Halloween in China

The sad news is that China doesn't celebrate Halloween but the good news is that we have enough American friends that we were able to go to a party today. (Unfortunately, it was during the day so Jimmy wasn't able to make it.) It was so fun! Ali didn't get that it was Halloween but she still had a great time playing with all the kids and eating all the candy!There was candy apple dipping on the coffee table which was great for the older kids and double great for Ali since she could reach all the bowls of candy. If she wasn't grabbing other kids' candy out of their hands or laps she was making her way to this table! The other moms kept saying, "Um Julie, your daughter is eating the candy again." What can I say? She loves her chocolate! Like mother like daughter!Two other girls from our branch live in the same complex so after we ate some treats and played a bit we went to the other two apartments to trick-or-treat.

Here's Ali following all the kids to the next apartment.

Waiting at the door.

Going through her candy after trick-or-treating.

A few other girls from play group/church. (Don't mind my strange face as I chat with the lady trying to get the camera to work.)

ONE-derful

We have had a 1-year-old for over a week now and all we can say is that it is

ONE-DERFUL!

(Yes, she's wearing Christmas pjs... never too early to love Santa I guess.)

It's like Ali woke up on her birthday and realized she had been alive a whole year and that she ought to know a whole lot. I am amazed at how much she understands! I can tell her something once and she remembers it. I know that seems like something normal, but I didn't realize that little people caught on to stuff so quickly. I make sounds and motions for animals and from that one time she will either make the sound, do the action, or both whenever she sees it. She is even able to identify that animal in several different kinds of books and pictures. And don't be fooled by the tile. This poster is not taped on our bathroom wall... it's our kitchen wall. What? Your kitchen isn't completely tiled?

Another absolutely lovely and amazing thing that has happened is that she is riding in her stroller now! This is a huge change. We tried everything to get her to ride in her stroller when we got here. I was getting really worried because in a few months when her brother gets here I won't be able to carry her everywhere we go. Miraculously, she is not only riding in the stroller but seems to actually enjoy it! Hallelujah! We actually brought a jogging stroller with us but it's just not Shanghai friendly. This one was left by a past member of our branch and so it floats around to whoever needs it. We're grateful we are able to use it. And Ali's outfit? I am exercising my right to dress my kid in whatever I want because we live in Asia. You know how those Asians are!(The above photo is a two for one special. I wanted to get a shot of how chill Ali is in her stroller and when I saw this cart full of junk I knew this was the perfect moment. So you can see Ali kicking back in the stroller and a cart full of junk. These are EVERYWHERE! This one appears to be a sort of wood cart. There are styrofoam carts, metal carts, you name it.)

She's eating PBJs. Fun!

She likes to stab her french toast with her finger...

and then stick it in her mouth. Yes, there is too much jam on her french toast. We have toned it down since this meal, but it made for a cute photo!

She's enjoying dressing up and looking at her cute self in the mirror. She gets really close to the mirror and gibber gabbers- it's to die for!

She loves saying prayers and gets really excited at the end when we say "amen". Then she gives kisses.

Sometimes Jimmy calls during his lunch break and she loves to hear his voice when he calls. She will pick up my phone throughout the day and say "Bye-bye Dada." It's super cute. And if I say his name she will hold her hands up and shrug, then start to look around for him.

LOVE these two! Jimmy has some baby apps on his iPad and they play them together!

She loves to brush her teeth when she sees us brushing ours. She also likes to dance to the "Brush You Teeth" song.

She got a new bed this week! We're planning on having Baby Boy sleep in the pack-n-play because we brought the bassinet part so we got this crib for Ali at IKEA. She seems to really enjoy being out of the pack-n-play.

Here are a couple more pictures from her birthday. We had cake with her on the evening of her birthday but since the next day was Saturday we had time to go out together. Here she is eating ice cream. She doesn't look very excited but she ate the whole thing so she must have been enjoying herself!

We took her on the carousel. She didn't love sitting on the animals...

but she liked to watch them from the bench. I don't blame her, this one was really fast compared to others that I've been on.

