Greetings from the Dominican Republic!

We are in the Dominican Republic this week to attend a cousin's wedding and we arrived a week early to do a little vacationing.

We are sharing a condo with some family members, which is much cheaper than staying at a resort, which is $300-$400 per person per night!  Food and entertainment is included but there is no way I can eat my money's worth in crappy resort food, and with an infant in tow, I wouldn't be taking advantage of the entertainment either.
We haven't left the condo that much since I'm pretty beat from the flight (5.5 hours from LAX -> JFK, then 4 hours from JFK ->SDQ, then 3 hours car ride from SDQ to our condo in Bavaro), and we need to stick around in the afternoon so Caitlin can take her afternoon nap.  I don't mind of course, I don't think vacations should be cramming a million items into a tight schedule and hating every waking minute of the "vacation".

At the beach, 30 meters from our condo

Yesterday, we finally emerged from our "air conditioned" condo (it is in quotations because the AC sucks, but still better than no AC!) to go to the beach.
The beach was lovely, and the water was warm (unlike the Pacific Ocean).  The water is not crystal clear the way it was in the Bahamas last year, which was kind of what I thought it would be like (Bahamas, Carribean, the gulf, same thing).

It was Caitlin's first time touching the ocean, and unfortunately, she hated it.  She looked worried at first, then started whining.  So I just held her, and I felt Caitlin cling onto me tighter every time the waves came in.  Maybe after a few more tries, she will get used to it.

Bonding time for the cousins! 
Photobombed by the Infantino Horse on the lower-right

And what was Caitlin's first airplane ride like?
Let's just say... if I had a choice, I would NEVER do it EVER again.
On the plane ride from LAX to JFK, it was a red eye flight and the flight was at 9:30pm, which is about 2 hours after her bedtime.  Caitlin was exhausted and pissed.  While people were still boarding and getting settled in their seats, Caitlin was bawling the entire time and inconsolable.  Maybe if we were able to get up and pace up and down the aisle, she would have been ok, but we needed to stay seated in preparation to take off.  Everyone seated around us were very polite and kind to us, but I can tell they were a little worried they would get no shut-eye on the flight.  I offered ear plugs to our neighbors and gave a bag of chocolates to the flight crew.  I held off on nursing Caitlin until take-off since you want the baby to suckle during take-off and landing to clear their ears when the air pressure changes.
Once the plane started taking off, we laid Caitlin across the Boppy which was on my lap, latched her on, and placed a nursing cover over her.  Caitlin's body spewed across my lap onto Jeff's lap.  Caitlin quietly nursed for several minutes then eventually dozed off and she slept the ENTIRE flight! woohoo! Both Jeff and I were too scared to move during the entire 5.5 hour flight, fearing we would wake her.  Caitlin eventually woke up after we landed, when people were getting their carryon items from the overhead compartments and leaving.  She was all in smiles.

I wore Caitlin in my BabyBjorn during our 2 hour layover and we enjoyed breakfast at one of the restaurants.
The flight to SDQ sucked a lot.  We were unable to get our seat assignments until right before we boarded the plane.  All 3 of us (Jeff, Connie, and me), were all split up on the plane and we were all assigned window seats, which are incredibly cramped.  Once again, Caitlin started crying before take off since she didn't want me to be seated.  The old man next to me spoke zero English and kept staring at me and Caitlin and also kept staring at me as I pulled out my breast to nurse Caitlin during take-off.
Como se dice "F*ck off" en Espanol?
Poor Caitlin, there was no room in my window seat to accommodate her laying down to nurse.  The Boppy is already wider than the width of my seat.  With Caitlin laying down to nurse and nap, her head partially went onto the other guy's area so she kept getting her head bumped.  Caitlin's butt hit the window of the plane, so I had to wrap her legs around my waist, bending her in an "L" shape. Since the Boppy didn't fit in my seat, I kept squishing it in my seat to make it fit, but the Boppy still kept sliding out from beneath Caitlin.  It was all a disaster.
Caitlin fell asleep while nursing before the plane even took off since it took like 20 minutes taxiing the runway.  Caitlin slept maybe 45 minutes, due to the terrible cramped conditions.  I'm pretty sure if she had the freedom to stretch out like on the first flight, she would have slept the entire duration of the flight.  The flight was 4 hours so she spent the majority of the remaining 3.25 hours of the flight crying.  Towards the end of the flight, we thought it would be good to try nursing Caitlin again but there was just no room to nurse in my seat. Connie asked the flight crew if I could sit in one of the empty 1st class seats to nurse and the flight crew said 'yes'.  So Caitlin nursed for a bit but then cried because she didn't want to nurse anymore.  This was right about the time we were landing!  Uh oh! Babies need to suck to clear their ears from the change in air pressure!  Now what?!  As it turned out, Caitlin didn't even notice we were landing.  She sat around smiling at the faces Jeff was making a few rows back, and it was a very easy landing. phew!
I wore her in the Bjorn again to get off the plane , through baggage claim, and through customs.  Caitlin slept a grand total of about 6 hours that "night", which is about half of what she usually gets.  We were so busy traveling to our condo and settling in that it was too much stimulation for Caitlin to sleep again later in the day.  Because Caitlin got half the amount of sleep she needed, AND she missed her nap that day, that night, she was too overtired to sleep and cried for 1.5 hours in her crib before finally falling to sleep for the night and it was close to midnight.  (Overtired babies are too wired to sleep!  You don't want an overtired baby...)

