Lies mama told herself before our big trip: This will be easy because Jian will be able to help. This is enough snacks. We need all of this. Jetlag won’t be too bad.

But it was. We didn’t. It wasn’t enough. It was hard.

Many of you may be wondering why, after a whole year of posting every single week, did mama take so long to post the family’s big trip? The short answer is: she was tired. The long answer is:

We started the journey with lots of hope and promise. Mama took time to pack all the medicines, snacks, toys, clothes, diapers, Coco, games, and sleep aids that she thought would get the family through Korea, China, and Japan. She did her best to anticipate the challenges of traveling with a 15 month old. She didn’t need all those toys. She could have brought a sandwich bag of animals and cars and the ability to ask Kai, “What does the (insert animal or vehicle) say?”. She didn’t need the medicine for Kai because she had the best medicine, boob. No matter how prepared she was, she was not going to get out of traveling with a monster. Evidently, babies like routine and familiarity and schedules... We didn’t have any of that. Our trip included 6 flights, 6 hotels, UNLIMITED NURSING FOR KAI, a ferry ride, a road trip, countless taxi and train rides, and many miles walked in some of the biggest cities in the world.

We did a lot of sightseeing
Or, in Kai’s case, sightsleeping. It wasn’t easy to figure out a schedule for Kai during our trip because we were always on the move. For a majority of the trip, Kai napped while nursing on mama. That’s right. For hours and hours, every day, mama walked the city streets with a heavy suckling draining the life force from her. She was a soldier. Also, daddy held him sometimes.

He did see some things…

We ate all kinds of food
Mama and daddy quickly realized they had to plan carefully when it came to eating with Kai. He never had a problem eating any of the new foods, but after all day of being strapped into something or on someone, he was not interested in sitting quietly. Luckily, casual dining and street foods are still delicious.

We tried to find fun things for Kai
Since it is awful for a little one this age to not be able to run around, mama and daddy tried their best to give Kai a little wiggle room. The family went to an aquarium in every country so Kai could say, “WOW! FISH!” three million times. We found parks and open spaces for him to run. We even visited a few themed cafes that were right up his ally.

Sometimes hanging in the hotels were the best thing for Kai
No place the family stayed was baby-proof so mama and daddy were on constant alert. But at least they knew he wouldn’t get run over by a car or stolen. So even though he was touching all the things, at least he was relatively safe.

We completed the main objective
The whole reason for taking this trip was so that Kai could meet his extended family in China, especially his great-grandmas. Even though many of them thought he was a girl at first, everyone was so loving and happy to see him. They even tried their best to keep him busy and occupied so mama and daddy could get a little break. Kai is so lucky to have family so far away ready to welcome him with open arms.

Justin
Kai has one cousin on daddy’s side that is very close in age to him, Justin. The boys got to spend a few days in Chaozhou running around their great-grandma’s house. They really had a lot of fun together. :)

We have friends, we definitely have friends.
One of those friends traveled thousands of miles to meet them in Guangzhou, Uncle Vince! He traveled with the family during the last half of their trip. Poor Uncle had a to do lots of baby things and cater to our tiny monster. But he was a good sport and we were happy to have him with us.

We also met up with mama and daddy’s friends from college who now live in Japan. Uncle Sho, Auntie Nana, and Auntie Amy were the very first people who visited the new family when Kai was born. We decided to visit Nara park, famous for their deer. They are everywhere and super friendly, so we thought it would be fun for the kids. Plus, we had a mini-babysitter to help, Glen!

This was the best group photo we could get xD

Surprise! We even ran into friends from Seattle while wandering around Kyoto! On our last day, the family wandered up to Minoo falls with Auntie Lois and Uncle Charles. It was an awesome way to end the trip.

We checked something off our list
Mama and daddy were happy to check off at least one thing from their proposal list: See a live Starcraft game in Korea. The whole family went to a live taping. Kai was definitely the only baby and mama was one of 3ish ladies but we all had a good time (especially daddy).

This trip was a bit of an epic journey that left mama and daddy very worn out. It may take a long time before they want to plan any big adventures. But even with all the struggles, lost weight, sleepless nights, tantrums, screaming, and underlying feeling of chaos, it was worth it.