10 months!

HAPPY 10 Month Brithday Emma Grace Huffman! We love you more than you can imagine!

Emma Grace is 10 months! She is currently screaming her head off in her bed while I write this blog entry. One of her new talents as a 10 month old is to sit up on her own. She has been sitting up in her bed when I put her down for her naps. This isn't a huge deal except for the fact that she hasn't figured out how to lay back down on her own. So Andy just went in there and layed her back down but she is not happy!

Here is a picture from earlier when she was happy!

I only got a few good shots and then she started getting fussy so I grabbed a piece of candy (still in the wrapper of course) and handed it to her, thinking that would make her happy and she would smile for the camera. The result was she tried to eat it....

Now here's where my strategy failed...The candy made her happy but she wouldn't put it down for me to get a good face shot...so I took it away. not a good idea....

So there you have it...the ups and downs of the life of a 10 month old. Man, Emma Grace, your mom is MEAN!

Pizza Party for Dinner!

Last weekend I had a pizza party for Dinner...not the meal but the person! On the right is my little buddy, Dinner. That's his English name. I am not sure where he got that name but that's his name. To his left is his buddy, Cindy-who I am almost positive is a boy. I guess picking a name in a language you don't know is really like taking a shot in the dark! So, here's my question: if you were going to pick a chinese name, what would it be and why? We've had freinds with all kinds of strange English names such as Success, Apple, Antler, Silly, Rico, and my new favorite, Richest! (not Richard)

Anyway, this weekend this crew of kids along with my neat friend, Wendy (in the back left) came over and I taught them to make pizza. I tried to teach them in a way that they could do at home if they wanted so instead of making my own crust (which I'm bad at anyway) I just bought some "bings" from the local market and used them as the crust. They are kinda like an oversized english muffin and I sliced them in half for the crust. No one cooks in a oven here, so though we made our pizzas in the oven, I told them how they could do this at home with the microwave. They had a great time and really enjoyed playing wtih all of EG's toys (and EG too, once she got up from her nap) Most kids here, especially ones from the country didn't have toys growing up and they have never seen anything like the toys Emma Grace has with all the sounds, buttons, etc! So they mostly played with her toys while they watched the movie cars and ate their pizza.

I've not been good at blogging these past few weeks. It's taken me a few days to really recover from traveling with Emma Grace! I took several naps after we got back and last night I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30. Andy and I were attempting to read Jane Eyre, a book we've been reading for the past 6 months now. By the time he'd read 3 pages I was already asleep. I can see why he gets frustrated with me when I say, "Let's read!" He gave up and I went to bed. Traveling just takes it out of you and it's taken me a few days to get back into my groove here. So hopefully I'll be better on the blog this upcoming week!

trip to Bangkok

We are back from Bangkok and have great news! Emma Grace officially has no kidney/urinary tract problems! We are thrilled for that news and also really happy to be home. Traveling with a baby in the "New York of the East" is not really fun-nor convenient-they certainly didn't have our hoopty stroller in mind when they designed the sidewalks! We had some fun family time and Andy got to see a movie, which he loves to do. I had my share of starbucks and 3 fresh squeezed lemonades and homemade pretzels from Auntie Anne's! Here are a few highlights via pictures...

My highlight of the trip was putting Emma Grace in all her really cute 12 months summer outfits. I was wondeirng if she would have a chance to wear them but the 90+ degree weather gave us plenty of opportunity! (We actually returned to 80 degree weather here so it looks like she will have a few more chances!)

Thanks to Aunt Katie H for this cute outfit


Some of the books I've read on parenting say you should take the paci away after the first few months-the theory is that their sucking needs have passed after a few months and you want to take it away before they get attached. I couldn't disagree more... Let's just say I am hoping she has this thing til she's five! I can see the reasoning behind it, but man, a paci is a really nice thing to have in hand while on a 3 hour, after her bedtime flight! She loves it and also loves to play a game where she puts in my mouth and then tries to steal it back from me! We usually only give it to her at night and at naps but a trip out of town is a special occasion and we need all the help we can get in keeping things under control.

Our main purpose for going all the way to Thailand....the amazing hospital. BUMRUNGRAD. Asian prices meets state of the art medical facilities and Harvard trained doctors! What more can you ask for in a hospital? The only thing i can think of is a Starbucks and they have one. This picture was taken the morning of EG's VCUG while I drank my caramel macchiato and EG checked out the cool water fountain in the middle of the lobby. Looks like a nice hotel huh?She doesn't know what is about to happen....
AHHHH Get me out of this place....
After a long day at the hospital and a recovery nap for all three of us we headed out for the "secondary but also very important" reason we traveled to thailand....

All in all it was a good trip. Traveling with a 10 month old who has quite the personality along with all her mother's opinion is less than easy. So needless to say we were glad to get back home! We are so thankful she is better!

Afternoon at the Park

My favorite day of the week is Saturdays! Andy takes the day off and we get to spend time as a family. Yesterday we headed to a new park about 25 minutes from our house! It was awesome! We picked up KFC on the way and had a picnic. Emma Grace loves being outside and so do we. The weather in our city is amazing right now. maybe 80 with a nice breeze. This park is definitely our new favorite family spot. It's huge, has rides (for when EG gets olders) but also has a lot of more natural areas-a huge pond and plenty of grass that you can sit on (this is a big deal considering it is usually illegal to sit or walk on grass here) I guess in a concrete jungle like a city of 4 million you have to protect the little grass you've got! Here's EG with her cheerio container. This is one of her favorite snacks!
Family lunch...

