Bye Bye DaDa and Uncle Christian

We had a good visit with Christian, he left today. David is going with him, traveling a bit and will be back tomorrow. Sophia saw them off with sweet 'bye byeees' (that is literally how she says it). We took Christian to see the big square which was all fields last time he was here. When we left for the states they had only tilled up the fields to build these 'olympic' facilities. We really have no idea what their plans are for these new, quite spectacular facilities (for this area of the boondocks anyway)...but check it out, this town is really on the up and up. Supposedly our airport is going international as well....we will wait and see it to believe it!


Nice new Tennis courts.


courtyards, gardens, exercise equipment, children's play area, fountains, Correct english signs...amazing. Yes, a storm was rolling in.


a real grass soccer field, this is the practice field, maybe Sophia will play on it one day. David is at least hopeful he will get to try it out!


we couldn't go inside and I had to get the pic. you can see me in it, kinda cool actually. this is the soccer stadium. A real stadium, nice seats, a real track. If only you knew how truly incredible this is. If you build it, they will come....
There is also a huge Aquatic center with indoor Olympic size pools (two I think?). And quite a large Basketball Arena. We are still shocked by it all.

GeGe's Birthday

Here is Caleb, Sophia's GeGe (big brother). He turned three yesterday, and we had a great time celebrating with him. He is hilarious, and so sweet to Sophia. His mom told me the other day that he will 'play' and appoint roles: his favorite stuffed animal is Sophia, Caleb is 'uncle shu shu' (David), and his mom is 'aunt LoLo' (me), too funny. Sophia is equally mesmerized by Caleb, she recognizes him in an instant when we go downstairs and babbles a mile a minute when she watches him play. She did the exact same thing when I showed her a picture of Caleb kissing her when she was just a few months old.


we got out the kiddie pool we brought from the states and Caleb and Sophia enjoyed that until the rains came in. She is lookin' too cool in this pic.


Getting used to the splashes of GeGe


I treasure these-sweet hugs. He is thanking me for the gift we got him.


Here is the gift. It took David's mechanical engineering skills (and about forty five minutes), to put this 'transformer' together. It is not a 'real' tranformer, it was quite complicated. And actually after three people (David doing most of the work) with 6 1/2 college and advanced degrees between us worked on this thing, we finally got it into a Mack Truck, don't tell Caleb it can transform!
Incidentally, I love this pic, Caleb's smile is awesome, this is because David told him right before hand: "Caleb, whatever you do don't smile," Caleb promptly donned the huge grin and said "cheese."
Ignore the fact that his shirt says 'Carlsberg,' for all you real futbol fans out there, this is a liverpool jersey. Uncle Russell would appreciate it dearly. I love to ask Caleb what jersey he is wearing. His answer: 'liverpoonevewalalone' which translates too " liverpool, never walk alone" the teams motto. Absolutely adorable. Happy Birthday GeGe!

Jiaozi and other random things

Sophia has eaten Jiaozi (dumplings with pork and veg inside) twice now and loves them, she eats about six, with me breaking them up, of course. I am getting more relaxed with what I give her (still no sweets, the fruit is sweet enough), so she tries to eat what we eat quite a bit. I still do the bulk freezing of things like spaghetti sauce and fruit (using silicone muffin 'pans' to freeze in, then transfer to a ziploc, perfect). This method is so easy, just take out a serving at a time and microwave, thanks 'Super Baby Food' (a book) for all the ideas. I do this if we are going out to a place where she may not be able to eat the food.


will you play with me, all the students are gone? Sophia asks two boys playing ping pong amid a very empty campus


Our 'child gate,' using our washing machine box, it works great, Sophia knows this is off limits, instead of the million 'no touches' in the kitchen area.


Being taught how to drive by our helper.


Sophia seems so long in this picture, she is taller than 95% of girls her age, where that height comes from we do not know.

Walking and Talking

Here is another Sophia flick.

