Wiggly Piglet’s Playpen

Last night, Mckayla was eating like her usual self again after two days of “diet”. For two days, she ate really well during the day with Nanny and refused her dinner. Monday night, she barely had any water at dinner. Then on Tuesday, she ate few bites of the tortilla from my taco with guacamole. After dinner, while Uncle Jeff was washing her hands, she told him she had pooped. I took her to the bathroom immediately to get her started with her bath. But, when I opened up her diaper, it was soaked wet only. I asked if she wants to sit on the potty and she agreed. She sat there for only a few minutes then got up said she’s done and wants to take a bath. I took a peek and noticed the potty bowl was still empty. While she was “swimming” in the tub, I noticed bubbles coming out from her rear end and asked who farted. She responded, “KK farted”. Then, all the sudden, she sat up in squatting position and that was the end of it. There were “brown stuff” floating in the water within a few seconds. Mckayla started to cry and scream, “Bath water dirty!”. She tried to climb out the tub and said she wants to sit on the potty. I had to fish her out the tub, wrap her in the towel, then put her on the potty. At this point, Ted had heard the noise and came in to help. Between the two of us, we quickly cleaned the tub up and washed out all the toys that were floating with the “brown stuff” in the tub. Mckayla sat on her potty while we cleaned up and got up as soon as the tub was cleaned out. Then, it’s time for another bath. Later in the evening, I asked Mckayla, “where does poop go?”. She said, “toilet”. Then, I asked, “can poop go in the bathtub?”. She said, “no, poop goes in toilet”. Hope this little incident will get her to sit ont he potty again.

Yesterday when I hugged Mckayla, baby in my belly kicked. He kicked hard enough that Mckayla felt something. She pulled herself away to examine my belly. Then, as she watched, baby kicked again. She said, “MaMa’s tummy is moving”. She lifted up her own shirt and felt her tummy with her hand, then said, “KK’s tummy is not moving”. It reminded me when I was pregnant with Mckayla, MeiMei used to sit on my belly while I watched TV on the couch. Mckayla would kick and startle MeiMei. She would jump up and gave me the look like why did you do that.

Mckayla got her early Christmas present when Uncle Jeff arrived on Christmas Eve. She was very happy to see him when she woke up from her nap and even more happy when he handed her new toys. By the time I got home from work, they were best friends again. She wanted Uncle Jeff to play with him and put her to sleep at night. On christmas morning, Mckayla slept in later than usual and didn’t get up until almost ten. She was excited opening her Christmas presents under the tree and greeted everyone “Merry Christmas” (in Chinese). After our lunch, Mckayla and I went to pick up Uncle Andre from the airport. He had missed his flight the previous day and had to delay his flight by a day. On our drive up there, she asked where we were going. I told him we’re going to the airport to pick up another Uncle. I asked her which Uncle, she said, “Uncle A-dre” (she meant Ajay). I told her, no, it’s another uncle. Then, she said, “Uncle Andre”. As we got close to the airport, she pointed to the plane in the sky and said, “Be careful, Grandpa is on the plane!”. I think she was getting little confused. She was a bit shy as usual when Uncle Andre got in the car, but it didn’t last long. Before we got back on the freeway again, she was giving him kisses and telling him that she loves him. After we got home, it was time for her nap and time for me and Ted to continue cleaning out the house. We were able to get lots of work done while Mckayla was napping. All the excitement had tired Mckayla out. She slept for almost three hours and didn’t wake up until I went her room to check on her. We enjoyed yummy prime rib Ted had made for our dinner. After dinner, Ted and I continued to clean out the house and garage while the two free babysitters entertained Mckayla. Mckayla put up a fight when it was time to go to bed and demanded Uncle Jeff to put her to sleep. Too much excitement and fun again for Mckayla, she was out for twelve hours and didn’t wake up until ten the next morning.

Last night we were walking back to the car after we grabbed some ice cream to satisfy my post dinner cravings (Mckayla got a few licks of the ice cream and few bites of the sugar cone). She’s been putting up a fight when it’s time to go to bed and trying to delay it with every possible excuse. So, we were getting her mentally ready for bed and told her after we get home, she’s going to take a shower (Ted insists on showers only now for Mckayla to conserve water), then they’ll read books in her room. She responded, “KK doesn’t want to read books”. Then, she said, “Read books, then KK has to sleep”.

We had our early Christmas dinner on Sunday. Ted had missed Thanksgiving the past two years and wanted to make turkey for everyone. He picked up a 15-lb turkey and brined it over night before he put it on the smoker on Sunday afternoon. Everyone arrived promptly but the turkey was not ready at 6PM as promised. According to Ted, he had some issue getting the temperature up in the beginning. Wehn the Turkey came out of the smoker, Mckayal pointed at it and told me the turkey was dirty because it’s got the dark colored smoked skin on it. We didn’t think we were going to finish the giangantic turkey, but with nine hungry adults and four kids, we only had 2 turkey legs left at the end of the meal. Peyton did a great job and was the last kid off the table. She decrowned Mckayla and is the new “eater” among the kids. After dinner, we all enjoyed the yummy desserts everyone brought. I even got another cake to celebrate my birthday! After everyone left, Mckayla had a little meltdown. She was crying and refusing to take her bath. I had a little talk with her afterwards. She was behaving badly and took off a few ornaments from the Christmas tree when she was playing with Brandon in the family room after dinner. She told me, “KK was bad”, “KK doesn’t like time out”, and “Brandon told MaMa”. I told her if she doesn’t behave nicely, then Brandon won’t play with her next time. Then, she said, “KK play with Brandon, baby Logan, and Peyton”. After that, she went to bed and didn’t wake up until almost nine the next day according to the Nanny.

