Customer Services

United States definitely has the best customer services in the world. Only in United States, they offer you free breads for meals, free refills for drinks, free sauces from the regular and fast restaurants, and you can return ANYTHING without any questions asked within certain time period.

I still clearly remember the first time I visited Australia, I thought Australia is an advanced country as United States and customer services should be somewhat around the same level, but I was surprised pretty soon.

When I first got off the airplane in Sydney, I was so thirsty and ordered a larger drink from McDonald's in the airport. Boy, the larger drink there is equivalent to the small drink here. That's OK, we got refill, right? "What refill? What is that? There is no such thing here!"

As the days gone by, I was shocked that we had to pay for breads even though we already paid for an expensive meal. "No miss, breads are not included! You have to pay for them!" "What??!!!" So, you think a small packet of ketchup should be free for the meat pie you just bought, right? NOPE! "35 cents, please."

Well, speaking of returning stuff, United States is probably the only country in the world where you can return things without any hassle. Want to get a camera and don't know what to get? Don't worry, just buy several of them, try them all out and figure which you like the best, and return the rest. Customer services won't even ask why you return them, the only question they ask, "Does it still work?"

So, here is what I really intended to blog about.

My breast pump starts not working properly this Wednesday, there is very low suction. So I called the customer service Thursday morning.

"My pump doesn't work anymore. There is hardly any suction."

"OK, let's go through some trouble shootings."

...
...
...

"Nope, it's still not working. It doesn't feel normal."

"OK, we have to send you a new pump then. So, here is authorization code. Can you please fax me your receipt to prove it's still under the warranty?"

"Oh, what's my problem. My friend purchased the pump for me through her company discount program. And I don't have the receipt."

"Does your friend still have the receipt? Or a gift receipt? If not, a credit card statement will still work. I just need to have the proof for the date of purchase."

"Nope, I already asked her that last night, she doesn't have it. I don't know what to do. I had to borrow someone else's pump."

"Hmmm, well, we normally need a receipt. But as a courtesy, I will do it for you this time. What's your baby's birth date?"

"August, 30th, 2009. I can fax you a copy of my baby's birth certificate if you'd like."

"No, that's not necessary."


So, that was yesterday, and this morning I received my brand new pump already! I'm really truly speechless.

Clap / Red Dress / Yummy Chair

Ashley must be watching Mommy and Daddy clap. Every now and then, she starts clapping her hands while she plays around. Of course, if you ask her to clap for you, she wouldn't do it. She only wants to do it whenever she desires.


---------------------


The weather is getting warmer and warmer lately. This Saturday, we put on a red dress on Ashley, she was excited. She absolutely looked like a little pretty princess in the red dress. She will always be Mommy's little pretty princess.




---------------------

Although Ashley is a little skinny girl, she actually has big muscles! When she's standing in her exersaucer, she eyes the chair nearby and walks herself close to the chair and picks it up. "hmmm, I haven't tasted a chair, it must be yummy like milk milk! I'm just going to taste it!"

Happy Mother's Day

Since I became a mom, I have definitely learned a lot and have different prospectives in life.

For once, I truly understand what unconditional love is. Parents really really truly love their children unconditionally regardless of what happen. It's definitely the purest love.

I used to think career is very important and work hard for it. But now while career is still important to me, I have a higher priority in life -- Ashley.

It's since I became a mom, I now understand things my parents have said and done to me.

It's since I became a mom, I have become more accepting, forgiving and hopefully more patient and loving.

So, Happy Mother's Day to all moms and mothers to be!

Frozen Milk

Since the last week, little Ashley has not been drinking much milk, even with the breast milk. We feed her the formula once every other day. She still doesn't like the taste much and always pushes out the nipple after a couple sucks. But I guess she's hungry in the morning and would still drink about 4 oz only and stops.

