Thanksgiving

I've noticed a number of people on Facebook putting up daily statuses about what they are thankful for during the month of November. I haven't done this, but lately I have been thinking of things I'm especially thankful for this year. I usually put a lot more mental energy into complaining than being thankful, even though I have a great life. I don't want to just pull out the thankfulness when Thanksgiving is near, but I love this holiday that is dedicated to being grateful (well, and eating a lot of food). So I have made a list of 24 things (for each day of the month leading up to Thanksgiving) I am thankful for right now. It isn't in any particular order and certainly isn't comprehensive, so if you aren't mentioned, don't get offended.

1. I'm grateful that our university is willing to provide an extra “mother's class” for the 3 mothers who can't attend the regular department classes. Meeting with a tutor is great, but having a actual teacher and class-time and classmates is so valuable!
   
   
2. I just love my baby! It's ridiculous, but I find myself often feeling jealous of people without children. Being able to go on dates with their husband or not wake up during the night. Or there would be so much more time for studying Chinese. But actually before Juliana was born, I was often jealous of people who did have children. Classic case of 'grass is greener' that ridiculous discontentment. Having a baby (em, toddler) isn't always easy but I am so glad to be a parent.
   
   
3. I'm glad to live in a city where we can get fresh milk (skim and whole) each week, have easy access to cheese, and have a yummy western restaurant (with pizza and milkshakes!).
   
   
4. Speaking of food, I'm really glad to live in a country that has awesome, inexpensive food. It would stink to live somewhere with gross food or someplace with great food you could never afford.
   
   
5. While there is a definite convenience in having a car, I love being able to bike most places. I am also grateful for the abundance of bike repairmen whom you sometimes end up visiting every other week.
   
   
6. I am glad to be surrounded by so many people. That was definitely something I struggled with first coming to China, and I do still love to get out of the city, but lately I have appreciated being in a place where the streets and sidewalks and stores and neighborhoods are chalk full of people moving around and hanging out outside, even in winter. No isolation here!
   
   
7. I'm grateful for the people in the community I see every day: the teenager who works at the hair-shop at the bottom of the stairwell and runs out to greet Juliana, man who sells local honey outside the gate and always smiles when I bike through, the grannies and mothers and little kids living around us who all know Juliana, the vegetable sellers who give us good prices, the workers in the supermarket who now know Juliana.

8. Skype! Juliana gets so excited and starts waving as soon as we bring out the computer and microphone. She loves getting to see her grandparents and family, and they love seeing her show off her newest tricks. It's hard being so far away from family, and things like this make it a lot easier!
   
   
9. I am thankful for the Chinese I am learning! There are days I feel like I don't know anything, but I know a LOT more than a few months ago! I can actually carry on conversations with my tutors, and I couldn't read or write anything before. Every bit is so helpful.
   
   
10. I love our A-yi! Maybe not quite as much as Juliana, who still gets so excited whenever she comes, but I do like her a lot. It is really great to have someone I feel comfortable leaving Juliana with.
    
    
11. I am thankful to Kevin for giving Juliana breakfast so I can sleep a little longer when she wakes up ridiculously early, washing the dishes every night, getting down on the floor and playing with Juliana, supporting me in language study, and sharing similar parenting ideas.
    
    
12. I am really enjoying being around other families this year! We can commiserate about how many times we were up last night and how hard it is to find study time and where to buy the cheapest diapers.
    
    
13. Chocolate. You know that had to be on the list.
    
    
14. I love my Kindle! Probably the best purchase (or my parent's best purchase, anyway) in the past few years. I have read a LOT of books on it over the past year and most of them were free! It's pretty much the best thing a book lover living overseas can possess!
    
    
15. Clear skies! I love that we can see the mountains out our window almost every day, and when we walk outside the air doesn't feel unhealthy to breathe.
    
    
16. I am excited that my parents are coming to visit in January!!
    
    
17. I so appreciate sleep. Juliana is still not an amazing sleeper but it has been SO much better than the first year of her life. It is still wonderful to wake up in the night knowing you have slept longer than 2hrs, and even more phenomenal to wake up and realized it's morning!
    
