Rosie's Smiles

Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?

This is the face she makes when you tell her to smile for the camera.

Then she laughs

My perfect little angel is getting so big

Up a Tree

I like Trees. I like the way they dance in the wind. I like the way they smell. I like the way they change with the seasons. I like the different shades of green they come in.   When I was a child one of my favorite poems was about trees. It said "Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree."

Trees are important and formidable figures in literature and pop culture.  Tolkien had the Ents in Lord of the Rings, that fought to free the people of Middle Earth. In the movie the Wizard of Oz the apple trees threw apples at Dorthy and her friends. In C.S. Lewis's Prince Caspian the trees come to life and destroyed a whole army of men. There are a number of stories in which trees fight back.

We have some very beautiful trees in this area, but a few months ago we had a bad wind storm that knocked a bunch of them down and broke some branches. You can see some of the damage HERE.

William had a lot of work to do after that storm, and a lot of trees to clean up. You may remember this picture from my mom's blog when he was trying to cut a half fallen tree down and decided it would be a good idea to tie a rope around his waist and try to climb it.

Luckily I did intervened before he managed to get up in the tree. I have no idea what he was thinking.

A few weeks ago another branch of a tree half broke and was dangling over the wooden fence.  So while everyone was in the house William decided to try to take care of it by himself.  Keep in mind that when the branch first broke I specifically told William not to climb that tree to try and cut the branch down.

That's a pretty good rule of thumb actually: Do not climb trees to cut them down.

So today around 4pm, I was in the house and heard what I thought were goats bellowing very loudly. We have some pretty load and talkative goats so for a while I just figured that's what I was hearing. Until it seamed that one of the bellows sounded like my name.  I decided to investigate just to make sure that every thing was ok. Sometimes one of the goats gets their head stuck in something and need help.

So out I went and saw all the goats standing in a huddle looking very scared, and then I heard why. A very loud shout of help.  I ran towards where I saw the goats looking and where the sound was coming from and sure enough there he was.
William was hanging from a tree.

I ran and got my mom and a ladder before I had fully assessed how he was.  Since he was at the bottom of the hill our house sits on I didn't see clearly how he was but I knew we needed to get him down. Of course I expected the worse. From the top of the hill it looked like his leg was stuck and may be broken.

It took both me and my mom wedging the latter up against the tree and holding it stable enough for William to put his weight on so he could lift himself up and unwedge his leg from inside the forked tree.  Luckily the leg was not broken. Just very very stuck. 

I'm very very very thankful that he's ok. He's very bruised and scratched up, but we have him heavily medicated, well fed, and resting with his leg up.

So for future reference. Do Not Climb Trees in Order to Cut Them Down.

Or if you're William. Do Not Climb Trees.

Water Baby 137/365

With temperatures now in the 90s (32C) I thought it was time to pull out the kiddy pool.  Baby Girl and I spent our day sitting outside in the pool.

I'm so thankful to live in a place where we can do this outside (with no neighbors to see us) and in a place where the water is safe for baby to drink. She LOVES drinking the pool water. I'm so happy not to have to stress about the safety of the tap water here.


Other Summer activities include spending the whole day naked or in her diaper and trying on everyone's shoes...

And then there's post bath time family tag through the house and then cuddle time.

Life with Baby is never dull.

Sweet Birthday Fun 115/365

I am very loved and very spoiled. I got lots of wonderful gifts today...

A giant cupcake pan, a cupcake making book, a tea pot from England with my favorite rose pattern on it with matching sugar bowl and creamer, my favorite movie and little gold plated tea spoons to match my tea set.  The handles on the spoons are little roses!

I spent most of the day working on my giant cupcake birthday cake. I like baking and I would really like to get better at decorating cakes so I was really looking forward to making my own cake.

It had two layers, the top one yellow and the bottom one rich chocolate with chocolate chips and I made Boston Cream custard for the filling.

It was a very heavy cake and since it was Gluten Free it wasn't as strong... and it kind of didn't make it...

At least my normal sized cup cakes turned out pretty well. I had fun playing with my frosting bag.

Well the cake didn't turn out looking the way I wanted it to, but it was still fun to make and to eat. I learned something about what not to do and now I just need to practice a few more times. Any one want to come over and eat all the cakes and cupcakes I'd like to try out?

Thank you every one for all the love and phone calls. It was a wonderful birthday.

Another Beautiful Thursday 108/365

Spring in this area continues to amaze me, as does how my baby girl grows more beautiful every day.

Holy Thursday 101/365

My day started with the Fed Ex man. I went out to meet him when he drove up and carried in a very nice sized box. In the box was this beautiful package. Apparently this is my birthday gift from my mom. But my birthday isn't for 2 more weeks!!
That means I have to stare at this lovely thing for two weeks!

It's currently sitting on the breakfast table where I can stare at it all day long, and William says I'm not even allowed to touch it. Sigh. It is really beautiful.

In other news, and most importantly, today is Holy Thursday.  I'd never heard of Holy Thursday before this year but Catholics world wide observe and celebrate it every year. It's the Thursday before Easter and it celebrates the night Jesus had his "Last Supper" with his friends.

