Now I have four cousins!

March 29th, Lizzy and Hayden's new little cousin was born - Amelia Jane Brandt. We can't wait to hold you, Amelia!!!

Trip to the Village

Meet auntie Leslie. She is a friend of ours and she runs a project in a village outside of Tianjin training mothers in raising their babies both in physical health and other aspects of well being. Auntie Leslie is one of Lizzy's favorite people. Yesterday, we decided to go out to the village with her.

After a taxi ride to the train station, hour and a half train ride, more taxi rides, we finally arrived at the village site where we did the training.

Here are some of the mothers and their babies attending the training

After the training we went to somebody's home where they treated us to a big pot of jiao zi (dumplings)

It was a REALLY big pot of jiao zi - I've never seen anything like it! Lizzy got to see some animals in the village - cows, sheep, pigs, and she enjoyed playing with the children outside in the courtyard.

Thank you Aunti Leslie for a wonderful day!

playing video games

Lizzy: Hayden, get 'em, go get 'em, I'm rooting for you

Lizzy: Aw...man, this game is really slowing down, I'm getting tired
Hayden: I'm trying, I'm trying, it's getting really hard

Hayden: Doh! I died, I died!
Video game: "du, du, du, du, GAME OVER"

Girl time!

The joy of having a daughter - pedicures for Mommy and Lizzy! A-ayi gave us a set of exfoliating cream, foot spray, and foot lotion. Auntie Verona gave us some nail polish, so we sat down and gave ourselves a pedicure.

Big news

Yesterday, March 21st, Hayden took his first steps all by himself. It'll be a while before he starts walking around, but it was pretty cool to see him do that. Sorry I don't have any pictures yet, but I wanted to record the moment!

Thanks Amy

Amy ayi got mommy these shirts for her birthday - thank you Amy ayi!! I love playing dress up in them. Then I like to take the belt off of the white sweater vest and then use it as a leash on my pink pig. I drag around the pig and pretend Hayden is a big dog trying to bite my pig.

Mommy and Hay

Daddy'a home

The kids were thrilled to see Daddy. Check out the sign Lizzy made for him

The Ice Cream Legacy

When we were little girls, we always enjoyed going out to ice cream with Ba. Now, he's passing on the legacy with his granddaughter...


P.S. There's a new Haagen Daz restaurant in Tianjin. Yay!

Lizzy's bangs

Here's a look at the progress Lizzy's made in facial muscle control development. Getting her bangs cut last year:

And this year, much more grace and poise

Fun in the snow

The day after we got back to Tianjin, there was a big snow storm. Here's Lizzy having fun in it on our way to the grocery store on day

Monkey King Hayden

In Chinese legend, there's a story about a monkey king whose weapon is a big stick. This toy was left at our house from one of Lizzy's classmates from preschool. I finally let the kids play with it and it's become a favorite. In fact, it's become such a source of conflict between the two kids, I've had to take it away. It cracks me up that Hayden loves to play with it because it's about 5 times as long as he is.

Picture Quest

I had to snap a lot of pictures...





But I finally got it - Hayden sticking out his tongue.

Playing with Caleb

Caleb is my cousin's son, he's the same age as Lizzy, so I was really looking forward to having them play together. They hit it off really well and became literally inseparable. Everywhere they went, they had to hold hands.







But alas, the four-year old nature kicks in, and sometimes Caleb doesn't always do what Lizzy wants, and the holding of hands gets somewhat violent...




Towards the end, I was getting really tired of Lizzy bossing Caleb around and me saying, "Lizzy, you can't make Caleb do what he doesn't want to do." After we got home, we were looking at a picture of her and Caleb, and her lips start pouting, and her attitude starts rising,

"Mommy, why isn't Caleb smiling? I want him to smile!"

Even in the picture, she wants to boss him around. I'm going to feel really sorry for Lizzy's future husband.

Proud to be Chinese

Happy Lantern Festival!

Yesterday was Lantern festival - a festival that marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebration. I'm not sure what the origin of this holiday is except that it involves lanterns and you eat yummy rice balls filled with sweet stuff. Since this is the year of the pig, here's Lizzy with a big pig lantern wishing you happy holidays.



Since we're putting up pix of Lizzy with A-ayi, here are some more.




Yes, A-ayi loves to buy Lizzy clothes and she always buys her clothes that are her style. Well, this trip back, A-ayi saw something in Lizzy's wardrobe that she liked, so she went to the children's store and bought matching outfits. Only A-ayi is skinny enough to fit into children's clothes...