Bath Bombs/Fizzies

One of the things I have always enjoyed is bath time. After a long day, there is nothing more relaxing than filling up the tub with nice warm water. Light up a few candles and throw one or two bath bombs (also known as bath fizzies) and just relax.

I have always done that, it is my 20 minutes of peace and total relaxation. Afraid I wouldn’t be able to find any here in Korea, I brought a few with me. But it was only enough for a few days. After a few weeks of having bath time with no bath bombs, I realized how much they really help you relax. The oil and the fragrance are very soothing. It is also a great feeling afterwards. Your skin is soft and smells great for hours.

After realizing this, I immediately started searching for some. Online they are just too expensive to get them shipped here. I looked at the BX they had 3 and they were only 99c too. I was ecstatic. As soon as the kids were asleep guess what I did??

I was so disappointed. They had little fragrance and they were oil free. I guess you get what you paid for, right? With huge disappointment, I commented to This Guy that I will have to look for them off base and only hope Koreans use them too. (Very unlikely)

Smart as he is, he replied, “why don’t you learn how to make them?”
I had not thought about it but this was a great idea. I started googling, trying to find what I needed to make them and how. I found a few sites and even video showing how to make them. I also learned that the better resources you buy the better they will be. Well I ended up spending more money than I was expecting to. But I ordered a Bath Bomb Starter Kit that supposedly comes with everything you need to make them.

I did it!! They are amazing!!(They might not look the best, but for first try I think I did a pretty good job). This guy tried it and I think for the past week he has been using them almost every night too. I made lavender fragrance (my favorite) and vitamin E. All I have to say is. IM NEVER BUYING BATH BOMBS AGAIN!!

Making them was a blast and using them was even better! Let me know if any of you would like to try one. I will proudly send you a couple! Now I can slowly buy different fragrances and make them in different colors too. WOOHOO!!!

Fine Wine & Bread

Ha-ha, that’s not exactly everything I said. He left out the part he probably didn’t like. Where I compared him to the best home made bread.

The first few days it surprises you just how delicious it taste, how you can’t get enough of it. Even after a few weeks being old, you still want to eat it. But as it gets older it starts to build up some molds on it.

Then I said “Don’t get me wrong it still taste good, at least the parts that don’t have mold.” No one is perfect, there is no such a thing as a perfect relationship or person. But ours is pretty darn close!! I still can’t believe we have been together for 6 years. Feels like yesterday!

Fine Wine vs. Spam

Discussions about relationships have always been a bane to me. I avoid them like I avoid midgets. Yes, I can tolerate them, but I feel really uncomfortable around them. So, Boa starts talking about our relationship, so all of my defenses come on and I’m ready to start shooting down anything that enters my proverbial airspace. But she’s complimenting me. So my defenses remain ready, but I’m starting to question her intent and wonder if she’s working me for a something expensive.

Turns out, she was just making a comment on how we have been able to keep our relationship thriving even after six years of marriage. Then she made a comment that she thought that I may even be sweeter now than I was 6 years (and 20 lbs) ago. So I made the comment that I am like fine wine, I get better with age.

Confused, she inquired, “If you are fine wine, what does that make me?”

My instant response: “Spam.”

“WHAT!?” was the expected reply.

In a literal knee jerk reaction, I bladed my body, bringing my left leg up to block any shot to the groin while I raised my left arm to intercept any strikes to the face. (Good thing I kept my defenses on!) But the attack never came, only a look of disbelief.

Never changing my defensive posture I started to explain: “Sweetie, it’s because you are just as delicious and tasty the day you were canned as you will be in 50 years!” I think that saved me, but I’m still in my defensive stance… just in case.

Big Cool

About a month ago, Kachow saw a pediatric therapist for an assessment on his development. During this assessment the therapist determined Kachow was behind on his fine motor skillz and slightly on his communication. The kid can jump off a countertop unassisted and land on his feet, but the therapist thought he was behind. (I think he was just not interested in what the therapist was trying to get him to do) So, we have been working with him constantly helping him improve his communication and fine motor skillz. So, after his last check-up, the therapist mentioned how amazed she was with his improvement in communication (still working on the motor skillz). Kachow has been increasing his vocabulary and learning sign language, and has impressed Boa and I very much with his improvement. Before he would whine and point when he wanted something, now, three weeks later he will say something while he signs it such as “more juice please.” But the coolest thing he has started doing, besides fist bumps, is how he talks about himself. For instance, he will jump off the couch, over the chair Chubs is sitting in, land on his feet, turn around and say “Did you see that? I’m big cool!” After catching our breath, we reply “Yeah, you ARE big cool!”

