Movin' On Up

Our city is modernizing. And really I think it's about time for a quaint little city of four million. It's taken several years, but we're getting our first Wal-Mart. Back at the start of construction we heard it would be finished by Christmas. It's not going to happen. And then we heard Chinese New Year (February). But unless those construction workers got some magic up their sleeves, that's not going to happen either. So now, we're hearing May of next year. IF that happens, that will give us one month to enjoy the Chinese version of Wally World in our own city before heading back to the US of A. The potential joy that holds gives me goose bumps.

We've yet to get our own airport...still have to drive to a nearby city to fly anywhere, but maybe Wal-Mart is the first step on the way to acquiring our own airport.

And then there is the famed Pizza Hut, the nicest western restaurant in most Chinese cities. Pizza Hut usually comes in soon after Wal-Mart does...which gives me a glimmer of hope to enjoy a deep dish before our scheduled departure.

But Brandon came upon an exciting find yesterday! Our very own Watson's! I had never heard of this in America, but it's the equivalent of a Walgreens in the size of a 7-11. And what makes it so exciting is that several of their products have zero Chinese on it. It's so neat to find a bottle of shampoo with just English on it. (I realize even that is rare in America) And not that we're Anti-Chinese language, obviously...it's just so neat to see shaving cream advertised in your mother tongue. :)

Anyhow, our city is now a proud owner of our very own Watson's!

But you know how things go with progress...Two steps forward, one step back.

Less than a block from Watson's Brandon stumbled upon:

It may take some time to out grow the practice of selling live chickens on the street. Then again, maybe that will never pass. And who can blame them? It's just all too convenient to buy your hair products and live Mallard Duck all on the same street block.

Dead or Alive?

Thanksgiving day was awe- wait for it - some.
AWESOME. Well, it didn't feel so much like Thanksgiving really...not sure why, but any day with a huge feast of turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, corn pudding, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and oh yes, family & friends, is an AWESOME day. We shared the day with some friends and filled our tummies to the max. And yes, Brandon was miserably full. (that was actually the last words he spoke to me before nodding off to sleep thursday night)
Before our feast could begin though, Brandon, Eden, and I went by a local hotel to pick up our turkey. They cook it for us every year. We pulled up to the front and Brandon jumped out of the taxi to run in and pick up the turkey. As Brandon was inside, I thought it would be a good opportunity to teach our taxi driver a little about Thanksgiving. I told him that it is traditional to eat turkey on thanksgiving and my husband had gone inside to get one. The driver turned around to me in the back seat and with wide eyes said, "Is the turkey dead or alive?!"
My chinese isn't quite up to par...I didn't understand his question at first.
He re-worded his question: "Does the turkey have life?" haha
And just then Brandon came out the doors of the hotel carrying our cooked turkey in a big sack. The driver said, "oh....dead!"
I should have told him, "Yeah buddy, you better pop the trunk...those things are crazy! Feathers...everywhere!"
But I wasn't thinking quick enough. We got a good laugh out of it though.

And then we ate our big, fat, dead, cooked Turkey. And it was gooooooo - wait for it - d.

another...

It's similar...but here's another one. She smiles more in this one.

The other day Brandon looked at me and said:
"Guess what I'm going to be doing 13 days from now."
Me: "What? (I didn't think about it being Thanksgiving)
B: "Lying on the floor in absolute misery because I ate wayyyyy too much food."

Awesome! What a great tradition! We can't wait!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Rotten Bananas

I don't know if I should blog about this or not...I'm being brave.

Please don't email me after you read this and ask, "Were you talking about me?"

Over the years I've observed very clean people who, after bringing their first child into their home, kinda let their hygiene go to the wayside. You know, dirty homes, showering twice a week, yesterday's leftovers still out on the kitchen table...you get my drift. I always made a promise to myself that I'd never let it come to that. Regardless of what chaos a child might bring into my life, I was going to remain a clean person.

And then yesterday came. I was sitting on the couch after just putting Eden down for a nap. I was having some nice stare into the oblivion time when I realized I had my shirt on inside out. Not a huge deal.

But that's not all.

Then I looked down on my sleeve..."Oh man! I've got her poop on my sleeve!"

Lovely, I know.

