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morning oration and waving to the park & traffic below

spike loves to pull himself up to the window and give long-winded speeches every morning, waving his hands, bobbing his head, and stomping feet explaining how traffic infrastructure can be improved, the manners of the city could stand some polishing in light of the 2010 expo, and perhaps how upcoming children's day on June 1st could use some better balloons and a clown that is actually funny.  last year's event at the park was just a _travesty_. 

thug who?

dinner at maeling's

while our hubby's enjoy the fresh air and tranquility of lijiang, mae-ling and i kept each other company for dinner tonght. viv, jerry & amanda joined us, while kyle played host to spencer with his transformers. maeling and i caught up and talked business ideas, and she had her driver pick us up (it was a dreary day in shanghai, the kind of rainy night that makes it impossible to catch taxis) and drop us off or it would have been impossible to get out of the house. her ayi made a feast, and she showed me some of her beautiful home made baby blankets from the market. sharing business ideas over a huge ayi cooked meal and being chaufeured home. only in shanghai.

today was a super busy day, luckily spencer was okay with xiao ping since i had to go to the tv station early, then meet damien during the afternoon to finish furnishing his apartment and was basically out all day except for scarfing down 2 yogurts after nursing chuckles. tomorrow i have a lot of cleaning up to do, and attack some of these projects i shared with maeling.

breath

after traveling from china to san francisco, san francisco to new york, new york to jacksonville (sans calvin, with baby), jacksonville to san francisco, and anticipating our trip back to china, i am exhausted. having just jumped on several of our bright plastic samsonite suitcases again, the clasps having given up long ago, i sit in front of my newly fixed computer (thanks cin&cliffy!) with an tired and over-travelled wrinkly smile on my face as spencer breathes sleep into our little bay area hotel room.

i love this chance to breathe deeply and enjoy the quiet. i wish to write more about each place, and all the amazing cannot live without people we were reunited with, but for now i am just remembering. i am in awe of the moms who have done these trips so many times with their children, and extend a big hug to the friends who've checked in and made us feel happy and right about coming home.

just sitting here, thinking about the bakeshop, the lovely faces at bubby's & soba nippon, hearing waves crash as mommy, calvin & spence nap, my mom's tinkling laughter whenever spencer is in her arms, i realize this trip really exceeded my expectations. i only wish we could have seen everyone we wanted to see this time.

more later.

study break! study break!

reunion junior

i organized a reunion for our lamaze class. and here are some pictures of sammy and spence, the floor potatoes. 

sustainable toys

i'll try to update and add to this list, but please take a look at this website.  based in san francisco, where else?

oh my gudness

i've started orchestrating spencer's arranged marriage.  chris and michelle are pregnant! 

here's a photo of spencer when he heard the news.  and then he asked, "is it a girl?"

just a taste

after spencer's 6 month shots, spence and i headed over for a playdate with jessica.  i love seeing jessica, and i also love seeing her kids.  her son, chris, is a year older than spence, has a penchant for racecars and seeing what his sister is up to.  her daughter, cate, can actually work a furry hello kitty purse, purple beads, and sweet marc jacobs looking dresses.  she's 3 years old, and rocks an afro, but just on the back of her head.  i marveled that spencer allowed her to stroke his cheeks, giggled when she tickles his feet, and slowly began to notice that he tracked her movements as she twirled around the room.  gawd, it's already starting.

jessica concurred that i should start putting him on solids since he turned 6 months today.  she packed some organic rice cereal and japanese rice cereal bars for us, lent him a chair, and wrote down instructions for me on when to feed him which foods.  i can see how her gentle, modest manner and well researched knowledge easily parlay into being a doctor.  the chair, along with so many other goodies the moks have generously lent us, adorn spencer's playroom. 

so before we rang the dinner bell, i pulled out the "what to expect ..." and "contented baby's book of weaning" to read what kind of environment is best suited for baby's first feeding, pulled on the tab of how many milligrams of fresh breastmilk to add to the cereal mix, while calvin already had spence in the seat, dressed and was practicing heartily with christopher's little spoon.  this is a typical illustration our different personalities.

here's some pictures of the big event:

babies fly first class

first-of-ly, i have to apologize for not blogging.  and second-of-ly, i have to thank jerry and viv for lending me their ibook so i can unload all the crap i have stored up over the last month.  i could say that the reason i haven't been writing is because my husband/tech support killed my computer downloading episodes of the daily show, the colbert report, listening to venture capital radio stations (i'm sorry, he just corrected me. podcasts.) while uploading the photographs of spencer - which have totaled over 500 on some days - all without turning it off for days, but that would be blaming.  which never happens in our marriage.

but, i digress. 

calvin and i are planning spike's big trip to the states.  after talking to eugenia, (and knowing i can't go wrong if i just hang on to her advice word-for-word), we decided on an upgrade to fly united premium to get a few extra inches of legroom, and get a baby bassinet for him to snooze in.  the only problem we have is that spencer is quickly obese-ing towards the 25lb cut off, and judging by recent behavior, may use it as a diving board.  or just rip it from the wall, after gaining a months worth of weight, on our way back home.

dr. jenkins, our pediatrician at worldlink, suggested that we use cotton as noise reduction, and create a canopy around him during the flight.  i have an inflight bag packed for him including soft pajamas, his favorite entertainment, and on-demand food (me).  this, plus a reclining bed that plugs into the wall?  it really doesn't get any better than this.   it's pretty much all downhill from here.

the guy i am stewerdessing.  with his hair combed to the side, he just looks like he should fly first class.