The Fancy Family

Plain: glasses. Fancy: sunglasses

When we arrive at The King's Crown, everyone looks up. They probably think we're movie stars.

Oooh la la! My family is posh! (That's a fancy word for fancy.)

I love being fancy!

What's a fancy girl to do?

Guest Post

Hello everyone! I've seen a lot in my 7 months of life, and my mom wanted my perspective of my first visit to America. I'm impressed, but it's got its flaws.

I like China. I liked Japan. Here I am playing in the playground in the Tokyo airport. My sister made the pile of cushions behind me, and I played with the blue bus cushion. I'm a fan. I love playing!

When we got to America, my parents--who up to this point had been pretty nice my whole life, feeding, changing, and playing with me whenever I wanted, holding me on their laps whenever we got in a taxi or car-- abandoned me in the back seat of their awful rental car strapped to some horrid contraption.

I had a lot to say. For hours. Every time they strapped me to it.

Vacation isn't vacation unless you're having the time of your life. And I just wanted to make sure EVERYONE knew I wasn't having the time of my life.

I can't believe they would just leave me in the back seat like that. Don't they know I just want to be held? Don't they know that I just want them close to me? All they'd have to do is rub my toes, and I'd be happier for a while.

One time my dad covered me with a giant scarf. It was strangely soothing somehow. Next thing I knew, I was waking up to my Mommy or Daddy taking me out of the car seat.

Domestic girls

You know those moments where you can't find your kids and the house is awfully quiet? Yeah.

Usually Penny is doing something normal like playing with her toys or reading her books. But she has her other moments, like when she painted her fingernails-- and a large section of the bathroom counter-- or when she recently chopped a hole in my new sundress.

The other day, I found her sewing in the spare bedroom. She had found the pincushion where I keep the threaded needles, and she went to town. I knotted the thread for her before I took this video.

Naomi has also been working on her domestic skills. Our kitchen doesn't have many drawers, so I have some plastic tubs in the cupboards that work as drawers. One of them is the "everything else" drawer with baking, stirring, measuring, squeezing, whisking, and other utensils. Naomi can play in that drawer for many minutes on end!

In which a topless woman gives my husband a passion fruit

I've been to France and Switzerland before and seen people wearing practically nothing on the beach. And I realize that this is something they do. I also realize that I've been away from America for a long time.

But not that long.

When you go to a public beach in America-- unless there are signs and fences-- I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be naked in public. Or if you're a woman and your swimsuit is a two-piece, you should wear both pieces. I'm just saying.

And with that as an introduction, let me tell you about our day at the beach yesterday. There's this nice sheltered area with small waves perfect for kids. There's a reef to break the big waves, and there's shade onshore. It wasn't too windy, and so we took the girls there. Once we'd settled in and started on the sunscreen ritual, I looked around to realize that the woman a few towels over was not wearing anything from the waist up. Her kids were wearing even less. I looked around and realized that many of the kids were buck naked.

We may have been at the beach right behind the Paia hippy Zen Center. That's a reason. But it's a lame excuse. This is AMERICA, people! We wear clothes!

But yes, I looked. Do you think people like that expect people not to look? I'm sorry. I looked. I judged. I'll get over it. But first I'll blog about it! And no, I don't have pictures. It's not that kind of blog.

I'm a really bossy person sometimes, and I really love telling people what to do. So my first idea was to go tell this lady that she was in a public place and should be wearing clothes. I mean, I'm sure this lady talked to all her friends and said, "Well, no one has ever said anything, so I'm sure nobody minds." Well, I mind. I went over what I'd say in my head a few times. I imagined what she'd say back. None of these situations went very well in my imagination. I wound up not saying anything.

This lady had a son who was playing on the beach. He was probably 3 or so, and happily running, swimming, and surfing on a boogie board. Then he'd go climb onto his mom's lap and nurse for a while. Then he'd go surf some more.

It was kind of like watching a nature documentary.

The naked family had a hammock, and Penny got it in her mind that she was going to go swing in it. I kept her away from it as well as I could, but when you're nursing your baby (with a cover, btw), it's a little hard to run after your other children at the moment. So Kevin had to run after her.

Let me just preface this by explaining that Kevin is probably the world's nicest guy. He's happy, fun, and very easy to talk to. That's why I married him. So he went over to the hammock and asked around to see whose it was. Yes, it was topless lady's. Well, could Penny swing in it for a few minutes? Absolutely! They were very... sharing and open. Penny played in the hammock for a while, and Kevin talked to the ladies, most of whom were wearing a bit more than the hammock owner. They were eating passion fruit, so they gave some to Kevin. I snickered when he told me that.