Mother of Bright Snow

Not much going on here. A friend is visiting from the states, he used to live here when there were cobblestone roads and yogurt in glass bottles. That was actually just three years ago. This place is developing so fast!

The neighborhood is talking about Sophia and how fat she is, 'plump' being my preferred word. And 'cute to death' is the literal translation of the locals description of her.

Sophia has a few local names. One of which means 'bright snow' attributed to her very white skin, of course. Now when I go buy pineapple (daily) I am referred to as 'mother of bright snow,' that is how they refer to themselves too after they have children.

To see a reenactment of Sophia 'helping' me do push-ups go here.

Super cool chicks

When looking for 'Anna' pics I came across these pictures of our going away party. These are some awesome girls there with me. But Heather, where are you????

Apparently, we first had to tell Micah to get out of the way....


Then we were all smiles...

Anna Lucia, Happy 2nd Birthday!

This post will be all about sweet Anna Lucia Williams, Sophia's only girl cousin (so far). We first met Anna at the airport (she was already almost 18 months old) last New Year's Eve. She thought Sophia was a little doll (literally), and started calling her 'Baby fia' which over the months morphed into Bia and other things. Anna even switched to a big girl bed and let Sophia use her crib for those months. I will show you her cuteness with pictures (I couldn't decide so I posted a bunch), and have to reiterate for the hundredth time that she really is 'little Julie.' Happy Birthday girl, we love you and miss you and all the Williams!

This hamburger was almost as big as she was.


Anna showing Sophia where her nose is



So much fun with Uncle Herschel


Easter in overalls at the beach


Here Aunt Lorraine is helping Anna put rings on bunny ears, all the while constantly repeating: "Easter has absolutely nothing to do with bunny rabbits and eggs, okay Anna?"

Fearless

Sophia discovered that she could walk today, and off she goes uninhibited by fear. She has a bruised forehead to show for it. The mark of a brave young lady. That is okay, I have fear enough for both of us.

Dancing

To see Sophia dance a jig, go here.

College or Teeth?

Though Sophia has all the signs of teething (drooling like a St. Bernard, constantly chewing on her crib railing, fussiness, etc.), we have yet to see or feel any new ones. Those two loners down on bottom do all the work. We have decided that instead of saving for her college education we may need to start saving for dental implants, Dr. Collins here we come.

Speaking of chewing on her crib. She did this quite a bit until we finally started using her pack-n-play. Call us paranoid first parents, but we have no idea what kind of paint was used on her crib, we bought it here in our town and it was pretty cheap (about 60 USD). We don't have our Lead-test kit yet, but it is coming. As we talked around, googled around, and do everything that we overprotective parents do, we thought it was a good idea during this chew on everything stage, to be a little more careful as to what it is she consistently puts in her mouth.

To see Sophia standing up on her own go here.

Beat up

As some may know David has had various problems with his elbows, wrists, and shoulders. While we were home he saw various doctors, and one treatment was neuromuscular 'massage.' So, week in and week out he went, Maybe it helped, maybe not. Upon returning here he decided he was going to try the 'blind guys.' In most cities here, blind men are trained in massage, and they are popular. At the end of every work day their shops are full of people with aches and pains. I actually went about two years ago when I could hardly move my neck. David has already gone a few times and felt that these guys were great and got really deep into his muscles. And for only $1.50, who can beat it. Two days ago he found a different shop, closer to home, and decided to try it out. All the guys were busy, so the boss, a lady who is not blind, decided to come out of retirement and use her hands again (she said it had been two years). When he came home, he looked 'slap wore out' as they say in the south. "You look like you have been beat up." I said with a cringe. "I was," he answered, walking in slowly. Apparently this lady dug her elbows in his back all the way through to his ribs. The next day? He felt better than he has since we arrived here. He's going back for more tomorrow.

