Transformers

For Father's Day, I got Jason Optimus Prime (the leader of the Autobots in the upcoming most anticipated blockbuster this summer, Transformers). Well, he liked it so much, he went out and bought 3 more transformer toys, claiming, "we have to have bad guys". So here it is, the bad guy Decepticon with Lizzy. Of course Lizzy loves the new toys and Jason can enjoy playing it with her. However, she is our little girl so she makes the robots family members. "Daddy, let's pretend, this guy is the son, 'k?" What was really disturbing was yesterday we saw Hayden holding his toy truck and patting it like it was a cuddly teddy bear! Either he's got a real soft spot towards monster trucks, or he's learning a little too much from his sister.



By the way, July 4th: "Autobots, transform and move out" - Coming to a theater near you.

first bath together

Hayden finally graduated from his infant tubbie and has officially joined Lizzy in the big bath tub. Actually, Lizzy can take showers now, but she still enjoys splashing around with her little brother. I can't describe in words how much Hayden loves the bath tub, he squeals, he laughs, he splashes, it's pure heaven for him.

I got a haircut

The crying only lasted about 80% of the haircut this time - we're makin' progress

company picnic

We went on a picnic this Sunday with a bunch of our friends

Hayden is not much of a people person, so he just hung out on Daddy's lap drinking some yogurt

Lizzy had a blast playing with Toby

and Oscar, they played soccer, and climbed the jungle gyms

But all great fun comes with great cost - the mosquitos attacked Lizzy, and alas, she has my genes where if a mosquito bites her, she reacts really badly for a long time...poor Lizzy

All by myself

I don't know what other kids can do, but I am really impressed that at 14 months, Hayden can go down the slide all by himself.

See, I can climb up the stairs by myself, and sometimes I like to poke my fingers in the holes...



and wheeeeeeee.....

Sometimes I like to go down with my sister together

Duck, Duck, Goose

Monday, I went to Lizzy's school with a friend who is also thinking about putting her child in school. So I spied on Lizzy during their outside play time. Looks like they were playing duck, duck, goose.

Demonstration

A British pediatric consultant came over to Tianjin to do some training with medical students/doctors in the Tianjin Medical University last week. She asked if there were some English speaking children who would volunteer to help in demonstrations in her training. So I took Hayden and Lizzy in on two separate days. It was a demonstration of how to assess a child's development, so they did exercises with blocks, tested their verbal skills, motor skills, etc. It was interesting.



I knew Lizzy was going to do really good with these puzzles because she can actually do ones that are a lot more complicated

no sweat!

It was a lot of work for the children, Lizzy especially, had to sit for an entire hour. She did great and I am so proud of her because she did the whole thing in Chinese and was able to follow all the directions and speak.

Thanks for staying with us!

Lizzy enjoyed bossing A-ayi around and making her play with her and taking her to the playground. Hayden liked having Amy throw him up high. (gao, gao) Thanks for staying with us, and we miss you!!

sandpit

three and a half years ago, when we arrived in Tianjin, it was a struggle to find any decent children's play areas. Now, there is this beautiful new park with giant play structures and a large sandpit for children to play in. China's changes never ceases to amaze me. Here I was trying to get a picture of Lizzy and her friend Sophie, who didn't want to cooperate. Lizzy, on the other hand, is an absolute pro at posing for pictures.

In the back are some other friends. Living here in China, we have both foreigner expat friends and local Chinese friends. So whenever, we tell Lizzy we are having friends come over, she asks, "English or Chinese?" When I told her I would sign her up for a summer camp in the States this summer, she asks, "English or Chinese?" I had to tell her, "honey, in America, they're generally always English."

Hmmmm., the things you thought you'd never say as a parent...

Diaper Boy

Sit Down Please!

Hayden climbing into Lizzy's booster seat...

Hayden climbing into Lizzy's doll bed...

Froggy Bib

Recently saw Kaysi's new froggy bib so I pulled up some pictures of our froggy bib. It's been around since when Lizzy was a toddler. Now the plastic is a little bit peeling off...hope Hayden doesn't get plastic poisoning...



We love our froggy bib! Food never goes to waste, just scoop it right back into the bowl!

gymnastics

Took Lizzy to a gym class last Saturday. The teacher is a Chinese gal training to be in the Olympics 2008! Pretty impressive, eh?

Here she is laughing uncontrollably about her friend Ty falling into the foam pile


Her favorite - the trampoline

Playing Outside