Some Mondays Are Weirder Than Others

I think today qualifies for an "above average" weird rating....

Help Yourself

Itty bitty baby bowls? Not for Sarah. When she eats dinner, she prefers to go straight to the source!

"I Can Get In......And Out!....All By Myself!"

We finally did it! We convinced Liam that Big Boy Beds are the coolest thing since...diggers? Soy ice cream? Once we had him on board it was time to act fast. Hence, we spent the better part of our anniversary driving around town for the perfect bed and wound up taking apart the crib/assembling the new bed until waaaaaay past Liam's bedtime. By the time he settled in it was 10:30pm. But he was a happy little boy. So proud of himself and so excited to wake up in the morning and (as he told us over and over)...."get out of bed.....all by myself!" And that's just what he has done the last two mornings: wake up, get out of bed and start putting together a few legos before we go in his room and find him beaming at his grown-up-ness.
Here he is making sure the bed would have enough space for such a big boy. (Didn't have the heart to tell him it's his old crib mattress that's fitting in there!)


Yep, it fits! Time to sing a few silly songs about big boy beds...


All tucked in and ready for a milestone night! He looks a little apprehensive here, but he was all smiles. The "perk" that he has been most impressed with is his very own box of tissues on the beside table beside him (lower right corner). He is so proud that he has authority over tissue distribution. Before we kissed him goodnight he told me that if I needed a tissue I could come in and ask him for one. He'd share. :)

The Honeymoon's Over!

On this day, five years ago...we took some really bad wedding photos! Not just sorta bad....REALLY bad! So exceptionally awful, they still make me cringe. But even if the photos suggest otherwise, it was the start of something wonderful.


The traditional 5th anniversary gift is wood, so we will be spending the weekend in search of the perfect "big boy bed" for a certain almost-3-year-old who would be happy to remain in a crib until....forever. Tonight's menu: spaghetti. Entertainment: a loaded PVR. Probably some ice cream. And the best friend I could ever hope to share it with. Pinch me. :)
Happy Anniversary, Babe!

Children's Festival

The biggest sand box we have ever seen....face painting....garbage trucks....I don't think the kids could imagine a better place than this!




The only drawback....sandy diapers! No matter what, you just can't shake it all out! :)

Children of the Corn

Okay, it's not as bad as the movie....but the final scene is a bit of a heartbreaker. For the camera, anyway.

Sugar and Spice...

...she is everything nice! Sarah is becoming girlier by the minute. Although she'll still "vroom vroom" with Liam's cars, she tosses them aside as soon as she spots anyone's purse. If you are missing some high heels, you can be sure Sarah is clomping around in them!

Liam of Orange

Today was "Wacky Hair Day" at Liam's Sunday School. Unfortunately, Liam was the only kid in his class to get the memo! He still thought he looked pretty cool....

Back To Reality...

....and no, this isn't it! :)


I thought since updating the blog with pics while we were actually in China was a bust (communism - bah!) I'd post a few here before we resume regular cute kid programming!

Shanghai was just a little bit busy. It made for an interesting combo of jet lag, culture shock and claustrophobia that first evening!


Our hotel was in a good location, but this was the closest "take-out". We opted to dive into our stash of digestive biscuits before calling it a long day and an early night!


PDA alert! We had dinner at a fancy restaurant in Jin Mao Tower. The reflection you see on Matt's shoulder is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, a standout in the Shanghai skyline. I know you're curious: we both had lasagna. It was fantastic. :) (Do you get the impression this was not a culinary tour of China?)
Looking up in the Jin Mao Tower....


Yu Yuan Garden. Just don't ask either of us to pronounce that. We stumped more than a couple tourism staffers with that one!


We like how this one is addressed to Chinese citizens, but posted in English. Generally, I would agree with the advice: "Don't chase, hit and feed the animal at random" is probably in everyone's best interests. Same goes for "Resist the Superstition. Refuse pornography, gamble and drug." But we're still puzzled by what "Don't talk bllingsgate" means....?


(Smelly) chickens at a night market....


Terra Cotta Warriors...


Creeeeeepy oversized puppets:


I think I'm smiling here because I spotted a Pizza Hut in the distance...a modern and practical use for the ancient walls around Xi'an!


We spent some time underground trying to spot the imaginary vegetable gardens among the stalagtites and stalagmytes. It's kind of like putting three stars together and calling it a constellation of a throne. Okaaaay.....
It was pretty, nonetheless...


Apparently the rock structure behind us looks like an Elephant...



I was more convinced by these guys!