And that's what made me realize I'd become one of those people. I'd become a dirty parent. I hadn't showered in two days (hey folks, I'm sick too, so don't hate on me too much), I had my shirt on inside out, poop on my sleeve, & rotting bananas drawing more and more fruit flies in the fruit bowl. So it's official.

Why do we do this? Why does bringing an innocent little baby into our home turn us into such dirty creatures? And I realize it could be worse, but this is bad for me people. I hate rotting bananas.

So from here on out, I'm changing the norm of parenthood. No more filth. No more poopy sleeves. No more fruit flies. No more trash piling up until it's overflowing.

You can hold me to it.

Our News this Week

Eden is smiling and giggling. Yes. It's exciting stuff folks. She thinks mommy is fun to smile at and daddy is fun to laugh at. Who wouldn't? She shys away from the video camera every time we get it out though, so we haven't been real successful at catching her best action on tape. But here's a little.

I realize the video isn't awesomely entertaining...but for the grandparents, it's pretty cool.

In other news, she made her first trip to Fu Mart this week. Sorry, no pictures of it. But she was quite the show stopper. I mean, we always got stared at before, but apparently when you carry around a 6 week old little white baby you get stared at even more. She got gawked at by several older women who swore up and down that she was actually 3 months old. I assured them that I, in fact, knew the age of my own child. She slept through most of the Fu Mart trip, but I'm sure she enjoyed it none the less.

She had her first Chinese visitor as well this week. Our friend Angel Joy came to see her. She was awake for about 5 minutes of it. She is truly her mother's daughter...she loves her sleep.

Brandon started classes again. He's not the only whitie this time! He's got two Russian girl classmates who I think are equally thankful for his english-speaking presence.

We're all three a little "bing-le" - or sick that is. I think we've caught a cold. I have it the worst which makes those three a.m. feedings even more fun. Eden doesn't seem to care that she's got snot dripping from her nose though. She's still her pleasant little self. And Brandon just downs a dose of nyquil every couple hours...I'm so jealous.

Novice No More

If you are an avid blog reader of ours you'll remember our post about Brandon not knowing you could make pancakes from scratch. He thought that without Bisquick you were up a creek when it came to pancake cravings. My friends, I'm proud to tell you that the old Brandon has gone and the new Brandon has come. Well... Pancake Brandon anyways.

Saturday morning he made the best chocolate chip pancakes from scratch that Aunt Jemima has ever seen. I was so proud. And I'm serious when I say that they really were the best I've ever tasted. Over the last 6 months or so he's been perfecting his pancake skills. And saturday morning he broke out the big guns (and his hammer too, to smash up the chocolate chips) to create the finest ones this side of The Yellow River. I even got the run down while we were eating them on the right time to "flip em." That's my husband everyone...the pancake expert.

Also it seems that his singing is coming in handy. Some members of my family who are rather gifted musically may not believe me when I say it, but Brandon's singing has improved! Ok, so you can't tell it so much in this video, but you see that Eden likes it.

Warning: the following video contains crying. If you are sensitive to fussiness, we advise muting for the first 5 seconds.

And now, Brandon has a response for little Isaac Rivers. Taken when Eden was a week old:

That's Brandon's idea of playing with Eden. You can see that Daddy time is always interesting.

I know, I know

more baby pictures. But what do you expect when there is a new baby around?

I told myself that I wouldn't let our blog turn into a "baby blog" once Eden was born, but with her living 12,000 some-odd miles from her grandparents, changing so quickly, and just being so darn cute, its hard to resist.

So here are a few more pictures from this week:

loving her personal massage chair:

And this one is for Aunt Brookie "I love lebanese food now" Face. It fits!

She's not making many "coos" yet but she is sounding more and more like a miniature velociraptor (seen Jurassic Park one too many times) with her squeals & squawks.

Eden spent her first halloween in everyday normal clothes. Though the Chinese are latching on to just about every other "western" holiday (even if they do hang Santa up in July) they've yet to be too crazy about Halloween...which we're grateful for. No pumpkin outfits this year!

But here are three of our favorite people taking full advantage of Halloween festivities! They are too cute not to post their picture too...

Here's Cayden sporting the dinosaur look. (he likes Jurassic Park too see?)

Audrey being the...Peacock Princess...maybe...I don't know. I'm not up on my fairy tale characters.

Judah sporting his cool dog costume.

And Matt with the "I'm a professor now so I have to dress up" look.