I really don't want to fly ever again.

-----EDIT: 10/18/2012-----
I completely forgot to post up the video of Jeff "taking care" of a giant cockroach that was in my bathroom in our condo.  It was such a fiasco since we weren't sure how to dispose of the cockroach without having to touch it or risk it getting away. 
In the end, it was a great success!

We are *so* LA

How are we *so* LA?
We just hired a gardener to come mow our postage-stamp-sized lawn twice a month.

My husband came from a place (New Jersey) where his backyard was over an acre in size and they mowed their own dang lawn.  Him and his mom came out to LA and both laughed at how everyone in LA hire gardeners for their teeny tiny lawns.

After 3 years of trying to maintain our lawn ourselves, we gave in and hired a gardener today.
It is not the size of the lawn that makes lawn mowing on the regular basis hard.  The hard part is finding the motivation to pull the gardening appliances out of the garage (which is located in our backyard), then push them through our driveway, which is completely blocked off by our 2 parked cars, to the front yard.  This motivation wasn't extremely hard to find before we had a baby, but now that we have baby Caitlin, when we have a couple minutes to ourselves, dealing with the lawn is the last thing we want to do.

The final "push" that caused us to hire a gardener, is that our neighborhood is not entirely thrilled with our "overgrown" lawn.  Last week, the guy that maintains the church grounds (across the street from us) politely brought up the topic of referring a gardener to us.   And this morning, he was banging our front door at 8am wanting to introduce us to his gardener.  After a quote of $40 per month (pretty good!) we hired him on the spot.

Our "overgrown" postage-stamp-sized front yard that our neighbors have a problem with.
There isn't more to our front yard.  That is seriously how small it is.

 
We previously had a gardener for 1 month, when we first moved into our house (apparently he was hired and I didn't even know about it).  He charged $90 per month and he came once per week, which was completely overkill.  I canned him as soon as I realized he was hired and draining us almost 100 bucks every month.
Based on that experience, I am more than happy to pay $40 per month for this guy to come twice per month and not have to worry about our lawn (and neighbors) anymore.

Apparently, it was our 3-year anniversary yesterday

It was our 3-year wedding anniversary yesterday, but we all forgot!
I just remembered right now as I was looking at the calendar.  So sad!!
This baby sleep training thing is consuming our lives.

Happy 3 years of marriage, Jeff.  =)  Here's to many more (unforgotten) anniversaries to come.

Wish we were doing this right now

Beach and Park

Summer is coming to an end!
Luckily, we got to squeeze in 2 small adventures before summer comes to a close.  These last 2 weekends, Jeff, Caitlin, and I crawled out of our hermit cave, shielded our eyes from the harsh natural light that we have not seen in what seems like years, and dragged our pasty selves about outdoors.

You see, we (or at least I) are not hermits by choice.  With Caitlin being short-tempered, and you don't know when she is just going to flip out and become hysterical, it makes going out in public very difficult.  And when we *do* go out, they are only brief trips, doing things we *have* to do like pick up a few groceries.  I actually get uncomfortable when people ask me if I "take Caitlin places, like the park or Mommy-and-me movies".  I find it difficult to explain that Caitlin doesn't exactly behave a lot of times, so going out is a huge chore.

