dinner at the Cheesecake Factory

April 4, 2006

We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. A.B. had a great time! She is such a good eater. She had some cereal (she has discovered Kix cereal) on the way to the restaurant, then she had some bread and bananas (baby appetizer), a container of applesauce, some of my sweet corn tamale cakes, and some pasta and cheese!

She wanted Grandma's lemon again:

"Here Grandma, take it back!"
She likes to drink water from a straw this way.
(She can also drink from a straw the regular way.)

enjoying Hawaii with the grandparents!

Pics from April 2, 2006

A.B. is having a great time in Hawaii. Grandma and Grandpa are here too and A.B. gets to play with them all day while mama is at the conference. We haven't been to the beach yet. There has been crazy rain and flooding here - and as a result, raw sewage has polluted the ocean and beaches! The bacteria levels have supposedly returned to normal, but we will probably not be going in the water until next week if all stays well.

Here's AngelBaby hanging on the chair - Grandpa says she was supporting all of her weight by herself!
Baby's been walking! Here: plopped in the corner
Happy baby pointing at mama
Happy girl and Grandpa's feet

 

play date with L.L.

April 1, 2006

We had a play date this evening with L.L., another little girl whose parents read and post to the yahoogroups. Here is cutie pie with her daddy.

Cute Pic Of The Day #1
L.L. shows off her belly button
Cute Pic Of The Day #2
A.B. making sure this is what she meant

They played very well together, (sort of) shared toys and crackers...
but Daddy definitely belongs to L.L.!
A.B. is checking out that sippy cup (she has one very similar to it!)

Another pic of Uncle B and the girls

relaxing in Hawaii

April 1, 2006

Hawaiian A.B. is checking out the new toddler bed that Grandma brought for her. It's so cute! We are going to need to buy another suitcase before we try to fly back to China! (and, maybe, mail some stuff to ourselves!)

Grandma bought this outfit for A.B. the last time she was in Hawaii. Gave it to us when A.B. was 9 months old and she was just swimming in it. It fits much better now, but the elastic neck is very stretchy!

How did she manage to get only ONE tooth to show?


more demonstration of the stretchiness of the top

We went shopping today and bought another very cute Hawaiian dress with little bloomers. And a bunch of other stuff... some food and snacks for the two weeks and some shoes for A.B.

 

We're in Hawaii!

March 31, 2006

Today is officially the longest birthday I will probably ever have. We woke up early in Beijing to get to the airport for a 9:05am flight, flew to Tokyo, had a 7 hour layover there (yes, SEVEN!), then boarded our plane to Honolulu, and landed here at 7:30am! Then I had the whole day again for it to be my birthday!

It was raining when we got to Hawaii and it rained for several hours. We went to rent our car and then had a few hours to kill until Grandma's plane arrived, so we went to Ala Moana to go shopping. I got A.B. a really cute flower towel at Gymboree (guaranteed to see pics of this in the coming days) and ate my first Spam Musubi in many years. (If you've never had one, you don't know what you're missing!)

Once my mom arrived, the rain finally stopped, which was a good thing. It's been raining here for something like 47 days straight, and there have been floods and mudslides and all kinds of problems! We were under flash flood warning on our way to the airport to pick up Grandma and in some places the roads were barely passable!

Here are some of today's pics

cute little flower on the inflatable toddler bed that Grandma brought!

A.B. likes the hotel - it has a mirrored closet door!
A.B. was reaching for Grandma's lemon, so we let her try it...She took the second bite on her own!

We had dinner in an Italian/Chinese restaurant in ou

biking inside the house

March 29, 2006

Just a few pics of A.B. riding her new bike around inside the house. Really, they are just test pics for the new camera. It came in the mail today with perfect timing - we leave tomorrow for Beijing, and then on to Hawaii on Friday!

riding my new bike inside the house!she wants the camera!

close up future shutterbug

baby loves to swing

March 25, 2006

Such nice weather today - beautiful day to swing outside!

 

enjoying the spring weather

March 25, 2006

A.B. got a new bike/trike in the mail this week, and today's weather was perfect to take it outside to try it out!

mama's little imp
this is fun!

ringing the bell
blowing kisses with both hands!

cutie pie

She loves the bell, and she's very good at ringing it!

wow, green grass!

cutie pie... love the bow!

gorgeous, happy girl

Tulips in bloom at Stone Elephant Lake

March 19, 2006 (Happy birthday, Grandpa!)

We went with a bunch of friends from work to Stone Elepant Lake (near Pujiang, about 86km from Chengdu) to see the amazing tulips in bloom. There was a huge amount of open green space, which is something we seldom see in Chengdu! It was a gorgeous day, nice and warm, and I'm sure you'll be shocked to know that I took a ton of photos! A.B. didn't want me to leave her standing or sitting in front of the tulips, so there aren't as many pics of her as I'd like (and the ones I have all have the stroller in them!) We'll try again next year!

Here she is with her phone

no tulips in this pic... but what a cute kiddo

kisses from mama

almost looks like she's smelling the flowers
(but she's not really close enough to do that)

Here's our friend D... I'll be trying for one like this of A.B. next year!
(this is one of my favorite pics of the day)

gorgeous view

I love the hats the workers are wearing (don't often see those)

rebel!

tons of tulips!

close up