    
18. I am thankfulness for our apartment, which though not as nice as our last one, is a good size for us, is really convenient to classes, and is a great price.
    
    
19. I am glad to live on the sixth floor because we have a good view over the campus, we get lots of light, and we are forced to get exercise every day.
    
    
20. I appreciate how happy Juliana is! She really has a zest for life, and we smile and laugh so much more with her around.
    
    
21. I am grateful for heat, because every winter I remember how cold I was in Yangzhou and know better than to take central heating for granted!
    
    
22. I'm thankful for all the people who encourage and support us being in China (even though they miss us terribly, of course :)
    
    
23. I am happy it's time to start listening to Christmas songs.
    
    
24. I'm thankful for many good Thanksgiving memories... many years of waking up to the smell of turkey and the taste of cinnamon rolls, using the crystal glasses, china, and real silver, and eating tons of amazing food...plus a few strange China experiences - crackers on a train with Team YZ, dinner in a revolving restaurant, KFC in lieu of turkey...
    Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Why I'm still Nursing

Before Juliana was born I thought I would nurse for one year and then be done. I hadn't really thought about it much; that just seemed to be 'what people do.' Since her birth though, I have changed a good number of my previous parenting ideas. 

Right now I am happily nursing a 14 month old with no plans of stopping anytime soon. Even though Juliana has officially become a toddler, I don't see what any magical difference between 11 months and 30 days (nursing a baby) and 12 months 1 day or baby's first steps (Oh my gosh, you're nursing a toddler??!).

There are many reasons to continue nursing a toddler. Extended nursing is still very beneficial. I dislike the term “extended nursing” because it seems like something strange and unusual. While it is currently not the norm in America, I don't think it should be unusual at all. Did you know that the worldwide age for weaning is 4 years old? FOUR! That's quite a bit different from the 6 months – 1 year we consider normal in America.

Why should we change our cultural norms? Well here are a few great reasons:

[Information from http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-benefits.html. See page for more detailed info and references]

• Breastfeeding continues to be a valuable source of nutrition and disease protection for as long as breastfeeding continues.
  • In the second year (12-23 months), 448 mL of breastmilk provides:

29% of energy requirements
43% of protein requirements
36% of calcium requirements
75% of vitamin A requirements
76% of folate requirements
94% of vitamin B₁₂ requirements
60% of vitamin C requirements

• Nursing toddlers between the ages of 16 and 30 months have been found to have fewer illnesses and illnesses of shorter duration than their non-nursing peers
• Extensive research on the relationship between cognitive achievement (IQ scores, grades in school) and breastfeeding has shown the greatest gains for those children breastfed the longest.
• Helps foster attachment and security which later leads to independence. "Meeting a child's dependency needs is the key to helping that child achieve independence. And children outgrow these needs according to their own unique timetable." [Elizabeth N. Baldwin, Esq. in "Extended Breastfeeding and the Law"] Children who achieve independence at their own pace are more secure in that independence then children forced into independence prematurely.
• The World Health Organization recommends nursing for at least 2 years.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that "Breastfeeding should be continued for at least the first year of life and beyond for as long as mutually desired by mother and child... Increased duration of breastfeeding confers significant health and developmental benefits for the child and the mother... There is no upper limit to the duration of breastfeeding and no evidence of psychologic or developmental harm from breastfeeding into the third year of life or longer." (AAP 2005)
• For the mother, extended breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast, ovarian, uterine, and endometrial cancers and rheumatoid arthritis.

These are all phenomenal reasons, but I also have some of my own reasons for why I like nursing a toddler as well.

*Juliana loves it! She will nurse for a minute or two and then look up with a big grin. It's easy to see it means far more than just nutrition for her.

*I enjoy the feeling of closeness. She has already grown up so much and I know time will continue to go quickly. I appreciate these moments of holding her close.

*Sometimes it helps Juliana to fall asleep. The sleep-inducing factor seems to have mostly worn off months and months ago, but if she is really tired and wired, sometimes it will cause her fall asleep. And I still love nursing a baby (eh, toddler) to sleep.

*She only nurses for about 5 minutes each time, so it's not at all like the 8 hours a day you spend nursing a newborn.

