'Reading' (a long video)

I often hear Sophia 'reading' her books in various places. It is all jibberish to me, but she will sit there for fifteen minutes at a time and just tell story after story as she 'reads' her books. This day I kept her in her highchair after snack while I did the dishes and David caught a glimpse on tape. This video is much longer than normal, but just to give you an inkling of her animation and captivation with her books. Who really knows what is going on her little brain, but it sure is fun to watch.

Corrections

I have two corrections to make. When I said the gas gauge had broken on the old moto what I meant was there never was one. I really didn't know this until David just told me, I always assumed that it broke early on. And after short deliberation we decided to no longer dub 'Buddha mountain' as 'Buddha mountain' well, because it is not 'Buddha's' mountain mainly. No big deal really, but He is no creator and we just want to give props where props is due. :)
Sophia is behind me sorting laundry in her own special way, she shakes it out like she sees me do when I pull it from the dryer and then sets it down. She will then push the basket around the floor for a little bit and start the process over again.

Sophia's animal sounds (video)

Here is a video of Sophia making some animal sounds. She can actually name all those animals and much more, but she wanted to entertain us here. Also, dog in Chinese is gou (pronounced go with a certain tone), so she gets it right in one language. She actually hasn't said the English for Dog in many months now even though we say it to her all the time.

Little pink lady and new boots

This is a 12 month outfit (from the Williams), I think I have posted it before, but with it being too small, the collar up and sleeves up she looks like a little 'pink lady' (that is a reference to the musical 'Grease' by the way), when I told her about the pocket she wouldn't take her hand out, too cool.





I forgot I bought these boots at Target while in the States, they do fit her (a size 5), but the velcro sides don't quite fasten all the way. When I put these on her she just walked around looking at her feet for forever...

Slow cooker recipe

I have had non-pregnancy related stomach woes for three days now. No fun. I have tried to rest a lot but life goes on of course, and it just happens to be a very busy time for David right now, even so he has been a tremendous help. Our neighbor's house helper did come up today and was a huge blessing by cleaning for about an hour and a half.. But I do think I am on the mend.

In the middle of that David did buy a motorcycle, which will be revealed in a later post with pics and all. I also, while feeling yucky, had to cook the fresh chicken I had just bought. So I ended up making Thai Peanut Chicken (one of David's favorite, maybe because it includes peanut butter), and The following recipe that my dear friend K gave me (Thanks girl). It was delicious and the meat just fell off the bone it was so tender...yum yum and so easy. Even Sophia said 'yummy.' (I cooked it slow 7 hours and on high the last 1.5 hours, perfect).

Slow Cooker Chicken with Rosemary, Apples and Onions

2 cups sliced onions

2 apples, peeled, cored, sliced

2 pounds cut up chicken pieces (w/ bone)

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

2 tsp dried Rosemary

1 cup chicken broth

1 can cream of mushroom soup

2 cups cooked rice

Arrange onion and apple slices in bottom of slow cooker. Cut chicken into pieces and place on top of apples and onions. Season with salt, pepper and Rosemary. In a small bowl, whisk together chicken broth and soup; pour mixture over chicken. Cover and cook on LOW 6-8 hours or HIGH 3-4 hours. Serve over rice.

Farewell our faithful moto

This pic was in 2005 on our way to a picnic


Here we are much later, still pre-Sophia...

David bought this moto when we first arrived and it has been great. He bought it (more moped style), because it was the only kind that you did not need a license to drive (the laws have since changed). It has been all over the hills and in so many villages in this area. He only had to get it fixed a few times in the past four years, and only ran out of gas...well, not too much (the gas gage is broken). Today David sold it to a friend for about sixty USD. Crazy. But we bought it for less than 300 USD, even crazier....Now we move on to the big boys, that is real motorcycles, real motorcycle prices...he is test driving Hondas and Suzukis, our friend bought the Suzuki, David is still deciding which one he likes best. We will let you know the outcome, with pics of course! And yes, the speed capabilities of the bikes are now in the big leagues, so while we were in the states David bought a real nice helmet!

So Sore!!!

The update on my exercise is....my muscles are falling off, they are so sore. But at least they are still there. I have done this exercise video two days in a row now, and really hope to start hiking Buddha Mountain near our house at least three days a week as well. It is not really a mountain but is a great hike, we dub it Buddha mountain because there is a pagoda (a Buddhist temple structure) on top of it. I just have to figure out the timing on that one. The video I bought when pregnant with Sophia and after reading reviews of various pregnancy workouts, the intro is a little kooky but overall is a great full body work out. Pressin' on...