I'm a terrible blogger.

At least lately.


To make amends, I am posting some heart melting cuteness. I'll post the pictures from our trip to the historic Jinci park tomorrow. I SWEAR!

A better picture...

Still waiting.

My friend has yet to deliver all the pictures from Jinci Park so in the interim, I am sharing terrible on the fly action pictures of Quinlon's legacy wrap that just made the journey over the ocean to live with us.

Legacy wrap means it is a wrap that is his and only his. If he decides he wants me to wrap other siblings in it, great. If not, it can have a cuddly home in his bed until he grows up and has babies of his own then he can use it for babywearing his own children and the cycle just continues.

I chose it because it is a solid, all around great wrap but it is also dyed the most gorgeous chocolate brown color that happens to match his puppy dog eyes.





And just for fun here are some recent pictures of cuddle time with Daddy.





(HAHA, I just sneezed and Quinlon copied me... Parroting is hilarious)

Today was awesome!

Spent an entire afternoon in a gorgeous park with 4,000 years worth of history. No kidding. I took TONS of pictures, but, unfortunately, not with my camera since my camera is currently in Hubei Province at Wudang Shan with Donnie. For those of you who might be geographically challenged (really, unless you are Chinese, you don't know the geography of this place anyway), it is a 24 hour train ride away. Yes, 24 hours.

I should get pictures uploaded later this weekend... It's worth the wait, I promise.

PSA:

If the people outside my window don't stop playing the same shitty techno song on blast I am going to move the screen and drop poopie diapers and or shoes on their heads.


Freaking China, man.


::EDIT:: It gets even better. Upon further investigation, the reason the same bad song is on repeat is because there is some sort of wannabe Chinese Spice Girls rehearsal going on on the sidewalk next to our building. I am trying to be annoyed *giggle*, really I am, but the absolute hilarity is winning here.

I'm 99% sure...

Quinlon said his first word today.


Ya-ya.

Which, in Chinese is the baby way of saying 'duck'. The real name is ya (yah) zi (tzuh), but ya-ya means duckie... get my drift?


There is a small pond/fountain on campus that has ducks and he LOVES them. We feed them almost everyday and today, when we turned the corner and he saw the pond, he started yelling "ya ya". Even the Chinese people there could tell he was saying duck. While we were tossing bits of cake to them he kept repeating "ya-ya". To prove he is doing it intentionally, we tried and tried to get him to say "ya-ya" the rest of the day to no avail. I am curious to see if he says it again tomorrow because that will clinch it for me.

The funny thing is, my first word was duck followed closely by Daddy.

Later today, he said Baba and ran over to DH (Chinese for Daddy and what we have called DH from early on).

Guess he takes after me in the talking department. I can hear my mom laughing all the way over here at this one because she knows what a nonstop chatterbox I was and is probably gloating at what is in store for me now.

For what it's worth, he has said a few things we've wondered about in English too. He goes to the fish tank and says "ishies" and has said "yesssssss" on a few occasions that have made us raise our eyebrows. It might just be parroting, but I definitely see a massive language breakthrough imminent.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Yesterday was Donnie and I's 3 year wedding anniversary. It's strange to me how that seems like such a short time, but at the same time, like an eternity (in a good way, of course).

We've been through so much together and this year really benchmarked how much we have grown as a couple and family.

We had a super low-key day. DH had his normal Chinese lessons until 12PM and then we had lunch with out friends/teachers/babysitter (all the same two people). Then we took off for an afternoon alone to wonder around downtown as we pleased.

We bought a Gwan Yin statue for our altar (long overdue, I might add) and some nice chopsticks to take with us when we eat out at some of the less stellarly clean restaurants (they have the best cheapest food). In China it's wise to use the disposable chopsticks or some of your own because the chance that the ones the restaurant washes aren't getting completely clean and can commonly carry BAD stomach viruses and Hep B.

And I got some rad shoes that are way supportive of my fragile arches that I have been immaturely been ignoring.

We finished the night with some delicious pineapple beer. Yes, I said pineapple beer. It is amazing in all ways.

Here's the gratuitous pics!










::EDIT::

I totally suck and didn't post a pick of Gwan Yin! She is the goddess of mercy in Budhism and Taoism. We view her as more of a focal point for the energy of prayers and a symbol of always being humble and thankful for what the Tao brings into our lives.


Keep in mind this is just our makeshift temporary altar until we move into the permanent apartment next month (which is huge and way awesome btw). Once we move, it will be more elaborate and decorated to show our love and devotion.