a surprise

Kevin has to be out-of-town quite a bit this month, so he surprised me a few days ago and told me he had arranged for Jeff and Amy to keep Grace so we could have a day-long date on Saturday! Our day o' fun yesterday included a trip to the zoo, lunch at a Thai restaurant, a shared fruit smoothie at our favorite drink stop, wonderful hour-long massages (for a whopping $3.50 USD), and finally to our favorite coffee shop. It was fun to be carefree for a few hours. Thanks Jeff and Amy for babysitting! You are wonderful!


I was pleased with the landscaping at the zoo. We've lived here almost three years but this was our first trip. Aren't we terrible for not taking our child with us? (We will later, but this was a scouting mission!) Can you tell from this picture we are in the year of the pig?

The dolphin and sea lion show we saw was ok, but the real show happened when some monkeys escaped from their cages! It was ironic, because not even an hour earlier I was talking with Kevin and conjecturing about how often they have animals escape. For some reason, there was a hole in the monkey cage, and the smaller monkeys made it through. Soon after I took this picture, a small crowd gathered. One lady (I assume a zoo employee) put her umbrella over the hole so more monkeys couldn't escape while another worker chased the 2 fugitives to a separate monkey area.
The white tigers did not have a big place to stay. This particular tiger was put into a smaller cage before a zookeeper came to attend to him. We thought he was going to give the tiger a shot, but he just put some sort of yellow liquid into his cage without actually touching the tiger. Not sure why he just "spewed" the liquid at him, but the tiger didn't like it and swiped and growled in protest.
Just remember, you should never stride around ferocious animals...
Here's our Thai lunch (not authentic, but good enough), which included pinapple rice, barbecued beef on a stick, shrimp cakes, and cucumber with Thai sauce. Deee-lish!

On another note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY today to my mom, Judy Gerlt. We love you, Mom and wish we were there to celebrate with you!

play dates

We had a fun outing today with a new friend I met at the gym (Liu liu) and her son, named Qiao qiao. Qiao qiao is only 3 weeks older than Grace. He truly is a cutie, very well-behaved. I am really thankful for today's playdate, because I've been looking for some closer relationships with local folks. I think Liu liu and I can become good friends. I love my foreign friends who live here in our city; don't know what I'd do without them. But I really need to develop deeper friendships with Asians, too. I am a nerd and sometimes get a little nervous before meeting with a new friend. For instance, sometimes I think, "Will she get frustrated if I can't understand what she says?" "Will I do something culture-stupid?" But, we had a great time and I don't think I did anything too stupid! She even taught me a few new words today. It's funny how in spite of cultural differences, we are so much the same. Our kiddos had fun playing today and we enjoyed talking.

Grace was afraid to get in the ball-pit, but Qiao qiao made sure she had balls to play with anyway!

time for a hug...

Qiao qiao would smile really big when his mama asked him to...

We had a little mishap on the way home, but thankfully it turned out ok. As we were flagging down a cab, I saw a huge concrete truck driving way too fast and heading right for the cab. He didn't have time to stop and smashed into the back bumper of the cab. I'm thankful both drivers were ok and that the cab didn't run over us in the process!

Yesterday Grace and I also went to our first ever play group. It's made up of several foreigner ladies and includes 12 preschoolers! Whoa, that's a lot of kids! Apparently it's the first-ever "foreigner" play group in our city. I guess there is a need for us to connect with other like-minded moms and for our kids to play with other kids who are just like them because everyone jumped at the idea. Again, Grace had a blast. She gets a little bored with ole' mom that she really enjoys getting to play in a new environment.

the good kind of bootleggin'

This country is well-known for its ability to copy things. Even art students here study how to duplicate masterpieces from well-known artists. So, it's no surprise that last week a new coffee-house opened up which looks almost exactly like Starbucks on the inside. We've seen it before, but we rarely get excited because usually the coffee is terrible, barely drinkable. BUT, this new coffee house even has excellent coffee like Starbucks! The cappuccino I ordered was the best coffee I've had here. Apparently this coffee house is a franchise from up north. Way to go, SPR coffee! (Ummm, don't know where the name came from except they told us it's SPR, as in "spring!")

Do the bag and coffee cup look a little familiar?

party central

We had some fun gatherings this weekend at our place. On Saturday, I hosted a baby shower for a friend. There were 14 ladies here and it was great fun! My friend wanted everyone to write down advice for her, then we read it aloud, and I felt blessed to hear all the advice, too, being relatively new to this mom-gig!

On Sunday, we had a suprise 30th birthday party for Kevin's cousin, Jeff. His wife, Amy, had organized things really well. Here's his surprised look...

I thought Jeff and Amy looked really cute in their scooter helmets!!
Opening gifts...

This is from the baby shower. Sorry it's the only photo I can share with you...

a fun time of day

One of my favorite times of the day is first thing in the morning. I can often hear Grace in her bed, talking to herself with all the fun new words she's learning to say. This morning it was Biiiible, Jeeeeesus, gege, didi, meimei (which means big brother, little brother, little sister in Asianese.) When she's eating breakfast, she's usually in a good mood and asks us for several kisses while in her high chair. Honestly, it's probably just a ploy for us to come over and pay her some attention, but it's fun anyway. If she gives one person in the room a kiss, she has to give everyone a kiss. That's fine for Mom and Dad, but sometimes our guests who might be around don't really want a slimy wet kiss from a toddler! Guess I need to teach her how to give pecks on the cheek.


Of course, we try to avoid giving kisses when she looks like this... Grace has a new fascination with peanut butter and loves to eat it straight. It's currently her third favorite food, behind oranges and dried fruit but just above green beans and chicken nuggets!

the half-finished photo shoot

It all started a few months ago when 2 friends and I talked about how we should all get pictures made in traditional Asian clothing for our upcoming wedding anniversaries. Granted, Kevin and I celebrated our 10th anniversary in July, but due to several schedule changes we put it off until this week! Well, this week also happens to coincide with a national holiday around these parts, so the photo place was quadruple-booked. By the time we got through the red tape, found traditional Asian clothing big enough for our western bodies, waited on tons and tons of other families in line, etc, it was nearing lunch time and Grace's subsequent nap time. We tried to stretch her out, but she got overwhelmed with the myriads of folks getting in her face. Ummm, it was, well, a fiasco. We got half the pictures made and had already paid-in-full, so we will be returning whenever we get our nerve up to go again. Whew! Since we didn't finish taking all our photos, I came home and shot a few myself later...(sorry, Kevin and I had to leave our traditional costumes at the photo shop, but here are some photos of Grace in a traditional qipao that I found in Hong Kong and also in a fun green dress sent by Aunt Jeanette.)

Happy Mid-Autum Festival!

Yes, it's that time of year again when families gather to eat dinner, look at the moon, and eat mooncakes in celebration of the full moon. Too bad it's rainy and cloudy this evening and the moon is hidden. This is our third year to attempt eating mooncakes. I have to admit, I have grown to like the fruit kinds a LITTLE bit but still can't stomach most kinds (especially any of them with egg in the middle). Mooncakes are big-business over here. In our city, we know of one hotel alone that sells over $1 million US dollars in mooncakes each year! Kevin's school gave us these "ice snow purple rice" flavored mooncakes with lotus paste filling.

Mmmmm, Grace thinks they aren't too bad. Maybe she will grow up actually thinking these are tasty!
Kevin took this picture tonight on his bike ride home. Festive dragons are always fun...