Don't You Just Love Hand Me Downs?

I hated them as a kid.

But as a mom I LOVE them!!

Another teacher family has a boy about 5 months older than Blake and we get all his old stuff, which is fabulous because his mom is a super shopper. This means we get nice clothes and lots of them!!


This little beauty, however, didn't come from our normal source, it came from our friend Kimbra and her lovely daughter Mimi. Before that it belonged to the fabulous Tara and her awesome baby Sojo and I've had my eye on it for months.

Kimbra brought it over on Blake's birthday and I couldn't wait for everyone to leave so I could plonk him in the bath and dry him off in this froggie robe.

Which is exactly what we did and then grabbed the camera to take some of the cutest photos ever.

I am very sad to report that it is waaaaay to small. This is the only photo out of the 25 I took that doesn't display his boy bits for the world to see. It just looks a little too Hugh Hefner-ish as he strolls around the apartment.

What a tragedy!

Our Little Vegetarian

Blake has been eating solid food for a while now. He took to it like a pro!! For a few months it looked like he might turn into a sweet potato. Next, he couldn't get enough of green peas. Most recently it was those little oranges that he loved!

Blake was eating every fruit and vegetable we did plus lots of cereals, and as you can see from the pictures, he is thriving. So Scott and I made the decision to hold off giving him meat. We eat meat, lots of it, so it wasn't a save the animals kind of thing. We just don't know what is being fed to the animals here in China or what conditions they are being raised in, so we thought we would wait until we got home to Canada to introduce meat.

Then last week I called home during the day and spoke to Ling Ling and she mentioned how much Blake was enjoying his dumplings, his pork and shrimp dumplings!! Apparently our little porker can eat up to 7 at a time!

Scott and I had a little laugh about it. The best laid plans of mice and men.....

I had such a clear picture of what I would and could do during pregnancy, child birth and then child rearing. And my plans have gone awry time after time. The good news is I'm getting better at rolling with the punches, going with the flow, and any other cliche you might care to insert here. If Blake is happy and healthy then everything is great.

Here he is, our little vegetarian, hoeing into some delicious pork jiao zi. YUM!

Hanging out with Sam

Today Blake and I spent the afternoon playing with Sam and his owners.

Sam is a brand new, very lovable red poodle who belongs to our friends Marypat, Karl, Cam and Matthew. They live in Green Court like we do, but they have a first floor apartment. On a beautiful, sunny day like today, the first floor with it's decks and yard looks pretty good.

Blake enjoyed wandering around the backyard following Cam and Sam. Now that he's mobile it's hard to slow him down.

Sam seemed to enjoy playing with Blake too.

Just Two of the Many Faces of Blake

There are two photos I want to share with you today.

The first one is a new trick Blake has been doing for the past couple days. We call it the chipmunk trick and it's impressive! He packs a large amount of food into his mouth and holds it there for a long time. This particular photo is slightly more than half a banana that he swiped off a table.

The second photo is less adorable.

It occurred to me today that folks at home only see the smiling, gorgeous boy that he is most of the time. And truly he is a very happy, smily guy. Except for when he's not and then he looks like this:

I'd like to retract my earlier comment because smiling or screaming, he's always adorable.

Xin Nian Kuai Le

This is the most important holiday in China, today is New Year's Eve. It is celebrated by families coming together from all over the country & maybe world, eating special foods and the most amazing displays of fireworks you could ever imagine!

Blake was born in January, 2008 at the beginning of our western year and at the end of the Chinese Lunar year. Little Blakie was born in the Year of the Pig. It was a special Year of the Pig too. I don't understand why, but every 60 years, it is known as the Golden Pig. So Blake is a Golden Pig and our friend Dean is one too.

Three weeks after Blake was born, the Year of the Rat began. Tomorrow ushers in the Year of the Ox. Some lovely friends, Julian and Kristi, gave Blake this terrific ox bank and it has been a big hit!

Happy New Year Everyone! Peace, Happiness & Prosperity to you and yours!

Making Soup

Chinese New Year holiday week is here and I have to tell you being around all day with Blake is a lot of fun!

For months his main focus has been taking stuff out of other stuff. His absolute favorite was to pull all the tissues out of the box, but he also enjoyed taking nappies out of the basket, pulling books off the bookshelf, grabbing toys out of the basket, pulling pots and pans off the shelf, getting cans out of the pantry, taking socks out of the drawer, etc, etc, you get the picture.

In the last few weeks, Blake has begun to put things into other things. This is exciting because it might mean our house looks less like a small bomb has gone off in the toy area by Sunday night. Today I watched him take a photo of me from when I was a kid off the ledge, have a look at it and then put it back. Well, he tried to put it back, but his efforts actually knocked everything else of the ledge too. His heart's in the right place.

