camping memories

Yesterday afternoon Julianna and I "packed" for the camping trip - it's always interesting to see what she picks out as "essentials". Few of her selections made the final cut, especially considering everything needed to fit in Matt's backpack :)

Here's a photo from last year's trip - it's amazing how much she's grown and changed in the past year.


Lydia and I are having a great time holding down the fort at home. I've got a list of things I want to do while I'm mom to just one kiddo - it won't all get done, but it's fun to have the extra time, energy and freedom to work on a few special projects.

Speaking of growing fast... last year Lydia missed the camping trip too, she was six weeks old:




And one more camping memories photo .... last night as he was getting out the camping gear Matt jokingly asked me, "when's the last time you even used your sleeping bag Laura?" I must admit, it seems like a lifetime ago that we camped together. Young kids put a damper on the camping spirit, you know? And on top of that, we live in a country with few camping resources and nothing like your trusty state park campground system!

But we did LOVE camping. And one day we will do it again. I promise. Just to prove that we were campers once... this photo from the summer after we got married, we backpacked in Yellowstone. Matt was already practicing his "good husband camping technique" - compare the size of his pack to mine!


He must have been getting ready for trips like today's - when he carried everything for Julianna and himself, and Julianna carried only the dirt and rocks she collected in her pockets along the way.

Julianna's first sleeping bag

The big camping trip is just a few days away! Matt and Julianna are the only two campers from our family - I'm battling yet another cold and am in no shape to go camping.

A child-sized sleeping bag is the type of thing I put in the "made in China yet impossible to buy in China" category. (This category is, unfortunately, much larger and broader-sweeping than it should be - I cannot begin to count the number of things I have asked my mom to ship me, and when the item arrived been dismayed to discover a "made in China" label. argh!) So, plans were to borrow one, just like last year.

Then, a few nights ago Matt and I were out on a date and just as we were leaving one store a Winnie the Pooh label caught my eye. "Now what could that be?" I wondered. "Yikes! A Winnie the Pooh sleeping bag!" We snatched it up and took it out of the box, just to make sure it was, in fact, a child-sized sleeping bag. And it was! We walked straight to the cash register and started the big debate: when to actually give it to Julianna.

You know, little kids don't do so well with dates like "Thursday a week from now" or "the day after the day after tomorrow". Julianna lives a world where "today" and "tomorrow" encompass basically all she needs to know about time. Give the sleeping bag too early, and we could be in for a LOT of "can I go camping right now?" questions.

We settled on Sunday afternoon. And this was her reaction to the gift:


A huge smile, followed by the inevitable, "can we go camping right now?"

She had great fun getting inside and pretending to sleep. And she entertained Lydia with a little game where she'd hide her head in the bag for a few minutes, calling Lydia's name the whole time... at just the right moment, she'd pop her head out and both girls would laugh hysterically.



Oh yeah, and guess where she's sleeping tonight? In her sleeping bag, on top of her covers, on top of her bed. One more night of "practice sleeping" and they're off - the camping trip starts Tuesday morning. Julianna will be ready.

My first sleeping bag was Shirt Tales (remember them?)... anybody else remember what fancy character their first sleeping bag sported??

a little afternoon snack, with a twist on the seating arrangements

the days of the week

Julianna is really "into" the days of the week. Now, to clarify, she can't tell you today is Wednesday. Or what day comes after Saturday. But she does love to sprinkle her conversation with references to various days.

It sounds a bit like this:

Me: "When daddy gets home, you can tell him about your day at school."
Julianna: "Well, maybe I will just wait and tell him Friday."

or

"I know, let's go see EA and Emma Grace on Saturday"

Yesterday morning when Matt greeted her, the first thing she said was, "Daddy, today is Friday, right?"

My personal favorite is her rendition of this little song -

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy
down in my heart
down in my heart
down in my heart
I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy
down in my heart
down in my heart
Tuesday!

Be forewarned that if you sing this song in Julianna's presence, she will pay careful attention to how you choose to sing the final phrase. If your "Tuesday" is not pronounced with conviction and clarity, she will correct you!

eatin' chili

Last night's dinner was chili and cornbread....