Anyone up for a Root Canal? This was just off a main street, nestled between a travel office and a produce stand, I think:


Traffic jam on the Li River...


Some of the tourists panicked a little when this guy steered right towards our boat....until he grabbed on and tried to sell some souvenirs of questionable authenticity!



Matt steering our raft on the Li:


Behind him was this guy, using the comorant birds to catch him some fish!


Stuck in a line while Air Canada's computers were down at Shanghai airport....but wait! Matt's blackberry is up and running! Crisis averted! Phew....that was a close one.... ;)

On another note - I'm pretty sure Matt and I wound up in more Chinese vacation slide shows than our own. We were kind of like celebrities over there!
I'll leave the slide show at that, but not without saying one more HUGE THANK YOU to all the kind souls who looked after the kids and kept them in good spirits while we were away. They say it takes a village, but we are lucky to have a small metropolis in our court. Couldn't have done this without you!

Week with Popa & Aunt B - part 3

Here are some good moments from the past few days, as well as some lessons learned . . .

When Sarah is hungry, feed her. I quickly learned that Sarah is a great eater; she is not fussy about what she eats, but timing is everything.

As I have been learning about the timing of food preparation I learned that Liam and Sarah are happy to eat frozen corn while waiting for me to heat up the version they will eat for dinner.

There was a small amount of ice cream left in the ice cream container so Liam was allowed to eat it out of it! This made him quite happy.

Liam was very excited for Popa to come so he could build him a 'castle'. I tried to get a great photo of him in his castle made from sofa cushions but it fell apart as I was waiting to get the perfect shot.

Week with Popa & Aunt B - part 2

Before Popa came to town Nan spent a couple of days helping with Liam and Sarah. She gave Liam a set of gardening tools and gardening gloves, which he loves. He wanted to mow the lawn with his bubble mower and garden all weekend. There may be a few wholes in the garden for mom and dad when they return . . . Here is Liam showing how tall the plants will grow after he finishes gardening.

Liam is showing all his new gardening tools.

Week with Popa & Aunt B

This is Aunt B reporting on the adventures of Monkey and Mouse while the 'rents are in China for some much deserved alone time (not that they are even close to alone in China!). So far the house is still standing . . .

Here is Liam meeting the Port Moody Pelican. He gave him hugs and a high five!

This is supposed to show Sarah dancing to Bobs and Lolo (sorry I didn't quite have the camera ready to go). Liam just sat and watched, there was almost no movement at all . . . I can see he has inherited Matt's love of public dancing.

This was just a nice moment when Sarah was totally amused by Liam!

Here is Liam releasing some baby salmon into Noon's Creek with support from Nan and Sarah. Sarah couldn't take too much of being close to the water and not being able to walk into it. Nan took her for some snacks while Liam and went to relase a second batch of salmon.

We spent a nice Saturday afternoon at the Fingerling Festival where we released salmon into Noon's Creek. Nan, Sarah, Liam and I headed to the Festival with a full packed stroller (I wanted to be ready for anything, but really we just carried most of the stuff around). We hoped to catch the first act of Bobs and Lolo musical performance but were a little late so headed straight for the fish-releasing-process. We got in a short line up and were handed a bucket of tiny little fish - I thought Sarah might be able to handle it, but, not so much. Her yogurt container of tiny fish was dumped out almost immediately upon receipt so Nan and I had to scramble to save a handful of them from dying in front of the kids! Anyhow, from there things went smoothly. Here is Liam with the fish minutes before their release!

this is a test...this is only a test....

IMG_2432
Originally uploaded by jennifermarycox

Busy day in Shanghai

Get Set....GO!

Ne-How from Shanghai!
We're finding it a little hot, a little noisy, and a LOT crowded! Remember the Olympic crowds? That was like skipping through a meadow compared to what's going on here. But fortunately Matt has been here often enough that he could just about qualify as a tour guide. Just needs to work on his Chinglish. Apparently we are really butchering the names of streets and tourist attractions...there are plenty of English speakers over here, but we haven't found a single one that hasn't stared at us blankly until we do charades with the map!
We (okay, just me) are freaking out a little over the blurring between pedestrian vs. motorized traffic. And whether ice cubes should be considered hazardous to our health. Matt is living on the edge and taking his drinks COLD. :)
It has been an ongoing project to outwit the government firewalls that don't like the looks of my little blog. I have pictures all ready to share (including a super cool mini garbage truck just for Liam), but I can't seem to add them in. Will try again at our next stop.
Until then!
PS - anyone want to put a wager on those ice cubes?