Happy Half Birthday to Baby L!

Our baby girl turned 6 months old today! These are just a few of the things are little peanut can do:

• Roll back to front and front to back (she sometimes gets stuck on her arm when rolling front to back)
• Push her chest off the ground
• Sit in the corner of the sofa or in a supportive chair
• Reach to grab things with her whole body
• Tell us when she's hungry (she cries "ummmm! ummm!)
• Smile and laugh when she thinks something is funny
• Babble on and on and on and on...

I hear people say they see the face of God in their children...and I couldn't help but laugh at this one when we did her 6-month photos in various places around the house today!

Creation of...apple tart?

Our mostly cheerful baby!

We love watching her develop new facial expressions that almost always end in a big toothless smile. Next adventure for Baby L is SOLID FOOD!!!

40 Days of Gratitude!

My friends on Facebook & Instagram already know this, and I'm adding a note here for my blog readers who are not tied to my social media accounts.

There will be a drop in blogging over the Easter Season, primarily because I've committed to posting 40 Days of Gratitude on Instagram during Lent. In high school, my youth minister always told us to do something extra instead of the traditional giving something up, and to honor her this year, I chose to do both.

In addition to my daily reflection of the things I am thankful for, I've given up chocolate and caffeine. The chocolate part has not been too bad, the coffee has been a little rough this first week since Baby L is not always the best sleeper! On those groggy mornings, I remind myself that an exercise in sacrifice is not meant to be easy, and to be more Christlike (or rather, more Holy Mary-like since I don't recall Jesus staying up all night with crying newborns in the bible) and suck it up.

My Instagram account is private, but I am pretty fast at approving followers if I know who you are!

Why You Need Estate Planning!!!

This is a PSA for all my friends with kids.  If you haven't already, get your estate in order! I had a conversation this weekend with a friend who works in the same location as her husband. She made a comment that if anything happened at work, her child would be an orphan, and their friends (who live in another state) would have to adopt the kid. I immediately asked her if she had a will, and she sheepishly said no. I then asked her if she had life insurance, and she also said no!

She and her husband are both responsible, financially secure engineers with MBAs, so the lack of knowledge around estate was surprising for me. As I thought about it more, I realized they are probably not abnormal - there are probably a LOT of new parents who haven't thought about estate planning - after all, who wants to think about their death?

This particular situation is a good one to blog about - the first red flag is that my friend (let's call her and her husband Couple A) wants guardianship of her child to go to another couple (we'll call them Couple B). Couple B is not related to Couple A, so it is extra important that Couple A is absolutely sure that Couple B is ready and willing to raise an extra child and that Couple A puts it in writing so that if anything terrible happens, Couple B is not faced with a long uphill battle against the court system for custody of the child. Without a will, you essentially let the court system decide what to do with your kids and assets, and really, I think that the last thing that most people want.  The courts would most likely grant guardianship to a family member, and if that is not what anyone is expecting or planning for, it is difficult for everyone involved. I personally know Couple B, and they would love the child as their own, so why not make it simpler for this transfer of guardianship to happen?

The second red flag in this situation is that raising a child is not cheap when considering food, clothing, school, college, etc. While I know that Couple B is as financially secure as Couple A, that is not the case for everyone.  A term life insurance plan for your child can help ease the financial burden in what will already be a horrible situation.

There are many many other reasons to consider estate planning - and there are a lot of really good articles on the web.  One of my favorites is this one: Estate Planning for Young Families

We should always hope for the best and plan for the worst - so if you haven't made your plan, DO IT NOW!!! Don't put it off because you never know what could happen tomorrow.

Dubai Visitors! Sarah & Ben

Technically, this post should fall under the category of "early adventures of Baby L". I didn't label it this way since for some of our adventures with Sarah & Ben, Baby L actually stayed home with her nanny, Miss J, because travelling with her is not always the easiest.

The last time I saw Sarah and Ben was at their wedding last year in April. G had seen them more recently because he went to Houston to pack up the house. We were so happy to see them and looking forward to the week hanging out!  Their flight arrived late on Thursday night, so unfortunately, Baby L was already fast asleep by the time we got home. The good news is Baby L is like clockwork, so they got to see her bright and early at 5:30am the next morning!  In this case, jet lag for them wasn't so bad!

Auntie love!!!

As a side note here, just after we got back from Vietnam, we bought Baby L a Baby Einstein activity jumper. Holy cow, she loves that thing. There is no thought for stepping, crawling, only jumping. At night, pre-jumper, she used to kick me with alternating legs. Now, post-jumper, she kicks me with both legs at the same time as if she is jumping in her jumper. She is also reaching for things, and her facial expressions are priceless. Here is one of my favorite videos that G sent me while I was at work.

