Goodbye Sippy Cup!

The doctor says I'm supposed to be drinking a gallon of water a day. A GALLON!! That is a big task. Since I kept knocking over my glasses of ice water (it MUST have ice in it in my book) I got a new water bottle that is supposed to be spill proof. Well, it turns out that it IS spill proof and you can drink from it while you are lying down. It's a really good water bottle. Matthew found it on the floor today and decided to figure it out. You have to bite down on the nozzle a little and then suck (it's a camelbak) so it took him a little while to get the hang of it. But once he did, he loved it and decided it was way better than a sippy cup. I tried to give him his cup, but he wants no part of that anymore. Apparently he's moved on to bigger and better things. I wonder if I'll ever get my water bottle back.

Silly Friday

Matthew gets silly!

Neo Park

We took a trip to Neo Park this week. There were a lot of animals to see and pet and feed. Matthew's favorite part (I think) was seeing the dogs (he LOVES dogs...oh no!) and feeding the rabbits. We were also able see (and feed!) all kinds of exotic birds (including a big peacock that came up really close and then shrieked...scaring poor Matthew and me) lemur monkeys, kangaroos, fish, goats, rabbits, chickens, turtles, dogs and lots of other animals. It was fun, but hard to take pictures while feeding the animals and corralling the strollers. We had a good time!

The Progression of a Tantrum

It started with a glue stick. I left it sitting on the table and Matthew found it. As soon as he got the lid off, I had to take it away and he wasn't happy about it. That's when the crying started. He was making such a pathetic face that I wanted to take a picture of it, and within 60 seconds of snapping pictures, he forgot about the glue stick and wanted to investigate the camera!! These pictures show the progression from angry back to happy/curious again...and it all happened in under a minute!

Matthew's First Steps

Today Matthew took his first steps. He just let go of the bed he was holding onto and took a step...and then immediately fell, but later in the day he was able to take a few steps between mom and dad. Before today he's never taken a step without holding onto something, so we are really excited!

Hi Daddy!

Matthew is a HUGE Daddy fan. He actually said "Hi Daddy" the other day. He likes to sit by Scott while he puts his boots on every morning and sometimes he cries when Scott leaves for work, but he's always excited to see him again at the end of the day (that's where the "Hi Daddy" comes in). Here he is trying on Daddy's boots.

It was supposed to be FUN!!

Matthew can be hard to entertain all day every day, so today I decided to try an art project: fingerpainting. He's a little young for it, but he likes to wipe his food around his tray with his hands, so I thought he would like it. He didn't.
The first thing he did was taste the fingerpaint, which tasted really bad (don't worry, it's non-toxic) and I know it tasted bad because Matthew was making such a fuss after he tasted it that I had to try it. Maybe they make it taste bad to discourage kids from eating it. Anyway, it was all down hill after that. You would've thought I was punishing him. He was just so upset to have paint on him (and he doesn't mind food or dirt being all over him at all). So our art project time didn't last long. I guess we will put the paint away until he stops eating everything.
What we did get a kick out of was how much these pictures look like Scott when he was little. Maybe it's the sad face.

Playgroup Pool Party

Matthew and his playgroup friends had a pool party this week.

Inside before getting in the pool

Almost everyone in the pool!
After sitting down in the water once (on accident) Matthew decided he would only like to stand in the water. He spent most of his time climbing in and out of the pool.

Resting with his towel
It was a lot of fun!

Xie Xie, China

We just got back from 8 days in China. We visited Guilin, Xi'an and Beijing. It was a great trip and the Chinese people were absolutely crazy for Matthew - he drew crowds!! Getting there was a little cumbersome. We had to take three little flights, first to Taipei, then Hong Kong and finally to Guilin.

Guilin

A cruise down the Li River near Guilin.
We saw these amazing mountains that just shoot up out of nowhere.
We saw domesticated ducks and cormorants and water buffalo that worked with the fisherman and rice farmers along the river along with the people who live in the villages along the river. The scenery was unbelievable.

Lunch on the river - our first Chinese meal
Matthew was trying to figure out how to use the chopsticks
(don't think we are horrible parents - we didn't know he was going to poke himself in the eye - he just did it right as the picture clicked, so don't judge us too harshly! )

Guilin scenery outside the Reed Flute Cave

Scott tames the cormorants in front of Elephant Trunk Hill in Gulin
The fisherman tie string around their necks to keep them from swallowing fish and use them to catch the fish for them. Eventually the cormorants learn just to catch the fish and bring it back and the string isn't needed anymore.

