My little helper and the war I can't win

Emma Grace is my very wonderful little helper. Whether I'm doing the laundry, sorting bathing suits (see above) or outside looking for trash, she's great at helping me! Ok, I don't really pick up trash outside but she's great at finding it and bringing it to me! She and I have become the official trash collectors for our apartment complex! Her "helping" is much appreciated but can lend itself to things getting a little misplaced! I found a necklace washed and dried this morning-that would be from her helping me with a load of laundry a couple days ago. And when I just can't seem to find things I'm looking for, they always seem to turn up in a random drawer in which she was playing! We're in a very fun stage where everything is interesting to my little girl. Here she is picking some flowers for me! I like those a little better than trash!
And of course hanging out with Xiang Xiang in the courtyard...

Seeing her best buds in the world, Nana and Ydia (Julianna and Lydia) walk into the courtyard...(check out my belly!)Nana with a cute puppy...
Remember my last post where I was proud of myself for being "chinesey" and giving Milk G a gift? Well, here's what I've realized-I've gotten myself into a gift giving war that I am pretty sure I can't win! My kind gesture was reciprocated two days later with a big bag of bananas. I am not sure what to do at this point! Do I just keep trying to one up her to show my love? Do I stop giving and concede that she loves me more than I love her? Not sure. Still working on that one. Aside from giving her my firstborn, I am pretty sure there is no way I can win this war. Along the same lines-we had Uncle Qi and his wife over a few weeks ago and they of course returned the favor this week! Matt kindly reminded us that we needed to bring a gift to their home. In this culture it is very polite to bring a small gift when invited to friends' homes. It was kinda last minute when we realized we hadn't prepared anything...but I figured a bag of bananas would do the trick! SHHHH....don't tell!

With three little girls running around, the place was lively! I think they really enjoyed it and Emma Grace ate her weight in some type of green beans with peppers. That was encouraging to me as a mom, since I had managed to feed her McDonald's for two out of the three previous meals. Here she is going night night with their giant bear!

On a final note...this week is going to be really crazy for us! We decided to head back to the America 10 days earlier than we were originally planning. (That puts us on American soil at 1:00 pm Saturday and at Chic Fila at about 1:17 pm-we have to change terminals to get to the Chic Fila in the Atlanta airport so that explains why we'll be on American soil for a whole 17 minutes before we have those mouth watering chicken sandwiches in hand!) With only two weeks planned in NC and a list of a gazillion things to do while there, we figured we needed a little extra time to rest and recover from jet lag and spend good time with the family! We are super excited but my packing is coming along a lot slower than anticipated. Might be because I have such a wonderful, sweet, cute, but totally inefficient little helper following me around, undoing most of what I accomplish! Ok, off to do some organizing while my helper rests from all her hard work!