Sleepless in Seattle

Sophia has had two busted lips in two days, (sigh), the woes of a toddler. She screams and cries as her blood stains my shirt, (sigh) the woes of the mother of a toddler. Two minutes later it is forgotten, (ahh), the blessings of being a toddler, and off she goes again with no restraint....(I am still sighing)

I had heard that this would happen, my heart stops at least a few times a day in regards to Sophia and her explorations...lessons in trust are being learned again and again.

We had a wonderful visit with one of David's best friends here. David has stayed with his family quite a bit for language purposes, he is almost like our younger brother. So...during his visit, by early afternoon, which is when most people rest, we were exhausted and decided to take naps. It started pouring down rain and he decided he was going to just watch TV until it stopped and then leave, while we all napped. When I got up about thirty minutes later, there was Sophia with Uncle AM, reading books together....with still an hour and a half of her nap left to go! It was such a precious scene that I had to laugh. He explained that she had started to cry some, he went in her room, she was sweating, probably too hot, etc, etc. Yes, I was cringing on the inside at the loss of the nap. Sophia doesn't know just how sweet an uncle she has, we of course, would have let her cry herself back to sleep.

Quarantine

You got it. We have been sick. Low grade fever and stomach woes. For David it lasted about 2 days, for me I am on day three, though I am on the mend. We each were quarantined to our room for about a day, to prevent Sophia from exposure, and so far it has worked. Pray she doesn't get this bug. Thankfully we were not sick at the same time so we could take care of each other and Sophia. Many blessings in the misery.

In all this time Sophia has slowly started to eat veggies, starting with the green leafy veg found in the Tofu soup we often get at restaurants. This completely surprised us, it could have something to do with the oil involved. Corn of course she eats, because this area has the sweetest corn you have ever tasted. She has even started eating carrots again. And then there is the spaghetti... she shovels that in until her face turns orange (including her forehead, how in the world it ends up up there I will never know).

The biggest development is that she can stand up on her own from the floor. She doesn't do it much, and we have yet to get it on film, but she can do it! However we haven't heard any more 'mamas', 'dadas', or seen any new teeth.

The picture below has nothing to do with this post but it is one of my favorites. It is from January, Sophia was almost seven months.

Sophia with Grandma Pinnie, they adored one another during their visits,
we miss you Grandma!

My future must be SOOOO bright.

Here I am looking at my cousin Isaiah's picture. When he came to visit when I was just six weeks old he rerecorded his voice on this cool thing. It says: "I love you baby Sophia, and Uncle David, and Aunt Lorraine" I listen to it over and over again. I miss my cousins. By November I won't be the youngest anymore.

Mama and Dada let me watch a baby einstein video for the first time. There were other kids like me doing some cool stuff like trying to stand up on their own. I thought I would try but I can't seem to get much further than this. I also learned how to touch my nose when you ask me too. My parents were amazed, but it doesn't take me doing much to amaze them these days.

Shaky walking, but walking

Go here to see Sophia walking more than she has in a while. She is still not what we would consider a 'walker' where we can just really let her go, but she is improving!

Nap Hair

Click HERE to see a video that is a few weeks old. We had just arrived here and Sophia was still sort of jet lagging. When I woke her up (so she would not sleep all day) from her nap, her hair was matted and sticking up from sweat.

Date night and Imports

We went on a 'date' on friday, basically out to dinner and 'off' of our healthy diet. But Sophia was with us, not a date? oh well. David ate Jiaozi (dumplings), and I ate lamian (aka muslim noodles, xinjiang noodles, literally 'pulled' noodles).If I had any craving during my pregnancy it was for these noodles, they are delicious. But the sweet lady who made these actually gave me the ones she was making for herself and her husband and it was filled with a spice called ma, which for lack of a better description tastes a little like detergent and numbs your mouth, it was not fun. Sophia worked her magic on these folks too and waved and talked to them the whole time. Of course.

Today Sophia, with David's coaxing, pointed at me and said 'mama' a few times in a row, but she hasn't said it since. Does that count? hmm....
She also began to get brave and walk between the couch and ottoman on her own, without caring whether we were there or not. maybe just a few more days and we will have a real walker.
She is loving mangoes, and tried fresh squeezed orange juice for the first time, and seemed to like it. (I thought it was fantastic).

