New Pics

There are some new pictures at flickr:

http://flickr.com/photos/29126592@N04/sets/72157607610226285/

Including this one:

RIP, pretty pink hula hoop

For the brief 36 hours that Medora had her pink hula hoop, it was a joyful addition to the family. Alas, this morning it took a 4 story plunge down an elevator shaft.

How did such a thing happen, you ask? Well, we were checking out of the condo in Breckenridge. Medora was proudly carrying her hula hoop into the elevator when she tripped. In a move that could not be repeated if you tried a thousand times, when she tripped the hula hoop arced up and slid perfectly between the elevator car and the elevator shaft. Oops!

Luckily, Medora thought this was hilarious and pantomimed the hula hoop disappearing quite a few times.

Hanging out in Breckenridge

We're spending the weekend in Breckenridge and thought I'd post a couple of cute photos. Friday we did an 'urban hike' in town and went to a toy store. We bought her a hula hoop (among other things ;) and she loved it. Today we went to mega-expensive homes as part of the "Parade of Homes" and then this afternoon we went swimming at the Breckenridge Rec Center. They have a great kids pool with a gradual sloping entrance. She loved swimming! By the end of the afternoon, she was floating on her stomach and on her back as long as we helped support her. That's a major improvement over swimming in China -- we could hardly get her in over her knees. Today, she was fearless and even went under a couple times accidentally. She didn't let that faze her and went right back to having a great time in the water!

Random cute story about the hood photo. She wanted the hood up, then immediately started feeling for her pigtails under the hood. She took the hood off and went to a store's plate glass window to check that the pigtails were still in place. Satisfied that they were okay, the hood went back up.

Long time no post

Somehow, we had less distractions in China, and could post in the evenings. Now that we're home.....

Here are some fun pictures. The one where she's holding the Caribou cup was taken in the Seoul airport where we had a 4 hour layover. Luckily, they had a little kid area with jungle-gym and she went down the slide maybe 50 times. I think Tara wore holes in her pant's knees climbing through the tubes so many times. She's also wearing her $2.50 Hello Kitty fashions, with matching knee band-aids, that were such favorites.

Now in America, the land of PLENTY, she was cruising Target and Gramps gave her some nice size-12 sneakers to wear.

Eric gets major hubby points

In addition to "fish", today had another new word: apple

I've read that when kids are in a major acquisition mode (physical or verbal) they are often fussy than normal. Medora was fussier (bordering on cranky at times) than usual today, so hopefully that explains it... 2 new words in a single day takes its toll. :)

Eric gets major points for taking care of her for 2 hours while I went for a traditional Chinese foot massage. I went with another gal who is here adopting a baby girl. She said that a Chinese foot massage was fanstastic. I really couldn't imagine what they could do to feet for 90 minutes! Thank goodness for her (and her fluent Mandarin skills), as this was definitely not a tourist place. The entry was lined with hundreds of little boxes containing herbs dispensed by the apothecary. Anyhow, the "foot massage" was much more than that. We were seated together in a room in a reclining seat, something like a La-Z-Boy. First, our feet were soaked in a wooden barrel with some sort of tea potion. While the feet were soaking, our arms, shoulders, back, neck, and hands were massaged. Then our feet were removed from the soaking tub and hot towels placed behind our necks. Then our feet, toes, ankles, and calves were massaged. It was decadent and divine, and cost about $10 US for 90 minutes of pampering.

Today had little on the adgenda other than the Red Couch Photos. I think this is simply a tradition of ours or all agencies, and allows them to add an adgenda item on a day that would otherwise simply say "Wait for Consulate Paperwork". Basically, you go sit on one of the 8 red couches in the White Swan lobby, and try to get a passable photo of your baby looking happy. The tourguides are very focussed about getting these photos done "to turn into the agency." Sometimes I wonder if this is their only receipt to get paid????

Anyhows, here are some good photos from today.

http://flickr.com/photos/29126592@N04/sets/72157607086463952/

Today we got her to say "fish" several times (there is a huge Koi pond in the lobby)!

OOOoooooo!

Why won't the Paparazzi leave me ALONE!!!

Medora's first English words: one, two, three

Medora said her first English words today! We knew that she can count to 5 in Mandarin (our guide told us this after she heard Medora counting her stacking cups). So we've been working on counting in English the last couple days.

Today, after swimming, we were taking a leisurely stroll back to the room when she wanted to stop at an outside table. So we all sat down and she was working with her stacking cups. She lined up her cups and pointed at each one in turn and said "1 -2 - 3". She's a smart cookie!

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Today we went to the zoo / safari park. The safari part consisted of an open air train that wound through a park area. The animals were roaming around. She was totally into it! She would look around the corner to be the first to spot animals and then point out animals to us. For extra special animals, she would insist that Eric take a photograph by tapping his camera lens and then pointing at the animal. The exhibit was quite large and contained giraffes, rhinos, hippos, lions, tigers, bears, zebras, elephants, you name it. Then we walked around the rest of the zoo which ended up ; the highlights were the pandas and the koalas. You can't go wrong with cute fuzzy animals. Eric posted some pictures at Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/29126592@N04/sets/72157607071461619/

Medora, the Omnivore

A nice picture of Tara and Medora on our way to dinner.

Someday, when Medora is older and refuses to eat anything but chicken nuggets and peperoni pizza, we can dig up this video of her joyfully stuffing Octopus tentacle in her mouth.

Uh oh, we have a fashionista on our hands

Today we had to do a medical exam first thing in the morning. It went just fine, although Medora was not crazy about having to take her shoes off so the doctor could inspect her toes.

After the medical stuff, we went to a local shopping area known for its pearls. Medora didn't care much for the jewelry. But when we stopped by a children's clothing store, she went nuts. She clearly selected 2 outfits, by grabbing onto them and nodding her head vigorously. Holding up any other outfits in the store elicited wild head shaking side to side ... NO!!!!!!

She selected 2 Hello Kitty outfits, which you can see in the photos. Total bill was about $6 for both outfits, so at least she's not breaking the bank yet. We had to put the red/white one on immediately after leaving the store, right there in the shopping mall. :) The pink one had to go on after swimming today. For those counting at home, that is outfit #3 for the day.

In her hand is a peach/apple cross... not sure what to call it. A papple? An appleach?