Ella's Shots

Our Secrets of the Baby Whisperer book suggests that there are five types of babies: Angel, Textbook, Sensitive, Spirited and Grumpy. I think that she has a lot of Angel, L thinks that she has a lot of Textbook, but we both agree that she is Sensitive. That basically means that she takes after me and we both have a rough time on little weekend trips away from home or when our routine gets off. Add that to the fact that Ella is also teething (tooth #2 is now coming in) and going through a little growth spurt and you may have an idea what our weekend trip to the doctor was like. It made L and I more than a little anxious about our first long plane ride home. At least when she was crying on the train no one looked around to glare at the parents whose baby was causing such a commotion. I guess here it is much more culturally appropriate to have a crying baby in a public place.

But the good news is that she is a healthy baby! She weighs 14 pounds (90%...which prompted the doctor to say that she was a bit heavy for her age) and is almost 24 inches long (75%). The shots were really hard on me. I almost cried and Ella did cry but fortunately L stood strong and calmed us down. (Cousin Brooke, do parents ever cry when you give babies shots?)

Cute Dress

Sleeping

Ella always sleeps in one of two positions: like this with two fingers in her mouth or with her arms spread out as widely as possible.

Baby Feet

I absolutely love baby feet. I know this is weird but when I was in labor I just kept telling myself over and over that soon I was going to be able to see Ella's cute little baby feet. It helped.

Ella's Photo Shoot

I have a new-found appreciation for people who can take amazing photographs of babies. Yesterday morning my goal was to take the perfect picture of Ella. Her goal was to take a nap as soon as humanly possible. We briefly thought about trying to accomplish my goal first but in the end decided to go with hers.

First Tooth

I know it's hard to see in the picture but Ella is actually starting to get her first tooth. She had been a little fussy for the past few days but we didn't think about the possibility of her teething since she isn't even four months yet. Fortunately, Kel had let us borrow her What to Expect the First Year book and when we were looking through it realized that babies actually can start teething at three months.

Goodbye Baby Hair

The first picture was taken two days ago and the second picture was taken when Ella was five days old so that you can compare.

Funny English

I saw these two signs in the desert and thought they were pretty funny. Both of these are strict translations but in the original language they are grammatically sound. When I showed the pictures to some friends here, the humor was lost on them. Oh well. You may not be able to read the top one. It says, "Do you want to have the feeling of freedom as wind ? The desert motorcycle (read 4-wheeler) will bring you to gallop with wind, be the best motorcyclist, and cause the passionate experience to desert! The most excited road sense, and the best platform to show your power!"

Now, while this is hilarious, it actually did cause a fluster in my heart as I imagined myself tearing across the desert, full blast. Unfortunately, when we inquired we found that the price ($7 US) was not for an hour or half-hour but for "one time." "How long is one time?" we asked. "You will ride very fast!" came the response. Now, read the last two lines about 6 times and you will get the gist of the ensuing conversation. Finally, on the seventh inquiry they admitted that it was 5-10 minutes...around that flag...the one we could see about 100 yards away...and one of them had to ride behind us. This was a serious let-down.

Motorcycle Escapade

Many of you know, and many of you don't, that I recently went on an adventure with Matt, a buddy of mine. He is leaving the country in December, so he is now in the middle of an extended (two months?) vacation to see everything he hasn't seen in the 3 years he has been here. When she heard about the vacation, A suggested that I join him on one leg of the trip. Sometimes she knows what I need better than I do. Matt was gracious enough to let me join him and we began hatching a plan about what we wanted to do. We decided to meet up north where there is lots of open country and relatively few people. The grasslands and mountains, we had heard, are beautiful and we could see some of the Gobi Desert as well. Our half-baked plan was to show up, rent motorcycles, and tour around the country, and camp out at night. Click on the slide show to see pictures of our escapade. The first link is for low quality (10MB) if your internet speed is slow, and the second is higher quality (29MB).

Motorcycle Escapade - Low Quality

Motorcycle Escapade - High Quality

P.S. Jesse, you would have been a great 3rd musketeer.

Sting'em Jackets!

"Hey Gabe, what's this I hear about ring by spring?"

