Home Alone on a Friday Night

It's just little Lulu and I this Friday evening. The school is hosting a huge arts festival this weekend with students from all over Southeast Asia. They took some of the kids on a harbor cruise this evening and Pete is helping chaperon. Luce and I had fun for a while, but unfortunately it was an early date - she was in bed by 7:00. So now it's me, my glass of wine, and American Idol - I'm totally hooked this season for the first time since the show started.
Marge - Here is a picture of me for you. It's not the best, but it's a start!
Katy - here is a new video for you. It's a bit long, but I am sure you won't mind. :) Lucy is seriously at the beginning stages of crawling. I mean, she is a long way off, but if you put a toy out in front of her, she will push herself forward to get it. I can't believe how strong this little girl is! Of course, she never actually does these things when I film her :)

Bald Spots

These pictures are Pete's idea. He thinks it is really funny that both he and Lucy are balding. :) Actually, Lucy's hair is really starting to grow, except for the place where she sleeps. That's bald, bald, bald. Maybe she's just trying to make Pete feel better.

Daddy's Girl

Here is a picture of the Shmoo looking up at her daddy. You can already tell that she is a little daddy's girl. He can make her laugh and smile in an instant.

Tired

Man, I was tired today. The Shmoo had one of those nights where every time I set her down in her crib she was up again about two minutes later. I ended up sleeping with her on the couch for a grand total of about three hours sleep. I'm not sure if anyone knows this about me, but I get a little emotional when I am tired. When I got to work this morning, Bob, my coworker, said, "Another stellar night of sleep, eh, Tracy?" and I started crying. Oops! I was just exhausted. Anyway, I felt better by the afternoon and I have finally decided once and for all the both Pete and I need to share the night duties. Not that Pete hasn't been willing, I just have the main source of comfort and, therefore I have gotten up at night. So, tonight, we are going to see how it goes.

Light Afternoon Reading

Lucy did a little light afternoon reading today. She particularly enjoys the "Arts & Entertainment" section, just like her mom. :)

The walks resume

Sundays just get lazier and lazier around here. I didn't even leave the house today and I didn't take a shower until around 6:00pm. What a slob! Lucy, Pete, and I did have fun just hanging around.
I put Lucy in this cute outfit that Auntie Sydney gave her for Christmas. She's just too cute.



Now that the weather is nicer, Pete has rusumed his nightly walks with Lucy.

Today I took a little time for myself and went and got a pedicure. I always feel guilty leaving Lucy any other time than going to work, but my nails were atrocious! I have to admit, it was really, really nice to spend an hour in a comfortable chair, reading magazines and completely relaxing. I think Lucy had a good afternoon with her dad too - he took her to a basketball game at school.

Here's a cute picture of her playing. I thought this was a funny picture. She is SO active these days. She can get up on her knees now and push herself forward. We have to keep an eye on her every second, as it doesn't take long for her to scootch off her blanket.

This one is after her bath tonight - it seems sucking on her feet is almost as fun as her thumb these days!

TGIF

TGIF!!! I am tired! This week went by way too slowly for my liking, but, not it is the weekend. I am ready to relax!

This isn't a very good picture, but it's all I have for today. As you can see, Lucy has a few scratches on her face. I really think the only thing I hate about parenting so far, is cutting her fingernails. I am obviously not very good at it. It is so difficult and she hates it, not to mention that even when I do think I have done a good job, she still ends up with a scratch on her nose the next day. I guess I think the job is pretty great if that is the worst I can say about it.

Today was a good day - mostly because I took half the day off :) Lucy has had a little rash on her stomach for the past week or so. Actually, it has gotten much better the last couple of days, but I made the appointment on Monday and I decided to keep it. The doctor said it looks like a little baby eczema and gave us some heavy duty lotion for it. Lucy doesn't seemed to bothered by it, but hopefully the cream will make it go away. Her appointment was at 11:45 and I took the rest of the day off. I also sent Marianne home early and it was so nice to play "stay-at-home-Mom" for the afternoon. I loved it.
Here are some pics of Lucy's room. I love the way it looks these days, despite it being the world's smallest room. Today we added some Valentine's Day cards from Uncle Jerry, G&G Muilenburg, and Auntie Molly - thanks guys! The big card is the handmade one Pete made for Lucy on Valentine's Day. Pete and I also got a cut out of Homer Simpson singing "Spider Pig." For some reason, Pete and I like to sing this song to Lucy ... weird, I know.