While Penny was playing, we gave Naomi a banana to eat. Having forgotten to bring her bib, we just took off her clothes and let her go to town on the banana.

After playing in the hammock, Penny came back to our towel, and while she was digging in the sand with her shovel, she pooped in her swimming suit. That marked the end of our beach trip for the day. We cleaned her off as well as we could, and went back to the car.

As we carried our two naked little girls back to the car, I'm kind of glad I had kept my mouth shut.

Going to America, pt. 2

Tokyo airport pics:

The last proof I once had normal, combed, non-frizzed hair:

We love the Tokyo airport playland!

So... we flew to Hawaii from Tokyo. Naomi slept on the floor in a basinette they gave us. Our friendly neighbor sitting beside us advised us to drape a blanket from the magazine rack to the floor, over the basinette, and once we set that up, she slept like a baby.

This left two seats for Penny to stretch out on, and until she rolled onto the floor, she slept really well. It was really funny; right when she hit the floor, in her half-asleep groggy state, she cried for me, "Momma Bear!" I love my girls. :)

We landed in Hawaii at 6 AM, and the sun was just coming up. Penny's first impressions of Hawaii: "Lots and lots of trees! Bluuuuuuue sky!"

Once we got to America, I showed an Asian lady how to use the paper-towel dispenser in the bathroom. The customs dog found our leftover beef jerky from my snack bag, and I felt super stupid. Note to self: don't be stupid.

My favorite moment of the day: we got all our luggage, and while we waited for Kevin's parents to pick us up, I decided to dig Penny out of her winter clothes and set her free in a sundress. Penny put on the dress, and started pulling the skirt up over her head and waving it around. She looked down at her newly bare legs and squealed, "I have knees!"

I'm happy to be in America, and I feel like I could squeal, "I have lungs!"

Going to America, pt. 1

We've been looking forward to our R&R trip for several months now. We basically looked at the calendar, found the coldest several weeks, and decided to leave for them.

One thing I regret not doing before we left (besides taking out the kitchen garbage) is blaring Neil Diamond's "Going to America-- TODAY!" right before we left for America-- TODAY! One thing Kevin regrets is being so excited to leave that he couldn't sleep the night before.

We flew through Tokyo, spent several hours there, and then flew overnight to Hawaii. Tokyo has a beautiful airport with a fun little playground for little kids, as well as nursing/baby changing rooms all over the place. As far as airports go, it was really nice and made it almost convenient to be travelling with kids.

You know how we Americans go to China and can't use the chopsticks, then we giggle and take pictures of the hole-in-the-ground squatting toilets. I guess some cultural differences go the other way. I stood in line behind a Chinese woman trying to use a drinking fountain. Her 13-year-old son knew everything (as 13-year-olds tend to do), and was telling her how to use it.

"Mom, you push one side for hot, and one side for cold. If you push them both together like this, you get cool water for drinking."

Then the mom pushed one button for a while, then the other button for a while. "Which one is hot, honey? I want hot water, but I don't know which side it comes from."

Then her son would explain more how it worked and push the buttons for her.

"Um...." I said helpfully from behind them in line. "It doesn't have hot water."

Funny how you don't listen to people when you assume they don't speak your language.

Eventually they gave up, and I got to drink some water from the fountain. That was one thing off my list of things to do in America.

Other things from my list:

Drink water from the tap

Brush my teeth and then drink from the tap

Drink from a hose

Let the girls drink their bathwater (they do anyway)

Let the girls suck on their washcloths (they do anyway)

I really miss potable water

Dreary outlook

Can I just share for a moment the view from my windows? I was going to say more about it, but really, the pictures speak for themselves.

Welcome to Shenyang!

The building on the left with the two matching toppers is actually a golden yellow.

Below, we have the beautiful view... of the air conditioning for the shopping mall below.

Ahh, a beautiful sunset!

From our apartment, you can see the folks shopping down on the street. There's a TV billboard that Penny likes to watch when she should be napping. Also, there are blow-up red rainbows that advertise stuff: grand openings, weddings, sales, etc.

On this last picture, you can just barely see the bane of my existence: the dreaded lamb kebab shop. The McDonald's right there under the picture of Usain Bolt constantly plays an ice-cream-truck-like song. It's 8 bars long and ends with the "ba dap bap bap baaaah- I'm Lovin It" theme-- repeat 12 hours a day ad infinum. Then the shopping mall on the very far left advertises its specials and its own theme music non-stop as well. But the lamb kebab shop goes above and beyond. The three employees outside BBQing kebabs wear microphone headsets. They don't call out or advertise, but they just have their every word turned up to about a million decibels and broadcast to the whole world. My teeth rattle when I walk by it, and by the time it wafts up to our apartment on the 20+ floor, it's just a headache-inducing garbled mess. I hate it.

