New skills

Well, we have now been home almost one week and are beginning to feel settled again. Today I finally made a big grocery run and feel more "complete" at home. We have had several friends over for dinner this week and enjoyed reconnecting with folks here.

Austin has acquired some new "skills" since we have been home. One of them is opening the refrigerator door. Our fridge has the freezer on the bottom, a drawer in the middle that is not a freezer and then the door is at the top, so it is just barely within his reach. I have found the door open on several occasions or sometimes he will go and look for something he wants to eat or drink. Fortunately he can't really reach into the top part of the fridge and hasn't tried to open the freezer yet, which he could do some damage to if he wanted.

Another new skill is playing the yangqin. Ok, well not really but he pretends. The yangqin is a traditional instrument that our friend T plays. It is a type of dulcimer played with little hammers. So Austin walks around with two chopsticks and bangs them on the floor or the table and says "Austin play yangqin". He also likes to "make rice" since we have been home this week. While I am cooking sometimes he will "cook" too. I will give him a bowl and spoon and he will get to work stirring and banging. He used to just say "cook" but this week he started saying "Austin make rice". I guess you can tell what he likes to eat!

I was out some of the morning meeting a friend and making the grocery run. Chris took Austin outside but accidently brought the wrong set of keys. It just so happened that yesterday I was out and forgot my keys and used our set that our neighbors keep for us...so those keys were still on the dining room table. So Chris and Austin spent over 2 hot hours outside until I got home, though they did end up at our neighbors house for the last part of the time. Austin got his fill and then some of being outside...but it rained later in the afternoon and we had to stay in, so maybe it was a good thing (but I was glad it wasn't pregnant me).

That's about it for today!

Check up

Today Austin accompanied me to the doctor for this month's baby check up. Everything looked good- the doctor is pretty sure he is already positioned head down, which is a good thing. Hopefully he will stay that way. This little guy seems to move more and kick much harder than I remember Austin doing, though maybe I have forgotten.

I told Austin on the way there that we could listen to the baby's heart. So all day he keeps saying "listen baby heart" and a random jumble of words like "mommy, aiyi (I think he means the doctor, who is a woman, which makes her an aiyi to Austin) tummy listen baby". He also will sometimes now kiss my tummy. Today in the cab he wanted to lay his head down on my tummy, so I asked him "Are you laying down with your didi (little brother)?" and he'd say "yeah, laying down baby". I still don't know what he actually understands, but he seems to have a little more to say and doing more interacting with my tummy, which I presume he understands to mean the baby. I am sure there will be plenty of shock when the time comes, but hopefully he is understanding a little bit.

We tried to get Austin saying "listen baby heart" on video, but of course he wouldn't perform. We did get something else funny though. He is pretty good at learning some opposites, particularly pairs of people who go together. Chris kind of plays this game where he will say "Oh mommy" and then Austin will say "Oh daddy" or "Oh aiyi" and Austin will say "oh shu shu" (aunt and uncle) etc. He was in rare form tonight and we caught some of it on video. In case you can't tell, Char's opposite is Emily (which came out sounding like mimi instead of emmy for some reason).



Here is another one. We have been singing "Amazing Grace" quite a bit to Austin when we put him to bed. Before we left Thailand, one night he just started "singing" it- at least the first few lines. You can tell he doesn't really know what all the words are, but he sort of says them in a sing-songy way that is somewhat recognizable as the song. I don't know how well you can make it out from this video, but here is shot. He now requests it almost every night. He basically says lines from amazing grace to saved a wretch ( he usually adds like me, but in the video he got distracted by the paci).

Back safely

We are safely back at home now. We arrived Friday night around 8 pm and spent today unpacking and attending a friend (of Austin from playgroup)'s one year old birthday party. Austin ( and the rest of us) slept till 9 am this morning, which was wonderful. It was probably due to two days of very little nap and a late night last night.

We are thankful to be healthy after several friends we were with had some nasty viruses. I am coming down with a little cold, but nothing too bad. Austin was excited to see all his old toys again- they are like new for a few days at least. Our hong dou is continuing to grow and kick with a punch now. Nine weeks and counting- it is coming soon.

Well, here are some pictures and videos that I was never able to post. It may take a few days to post them all though- even here videos are still slow to upload.




Here is Austin feeding a giraffe at the zoo. He often asks to watch this video over and over on the computer.




Austin loves to listen to Daddy and T aiyi's music - that they have recorded together. Here he is listening to it on the Ipod and dancing (don't worry, we turn the volume way down when he has headphone on).

Daddy, Aiyi Music!

