Thursday, November 30, 2006

Guys Stick Tricks

Seth did a song and dance routine on the lawn with his cane on Thanksgiving Day!
I think Uncle Shann managed to balance this stick on his chin for about half a second... just long enough for me to get his picture!
This is really amazing, what Caleb and Seth could do with the cane. They held it out in front of them and could jump back and forth over it!
Scott did something cool with the camera to get all these shots of Caleb jumping back and forth over the cane onto a single image.
You can't tell in the picture, but Seth is jumping really high here! Bravo, boys! Great stick tricks!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Taking Care of Babies

Gwen enjoyed her role as Older Cousin to the two babies in the family, when we were all together for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Here she is checking to see if EmmaClare's nose beeps when pressed.
And where is she hiding her feet?
Stay right here, Alyssa!
Look where I'm looking, and we'll both be okay.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Whining... or not

We've had a little whining problem with Gwen recently. I am trying to remember how to handle this, but my "dealing with a two and a half year old muscles" have gotten weak with disuse in the years since my older three were toddlers. Now I am needing to exercise them again to recall the forgotten methods as they need to be called into service.

This afternoon Gwen was very definitely whining. You know the tone of voice. I said, "What are you doing?" in kind of a joking way, hoping to snap her out of it. She replied, with an impish grin on her face, "Whining... just kidding, whining!"

Oh my word. My toddler told me she was just kidding about whining. I think I need a real workout on those "dealing with a two and a half year old muscles"! Any suggestions on ending whining once and for all?

Monday, November 20, 2006

Striking Similarity

This illustration is in a book that I read to Gwen frequently. For a long time, she has said that it was "Seth and Gwen." I didn't even realize at first what she was talking about, but I finally figured out that she thought it was actually a picture of the two of them.

So this morning I decided to try a little comparison experiment... I think the results reveal a striking similarity, don't you?

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Tongue Twister

Tonight Madelyn and I were playing an Angelina Ballerina board game. Gwen joined in, after a fashion. Her presence interrupted our game considerably, but we loved her attempt at saying the dancing mouse's name... "Annie-ween-ja". So cute!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Sliding Down a Slippery Slope

Look what my brothers did to my slide! They put it up on our little table and chairs... So now there's kind of a big drop-off at the end, and I go flying down!
At least they put a lot of pillows and blankets at the end, so I have a cozy place to land.
It's still a little scary, though!
I think I finally got the hang of this!

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Artist at Work

Gwen's first time painting at the easel... the same one her twelve year old brother got for Christmas when he was two years old!
Ta-da!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Hats!

This week's photo challenge from Donna is hats! Madelyn and Gwen had great fun posing for hat photos, although Gwen was reluctant to change her hat. She declared many hats too itchy. Madelyn totally hammed it up, and Gwen did her best to do what Madelyn did!


Sunday, November 05, 2006

Cousins in Bed (sort of!)

The girl cousins (minus the baby) had great fun playing in the drawer underneath the bed last weekend. They all cuddled up in there as if it were a very cozy spot, and they even wanted us to close the drawer. See Caleb's foot in the corner of the picture, about to push it shut!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

The Language Question

I had an interesting little encounter at the library this afternoon.

We were at the desk checking out our books. There was a Chinese couple and their toddler daughter at the desk next to the one where we were being helped. I had noticed them together earlier in the children's section when we were choosing books. Their daughter was so cute, about Gwen's size, with her hair pulled back into a little ponytail.

Gwen was playing around, waiting for me, and walked over toward them. The woman looked at her, and then at me, and then asked me how old Gwen was. I told them, and then asked about their daughter's age. She asked me if Gwen was mine, and it seemed to catch her husband's attention when I answered that she was indeed mine.

"Does she speak Chinese?" he asked.

If it had been anyone other than a Chinese person asking that question, I would have chuckled to myself. Of course she doesn't speak Chinese. It's not like they come programmed or something.

But because a Chinese person asked me, a very WASP looking person, about whether my Chinese daughter spoke Chinese or not, I felt a tiny bit guilty admitting that she did not speak her native language. It is, after all, the language of her birth. Perhaps she should speak it. But how can she know it, living in our household with non-Chinese speaking parents?

She could know it, I suppose, if we were making very monumental efforts to learn it ourselves and teach it to her. But we aren't, at least not right now. Someday we may. Someday she may want to learn. Should we teach it sooner rather than later? How important is it for a Chinese American to know Chinese? I don't know.

I do know that she is our daughter, and we fit together, Chinese and WASP. That's all I know now. Hopefully the language question will be answered in time, hopefully by Gwen herself.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Gwen in Fish Glasses

Here's our contribution to this week's Family Photo Challenge... anything with Eyewear. Gwen is sporting fancy fishy glasses!

If you'd like to check out Donna's blog (the photo challenge is her brain child), the address is http://2happy.typepad.com. Interestingly, she has two daughters named Gwen and Madeline (I like those names!)... both are adopted from China, and are beautiful!

Unplanned Haircut

This is what comes of Mommy being out for the evening and scissors being left in an accessible spot! Just a little snip, snip...