Ty & Truf Double the trouble, double the love

Give a call over to our house and you may find yourself listening to converstations that seem normal to us, but not so normal to the caller:



"Truf, walk away." "Defend your bone!" "Ty, if you are going to kiss Truffle, please close your mouth." "No, Truf does not need any more Cheerios." "Truf, I love what you have done with Ty's hair." "Truffle is not for climbing, Tyler." "Yuck, how am I going to get scrambled egg out of your fur?" and now my favorite..."TYLER, that food is Truffle's, not yours!"







If you have had the pleasure of spending time with both of our boys, you know that Peter and I consider them to be brothers of a sort. They can usually be found hanging out together, with Truf keeping a watchful eye on whatever Tyler is doing. Letting out a growl at people in our yard (yup, he now growls after the break in) when Ty is playing by the window. Now that Ty is more mobile, the rivaly has escalated to new heights. Truffle and Tyler have taken to playing tug of war with one another on a daily basis. First it was using diaper wipes, then bones, and most recently my headbands. They love the give and take. Truffle puts up with a lot from Tyler and now is reaping some of the rewards when Ty eats. As soon as Tyler sits in his chair, Truffle bolts into the kitchen and lays at Tyler's feet eagerly awaiting the scraps.







Peter and I supervise but are hands off for the most part letting them resolve things. It is also funny how each one vies for "Momma Time" with me. It is great to be loved.













And, yes, Tyler was caught red handed the other day with his hands in Truffle's bowl and 3 kibbles in his mouth. YUCK!

A Banner Week

Ty has finally done it! The littlest Klug can now walk a bit unaided. He is so proud of himself when he realizes what he is doing. Truf sometimes prefers that he stay crawling so he has a tendency to knock him over when it suits him. Brotherly love!

Tonight, Ty and Truf (T2 as we call them) decided to play tug of war with a diaper wipe. They are pretty evenly matched for strength and both are rather sneaky with their techniques. Truf prefers to swing a paw over the top of the wipe while Ty cries. Surprisingly, both methods work on swaying the advantage in their favor. I truly feel that I have two boys....well sometimes three :)





This week, Tyler also chose to wean himself. Time for this Momma to bust out the champagne I have been chilling for a few months. I received the special bottle as a birthday/Mother's Day present. Yippee! I will miss the special time (11.5 months) we shared though freedom is a great thing, not to be under estimated.

Ty and I have substituted snuggling while he drinks his bottle and from time to time, Truf can be found joining us. Time to start using up the stockpile of formula I accumulated. We are definitely a snugly family and Truf is king snuggler. Well at least for now.

Not your local Super Walmart!

A few interesting observations while walking through my version of "Super Walmart."

~Live eel tank for you to select dinner and carry out in a plastic bag ---while still moving

~Dried pig carcass face and all for you to do I don't know what to

~Square table of ice quartered off to separate the meat from the chicken...you literally pick your own pieces, or put them back after you decide against that one

~The smell of "Stinky Fruit" wafting through the store. Apparently this is delicious but who is brave enough to get over the stench.

~Random bare bottomed toddler squatting in the aisles peeing. And yes, I did mean the aisles and the mother did nothing but walk away from the mess leaving other unsuspecting shoppers to walk through it. Hmm, I wonder what they do if he does #2?

Yes, this was my "fun" of shopping yesterday to pick up some basic foods, cleaning supplies, and diapers... I guess I should have handed the lady some. Just kidding. This is not a rare occurance as the young kids wear split crotch pants to, ahem, "facilitate" squatting. Diapers are relatively new here to the mass market. They are also not as advanced as ours back home. I had heard of them using the streets and gutters but never before have I witnessed a kid peeing (on purpose) in the middle of the pot and pan aisle.

I am again grateful and appreciative of the little things that remind me of "home." AND that I can find some diapers here because I would not want to bring a squatting Tyler back home to you. Then he'd never fit in. Might be fun for shock value though. Maybe I will have to work on that ;)

Sticky Mess

Tyler is starting to enter the self feeding stage. Yesterday morning, I decided that rice cereal would be a good medium for practicing his use of a spoon. It started off so easy!

Here is how that worked out for us:

Shortly after putting his hand in the bowl, Tyler decided it might be fun to fingerpaint with the cereal. This is about the time I looked up from my camera. Note to self: Never look away from Ty when eating. Not even to delete pictures to make more room for snapshots.

Once the rice cereal started to dry into a concrete-like substance it was time for a scrub down in the tub. Boy was it fun while it lasted!

Did I mention he likes Pizza?? On a recent night out we also discovered that Ty eats garlic bread and bruschetta. Could we have some Italian blood in the family?

