that at this age and we are taking full advantage of it because these moments are literally flying by. Slowly but surely, my baby girl is inserting her very own independence. She can nap in her bassinet or crib alone for a long time now and is sleeping much longer at night. She's getting so big so quickly now, too. We've got one of those banana babies--you know, the kind that doesn't pack on much around the middle but rather the long way. I am relieved that she inherits her father's long legs and is spared a life time of walking on the hem of her pants like her mother. But that also means outgrowing clothes for 3-month old babies when she's just over 5 weeks. Before I know it, she'll be taller than me, a task not entirely difficult to achieve.

Anyway, here are a few cute pictures from this morning. I was hoping that Wil would wake up after I passed him Chase to hold and in turn she would rouse to feed. Naturally, I was wrong on both accounts.


Poor Paddy is still adjusting to not being able to cuddle with his papa whenever he wants. For now, he'd settle for being as close to him as he can. Bless his heart.

Last but not least, my sister Kwan finally forwarded me some pictures of her wedding last weekend. It really sucked that I missed it but it looked like fun was had by all. This one is from the morning traditional Thai ceremony. Doesn't she look beautiful? And I think this is the first time that I ever see Non in a suit. You both clean up nicely, although I'm sure Non still smells :D.

Burg Lichtenberg

Wil and I had been trying to get out of the house and do something for the past several weekends, but our little boss always vetoed it. Well, this weekend we decided to start small and visit the adjacent town Kusel, which housed an old castle Burg Lichtenberg. Though we have been in Germany since last summer, my pregnancy largely kept us from doing anything fun. So, in a way it's almost like we just got here. Anyhow, here's our short trip in pictures:

















And, of course, a few cute pictures of the child.

An outfit from Kun Yai.

One-handed typing still sucks.

That Was a Doozie!

I don't even know how to sum up our lives in the past month or so. Chase has gone through a couple of growth spurts and they weren't fun for any of us. The poor baby was terribly tired and cranky and we were just at the brink of losing our noodles on a regular basis trying to figure out what exactly we should be doing to soothe her. The house was a furry wreck and the boys had to seriously adjust their lifestyle. I'm happy to share that I think things are finally looking up. Chasey is sleeping off all that growing she's been doing and eating like a champ. She's even graduated to the next size diaper and clothes! My baby daughter is also learning to sleep and play on her own a bit more, so I actually have time to clean the house, cook dinner, and love on the boys. Things have been going so well that all five of us got to take a long walk together after dinner two nights in a row. I finally feel like I might not screw our baby up so badly while Wil is at work. I can't put into words the overwhelming joy her gummy smile gives me, especially at the wee hours in the morning. Wil and I often find ourselves staring at this little person in amazement. We sure did good, Steinham!
Showing brother Brutus her new toy.
I'm too sexy for my shirt. We have completely skipped spring and gone head first into summer. Have I mentioned that AC is not the norm here?
Sleeping ALONE in her bassinet! She only naps soundly on her tummy. I know...I know. I'm so paranoid that I check on her pretty much every minute, which defeats any reason why she should sleep alone.

Ok, You Guilt Me Into It

I used my one bathroom break to take pictures of the child and upload them (probably because I felt guilty). You owe me, friends and fam.



Is it bad that I think her crying is adorable?
This is what you'd see if you drop by our house. Me on the couch, Chase on me. And I'm taking care of that bird nest on my head tomorrow. Oh, how I would miss the smell of spit up in my hair.

One Hand Blogging

The Kid refuses to be by herself, awake or asleep, so I really can't blog much. We're doing ok. Breastfeeding has been more challenging than I ever thought possible, and I feel like I'm starving the child at times. Two days ago I caved and gave her ONE bottle after nearly two hours of her trying to gnaw my nipple off and appearing to still be mighty hungry. I shared this info with the Nipple Nazi, a.k.a. Lactation Consultant, and I thought she was going to throw me out the window. I know Chase is going through another growth spurt and I just need to be patient and let her suck to increase my supply. But when it takes her 1.5-2 hours to eat each time with a half hour rest before wanting to go again, something's gotta give. I'm not going to quit, but the thought has crossed my mind more than once. Oh, and she had green poop for three days straight--one of which was as green as the beer on St. Patrick's day. Research yielded multiple possible culprits and the green stuff seemed to have cleared after I made sure she got more hindmilk. But I'm cutting out dairy temporary as well as an experiment until we meet with The Nipple, er, Lactation Consultant next week. Who knew breastfeeding was such a science? I thought you just put babies up to the boobs, they ate, the end.

Ok, pictures. I hate to say it but we really don't have many new ones. Wil's back at work and I don't think you want to see our nursing pictures--that is really all I do ALL DAY. We are bad parents, I know. Anyway, I shall give you the only family picture we have. I look like a chubby and dirty Chinese and Chase is crying, but beggars can't be choosers, alright? There's a story to go with it, but it will have to wait a little. Wil and I are making a point of going somewhere this weekend, so hope for good weather and more pictures then. Out!

Is It Cold in Here, or It's Just Me?

There's really never a good time to be sick, but I think it's particularly crappy when one has a newborn baby to take care of on top of it. I'm not sure what exactly I have, but it's giving me temperature, chills, sweat by the bucket, and all kinds of achey feelings. Wil is up taking care of Chase tonight because I'm too afraid that I will get her sick, too. It breaks my heart that I can't nurse or hold her for too long. When she sees me and is hungry, she would start smacking her lips and open her mouth really wide. I swear she had this hurt look on her face when I gave her pumped breast milk in a bottle instead of letting her have the boobs. I miss having those big eyes fixated on my face and her involuntary smirk when she is full and happy. The other night after Chase got done nursing, I put her up on my shoulder trying to burp her. She was all warm and cuddly, and I actually cry when she pressed her chubby cheek against mine. I thought one day in the not-so-distant future, we might get into a fight and she might never want to speak to me again. Just the thought of my sweet little daughter being upset with me really depressed the living life out of me. Is this hormone or I actually turned into a mushy mom?