Well, Austin has been paying Chris a big complement lately (without knowing it I am sure). Whenever he sees the Ipod, he wants to listen to music. And lately the only thing he wants to listen to is Daddy ( and T Aiyi's) music that he has written. If we put anything else on, he gets upset. But when he listens to daddy's music, he gets really excited and starts dancing. He has a new dance. He used to hold onto the table and hand bang. Since he started walking he hadn't really danced that much. But lately his dancing has been resurrected- he stands in the middle of the room and moves up and down, especially shaking his little rear. Sometimes he waves his arms as if he were a conductor.

Hopefully this little video will upload and you can see him listening to daddy's music ( and don't worry, if he has headphones on we turn the volume way down).

OK, well I have already tried twice to upload this video and the wireless connection just disappeared again...so I am giving up for tonight. I have not had a day where I tried to do email or internet here that I have not left frustrated! Well, it will show up eventually. Good night.

Technology woes

Well, again sorry for both the blog and email silence. We have had quite a few problems that keep us from getting online, downloading email and connecting with the outside world. We had problems when we had a server change for one of our emails. After a week of not receiving many emails, I realized all of Chris' emails were downloading into my inbox and his inbox and mine were floating around cyberspace somewhere. Then we had a virus that prevented us from accessing any websites, so I couldn't read my gmail account or do any blogging.

Now these problems seem to be fixed, but the internet is slow here and you have to go to the lab to access the wireless. I also realized I had received a 6 mb size email that would not download, so I was repeatedly downloading the 74 emails into my inbox, but they would only get as far as number 13 and then it would fail because of the large size of that one email. Now I have deleted that one and am waiting once again to see if all 73 will actually appear.

Also, because it is slow, I am not really able to upload video onto the blog so you will have to wait till we get back.

Austin and I have spent most days at the pool, playing or out walking with other kids, taking naps and of course, eating. We also made another trip back to the zoo with a big group of moms and kids. We saw penguins and loud, squawking orangatuans, zebras and fed the giraffe again. Austin had fun but I was exhausted. Austin seems well-adjusted now and is enjoying the many kids around and loves the pool. Tonight there was a pool party with pizza around the pool- what a better combination than pizza and the pool. Afterwards, Austin apparently was uncomfortable in his swim diaper, because he kept walking around with a pained look saying "Diaper, funny". I think he meant it felt funny. We went and changed- nothing appeared wrong but I guess it didn't feel right to him.

Well, I will stop here for tonight. I will try some pictures next time but am too tired of technology woes tonight to try it. We miss everyone.

Zoo again

We are settled into our hotel now and getting into the swing of things here. Austin loves the pool and the breakfasts. There is a buffet breakfast that usually includes pancakes and eggs. Austin wakes up every morning saying "Pancakes! Eggs!" and then at every meal time he asks for pancakes and eggs (don't worry we aren't actually feeding him that three times a day).

Sunday we had a fun family excursion. We went to the Chiang Mai Zoo- which is much nicer than the Beijing one. We went with several old friends- friends that we had all studied with at the same university in the past at one time or another. We laughed at how old we all are now- all married with kids. It was a fun day for all. You can see our group stopping for a picture and Austin feeding a giraffe.

OK sorry our internet is way too slow to upload a video right now (of Austin feeding the giraffe), so you will just get to see photos for now.

Safely here in TL

We arrived in Thailand safely Thursday evening after a fairly uneventful day of travel. Wednesday the Kunming airport was closed all day due to flooding, but thankfully was up and running fine on Thursday when we flew out. Austin slept about an hour of the first flight (three hours 15 minute flight) and did pretty well. He ran around the Kunming airport with other kids and did ok on the last flight. After going to bed after 10 pm he still woke up at 5:50 Friday morning (6:50 China time, we are an hour behind)! He is doing pretty well, but having a little more trouble adjusting to a new environment than in the past. He cries for a little bit every night when we put him in the tent, but once he is asleep he sleeps all night.

We spent the 4th of July with some other friends at the pool. We ordered hamburgers and fries from this great place here and had them delivered. We failed to find sparklers but did find sparkling candles, which we light. They did not actually sparkle that much, but it felt a little bit like home.

Well, that is all for now. We were having some internet problems that figured out was a virus but at least our gmail address seem to be working now.

Who needs toys, part 2

Well, Austin confirmed the theory that he doesn't necessarily need toys over the past two days. Chris had a friend come for dinner the other night and he brought Austin a really cool present- this set of roads for toy cars to "drive" on. Austin thought it was really cool too for a few minutes. But as you can see, the bag it came in was the really big hit. He has played with it for the past two days. We also received a package from America today. The big hit- the box full of the packing peanuts. And it has been rainy again so we have stayed inside- but Austin had lots of fun with the umbrella. I think I have written enough- the pictures say the rest.

Sitting on the bag

Putting packing peanuts in the bag, as well as his doggies and other items.

Where's Austin? (paper cups are also very entertaining)

Guess where Austin is? If you guessed inside the bag, you are right!