~Ella

Three Month Picture

Waking Up

Nothing flashy...I just enjoy watching Ella wake up so I thought that the grandparents would as well!

Michelle is My BFF

Last night I dreamed that Michelle Obama was one of my closest friends. I was over at her house helping her cook dinner while she shared how hard the campaign season had been on their family. I went ahead and left before Barack got home because I could tell that she was pretty tired.

Yikes! I think that the elections are really getting to me! Next thing you know I'll be setting up a play date for Ella with Trig.

Snuggle Time

Yesterday Ella was in a very snugly mood. She was very still while she was next to L but she kept smiling at me. It was so precious! We're both so glad L is back home!

Tummy Time

I normally wouldn't post a picture where I cut off the top of her head but I thought that the drool was just too impressive. Ella is becoming a lot more alert during her wake times. Up until the past few days she has been content to just lay on the couch next to me or sit in her little chair while we eat dinner but now she is wanting to be more of a part of things. Yesterday I was at lunch with a friend. At this cafe they have a couch so I usually just let Ella lay beside me while I eat and she has always ended up falling asleep but yesterday she cried unless she was sitting up in my lap and able to add into the conversation. I guess she's learned what girl time is all about this week and isn't about to just nap through it anymore.

The ladies that work at that cafe LOVE Ella. As soon as we walk in they all say her name (Lin Hui Li) and come up to the counter to talk to her. There is a small grocery store next door and Ella's biggest fans there are the five people who work at the meat department. They are keeping track of her age and all of them come out from behind the counter to coo at her when we come in. But, Ella's biggest success so far has been with the woman who works at the convenience store across the street from our apartment complex. I have been trying to get that woman to smile for the past year and a half to no avail. She has thrown my change at me, ignored me, and basically been extremely grouchy in our every dealing. To her credit she treats everyone this way and does have a pretty miserable job since she is standing on her feet for at least 10-12 hours a day. But, when Ella went in with me for the first time last week it was like she was a completely different person! L and I can hardly believe the transformation that has come over her.

Yeah! My Daddy's Home!

Our Week

All in all this week went much better than I anticipated. Ella is such a sweet baby and I enjoy taking care of her. We are even making progress with a yoga friendship. This week the owner of the yoga center called and asked if I would tutor her nine-year-old nephew in exchange for private yoga lessons. From what I've read and learned about this culture I think that this is definitely a good chance for me to be a friend. To be honest I would much rather just pay for lessons and then to go Starbucks after class to chat, but the whole point of me going to yoga to begin with was to learn how to make culturally appropriate friendships! I am realizing that there is a good chance I have overlooked previous offers of friendship by thinking that the other person just wanted to conduct a business transaction.

L also had a great week. He took a lot of good pictures and we will hopefully get those posted sometime in the next few days.

The Headband Breakthrough and Ella's First Yoga Class

To give you a bit of background, lately I've been increasingly discouraged about the friendships I have made over the last two years. I have many friends here but they all seem to be a bit superficial and one-sided. I have spent a lot of time analyzing this and have a few ideas about the root of the problem but I know that at least part of it is probably that I'm just trying to make friends in a way that is too American and isn't translating as friendship in the way that I mean for it to. So, I've been hoping for a chance for better insight into how people here make friends and really the bottom line is that I was desperate.

So, when Susan asked if Ella and I would like to join her for a yoga class I jumped on the invitation. The yoga place is actually just across the street from my apartment complex so that was perfect. When we arrived last night everyone looked at me like I was a little odd for bringing a baby to class with me (and I do admit that it was pretty odd) but I just spread out a blanket on my yoga mat for her to lay down on and after about 20 minutes she fell asleep. Watching her was actually the easiest part of the evening for me.

The hardest part was the fact that I didn't know any of the vocabulary the instructor was using. Class for me sounded something like this, "Legs...arm...healthy...peace...healthy...leg...foot..." You get the picture. After awhile I realized that the word healthy was in some way being used to indicate that we were supposed to change positions so that helped a bit.