*In the morning, I bring Juliana into bed to for a leisurely, sleepy nurse. This is the one time she'll nurse for a while, which means I get to stay in bed longer! Sometimes she even falls back asleep for a bit.

*I don't have to stress about getting her to drink enough cows milk. She is gradually getting to like it more.

*I feel reassured that if she is sick, she will still be able to get the hydration and nutrients she needs. Fortunately, she hasn't hardly ever been sick!

*Whenever she or I do decide to wean, I hope the process will be much more natural and easy since there is no deadline. I don't know how long I will continue to nurse Juliana, we'll just see. :)

I know that not everyone (or even, most people in America) are interested in extended breastfeeding, and it's certainly not something to force yourself into unwillingly. My hope, though, is that it will become much more normal in our culture. That mothers will consider nursing beyond a year, and that family, friends, and nosy strangers will support her decision!

Family Confusion

by Ruth

Today in class we were talking about family relationships, a topic that very quickly becomes confusing in Chinese! A few words are similar – mama, baba...and that's about it. No generic “grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle” etc. Almost every relationship has a different term depending on if it is the father's or mother's side, if the person is a blood-relative or married in, and also if the person is younger or older than yourself (or whoever you are comparing them to). For example...

Ge-ge: older brother (sao-zi: older brother's wife)

Di-di: younger brother (di-mei: younger brother's wife)

Jie-jie: older sister (jie-fu: older sister's husband)

Mei-mei: younger sister (mei-fu: younger sister's husband)

Nai-nai: father's mother

Ye-ye: father's father

Wai-po/lao-lao: mother's mother

Wai-gong/lao-ye: father's father

Da-bo: father's older brother

Da-jiu: mother's older brother (jiu-ma: mother's older brother's wife)

Xiao-gu: father's younger sister

Xiao-yi: mother's younger sister

Biao-jie: older female cousin (father's sister's daughter or mother's sibling's daughter)

Er xi-fu: son's wife

Nu-xu: daughter's husband

Wai-sheng-nu: granddaughter – daughter's daughter

Sun-nu: granddaughter – son's daughter

I could go on, but you get the idea: it is endlessly complicated! I think there are several reasons for this: First, family relationships are obviously very important in China, so the language includes very specific descriptions of those relationships.

Second, age and status are very important, so older siblings and people in the older generation should be shown proper respect. An older brother and a younger brother just aren't the same thing. An older brother's wife has the highest status of all the wives in the family, so she gets a different name. Thus I will always have a higher status than Kevin's younger brother Scott and call him di-di, even though he is older than me, since I married the firstborn son. Smart going on my part. :)- I will also inherit the family fortune. Oh wait... Anyway, in the past, family status was especially important, but today it is still important for showing the proper respect.

Third, the wife's family and husband's family are viewed rather differently. In the past, the wife left her family to join the husband's family, and while this isn't exactly the case anymore, the idea is still there. Many relationships on the wife's side have the character “wai” (literally meaning outside/outsider) because the relationship with the wife's family isn't as close a bond. At least in theory, though our teacher explained that practically this often isn't the case anymore. But this is part of why it is so important to have a son – you lose your daughter to another family, but a son will carry on your family line.

It is pretty interesting to see all the culture that goes behind these complex relationship terms, but overall I'm just glad not to have too much extended family!!

A Very Important Day

By Ruth

A Very Important Day is coming next week - - November 1 is “Turn on the Heat Day!!” I love this day of the year. In China, the central heating (in our apartments, classrooms, etc.) is controlled by the government and is turned on according to the date rather than the weather. The dates for heat vary according to region. In Weinan, which was a bit further south, our heat wasn't turned on until November 15.

In the south of China, there is no central heating at all. In Yangzhou, for example, I spent my first two years in China freeeeeeeeeezing. I was cold in class and cold outside and cold at home and the only time when I was warm was in bed (with long johns, pjs, several blankets, a hot waterbottle, and a small A/C heater unit. One of my friends from Inner-Mongolia had hard time adjusting to the cold in Yangzhou. When Kevin and I returned to China, one of my big requests for location was to be north of the heat line! I love heat!