And after dinner, it was straight to the bathtub. There are some messes that a wet-washcloth-clean-up-routine just can't handle, and this was one of them.

Lydia LOVES to eat from a bowl. Without a bowl, she's an unhappy little eater. Put a bowl on her highchair tray and she grins. Unfortunately, she only believes in using the spoon for the first few bites. By the time these photos were taken, the spoon was purely ornamental.



Julianna fares only slightly better than her little sister. Matt thinks cornbread is properly eaten with a big dollop of honey on top. Julianna couldn't agree more. She uses her fingers to "mop" the extra honey off the plate when the cornbread is finished. Effective. But sticky.

water = fun

Our family has GREAT Sunday afternoons. Yesterday after naps we went out to see what kind of adventures we could find. We were also semi-shopping for an alarm clock. We never did find an alarm clock, but at one store I spotted this little trike, with a seat on back. I couldn't resist loading the girls on and taking a few photos. [We've had great weather the past week or so, and the temps are supposed to stay high through Friday - the girls wore summer dresses to church this week (two weeks ago they were in tights and long-sleeves!)]


The newest "attraction" in town is a plastic swimming pool filled with floating toys. For about thirty cents, your child can grab a "fishing net" and play to her heart's content. A few minutes after we arrived the girls were deliriously happy. Lydia, who totally ignored the net, was methodically grabbing anything within reach and tossing it on to the pavement behind her. Julianna was waving around the "fishing net" and snagging things right and left. Both were already wet and getting wetter by the minute.

Here's a shot of Lydia, mid-toss. One of the little ladies in charge of the plastic-toy-filled-swimming-pool attraction picked up each toy and threw it right back in. Lydia was blissfully unaware and just kept tossing.


It is most definitely fair to conclude that Julianna was having a good time!


And, I thought I'd share my new look when I'm "out on the town" - yep, I've pretty much put the double stroller away for the next six months (until #3 arrives) and I'm back to single stroller status (after an entire spring of double-stroller-ing my way around town). I can't believe how "sporty" I feel with just the single! [And no, I won't be offended if you bust out laughing because I think I'm "sporty" with a single stroller and not-quite-3-year-old walking along beside me. You gotta take what you can get, you know??]

tainted milk and snowboarding

I'm not sure if many of you are following the "milk scandal" news breaking here in China - but we are, of course, pretty interested in all that is happening. As far as we can tell, our family does not consume any of the "tainted" brands - we drink fresh milk from a local dairy/processing plant.

One of the major brands that is involved in the scandal is MengNiu..... it's a pretty huge brand name within the dairy product market. Many little "supermarkets" have coolers of ice cream, milk and yogurt right outside the door of their shop - I probably see more MengNiu coolers than any other brand name.

Here's the funniest thing about MengNiu in my opinion: For a while, they advertised with a slick looking snow-boarder..... they've since changed their tactic, and only the older coolers are still sporting the snowboarder logo. Lucky for our family, several stores near our apartment still have the old coolers.

Why in the world have I paid so much attention to a dairy cooler brand name advertisement?? Because for months, every time we passed one of those coolers, Julianna would yell out, "Look! It's daddy!" and point to the picture of the snowboarder. "What is she thinking?", I wondered, "How did she come up with the idea that the man on the cooler is her daddy?"

I still don't know how it happened. But it did. And to this day Julianna is convinced that the model in the photo below is Matt.


But, for the record, Matt has never done any advertising gigs for a company that sells milk tainted with melamine. Despite what his daughter thinks.

Introducing....

... the newest member of the family!



Yes, I do realize that most ultrasound photos look like .... well, absolutely nothing. Especially early ones (this is an 8 week old shot - taken 6 weeks ago when the baby was teeny tiny... but it sure was good to see the heart beating strong and steady!)

Honestly, we're both a little overwhelmed at the prospect of having three so young. [Quick little review for those of you non-grandmothers who don't have our kids birth dates memorized: Julianna turns three in December, Lydia will be 18 months in February and this little one is set to arrive in March.]