Hop hop hop! Give me the soda can!!!

Anyway, back to Sarah & Ben. They brought Baby L tons of goodies from her Mimi and Granddad's church as well as missing parts for Baby L's dresser. Apparently, Graco Storkcraft sent the exact same WRONG parts, and Sarah & Ben unknowingly dragged them halfway around the world! Fortunately, Ben is very mechanically inclined, and he took all the wrong parts and magically assembled the dresser anyway. The day was saved! Thanks Ben!!!

Baby L's nursery is now complete! And a whole section of her closet is now free, thanks to Ben!

Later that day, we went out to Friday brunch at Tribeca, a nearby restaurant that had gluten free menu options for Sarah.  The food was ok, and the unlimited drinks were a little disappointing - the only beer they had available was Budweiser, so none of us drank much. G wasn't even drunk when we left (unlike that one time at the Four Seasons in Abu Dhabi...) The food was ok, though I don't think G and I will be going back unless it's a stop on a pub crawl.

On Saturday the whole family ventured to Mall of the Emirates for lunch. Sarah and Ben were still struggling from jet lag, so we didn't explore the mall much - we headed back home for a relaxing afternoon.

Sunday, Miss J stayed with Baby L while we went on a desert safari. G and I had yet to do one of these since I had so much trouble with motion sickness while I was pregnant. We figured now that Baby L is almost 6 months old, we could leave her for several hours and be ok (which, it was totally ok!). We booked with an Emirati company called Platinum Heritage, and the expense was well worth it. We were picked up in a Range Rover and were driven to the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve. 

G and I in the scarves provided by the tour company

We saw a surprisingly large amount of wildlife, from gerbils to gazelles to the beautiful oryx pictured above. After bumming around the desert and taking pictures, we had breakfast at the 5-star Al Maha Resort. The views were stunning and the food was delicious!

Arabian Oryx at the reserve

Our driver and guide saw that we were interested in the classic land rovers, so he also took us on a super quick 5-minute ride in one. It wasn't a part of our tour package, and it was so fun!!!

Old school class land rover! Noisy and smelly, and a ton of fun!

That night we went out to dinner at Gourmet by KCal at the Le Meridian hotel. It is a gluten-free restaurant, and they had delicious gluten-free pizzas and desserts. 

Monday we explored the gold and spice souqs in an area of old Dubai called Deira. The gold souq was as fabulous as it sounds, you can buy anything from the simplest gold bangle to the most ostentatious gold bib necklace. The gold shops were very nice and enclosed, and just outside them were hawkers trying to sell their trinkets (anyone want a pashmina scarf? how about a faux-lex Rolex?). The spice souq was a little disappointing - while yes, there were spices, the vendors all pretty much had the same bins of spices. I think we were expecting a bit more variety.

Tuesday was Ben and Sarah's last day, and we wrapped up their stay in Dubai with the big finale - the Burj Khalifa! 

Whole family at Burj Khalifa observation deck, including #grumpybaby

After our tour of the Burj Khalifa, the worlds tallest tower, we had a brunch and then explored Dubai Mall. One of Sarah's friends in Houston loves TWG Tea, so we stopped and picked a few boxes. We also purchased some more footie pajamas for Baby L since she's grown out of almost all of her current ones! She was, of course, asleep for most of this.

Baby L, fast asleep, as we explore Dubai Mall.

The metro ride home seemed longer than the ride there, I think because the metro was so crowded. There were three strollers in the women & children's cabin, and we had to frequently remind men trying to hop onto the cabin that it was for women & children only. After a few stops, the train was a little less crowded, and Baby L started hamming it up for the other passengers (as usual). She was fussy again by the end, so I took her out of the stroller to watch the buildings zoom past the window.

I like to eat my feet!

We finished the night at a restaurant called Scene that has a stunning view of the Marina (wish I'd taken a picture!).  We are so thankful that Sarah & Ben could make the time to visit us, and we can't wait to see them again!

Early Adventures of Baby L - Vietnam Part 2

After our excursion to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, we flew back to Saigon. The flight was a little rough for Baby L since we were all recovering from colds - she had never had any issues with her ears on an airplane, but for this flight, she was particularly fussy during landing so I tried to nurse her as best as I could. The flight attendants kept trying to tell me her ears were hurting her, and I kept trying to tell them that she had already been on 3 airplanes without any issues!

Fussy baby during takeoffs and landings!

