here they are

Grace and Kevin rode the bus after dinner tonight (which they often do for fun) to go pick up Trinity's 100 day photos. Grace was sweaty and panting with excitement when she came home and told me how Trinity was dressed up like a strawberry in her pictures. I wasn't quite as thrilled as Grace was about how they turned out, but we did get a few cute ones nonetheless. I couldn't tell if they had edited the photos at all, and they messed up the book I ordered with it (more on that below). But hey, here's my baby girl in all her strawberry cuteness.

I had a little battle going on with the photographer about where Trinity's bow should be. She kept pulling it up on her head and I kept pulling it down. She won.

Grace had an apple in one of her 100 day photos, too. I guess it's a common prop here!

In her traditional Chinese bib.

As I've done before, I ordered the little hard-back book that the studio puts together and usually comes with the pre-paid package. The books tend to have cartoon characters and are a bit cutesy/over-the-top, but I like them for some reason. Because there's no where in the States I could go and get something so "distinct." Someday these books will make me smile as I remember how they do things here.

Grace's 100 day book is on the right. It says "BABY, you are my super star." Cheesy, but very Asian. No blatant Chinglish. In fact, we had asked for no English written in the book because we didn't want anything written that made absolutely no sense. When we picked it up, it still had a little bit of English written in, but nothing weird. Now Trinity's book (on the left) is another story. I also asked for NO ENGLISH to be written in the book, except for her English name. I was assured it wouldn't have any English writing on it. But, here's what it says:

Happy Baby, intelligent, clever, lovable, joyful, supreme headquarters

Yep, it says supreme headquarters

Why? I have no idea. But just like those NBA players often don't know what it the world their Chinese-character tattoo says, well, that happens over here too.

Here's a page from Grace's book. Pretty well-done.

And this one of Trinity's I can live with. It has her Chinese and English names, blood type(!), birthday, etc.

But I have no idea what this page says because it happens to be written in Korean!

And this one might just take the cake. Above "Childhood recollection" is written: "You don't want me no more. But I'm gonna change your mind. Some way somehow." Wow.

I've debated taking it back and seeing about getting a different book, but honestly, I've been here long enough that I'm just skeptical a new book would be any better. Plus, this one makes me laugh.

Oh, and don't worry. We bought the right to all these pictures so we're not breaking any copyright laws by showing you our books. Well, that, and over here copyright usually means "right to copy."

Trinity

I'm still waiting on her 100 day photos to come back from the portrait studio. But in the meantime, here she is at 131 days (also known as the day she cut her first tooth :).

This is what happens when our internet is slow...

I have some pictures to post, but alas, internet has been impossibly slow the last few days. This happened the middle of last month, too. Maybe it's a trend. In the meantime, I know you are sooo anxious to know what we've been up to, right? (Just play along.) Kevin's been busy and still travels some each week. I'm looking forward to the weather getting cooler so we girls can accompany him from time to time. He's such a great husband and daddy and is working hard to juggle work and family time. Grace had a rough first month back in country. I'm not gonna lie. There were some tough days in there. But the last two weeks have been MUCH better and I think I have my happy girl back. As most of you already know, foreign kiddos here get so much attention every time they leave the house. People come and touch their hair, face, etc. Most times when she's spoken to, Grace will look down at the ground and say she is shy. But every so often she surprises us. She loves to engage kids and will talk to men more readily than women because they aren't in her face as quickly. We thought Grace had lost almost all of her Chinese, but she's pulling out a few nuggets here and there. Every day she's asking me what something means in Chinese, and she's learning new words (or re-learning old words) each week. Baby steps. I'm hoping she will be ready to begin at a local preschool a few mornings a week beginning this fall, but we will see how that goes come September. She still makes me laugh every day. ("Mommy, God is here but we can't see him with our eyes. But we can see Jesus with our sunglasses," for example.) There have been several times Grace has been mistaken for a 5 year-old, I guess because she's taller than most 3 year-olds here. One one occasion, when I mentioned Grace's age, two older ladies started discussing why they thought foreign kids were taller than kids here. And they concluded it was definitely because our milk in America is different. Another neighbor (who knew Grace before we left) asked me how Grace got so tall in America. "Does it have anything to do with the weather in America? Is it because of what you feed her?" Trinity, at the ripe age of 4 months old, cut her two bottom teeth this week. And she's been rolling over front-to-back. Oh my, I'm trying to savor her baby-hood. It's already flying by so quickly. She's at that golden baby stage and I'm loving it. By my best scientific efforts (using the bathroom scale and holding her) she is somewhere around 8 kilograms, or 17.6 pounds. I seem to spend half the time I'm holding her kissing her chubby cheeks. I can't get enough of them. And me? Well, I have to confess something. I've never actually learned how to cook Chinese food. I don't think stir-fry counts. It's really a shame that I'm working on almost 4 years of living here and still can't cook local food specialties. When I cook at home, it's almost always western food. And Chinese food is so cheap to eat out. We have some local friends who will probably be staying with us in the near future. And I can't just tell them we will eat out every meal. I really want to be able to host folks in our home, so I'm going to hire my neighbor to teach me. There, I wrote it down so now hopefully I'll do it! What have you been up to lately?

These are a few of her favorite things...

1. Bus Rides - Sometimes we take Grace on a city bus just to ride around town. She loves it that much. Very cheap entertainment. But she's not always fond of the attention she receives while riding the bus.

2. Tea Parties - She loves to pretend and play tea party. Today, while eating at our favorite Japanese restaurant, she decided to try the barley tea for real and decided it was "delicious."

3. Being a helper - Here she is so proud to be helping momma make granola bars

4. Babies!! Kevin's cousin and wife, Jeff and Amy, just came back to town after having their beautiful baby girl Macy. She is a month old and so, so precious. From what we can gather, these girls are 3rd cousins?? (Someone help us out on that.)

5.-6. Playing dress up and of course, her sister - I never know what Grace is going to look like after her nap time. This particular day she woke up wearing her pajamas and winter accessories. Then she wanted to snuggle with her sister on the couch. She's a great big sister.

Bonsai!!

...or "peng-zai," as they call it here!! Kevin has long admired bonsai trees. Every time we walk by vendors selling them here, he will stop and take a gander and talk about how much he likes them. So, for his Father's Day gift this year, Kevin got to pick out his very own. I really enjoyed watching him research bonsai trees on the internet and bust out words like "ramification." Huh? (BTW, did you know bonsai trees actually originated in this country, but the Japanese took them and made them more of an art form?) Anway, Kevin has been looking up ways to prune them and which kinds of trees work well indoors since he wants it for his office. So, he went to both bird and flower markets a few times each to get just the right tree (and price!) The trees are expensive here, but not nearly as expensive as in the US. Kevin picked out a tree that needs a little bit of work and pruning, but he got a great deal. He said his goal this year is just to not kill it! Grace thought the coolest part was a few of the little ants we found living in the tree.