I spent most of the first two months of this pregnancy wondering just how in the world I was going to make life "tick" with three so little. China is a challenging place to raise kids, and the entire social structure is built around the assumption that families have only one child, and four grandparents who are ready to care for the baby. [Two social planning policies make this a reality: First, the one child policy which limits most couples to one birth. Second, mandatory early retirement (often age 50, depends on the career) - intended to open up the job market and provide college grads with employment opportunities.]

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. We're having another baby! Plans are to move to Beijing for about a month while we wait for this little one to arrive (health care here in our city is not considered adequate and expat doctors recommend moving to a city with more developed health care options for childbirth).

Julianna is really excited. Her first response when we told her? A joyful "oh! God gave us another baby!" She frequently asks to look inside my belly and see the baby. And when the baby comes out? Well, she is bound and determined that she is going to hold it (she must mention this at least once a day). In the meantime, as she waits for our new baby, she spends a good portion of her day taking care of her baby dolls (see yesterday's photo).

Lydia, on the other hand, is less enthusiastic. Or, more accurately, less aware of what is happening. But she is a loving care-taker for the dolls and stuffed animals in our home, so I hope that's a good sign. Check out this little video of her preparing for the big sister role:



One last thing. I must confess that I am hoping for another little girl. Matt? Well, he's just hoping that if it is a girl, all three sisters decide to get married on the same day :)

here's your hint

Here's your hint at what's to come in tomorrow's post.... stay tuned!

home sweet home

We're back! All in all, it was a pretty good little trip. In a nutshell, the lowlights (Julianna threw up three times and Lydia battled croup) did not overshadow the highlights (Matt enjoyed the meetings, we got to spend time hanging out with other families just like ours, and our hotel set-up was quite live-able).

The first few hours of the trip were a wild ride, and we barely made our flight (and believe me, after a 4:45am wake up call, I was going to be one disappointed lady if we missed a flight). It was a holiday weekend here in China, and when 1.3 billion people get a day off work, it creates a little chaos at the airport.

All four of us slept late this morning. The girls are both napping now and I'm finishing up the fifth load of laundry (small washer + throwing up child = lots of loads of laundry.... but I must add, that if your child plans to throw up twice in one night, a hotel is not a bad place to be - I was so thankful that the next morning all I had to do was find the housekeeper and have her haul away all the nasty bedding!) The weather outside is gorgeous, and a friend is joining us for dinner. It's so good to be home :)

on the road.... again (sigh)

You know, at one time, I really loved to travel. I loved airports, I slept well on airplanes, I packed light, I moved fast, and I didn't tote 117 pounds of carry-on.

That was then.

This is now.

I don't like to travel. Airports are a logistical challenge, sleeping on airplanes a distant memory, light packing impossible, and my carry-on almost exceeds the luggage weight allowance (for checked baggage!!)

My two girls are great travelers. Well, ok travelers. At the very least, you can say they are used to it. But still.... who really wants to travel with young children?

All this to say: we leave early tomorrow morning for a 4 day long trip. Home Monday by dinner, assuming our flights are on time.

The good news? After this little trip, the girls and I don't fly again til January! yay!

wearing earrings... all by myself!

Julianna got these clip-on earrings placed just so on her little ears... all by herself :)
[Click on the photo to see an enlarged version - trust me, you don't want to miss these ears!]




After she was properly accessorized, it was time to take her baby for a walk. The other moms in the neighborhood park would definitely be jealous of the jewels this little lady is sporting, don't you think?

helping with the laundry

Lydia is my "folding clothes buddy". She's an expert at taking all the clean clothes out of the basket and spreading them around the room. And she loves to play with the socks.

For the past few weeks she's been trying to get one of those pesky little socks on her foot, but she just can't make it work. It's pretty cute though... she stretches her leg straight out in front of her, grabs the sock in both hands, and tries with all her might to get the sock opening over her big toe.

Well, today, she passed over the socks and went straight for Julianna's little underwear. She's in the bedroom every morning when Julianna gets dressed, so she knows the drill, and she thinks she knows what to do with a pair of little panties. As soon as I realized what she was doing, I jumped up and ran for the camera.

Despite the fact that she was already full dressed, she attacked the challenge with gusto.