AFter our trip to the park EG needed a snack! (cheerios and yoghurt-she is quite the snacker!) Here she is drinking her yoghurt out of a straw. We usually got on a walk every afternoon after her nap and buy a yoghurt for about 20 cents! She demolishes it!
I'm a big girl. I can hold it myself.

Well we are headed out to Thailand in about 5 minutes! Will try to update from there!

Amusing...

I thought the challenge in finding one of those special tools to wash the outside of our windows would be my inability to speak the local language well. Boy was I wrong.

Here's how my quest went:

I walked into the first store and asked the lady, "Do you sell those special tools that you use to wash the windows? You know the ones that wash the inside and outside at the same time?

She looked at me absolutely dumbfounded and just didn't speak. (a good 5 seconds of awkward silence passed) I finally said, "do you know what I am talking about?" To which she replied, "we don't have them." I was pretty sure she had no idea what it was that I wanted anyway, so how would she know whether or not they sell them? So I decided I would look for myself. Unfortunately this store is not very stroller friendly and I decided to give up after walking down a couple of aisles and head to a store that I knew had more cleaning products.

Attempt #2:

Me: Do you have those special tools that you can use to wash the inside and outside of your windows?

The lady at the register: do you mean glass cleaner?

Me: No, you know those specials tools that have two parts that you can use to wash the inside and the outside of the windows?

Lady at Register: look in the back

At this point I was hopeful. She didn't say no, so that was a step in the right direction. I headed to the back and the other workers were pointing out different things that they were guessing I meant. On my own I spotted the tool I wanted and here is where it got difficult:

Me: oh this is it! how do you say this thing?

Worker lady: do you mean, how much is it?

Me: No, I mean how do you say it?

She then points to some characters on the box that I can't read. At this point I decide to ask the questions she seems dying for me to ask.

Me: so how much is it?

Lady: I don't know

We both look at the box and the label to see if there is a price

Me: So do you know how much it is?

Lady: hold on, I'll be back

After returning says: it doesn't have a price

me: it doesn't have a price?

Lady: No

Me: So can I buy it?

Lady: Ofcourse you can buy it but it doesn't have a price

Me: so how do I buy it?

Lady: come back later

Me: I walked kinda far to get here. Is there anyway you can find out the price?

Lady: silence

(I decided to change strategies at this point)

Me: Ok, who knows the price?

Lady: at lunch

Me: well, can you call them and ask?

Lady: hold on

(calling)

Lady: they don't know

(Calling another person who gives them a price that they think is too low)

Finally another lady in the store decides to just sell it to me at the "too low" price. I guess my persistence paid off.

Just when I thought I was starting to understand this culture, my quest to find a window wiper goes and blows all my illusions.

Here we are enjoying the UNC game last sunday morning. Emma Grace is really inito the game!
Cutest UNC FAN EVER!!!!

We had a great trip to a near by city to viist some friends. There were two families and some local friends that we went to see! The city is very big and very polluted...but they do live right above a starbucks. I managed to make 3 trips in the 48 hours we were there! It was fun to see other families. We had a total of 7 yougins all together. A little chaotic but fun! It's encouraging to see what God is doing in other parts of the country. Here's a fun pic from our time. Emma Grace and her best bud Lydia are playing ball! EG is the picther and Lydia is batting! Last night I went on a double date....

HeHe. Actually I went on a double date with Matt and Laura and my hubby (not the chinese man!) But the chinese man is Qi, our dear friend, neighbor, uncle (I call him that as it is appropriate in this culture) and our driver. The four of us plus Qi went out last night. We first went to a local muslim resturant and had really yummy lamb, spicy fried chicken, stewed lotus root, broccoli and a type of muslim bread. It was yummy. Then we headed to the ice skating rink to see a hockey game. (this is where we had Andy's broomball birthday party-which was a blast but unfortunately included a dislocated shoulder and a broken tail bone. this year we are having an "ultimate frisbee bash" and grilling out-we rented the local soccer field!) Anyway, back to ice hockey. Hockey is not very big here, just like in the southern USA but Matt, who is from North Dakota filled us in on all the rules and some of the culture of the game! Our local team played "team USA" (which was a group of middle aged balding men from boston who weren't that good) we mostly cheered for the local team. We invited Qi to come in and watch the game with us. I think he liked it but said he wanted to come back in the summer-it was cold! notice he has andy's jacket draped over him. we finally convinced him to wear it but he wouldn't put his arms in! He is a really fun guy and so nice to Laura and I. He takes us all over the place!

GO TEAM USA!!!!

In other news, Emma Grace is really close to crawling. She can get up on her hands and knees but then she just scoots backwards. we are working on the forward movement thing, but at least she is moving! I think she is getting more teeth. She's been fussy and drooling a lot lately.

We are hitting the road again on Sunday. Unfortunately we have to go back to Bangkok to get a VCUG done on Emma Grace (basically a test to see if her urinary tract is developed properly) we will be there through Thursday. If the Tar Heels make it all the way, we will be watching the game in Thailand. I am tired from traveling-this semester feels like it's been busy but I am excited to make a little trip to Outback Steakhouse! ok, talk to you soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAM KACKI!!

Happy Birthday Gram Kacki! We love you and hope you have a great day! We miss you and we're thinking of you on this special day!