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...

Bye-bye Daddy

Daddy went to Thailand today - we're going to miss him so much - we pray God will take care of him, help him not to get sick. Goodbye Daddy!