I love me some Chinese lamb kebabs. There are about 4 places to buy them a short distance from our house, including the Uyghur place a block away where the guy said I was pretty. We go there. We boycott the megaphone one.

Shenyang has some wonderful aspects too, but on days like this, I can only dream about leaving on vacation.

Kind of lame

We've been pretty lame lately, watching waaayyy more TV than is good for us. One day we watched The Sword in the Stone three times through. We almost finished The Sound of Music yesterday. And that's one LONG movie!

I blame most of this on my lameness and lack of desire to bundle up my kids and take them out in the cold. I blame the rest of it on the fact that Penny just learned how to start movies on Kevin's computer. I thought she only knew how to open the drawer and pop in a DVD. But I realize now she can use a mouse and navigate the DVD's menu to play the movie. And once we've started watching, sometimes we just keep watching.

We played with play-dough this afternoon. It was a light bluish green dough, and I made a little ball, handed it to Penny, and told her it looked like a robin's egg. "Oh, a Robin Hood egg," my little couch potato replied. We've watched that one several (dozen) times this week.

I'm pretty embarrassed, though, that this morning after I told her we couldn't watch some of her movies she asked for, she asked me, "Mommy watch Friends?"

I've stopped polishing my Mother of the Year award, and I'm pretty sure they're going to come take it away any day now. :)

A bit about Naomi

I haven't written much lately, and I'm getting out of the habit. I'm waiting for something interesting to happen, but unfortunately, life has become rather routine, and nothing ever comes to mind. So, boring it is!

Naomi had her 6 month check-up today, even though she's much closer to 7 months. We were sick and then celebrating last month, so it didn't happen when it should have. But today we have stats:

8.2 kilos

69 cm tall

45 cm head circumference

Yeah, that didn't mean anything to me, either. But to put it in perspective, she's about 75th percentile for weight, 80th for height, and 95th for head size. She's medium-large with a big noggin. I kind of knew that already.

She ooches around a lot when she sleeps, usually ending up squished sideways in her crib. When she kicks her legs, she pushes her head against the bars, or else her feet poke through the slots. When they get stuck, I hear about it. She moves around so much that if I don't zip her into a sleeping sack before bed, she winds up without any covers, freezing on her little bed. And then I hear about it.

I am thankful to have a cool apartment at night, though!

Naomi sits pretty well now. She topples over when she reaches for stuff, and she also topples over when Penny pushes her. I think Big Sister needs some attention.

If I'm holding Naomi while I eat, she grabs my food or pushes on my glass. She likes to eat just about anything, but only for about 2 bites' worth. Then you'd think I'd forced her to eat garbage or something, for the looks I get-- and the yells.

People love her eyes and how beautiful she is. And everyone loves when they can get her to smile. I love it too, but it's nice to know I'm not the only one. :)

I got to do some sewing today

Kevin offered to take care of both girls for me this afternoon so I could go do anything I wanted. I decided to do some sewing. Of course, this meant that I first cleaned the kitchen and reorganized our storage room, but that’s how it works when I suddenly find myself with two arms free.
Right as I was about to head in to the spare room to sew, I heard Kevin in there say, “Oh no! Penny, NO! That was naughty!” And then Penny got put in her room.
I went into the spare room to find Kevin holding my brand new sundress and my purple sewing scissors. Penny had been quiet for a while, and apparently she’d decided to do some sewing of her own. It took a few good snips, but there’s a zig-zagged gash and a little chunk missing from the side of the skirt. The gash covers a good 3 inches across and 2 inches tall. It’s not tiny.
I’m not one to freak out, but my heart fell when I saw my dress. If it had popped a seam, I could have repaired it. If she’d cut on a small piece (like a sleeve or part of the bodice), I could even replace an entire piece of the dress. But the skirt was one big piece of material, and now it had a huge hole in it! Of course, I was mad at Penny for cutting it, but I was equally mad at myself for leaving the scissors low enough for her to reach.
While I stood there and inspected the damage, Bob Marley’s music wafted in from the living room: “Don’t worry ‘bout a thing, cuz every little thing’s gonna be alright.” Perfect timing, Mr. Marley.
I did go yell at Penny, though. I didn’t holler or berate, but I did let her know I was upset and she’s definitely not allowed to touch my scissors. And then I set back to work patching my dress. It’s not the end of the world, and since it’s a large, bright, busy floral pattern, it’s hard to see the patch unless I point it out. But when I set out to do some sewing today, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.