Comments

Just wanted to thank everyone that leaves me comments! Its nice to read them =)

First Solids

So I know Double A isn’t 6 months yet, but her Pediatrician told us to watch out for signs of wanting to eat solids. Well, Double A has been following all of our foods and drinks with her eyes and hands and she is always opening her mouth. biting, etc.

Since she is only few days shy from 6 months I decided to go ahead and try some green beans and see how she does.

HOLLY COW!! The girl was acting like she hasn’t had anything to eat since she was born. Of course, I expect her to have one or two bites but 99% of it comes back out and I catch and back in. You know the whole training stage, but no, the girl had only had a tiny bit come out every time. She was really eating, I could not believe it! She had half of the #1 jar after having about 3-4oz of formula.

A few days ago This Guy was drinking a Pepsi and Double A was watching him, seeming very interested. So he put a little drop of Pepsi on her mouth and her reaction was priceless! She jerked back in surprise of with her eyes wide open, and then paused, staring at her dad. Then she smiled really big and reached for the can and wanted more.

So today I didn’t feed her formula before, I waited till dinner was done. So we all could enjoy a meal together as a family. She had 1 first stage solids of carrots and half of green beans, before she started spitting all out and showing she was done. Impressive! She is so chubby already. Maybe we should change her nick name to Chubs.

Fun day at the park or should I say ER??

It is not a fun day when Kachow gets bored. Nothing seemed to work, so I tried to prevent his boredom by going to the BX playground. So there I am, tired after a night of only 3 hrs total of sleep, strolling the kids to the BX.

One of the wonderful things about going to the BX so Kachow can play is the food court. They have Taco Bell, Subway, Pizza the Hutt and a few other places. Taco Bell sounded very good, so before dropping him off., we stopped by Taco Bell and got some lunch. Kachow had a soft taco and I got a crunch wrap supreme. It was delicious.

I would say within 30 minutes or so, it wasn’t so delicious anymore. I started feeling really sick, very nauseated. So quickly I got Kachow back on the stroller. (Throwing a fit of course, “hello mom, we just got here!”) The walk home which usually is only 5-10 minutes seemed an eternity. Something was wrong, my legs started to shake and my head was somewhat spinning.

I barely made it home; I have never thrown up like this when NOT pregnant. After that I got back in the living room to get the kids out of the stroller. Not making it to Double A in time I had to run back to the bathroom. This time much worse, even blood came out, my stomach hurt badly. I started getting very lightheaded and sleepy. I got Double A out of the stroller, put her on her boppy chair and sat in the couch. I could not lay down, the nausea was awful. I was so sleepy I could barely keep my eyes open. I think there was a time I actually fell asleep because it seemed like I was hallucinating. Now it’s the runs…

My sweet son comes and sits on top of me, “mamma You, k?” He started loading me with kisses. I said “No, hunny, mommy is not ok.” He then started jumping on me trying to entertain me. Not really knowing, poor thing, that it was only making it worse. Here I am, half asleep, throwing up and trying to get a hold of This Guy but he won’t answer his phone. I knew I needed to see a doctor ASAP. Before I was able to get a hold of This Guy I had already thrown up 3 times and one of those with blood and acid. (Sorry, TMI)

Luckily, I was able to get someone from church to watch the kids while I walked to the ER. Thank goodness it’s right across the street from our building. While seeing the doctor, he asked where my accent was from. I mentioned I was from Brazil and he made the comment he was in Brazil 10 years ago. Knowing the answer I asked what he was in Brazil for. He said he was a missionary. So I said “Oh, you are LDS?” and he replied he was. So, eventually the story ends with me finding out it was his wife who was watching the kids. After a few hours at the ER, they gave me a shot of Zofran, I had already thrown up twice with nothing in it just fluids. They told me I am not yet dehydrated. YAY!! They gave me some pills to take home in case the nausea/vomiting won’t stop. Looks like I wont be eating Taco Bell for a long time.

Chores

We have been talking about when Kachow will be old enough to start earning an allowance and what kinds of things he will be able to do around the house. The obvious was cleaning up his room, which he sometimes does now. So we are starting to try out a few things and this is our latest trial, which went fairly well!

Chocolate and No Pants

Friday!! Finally! We were planning on going to a movie tonight, but we never got around to calling the babysitter. Maybe tomorrow.

