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.