Three Years

Three years! I can't believe how fast it has gone! I bought Pete one of those picture frames/screens that displays digital photos for our anniversary. In order for it to be a great gift, it needed to be loaded up with photos from the past three years. I spent a couple hours today reviewing and downloading pictures from the blog. I really can't believe how much we have done and seen in the past three years. As much as I miss home (and often count down the days until we will be there permanently), these adventures abroad have been truly incredible. When we go home I know we will still travel, but I am sure it will be a trip once every year or two and often around the States. Here we are on the move every few months and we have set foot on four continents, not to mention having a baby on a continent we don't call "home." Crazy ... and there have definitely been times I thought we were crazy! Through good times and homesick times, however, I have loved every minute of the last three years because all of those minutes I have been surrounded with the love of my best friend and life partner. Pete makes me smile from the core of who I am. I am blessed and grateful to be on life's journey with him.
I didn't have time to take any pictures today, as Pete and I went out for an excellent Thai dinner tonight. So, I am uploading a video I took of the Shmoo yesterday. She's yet another smile in my life.

Monday

Lucy wore her cute "Life is Good" outfit today that my cousin got her. So cute. Tomorrow is our three year anniversary. Pete brought home beautiful flowers tonight to celebrate a bit early. He also made an awesome Chicken Phad Thai for dinner - yum!

Another lazy Sunday

We were pretty mellow around here today. Just a lot of relaxation and playing with Lucy. Of course, we love every minute of it.

Dentist

Pete and I had dentist appointments today. They took x-rays and cleaned our teeth in about 20 minutes each. It was crazy how fast it was. I have to say this about the medical profession in Hong Kong - they are extremely efficient and good at what they do; however, their bedside manner sucks. This was true through my pregnancy and was reinforced today at the dentist. I miss a smile for heaven's sake!
As I write this, the shmoo is asleep in her own bed for the first time in a couple of weeks. It was so cold around here that we brought her into bed with us. Every night I could hear my mom and Marge whispering in my ear, "You're never going to get her out of your bed!" But we just felt so bad putting her in a cold room, especially when she was sick. Tonight it definitely took awhile to get her down and we'll see how long it lasts, but at least we are attempting the transition. I have to admit, while it was not the most comfortable thing in the world for all three of us to sleep in the same bed, it was kind of nice to be able to attend to her at night without have to get out of my warm blankets.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have the cutest husband ever. This morning Lucy and I woke up to two handmade cards waiting on the kitchen table from Pete. It pretty much melted my heart - what a cute guy. Then, when I got to work, I left to go get a bite for breakfast and when I came back there was a rose waiting on my desk. What a sweetheart! He and Lucy are definitely my favorite Valentines! I hope all of you have a wonderful Valentine's Day. I am so blessed with friends and family - I am sending so much Valentine's love your way.

Kuching

I'm way past my bed time right now, so I am going to make this quick. These are pictures of Kuching. We moved to a hotel there for the last night of our vacation. Although a bit run down, it was actually a very cool city.

Orangutans

I wish that Lucy was going to remember the fact that she saw orangutans in the wild, but I think we were just a bit too early for that memory to stick. Nonetheless, I thought it was pretty cool. These are pictures of Nora and her two babies - I can't remember the babies' names. The orangutans really do live in the wild, but sometimes there isn't enough food, so they come out to get the fruits provided by the staff at the rehabilitation center. I am so glad we got to see them!
"Orang" is the Malay word for "Man" and Orangutan means, "Man of the Forest." Orangutans are in the same category as the ape, which is the closest species to man. It's kind of spooky how "manlike" they are ... (not so much "womenlike," just man - I crack myself up.)





On the way back to the car, we crossed the path of this gigantic millipede. I wouldn't want to come across this sucker in the middle of the night! Yuck!

Lucy had her first dip in the ocean while we were there. I'm not sure she loved it - she screamed after one or two toe dips, but we are hoping that she will come around eventually as both her daddy and I love the beach. At one point, Pete pointed out to sea and said, "If my calculations are correct, if we went directly that way, as the crow flies, we would end up at Seaside." It made me smile and made me homesick all at the same time. I can't wait until we can take the shmoo to the beach at home.


No, we did not let her play with the "Jellyfish N Catfish."


Here's the video of a dip in the ocean. I'm sorry it's not the best quality - it really was a warm day. I think the humidity steamed up the camera.


Lucy's also had her first dip in a pool. We lathered her up with 50SPF and let her take a quick swim with daddy. She seemed to like the pool much better and was somewhat in awe at the way she could move her weightless legs.

Back from Borneo

If someone would have asked me where I thought my first family vacation with my own child would be, I can pretty much guarantee that I would not have said Borneo ... and yet, this turned out to be the place. We had an excellent time on our first family adventure. Tons of relaxing, lots of cards (which we haven't had time to do since the Shmoo came along), and good food. Lucy was an excellent traveler once again, with only one minor meltdown on the flight home. Unfortunately, she has also acquired her first cold, due to all the travel, I'm sure. It breaks my heart to hear her stuffy nose, but she is still giving us plenty of smiles, so hopefully that is a good sign.
I just uploaded 90 pictures, so I decided that I probably need to cover the vacation over the next few days.
During our first two days we went into the city and then went to the cultural village right by our hotel. The cultural village was super cool - it showed how the original tribes in Borneo lived. Many of them still do live that way, as well.
All of these pictures and the two videos at the end are from the cultural village. It was very, very neat to see.