So there we are at Chili's (I know we eat there too much) and we are all entertained by Kachow. He is being his usual silly self and everyone is laughing at him and the waitresses are all stopping by say "Oh, rittle boy verry cute! Nay?"

All of this attention starts to make Double A a little jealous, so she starts to make little noises trying to get our attention and it freaks out the waitresses who didn't see her: "Oh, anudder rone!"

This attention doesn't last long because the ribs are too delicious and Kachow is starting something else funny. Double A doesn't like this, so she is quite for a bit while she plots how to get our attention.

I finish the last bites of my salmon while Boa is picking the meat off the last rib when we are overtaken by the scent of Kimchi, and not just your normal 4 year old cabbage kimchi, I'm talking 16 year spicy cabbage that has long fermented into something unrecognizable as being from earth. Guess where it came from? Double A's diaper.

Boa, needing to act quickly to save the lives of those in the immediate vicinity, grabbed a diaper, wipes and the rotten one and took off towards the bathroom. An unusual amount of time later, Boa returned with one less diaper and a naked baby. Apparently pampers are not designed to hold a pound of 16 year old kimchi.

Luckily we had an extra sweatshirt for Double A in the stroller, so the lucky girl got to go home with no pants.

Some of you may know that Kachow has had a unique character flaw, in that he has never liked sweets, to include chocolate. Whenever we offer him sweets, he always turns his head and says "no."

Today, I bought some Dove chocolate eggs and he asked for one. Knowing he was just going to take a bite, spit it out and never ask for one again, I gave him a bite. Wrong thing to do. For the next half hour I couldn't get him to stop asking for more.

He has a hard time saying CHOCOLATE, but the word improved 100% by the time we put him to bed. It showed how motivated he was to learn the word 'chocolate' so he could properly ask for some. He even busted out some sign language he just learned from a DVD his grandmother gave him for his birthday to say "please."

Just like everything else, you have to find the right motivation to get kids to learn. He wanted chocolate, so he learned how to ask properly, because he knows if he asks properly he will get it (even if it is right before bed).

Big 2

Monday we celebrated the second anniversary of a 6.1lb growth removed from Boa's abdomen; or, Kachow's 2nd birthday.

This is what he has to say about it:

v m,d'n gvhwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwm,,,,m thamks,.mm m x9hxsjdkf;vsd.v cbabclvccz cxcvty

Yes, that was all him, including the "thamks." Anyhow, Boa and I decided it would be really cool to fill his room with ballons while he was sleeping so he would get a huge surprise when he woke up.

We thought it was a ton of ballons, mainly because we were both feeling very funny after blowing up that many ballons, but when we put them in his room we realized it would take a LOT more to cover the floor. The morning of Kachow's birthday, Boa awoke to screams from Kachow's room of "YEAH!" She opened the door, and there he was:

As you can tell from the picture, not many of the baloons made it through the night, but he is still having a blast with all of the baloons that are left. Since it's his b-day, he gets to pick what he does all day. Guess what he picks? The Park. He spends so much time at the park that finally, after a little dinner at the BX playground he hands Boa his shoes and asks to go home. At home waiting for him on the table is this: Kachow freaked out and wouldn't stop say "CAR! CAR!" So we had to hurry up and blow out the candle:

He blew out the candle no problem! I know it looks like I was helping to blow, but I'm really saying "Blow!" He got REALLY excited when he blew out the candle:

And then everything changed... he accidentally stuck his hand in the icing:

Kachow has a little OCD when it comes to his hands. He CANNOT stand sticky things on his hands. We have been trying to work with him on it with lotion and hand sanitizer, but it always ends up in his hair. After about 5 minutes of trying to clean him while he is flipping out (icing is all over Dad and the wall by now) we get him calmed down and we start taking family pictures: As you can see from the picture, Double A is mesmorized by the balloons as well. All in all, Kachow's birthday part was wonderful. No annoying little kids terrorizing the house; no annoying parents terrorizing the kids; no terrible mess to clean up aftwards. I guess when he turns 3 we'll actually have to have a real birthday party, because he might remember that one.

Single Ladies

Here is a video of Kachow dancing to "Single Ladies" by Beyonce. Ignore the pajamas at 3pm and the mess in the background (it was a lazy saturday... I hope).

Photos!

We promised pictures 2 months ago, so here they are!

Kachow and Double A in Boa's new stroller (Brithday/Christmas/Anniversary gift for the next 7 years)

This is what happens when you don't look where you are going.

Someone was sick of Mom taking pictures.

Delicious!

Best Friends!

No matter where you go in there world there are a few things you can never get rid of.

