In the which the Thimgummy goes BOOM.

Ok - so it wasn't really boom. Honestly, it sounded like the sort of farting noise you'd hear in a third grade classroom that makes all the boys snicker...only louder. And coming from the backside of an SUV. But I get ahead of myself.

I really am shocked at how good BBJ is these past few days. I knew it would happen - last night, I told all of you in "blogland" that BBJ was sleeping through the night. So, of course, she woke up at 2:30. I'm such a wuss - I went in and rocked her back to sleep, and I'm glad I did. So there. I miss her when I'm awake at night. She's so cuddly when she's sleepy! She woke up again at 6:30, apparently to see Uncle S off on his snowmobiling adventure. Bye, Uncle S! Once he hit the shower, she fell asleep again. We all got up at 8:30.

BBJ, MaMa and I played around the house while Daddy and Auntie W and Yeh Yeh hit the tennis courts again. (Daddy won.) MaMa made us a fabulous lunch - huge steaming bowls of noodles in soup, with sliced bok choy, seasoned ground pork, and more preserved vegetables. I'm assuming it was celebratory of Daddy's win. Right?

We finished lunch and set about (discreetly) waking BBJ up from her nap, which had already gone for more than two hours. We had places to go! Yeh Yeh and Daddy started playing DDR on the Wii (if you've never seen your father in law dance on a little plastic mat to 1-2 Step, you need to get him to an arcade. Today. It's hilarious.) BBJ woke up and we all loaded into two cars and hit the road. Kind of.

I was so proud of myself - I remembered the baby. I remembered the purse. I remembered Louh Gung's wallet and phone. We even had the diaper bag with toys and snacks, in preparation for going out for dinner afterwards. So, like I said, loaded up two cars. Turn on cars. What's that noise? Like a big ol' fart? A really big ol' fart? It must be coming from Auntie W's car, outside - it's so cold that snow doesn't melt in the garage. I'm sure it's just her rental warming up. Let Auntie W back out. Back out the SUV with the baby (and all the stuff I remembered to bring - that's important.) Hmm...turning the wheel is difficult. Really. Difficult. Get out of the car, check....is it supposed to be leaking fluid like that? And what's that awful smell.

Yeah- it's really difficult to drive an SUV without any power steering! We're not sure what's wrong, but we're hoping when we call the nice AAA people tomorrow, it can all get taken care of. We couldn't call them today, of course - we needed to get to the Outlet Malls! (You know what's important to us, right?) So, SUV back in the garage, load everything into the spare car, and hit the road again. Do we have my purse? Yes. There it is. There's BBJ. There's MaMa. There's MaMa's purse. Do we have the stroller? Not sure...call Yeh Yeh in the other car. Yes, everything from the trunk has been moved to the car we are now in. Great.

When we arrived at the Outlet Malls somewhere in the mountains near a ski resort (where else would you put an Outlet Mall, right?), we found a great parking spot and hit our favorite shoppes. BBJ promptly started screaming, arching her back, and generally wreaking havoc in our favorite shoppe. Since I had every intention of RETURNING to that shop someday, something had to be done - BBJ was bundled up and sent packing with her grandparents to "walk it off" in the stroller that we remembered to bring. Half an hour later, we got a call from Yeh Yeh - did we bring any snacks for her? Of course we did! I'm Super Mom! The snacks are in the diaper bag with diapers, wipes and toys, for just such an occasion! The diaper bag is in the trunk.

No. The diaper bag is not in the trunk. Guess what I didn't bring? Yeah - no diaper bag. Kid - this is an order: no poop for the next three hours, understood? BBJ had to do with a Mrs. Field's pretzel, dripping with butter and coated in salt. She liked it. :-) Probably better than hard raisins and soft Cheerios.....but I'm no judge of baby snacks. She eats her own shoes! (Oh yeah, and I'm no Super Mom either. Guess who forgot to give her baby LUNCH. Oops. No wonder she was trying to eat the clothes off the racks!)

We finished up our shopping (we're allowed two pieces of checked luggage per person, right?) and headed back home, post-haste. BBJ got a diaper change (just wet - good girl!!!!) and a warm bottle of milk for her troubles. As soon as she was done, we all piled back into the car and went out to find some dinner. (Even a SUPER Super Mom like MaMa can't get dinner on the table before bedtime if we start at 7:45 pm.)

We hit their favorite Chinese restaurant (and that's saying something!) and had a fabulous dinner. BBJ was an absolute angel. We had green beans with pork and garlic, Chinese broccoli with fish-paste slices, Tofu with shrimp-paste balls and Pork Chops with jalepenos and salt. Yummy! BBJ sat through the whole thing, eating as much fish paste as she could hold, with a little rice for good measure. She never asked to get down. (Good thing, too - we'd already had that conversation once at the Outlet Mall. When Mommy says it's not time to walk, you're wasting your breath asking. However, if you would care to ask Daddy, MaMa, Yeh Yeh, Auntie W, Uncle S or any other stranger that happens to walk by, you'll probably be in luck.)

Once we got home, BBJ ran happy circles around the kitchen, dragging a new Christmas toy behind her and playing peek-a-boo with her uncle for about 15 minutes before I threw her in the bathtub.

So...grand adventures and a lot of new clothes later, I'm so happy we're here spending time with the Chinese side of the equation, and am just so grateful for my little charmer!