As I mentioned before I think that everyone thought it was odd for me to have brought Ella along so I wasn't sure if the more serious yoga students would have a problem with it but within seconds after the class had dismissed everyone was gathered around her asking all the usual questions and saying the usual comments, "Boy or girl? How old? Where was she born? Do you take care of her yourself? Where did you buy this outfit? She has big eyes." The good thing about this is that all of these questions are easy for me to understand and answer but the hard thing is that after these types of questions are exhausted everyone thinks that my language skills are incredible and so they start speeding up the pace and I start having a hard time understanding what they are saying.

I'm not sure that yoga is really my thing but I'm definitely willing to keep at it for the chance to start some friendships in a way that is culturally appropriate!

And, now for the headband breakthrough. Yesterday afternoon I took the headbands to Ella's little friend at the flower shop and I was invited to go to the back of the shop where they live. I know this might not sound like a breakthrough but I have only been invited into five people's homes in the last two years (this is obviously not counting all of the other ex-pats because I go to their homes a lot). I've been to L's professor's, our language tutor's (we pay them...does that count?), our next-door-neighbor's, and two other friends'. So, for them to invite me in meant the world to me and I think that it indicates that in the future I will be able to become even closer friends with them.

We Regret to Inform the Grandparents...

...that the camera has gone camping with L. We couldn't decide whether it was more important for him to have the camera for this once-in-a-lifetime trip or whether I should keep it so that I could post pictures of Ella for family members at home. We had actually decided that I should keep it but last night his friend called and said that his camera was broken so L ended up taking it with him.

L's only plans for his trip were to meet up with his friend at the airport, find motorcycles to rent and drive west. He called around 5:00 tonight and they had actually been able to find motorcycles, as well as gas for their camping stove, had stocked up on trail mix ingredients and were headed out of town. I can't wait to hear more about their adventures but don't know what kind of cell phone coverage they will have. He'll be back next Saturday.

While L is gone Ella and I will be having some serious girl time! I think that we actually have more planned for our week than L does for his entire trip. We will be joining a friend, Susan, for a yoga class (I'll let you know how that goes...should be interesting!), having coffee with Danielle at a new coffee shop that recently opened and Celeste (Ella's friend) and her mother are coming over for an afternoon. We will also be going to a MOPS group that our fellowship is starting this week and have another outing planned with a mother and her two daughters. We will also go by the flower shop to see Ella's friend there and Ella is going to give her some of her headbands because the last time we went they thought her headbands were really cute. I could tell they felt a little disappointed when I told them that the headbands came from America so I'm thankful we have extra to share. I'm also going to try to finish the baby quilts that I started before Ella was born. I wanted to finish them before she arrived but instead we sat in the hotel in her birth city for three weeks!

Ella's First Hike

Last week we took Ella for her first hike. We hiked for 2-3 miles along the top of the city wall that was originally built in the 1400s and as you can see she was completely worn out by the time we got home...even though she was asleep for the majority of it to begin with! When she wasn't sleeping she was smiling at her dad (she is such a Daddy's girl) but every once in a while she would look around at the trees and other sites along the way.

Bookopoly

Last week was October Holiday so things were pretty slow around campus. Most people were either on a soil science trip or visiting their families so we had a lot of time to just hang out with each other. On Thursday night we played Bookopoly which is a version of Monopoly. We missed you, Uncle Phil! L beat the A and Ella team in record time. I seriously think this was one of the shortest games of Monopoly in the world. But, I'm used to it because I NEVER beat L at games!

Headed Out

We were headed out the door last week (Ella usually rides in her Bjorn when we go out because our area is not especially stroller friendly) and thought that we would stop and take some quick pictures of Ella looking adorable in her little hat. The weather has been perfect lately but on that particular night it was especially chilly. I love autumn!

Happy Birthday Granddad!

These days Ella thinks that us slurping at her (which used to make her smile all of the time) is totally lame! But, instead she loves when L shakes his head and says, "Little Cutie, Little Cutie." Also, today we weighed her and she is now a little over 13 pounds!

It would have been fun to celebrate your birthday with you, Daddy, but we will just look forward to seeing you in December!

First Bottle

Date night here we come!

Chubby Cheeks