More of a suggestion.

Say CHEESE!

Double A chillin'

Chillin' again in the stroller at the park.

The Land of the Rising Sun

Annyong haseyo! Roughly translated, that means Howdy! 80 days down, only 650 to go! So much has happened since we got here, but I can't remember it all. I'll just start from this week.

Kachow turns 2 tomorrow! He has no idea, but it's fun for us anyway. His party will themed "Cars (Disney/Pixar) and Spongebob Squarepants." Obviously, this is because we let him pick. He wanted them both, and it's his birthday, so he gets whatever he wants. Plus, it's going to just be a small gathering... Mom, Dad, Kachow and Double A. For Kachow's birthday we got him the coolest table to play with his cars! Unfortunately, it was too big to ship to an APO (by 1 flipping inch!) and it is sitting at Mi-ma's house. Hopefully he'll have it here by Christmas.

Some of you will remember Frank, our beta when we lived in Florida. We couldn't take Frank with us, we had to find him a new home with lots of friends. We were able to find a replacement for Frank here in Korea. Kachow took it upon himself to name the fish. So now we not only have cheese on our Pizza's, but we have Cheese in the fishbowl too. Kachow likes to feed Cheese every morning when he wakes up, and he won't go to bed without saying goodnight to him. This time we made it very clear that the fish are not allowed to make phone calls.

3:00 in The Morning

It was 3:00 in the morning and I was wide awake. I lay there, thinking. Wow only 4 hours of sleep and I feel fully rested and the most energy I've had the past 6 months.

Most of you know all the issues we have been dealing with Double A. Her feeding issues, reflux, no sleep and rashes. Well the past few months we have been doing researches trying to find just the right formula for the little girl. We tried everything that could help a baby who is Lactose intolerant as they claim she is. Nutramigen helped a lot but she was still not a normal baby with normal fussiness here and there. Double A would hardly sleep and be always on the screaming mode. Always had some kind of rash, most diaper rashes even with loads of cream.

Anyway long story short, we decided to try this formula that is milk based but with broken down protein and something else that supposed to help with fussiness and gas. I thought to myself, what can we loose? $12 bux which was the price of the Can. I have been desperate to find a solution as I was hitting my limits on how much more of the stress and none sleep I could take.

First two days on the formula, nothing really changed, she was somewhat happier. But the third day she passed so much gasses, and had a few exploded diapers. A week into this formula she decreased her awaking times and took almost 3 hrs nap. I couldn't believe it and would constantly be checking on her making sure she was breathing. Two days later, day 10 on this new formula, Double A woke up every 2-3hrs at night, which was amazing to me YAY!!

Day 11-- Double A is crying, I woke up, looked at the clock...3:00 am my heart started racing and I jumped out of bed and ran to her room thinking. Crap I fell asleep so deeply that I didn't hear her crying. I had this huge gilt feeling thinking she has been crying for a while. No her face wasn't red, she wasn't really screaming and she was still groggy. I fed her and she was back asleep in the middle of feeding. Yes, she just woke up. 3am and she just woke up. This is a big deal!!!

Now me? What do I do about myself? I am wide awake 3am feeling fully rested. How can someone feel fully rested with just 4hrs of sleep?For the first time in 6 months I have gotten more then 3hrs straight of sleep. I went back to bed to force myself to get some more sleep. My mind wouldn't shut up and I could not fall back asleep. This guy sort of woke up and I said, Hun I cant sleep. All he said was, get on the elliptical.

Eventually I was able to go back to sleep which was around 4:40am and double A woke up again at 5:15 and for good at 6:50am

Double A is doing so well that she is waking only 2-3 times at night. I know to some this may be a lot still for a 4 almost 5 months baby but for her it is very few. I have forgotten how wonderful it is to go on with your day not feeling like you have been dragging yourself around in order to get things accomplished.

Back in business

I am proud and happy to announce that we are back in business! A good friend of mine helped me get blogspot in english. Now we can log in again and post away! WOOHOO!!

Ill be back once the kids are sleeping to post updates!

The Day After

Black Friday was a huge disappointment but also wonderful. It was a huge disappointment because only a couple stores had any worthwhile deals. Luckily Eddie Bauer, This Guy’s favorite clothing retailer, had some really good deals with shirts around $5 and some nice sweaters for $12.

