Bedtime, Blood, and a Dog Man Book

 A quick note for anyone unfamiliar with Dog Man:

Dog Man is a wildly popular graphic novel series for kids by Dav Pilkey. The books are full of silly humor, exaggerated action, dramatic sound effects, and comic-style storytelling. Ironically, the book involved in this bedtime disaster was a big, thick, hardcover Dog Man book — so it only felt right to retell the story as a comic.

Sunday, September 27, 2026

It was bedtime in the Stevens household, and all was going well.

We were having a campout on the floor.

Both boys were reading books.

I called A to brush his teeth and clean out his sinuses.

When we were finished, I called O.

O came willingly.

What we didn’t see was that A had grabbed his book. The book did belong to A, but O had been reading it.

When O finished and came back, he saw A with the book and snatched it back.

The screaming started.

“It’s my book!” shouted A.

“I don’t care, I’m reading it!” snapped O.

And then the tug-of-war began.

I was watching, and everything felt like it was happening in slow motion.

Then suddenly, A pulled, and O let go.

BAM!

The spine of the book hit A near his eye — or maybe on the eye. In that moment, I wasn’t sure.

What I was sure about was that it was bleeding.

I sent O out of the room and asked Nick to grab toilet paper or something to put pressure on it.

A was screaming.

SCREAMING.

The kind of scream where they can barely breathe.

My baby. My poor baby.

Finally, I got a good look at the wound.

Thank goodness it had missed his eye by a centimeter or two.

Thank goodness he could see.

We decided an ER visit was not necessary, so Nick left to get an eye patch to keep it clean and covered for the night.

A calmed down enough to check it in the mirror, which may have been a bad idea because it made him upset all over again.

Then O came in to see the damage.

His shocked face was honestly hilarious.

But his words were very serious.

“I guess I should repent.”

I said, “The action was an accident, so what should we be repenting about?”

O thought for a minute.

“I could control my actions better and not fight with him.”

“Yes,” I said. “You could change that.”

Then A chimed in.

“Mom, can we replay it?”

O immediately said, “That’s a great idea!”

I said, “Okay, let’s replay the situation and make sure the outcome is different.”

So everyone went back to where they had been.

O went back to the bathroom with me.

A sat back down on the floor bed with the book in his lap and a little blood still weeping from his wound.

O walked out of the bathroom and said, “Hey A, I was reading that book.”

A replied, “Oh, sorry. It is my book, and I wanted to read it.”

O said, “Maybe I could read it to you.”

A said, “YES!!!”

And just like that, they solved the whole problem.

I sat there smiling, feeling so proud of them.

So many people want to tell you how to raise your kids, but only you know how to guide them and teach them.

I lean a lot on Heavenly Father.

And on this night, I felt really grateful for two little boys who were willing to stop, reflect, and try again.

Let's GO!!

 

I'm Back!!!

I have missed writing.

I have missed sharing our funny stories, our travels, our family life, and what it is like raising kids while living abroad.

After having kids, I threw myself into loving and nurturing them, and somewhere along the way, I slowly started finding myself again too.

The boys are older now, and as they grow, we want to be more intentional about their privacy. From now on, we’ll call them O and A, and we won’t be posting full-face pictures of them.

Don’t worry, though.

They are still hilarious.

And they are still my whole world.

But I am also back to working full-time, back to living my dream, and slowly finding pieces of myself again.

I’m not quite back to my thinner body yet, but I’m working on it because, as someone very wise once said:

“Your life is only going to be as big as your excuses let it be.”

Okay, fine.

I said that.

In an old blog post.

When I finally reached one of my weight-loss goals.

Apparently, past me had some good advice.

So, let’s hit some highlights.

Nick

Nick still has ADHD.

HAHA.

Some things never change.

He is also an amazing teacher.

This year, he is teaching ESL and two IB MYP classes, so he is SUPER busy.

He is also the official chauffeur of our household and takes the boys to all of their extracurricular activities: drums, piano, gymnastics, and whatever else we somehow manage to squeeze into our lives.

Me

Well...

The last few years have been hard on me.

I was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. For now, I have chosen to monitor it rather than pursue treatment because it has remained very low-risk and stable.

I also desperately wanted baby #3.

That didn’t happen.

And I am slowly coming to terms with that.

I guess after TWO miracles, maybe I shouldn’t push my luck too much.

Acceptance has become a very important word for me.

I also learned something significant about myself: I identify as a compulsive eater and sugar addict, and I finally found a program that works for me.

And professionally?

I LOVE my job.

I am currently working as an English Curriculum Specialist, and it feels like I am finally doing the kind of work I have dreamed about doing for years.

O

O loves Kirby, Minecraft, Luigi, crabs, and the colors red and orange.

He is wicked smart and has some genuinely good jokes.

Cucumbers are his favorite food.

He loves bugs and pretty much all of God’s creatures.

He loves to run and ride his bike, and he is completely convinced that certain shoes make him faster.

It is adorable.

A

A is adorable, sweet, and growing so fast.

He is definitely a lover, not a fighter.

He loves chocolate.

He is a little more hesitant when it comes to all of God’s creatures, but put that kid near water and he has ZERO fear.

The boy is a fish.

He also loves riding his bike, and people are always shocked when they see such a little dude riding without training wheels.

Honestly?

We were shocked too.

And Us?

Our family is still living in Hanoi, Vietnam, and we have just started our fifth school year here.

FIFTH.

