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.

Outdoor play

Kevin's been gone since Friday morning, but he gets home tomorrow evening (Wednesday!) The girls and I are really ready for him to get back. We haven't gone outside as much as usual (it's a little more of a challenge to get the 2 out by myself in the intense heat), and Grace has been a little stir crazy. But we do have fun times when we go out! Sidewalk chalk, bubbles, talking with neighborhood kids, even finding bugs on the ground are fun activities right now. And I love it that Grace is pretending day and night. The other day we spent a good long time going up and down little hills in our apartment complex, pretending to be Jack and Jill. And chasing each other. And pretending we were "stuck" and getting various ropes to get us "unstuck." The little brain is always working. Here are my cutie pies. If Grace looks like she has something in her mouth, she was pocketing and still chewing on some guava from her dinner! During the day, many retired folks sit around our apartment complex playing mahjong. Grace is too shy right now to approach them during the day, but she thought their table was fair game while they were gone!

Oh, my sweet 3 month old! She's sleeping through the night now. And tonight I got some great chuckles out of her. Pure bliss.

She sucks her thumb to go to sleep.

The grandparents will be pleased to know Grace still loves to water plants. She's actually pretty good at knowing how much water each of the plants on our balcony needs!

I'll wait to give you a tour of our new apartment until I get some painting and decorating done, but you can see our apartment building here. We live on the 2nd floor instead of the 4th now, which I love! (There are no elevators in apartment buildings with 8 floors or less.) Ours is the 2nd apartment up on the right.

bubbles, bubbles

This is pretty much what we look like after only 30 minutes outside at 9:30 am! It's really humid! Good hair days don't really exist anymore, but I'm ok with that. :)

And we don't have a backyard, but that doesn't stop us from using a kiddie pool on the balcony! Grace had a BLAST today playing in her kiddie pool. Hours of fun, I tell you. Should have bought this much sooner.

Hey look, I can even water plants while playing in my pool!

Staying cool.

Hope you are having a happy summer!

100 day photo shoot

Going to a studio and having pictures made in Asia is such a cultural experience. (Can I get an AMEN fellow ex-pat friends?!) The experience is often multiplied when kids are involved. Here, portrait studios offer interesting clothing options for your children. If you want to put your 3 month-old in a blond Shirley Temple wig, then hey, they have one and think it's cute! I believe often the effect they are going for is Victorian-chic but it often comes across as something like Little Bo Peep. It's just funny. But there's something about the distinct Asian-ness of the picture experience that makes me smile. Except that it usually takes hours to get the photos made, what with all the outfit changes and all. My two previous experiences having pictures made with Grace made me never want to do it again. But, of course, now that Trinity is here, I really want to be fair. (This is a middle-child talking!) In this country, a baby's 100th day is a special milestone. Often, if a family cares to and can afford it, they will throw a big party and buy dinner for all their family and close friends. And, they will get the baby's pictures made. When Grace turned 100 days old, it took a full 4 hours but we got some cute pictures out of it. Today, with Trinity, it only took 3 hours (including a little nap time thrown in there) and we had a little less drama. I think it's because I was much more vocal this time about what pictures I wanted and what I didn't want. When Trinity and I arrived, they showed me various outfits I could choose from. I found myself saying things like, "No, I don't want a picture with my baby in a pink wig." "Yes, I think the strawberry outfit is cute." Yes, I brought some of her own clothes I'd like to use." "Can we please use the white bow because I don't think the pink one matches with her red dress?" and so forth. The ladies who helped me were so sweet and wanted us to be happy with the pictures. They were much less pushy than the last time I went to a studio. And, they were very interested in every single baby item I had brought with me from the US. The changing mat..."so specialized." Trinity's white bow: "Wow, so different from ours." Her sundresses: "Wow, we don't have any baby clothes like that here." We entertained them, I believe. When we started taking pictures, Trinity rolled over for the first time! That was fun to see. And when you have 3 ladies banging a tambourine and all trying to make you smile at once, it makes a baby tired. So, they were so kind to let Trinity sleep for a while. (That's one thing that I love here; they let you take as much time as you need because it's a special occasion and you want good photos!) Once Trinity fell asleep, I put her down on a mat on the staging area where the photos are made. Trinity was sleeping so soundly in a cute little strawberry outfit. A mom with a 2 year old boy came into the photo room and didn't see me. All of a sudden she said, "That baby isn't real, right? Is that baby fake?" To which I replied, "No, she's real." She turned around suddenly, saw me and laughed. I didn't mean to embarrass her, but I think she was. All of us had a good laugh about it. It's so rare to see a foreign baby here, and she was sleeping so soundly that I can see why she thought Trinity was a doll. :) I was a little tired of telling them I didn't want certain outfits, so I conceded on one outfit and let them dress her in a red and white checked bikini with a Bo-Peep hat. Oh my! Trinity was tired by that point and I knew we already had some good photos, so why fight it? I don't have to buy those, but hmmm, maybe I will just for funsies! It's days like these that makes me smile about some of the cultural differences we run into. Maybe we were a little egg-like today.