Same goes with the breast milk, every feed she takes about 4 or 3 oz and stops. It seems like she has a buffer in her tummy that automatically stops the intake once it reaches 4 oz. Sometime during the day, it's even worse, she drinks 2 or 1.5 oz and stops. She must be a fairy who doesn't need to eat, but still can sleep for 10 hours over night! When she was little, she could drink down 5 to 6 oz and one time she sucked down 6.75 oz within a few minutes. Mommy misses those days!

Anyway, so Mommy, Daddy and the Nanny all are worried about her recent drinking patterns and have tried various ways to feed her. We even use syringe and spoon to feed her the milk, she still won't take much. Yesterday, the Nanny mentioned that Ashley seems to LOVE frozen milk, so why don't we give her frozen milk?

For those of you who don't know, after breast milk is frozen and then thawed , it has very unpleasant smell due to lipase, the enzyme that digests fats, stays active when milk is frozen. The frozen milk not only smells but also tastes soapy when thawed. It tastes worse than the formula, pretty gross. I tasted it once and would never try it again. Daddy tried it once, and almost threw up. But for some unexplained reason, Ashely loves it! Every time we give her the frozen milk, she sucks it right down and empties the bottle. And guess what? Yesterday when the nanny gave her the frozen milk, she finished all and was able to drink even more before her nap!

It really puzzles us why Ashley loves the frozen milk more than the formula, or even the fresh milk. It's going to remain a all time mystery.

iPod Shuffle

Ok, this is a true story, I'm not doing commercial for Apple.

Since AJ works for Apple, for some reasons, I sort of become the Apple AE/customer support/salesperson/spokeperson here at work. I get all sorts of questions and requests from my coworkers and friends:

"hey, my friend's friend's iPod touch doesn't work, do you know why? or if your husband knows why? If not, can he find out why?"
"no, I don't know why, Andrew probably doesn't know why. Why don't you guys call Apple customer service?"

"hey, my nephew's iPod won't sync to his library, what's wrong?"
"hmmm, I don't know. Are you sure he's using the same computer to sync?"

"hey, Do you know how to unlock the iphone?"
"why don't you search the web?"

"hey, the battery on my iPod doesn't work, do you know how to fix it?"
"no, I don't. Why don't you call Apple?"

"hey, Katherine, I bought a fake iphone on line!"
"Oh really? What does it call? OrangePhone?" (It's going to break soon!!)

"hey, my husband/wife/friends/kids/parents/pets/etc/etc wants to buy an iPod/iphone/macbook/etc/etc, can I get a discount from your husband?"
"sure". (hehehe, anything helps Apple sell its products, I'm glad to help.)

This morning, my coworker, SC, ran into my office with excitement and cheers,

"hey, Katherine, iPod Shuffle is amazing!"

Oh no, it sounds fishy, this must be something bad. "what happened?" I asked cautiously.

"The other day, I forgot to take off the shuffle from my shirt, and I accidentally put it in the washer and washed it. When I took it out, it doesn't work anymore. I tried it several times and it still doesn't work, so I just left it somewhere on my table."

"well, not a good idea to wash electronics, especially in the washer." I defended Apple (of course).

"no, no, no, I was about to throw it away last night, but then I thought, why not give it another try. So I charged the shuffle, and it works! It works! it works! I can't believe it."

"me neither!" I agreed right away (with relief).

"Apple has great products, it's definitely worth the money!" SC is still going about how unbelievable it is.

"of course!"

What can I say? Good product speaks for itself. There is a reason why people like brand name. :-)

Sour Food / Crawling Backward / Raspberry / Sippy Cup

Ashley loves solid food, well, most of the solid food. She's not quite used to the sour taste such as apple and berries. When she tastes the sour food, she squints her eye, shakes her head and makes a pucker face. Mommy and Daddy can not stop laughing.

---

Ashley is able to move backward, she can move about 3 meters or so from where she starts. Maybe this is a sign of her start crawling?

---

It's getting more difficult to feed Ashley. Since the last week, she doesn't seem to be drinking and eating much. When she doesn't want to eat, she makes raspberry with her mouth and spits milk and food everywhere on the chair, her cloth and Mommy and Daddy's faces. She actually thinks this is funny and starts laughing.