A typical meal on our trip.
We usually sat at a big round table with a giant lazy susan in the middle. The servers would bring dish after dish after dish and set it on the lazy susan and then we just spin to get what we want. We always had small plates so we had to eat a small portion and then refill again and again. We ate lots of vegetable and a favorite mealtime activity was playing "guess what the dish is" since many of the things looked unfamiliar. We usually had to ask our guide or waitress or eat it first before we could figure it out. One time we thought we were eating cubes of fat, but it ended up just being eggplant.

A park in the center of Guilin

Xi'an

After staying in Guilin a few days we flew to Xi'an,
the ancient capital of China for 12 dynasties and the beginning of the silk road.

A warrior at the Terra Cotta factory
One of the highlights of our trip to Xi'an was visiting the site of the terra cotta warriors - emperor Qin had an army built (thousands of life sized figures out of terra cotta) around 210 BC so he would have an army to fight for him in the afterlife. The figures were then buried and not discovered until 1974. They have already excavated thousands of these ancient warriors and the excavation is still ongoing. There is a factory near by the site that makes the warriors for decorations and for tourists in the same method that they believe was used in the ancient times.

Matthew samples a local specialty of Xi'an, the belt noodle.
It's wide and several feet long and they serve it all tangled up in a ball.

At the Terra Cotta warriors excavation site.
Thousands of warriors were already excavated and restored.

As we walked around the site, which was huge,
Matthew kept waving at all the warriors.

Matthew poses by a Terra Cotta Warrior

A dumpling banquet we enjoyed in Xi'an.
Along with other meat and vegetable dishes, they brought us course after course of dumplings.
It was meat and vegetable (sometimes just vegetable) and different flavorings steamed (and sometimes fried) in a wonton wrapper. The presentation was so creative. They brought some with fish in them that were shapped as goldfish with peas for the eyes. Most of them were shaped like the main ingredient. Little pigs, ducks, chickens, and other things came to our table as little dumplings. There was also a shark fin shape (aaah!) and a walnut shape for one of the dessert dumplings. It was lots of fun.

In front of our Xi'an hotel

At lunch with our Xi'an guide, Susan.

Beijing

After spending a few days in Xi'an we flew to the present day capital and home of the Summer Olympics this year, Beijing. It was also the final stop on our tour.

At Tiananmen Square
You can see Chairman Mao's picture in the background if you look real closely.

The Forbidden City - where the emperors lived.
The whole city was huge and full of symbolism.

We took a pedicab tour of an old neighborhood in Beijing, Hutong Village
Most of Beijing looks modern now, but this village, which had all gray buildings and narrow, maze like streets and alleys connecting it, was one of the last areas showing what most of Beijing looked like 50 years ago (and hundreds of years ago).

A street in the Hutong Village

The "bird's nest" - site of the 2008 Beijing Olympics
I think the opening and closing ceremonies will be held here.

At the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China
At this section the wall dips down into the ravine and then climbs back into the mountains on either side. We parked at the bottom and hiked to the top (the highest point of the wall at this section). It took us a little over an hour to climb it and some points were very steep! Chairman Mao said you are not a true hero unless you walk on the Great Wall - Scott carried Matthew up the whole way, so he gets double hero points.

It was so steep!!

Taking one of many rests along the way

A view from the top!

Resting at the top...we look so tired!

On the way back down
(Matthew was exhausted)

Our Chinese guide in Beijing thought Matthew was a cute and happy baby.
He said Matthew was the reincarnation of the happy Buddha.

At the Summer Palace, a vacation home for the emperors near Beijing.

The longest corridor in the world, really!
At the summer palace.

Relaxing in the hustle and bustle of Wangfujing Street in Beijing near our hotel.
The biggest McDonalds in the world used to be here (a bigger one has now been built somewhere) and the flagship store of the Beijing Olympics merchandise was here along with lots of expensive stores and restaurants. It was the last night of a really exciting trip to a fascinating country.

A Tour of Our House - Part 2 (the upstairs)

Our back balcony (upstairs)
Matthew is playing with his water table.
It looks kind of empty back here.
I think we need some plants or something.

Playing in the water

Matthew loves to find the puddles...and then sit in them.

The view of the ocean from our back balcony
It's there, I promise!

Our upstairs bathroom
(this one has a shower and toilet together, but no sink)

Matthew knows how to turn on the water in the bathroom
(check out the wet pants)
That's why we keep the door closed!!

Matthew's bedroom - in a kinda messy state.

Matthew "reading" his books

Our bedroom

More of our bedroom

Our guestroom/office
The empty futon frame normally has a mattress on it :)

The front balcony - outside our guestroom

The view of the ocean from the front balcony!
(again, the ocean really is there!!)
Extra points if you can spot Matthew's bald head...

Our car - as viewed from above!! Isn't it beautiful?