Modeling Debut!

The long awaited day has arrived! I finally got to go pic up Grace's pictures from her modeling session, and I am quite pleased with the results. In addition to giving me the page spreads of the book, they included ALL the shots they took on a CD. I'll be busy for awhile sorting, organizing and maybe even deleting a few unflattering ones.

Now, without further ado. The pages from MY book (which we'll add to at 6, 9 and 11 months):




Pages from the studio book





This is only a fraction of what I have. More coming soon :)

My future cellphone

Archie knows what he wants in a cell phone. Here's our daily funny. This morning's Chinese dialogue between him and our house helper.

Archie: babbling and playing with my cell phone
House helper: Mama's cellphone, Daddy's cellphone, when Hai Tao (Archie) grows up he'll buy a cellphone.
Archie: I want one that takes pictures!

He seems to already have his sights set on a camera phone.

SMILE!

Happy Birthday, Memaw! (And, Happy Thanksgiving to All)

Archie made a little something for his Me-maw! We are all so excited she's sharing her birthday with the Turkey this year.

Grace isn't quite at the phase where she can make things for Memaw (other than smiles), but she is the cutest little turkey you will ever see!

What are we doing for Thanksgiving anyway? Counting our blessings, being thankful, and heading to town for some good Hong Kong style duck with a few friends. (Check out posts from last year if you want to know why we're not eating turkey.) Last year we had four parties at our house with tons of cooking, but since we just finished Grace's 100 day bash, we'll probably hold off until Christmas for more parties. (Plus, I'm still turned off by Thanksgiving food from last year's parties since at the time I was pregnant with Grace but didn't know it yet. I was totally revolted by much of what I was making. I may never eat pumpkin pie again!)

Skills

One of my favorite things about kids is watching them develop. Archie is finally starting to feed himself. Yogurt is one of his favorite things ever so I thought it might be a good start. (The only thing is yogurt is really runny here so he likes to use a straw and drink it because it's faster.) I let him practice on Cheerios and milk sparingly since I have to bring them in from out of country. He loves rice and we eat it everyday. The only problem is rice is clumpy, and it's pretty hard for him to get it out of the bowl with his spoon so we still have to help. Oh well, practice makes perfect.

Grace just loves looking around. I bet rolling over will come sooner than we think.

Coordinated!

Don't you love it when your blanket matches your outfit? My little color coordinated princess does. These are the softest pj's ever and the material is the same as the Grace monogrammed blankets one of Hunt's mom's friends gave her! Thanks for the blanket and PJs.

Gentle Archie

At this point in her sweet little life, I don't think Grace could ask for a much better big brother than Archie. He's naturally sweet and gentle with her. One of his first sentences was "I hold Grace." He loves to sit in our laps and "hold" Grace while gently patting her head. He's genuinely concerned when he hears her cry and always alerts us (even though we already know). He alternately calls addresses Grace by her name "Grace" and the Chinese term for little sister "Mei Mei."

The kiss:

A gentle pat:

Just hanging out:

Grace just being cute and wondering, "When will Big Brother come and play with me?

Grace's first 100 days! The video