Today he carried a pot around the lounge all afternoon and from time to time put stuff like toys into it. Here he is making golf ball and Chinese Lantern Soup. We had it for dinner and it was delicious.

Crazy, Crazy Hair.

Blake's hair is getting long and kind of crazy. When wet, it comes right into his eyes. After taking a hat off things are wildly out of control.
I think a lot of babies have too long hair because parents can't bear to cut it. I've seen way too many baby mullets (bullets?) when the hair grows long in the back and nobody cuts it. Another reason people don't cut baby hair is because of gorgeous curls - definitely not a problem that Blake has.
But we do have a problem because someone is going to have to cut Blake's hair someday soon. Which means somebody is going to have to put scissors near his eyes. And he is the wriggliest boy ever!
What we'd really like to do is get to Canada and let Aunt Reta cut it for us. Only 5 months to go!

It's cold in Shanghai

Shanghai weather!!
Yesterday was balmy and today it was absolutely freezing! From 15 C to -2 C overnight. Brrrr.

Not Canadian winter freezing, but much, much colder than we are used to, or have clothes for. Blake doesn't even have a winter jacket. He does have a lovely warm, fleece lined sweater with a hood. He also has terrific hats knitted for him by Gaye and Ling Ling.

But that wasn't enough on a day like today. So when we went outside we really bundled up.

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah...

I seem to spend about half my time chasing Blake and half my time being followed by him. Or maybe the ratio is more like 80 - 20. One place he loves to visit and isn't allowed to unless there is very strict supervision is the kitchen. And I have to tell you, having Blake bang pots and pans at your feet makes preparing dinner a lot more bearable.

Today I watched him put the lid on a saucepan, take the lid off a saucepan, and then put the lid back on the same saucepan again for over 20 minutes. From time to time he would shake things up a bit by lifting the pan to his face and give a really big shout, but mostly it was lid on, lid off. I'm not saying he's a genius, but he's a whole lot of fun!

Introducing the Wonderful, Amazing, Incredible YOU!

The doctors told me you would be coming on the 29th of January.

Everybody else told me first babies are ALWAYS late.

But ten days before we expected, you came into this world on the 19th of January 2008, all 7 pounds of you, in an emergency C-section and changed our lives forever.

Our obstetrician checked you out and she said you were perfect and you were, you truly were. Even your little purple feet were the most perfect purple feet that I had ever seen.

I want you to know that your mum loves you more than you could ever know or she could ever begin to express.

You are one of the neatest kids that this world has ever seen, and I thank God for you every day.

You rocked my world to the core with your arrival and I have never been the same.

I am better, thanks to you.

Happy first birthday, baby Blake!

Birthday Party

This afternoon we celebrated Blake's first birthday. Lots of friends joined us for food and drink to mark this special day.

Thanks very much to our lovely friends who came and played and helped and supported us today and through this whole long year. We love you so much and are so glad that Blake has such wonderful people in his life!

After spending half the weekend in the kitchen making cupcakes and burning cookies, I had hoped that Blake would love eating his birthday treat. But he didn't. He liked the flame on the candle a lot though.

He chose (stuck his hand in) the K cupcake so we plonked it in front of him and waited for the hilarity to begin. But he preferred the chunk of watermelon he had in his other hand and just kind of ignored the cupcake. Our sweet neighbor Brenna even tried putting some icing on the watermelon to lure him over to the cupcake, but no dice.

He got some lovely books and toys that he was very keen to play with! Thanks again to all our buddies - we'll see you again next year!

There are six hands in this photo - the top four belong to Blake and Brenna, but I can't figure out who owns the bottom two??????

Two days til the big day...

It's a year minus two days since Blake was born. I'm not going to let myself get all reflective and gooey yet. I still have tonight and tomorrow to get through without falling apart. Tomorrow is the birthday afternoon tea day and there are lots of jobs to do before 3pm!

This morning Scott turned to me and asked, "Are we going to get Blake a birthday present?" and I realized I hadn't even thought of a present. Of course, he's only one and he has no idea that he's one and a present doesn't mean anything to him, but I thought it would be nice to say, "We got you such and such for your very first birthday," one day.

So we headed for Toys R Us at Super Brand Mall and made Blake cover his eyes while we bought him some lovely Mega Duplo.

Here he is with his brand new present. He really likes the box.

And here's another photo of the walking baby. They're much easier to get now that he's walking all the time.

Fully Mobile

Blake is walking!