Perhaps the biggest news of all is that this town has a shop that sells imported foods, much like the one in Kunming, the capital of our province. It was already here when we left for the States, but it really did not have much at all then. It is a little pricey, and not stocked real well, but we were able to buy:

-cheddar cheese
-mozzarella
-skippy peanut butter
-fat free refried beans
-tiny packets of butter
-zero calorie cream soda (it was okay)
-and for our date night, our favorite: salt and vinegar Pringles (they had just one can)

Out the window

This is the view from Sophia's window, the Pagoda in the distance actually has a Buddhist temple inside of it. This is supposedly the tallest (highest altitude? who knows) Pagoda in SE Asia, we are not so sure.


This is also from her window, just to the left of the other one. The mountains, on clearer days are spectacular. The bars are standard of almost every apartment/home in chinese cities.

In other non interesting news, I made Balsamic Vinaigrette salad dressing today, the balsamic vinegar we got from Kunming, and some of the spices from the US, but it actually tasted pretty good and is way healthier than most salad dressings. David and I are trying to follow a much healthier diet to help his cholesterol and BP, it is called Eat to Live. We are just doing it at home, not when we go out to eat, etc. Basically lots and lots of fruit and veggies.

Running for Office

When walking around today Sophia stopped to wave at many people. She just loves people. She even switched hands with the one she was holding me with so she could wave with her other hand. She really works the crowd as if she were running for office.


She is really concentrating on walking in this pic


She was just standing over there in the corner looking serious


Here she is rolling her eyes, which goes with one of her funniest expressions of raised eyebrows and an eye roll, what is she thinking? who knows


her hair inadvertently ended up in a mohawk like state today. It was so hot and I kept running my fingers through it to move it off her forehead, eventually it just started curling up toward the middle. I did use a barrette when we went outside.

what is she doing?

Sophia is twelve and a half months old (almost), what is she doing these days?

• saying the words: bye (byee, not ba), ball (ba), flower (owa), bird (ba), hey (of some sort, it is in the context of hello and sounds like hey), ut oh, and wow (repeats it when heard)
  
• babbling a million other things that make sense to her
• not saying: mama or dada :(
• takes toys out of the basket and puts them back in
  
• can put food in her mouth with a spoon when guided to dip, she gets it to her mouth on her own (and down her chin sometimes)
  
• throws a real temper tantrum when the spoon or bowl are taken from her (like at the restaurant the other night)
• likes tofu, yogurt, cheese, meat, eggs, and any fruit
  
• hates vegetables
  
• is now more interested in playing with food than eating it. It is organized play, she very orderly takes each piece off her tray and puts it on the table (if close enough), or drops it on the floor, she also likes to put it down beside her in her highchair
• drinks whole milk (though we are working on the cup thing, she still really prefers the bottle, we are weaning)
• can take steps on her own and sometimes a lot of them, but still needs someone nearby, so she is not really walking on her own yet
  

just trying this out

Go here to see a video of Sophia playing her horn. Since I cannot embed videos and post to my blog I will have to link to them, so sorry, I hate doing that. But for now that is what I will have to do. I think they look a little less clear because they are more full screen than when on the blog.

The Year of the Golden Pig

Sophia was born in the year of the golden pig (in China), so some of her gifts from our local friends reflect that. One of her favorites is this incredibly soft pig pillow. She will play for awhile then go pretend to go 'night night' and lay her head on the pillow.




I showed Sophia what this rattle could do if you blow in it. It toots like a horn. So, after a few tries she got the hang of it and became a horn blower. Future trumpet player? Hmm...

Around the 'hood

Our apartment is in a medical school, it has a gate, guard, and lots of space to walk and play. The students here graduate to become nurses, not doctors. They are young and they love Sophia. We took her walking yesterday and she met this girl (LiMengYing).