We made it back to Saigon and had a quick dinner in the hotel room. Bà Ngoại and Ông Ngoại went out to buy Vietnamese desserts for us to snack on in the evening and we all went to bed early.

After our buffet breakfast (where Baby L made lots of friends, as usual) we picked up my ao dai and G’s suit. We liked the work that his tailor did so much that we ordered 2 extra shirts! We had banh bot chien for lunch, which is sort of like an omelet with chunks of fried dough and scallions. It was yummy! After all that we headed back to grandmother’s house in Dong Nai to rest up get ready for Baby L’s baptism.  I finally succumbed to the head cold that Baby L and G had, so an easy evening was more than welcome!

Baby L getting a kiss from her second cousin, Dat!

The next morning, Uncle #2 came down from his church and we all got dressed up for Baby L’s big moment. We were originally going to have her baptism at his church near Vung Tau, but he recommended we do it at the village church because it would be easier to access her records in the future. Baby L was such a doll during her ceremony, and all afternoon she was showered with traditional Vietnamese gifts of gold and cash from my aunts, uncle, and parents. G made a comment that Baby L now owned more gold than he did! 

Baby L was mostly cooperative during her baptism ceremony

Golden baby girl! And this is still missing one necklace and one bracelet that she received later!

You can see underneath Baby L is a white quilt -- since my dad couldn't find my the original white baptism blanket that my sister and I were both baptized in, I made a baptism blanket for Baby L. I didn't actually start the blanket until just before Christmas, so you can imagine there were some late nights as I frantically hurried to finish it! In the end, I was so happy with both my new sewing machine and the quilt. The machine stitching for binding is pretty wavy, but hey, I was in a hurry!

You can faintly see in the upper right corner, I was able to embroider Baby L's name and baptism date on the quilt with my fancy new sewing machine.

We were able to have a professional photographer during Baby L’s ceremony, and afterwards, he took a 4-generation photo of Baby L’s great grandmother, her Ông Ngoại, Baby L, and me. My 96-year-old grandmother is the last of Baby L’s great grandparents, so we are thrilled that they were able to meet each other.

Four generations!

That evening, we had a big party at grandmother’s house, and of course, Baby L was the center of attention. G was whisked off to the table with all my male cousins to drink copious amount of beer, and Baby L was passed around to be showered with love and affection.  My cousin’s wife catered the party, and the food was delicious! We had something like 5 or 6 courses, so by the time desert rolled around, I was stuffed.  Baby L got a little fussy since it was way, way, way past her bedtime, so eventually she and I spent some quiet time in our room before she finally went to sleep. It was a good day, though a very long day! It was lots of fun to see many of my cousins again!

Everyone loves Baby L! She is sitting on the lap of Uncle #9.

We originally planned to visit Auntie #5, Auntie #7, Uncle #2, and the beach in Vung Tau, but since Baby L was so worn out from all the traveling, we opted to skip the beach and just visit family. Auntie #5 raises goats and has tons of really cool trees and plants at her house. We visited for a little while, before heading over to Auntie #7’s house.

Baby L kicking Auntie #5's plants (one of her favorite activities at home in Dubai) while sitting on Auntie #8's lap

Auntie #7 owns pharmacy and electronics shop, and we enjoyed some jackfruit while we were there. The original gold bangle that she gave to Baby L the day before didn’t quite fit, so she took it back and gave Baby L a gold cross necklace. It was so cute! We eventually had to take it off though, because like everything else, Baby L kept trying to chew on it. 

Baby L can ALMOST sit, but not quite!

Our last stop was to Uncle #2’s church to visit and have lunch. The church is beautiful, and lunch was also delicious. Uncle also sent us home with a big cooler full of ice cream for grandmothers house - in their province, there isn’t a supermarket or grocery store nearby, so Aunties and Uncle usually bring things that aren’t available at the open air market.

The church near Vung Tau where Uncle #2 serves as a priest

We got back from Uncle’s church around 3pm, which gave us time to rest and relax for that evening and the whole next day before heading home on Friday.  We took a little motorbike ride to the rice field and to see my grandfather’s grave. We didn’t get to take G to the open air market, but I committed to my grandmother that I’d come back in 2021 (and again in 2023 if grandmother lives to 100), so both G and Baby L (by then she won’t be a baby anymore!!) will get to see it next time.

My family owns a small portion of these rice fields near the village

It was definitely a whirlwind trip, and I think next time we might try to do a little less so there is more time to relax...which is funny because my friends who know me know that I have a hard time planning “relaxing” vacations! There  is just so much to see and do!!!

Baby L's new favorite napping spot