Sometimes I can’t believe we have been here that long.

Life looks very different from when I first started this blog.

We have grown.

We have changed.

We have gone through some really hard things and some really beautiful things.

And we have had A LOT of adventures.

So I think it’s time to start writing again.

I want to share more about our travels, living abroad with kids, family life, funny stories, the hard stuff, the good stuff, food,
and whatever else happens along the way.

And trust me...

We have stories.

I’m back.

Operation Kill the Dust Mites - Disaster at the mall

Operation: Kill the Dust Mites

Yesterday, we went to the mall because we recently found out that one of our children is highly allergic to dust mites and cats. So naturally, we began Operation: Kill the Dust Mites and went shopping for things to help make our house less offensive to his immune system.

I made a deal with the children:

“Mommy needs to go to two or three stores, and then you can go to the toy store.”

They were not amused.

In hindsight, I probably should have remembered that I was asking two small children who had been awake for approximately 47 years and had apparently stored up enough energy to power the mall.

Eventually, we made it to the toy store, where I had to explain that going to the toy store did not mean buying a toy.

This information was not well received.

There was a meltdown.

But then… PAW Patrol saved us.

The new PAW Patrol movie had just opened, and they desperately wanted to see it.

I said, “Sure! Let’s go!”

So we bought tickets, got some lunch, saw the movie, and afterward got ice cream.

At this point, I thought we were having a lovely day.

😂😂😂

On our way out of the mall, we saw a bunch of kids playing in the fountain.

Sometimes they let kids play in this fountain.

Sometimes they don't.

Yesterday, they did.

My children immediately looked at me with those eyes.

I hesitated because, honestly, I didn't want to be yelled at by some mall employee.

But then I thought, You know what? They're kids. Let them be kids.

So I told them they could play. We'd just go home in our wet clothes, and everything would be fine.

We grabbed hands and RAN INTO THE FOUNTAIN TOGETHER!

We were having the BEST time.

Then my children noticed some of the other kids squatting over the water jets.

Naturally, they thought this was an excellent idea.

So they did it too.

Now, here's the important information I did not know at the time:

O was wearing underwear.

A was not.

He had started the morning in a pull-up, we'd taken it off before work, and somehow underwear had never entered the equation.

So that fountain water?

Straight up the butt.

And A had absolutely no idea what kind of consequences he was inviting into his afternoon.

We played for a while.

Eventually, A ran up to me.

“Mommy, I need to poop.”

I looked at him.

We were dripping wet.

We were at the mall.

There wasn't exactly a convenient bathroom right next to us.

So I said, “Can you hold it until we get home?”

We decided it was time to go.

As we were leaving, I thought, You know what? This was actually really fun. Let's take a picture!

So I squatted down to take a selfie with my children.

And that's when A started screaming:

“THE POOP IS COMING!”

He immediately started doing that little toddler poop dance, grabbing his butt.

I had no idea what to expect.

Then…

Brown water.

That's it.

Just brown water.

Not much of it.

I stared at the ground.

“Okay. Okay. It's fine. Everything is fine.”

I took the picture.

We continued walking.

I thought, He's done. We're going home. Crisis averted.

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

No.

We got to the motorbike.

Now I had two soaking-wet children, a giant shopping bag full of our new dust-mite-fighting supplies, two helmets, and one child who had apparently entered a new chapter of his life.

I'm trying to figure out how on earth I'm going to get everyone onto the motorbike when—

“MOMMY! I HAVE TO POOP AGAIN!”

At this point, I started frantically searching underneath the motorbike seat for ANYTHING.

Anything.

I found a sock.

So I held the sock behind him like some sort of emergency poop containment device and thought:

Okay. If something happens, I've got a sock.

Something happened.

More brown water.

This time, thicker.

I stared at it and thought:

Surely THAT was it.

I found O's water bottle, used the water to rinse my child as best I could, and tried to get everyone situated on the motorbike.

And then came the words I never wanted to hear again:

“Mommy… I have to poop AGAIN.”

And this time…

It wasn't brown water.

It was the full evacuation.

The entire colon had apparently filed for immediate departure.

Right there.

In the mall parking lot.

When he was finally finished, A looked at me and calmly said:

“I feel better.”

😂

YES, A.

I'M SURE YOU DO.

Meanwhile, I had poop on my child's shorts, legs, and Crocs.

I had nothing to properly wipe him down with.

I had two soaking-wet children.

A giant shopping bag.

A motorbike.

And absolutely no plan.

I looked to my left.

A cleaning lady was coming.

I looked to my right.

People were walking toward us.

And I realized I had exactly one option:

GET OUT.

So I plopped both children onto the motorbike and drove away.

As we left, I could hear people walking past saying:

“Ewwwwww!”

And honestly?

I couldn't even care.

I had done my best.

I felt terrible for the poor person who was going to have to clean up what had just happened, but at that point, survival had taken over.

On the way home, we discussed the important life lesson we had learned that day:

When water shoots up your butt… eventually, something is going to shoot back out.

So I think we can safely say that particular fountain activity will NEVER be repeated.

We got home.

We took family showers.

We washed the laundry.

And eventually, everything was clean and looked exactly like nothing had ever happened.

Except we will remember it forever.

Because this wasn't just a family outing.

This was a core memory.

And somewhere in the history of that mall, there is a cleaning lady who will probably never know the full story behind the mysterious poop fountain incident.

You're welcome. 😂💩