The New Park

Our friends introduced us to a new park just down the road from our house.  I couldn't believe we've lived here 4 years and not known about it!  Bianca loves being outside and climbing on all the equipment.  Everyday she asks to go to the "new park".  It's not really new... but it's certainly new to her!  We have been blessed with 60 and 70 degree weather for the last few weeks.  It's been just gorgeous outside.  While it makes for mommy's allergies to be on the hiatus, it makes great play weather for Miss B.  I had a mother come over to me last week and ask me for one of my Kleenexes.  She laughed and said, "Saw you sneezing a bit, knew you had one."  Glad I could help.

I also check Beijing's weather everyday.  Um.... cold.  Like teens, low 20s.  Every. Single. Day.  There appears to be no "nice days" during the winter months over there.  We are in for a RUDE awakening.

3 months old Vivi

Today Miss Veronica Sue is 3 months old.  I can't believe she's been here that long already!

At 3 months, Veronica:
likes to be held by momma
loves to stare at her big sissy
sucks her thumbs, prefers the right
is called "Vivi" sometimes by mom and dad
tries really hard to roll over but can't quite yet
scoots around on her back
is easy-going during the day
still wakes up at least every 4 hours for a feeding at night
likes tummy time
prefers to turn her head to the left
kicks her legs a mile a minute
doesn't like to nap but maybe 20 minutes
will "talk" back to you when you have a conversation with her
smiles non-stop
is a happy baby!

We love you Veronica Sue!

I do plan on taking her to get "professional" pics taken... but she has a terrible scratch on her nose so we're waiting!  I did these myself cause I can Photoshop (The Picture People don't edit).  Here's some pics of her at 3 months:

Now.... if only her big sis would let me take some pictures!  She's a stinker.

Playing Catch Up

I feel like I'm behind on everything lately.  This China gig has really cramped my extra curricular time!  I need to play catch up with everything.  I have been thinking about what I need to get done.  I've decided to make a list and post it so that way when my mom reads my blog, she can annoy ask me continually if I have completed my tasks.  So I made this "todos" list.  (Ironically, "to do" combined is todo - which means "all" in Spanish.   I'm soooo gonna lose my Spanish in Beijing).  Anyways, here's my all-I've-gotta-do list:

Now some of these things might seem silly.  Like, "go to the salon".  But actually - when you live kinda like a single mom with hubs gone a lot and no family around, taking a few hours to go somewhere and do something for yourself seems like a wasteful, selfish thing to do.  I looked at my calendar and it's been over 4 months since I had a cut or color.  Time to go.  And it's REALLY time to update the blog - the Christmas trees need to be put up in their digital box for the year.

Gotta go.... I've been loving this 60-degree weather but it's REALLY messed up my allergies.  Time to rest and get ready to catch up.

Oh... one more thing on my list I forgot to put.

6. Get Veronica's 3-month photos taken

Nana & Grampy... final visit???

Nana and Grampy came to visit last week!  It was an amazing visit.  Nana came to visit a few days before Grampy.  She brought along with her an entire wardrobe for the girls to get through next winter.  We feel so blessed!  I had so much fun cutting off tags and packing it up into their new Disney suitcases (what a steal.... $39 for HUGE suitcases from TJ - originally $200).  We found some other great deals at the mall when we went shopping one afternoon.  You can really save some money buying all off-season clothes!  It's been a struggle for us - we need to try to buy the girls all their clothes for the next year and a half or so.  Mainly because the quality/availability of clothing in China is nowhere near that of the States.  Also, our girls have never really had a "real" winter.  They have never had to have warm, puffy winter coats because a simple warm sweater or light-weight jacket has always been enough.  Since China is VERY cold (I'm talking single digits and negative temps a lot of the winter days - and YES... it does snow!), they are were in desperate need of some things.

While Nana and I were busy shopping, the boys were busy fixing things around the house.  They painted, fixed doors, patched holes, fixed lights.... ALL kinds of odds and ends that a real estate inspector will be looking at when they come to assess the house.  I'm sure we will have a dozen more things to fix, but it was a great start.  

While Nana was there, I got to have a mommy-daughter date with my eldest, Bianca Dee.  We went to one of her favorite places, the Georgia Aquarium.  She loved it, as usual.  It was nice to have just me & B time.

After the aquarium we had a fun lunch together.

And while we were busy having mommy-daughter time, somebody else was left at home to have precious Nana-Vivi time.

Bianca LOVES her grampy.  He's a lotta rough fun.  And he also reads a nice Snowman story at night.

Come on, Nana... show us your skills.

Bianca loves her soccer ball.  Show Nana how to kick that ball!

Grampy knows how to kick the ball higher than the tree.

She'll wear you out.

Then we had to take the grandparents to Varsity.  I couldn't believe we had never taken them before.  

She got her own ice cream.  We had to cut her off.  Like her mommy, she didn't want to share ice cream.  Who does???

And when in Rome... 

When at Varsity, wear the hat.  hahahahaha....

It was a bittersweet visit.  We aren't really sure if it will be their last or not, but there's good chance it was.  We really enjoyed their company.  There's nothing like a nice visit from your parents to really help out.  We can't tell you how much we appreciated it.  Thanks again and we will see ya soon.... probably in Illinois!