Settled In At Last

Here we are at Richardson, Texas. This is Tim's business trip, Shanna and I are tagging along.

The flight to US was indeed a long and challenging one.
We left Penang on Wednesday morning, arrived in Singapore Airport transit, got a hotel room for Shanna to take a good afternoon nap, her last chance to sleep on a bed for awhile, then boarded the evening plane for San Franscisco, transiting once in Hong Kong.

Shanna at Singapore airport.

Gazing out at the airplanes.

At the indoor gardens.

Oooh... fishies!

We were anxious whether Shanna could sleep in the airplane, her being a light sleeper. To make a long story short, she could not sleep very well, threw up once, I did not sleep and there was turbulence. It was indeed a long flight. Shanna did cope better than we hoped for. She was very reasonable and stayed cheerful and tried to make the best of the situation. When we landed at San Franscisco, Shanna was the happiest baby out there, dancing around, talking and smiling with people. People stopped by and remarked on how happy she was. Well, Tim and I were happy too, having survived the 16 hour flight.

We stayed a night in San Franscisco before flying to Dallas the next morning. Shanna slept through this 4 hour flight as it was 2.30am Malaysian time. The passenger next to us was impressed and praised her on being a 'good little traveller she is'! I think he feared the worst ;)

The next day at San Fransicso airport, our little girl admiring the planes again

Getting friendly with strangers while waiting at the gate.

Finally, we arrived at our new home! Milk time....

Living room with adjoining kitchen where I get to cook for Shanna

The bedroom

Outside the hotel suite the next morning.

Daddy said 'smile!'

More keen to run around than take pictures...

Shanna the explorer.

Our rental car. We got a car seat & GPS with it.

Then it was the start of the jetlag chapter.

All of us were seriously jetlagged. Texas is 13 hours away from Malaysian time, so night and day is totally opposite. From day and night 1-6, Shanna wanted to sleep during day and we couldn't let her sleep beyond her normal nap hours; every night from 1-5am she was wide awake. The first night, we let her out of the bedroom. The second night, we let her get on our bed, thereafter we made her stay in her cot. There she played, talked and sang to herself for 2-3 hours, then we gave her milk and she went to sleep. Finally, on the 7th day and night Shanna's body clock adjusted... she slept through the night from 9pm-7am... hooray!

Tim and I were tired too. I went sleepless the first couple of nights, being a light-jetlagged-sleeper myself. Tim started work the next day after we arrived, and so did I. I have an arrangement with my boss to continue working from home here in Texas. Really praise God that all 3 of us remained in excellent health and spirits, despite the lack of rest.

It was Labor Day weekend when we arrived, so we took the opportunity to go shopping. Most of the stores at the outlets had additional storewide discounts at 20-40%! I'm sure my friends who are reading this must be drooling... hehehe. We shopped while the little girl slept in the stroller... she was really knocked out.

The weather in Texas is hot and humid (though not as humid as Malaysia). It is very, very hot in the afternoons. However, yesterday it rained heavily the whole day, I drove at only 30miles per hour on the road when I went out to get lunch. We heard on the news this morning that tornadoes touched down in Dallas (20miles away) yesterday!!!

OK, this is a pretty long post, so I'd better end here. We'll try to update whenever possible, so stay tuned :)

~ Audrey