Baking with Blake

Today we made muffins together.
Blake stirred the bowl and put the muffin wrappers in the tin.
I burned them but the top halves were really yummy.

Yes Sharon, we washed our hands before we started.

Gumboots 2

The youngest of the Hossacks 3 woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning! All of the usual distractions were no help at all. He wasn't interested in cuddles, food (!), playdoh, crayons, blocks, puzzles or wooden spoons.

As a last resort we gumbooted up and headed outside. Thank goodness for outside! Blake is always happy exploring.

We got ready in a bit of a rush so as not to wake the neighbours at 5:45am. Blake still has his jammies on under his fleece and we accidentally put the too big boots on. It didn't slow him down much. We just had to stop from time to time and put the boot back on.


The boots were a big hit! Walking in the creek was wonderful. Blake and I came home wet, dirty and happy.



I shudder to think how many of these guys we stepped on. There were thousands! The grass was alive with little froglets or toadlets.

Gumboots

We have a shallow little stream in our compound that Blake has been dying to get into. It's only a few centimeters deep, but too wet to wear sneakers in so Scott and I have been on the lookout for baby gumboots. An article in Shanghai Parents and Kids sent us to the underground market at the Science and Technology Museum - a place I normally avoid like the avian flu. We found the store straight away and they did have lots of lovely little boots .... for girls and one pair of boots for boys. So we snatched up two pair - one that fits now and one that will fit later.

According to the side of the boots - these are Thomas the Tank Engine boots. I will bet my right eye that the good people at Thomas have never seen these boots. You can't read the little trucks on the boots so let me tell you what they say. Cram Cream. I'm not sure what Cram Cream is, but it just doesn't sound good.

Blake had a lot of fun trying them out in the apartment and we can't wait to wade in the stream tomorrow.

Drinks with Friends

Tomorrow is the first day of a long weekend. Three glorious days ahead of us with absolutely nothing to do but throw rocks, play with playdoh, slide on slides, go for bike rides and look at flowers. We celebrated by having friends over tonight and the kids played (and ate) so well together.

Somebody I love loves strawberries A LOT!!!!

Playdoh with Dad

A few weeks ago Blake visited our downstairs neighbor Jacob and the two boys played with playdoh. I was a bit freaked about the possibility of his eating the dough but I watched carefully and none was ingested. So the next time we were near a Toys R Us we picked up some playdoh of our own.
We brought it out tonight and my two boys played for ages with the blue and the orange. Oh how I love these two guys. And watching them play together fills me up.

Ping Pong Balls

Mom sent a big birthday package that arrived on Monday.
Thanks Mom! We love presents from home.
There were goodies inside for all. Including some ping pong balls for Blake.
Blake thinks it's fun to put the ping pong balls in shoes.

Not All Playgrounds Are Created Equal

This morning we went to a new playground at a local school. It looked great - and I'm sure it is great for older children, but there wasn't much that Blake could do on his own.

He did spend a lot of time playing in the rain water left in these steps.

Blake

Yesterday Blake had his 15 months well baby checkup and all is well.

The nurses & receptionists at the clinic told me how much he looks like his daddy. People all over China tell me how much he looks like his daddy. Friends, strangers, family... it's a pretty common topic of discussion. Usually after they tell me that they quickly say they can see a little bit of mum in him too. As if they are worried that my feelings will be hurt if I'm told he just looks like his dad.

And I know that physically he is a complicated little mix of all the family members that came before him. And I know that his temperament and personality will also be influenced by us, our family and friends.

But to me he is just Blake. He is his own little wonderful self.

Let me tell you what I see when I look at my son.

I see a happy, laughing kid who smiles easily and often.

I see bright blue intelligent eyes that are curious to see everything there is to see.

I see little hands that reach up to grab mine on the rare occasion when he needs help over uneven terrain.
Little hands that reach out to touch and feel everything he sees.
Little hands trying hard to discover how everything around him works.

I see a boy who loves to explore, play, read, catch, throw, investigate, laugh, smile, shout, slide, look, stir, eat, drink, dance, laugh, spin and tumble.

I see Blake, the most amazing, incredible kid.

Wordle

I've been wanting to fool around with wordle.net in my class blog, but it's been banned in China for a long time. It's a little toy that reads all the words in a text and arranges them in a 'cloud.' The words you use more often are larger.

It's finally back up and running so I thought I'd try it using this blog.

Here is the word cloud for the Hossacks 3 blog.

It would seem I write a lot about Blakie.

Here we go again...

We got through the biting and the pinching phases of Blake's young life relatively unscathed.

Blake's newest thing? Eye gouging.

Ai - ya!