Bennett turns one!

Happy Birthday to Bennett! It is hard to believe he is already one. I feel like his first year of life has gone by so quickly. We are so thankful for Bennett and his sweet, joyful spirit. He loves to smile, loves his big brother and people in general, loves to move and is so strong. He is standing on his own, but he hasn't taken any steps yet.

He started waving bye bye last night- at the train station on the way home he was waving to everyone as we were waiting in the taxi line. At the beach we would have groups of people that would sometimes come up to us and stare or want to interact with the boys. Austin of course was not a big fan (he has now perfected "bu yao xie xie" or "No thank you") but Bennett did not help the crowd situation. He loves the attention and smiles at everyone who comes to talk to him. He will even hold his arms out when they want to hold him. In a way it works out great because they get distracted from Austin and move on to Bennett....so both boys are happy. Lots more blogging about the beach later though. Bennett also has started saying "Zhe ge" which means "this" in Chinese. I think Xiao Ji says it to him a lot. He doesn't really know what it means exactly, but he will pick up different random things and say "zhe ge zhe ge zhe ge". Wow, biligual at one, not bad huh? :) Ok, he knows 4 words, but one of them is Chinese.

This morning Bennett got to open his present from us (with Austin's help of course).


It is a lawn mower, that can help him practice walking and pushing. He seemed to like it pretty well - it entertained him for quite awhile, which is sometimes hard to do these days.

He was a little timid pushing it while walking. He would stand holding on for awhile, but the minute he pushed it he would sit right back down. I am sure it is a matter of days before he is walking with it around the apartment.

We had McDonald's for dinner ( that seems to be the norm for kid birthdays around our house) and we sang to him. He is looking a little unsure of the candle in his chicken nugget. By the way, this was his second time to eat McDonald's (well, he tried it one other time so technically his third) and I would say he is a fan, but he definitely prefers fries over chicken nuggets. Guess he is a pretty normal kid.

Tomorrow is the big party and cake destroying-fest. More posts to come, both from partying, the beach and more.