Heck, we'll take any excuse to go visit Italy again. Ty, keep dabbling in Italian "cuisine" and I'll work on Daddy to take us back to Tuscany!

More Summer Photos

Hi, more pics have been uploaded to my web album. Check them out when you get a chance.

My First Trike Ride

Ride may be an overstatement. Tyler checks out his new set of wheels for the first time. The Scuttlebug is one of the prized handmedowns we hand carried from the US. Definitely worth the luggage space as it is only a matter of time before Ty is off and scuttling about the house. Truffle is going to LOVE that I am sure!

One of the many tips I picked up from the PDX crew was to let the kids roll their trikes and cars inside the house. Great idea that I will be putting to use in our house as it will save Ty massive bug bites and the heat stroke we might encounter outside. Our house is set up well for the Indoor Indy as there is a great loop between the foyer, living room, dining room/kitchen, and utility hallway. Complete with a little zig zag by the garage door.

Ty -"Let me try!"

Fresh off a buying spree in the US where I was able to find all sorts of plates, bowls, utensils, and cups to aid my hope for Ty to self feed. I thought we should see if Ty wanted to hold one of his new spoons. Well, that was not good enough for Tyler...he wanted some cereal on the spoon! On his first try, left handed nonetheless, Ty made spoon to mouth contact!

I guess I should have let him do it sooner, but I could not bear the thought of a self feeding Ty on the plane home :)

An hour later, Tyler decided to "help" me in my endeavor to go through and slim down all of the magazines I have shipped all over the world.

"Here Truf. I am sure Mom did not want these articles. See, she cut these out and stapled them. Let's help her by tearing them to shreds."

Summer Picture Recap! -Klug Page

We have had a great Summer so far. The time spent celebrating birthdays, graduation, and reunions in the US was wonderful. Ty and I even squeezed in a trip to the zoo and hit a few pools. I am so thankful that my little guy is a water baby, just like his mom.

The whole Klug gang at Liza's Graduation Party.
Someday I hope my Mom will let me out of this thing so I can really get my swim on.
"No, Charlie. Daddy says that the Brewer's really are #1 this year." Emily
Charlie

I can see clearly now the rain has gone

It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day!! Okay, the toy hunt was not too successful, BUT we did find the sun and blue sky in Shanghai on Saturday. I kid you not, this is a very rare occurrence. Here are a few shots of part of the Shanghai skyline.

The Pearl Tower (Left Center of Pic) is the famous symbol of modern Shanghai. Very colorful at night with thousands of colored lights dancing and twinkling.

Best Buy -Shanghai Style

The rumor is true! We have a Best Buy in Shanghai. Don't expect the slick, brightly lit, ultra clean stores that you have back home, but at least we can buy some decent electronics at no-haggle prices and know that they are legit.

Ty was once again the source of many stares, especially when we were on the sidewalk waiting for Mr Li for 20 min. We now know what it feels like to be in the zoo or circus. Peter even joked we should put out a hat for all the gawkers.

This weekend was a reminder that we are definitely not home. Thinking I had Tyler's birthday gifts all figured out and easily attainable at our 1 Toysrus store, I was quickly reminded that this was still China. My hopes of getting him some Little People playsets or other toys for a 1 year old were quickly dashed. We did find plenty of things for a baby (including the play tables and piano we brought from the US home) or a 2-4+ year old. There is a decided lack of toys here for toddlers. We did not leave empty handed though...2 small packs of Duplos and a Leap Frog Phonics magnet set for the fridge.

Then, we raced to the "Crayola" store in hopes of locating washable markers only to find that it was closed for the day...hopefully. Remembering a store downtown that sold Fisher Price, I braved the beggars and pickpockets of the main tourist shopping while the boys stayed in the car. Searching was briefly halted when I spotted washable stampers and the great Color Wonder Finger Paint set. I was EXCITED!! Then I asked the price...$20!!! For one set of paints and a few sheets of paper. No Way!! Maybe I would have been a sucker for this a few weeks ago, but I just bought some in WI for less than $5! Happy to pay a premium but that is steep.

Oh well, the search continues. Reminder to us that we are still living in a third world country and if these are the worse of our problems, we are living very well.

Access Blocked to Other Blogs --Need your assistance please!

Hi everyone!! I am completely BUMMED! There seems to be an issue with viewing other blogs. I am totally bummed as I love checking out the family's blogs. I am testing other ways to get around the censorship and will let you know what I come up with.

