Splish Splash!

It's an interesting fact that people here seem to prefer their children to not play on the floor, play in dirt, splash in puddles or anything otherwise associated with dirt . . . so as our child froliced through the mud puddle in her bare feet out in the common area of our apartment complex, we were pleasantly in awe when our upstairs neighbor brought her little grandson right over, proceeded to take off his shoes and set him down on the dirty ground near the puddle of fun Rachel was enjoying . . . she took this as her cue to educate him in proper puddle splashing etiquette.

splash splash fun fun

splashing is so much fun!

"first you have to get the feel of the water . . . "

"then you do a little dance like this . . . it'll get you good and wet"

"and if that doesn't do it for you, you can always get down real close . . . and POW . . . splash as hard as you can with you hands!"

This is the beautiful fountian that creates that wonderful little splashing puddle everyday from noon to 1pm and from 6pm to 7pm. Come on over and splash with us . . . it's loads of fun!

Pre-Birthday Celebration

Jerry and Rachel have September birthdays . . . Thelma and Louise (see previous posts) were sad to miss them, so we celebrated early with some cinnamon rolls made by our new helper, Tian Jie, and some mis-matched random birthday stuff.

Rachel purchased this same golf game for a friend's birthday the previous week and was so proud of her choice of gifts . . . she didn't want the birthday boy to play with it without her . . . so Thelma (or was it Louise?) to the rescue . . . she got her OWN golf game as a pre-birthday present. (and what did Jerry get, you ask? Salt and Pepper shakers . . .finally! . . . the nicest ones Wal-mart had to offer ;) )

Showing her deepest gratitude!

Hey, you got a little somethin' on your face...

AHH . . . the refreshment of cool, sweet ice cream!

This is Rachel with our dear, sweet friend, Holly. Along with being in the Cross Cultural Communications class last year in Changsha, Holly spent a lot of time with our family as our translator, food orderer, babysitter and friend...here we have once again taught Holly a new Cross-Cultural concept....before you clean your child, stop! and take a picture. She found it quite humorous that we wanted a picture of them together BEFORE we used the wet wipes!

Thelma and Louise Go to China

If there were such a thing as the Adventurer Hall of Fame, surely its halls would have a new exhibit. Right past Lewis, Clark, Columbus, Vespucci, next to the entire cast of Star Trek (the original) would stand "Thelma and Louise part II: Keef and Price"

What do you get when you take two incredibly fun women, one of which has been a grandmother for less than a month and has never been out the States and the other who has never been on a plane, in a taxi, eaten with chopsticks or lost her luggage, and send them on a 4 million mile trip around the world? A great time and some wonderful memories.

We were overly blessed this month to have my sister (the incredibly young grandmother) Joanna and my Aunt (the legendary first time world traveler) Becky spend two weeks with us. Together we explored the great sites of China including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananamen Square, Starbucks and KFC.

Aunt Thelma, Grandma Louise and Rachel at the Forbidden City

Mastering the fine art of eating with sticks

On the wall

Eating Squid at the Korean BBQ

You mean they don't live inside our TV?

the chinese acrobats have been a huge part of our family since Rachel was . . . oh, I'd say, 1 1/2 and could ask for specific DVDs to watch . . . she often chose the "Rachel" DVD which was the video of our adoption trip and included the Chinese Acrobats in bits and pieces....when she was about 2 or so, she would then become the acrobats after watching this DVD...while living in Florida, our family night activity often included us all becoming Chinese Acrobats with Daddy laying on his back in the floor and lifting Ra, and then ME over his head while we "balanced" balls and random other toys in our hands. Rachel loves the Acrobats! So while in Beijing to pick up the aunts, we made a visit to the Acrobat theatre....they truly are amazing! The pictures do microscopic justice to the talent and beauty incorporated into this show . . . have a look . . .


Next family night, THIS is what we'll attempt . . .



I'm pretty impressed that Jerry got this shot . . . they're blurry because they are only in that spot for a milisecond!





And OUR little acrobat . . . mesmorized the whole 1.5 hour show.

Daddy Daughter Bonding

Jerry and Ra shared a moment of sweet bonding over scorpion on a stick...mmm mmm.... while we were in Beijing with the aunts. Jerry says it wasn't all that bad...tastes like chicken!

Home Sweet Home

After only a week and a half of searching we found an amazing apartment. Mommy got her kitchen. Rachel got her playground and Daddy is just a walk across the street from his office (behind the huge ball pictured below). We are absolutely thrilled with our new home and look forward to the many relationships that will be built here. This is the view from our back window. It won't last long because they are building a high rise right next to us but for now we have a wonderful view of the Shenyang skyline at night. Rachel insists on seeing "Daddy's office ball" every night before bed. Can't really blame her.

One Tasty Little Girl

So we learned quickly that our new home (population 8 million) is also home to 46 million mosquitoes. During our first week, as we were looking for an apartment, Rachel woke up with FIFTY-SIX mosquito bites, more than half of which were on her face. Don't let the pictures fool you. She was less than thrilled about the whole experience but she did like the polka-dot (calamine) medicine. Poor kid. Since then she has been attacked again with even more bites. She is, by far, the tastiest one in our house.




























Taking it all in stride.