Bye Bye Binkie!

Holly was invited over to the neighbor's to play in the kiddie pool the other day. The girls had JUST filled it up with water, so Holly was not at all interested in playing in a pool of cold water. She was, however, interested in the pink lip gloss that the girls put on her!

The girls talked me into letting them take Holly to the pool by themselves. They took her in the wagon. One the way home, they wrapped Holly up like a little burrito baby in towels to keep her warm.

I found some hotwheel cars that I bought for Holly last year but didn't give her because they have small parts that are choking hazards. Now that I know Holly doesn't really put things in her mouth when she plays, its ok for her to have them. She put them in her little yellow pail to carry around since she couldn't figure out how to carry them all at the same time.

Holly has found lots of ways to entertain herself now that we are home. She likes to empty out her toy boxes and sit in them. Its warm enough now that Holly can run around in just a diaper in the evenings.

When we got home from Vietnam, Holly was all screwed up in a number of ways (eating, sleeping, etc.) and I figured that I might as well "de-bink" her during all the chaos. I just didn't give her binkie when she went to bed or down for a nap. Sometimes, she would ask for binkie and I would tell her I didn't know where it was or that I couldn't find it right then. She only asked a few times and only for a couple of days. Once we got home from my parents, I put ALL her binkies away and Holly only threw a fit about binkie once. She hasn't even asked in a couple of days, so I think we are in the clear! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, especially after as much as she used binkie while we were in Vietnam. So, bye bye, binkie!

I'm in the process of getting the other bedroom turned back into a play room. I'm still waiting for the lady to come pick up the bed that I borrowed for Van to use. She said she would be here yesterday morning or this morning, and never showed up, so the bed may go out into the garage over the weekend until she comes to get it. It will be nice to have more room for Holly to spread out with her toys and NOT have them all out in the family room.

Back into the swing of things

Our last few hours in Vietnam consisted of a few pictures,
buying more diapers for the plane ride home, and eating dinner.

Van's mom bought Holly a Winnie the Pooh party hat. The dress that Holly is wearing here is one of five that Van's cousin made for her while we were there.

Still smiling while waiting to board the plane at 11:00 pm.

We didn't do anything special during the day on the 4th of July; just hung out at my parents and went to watch the fireworks in the evening. When Holly got up for breakfast, I looked out the kitchen windows and saw a deer in the yard. This is a regular occurrence, but I love seeing the deer.

Yesterday afternoon when we got home from my parents, Holly *should* have taken a nap, but instead she played with every single toy that she owns!

Or so it seemed from the mess that was made.

She was so excited to be HOME and back with everything familiar. She ate an entire pb&j sandwich for the first time since we arrived back home, and spent some time with all her favorite toys, books, and dolls.

I had a meeting Monday evening, so J came over to watch Holly. J asked Holly where she got something or other from and Holly said "In Vietnam." J did Holly's hair and they had lots of fun. Holly missed all her friends here and was just so happy!

She even slept all by herself in her own bed for the first time in three weeks! We BOTH got a great night's sleep!

Jet Lag...and We Are Home!

My biggest worry during the whole trip home was getting through customs with all my bags, stroller, car seat, Holly, etc. I had read & heard that in Seattle, you have to take everything upstairs and recheck them yourself. Customs was such a breeze, and the great thing was that you do have to take your bags to a different conveyor belt to transfer them, but they were ticketed all the way to Spokane, so all I had to do was go get boarding passes for our flight!

Holly fell asleep right after we got on the plane and was fast asleep by the time we were even out on the tarmac waiting our turn to take off. She slept all the way home, and all through my unpacking all my stuff. I (being the smart person that I am) asked my mom if SHE would get up with Holly at 3:00 am to play with her and let me sleep until morning, so that at least one of us would get over jet lag quickly. She (sucker that she is) said yes....but Holly woke up at about midnight, shortly after my mom had gone to bed!

I woke up for about an hour around 1:30, came downstairs to join the party in my parents room, then went back to bed and slept until 7:30 am. I am up and ready for the day! I had to force myself last night to stay up until 8:45, but adhering to local time as soon as possible is the key to overcoming jet lag quickly.

My new parenting philosophy on jet lag is going to be this: My kid's naps are so screwed up from the trip and traveling home that whenever it is that she finally wants to go down for a nap, I'll let her sleep for no more that 2-3 hours. I am guessing that she will want to fall asleep again this afternoon around 3-5ish and I will let her sleep for 2 hours, wake her up, and we will have to find something fun to do for several hours before I will let her go back to bed for the night. Basically, forcing her to switch to local time as soon as possible. I'll let you know how quickly this gets her back to local time. I don't really believe in the easing her gently back into it philosophy, especially considering that tomorrow is 4th of July!

Anyway, we are home safe and sound. All is well. We are healthy, happy, and with our family again. Holly has gotten some quality alone time with both Nana & Pop Pop this morning. And we are happy to be home!

In Seoul

We arrived in Seoul after a long five hour flight. The guy next to me kept invading my pace, there was a long legged guy behind me who kept kicking me under the seat, and we were located very near a little girl who screamed almost the entire flight. Not relaxing or restful for me, but Holly slept basically the entire time, though.

We got to Incheon Airport and checked into the Airport Transit Hotel, a short term stay hotel for international travelers that is located INSIDE SECURITY!!! From the time we landed to the time Holly & I were asleep in a bed was about 45 minutes. We both slept about 4 hours, then got up, took a shower, watched some TV, went to play in the awesome play area - one of many here! - and ate a late lunch. We are going to go back to the play area to kill a little more time, then check out and head for our gate.

