Merry Christmas, everybody

OH, SH . . . e finally made it clear what she meant

Ting Ting is talking -- a lot -- and we can actually have conversations with her now in which we understand her as well as she understands us. But for a couple of months, she had us a little worried.

She'd stub her toe and say, "oh, sh--." She'd drop her doll and say it again.

One day, excited at seeing Lauren and Brandon come into the daycare with Dad, she raced across the common area to greet them, tripped and fell, shouting "oh, sh--" right in front of several staff members.

Ahem.

Now, neither my husband nor I would swear we never swear, but neither one of us says that phrase anywhere close to routinely, even when we're NOT trying to be careful in front of little ears. And we're certain that that word doesn't ring out in the halls of the early childhood development center to which we entrust her daily.

But it sure did seem like she was using the phrase appropriately -- that is, in instances you might use that phrase if you were to routinely use that kind of language, if you know what I mean. Lance and I would wonder about it privately, but it was pretty hard to keep ignoring it when she said it in the hallway at church or when my mother, visiting at Thanksgiving, asked, "what is she saying? Because it sounds like . . . "

Yes, Mom, we know. We were hoping YOU didn't hear it that way, too.

Finally, one morning Ting Ting was sitting on our bed and decided to climb up on the pillows to reach the lamp -- she loves to turn it on and off. I saw her slip a little bit and bump her head on the headboard.

"Ouchy," I said without thinking.

"Ouchy," she responded rubbing her head.

Except she pronounced it more like "OH Shee."

Or, perhaps, "Oh, Sh--."

"OH," said her Daddy and I at the exact same time, bursting into laughter.

Whew.

Our little chow hound is 23 months old today

So enjoy some photos of her Thanksgiving warmup:

Hmmm, anything else in here?



They make me use a sippy cup when we have company so it'll look like I'm all nice and neat.


Of course, if that's their goal, they shouldn't feed me the blue yogurt, should they?

Wow.

The morning of Dec. 4, 2006, a precious little bundle was placed in my arms.

That day was the beginning of the most amazing, incredible, joyous ride of my life.

We love you, Rachel Shu-Ting.

You want photos?

My Dad said I need to give credit to my blog's photographer.


He's right, of course.


So, here are some more photos taken by my Dad.

Oh, come on -- you could see that one coming.



Nice work, Papa! Thanks.

Here's why WE'RE thankful

We be thankful

Ting Ting's teacher made a chart listing why each kid in her day care group is thankful. I saw the chart on the wall the other day and had to take a photo (with my cell phone, and I didn't bother to move the dangly thing out of the way, so it's not the best quality shot, but I digress).

Most of the kids said they were thankful for their mommies or daddies. One was thankful for dance class, another for "black bridge." One said "Mommy's at work." I'm thinking she didn't understand the question.

Our kid definitely understood the question, though:

Yes, Ting Ting is grateful for her cat.

Of course, we already knew that she thanks the good Lord above for him.

It hardly seems possible

One year ago today, we were enjoying our second day of sightseeing in Beijing. We saw Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Starbuck's at the Forbidden City, we climbed a drum tower, toured a neighborhood, ate a duck dinner . . . and more. It was quite a day. We would do more touring before our trip ended, but we never again did it without little Ting Ting.

You can probably tell I'm thinking a lot about what we were doing a year ago. It hardly seems possible that we're coming up on the first anniversary of Ting Ting's family day. If you'd like to remember along with me, just look in the archives for December 2006.