Coming to America

Ready or not, America, here we come! Tomorrow will be Caitlyn’s first trip to America and my first in about 4 years. I have no idea how she’ll fair on such a long trip, but it should make for an interesting post later. We’ll be making a short enough flight from Taipei to Japan first, and then a doozy of a 12 hour flight to Houston for a 3 week visit.

We’ve got snacks, coloring books, sticker books, song books, along with the always trusty iPad filled with videos and games to hopefully keep her busy and happy. Personally I don’t see how people do it. I’ve seen friends with kids younger than Caitlyn take overseas trips. Why would you want to do that to yourself unless you’re a glutton for pain and suffering? I don’t think I have the kind of testicular fortitude to try it with a baby less than two. No wonder airlines offer free tickets for children under two. It's called compensation.

It will be interesting to see how Caitlyn reacts when she’s no longer around people who look like her. I have a friend who is black, who said I needed to slowly acclimate Caitlyn to people of color by showing her videos or books that have black people in them so I wouldn’t traumatize her for life when Caitlyn meets her and other black friends for the first time.

While this is sound advice, I admit that I did not have time to show her classics like “The Color Purple,” “Friday,” or “Big Momma’s House,” read “Little Bill,” or share one of my all-time favorite shows, “That’s So Raven.” However, she does love watching these Mother Goose music videos on Youtube that has a black actress dressed as a teddy bear. Does that count?

Anyway, I know Grandpa and Grandma have been counting the months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds until their precious little angel arrives. They’ve already stocked the house full of toys and even told us not to bring any of her clothes as they plan on taking her on a huge shopping spree. I’m pretty certain the wife wants a few shopping sprees of her own as well. Me? Just give me some of that Texas bbq and country cooking and I’m good to go!

Check me in!

Are those presents for me?

 

Can I come too?

Here I come Grandpa and Grandma!

The Terrible Two's

We are now officially in the terrible two’s stage. Tantrums and outbursts whenever Caitlyn doesn’t get what she wants have increasingly become more frequent. I’d like to enact the Way of the Iron Fist method of discipline where ‘no’ means ‘no’ and there is zero emotion shown for tears that are shed. However, with the wife staging a filibuster, it’s been a bit hard to get this passed through.

My ideology is pretty simple. “Say what you mean and mean what you say.” I learned that on the first day of teaching in a classroom. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. They know who they can and cannot manipulate around. As long as you stick to your guns and you don’t cave into their demands, they’ll respect what you say and do.

The wife more or less accepts this notion, but where we begin to stray is how to apply this when we’re out in public. I could care less if Caitlyn decides to throw a fit in a restaurant because we won’t give her the phone to play with. ‘No’ means ‘no’ in my book. I’ll take her outside to calm down before taking her back in as many times as it takes for her to realize this. However, the wife would rather have a quiet, stress-free meal, and will thus give Caitlyn whatever she asks for.

I don’t believe there should be two sets of rules that govern behavior in the house and outside. If you don’t cave-in to demands in the house, why would it suddenly be ok outside of the house? There needs to be consistency across the board.

However, I can understand where the wife is coming from. After all, the screams and cries of a baby in tantrum are enough to drive most people crazy. And as an added bonus, you get to be subjected to the stares of others as they look at you struggling with your kid. But to me, this is just a short-term fix. Yes, the baby is quiet and behaved because you’ve given her what she wants, but that doesn’t solve the long-term problem of listening to and respecting what you say.

Caitlyn is a pretty stubborn baby and doesn’t give-in so easily, but thankfully, I am just as equally stubborn and unwilling to cave-in. Now I just need to get the wife onboard so we can tag-team up and crush out the terrible two’s. Maybe giving her some earplugs and a disguise to wear in public might just be enough to sway her my way!

Hey, no pictures!

Hi-ya!!

Born to be wild

Special delivery!

Birthday Extravaganza

Last Friday was Caitlyn’s second birthday. After last year’s lackluster effort, I had vowed that I would step things up this time around. However, it was still difficult to fight off the feeling that birthdays right now are a bit pointless because Caitlyn’s still too young to understand what a birthday is and doesn’t have any "real" friends yet to invite to the party.