Our flight to Seattle leaves at 6:30, so we have a couple more hours here before we board. Hopefully the longer flight will be more peaceful and restful! We will be home soon!

PS - Random question: If the Atlantic Ocean is the "pond," what is the Pacific Ocean? Anyone?

Day 17 - Last Day

Van said that today was very much like the day she left to go to America way back in September of last year. They skies are gray and gloomy, there was a great deal of thunder and lightening, and the clouds opened up into a torrential downpour earlier today. We had just left the bookstore a half block away, and made it back to the hotel before it started, but by the time we went down to the cafe for lunch it was crazy, crazy rain! I took a picture out the front door of the cafe, but you can hardly tell it is raining unless you look at the street & sidewalk where you can see the raindrops. You can also tell because there are only a couple of moving vehicles in this usually very busy intersection, and not a motorbike to be found. Its still cloudy and gray, but I don't think its raining anymore.
Van and Holly posed for one last picture together at lunchtime. They are so sweet! I told Holly that Van would stay here when we left to go back to America and she said "It makes me sad." Me too, baby girl, me too!

Holly even gave Van a rare kiss, which I can't believe I actually captured on...well, not film, but you know...digital, I guess.

As usual, we took naps after lunch. Then I took a shower and gave Holly a bath. We both put on clean clothes and are basically just killing time in the room until 5:30 when Van & Hai will be here. We have to be checked out by 6:00, but we don't have to be at the airport until 9:00, so I don't know how we are going to manage to eat dinner and waste a few hours with all this luggage, etc. Time will tell.

I'll try to post from Seoul, but can't promise that I will. Definitely a "we are home" post when we finally get back, just to let you all know we are safe & sound.

Day 16 - Just Chilling Out

Blogger was being a pain last night, so I'm doing yesterday's post this morning. Yesterday was total relax and do nothing day. Van got a couple of things for her friends back home for me to take home, but other than that, we just hung out at the hotel.

We did go to KFC for lunch and Holly had ice cream after she finished her popcorn chicken.
Actually, we all had ice cream. I was impressed that Holly ate almost her entire cone without spilling or tipping it over onto the table!

We took naps, watched some tv & cartoons, and Holly played in the room. She found plenty to keep herself occupied! She's a funny girl! We were going to go swimming, but just never made it up to the rooftop pool.

Oh, my! We've done this a lot here. She loves this game.

Yesterday we also talked about how we will be leaving today. I told her that after naptime we would go eat dinner, then get on an airplane to go home. I asked her who we would see and she shreaked "NANA, POP POP!!"

Literally the first words out of her mouth this morning were "We go on airplane. Go way up in air. Go see Nana, Pop Pop." So, she knows what we are doing today and she is excited!

Day 15 - Back to Ho Chi Minh City

Last night, Van said I needed to be ready to go at the hotel at 10:00 this morning. I debated about whether to get everything all packed up & ready to go last night, or wait until this morning. I did do it last night, which was a good thing, because Van rang the doorbell at my room this morning at 8:00! I had just barely gotten up and was in the shower, so this was both inconvenient and a little annoying.

Turns out her dad called her last night from HCMC and said he wanted us all to meet for breakfast, since it would be the last chance he would have to see Holly & I before we left on Wednesday. So, I hopped back into the shower, got all ready to go as fast as I could, and we went to meet up with him. Decent breakfast, great conversation, wonderful man. I can't thank him enough for such an out of this world trip. He kept asking if I liked Vietnam and if everything was alright with the trip. I kept expressing my gratitude, but Van's not super great at translating as completely as her brother, so I'm not sure if he knows exactly how much I appreciate everything.

At 10:15, we lugged all my stuff down from my room, put it into the car, and off to the airport we went. Our plane left Nha Trang at 12:10 and I was hoping that I could talk Holly into napping for the 40 minute flight. She napped for the last 5 minutes, on final descent. How can a kid have a "most inconvenient" radar as good as that? She is fabulous at waiting until the last minute to fall asleep, then not sleeping when I need her to.

We got to HCMC, checked into a new hotel, and laid down for a nap...well, I wanted a nap, Holly could care less since she had a 5 minute one. When I woke up and looked out the window, I realized that I can see the hotel we stayed in before right out my window. I'm going to have to go back through my pictures and see if this hotel is in one of them.

Van & Hai got here at about 6 to get us for dinner. We went to one of the same restaurants that we went to when we first got here. Holly has been watching everyone use chopsticks since she got here. She has gone from drumming on the table, to holding them, to now using them as best she can. She still gets the two ends mixed up, but she's doing a great job! Here she is eating her french fries with chopsticks. She even was able to eat noodles with chopsticks; well, chopstick, singluar.

After dinner, we went to get Holly some milk at a supermarket, like the Walmart of Vietnam. Or, more accurately, Hell. Think Walmart with people who shove and push (people are very rude here that way), narrower aisles, and more people. They have the same slow checkers and the same idiotic people who get a HUGE cart full of food, then want it rung up in 4 different transactions.

We came back to the hotel and I got all our stuff repacked, with the things I purchased in HCMC the first time and left here at Van's house. I was hoping I would be able to put Holly's backpack in a suitcase and not carry it on again - with my backpack, my purse, and the carseat - but it doesn't appear that I am going to manage to be able to do that...I may try to reorganize a little more tomorrow and see if I can get that to work, though. Honestly, I have a LOT of stuff to bring back and I am dreading going through customs in Seattle, mostly because I won't have any extra hands to help me. Please pray that everything will go smoothly on our way home, that there are no snafoo's or problems, and that Holly is really, really good.