Happy Daddy Day!

Happy Daddy Day - to all our daddy-readers, but especially to our fathers - Richard and Doug! This morning I was attempting to teach Austin to say "Happy Daddy Day" (since father is not really a word he knows). But every time I said, "Say happy" Austin would respond "birthday!". He never would say Happy Daddy Day, but said Happy Birthday instead. But it was cute and at least he knew (well, not really sure what he actually understands) it was something to celebrate. We cooked a special breakfast for Chris, went to church, went to TGIFridays for lunch with some of our other playgroup friends and had a good afternoon at home.

Chris and Austin spent some time wrestling on the floor. Austin discovered it is fun to straddle Daddy's back and ride like a horse. He wanted to do that over and over again. Here are some fun Daddy-son pictures from the day.






I was thinking today about the ways Austin takes after Chris, so i thought today would be an appropriate day to list them. Here goes:

They have big heads and lots of curly hair.

Left-handed (well, I can't say 100%, but Austin seems to prefer left over right)

Love music. It is kind of a joke in the family that we cannot eat without Chris first putting music on. Well, either Austin has picked up on this or just loves music that much himself, but now if Chris is not home when we eat a meal he says "dance, dance" (which means- I want to listen to music). In fact, another new word of his is "Ipod". I mean, how many 19 month-olds know the word Ipod? Tonight he saw the speakers (without the ipod) and walked around the house saying "ipod go? ipod go?" ( as in where did the ipod go?) until Chris found it and played some music.

Language ability (well Chris is obviously good at languages. But, I was an early talker and so is Austin.) But Austin has started saying more Chinese words- often he knows the English and Chinese. Every time he sees a picture of an elephant now, he says "elephant, da xiang" and for pig "pig, zhu". For fish it is reversed "Yu fish (this one he says as one word)". Either way, his ability to communicate continues to amaze me.

Ok, well that ends our Daddy Day.

Rainy Day Fun

Well, unfortunately last night's thunderstorm did not only NOT bring blue skies today, but brought more rain. It pretty much rained all day long, which meant - no outside time today (which was sad for both Austin and Mommy). SO, Austin and I made biscuits for Father's Day breakfast tomorrow, he colored a card for Chris, we read some books, and then...it was still only 10:00 am. So, i decided to make a fort of sheets and pillows in Austin's room. At first he wasn't so sure about it, but after a few minutes he discovered it was great fun. The tent, as he started calling it, provided over an hour of entertainment. First Austin would get inside and then I would say "where's Austin?" (hiding and peekaboo are a favorite game at the moment. He is much more sophisticated in playing peekaboo than when he first started liking it at 6-7 months old). When he could tell I was getting near the tent he would just laugh and laugh and shriek with delight when I popped up the side of the sheet and found him.

Then we laid on the pillows on the floor inside for awhile- I would grab him and tickle him and he wanted me to do it over and over. Finally, we read books inside, which was way more fun than reading them on the couch or rocking chair. I took it down at naptime and we went to our neighbors' for part of the afternoon, but after dinner Austin kept asking for the tent (though it took me awhile to figure out that is what he wanted) and we put it up again. When it was bedtime, he was NOT happy that we had to take it down. But now I know the next rainy day we have might actually be something to look forward to!

Here is the "tent" set up between Austin's crib and two chairs.

This is inside the tent - so fun. While we were playing I was baking the biscuits. So I kept saying "I'll be right back" and went to go check on them or pull them out of the oven. Soon Austin thought this was part of the game. So started saying "be right back" and then going out of the tent for a few minutes and then coming back in to say "boo!". It was really funny to hear him say "be right back".

Boo!

Bubbles

We have discovered a new way to spend time outside- blowing bubbles. Austin was given some bubbles for his birthday, which then sat in the wardrobe until recently. I got them out and now he always wants to take them when we go outside. He likes to chase them, try to catch them and say the word "bubbles!" a lot. Here is a little clip.




Austin also has a new word that is in the same category as "again", but maybe worse. It is the word "now". As in, go outside now, milk now, get down now, video now etc. I don't think he is trying to be as demanding as it sounds, but he does get emphatic with it.

We had a big thunderstorm here late this afternoon which has finally stopped. Hopefully that will mean a clear day tomorrow.