Birthday parties at this age, it seems, are mainly for the parents. But I figured this would be a good warm-up leading up to an all-out party in the future. Therefore, while we had some decorations this year, they were still toned down by my standards. After all, you’ve got to have something to work up to. Party themes, invitation cards, breaking pinatas, and party favors can all come later.

We had two parties for her. One with friends and one with family. I think Caitlyn is truly blessed by the people that surround her. The importance of family and friends can’t be stressed enough. I know that there will always be people that will care for her and love her. And I’m sure Caitlyn feels blessed as well. Especially since the amount of toys that she has, has probably quadrupled.

Now that she’s two, Caitlyn’s been steadily developing in several areas. She’s saying two or three-syllable words and can string words together. She can put on her own shoes and now sleeps in a big girl’s bed instead of a crib. But the biggest accomplishment for her thus far is finally being weaned off her pacifier. A few days before her birthday, we just stopped giving her a pacifier at night, held firm, and now she’s stopped asking for it. Hallelujah! One less thing to wash!

Blowing out candle

So yummy!

 

I want the biggest slice!

Gramps and the grandkids

 

Clowning around

Let's get the party started!

 

Chowing down

Auntie Nina making a wish

What did you wish for?

A very hungry caterpillar

A very hungry baby

More presents!

Potty Time

With Caitlyn's school starting her on potty training, we figured we might as well follow suit. I actually haven’t researched too much on the subject because I haven’t been too eager to start. I’ve tried to hold off as long as possible because I just couldn’t bear to put away my precious green rug in the living room. But from what little I’ve read, it seems that potty training is not something to be pressured and that nature (pun intended) will eventually take its course when the time is right.

We actually bought her a potty trainer a few months ago, but for a long time, it was nothing more than a novelty and a play toy for her. She knew what it was for and would go through all the motions of sitting on it and pretending to go, but would never actually do it.

When we’re at home and we remember and aren’t lazy, we’ll have Caitlyn in her training pants, which forces us to be on high alert and constantly ask her if she needs to go pee. The majority of the time she says no, and if she does say yes, it’s usually a false alarm. And when she says she needs to pee, it's usually when she’s in the midst of actually going, which doesn’t really help the cause. But at least she seems to understand what we’re trying to accomplish here.

Well, this past Sunday, we might have had a breakthrough. Caitlyn said she had to go poo, so the wife rushed her to the potty. Imagine our surprise when she actually went in it for the first time. Of course, the elation was short-lived as an hour or so later, she peed in her pants while saying she had to pee. If we can somehow get her to acknowledge her need to go just a few seconds earlier, I think we can get this potty training thing down in a snap.

With a post about poop and pee, how could I not end this without a story of my own? Back in my early twenties, I was coming home from the gym one day and was stuck in traffic. My stomach started making those strange gurgling noises that tells you something bad is about to happen if a bathroom isn’t found immediately.

Unfortunately, being stuck on a highway with no real option, I did what my daughter does on a daily basis. I pooped in my pants. Actually, it was more like diarrhea. But either way, it felt great to relieve all that pressure that was building up against my sphincter.

However, once I got home, trying to make it up the stairs to the bathroom without anything dripping out was another matter. Thankfully, neither one of my roommates were at home so I didn’t have to explain why I was waddling into the apartment with my hands tightly wrapped around the bottom of my shorts.

Apparently, pooping in our pants runs in the family because my mom told us not too long ago how my dad had to diarrhea in his pants because he couldn’t find a bathroom after eating some spoiled food. Like father, like son, I suppose. Which leads me to wonder, will Caitlyn be saying, “Like father, like daughter,” when she grows up?

I did it!

Did I do that?

Climbing

Giddy-up!

Whoosh!

Cheese

 

Smiles!

That's a big smile

Wait for me!

Patiently waiting for Mommy

Can I ride?

I'm riding a bike!

Steady

No piggybacking!