Well, two weekends ago, cousin Connie invited us to join them at the Santa Monica Pier and I 'm glad she did.  We had a lot of fun and it was Caitlin's first time at the beach!  And the best part was, Caitlin patiently sat through lunch and made it to the beach and back without flipping out hysterically.  In fact, quite the opposite, as she was full of squeals and smiles the entire time.  Caitlin also didn't ask to eat, which was great since I don't really know how to breastfeed when it's not done in my bed. 

Last weekend, we took Caitlin to Clover Park in Santa Monica to soak up some grass and sun.  It was such a beautiful day.  Caitlin had a little fun, but maybe 30 minutes later, she started complaining so it was time for us to pack up and go.  Oh well, at least we all had fun during those 30 minutes!

Sadly, I don't foresee us venturing outdoors in the near future (bummer, since tomorrow is Jeff's birthday and Caitlin's 6 month birthday).  We are on lock-down in this house since we are now training Caitlin to be on sleep/eat schedule.  (I actually HATE the idea of putting a baby on a schedule, but since Caitlin just can't settle into her own routine naturally... unlike other babies... we have to do it for her).  If you look at her schedule, you will see that throughout the day, she gets put down for a nap every 1.5 hours.  It's difficult to feed Caitlin, leave the house, hang out, and return home, all within 1.5 hours.  And Caitlin's new bedtime is 8pm, with a nighttime routine starting 7pm, so there goes our night life!  =(  How in the world do people with babies go out?

Termites

~11 months ago, I wrote about our house having termites and it would cost about $1500 to fumigate.
Well, we never got around to it and I figured that, if I just didn't think about it, maybe they would go away!  (oh, the solution to all my problems...)

It appears that I cannot continue pushing the termites to the back of my head because this afternoon, when I stepped into my bathroom, what did I see in my bathtub?

TERMITES!

'

We are getting our house (the wood) treated for termites this Friday.  I am having the guy that sprayed our house for ants and spiders last week (and 3 years ago) to come take care of our termites too.  Fumigation would have costed $1500-$1800 with this guy, but he said he can simply come treat our wood, which is easier and takes less time, and only costs $550! 
I think how it works is, once the wood is treated, when termites eat it, they will die. 

Let's hope this is the last time I have to think about termites for the next few years.

Need to get 3 things -- where to begin!

We have 3 big things we need to buy, but doing the research to find what we need at a great price is a lot of work! 
Where to begin?!

We need to buy:
1. King sized mattress with king sized bed frame and bedding without breaking the bank.  The mattress must not jiggle when someone shifts in the bed.  The bed frame must not creak when moving in the bed. 

2. A good steam mop for under $100 that doesn't damage hardwood floors.  My Swiffer just pushes dirty gunk from point a to point b.

3. A guy to spray our house with poison (without killing Caitlin and the guinea pigs) since I'm sick and tired of ants, spiders, and mysterious creepy crawlies invading our home (see photo on the right).  The last time we got our house sprayed, we paid $30.  I would like something in that price range again.  =]


Please send suggestions my way.  =D

Dominican Republic!

It's been decided!
The plane tickets are already booked!

Jeff, Caitlin, and I will be vacationing in the Dominican Republic this Fall!

Visitors and Caitlin's first big adventure!

Wow!  What a week!
Last week, Bruce, Kathi, and Yao stayed over at our house and we all had so much fun and got so much done!

What did we (ok, I didn't really help much with the home improvement but I'm still going to say "we") do?


Installed a screen door over our front door!
Horray!  The screen door blocks out flies and mosquitoes and does not look crazy ghetto like those black security doors.

Threw a 4th of July BBQ that I didn't even know we were going to have!
So months ago, we threw around ideas of throwing a 4th of July BBQ for the left coast cousins.  However, everyone said that they couldn't make it, so we figured we weren't doing a bbq.  Two days before 4th of July, Jeff announces that we are having friends over for our bbq.
What?  What bbq?
We head over to Costco that day to pick up food for our bbq.
The follownig day, we have more guests invited to our bbq!  Hmm, I hope we have enoughf ood.
The day of the bbq, we learn that 2 more people were joining our bbq. -_-'  I head out to the grocery store to pick up more food.  Thank goodness grocery stores are open on 4th of July!