And she did manage to get one foot through the proper leg opening!

driving lessons

Lydia, the Chinese puppy

Lydia likes to talk. She only has about 15 (maybe 20??) words, but she's not afraid to use them. [Her animal sounds repertoire is also growing, but the Lydia version of a cow says "booooooo" and her duck says "dak dak dak", so she's far from accurate - but gets lots of points for trying hard!]

In the past few days, she's developed a slightly alarming habit. If I point to a picture of Lydia, she'll look right at it and say, "狗狗".

"No, you silly girl", I respond, "that's Lydia".

But still, I point again and she delightedly exclaims, "狗狗"

Problem? 狗狗 means puppy, in Chinese. And she knows what a puppy is. I swear she does. When we see a puppy outside she says, "狗狗". When we see a picture of a puppy she says, "狗狗".

But when she looks at a picture of herself? Well, some wires must get crossed, because she grins and says, "狗狗".

Maybe she wishes she was a puppy?

I was curious as to how Lydia would choose to refer to herself. Julianna (who called herself "Nana" for months) referred to her baby sister as "idia" until this past winter. I was thinking Lydia's rendering of her own name would be similar. But now she's really got me stumped.... surely she's not going to call herself 狗狗!!!

the view from the couch

Lydia's slightly runny nose somehow found it's way past my immune system and left me with a nasty cold that I've been fighting for the past few days. Argh. Today I did manage to change out of my pj pants so I could go pick Julianna up at school. But when I got home, I put them right back on and as soon as naptime rolled around, I went back to my faithful spot on the couch, where I've spent a significant chunk of the last two days!

Thankfully, I can definitely tell that I am slowly but surely improving, and I'm hopeful that tomorrow I'll be back to my normal self again :)

Speaking of preschool, Julianna had another great day, and her teacher assured me she laughed and played with the other kids, so I am really encouraged.

first day of school, final take

Today was Julianna's first day of school and she had a terrific time! Thanks to all of you who prayed for her first day - it really could not have been any better!

Here she is getting ready to head out the door ... for the first few days all the students have to wear nametags on their backs to help the teachers remember names. There are 40+ kids in Julianna's class, and over 500 in the entire preschool. (You probably know that China is the most populous country in the world.... lots of people means lots of preschoolers!)


After she left our house, she was greeted by Andy, Erin Ashley and Emma Grace, who had a special "first day of preschool" sign for her! What great neighbors - see how Emma Grace is clapping her hands!

Here they are outside the school gate -


I went to pick her up right before lunch - I'll usually just take Lydia with me (it's a five minute walk from our apartment at an adult pace.... twenty minutes when Julianna walks it) but today I wanted to be able to devote all my attention to Julianna and I wanted to take some time to talk to her teacher, so I left Lydia with Erin Ashley and Emma Grace and headed to school.

She was grinning from ear to ear when I arrived. Her teacher said that Julianna had a great morning (she actually has four or five teachers, but one head teacher who I talked with the most). She proudly showed off her classroom and clearly had a delightful time.

We stopped in the lobby to play on a few toys before the walk home.

And this cute little girl wanted to walk out with Julianna - she's a bit older and in a different class and very friendly.

Julianna talked the whole way home, giving me the details of the morning. According to her description, there are toys (lots of blocks, no rocks - which is a disappointment, she loves rocks - but she did explain that rocks couldn't be inside, so that's why her class doesn't have any rocks). And lots of friends (one of whom apparently fell down and cried, but not for a long time - it's funny what details kids choose to include). When they sit and listen to the teacher everyone has their own special pillow to sit on. And sometimes they have to line up ("one friend in front, and one friend behind"). She talked and talked. And talked some more. I loved it.

I am so thankful that she had such a good experience! She goes back on Thursday!

riding daddy's bike

Lydia had a runny nose yesterday and couldn't go to the nursery at church... since it's the beginning of the fall semester and I help organize part of the Sunday School, I really couldn't miss this Sunday, so Matt stayed home with Lydia.

Instead of making her chicken soup he decided to take her for a little bike ride. Check out her expression - maybe she would have rather stayed home and eaten chicken soup?


Matt assures me she had a great time - and I have seen her smile with glee on the back of his bicycle, so I tend to believe him. But, apparently the sniffles and a bit of a chill in the air led to some pretty subdued facial expressions!