Fortunately this year the weather has not been so cold leading up to "Turn on the Heat Day." Just two days ago Kevin and I were saying that it was still remarkably warm. Then – BAM – cold sneaks up and hits you in the face. Cold is sneaky and nasty that way. Today I pulled out the long johns, Smartwool socks, and my big down coat. I dressed Juliana in a turtle neck and thick sweater, leggings, and two pairs of pants, and she wasn't even going outside.

We have also moved Juliana's bed back into our room until the heat comes on. It's not a huge transition since she didn't move out of our room until two months ago. Besides which, she has recently gone back to waking up about 250 times a night because of a stupid tooth that is taking forever to come in. So she's been spending half the night in our bed anyway. (Note: Our double bed is not really big enough for two adult people and one very small but very squirmy child who now likes to claim her own fair share of space - ½ the bed.) We moved her into our room because hers is freezing. Almost as cold as the kitchen, so about 10 degrees colder than the rest of the house. That is because her room has two layers of single-paned windows but the outer windows are broken off. So there is about 1/8” of glass separating inside from out. Even though we have covered all the cracks between the windows with tape, it is still very cold. Hopefully once we have heat it will be warm enough to move her back. In the meantime, it is kind of cozy having everyone sleeping in one (sort of warm) room. Especially since last night Juliana only woke up once, at 5:45am.  Maybe it was teeth + cold that was keeping her awake.

At any rate, I'm so glad that next week the all powerful "They" will turn on the heat!

The 10 Steps from Spoon to Mouth

For yeah!  I love eating!

by Ruth

I was wondering when Juliana would start getting interested in feeding herself. She likes eating finger foods, but she has been perfectly content to have someone else shovel the spoonfuls of mushy food for her. It's faster that way, and so far, getting as much food in as short at time as possible seems to have been her primary goal. But a few months ago, those people who tell you what your baby is supposed to be like said, “Now your baby doesn't want you to feed her anymore; she only wants to do it herself.” I should know not to pay much attention to what those people say, seeing as they are the same ones who said, “Your baby is now sleeping through the night” months and months ago, and we all know that didn't happen.

Very important tangent: For a full three weeks now - - - - Juliana has been sleeping through the night!!!! Can you believe it? Not just that, she has gone from waking up 2 to 6000 times a night to sleeping for 11 hours! It's incredible! 20 days! (well, technically minus a couple of teething days). If you are wondering how long I will be counting the days, well...we had 371 days worth of not sleeping through the night, so probably for quite a while.

Back to the original subject: So for a few months I have been wondering when Juliana would take an interest in feeding herself. And all of a sudden the other day, she decided that she didn't want me to spoon in the food anymore; she was going to do it herself. I can see why she was hesitant to try this because it turns out, spoon feeding yourself is quite a complex process. It goes something like this:

Step 1: Take/forcefully grab spoon from mommy with one hand.

Step 2: Flip spoon over upside-down (flinging half the food onto the floor)

Step 3: Transfer spoon to other hand.

Step 4: Sweep spoon back and forth across tray several times (losing the remaining food in the process)

Step 5: Pick up food from tray by hand and redeposit into spoon.

Step 6: Aim spoon in the general direction of the mouth.

Step 7: Move spoon and mouth in opposing circles until they somehow coincide.

Step 8: Shove spoon into mouth, rotating it 360* to actually get the food off.

Step 9: Chew on spoon for desired span of time.

Step 10: Remove spoon from mouth and bang on table for a while. Repeat

At you may have guessed, it is not a quick process. The advantage is that I now have time to eat too!

A TINY Bit Tricky

by Ruth

Chinese is a high context culture and definitely a high context language. When I was going through flashcards from our oral lesson, I came across a nice little example (one of about 50,000 good examples, no doubt):

支 (zhi1)

The definition on the flashcard for this character says,

“to support  / to sustain / to erect / to raise / branch / division / to draw money / classifier for rods such as pens and guns, for army divisions and for songs or compositions.”

What? How can this one word mean all those very different, unrelated things? A measure word for pens, guns, army divisions, and songs? Among its other meanings?

