Nai Nai is here!

Nai Nai is here!  And has been here for a week, but we have been so busy having fun I have not blogged about it yet. Here are some of the fun things we have been doing.

We went to the train museum in honor of Grandpa, who couldn't make this trip but we miss him!  We also got to wish him happy birthday on Skype this week.

Last Sunday we went to the Olympic village and got to see the Bird's Nest, Water Cube and other Olympic sites that were not here the last time Nai Nai visited in 2007.

This is one of the weirder activities I have ever seen offered at a Chinese tourist site...feeding goldfish food through a baby bottle. The "milk" was really fish food mixed with water that somehow looked white. I probably would not have sprung cash for it, but Nai Nai was happy to let the kids have the experience. Bennett was slightly afraid of it and did not feed them long, but the other two were pretty into it.

Strange but true.

Inside the Water Cube where Michael Phelps earned his 8 (+) medals.  Austin got adventurous in the Cube...he was tired of having his picture taken over and over with Chinese tourists entranced by a foreign child. I jokingly told him he should charge for it. He took me seriously and tried 2 or 3 times before actually earning 10 rmb (about $1.50) from someone. I told him he could possibly make a career out of it if he tried.

 We also visited the zoo and were thankful to have clear sunny day for this outing.

 The kids' first taste of cotton candy, thanks to Nai Nai!

We have also been to the Pearl Market for shopping and she has come along with us to our daily activities... Chinese school carpool, soccer practice, church, playing out in the neighborhood, reading books, playing house with Lucy, coloring with the boys and lots of special memories. Today we hit the science museum along with Bree and Jesh, who are staying with us part of the weekend while their parents are out of town. Lots of fun!

He's got poor Daddy in His Hands

Lucy's favorite song right now is "He's got the whole world in His Hands." I sing it to her every night as I am putting her to bed.  She never wants me to go out, so she is always offering creative things for me to add to the song.  It is getting longer and longer but she is so cute. We say He's got Lucy (or Lucy Mei Mei, Sucy, Lucy Lulu) , GeGe, Bin Bin in his Hands, Mommy and Daddy, Grandpa,  Nai Nai, Nana, Bop, Uncle Jason, Uncle John and Mark (always those two together), Aunt Emmy, Char, Baby Grace and Harrison, Baby Paige and Molly (friends in the neighborhood), Jason Angie Bree and Jesh. But it gets even more creative...now she adds (this is mostly on her own intiative too) cats and doggies, sun and moon, gogo (yogurt) and granola, strawberries, juice and milk and water, the pink room (molly's room next door), the jump (Molly's new trampoline), snakes, lions and tigers and "Spider shu shu" all in His Hands, to name a few.

This week Chris has been gone- on a trip to the States.  And she keeps coming up with creative ways to sing about Daddy- someone misses her Daddy.  First it was "Daddy on airplane" (I think she might still think he is on an airplane- for the past 4 days). Then Chris got a stomach bug and threw up his first 36 hours there (missing the first of a 3 day conference he traveled all the way to attend). So we were praying for Daddy to feel better. She actually said her first prayer at breakfast the other day. "Daddy (something unintelligible) feel better. Amen." Then she wanted me to sing "daddy feel better in His Hands". Then today she kept saying "poor daddy." I guess I was saying that around her! Tonight we sang "He's got poor Daddy in His Hands." Fortunately Chris is doing better than he was, but keep praying for a full recovery and help with jetlag on such a trip.  We are really looking forward to his return and he is bringing Nai Nai back with him for a visit!  We are all looking forward to that.

 Here we were Wednesday dropping "poor Daddy" off at the airport.

We had breakfast at the airport and hung around a little while afterwards to watch planes.