Shanghai Slideshow

Shopping on a Monday night in Shanghai

This is the Nan-Jing shopping district, which was just outside of our hotel. To understand the amount of people in Shanghai its important to note this is a Monday night at 9:30.
Sorry for the poor quality video

Maglev train

This video is of the Maglev train in Shanghai. Its speed can reach up to 430 km per hour. What is so cool about the video is the lack of noise the train makes.

Pu-dong at Night

This video shows the skyline shown in the picture below at night.

Shanghai Surprise

So this is what you see when you start digging and you cant dig anymore.
This is some of the modern architecture on the Pu dong side of Shanghai. As well as some culinary delightes.

Here is some of the more traditional architecture that can be found at the YuYuan Gardens.
The trip to China was a great experience. It gave me an even greater appreciation for all the blessings we are afforded here at home, and a sense of how the Shanghai Culture has its differences but also how similar people really are.

Taki
click the image to get a high res version

If a baby jumps in a rainforest and no one hears it.....

And here I present, in all her glory, our little rainforest jumper in her rainforest jumperoo.

You Dressed Your Baby Girl Up As A What???

This weekend was jam packed! On Friday night mom and dad had their annual pumpkin carving party. Then on Saturday we went over to Ailey's house for a fun pumpkin party(with incredibly yummy food!). And then on Sunday I went with mom to Nikki's baby shower and then to BW3 to meet daddy and theo bill to watch the Bengals game. Whew! I'm wiped out!

The big news of the weekend was that I found out some very unfortunate news. Mommy and Daddy's friend Garrick pointed out that my "chicken" costume has that red thingy on the hat, meaning......I am not a beautiful little chicken hen, but rather a ROOSTER. That's right, folks, my mom and dad dressed their sweet little girl up as a cock for her first halloween. And they wonder why I gave them the finger in my halloween picture. Sheesh.

Here are some pictures from our fun weekend!




The costume line up: Liliana the chili pepper, Ailey the lamb, Sophia the chicken & Tallulah the bat!
Carving Mania!


William, Liliana, Sophia, Ailey & Tallulah in their Halloween gear!



The 2007 pumpkins!!! Congrats to Kev on winning (again!) 1st place with his pac man pumpkin and to Pierre and Bill on coming in second and third. The competition is getting more fierce every year!

Tea Time

Taki brought me some crazy cool teas from China. We decided to try one on his first night home and document it. The tea is Jasmine and it smells incredible and tastes even better. Don't be alarmed by the fact that it resembles a sea urchin! Basically you put it in a glass, pour hot water over it and it opens up to display a flower. Yummy!

A Surprise for Daddy

Mommy & GG took me to get my pictures taken as a surprise for daddy when he came home from China today. Besides the stellar chicken photo below, here is a small collage of the others. Don't you dig my tights?!?!

Time's Up!

And the winner is.....the CHICKEN!!!! As you can see, Sophia is thrilled with our costume choice. You may even notice a slight hand gesture. I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it. : )

Too Funny

I received this in an email titled "Wedding Invite from an Irate Mother" and thought it was so funny that I just had to post it....

Sad Sophia

Just had to post this. I'm sure this will put me in the running for bad mom of the year : ) For those of you who haven't heard Sophia cry (not the true mad cry but the fake pathetic one) it's pretty funny. Kind of like a ambulance...wee, woo, wee, woo. It's hard not to laugh when she's in full wee woo effect.

Boo! and Boo Hoo : (

Boo! I woke up this morning and you wouldn't believe what I saw...ghosts outside my window dancing around our trees! It's incredible!

I hear that my mommy and daddy are a bit spirited when it comes to holidays. Looks like I'll be wearing reindeer ears or some other embarrassing accessory at Christmas.

Boo, hoo! Daddy left for China this morning. I'm going to miss him terribly. I hope he comes home with lots of good stories and perhaps presents! Love you Daddy!

Hey Shorty, it's my Birthday!

I'm officially 3 months old today! My first Post-natal trimester has come to an end and I'm officially an infant. All of you newborns can eat my dust!