Performing

Well, we have had a busy week, as you can tell from my lack of blog posts. My sister called and was worried about us because I hadn't posted anything in awhile. We are fine but have had a full week. Chris and I had a fun lunch date Monday- we went to see Prince Caspian at a nearby theater. This was our first movie we had seen in a theater since moving here. Tuesday Austin and I went to visit our friends Emily and Sydney (from playgroup). They live about an hour north of the city. Austin liked the bus ride, playing with Sydney's toys and the park behind their apartment complex. I will have to get pictures from Emily later- she got some fun ones.

Yesterday Chris (with the help of two friends) gave a lecture/performance at a music conservatory on American folk music. He played a range of songs on mostly mandolin and a few on guitar, ranging from 18th century folk music to modern day (like Nickel Creek) and ended with some of his own original music. He performed very well and had a warm reception by the students. Here are some pictures and video of it.

Again

Well Austin has a new word and I am not sure I am excited about it. It is the word again. As in, read it again. And again. And again. It came out today as we were reading books. We would finish a book and he would say "again". I would say "You want to read it again?" To which he replied "ok,ok". It was fun the first time or two he said it, but I can see this becoming a favorite word soon. He also wanted to watch a video again, which got a resounding no to that request.

Tonight we went to our neighbors the Shaffars for a birthday party for Mark. It was a "block party" with all of our (foreign) neighbors we know invited. We grilled out, ate ice cream sundaes and tried to keep the total of 12 kids from getting too out of control. Austin stayed downstairs with the younger (3 and under) kids and had a good time I think. He is definitely teething though, his right incisor is in and the left is not far behind, which has made for a cranky day at home. But getting out does him (and me) good. Now Chris and I are lounging on the couch, getting ready to gear up for a new week tomorrow.

ZOO

Well, we made it to the zoo today and all had a good time. Austin started cutting his right incisor tooth today and had a little temperature, but we went anyway and he acted like he felt fine. He definitely enjoyed seeing all the animals he sees in his books and videos. We went as volunteers to take a group of children from a home for children of incarcerated parents and were paired up with two boys, age 12 and 8. The younger one had never been to the zoo and his favorite animal- no surprise- was the panda. Our older friend likes the tiger best. It's hard to say what Austin liked best, but probably the monkeys ranked near the top. Here are some pictures from the day.

All the boys- posing in front of a big (statue) of a turtle outside the reptile house. The alligator was the favorite of the group from the reptile house.

Austin mesmerized by the monkeys at feeding time.

Elephant!

This jie jie (older sister) took an immediate liking to Austin- and he liked her pretty well too (which he demonstrated by letting her carry him around without protesting).

Our two buddies as we left. We were impressed with how much our older friend took care of the younger one.

Zee-ba! I was not sure that Austin knew what a zebra was, but he sure acted like he did after we told him the name. I did remember he does have a baby animal book that has a zebra, but he doesn't read that one as often as some of this other ones. Nonetheless he liked them.



Monkeys. Unfortunately we didn't quite get to capture Austin's enthusiasm for monkeys on film - he didn't "perform" for the camera, but he really did get excited and kept repeating "monkey, monkey" for quite a long time.

Babies!

Sorry I have not been a good blogger this week. I had a video I attempted to upload several times and it always failed. I later realized it was bigger than the blogspot limit of 100 mb. So I will have to put it on snapfish for those of you who follow that later.

Today was Friday, playgroup day again. Since last week, we have added a new baby to the group. Angie gave birth to Jeshua Evan on Monday and hosted playgroup at her house today- pretty impressive I thought. Here are two pictures from today.

Here are Isaac, Bree, Austin and Sydney sitting nicely at Bree's little table. This lasted about one minute, but it made for a cute picture.

This is Jesh, Bree's "didi" or little brother at 5 days old. Isn't he cute?

In addition to meeting Jesh, we also took dinner to our friends Paula and Hamilton this week, who gave birth to a baby girl about 10 days ago. Austin liked to look at her and even gave her a kiss, but the minute I held both of these new babies, his eyes welled up with tears and he kept saying "Mommy bao bao (hold me)"- not in an angry voice, but in a scared one. We will have to work on not feeling so insecure around babies in the next few months!

Tomorrow we go to the Zoo with a group of underprivileged children. I am sure we will have some fun pictures and we hope Austin will have as much fun as he does reading books about zoo animals.