This is an 18 month outfit, supercute. I put the barrett in her hair to see how many people would ask if she were a boy or a girl. I think we had one, quite the improvement. (it does not matter that I dress her in pink all the time).

We also went to buy some fruit. Pineapple season has begun, we bought 3 from these ladies, for only one dollar (they will only get cheaper too). They too kept telling us to bring her back every day. Their chinese wasn't great and my Dai is not great, so we struggled to communicate, but we laughed at Sophia together. She even waved bye to them, which made them hysterical. Again, the question: 'what do you give her to make her so fat?' (I hate to tell them lately she really hasn't been eating much at all, especially vegetables)

Happy 5th of July

It is July 5th here when everyone in the US will be watching fireworks. David did offer to go out and buy some Roman Candles to help celebrate, joking of course. The best fireworks I have ever seen have been here. The Chinese know how to put on a show, big or small. But there was nothing doing on American Independence Day (no one here knew it), so it passed with no hot dogs, hamburgers, parade, or fireworks. Hope everyone there is enjoying time off and able to relax a bit. And I just heard that I still reign as the 'able to balance on the big dinosaur pool float the longest' champion, good news. I am still having trouble posting video, in fact, faithful Nicole posted the last one for me. I will keep trying.

Market Ride

David cleared the inch of dust and dirt off of my bike, pumped up the tires and off I went on what felt like a brand new ride. My first bike trip to the market. It still smells like I left it (the market that is), not very good, and no words can describe it, it does take some getting used to. But I still love the feeling of buying real fresh food. And just like I had to get used to driving a car again in the States, I had to get used to riding my bike in a mess of people and traffic that do not obey traffic laws (if there are any). Pure craziness sometimes.

Sophia meanwhile, also had some firsts the past few days. She started mimicking the word 'flower' sounds kind of like 'owa', and she clearly says 'ut oh' at appropriate times too, it is seriously cute. She is now drinking half milk half formula, of a fresher milk than the previous brand. She also loves to stand at her book shelf and take all the books off (gravity helps the big ones come down), she then sits on or in the pile and "reads" away.


Look at those sweaty bangs

Egg all over her face

Geckos, sliced cheese, and more

David says I have to blog about the gecko, you know the little lizards that eat bugs. This particular little guy WAS CRAWLING UP MY ARM. I was opening our window, then proceeded to take my hair down and it wasn't until almost 30 seconds later (a long time), I noticed him on my arm, which is when he started crawling, and I quickly flicked him off. My noise made David come in quickly, just in time to see him scurry under our bed. No worries, as long as they are eating bugs we will keep them. And for the record, this guy had nothing on the lizards that used to hang out in our house in Florida (HUGE).

Today David found sliced cheese in a local store, for only about two US dollars. This is a great find, it has been there for awhile but we hadn't ventured to find it yet. He was actually trying to buy different brands of milk, because so far Sophia has completely rejected the brand we were introducing her to. I naively thought she would easily transition to whole milk and do it from a cup. Nope, neither. She will drink water or juice from a cup, but not anything white, and full test milk she has nothing to do with.... any advice is welcome from you seasoned moms out there.

We also went to a restaurant opening of the brother of a friend. Our first real taste of Dai food since we have been back, it was very good. As soon as we walked in the Dai ladies stole Sophia and took her to the kitchen (it is all outdoors so I could see her from where I was sitting), I don't know who loved it more, Sophia or the ladies. She had a blast, was so happy, and went to anyone, including the nephew of our friend (about 20 something years old), who really took a liking to her. In general she has not been eating very well, so when they offered to feed her some of their soup which they described as 'sour' I said sure, why not. Of course she didn't take it, but later I did get her to eat two bites of the tofu from it. These days I am willing to let her try almost anything (except the raw pork dish that is the delicacy of the Dai).

Sophia's Walking Video

Enjoy!

Still singing

We woke up this morning to the garbage can still singing happy birthday. David promptly took out the trash. trying to work on some videos, hang tight.