Basketball

This is what UNC basketball looks like through the eyes of a toddler.  Too cute.  Click here to watch.  

CNY: Welcome Year of the Snake!

Kung hei fat choi and welcome to the year of the snake!  We took some photos of our HK Chinese children to celebrate the holiday.  How beautiful are these kiddos?

I don't have any idea where the CNY week went!  Nate was off from work, but our helper was also off, so it was actually pretty crazy around here.  A few highlights from the week were a potluck picnic at the school's (fake grass) field with friends, a warm afternoon at the beach, a yummy Chinese dinner out with friends (and no kids!!), and a trip to the flower market in Kowloon.  Since Valentine's Day was over CNY and Nate and I had no time to get each other anything, we decided to go buy flowers together as a family and make a nice steak dinner at home to celebrate the day.  Here is what we ended up with, after my attempts at flower arranging.  The flower market is kind of far away, but the flowers there are half the price of HK Island and much fresher.

These gorgeous Gerber daisies were only $5 USD!

And how could I not take a quick snapshot of this smiling face?  I spend a lot of time smothering these cheeks with kisses.

The other huge task of this past weekend has been intensive potty training for Finley.  Nate and I are feeling really excited about the progress he's making...and we're pretty excited about decreasing our diaper budget!  But I'll tell you, it's exhausting to stay on top of all the frequent potty trips, hand washing, reminding, praising, rewarding, etc.  Whew!

The Gene Pool

Who do you think Elise looks like?

Daddy...

Mommy... 

or Finley?

And here's Elise...what do you think?

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

It's official, Elise has learned to roll this week!  Actually, she figured it all out in about 24 hours.  I videoed her when she was first trying to roll, and then again the next day so you can see how quickly she learned.  And by the third day she was even faster!  By today she pretty much flips immediately when I lay her down to play on the floor.  We're also excited because this means Elise can learn to sleep on her belly now.  She's already started doing it some, and as a result we've had as much as 4 straight hours of sleep a few times this week!  That is cause for celebration!  CLICK HERE for the video.

Here are some photos I took a week or so ago, so we'll call them her 4 month old photos.

Meanwhile, Finley is sick this week.  He has pink eye in both eyes and a cold (which I also have, again).  So we made the most of the contagious period by staying in and baking (dairy-free) cookies together.  Like at Christmas, Finley's favorite part was the sprinkles.

Promise I didn't stage this photo.  I looked over while we were eating the other day and Elise was in the bouncy seat, and she was sucking her thumb and holding the burp cloth and giraffe.  So sweet.

Oh, and don't let me forget the most hilarious photos, courtesy of Nate's iPhone.  Promise these weren't staged either.  Finley has just been really into feeding his baby recently.  We'll have to bust these back out when he gets married or has his first child!  Our helper, Cathrina, actually seemed slightly embarrassed when he first did this, but I thought it was sweet and funny.  He just wanted to be like his mama.  :)  Or maybe he was practicing for his future as a lactation consultant?