This would be confusing enough, but when I looked up the pronunciation “zhi” (pronounced like 'jer') in the not comprehensive dictionary on the phone, I found 25 different words and characters all pronounced exactly the same way – zhi1 – or “zhi” with a first tone. There are also 23 characters for “zhi” with a rising tone, 22 characters for zhi with a falling-rising tone, and 65 for “zhi” with a falling tone. That makes 135 different characters that are pronounced “zhi.” Among these 135 characters you could find words like...

...pheasant – to leap – to squat – character – delicate – hemorrhoid – ancient sacrifice – mad dog – wisdom – enraged – ambition – unicorn – flag – to store – wait for – embroidery – toe – to stop – location – but – duty – straighten – to grow – value – nephew – respectful – sick – gardenia – goblet...

For this, I just have one word:

哎呀 Ai-ya!!!!

Little Swallow

By Kevin

The week before last, my tutor was away, serving as a translator at the big Sino-Arabic Summit held in Yinchuan to promote trade between China and the Arabic world, largely through the production and export of Halal foods and the import of oil.

So, I had a substitute tutor. It was a bit frustrating at first.

It didn't start out well. He talked about how this would be a good chance for him to improve his English and for me to improve my Chinese. I quickly let him know that I wasn't paying him to improve his English. He'd get a chance to use some English because I don't know enough Chinese, but I wanted him to speak as much Chinese as possible.

It got worse when he started correcting my pronuciation of the Chinese word for the number 3 - "San." He insisted that it should be said with a long "a" sound like Americans use when saying "and." I told him that I'd always been instructed that it's a shorter vowel sound, perhaps closer to how Americans might say "on." Thankfully, Ruth's tutor came in later and told him that his pronunciation of that sound wasn't standard Chinese, nor was the "v" sound he used in "Weinan."

I never expected that my pronunciation of any Chinese sound would be more accurate than a native speaker. But I had to remind myself that Americans pronounce things differently depending on where they are from too.

Anyway, on the third day he came to tutor me, he brought an interesting children's song, "小燕子 (Xiao Yan Zi)" -- translated, it means "Little swallow." Here's a video ,
or you can watch it here.

He said that he learned the song when he was a child. His translation of the lyrics is what intested me most:

"Small swallow, who wears beautiful clothes,
Every year at springtime, you come back here,
I asked the swallow, why do you you return here?
The swallow said: "This place at spring time is the most beautiful."
Small swallow, let me tell you: this year it is even more beautiful,
We built a huge factory and adorned it with new machines,
We welcome you to always come back here."

As he explained, I stopped him: "If I was a bird, I wouldn't want to come back to a city that has a new factory."

"It's a song about progress," he assured me, a bit confused by my question.

"Not if you're the bird."

Lunch with Ai-yi

by Ruth

Today our baomo (the woman who watches Juliana, who we often call Gao Ai-yi) invited us to her house for lunch. She called us several times before to confirm the plans and to remind us that the weather was cold so we should wear more clothes. She told us the name of her neighborhood but we still weren't exactly sure where it was, so she said she would meet us on the nearest corner. She called twice while we were on our way there by bike (a total of about 10 minutes) to make sure we were coming and we weren't lost. When we met her at the intersection, she immediately took Juliana out of her bike seat and carried her the rest of the way. Juliana was excited to see her ay-yi (“auntie”). She has not only gotten used to her, she absolutely loves her.

Ai-yi scooping out some apple for Juliana, while the others look on

Gao Ai-yi introduced us to her college age daughter, her husband, and her niece. She said her daughter had wanted to come to our house to see the baby. In addition to the eight dishes waiting on the table, Gao zimei had set out a table full of apples, figs, grapes, and chestnuts, and she served us “eight treasures” tea, a Ningxia specialty. We sat and munched on these appetizers while Gao played with Juliana. She sent her daughter off to buy some yogurt drinks for Juliana. I'm sure it was laden with sugar, and as soon as Juliana figured out how to sip it up from the straw, she thought it was great.

Fish, shrimp, chicken, doufu, noodles, greens, peanuts...

When it was time to eat, Gao held Juliana so that we could eat. I had already fed Juliana a full meal before we left home, but she still eagerly munched on the rice and doufu her ai yi offered. After we had eaten and eaten, I finally convinced Gao to let me hold Juliana so she could eat something. She ate a few bites and then jumped up to cook an egg for Juliana. Juliana happily ate the whole thing. She loves to eat.