Cleaned out and organized the garage.
Looks much better now!
Is anyone interested in buying our chandeliers?  $100 or best offer =)

Cut our old front door and used it to level out the guinea's cage.
Guineas got an upgrade!


CAITLIN'S FIRST BIG ADVENTURE
With so many visitors, it made sense to all make a trip down to visit Connie and her family!  (afterall, her daughter is Caitlin's bff. hehe).
I was a bit nervous about this trip because Caitlin always cries during car rides (yes, even when the car is moving), and the trip down to Irvine is 1 hour one-way.
On top of that, Caitlin is already a grumpy baby.  When she is out is about, she rarely naps, and when she doesn't nap, she is even grumpier.

Overall, Caitlin did pretty well.  Much better than I expected!
On the drive down, Caitlin did not cry until we were almost there! Wow!  We kept all the windows down and that seemed to prevent her from crying.  in the middle of the afternoon, after I fed her, Caitlin took a 45 minute nap at Connie's house!  I was so impressed because usually she is a light sleeper, but she slept through everyone's talking. She must have been exhausted from the drive down. =)
We went out to Fashion Island for dinner and took pictures at the Koi pond, and Caitlin napped for maybe 15 minutes during dinner time (not bad not bad.. I'll take what I can get). 

This is a re-enactment of some photo these 3 took years ago. I have yet to see this photo.

Olivia + Caitlin = BFFs 4 ever

Family!

Then we went to 85C for dessert.  (I got 30 dollars worth of pastries.  Mmmmm.)
We headed back to Connie's house after 85C, and what did Caitlin do?  She did quiet-alert! Wow!  It was already past 9pm, and she had a big day, but instead of being grumpy, she laid around playing with Olivia's toys and she even laughed a bit too.  =)
Sadly, Caitlin cried the entire hour on the drive back home.  We skipped Caitlin's nightly bath and put her straight to bed at around 11:15.  Caitlin fell asleep quiet easily and slept for 8 hours before her first feeding.
I love it when Caitlin sleeps so well!  We need to go on adventures more often! hehe

The not-so-neighborly neighbor

I have been living in my house for 3 years and I have never met my next door neighbor!
Of course, this is no biggie. I am told that he works night shifts so he is never up and about during the daytime. Ok, that is understandable.

Earlier this week, I had Caitlin strapped to my torso and we were going for a walk around the neighborhood. On my way back home, I passed by my next door neighbor's driveway and saw that my neighbor was in the driveway!  It appeared that maybe he just got home and decided to stop and pull a few weeds from his driveway before heading indoors.

In my head, I thought "Oh good!  I finally have the opportunity to introduce myself and Caitlin to the neighbor".  I stopped on the sidewalk at the end of his driveway and said "Hi!!".
The neighbor stopped pulling weeds, stood up, looked at me, crouched back down, and resumed plucking at his weeds.
I spoke a little louder "Hello??".
No response.
I resumed walking and went home.

Wow.
I don't think anyone has ever been so rude to me.
It's one thing to ignore a person trying to strike up a conversation, but how in the world can a someone ignore a person wearing a tiny baby in a cute pink hat trying to strike up a conversation?  And if you are going to ignore a person, then just pretend that you didn't hear them!  Don't stand up, look the person in the eye, and then ignore them!!

I think now I know why I have never met my next door neighbor in the 3 years that I have lived here.  And it's NOT because he works night shifts.

Want to see how big I got during my pregnancy?

When I was pregnant, I donned the same gray dress every month, stood in the same pose every month, and had Jeff take a couple of pictures of me.
What for?
So I can see how much my belly grew every month!

I put all the pictures onto one sheet so you can compare side by side. hehe

I would have really preferred the lighting to be the same in all the shots but I'm not that talented.


I gained a total of 25 pounds during my pregnancy, which is actually the amount I was supposed to gain for someone my size (I didn't go under or over the recommended amount). 

Despite gaining the optimal amount of weight, Caitlin's birth weight was 6 pounds 1oz, which is considered very small compared to the average birth weight in America (which is 8 pounds).
I think that goes to show how big (*ahem* fat) the average American person is, and people are gaining WAY too much weight during their pregnancy.