Shopping in San Antonio

After one day in Texas, Hailey told me that she would like to live in US and moved all her friends to there. I would say that it was probably because everyone loves bigger space and being on holiday meant mommy and daddy were in a good mood and so she could pretty much get away with everything.

The way from HK to SF was painful, it was an afternoon flight and so both Chloe and Hailey did not sleep and when they finally fell asleep, we were nearly in SF. However, Hailey really liked the entertainment on the plane and so she was ok. Chloe was a nightmare on the plane, did not eat much and liked to walk around, not felt like buckle up. In general, she was ok, may be we prepare for the worse. When we fly from SF to TX, it was an 4 hours flight and she slept through the whole flight as she was too tired. Which was good to me as I have to sat with her, I could get a little nap as well.

I took some sedation medicine to help Chloe to overcome the jet lag, but it did not really work, she still woke up in the middle of the night for the first 2 nights. Then, she slept for a 15 hours straight the next day, so we thought, wow she overcame the jetlag. Too early to made the conclusion, she still liked to wake up in the middle of the night almost half of the time when we were there and she liked to scream so much that we have decided that at the end, I have to put her in the laundry room and told her that she would sleep with the dog. I should have took a picture of what she looked like, having her “jar-jur” on her hand and was crying, but I was not really in the mood.

There was also one night that when she woke up, I took her to my room so that she would not wake up Hailey. When she saw that Nick was on the bed, she started to scream and said, “Daddy” which we have no idea why she was like that. Then Nick decided to go and sleep with Hailey and she stopped screaming immediately and we found out that she did not want to cramp with me and Nick and would like to sleep on her own. Again, good proof of her temper.

US was a really child friendly place, my trip was cut short last time and so this time, I have a second chance to take a look at how friendly it was to kids. My aunt lives in San Antonio, a small city with a population of 3 million. However, there were lots of things for the kids to do. They have lots of parks, Seaworld, and you can drive to everywhere. People were so nice to us when they saw Hailey and Chloe (at least they appeared so). After living in France for 2 years, I was flattered with the warm greeting every time we took the two monsters out. In France and Swiss, going to an restaurant with kids was really a hassle. They would gave you the look of “Why you take your child out, they should be left at home look!” When we were in the States, things were so different, we do not have the pressure of taking them out and life was just so much easier.

Staying with the family also help, we could sometimes go out without the kids and Chloe just loved my Uncle so much that he was the only one that was allowed to pick her up. It was nice for us to see them as they have not seen Chloe at all. It was also nice for them to know them as well.

I have told Nick that I would never ever in my life time wanted to move back to Europe. UK was ok, but Europe was “nice to experience the difference”. I just have enough from living in France and even Nick agreed that people were much nicer in US than in Europe. At the last day of the trip, we have to struggle with the luggage and so we have to buy a new bag in the Samsonite outlet in TX. The women that worked in the shop was very friendly and I think even Nick has became a friendlier person at the end.

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Hailey used to travel to so many places when she was young.  The first time she was on a plane, she was less than a month old.  Actually, it is more like that we do not have any help and have to take her around with no choice.  At that time, we were so sorry for Hailey that she had to travel with us because we could not provide  a very stable environment for her.  So, we have said that if we ever have another child, she will not be travel as such an early age.  So, Chloe did not travel until she was one.  But I think that now is the good age for her to travel.  She now understood so many things and when she was happy, we were happy!

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I have taken a whole world with me this time and still was thinking that I did not take enough. I really hope that I can travel less one day. That day seems to be very far away…

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