Juliana happily eats the rice from ai-yi's bowl

As we were finishing, Gao's middle-school son appeared. He greeted us shyly in English, ate a little food, asked for some money, and then was off again. Gao showed us a picture of her eight (yes, eight!) older brothers and sisters. Then she took Juliana in the bedroom to play on her little piano keyboard. Juliana was very excited. She did not want to leave. Whenever I tried to take her from her ai-yi she just begged to go back. I was only a little offended. Somewhere inside she still likes me best.

Ai-yi teaches Juliana to play keyboard

It's about time Juliana learns to read music

Whenever Gao ai-yi comes, Juliana crawls happily to the door and motions to be picked up. The other day I told Juliana, “Ai-yi will be coming this morning,” and she rushed over to the door looking for her. Today when I was talking about “ai-yi,” Juliana said, “Ya-yi!” Juliana just loves her, and Gao adores Juliana as well. We are very blessed to have such a wonderful ai-yi!

Qi Ban (The Wives Class)

By Ruth

In case you were wondering, yes – I'm studying too! All of my posts have been about the baby, the apartment, and you know, the baby. But in between feeding baby's insatiable appetite and trying to pick up all the little pieces of food, fuzz, and hazardous material (where does it all come from??) from the floor before they end up in a certain someone's curious mouth, I am also learning Chinese!

While Kevin is in the main department classes, I am in a special afternoon class. Our teachers sometimes half-jokingly call it “qi ban” - the wives class, or “mei guo ban,” the American class. My classmates are the two other American wives/mothers on our team. In the morning we are looking after our assorted children (and in one case, homeschooling as well!) while our husbands are in class. In the afternoon, the husbands watch the children (and in one case, finish homeschooling!) while we attend class.

Our classes cover the same information, more slowly because we have one class a day rather than two, and more quickly because we only have 3 students instead of 19. Our classes are taught by post-graduate students, some of whom know more about teaching than others. We just got switched to a new reading teacher, though, and she's awesome! She doesn't just talk through the lesson; she actually teaches and explains it! I am really glad the school is willing to provide this special class for us because it is great to have classroom time and fun to have classmates.

In addition to our regular daily classes, Kevin and I have two classes other classes each week we both attend. One is a writing class – very helpful since our other (beginner) classes already expect us to write, even though Chinese writing is complex, to say the least. Each character is made up of 1 to fifty billion strokes, and each stroke must be written in the right direction in the right order at the right place or the character is incorrect. I am really enjoying the writing class though, because our teacher explains things really well, even using almost all Chinese, and writing appeals to my artistic side.

Our second class is a practicum class, one that just our team does. It involves sharing some of the new, personally useful words we learned in the past week and doing practical-application activities. During those two class times our ai yi comes to watch Juliana. Fortunately Juliana has already come to love her and gets excited whenever she comes!

We also meet with tutors each week. I meet with a tutor four hours a week, and since Kevin has tutoring at the same time, ai yi also watches Juliana then. Tutor time has been helpful to reinforce the things we are learning in classes and to work on our problem areas, like say, pronouncing the second tone correctly. I have really been enjoying my tutor this month. She is fun and we tend to laugh a lot, even though most of the time it is at all the mistakes I make.

Our language team situation is unique because we are three families. It certainly makes things like meeting together tricky, but it is a really good situation. It's great to be with other families! Before class or during the break we commiserate about children who aren't sleeping and the difficulty of finding study time. We are all struggling to balance doing homework, learning new words, meeting with tutors, spending time with children who start feeling neglected, being woken up multiple times at night, occasionally talking to our spouses, and sometimes even doing things like cooking and cleaning and going to the store (or say, homeschooling two kids every day!). Both husband and wife feel the pressure of classes and the importance of learning Chinese, but we have to negotiate not just class times, but study, homework, and tutor times. Sometimes even sleep times! It's definitely tricky, but it's encouraging to be around others who are also figuring out how to make things work.

