Burritos: Asian beats Mexican!

Our house helper is amazing! I had been contemplating teaching her to make tortillas for some time so we could eat a little Mexican. Wow! She offered to make Lao Bing for me one day (an Asian-style tortilla) and I have never used my old tortilla recipe since. When we eat them with her, we stuff them with fried eggs, hash brown potatoes, bean sprouts and all manner of other delicacies. They make pretty mean Mexican style burritos, too!

Sitting pretty!

Mommy, "WOW!" I can sit up now. She started sitting up the day she turned 7 months as if on cue, and now she will sit up and play with a toy for quite awhile. But, she has to be in the mood. Otherwise, she will arch her back in rebellion and protest. (Not that you could ever imagine my little princess in rebellion and protest.) I think one of the cutest things about babies is how they stick their little legs out straight in front of them and wobble around manipulating a toy. Precious!

Wordless Wednesday

Frozen feet and bath time

Funny of the day:

You can get really stir crazy cooped up with a toddler when the winter lasts 6-7 months and there are no indoor play places around. Desperate one day, I took him window shopping in a rather tiny clothing mall. Archie was immediately fascinated with all the manikins - none of whom were wearing shoes. He decided they must have"dong jiao" (frozen feet) and proceeded to inform every single shopkeeper of this fact. (People here get very concerned about having dong jiao - it's something to avoid at all costs.) Later we came to a manikin who must have been in the process of changing outfits. He looked upon her unclothed state and confidently told me, "She's taking a bath!" Two and a half year olds and logic :)

I am pretty confident I am the only mom anywhere remotely near where I live who takes her kid outside to play in the winter. Although I don't much enjoy watching him play in subfreezing weather, I bundle him up good to try to avoid the dong jiao and take him out as often as I can stand. Brrr. I brought the camera the other day. Usually, I am too busy sliding down the slide with him since he doesn't have any other frozen tundra playmates!

Grace tries to crawl and Leslie's discovery

Grace thinks she's ready for a little locomotion. Since I made this video last week, she's started making a little forward locomotion dragging that little belly along the ground. You should see the look of satisfaction on her face when she finally gets to that much wanted toy!

I love, love, love this next pic of Grace and me except for one thing. I have made an important DISCOVERY about myself. Look carefully at the corners of my eye. Ummm. I don't want to say what I think I see for fear it might be true. Maybe the most flattering thing to call those things that I didn't think were supposed to appear until at least middle-age - I'm just 27 - is laugh lines. Maybe I should just count my blessings that it must mean I laugh more than I cry. (Or, maybe my kids are just making me old before my time.) Oh well.

Two and a HALF

I can't believe my baby boy is 2.5! He hit the milestone 3/15 so I'm a little late posting. Thanks to Sesame Street podcasts, Archie even knows what half means. If you give him a cookie he will break it in half - half for him and half for me. Good deal! But, if you ask Archie how old he is, he will tell you three since that is his age by the lunar calendar that's used for calculating ages here.

Archie's biggest milestones over the last two months have been giving up his thumb sucking habit and giving up his diaper. I was amazed at how easy we got off on breaking the thumb habit. I was prepared for some real battles, but we bought some of the Thumb-Ex type stuff in Hong Kong, put it on a few times, and he decided it was gross and nasty and he could find other ways to soothe himself. YES! Potty training was also not nearly as bad as I feared either although I did nearly go crazy the first day. After about four or five days of our intensive, he was pretty much pee-pee trained and in big boy underwear. (Our remaining problem is poo-poo training. His progress with that is almost non-existent and it makes for some pretty messy pants every other day or so. ADVICE, PLEASE!)

Archie is into letters, numbers, and Chinese characters. I think he knows about 40 and can read simple sentences. Fun stuff. He also likes Play-Doh, markers, cars, blocks, music, dancing and FRIENDS. Pretty much all boy.

Here he is showing off his stuff.

Archie funny: coming tomorrow!

Silkworms going live!

Literally folks. These are the silkworms we cooked for New Year's lunch on the barbecue right at our table. I don't usually get the warm fuzzies for animals, but I did feel kind of bad for these little guys writhing around on the burner.