---

Mommy got a sippy cup for Ashley to let her start learning to drink from a sippy cup. At first, she had no clue what it is. Just like everything we give her, she starts chewing on the cup. Slowly she figures it out, and starts using her hands to hold the handles, and sucking from the sprout. She is able to drink some water from it and of course she gets wet everywhere.

Ashley is 8 Month Old Today

Ashley is 8 month old today. Her big accomplishment this month:

1. Very proficient at rolling

2. Sitting up right

3. Putting herself to sleep most of the time since last couple of weeks.

She is a big girl now. Here are Ashley's 7 month and 8 month photos.

7 month. Look, I got a cute hat.


8 month. Hey, what you got in your hand? Are you taking photo of me?

Baby Hair

3 months after Ashley was born, Mommy started losing a lot of hair. Every time I take a shower, run my fingers through my hair, brush my hair, a bunch of hair would just fall off. I mean a BUNCH, not a couple. Within a day, it seems like thousands and thousands of hairs are lost. OK, OK, I might be exaggerating, but it's very close. I was very worried that at this rate, sooner or later I will be bald!!

While looking at myself in the mirror the other day, I noticed there are some baby hairs growing everywhere on my head. Thank God!!!  Haha, they look just like Ashley's hair: short, thin, soft and standing up right. And they are growing at the same rate. I look funny with these standing baby hair though, and I always try to press them down.

The other day, after a shower at the end of my workout, a coworker of mine walked pass me and looked at me funny, and said to me, "Hey Katherine, you got a lot of static in your hair! They all standing up right!" Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!

Babies Always Know who Their Parents Are

Ashley's pediatrician once told us that babies always know who their parents are. She told the story about how close her nanny and her kids were that her kids called their nanny "Nanny Mommy". Then she said, "that's OK with me because it shows that the nanny was nice to my kids, and my kids loved their nanny and the nanny loved my kids. And besides, babies always know who their parents are."

While Daddy was away for 3 weeks, Ashley showed the sign of stranger anxiety and I was wondering if Ashley still remembers and recognizes Daddy or she might feel uncomfortable when she sees Daddy and thinks Daddy is a stranger. So when Daddy got home from his trip, he picked up Ashley after her nap. Ashley seemed fine seeing Daddy although she hadn't seen him for 3 weeks. She then smiled at Daddy, she knows who Daddy is, and Daddy is all melt.

Home Alone With Ashley 1 - Part 3

Tough week this week.

First, introduced formula to Ashley, that was a pretty tough battle. Surprisingly, Ashley seems to accept formula although we only tried it 3 times. Then for several days, she drank less and less and Mommy's milk supply goes back up thanks to non-stop pumping. So we haven't tried formula since then.

Second, for a couple of days this week, Ashley didn't want to sleep. She went to sleep around 9 PM to 9:30 PM, then woke up half hour to 45 minutes later crying. I tried to rock her, held her in my arms for more than an hour until my arms and wrists became SOOO sore (my wrists are still painful now, probably damaged), she still didn't want to sleep until 1 AM or 12 midnight.

Third, we decided not to rock her. Ashley would cry for 15 to 20 minutes or so, then went to sleep. Not bad, hopefully it keeps up although it's very tough watching her crying.

How can I describe these 3 weeks?

Weekdays:
7 :00 PM to 7:30PM: come home from work
7:30 PM to 8:00 PM: dinner
8:00 PM to 8:30 PM: pump
9:00 PM to 9:45 PM: put Ashley to sleep since she only wants Mommy to do it, mostly rocking
10:00 PM to 10:30 PM: brush my teeth, wash my face, get ready to sleep
11:15 PM to 11:45 PM: pump
11:45 PM to 12:15 PM: wash bottles
12 PM to 12:30 PM: go to sleep myself
6:30 AM to 7:30 AM: Ashley wakes up

Weekends: cycles between diaper changing, feeding, pumping, washing bottles, playing with Ashley, feeding solid food, diaper changing, putting Ashley to sleep.

Sigh, sigh, sigh, sigh, sigh ........