It's been awhile since I posted and there are two reasons for this:

1. In a teacher's life report cards suck up way too much time and energy and leave very little time for fun stuff and we've just made it through report card week - phew.

2. I've been wanting to write about the biggest news around our house and include a picture, but every time we pull out a camera, the little guy stops walking, drops on to his bottom and crawls like mad towards the camera, hoping to get it in his little hands.

I finally got a photo today:

So here's how it all happened.

On the last day of school we all went upstairs to Elaine's house for a drink. For the first time ever Blake let go of the table and stood on his own. He stood for a few seconds and then slowly sank to the floor. After much fussing and cheering, I called Scotty and he came up to see the incredible standing baby.

Then, maybe a week later, just before Christmas, Blake took his first steps in our apartment. They were very cautious little steps and from one table to another. Gradually he's gotten braver and braver and now he's walking all over the place. What a super star!

How Quickly Things Change...

Just yesterday I wrote about Blake's favorite toys and included the shopping trolley.
Today when I came home he had a new 'vehicle' for getting around the apartment and when I tried to encourage to use the old one he wanted nothing to do with it. This new 'toy' lets him change direction much easier than the trolley. Take a look:



By the way, if you are the person who lives in the apartment below us and you are reading this, we apologize.

Toys

I had a bath with Blake tonight which is becoming more and more fun every week.
We went through a time where the bath was quite a dangerous place. He was fascinated by the hot water taps, kept banging his head on the overhanging spout and just didn't have the motor control to do all the things he wanted. Plus the wriggliest boy on Earth kept falling under the water.
Now, it's all about the splashing. And Blake must love the acoustics in the bathroom because he 'talks' loudly and continuously.
These days he sits up or stands safely, splashes, talks and enjoys himself a great deal.
And just recently he became interested in bath toys - to play with not to eat. Hands down, his favorite is a little red watering can we bought in Sanya.

This little beauty can do many wonderful things - if you slap it against the water, it makes great splashes, it's small enough to hold in your hand and chuck it across the bath tub and then chase it and you can fill it up with water and pour it out again and again and again.
This got me thinking about Blake's other favorite toys and I decided to keep track of his favorites. These are some of the things he is loving right now.

My almost one year old baby loves all balls including golf balls and squishy balls, but this one must be just the right size and weight, because he will play with it and chase after it for ages! Our lovely ayi, Ling Ling, gave it to him.

Blake still loves books - the baby faces book has been a favourite for months, calming him down and entertaining him in some pretty desperate times. The Who Loves Baby books have pictures of himself in them, which he adores and the little alphabet set were handed down from two girls downstairs and they seem to fit perfectly in his little hands.

The trolley was another hand me down from our friends the Toas and he is always happy pushing that trolley and those cans around the apartment. Without the trolley he can take a few steps from hand to hand, or cruise around the furniture, but with the trolley he is free to go wherever he likes and he loves it!

Back to Work..

Today was our first day back to work after a two week break.

It was tough...
Just getting up that early is hard.
And getting organized in the morning, trying not forget anything is tricky.
I always find it impossible to eat that early, but if I don't I'm starving by morning tea.

The hardest thing about today, hands down, was leaving Blake.
It's been so fun just playing with him everyday.
Would you want to leave a face like this?


Or a bottom like this?


Oh how I love you my baby boy!!!!

Not So Sunny Sanya

For our winter holiday Blake, Scott and I traveled to Sanya on Hainan Island in Southern China.
We chose Sanya because it was warm, close and due to Blake's passport/citizenship problems we couldn't leave the country.
It was warm, but not sunny, which is good when you consider Scott and Blake's tendency to sizzle in the sun. We stayed pretty close to home, only leaving the resort twice.
We played in the pool, at the man made baby beach, in the kids room and in our gigantic outdoor bathtub.
It's probably not somewhere we'll go back to, but it was lovely to get away. Here are some pics from our week.

Old Friends

We spent the day chillin with old friends across the river. They have a son about a year older than Blake. It has been so neat to watch him growing up and get a sneak preview of what Blake will be doing one day soon. We also saw a brand new bubba - just one week old. Talking with his mom I remember how terrified I was when Blake was that new and fragile. She tells me it's less frightening the second/third time around, but I'm skeptical.
It's fun to see people who haven't seen Blake in a while to let him show them all his tricks. Things like eating noodles and standing are so exciting when they are new! He's a marvel, our boy!

We left for the day without any nappies. Sigh. I am still waiting for the day when I leave the house with everything I need for Blake all in one bag - food, nappies, wipes, snacks, the list goes on and on and I always forget something!