Easy as 1, 2, 3?

It's crazy being in a place where not only can you not understand a word anyone is saying, but you also can't look up words that you see written. It's hard to flip through a dictionary looking for the characters. The good news is that they write their numbers like we do! What a relief! But get this, they don't show numbers on their fingers like we do! So I need to either learn how to count to ten with my mouth or my fingers. They actually show 1-5 like we do. This seems crazy to me because any time I have tried to show any number with my fingers they act like they don't know what I mean. For instance, I was buying towels the other day and told the lady I needed 2. I help up two fingers. She started filling the bag with towels. I think she put about 16 in there. I have no idea what she thought I meant by my two fingers. We finally got it sorted out and I left with two towels.

one

一 yī

two

二 èr

Three

三 sān

Four

四 sì

Five

五 wǔ

Six

六 lìu

Seven

七 qī

Eight

八 bā

Nine

九 jiǔ

Ten

十 shí

-or-

Kinda fun. Really not that big of a deal, but it seems so crazy to me that we can't all just hold up the number of fingers to match the number we're talking about.

AND THE WINNER IS...

There are actually TWO winners! Congratulations to

MOM HRNCIRIK

and

ANN WARNER

We will be sending you a special surprise from China.

I wish we could send something to all of you.

But a HUGE thank you to EVERYONE who sent in recipes! I really appreciate the time that you all put in to searching out recipes for us! Cooking has gotten a bit easier because of your help.

1 YEAR OLD!!!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, MARY ALICE!!!

1 year ago you were born and made us the happiest parents in the world! We have been grateful every day since you joined our family and we love having you as our daughter! Here's a look at how you've grown:

Birth:

October 21, 2010

1 month:

2 months (baby blessing):

3 months:

4 months:

5 months:

6 months:

7 months:

8 months:

9 months:

10 months:

11 months:

12 months:

Where did my cake go?

Oh that's right... I got help from Daddy.

Ali loved all her presents!

Her absolute favorite is this puppy that barks and walks. Her little body was almost bursting with excitement over this puppy.

We love you so much Ali Bear! If you were any sweeter we'd have to eat you for dessert!!! We can't wait to see how you grow this next year!

And two more pictures from when she was a newborn because they're just so cute!

National Day

October 1st is National Day of the People's Republic of China. People have told me it has something to do with China's independence. I'm not sure how that fits in with a country that is communistic but they got a 1 week holiday out of it so whatever. Anyway, the holiday started on the 1st and went until the 7th. Jimmy was going out of town with the students on Monday so we figured we should go out and see something fun on Saturday. IT WAS CRAZINESS! And that's just what happens when a city with this many people gets a holiday. We decided to go to People's Square and then walk over to the Bund. But so did everyone else. The Bund is the area along the Huangpu River that we saw on our dinner cruise. It is usually not that crowded and you can easily stroll there without any problems. But this day was so insane that the streets were lined with police and military men. Literally all the way down the street from People's Square to the Bund.

I had Jimmy snag this photo because I just love the noodle bowls that they eat here. It's like our cup-o-noodle things but super sized! They're everywhere. These people have each polished off their giant noodle bowl and are probably thinking about eating some meat on a stick for dessert.

This is the part where it gets scary- the Metro! We see now why some of the metro stations have glass doors- people were getting pushed onto the tracks and dying! This is what we saw as we were coming down the escalator. Solid people. And when we got to the bottom there was no more free space so everyone behind us just kept coming and pushing but there was nowhere to go. I started to get nervous that someone was going to get trampled.

The sign in the distance with the green square is what we were following to our line. Walking above ground in a crowd like this is one thing but it felt scary being down in the metro station with no space. I was just hoping there were no crazy people with weird plans to set off a bomb or something.

It was kind of stressful but we're glad we went out to experience this. We both agreed that we had never been in such a crowded place. It was good to see what holiday time is like in Shanghai and it's one of those things you only need to do once.