Charmin-Ultra: Don't Squeeze Me

今天是我和 Pete 結婚兩週年。短短的兩年內，我們買了房子，有了 Boomer，我們的兔寶寶又即將誕生，變化真是好大啊！

我很感謝 Pete 對這個家的努力，以及對我們母子倆的寵愛。

Feeling baby inside me

Kicking, moving, turning

“You are not alone and you are not crazy.” was something I was told over and over again when I complained about being here in Bangkok. At first, I was ashamed of talking about my problems with other people. They were personal issues like ‘interviewing maids”, ‘marriage’, ‘rising children’.

My ex-husband who graduated from Kellogg, Northwestern (one of the best business schools in America), once a head of the first American company in Vietnam, got recruited by Wall Street Journal despite lack of formal journalistic training, Far Eastern Economic Review’s favorite, ‘lured’ by Time magazine, after two months of a new born baby, and after I quit my beloved job the second time for moving to join him for his new job assignment, called me and told me that he QUIT his job. WHAT?? Idiot, was my reaction. However, trying to be a loving and supportive and cool wife, I swallowed my fear, wiped my tears, and told him, “oh, honey, I will support you no matter what and I can get a job there and everything is going to be all right.” But everything was not all right. For one, I was the one who cried over my prestigious job, agonizing leaving family’s support for my new born baby, fearing of challenging upcoming life, and now a future with uncertainties. Scream, in fact, was the only thing I had in mind. But no, I had to be cool so my parents wouldn’t think I was out of my mind and my ex-husband wouldn’t think I was not supportive.

最近不知為何迷上了交朋友。並不是我anti-social 而是我可能近幾年自己打拼，獨來獨往習慣了，加上之前單親媽媽，ㄧ面讀書，又要工作。忙到沒時間去經營友情。漸漸的對於中國式或是台灣式，很親近的交友方式很是不習慣。

因為兔寶寶的即將到來，又因為Kai 的關係認識了一些有小寶寶的台灣朋友，開始覺得，是應該擴展自己的交友圈了。

On Friday June 2, 2011, we had a birthday for Boomer for his first birthday with McWang family. 

It was Calum's idea actually. When Calum and I went to Happy Husky Bakery, a very nice dog store, to pick up Boomer's food, Calum was amazed by doggie beers and a very cute cake for dogs in the store. He suggested that we give Boomer a birthday party and invited Boomer's best friends. 

Boomer's birthday was June 1, 2010. We adopted him last year when he was 6 weeks old from Wright-Way Rescue in Niles, IL. 

After we moved into our house last year in June, we or I immediately started looking for a dog for us. I never had a dog as pet before and thought it might be a good idea for us/Calum to have a dog for our new house. I had my eye set on Australian Shepherd/Burmese Mountain Dog mix. My boss Greg and his family has one like that and Ned (the dog's name) is the best dog I have ever seen. Ned would come into the office with Greg and sat either in Greg's office or in the meeting with Greg without even making a sound. Once he was locked out from a meeting, he just sat outside the meeting room waiting for his Dad. Besides, Ned is BIG and I always want to have a big dog. 

Since a couple months ago, Calum had started to plan for his 10th birthday party. He is one of the youngest kids in his grade, so when most of his friends turned 10, he felt like he was left behind. And being 10 is a very big deal for the boys this age. To me, turing 10 is a big deal too because after all, how many times one can add another digit to his/her birthday. 

Therefore, to celebrate Calum's first double-digit birthday party, Calum and I started to brainstorm ideas a couple months away. First, we decided on the theme and the guest invitations. Calum wanted a sleepover and invited 14 friends over including two girls. Then we discussed about the party planning and activities. 

這個禮拜因為工作，還有我上課的關係，我無法兼顧接送愷仁上鋼琴課。所以很快的在上班時間，用email 很快的跟 Pete 交代了接下來連續三天的行程。最後才問了老公今天過的怎樣，晚上要吃什麼。他說，今天好忙，晚上只想隨便吃吃，還說今天是想喝一杯小酒的一天。

我聽了就知道他今天一定又有無盡的會議，大小問題要處理。他自從接手新部門後，一直有需要重新整頓工作流程的問題，管的人又比以前多很多，加上他的上司 CFO 最近辭職，他需要分擔的工作又更多了。

我老公很好奇的使用了Google translator 來看看老婆在網路上說了他什麼。這翻譯啊可會害死人。請看highlight 之處。

基於謙虛不炫耀的儒家傳統美德，我很少公開稱讚我老公。但是，我最近真的覺得他真是一個好丈夫，好爸爸，很想大聲的讚揚他一下。

So we went to the information session for adoption at Cradle in Evanston a couple weeks ago.

It was a nice sunny cool fall morning. Pete and I walked to Cradle which is about 10 minutes walk from our house hand in hand. We felt like we were going to meet our child even though it was just an information session.