first ponytail

Grace doesn't let me touch her hair that often. I've tried on several occasions to put in pigtails or a ponytail, but it usually ends up with her crying and taking it out before I am finished. The other day, however, she saw two ladies on the bus wearing ponytails and talked about, "all the ponytails." We asked her if she wanted one, and she said, "uh-huh." So, it's crudely-done and poorly-photographed, but here's her first ponytail. She was so very proud and has been talking about ponytails quite often since then.


Grace is loving to sing these days. She can sing entire songs now like her ABC's and "Rock-a-bye Baby." I can hardly believe she'll be two years old in June!

Where's Heloise when you need her?

Wanna see something gross?

Eeeewwwhh! That's mold. Yep, it's that time of year again when the walls sweat, clothes take 3 days to dry, and mosquitos have a hey-day. It's "humid" season. Or I should say, "even more humid than normal" season. We took Grace's travel booster chair with us to Beijing, (which is a nice and dry city I must say), and we used it several times. Apparently I didn't do a great job of getting all the food off after she used it in Beijing. After only TWO DAYS of being folded up in our home after returning to our city, I opened it up and this is what I found. I've tried vinegar, bleach, you name it. It looks better now, but I can't totally get mold out of the little straps. Gross! We have to be careful about our clothes or anything in storage. If it gets moist, it starts growing mold. There's a reason no one here has carpeted homes.

Beijing!

I now heart Beijing. We enjoyed the city much more than I thought we would. For some reason, I just envisioned a larger, dirtier version of the city in which I live. I really was wrong. Now that the Olympics is coming, major transformations are under way. The air quality was decent while we were there, and the fact that it wasn't peak tourist season didn't hurt, either. Thanks to the recommendations of Rachel C, we had a great place to stay! Also, our friends JD2 met us there and were truly handy-dandy tour guides!

Ironically, the only day it rained on us was at the Great Wall. We can say we've STOOD on the Great Wall, but I can't say we've seen all that much of it. Visibility was horrible, so we couldn't take any great photos. Kevin and I agreed we'd have to go back someday when the weather was clearer. But, it was still amazing to be there. (We did find it funny, though, that we ended up spending more time at IKEA than at the Great Wall! :)


Back in the city, we also went to the Temple of Heaven. There are many parallels that can be observed directly from the OT. Amongst other things, once a year the emperor would cleanse himself, go to a place similar to the "Holy of Holies" and make sacrifices to the God of Heaven to atone for the sins of the people. Sound familiar?
I managed to get the pictures out of order, but here we are in the Forbidden City.
The entrance to the Forbidden City and the famous picture of Mao.
Boy, did we eat well! They have authentic western food in Beijing. Who knew we would find real Texasd bbq? This group of Texans gave it the seal of approval. This restaurant was also the sight of our most scary moment with Grace. She enjoyed her meal a little too quickly and choked on a potato wedge. She couldn't breathe and we had to do the baby Heimlich manuever. It was one of my most terrifying mommy moments!!

Pappaw and Grace at the official Olympic countdown!
Across the street from Tiananmen Square.
One of the statues within Tiananmen. I had no idea just how large the square actually is! We were told that a million people once fit within the area.
the changing of the guard
Pappaw, Nana, and Aunt Kimberly have all made it safely back to their homes. We had a fun visit, and it was special to all get to experience Beijing together. In a few years, we hope to all make it to North Africa where Kimberly lives.

Pappaw, Nana, and Aunt Kimberly are here!

Pappaw and Nana flew in last week, and this week Aunt Kimberly came all the way from North Africa! We're having a great time together. Next Tuesday we will all head to Beijing for the very first time. Ought to be lots of good photo ops there.

Grace has loved having so many people around to read her books.
They brought her a fun new doll from Germany named Hans.

Aunt Kimberly brought Grace a super-cool Bedouin tent from North Africa. Very authentic! Here's Daddy putting it all together. Grace absolutely loves it. This afternoon, she "nested" by bringing in and taking out babies and books and inviting each of us in to play in the tent with her. (Ok, sometimes she bossed us into the tent, but "invited" sounds better.)