Usually shopping the day after Thanksgiving is full of stress, road rage (or parking rage), low blood sugar, headaches, stupid arguments and dealing with uncommonly inconsiderate people. Knowing this before heading out into the retail battlezone we mentally prepared ourselves to face the crowds of idiots. This preparation made the day absolutely wonderful. Even the kids behaved perfectly all day long! Kachow got a toy train because he did so well. Unfortunately the train had eyes that move when you roll the wheels and that creeped him out so much he doesn’t want to be near it. Oh well.

Today we all went to a local park and took our picture in front of a giant Christmas tree. Kachow was more interested in chasing the squirrels than taking a picture. He played hide-and-seek with a couple of squirrels for about 15 minutes while Boa set up the camera. It was a lot of fun until it started raining. When I figure it out I’ll post the pictures.

Frank Makes A Long Distance Call

Some of you may know that we have a couple of fish tanks. One tank has a wide assortment of beautiful and colorful fish. The other houses a lone beta named Frank. Frank and Kachow are best friends. Whenever Kachow has a chance he goes and plays by Frank’s tank.

Over the past few months Frank has been complaining to Kachow about how he misses his family in Cambodia. He has lost touch with them since joining our family because we have not allowed him access to the internet (our keyboards are not water-proof). So he’s been talking with Kachow about trying to say hi to his parents and let them know he is okay. Kachow is a great friend because he is willing to do whatever is necessary to help out his buddies, but he knows our rules about letting the fish use the computer (the whole non-water-proof keyboard thing). So Kachow knows he’s going to have to break a few rules in order to help out his buddy, so he plans it all out and waits for the right moment.

After a few bottles of water had worked their way through Boa’s system she needed relief, so she put down Double A and made her way to the bathroom. Noticing how quiet it was (mom sensors are screaming “IT SHOULDN’T BE THIS QUIET!!) she made haste with her business and got back into the living room just in time to see Kachow with his entire arm in the tank giving Frank the phone, a whole bottle of fish food, and a thumb drive. Apparently Kachow thought Frank should send some pictures to his family while he talked to them on the phone.

More like Daddy everyday!

That's my son, kachow!

We all know just how much he's like daddy, looks etc. But how much do we really think we know? Today it really hit me that I have a mini This Guy in the house. Kachow often does things like daddy and even acts like him. But what I experienced today at the supermarket was just what I needed to really realize that he is daddy's boy.

So you wonder what that must be, well to make your curiosity even bigger I will make this story a little longer. Lately This guy hasbeen playing Halo 3 a lot, I cant complain and I am not, I was the one that got him that game. Anyway, as I sit in the couch next to him, I watch him play, his reactions, his enthusiasm etc. I notice that he bites his lips when he is concentrating or thinking too hard. Something I never noticed before, Imagine that? After 5 years of marriage I just now noticed this.

Well this morning while walking around the supermarket, trying to kill some time before Double A's appointment, This guy when straight to the electronic isle. He stopped by some external hard drives and started browsing through them. As I watched him and what he was looking at I noticed he was once again biting his lip, I turned my head to look at Kachow to see what he was doing ( he is always getting into trouble, picking something up from the shelf or stacking it in the cart). The moment i looked at him I could not help but to smile. There he was, standing inside the cart, browsing at the hard drives and of course biting his lip.

How can a 20 month old kid have so much expressions and personality like that? Kachow surprises me every day, especially with his vocabulary and his actions. Are they really supposed to be doing all he does at this age, I wonder?!! Kachow is talking sentences now, not very clearly but some of them are, and it scares me every time I talk and the kid talks back.

But what scares me the most is just how much of This Guy he has in him. (in a good way of course) Now I cant wait to see how Double A will be, is she going to be like mamma?? Or another Daddy? She sure is starting to look more like daddy physically each day, her hair is no longer so dark like it used to, now its like Kachow's color. Her eyes are blue and her skin has gotten so WHITE! She will not be tan like me and Kachow.

Something tells me she will have more of my attitude, demanding......needy....etc.

Blogging

Me (Boa) and "This guy" decided to create a blog, everyone has one why shouldn't we, right??

I must admit that this will probably be updated more by "This guy" than from me, As much as I enjoy reading blogs, I find it hard to keep the thing updated.

Maybe now that we are moving far away from family and friends we will actually keep a blog.
We probably will keep each other updated and in touch through the Internet the most, so you actually might have a lot of reading to do, or not!

"This guy" does a lot of reading on the family blogs and I must confess I need to do a better job on that. Cant promise anything but I'll try. I am looking forward to keeping this blog updated on what "Kachow" and "Double A" have been doing.

It will be fun and hard at the same time as "This guy" is so picky about what I can or should write. Most of you already know this! The picky part that is =)