Egyptian Princess and more great pics

I know they're over a month late, but Grace's six month pics are better late than never, right? I fell in love with this little outfit at the studio. One of the model babies wears it in their display album, but I think Grace is even cuter in it! Hunt and I both call her our Egyptian Princess. I can just see her now walking over to the river for her morning bath and finding Baby Moses in the bulrushes.

No fancy name for this outfit, but we really appreciate Me-maw and Papa for giving it to us.

I love full body shots with cute little baby toes.

And, of course, sweet little baby smiles.

We love you, Gracer! (Our special name for her because I figure if the one who paints is a painter the graceful one must be a gracer...)

Science is fun!

Two weeks ago I made my first trip to our local science museum, and I was AMAZED by how wonderful it was. We took the kids to the Hong Kong Science Museum in May and I was not that impressed, but our local one is wonderful! There was tons of hands-on stuff. I don't know if Archie learned that much about science, but he sure did have a blast!

Here's Archie with a giant water gun. He stuck his hands in the water but wasn't even phased by his wet sleeves. Our friends from town who introduced us to the museum are in the background. Archie loves playing with their four kids whenever we get a chance to travel the rather long distance to see them. (I love chatting with their mom, too.)

Grace was a bit indifferent to her surroundings. She probably would've preferred to be at home, but she was a good sport anyway.

I loved this climbing structure for preschoolers, but they wouldn't let parents in so I was a bit nervous for Archie with all the stairs.

Where's Hunt's body? This was a cool optical illusion display. They also had two weird houses you went in and got all kinds of weird movement sensations even though you yourself did not move. They kind of made me seasick.

They also had some cool skeleton and medical displays!

I think a trip back is definitely in our future. We really only got to see about two floors.

More funny stories and a quiet weekend

Quiet: I never knew how much I loved it before I had kids. How has it come about this weekend? Hunt's taken Archie to Hong Kong for another round of eye measurements, gearing up for the big surgery in May. Today, I enjoyed spending some time with friends and trying to get the Plug-In I downloaded for Photoshop Elements to work. Tomorrow, I'm hosting a big surprise (meaning the guests don't know) birthday party for myself with Italian style pasta. (I couldn't think of an easier main dish and since hopefully most of the guests have never had real spaghetti, they won't know if I messed it up of if it just doesn't suit their tastes!) Guess that'll bring an end to some of the quiet.

OK, here's the promised funny:

Archie (waking up at about 10 p.m. for unknown reason) once Daddy has entered room: Waaater

Daddy: Ok (goes and gets water)

Archie: (drinks water) I get up

Daddy: No, you go to sleep

Archie: I sleep (and begins resettling down)

Daddy: silence (turns to leave)

Archie: Daddy, say "I love you"

Daddy: Archie, I love you!

Awww.

And for the Grace funny. She's seven months old and I'm STILL swaddling her. (Archie would never have stood for that.) Because the blanket is now too short, she likes to stretch her legs after nap!

Does anyone have a good recommendation for image extraction software for photo editing? I don't like the Magic extractor in Photoshop Elements and I can't get the Background Remover 3.1 plug in to work...

February Cheated! Happy 7 months!

Happy Seven Months, Grace! I look forward to the 15th and the 29th of every month so I can celebrate Archie's and Grace's month days. February 26, 27, 28 and the excitement is building but, uh-oh, no February 29th. My precious was cheated! But, I guess she can celebrate her seven months today. Think of all the poor people who were born on the 31st and only get month days four times/year. I would pity the people born on leap year February 29 and only get a birthday every four years, except it would just be so cool to have your birthday on a day that usually doesn't exist I think it all evens out.

Grace had a great month. I think she's at about the easiest point she's ever been (and will be for the near future) to take care of since she sleeps great, doesn't cry too much and is still not too mobile. Grace loves toys, being held (although she is not quite so demanding about it as she once was :), and once more I should say TOYS. I don't remember Archie being so into them at this age. Cars are a particular favorite of hers. HAHA! I thought she would be all girl. Not too much has changed this month except she's rolling over a little more since our house is warmer and she can wear less clothes. I've been a little lazy about introducing new foods. She weighs just a hair over 15.5 pounds.

We love you, Gracer!