****For those of you that have blogs, please go to your blogger dashboard and set me up to receive an e-mail each time you post to your site. That way I can receive what you are writing and hopefully get the pictures, too. Under the e-mail tab there is a place to add my address: heather.klug@gmail.com

In the meantime, please let me know if any of you have links to web albums or such so that I can see some pics of all of you back home. (Especially those of Cheri's new baby, Rex)

We had such a great time visiting! Thanks for making it so special. I will keep my blog going!!

THANKS!!!!!!!!

The Kindness of Strangers

We made it! Ty and I survived the 20+ hours of travel time back to Shanghai on Friday. The 15 hour flight was a lot easier than changing planes twice. I am very thankful that I had a nonstop given all of the things I was toting. My strategy for limited carry ons was flawless until I discovered that the strap that would attach Ty's duffel bag (with all his food, toys and changes of clothes weighing over 25 pounds) was missing. Bummer! The worse part was I discovered it after security clearance.

The silver lining in this was the fact that a few kind hearted people along the way helped me out. In the security line, a grandfatherly type helped me get all of the items that needed to be x-rayed separately into the tubs and feed them through the scanner. On the other side he and his wife even offered to help me to the terminal...except we were going to opposite sides of the airport. Oh well. That was when I discovered that the strap that would save me from lugging Ty's tote on my back was AWOL. I had planned it carefully. Tyler would be in the Bjorn, I'd have a backpack of essentials for diapering and my laptop, the duffel would have his feeding and play things (and one of our cameras) and the carry on (Peter's falling apart, last legged one) would roll the duffel along for me. Oh, did I mention I also had Ty's infant car seat to carry? So, things did not work as planned and I ended up schlepping about 100 lbs. on my front, back, shoulders, and rolling.

Luck was not with me for certain. My gate was the furthest from the main terminal. All of you who have traveled through O'Hare can relate to how not fun this discovery was. With determination to make the trek home as stress free as possible I thought this would be a great way to exercise before I board my 15 hour flight. Well, I made it about 85% of the way before I saw a sign that I should ask for help. Sitting alone across from the newsstand where I intended to buy Ty water for his mid-flight bottles was a guy in an orange Princeton shirt. Yiiiipppppeee!!!! With sweat pouring off of me and Ty strapped to my chest I spoke to the man. "I see you are from Princeton. I just attended my husband's 10th year reunion. I wonder if you might help a Princetonian wife out? You see I need to get some water for my son before we board a flight to China and this bag is killing me. Would you mind if I left it with you and I'll go get the water and be right back??" Greg---class of '99, said that he would rather I sit and he'd get the water for me. When I mentioned I only had a credit card, he said it would be his pleasure to help one of the Princeton family out and buy it for me. Noticing my flight was about to board, I told him unfortunately I did not have a moment to sit. Greg escorted me (and carried my duffel :) ) to my gate and then returned with a litre of water for Ty. Turns out Greg and his wife have a 6 month old Carter. Greg is an anesthesiologist and his wife is an OBGYN resident. I mentioned that the epidural was a great invention! Whew! Greg saved me big time!

Ty traveled well, sleeping about 5 hours of the flight. He stole a few flight attendant's hearts along the way. During flight, I chatted with the guy in the row ahead of me and apologized for bumping his chair getting Ty in and out. He was very kind and mentioned that he had 3 kids so he knew what it was like. Oldest in college and the youngest in 8th grade. Nice guy. Upon landing I realized Ty was sleeping in his car seat. I had not figured out how I was going to get him and our luggage to the front of the plane from the second to last row. A sleeping Ty was not part of the plan as having him in the Bjorn was hard enough. I decided to ask yet another favor of the stranger for help. The man in the row ahead of me that I had been chatting with had very little carry on luggage....thankfully! I asked him if he would possibly help me to get to the gate as Peter had arranged an airport staffer to meet me to help with our luggage and Ty. The man and his colleague not only got me to the gate but when they realized that the person that I was meeting could not make it to the gate, they came back(!) to help me make it to the airport staffer.

My brothers have always lived their lives helping others when possible. Ted helping friends with bike tune ups, moving, house repair issues, shoveling, and lawn care. Bob doing much of the same and most recently when traveling back from WI to Portland when he encountered a father with his young son who was not feeling well in the bathroom of the terminal. Upon seeing that the father no longer had a clean shirt (his little guy had thrown up all over it), Bob gave him the fleece that he was carrying. While I am not certain what kind of good karma I have put out there, I am certain that my brother's would have helped out a person like me that day.

I am thankful that there are people in this world who still care for others whether they are friends, family, or strangers. I am absolutely grateful to these men who helped me when I was too exhausted or carrying a large load. Their help made my trip home, and future solo trips with Ty, possible. Well, I may wait until he can eat regular food so I don't have to carry 16 jars of baby food ;)