General Update

Well, I didn't mean to fall off the blog train, but I guess it's been a while. I'm not letting it fade away though! I guess the past week or two have just been busy. Brant just finished his first week back teaching for the new semester, and that has kept him very busy. So, here are some random things I've been wanting to post.

Eden has a little toy train that she's been enjoying playing with lately. Last night she had pushed it under the table, and there it sat all night. This morning I noticed it under there. Eden was searching in her room for it, but couldn't find it, so she came and asked me where it was. I told her it was under the table. She went to get it and said to the train something like "Little train, I know the reason you were hiding under here was because you didn't want me to find you!" The train replied (in a voice that sounded very much like Eden's voice) "Who me??" And Eden assured the train, "yes you!"

Anita has become quite vocal just within the past few days. We're all enjoying her baby babble so much! Some of her sounds are something like (but not exactly like) gleh gleh, bleh bla, neng ning, deh dah, and even dada! She doesn't know what dada means yet, but we're excited to hear it anyways. When she's happy, she babbles funny, and when she's mad, she babbles even funnier! She is able to get up on her elbows and knees and rock back and forth a little bit, so I guess crawling isn't too far off. She also has two bottom teeth poked through now, but none on the top yet. She's getting pretty good at moving around in her walker, and it almost seems as if she's trying to chase Eden around a bit. Things will really start getting interesting around here when she can actually catch up to Eden and get her hands on her! Oyoy, I'm not sure if I want to think of that yet! In spite of her recent development, Nita is quite the snuggly little baby still, but if you have a cuddle session with her, it's almost certain you'll come away with slobber-soaked shoulders or sleeves. I guess I'll pay that price because snuggling her is a delight!

Eden is doing good. She's so excited about her upcoming birthday, and she has been working on how to say her age in both English and Chinese for anyone who would want to ask her in the future. She has requested strawberry shortcake for her birthday, just like in the book "Poky Little Puppy". I've never made that before, but I'll give it a go for her. Eden really seems to enjoy having Nita around to talk to and play with. Unfortunately, she also enjoys being a bossy big sister, but I guess that comes with the territory. Eden can be such a big help around our place with picking up toys, dusting, taking out the trash, hanging up laundry, and fetching or putting away things for us. Her Chinese isn't so great, so just recently we've been considering sending her to a Chinese preschool just for a few hours a week. I'm so reluctant to make that kind of commitment of her leaving me so regularly though! My children aren't supposed to ever leave mommy's side! I do think it would be wild to hear her chattering away in Chinese though. I can't even imagine it. I guess that some day her Chinese will be far better than mine. Right now, when Brant and I don't want Eden to know what we're talking about, we either spell words out, or we use Chinese. I just had a thought that someday she and Brant might do the same thing to me with Chinese - I better get working on my Chinese more!

I recently took Eden out shopping for shoes and socks. We went to my favorite place to shop - a place called zhanlanguan, and it's sort of like a big mall. One difference is that most of the stores are just small shops, and they are packed in there in a big maze of walkways. The good thing about this place is the atmosphere - namely that it's usually not too crowded. So, we looked and looked for shoes, and murphy's law rang true - we found some in one of the very last stores we looked in. Eden is excited to have an opportunity to wear her spring shoes soon. After we got the shoes and socks, we got some lunch and headed kitty-corner across a big interchange to a mega-mart type store called Carrefour to pick up some essentials. Then we got our favorite - 2 scoops of Baskin Robbins ice cream! I am so glad that I have a little girl to go out shopping and ice cream-eating with! I'm looking forward to many years of shopping with our girls.

Well, that about wraps it up. I'll try to get some new pictures and videos posted very soon. Bye now!