We started our Saturday with a nice “Southern” breakfast. The restaurant was small and packed, but we got seated quickly after a short ten minute wait. The food was yummy but the portion was way too big. It was a protein and fat loaded meal for Mckayla, she enjoyed the chicken fried steak and sausages as much as Ted did. After breakfast, it was almost eleven clock and we headed to the downtown Christmas in the Park. We walked around and checked out the Christmas displays for a bit. But once we saw the carousels, Mckayla’s attention was immediately shifted. We went in the nearby hotel for a quick diaper change and enjoyed the Christmas Carol in lobby, too. Ted and Mckayla got the all day pass band for the rides and they made good use of it. There were a few rides from Michael’s Jackson’s Neverland. One of the ride required the kids to be taller than 36″ but shorter than 42″. So that means Mckayla had to ride alone. We weren’t sure if she’d be alright riding by herself, but she did well. She rode the car all by herself, but got little bored at the end and kept standing up. After many many rides later, we were all exhausted and hungry again. So we decided to take a break to grab lunch. It was late, almost two in the afternoon and the park was getting little more crowded. When our tummies were nicely filled, we thought it was time to head back home for our nap, but Mckayla asked to ride the carousel again. So we agreed on one more ride, then call it the end of the day. After we got home, we all took a nice long nap. By the time we got up again, it was seven in the evening and time for dinner. We went out for some nice and warm Japanese ramen. We also picked up a tiny little cake in celebration for my birthday. Mckayla was very excited, she told me “happy birthday” and asked for the cake. She didn’t care too much for the cake itself, but loved blowing out the candle and picking out all the strawberries.

My Dad called last night looking for Mckayla. I’ve been too busy this past week and haven’t made my usual calls to Taiwan. Mckayla heard the phone rang and ran to pick it up herself. She doesn’t know how to answer it yet and handed to Ted. Ted handed the phone back to Mckayla to let her talk to Grandpa, but she wasn’t paying much attention to him because we had Dora on the TV. She told him that she’s watching “Taiwan Dora” and Swiper is doing bad things. Then, she told him about the presents under the Christmas tree. But she was distracted by the TV again and handed the phone back to me. Shortly after I hung up the phone with my Dad, Mckayla ran to me asking for a hug. I told her, “I love you”. She responded, “MaMa ai (love) KK”. I asked her who does Mckayla love. She told me, “KK ai (love) GongGong (Grandpa)!”.

Mckayla has been on the oral and topical antibiotics for four days as of Monday. The spots on her face are looking better and so do most on her feet. But there were two spots on her left foot that got more red and inflammed when I got home from work on Monday. I called the advice nurse and got an appoitment for her yesterday. We went in after I got off from work to get them checked out. The resident and her pediatrician suspect the two lesions might be resistant to the antibiotics that she’s been on and prescribed Clindamycin. Recalling how bad it tastes from pharm school days, I did not look forward to giving her medications last night after we got home fromt he Secret Santa party. I had to hold her down with one arm and force the medication down with the other. It was a mess. She kept crying and screaming it tastes bad. I couldn’t hold her down long enough. She pushed my arm away and got up. Before I knew it, she spitted some of the medicine back up and got it all over herself and my face. I agree with her, it tastes very bad.

Mckayla’s bites on her face and feet got worse after we returned from Taiwan. She’s been scratching them and few spots looked raw. And she even got a few new ones. So I took her in last Friday to have the pedi take a look. Pedi said she developed impetigo from scratching and put her on oral and topical antibiotics. Applying the topical antibiotics is easy. She enjoys the applications processs and wants to help. But feeding her oral antibiotics is a different story. For her first dose, she was happy to take it. She even told me that taking medicine will take the pain away. Then she took one sip and that was it. I had to force the rest of it down her throat. She’s on the oral antibiotics three times a day for 10 days. And that translates to lots of crying and screaming with each dose.

Mckayla was very upset for some unknown reason last night after dinner. She kept crying and I couldn’t understand what she was trying to tell me. She’s almost fully adjusted with the jet lag but gets very cranky and tired at the end of the night. I asked her to stop crying so she can say it clearly for me, but she just kept crying. After several attempts, I gave up and told her I’m going to ignore her until she stops. Then, I heard “Grandma”, “Auntie”, “Greatauntie”, “Uncle”,
“Grandpa”, “Greatgrandma”. She repeated those names over and over. Then, I realized she’s looking for them because I was ignoring her. I told her, “sorry, but they’re in Taiwan and you’re here with me only”. Then, she said, “Daddy”. I told her, “sorry, but he’s out of town”. She continued to cry and I told her I’m going to her room to get her clothes ready for the bath. Then, shortly after that, she ran over to me with the phone in her hand and still crying. Then, she said, “call Grandma”. She finally calmed down after I promised we would call Grandma after her bath.