Despite the difficulties, I find I am enjoying language learning a lot more than I thought I might. Remembering my past language experiences (middle school Latin and high-school French), I felt extremely doubtful about my language learning ability. I still feel doubtful about my ability, but one thing has changed a lot; Chinese is actually incredibly useful for me, so I feel very motivated to learn. After five years of living in China, it's exciting to finally feel like I am making progress. Things I have been hearing over and over start to make sense. Already it is easier to have (simple) conversations with taxi drivers and vegetable ladies because I can understand their full questions instead of just a few words. I can actually read (very simple, introductory) passages in characters. I can finally write my (rather difficult, 30 stroke) name!

I'm excited to be learning Chinese! I am happy to be able to attend class. Which in no way dampens my excitement for the week long National Holiday coming up October 1^st! Thank goodness for holidays - we need all the breaks we can get!

Happy Birthday Baby!

I cannot believe that Juliana is one year old!! A few months ago I looked at her and realized she was no longer a little baby. She's still a baby, but not a baby baby anymore.  As a side note, we have finally chosen a Chinese name for Juliana, just in time for her first birthday: 林安安 lin2 an1 an1. Lin is Kevin's family name meaning "forest" and "an" means peace or safety.

We had her an early birthday party at my parents' this summer, so today was not a big 'to-do.' We had a little three-person party after I got home from class. She opened a couple of gifts we had bought (well, they weren't actually wrapped, just hidden in her special cabinet) and a package from Nana and Gramps. She played with her new toys – a little train, a 3D puzzle, and a phone toy that talks to you, plays music, and flashes lights. Clearly she is unfamiliar with the 'old fashioned,' non-cell-phone type phones, because she grabbed the whole phone, base and all, and held it up to her ear.

After presents, we partook of some iced banana bread 'cupcakes.' She was hesitant about the cake at her early birthday party, but this time she had it figured out. She grabbed the cupcake and immediately tried to stuff the entire thing in her mouth. She gobbled down about ¾ of it before resorting to one of her recent favorite games: fling the food across the room.

The rest of the day was filled with some extras of the normal activities she normally enjoys. Block towers to demolish. Containers to fill with toys. Books to pull of the shelves. Music for dancing. Tickles. The kissy game (in which I grab her and kiss her chin until she erupts into giggles). The hide-toys-in-the-special-cabinet game. Cheese snacks. More of the fling-food-all-over-the-floor game. All in all, I think she had a good day.

So here is the one year update!

Baby loves: putting things in and out of containers, knocking down block towers, standing up and cruising around on the furniture, being carried up and down the stairs (she's happy to live on the 6^th floor!), pulling all her books off the shelves

Baby eats: Lots of mashed veggies and fruits (squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, melon, peaches) and some finger foods (tofu, mixed vegetables, eggs, cheese). You wouldn't know it looking at her, but she eats a ton! Sometimes as much as me! She nurses about 5-6x a day, generally while practicing her latest acrobatic moves.

Baby moves: She is always eager to explore and follows me or Kevin around everywhere we go. She's not walking on her own yet but loves to stand up and cruise around whenever she gets the chance.

Baby sleeps: Yeah, it's still her personal nemesis. She has been doing a lot better lately (sleeping 6-8 hours at once!) but once she wakes up, whether it's 3am or 6am, she thinks nighttime should be over. We're still working on that... She also thinks she should drop her morning nap, even though she's clearly not ready. She's just too busy for sleep!

There are many things I just love about Juliana. Her incredibly bright blue eyes, which you can bet draw a lot of comments here! Her squeals. Her love of cuddling (even when it's a 3-second “check in” before she's off again). Her “I'm going to die if you don't feed me this instant” impatience for food. Her friendliness. Her little arms reaching out imploringly for a pick-up. Her little dimpled smile, her wispy hair, her chipmunk cheeks. One of the things I enjoy best though is her exuberance for life. She is so happy. Not just content, but thrilled, delighted, vibrant, and joyful. I can build the same block tower 20 times and each time she is so excited she can't wait for me to get more than two blocks on. I can hide the same toy in her special cabinet every day and she still thinks it's the greatest thing ever. She dissolves into giggles when you tickle her or sometimes just look at her funny. She beams delightedly when she sees me and squeals when daddy comes in the door. She makes us laugh a lot and smile even more.

Happy Birthday to my not-so-tiny baby!