I'm now weighing in at 10 lbs 9oz, and 22 1/2" long!

Cider, Doughnuts and Pumpkins Oh My!

This weekend we went to my very first cider mill. I slept through most of it but mom and dad had some yummy cider and doughnuts. Then we went and picked out pumpkins. Besides the fact that I had to get my poopy diaper changed in the back of the car, thus causing my hiney to be hanging out in the wind, it was great fun. Oh and one more thing, do you think this coat makes my shoulders look a bit too broad?

Bumbo Jumbo

I got to try out my Bumbo this weekend because I've been doing so good holding up my head. Mom thought Bumbos were the stupidest thing on the market and laughed whenever she saw someone buy one. She's a bit embarrassed now since she's learned that they're quite fabulous. Mom and Dad laugh when I'm in my Bumbo because i look so funny. I'll let you be the judge!

4 years!

Mom and dad celebrated their 4 year anniversary on the 11th and Aunt Monica and Uncle Kev offered to watch me on Friday night so they could go out to dinner. Besides spitting up on 3 sets of pjs, my bedding and Monica, I behaved very well! Here is a picture of me taking a nap with Monica. I love my Monica!

morbid-ullaby

Seriously. What is wrong with the people who write children's songs. This simply needs to be addressed. Not only are some wildly innapropriate (10 little indians jumping on my bed) and some morbid (down will fall baby, cradle and all) but most are just plain ridiculous making it nearly impossible to remember the words. What baby wants a Mocking bird anyhow? And I can never ever remember the words to "Hush Little Baby" so I end up singing:

"And if that diamond ring don't (nice grammar by the way) shine, mama's gonna buy you a, a, a, box o' wine?"

So I remember it's actually: "And if that diamond ring goes brass (what does this mean anyhow?)".

Hmm, so now I'm singing, "And if that diamond ring goes brass, mama's gonna buy you a, a, a, donkey ass?

Nope, that doesn't seem right. Ohhh...a looking glass. Because every baby needs one of those. Along with a billy goat, cart and bull...well, you get the point.

And does anyone know the words to "Goodnight sweetheart well it's time to go du dudu dum"? Because this is the only line I know and Sophia is fed up with it and me.

And don't get me started on nursery rhymes..."jack fell down and broke his crown and jill came tumbling after"????

So, big thanks to Becca, Sophia's nanny for singing to her during the day while I work because I've managed to learn a few that make way more sense...like "Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes" which we've changed to "Head, shoulders, cheesy toes, cheesy toes".

Here's Sophia and Becca!

May The Force Be With You

So I'm sitting in the office last night and I hear Taki in the living room talking to Sophia. I listen carefully and realize he's saying, "Sophia, I am your father" in a Darth Vader voice. Either this is a common dad thing to say/do or I have a very strange husband.

Pretty Baby

Happy Anniversary G & GG!!!

1. Great Auntie Anne holding me

2. First daddy daughter dance

3. GG and me

"O" on the ends and "HI" in the middle

Last Wednesday we traveled down to Dayton & Cincinnati to visit with family and celebrate G & GG's anniversary. We had lots of fun and took a ton of pictures. Today mom had to go back to work and I am NOT happy about it. Neither is she from what I hear.

Here are some pictures from our trip.

1. Me and my cousins Dorian & Demitra

2. My cake Yia Yia got for me

3. My cousin Demi in the morning. I LOVE her outfit!

4. Uncle Josh and Aunt Jackie holding me. They got me the coolest presents ever!!!

5. Me in my overalls and my first bow in my hair. Can't tell you how mom got it to stay. She made me swear to keep it a secret.

It's okay Ailey, you can lean on me anytime.

Cheese!

Wait...you have how many toys????

Girl Power!

My friends all came over for drinks today. We got all crazy and drank a ton of milk. It was totally awesome.

From left:

Ailey

Tallulah

Luci

Sophia

Liliana had to leave before we thought to take the pictures and Maya couldn't make it so next time we'll have the whole clan hopefully!