I went to my first Holy Thursday mass tonight and it was wonderful. I don't know if all Holy Thursday masses are celebrated the same way everywhere but I would totally recommend checking it out sometime. It was a much longer service than the usual one hour service, but it was very uplifting and very interesting.

When I walked into the church they handed me a little sliver bell. At the beginning of the service we sang a very happy "Hallelujah" song and every one in the church rang their bells. They ran them all very loudly and vigorously. It was super fun.

Apparently during the time of Lent no bells and rung and all the masses are very somber. It's a time of reflecting and there are no bells or celebrating. So when Holy Thursday comes around it's the first time that bells are rang and it's a time of celebrating. It's a time of remembering the first time Jesus gave his disciples the Eucharist (or what Protestants call Communion). 

Anyway, the night before Jesus was killed he had dinner with his friends and he washed their feet as a sign of love and service to them. So, after the Priest gave his homily he washed the feet of all 11 alter boys. It was very sweet and very moving. He then gave communion to each boy before serving it to the rest of the people in the church.

After communion the rest of the crackers, which represents Christ and to Catholics is the actual body of Jesus, was taken out of it's special holding place, wrapped several times in very lovely fabric and carried out of the church building! Then, after a while, the priest came back and took everything out of the front of the church. All the candles removed, the drapery on the alter, the decorative tables, even the flowers were taken away. And then they turned out the lights.

They told us that "Jesus had left the building".

On the night before Jesus was killed he had dinner with his friends and then he went to a garden to pray for his friends.  So tonight the church created a little garden in the school gym with flowers and candles. After the official mass was over many of us when home. But many people stayed to pray, think, or read spiritual books.  They told me that "the garden" would be open till midnight and anyone was welcome to come and "be with Jesus".

It was a very interesting night and I came home on a high. It was totally different than anything I've ever experienced before. I loved sitting there watching the priest fold the drapery from the alter and thinking about how the same thing was happening in catholic churches all over the world.  It was a night of being somber and prayerful but also of being joyful and thankful.

At the end of the service everyone returned their bells, but I brought mine home for Baby Girl since she stayed home with William.  I thought she'd really like it and I wanted to share something of my night and this wonderful service with her.

If they could see how happy this little bell made her I'm sure no one would mind that I took it. She ran around saying "BELLLL" and shaking it and giggling...

and then she put it on her nose and ran around the house laughing until she dropped it.

Happy Holy Thursday. My the love and peace and joy of the gifts God has given us be in your heart and enrich your life.

Work Day 94/365

Happy Thursday! Thursdays are always my most productive day.  Today my crazy baby slept till NOON! When she FINALLY got up we went outside and she lazed around with the dog while I made lunch.

Then we vacuumed and mopped the floor while Nana mowed the lawn...

And William repaired the goat fence that a tree fell over on.

Also, the flowers starting to bloom. They are amazing. I'm in awe of the spring colors in this area.

It was a very busy and productive day for every one. Now we're all going to take an aspirin and go to bed.

Family Visit 81/365

We are visiting William's Family this week.

William grew up in the most beautiful place in the world.  Every time I come back here I'm surprised how beautiful it really is here.

I have never seen a bluer sky, I have never seen so many stars, I have never seen so much snow!

William grew up in the same house all his life on the Truckee River, it's the house we used to play in together when we were kids. It's always a special feeling when we make the drive into his neighborhood and home town. 

This time there was even more special because it was Bonnie Rose's first time to visit and there are so many things we want to show her. The trees, the rocks, the hikes we used to take as kids, watching the birds from the kitchen window, and even my favorite coffee shop. Everything has fond and special memories we want to share with her.

Yesterday was a family day. We spent the day at William's parent's house and William's brother brought over his new baby. I think Bonnie Rose liked the baby even more than she liked being outside.

It's so fun having a cousin! It's amazing how small baby Colton is compared to Bonnie Rose. He's only 2 months old while she is 17 months old. It seems like such a huge age gap at this stage but in a few years they will be considered close to the same age.

We were very much enjoying watching them together and Bonnie Rose loves giving Baby Colton kisses.

Grandma Miriam was having fun with all the babies too. She's even mastered using the computer while holding a sleeping baby.

Grandpa John enjoys spending time with ...

and spoiling his grand babies.

And Miriam is enjoying fattening us all up.

Lost in Transitsion 80/365

We currently live in a nice house on a hill in the the country with lots of goats, two dogs and several cats. We've been there for 5 months. We thought that we had become well adjusted to our new life in America. We can go to the grocery store without getting lost and over whelmed in the juice isle. We can be in public places without standing too close to people or forgetting to say "excuse me" if we accidentally bump into them. We even stand in line in civilized manner....

But it seems when we do leave our hill or our small town we get a little confused. What do you mean my passport can't be used as my main form of ID? America has a lot of silly rules for a country that boasts of freedom. I can't even walk across the isle from my bag to chase my baby in the airport?

After a very long day of traveling and feeling a little out of place William asked me "Why are we so messed up?! I thought we were a lot better adjusted than this."
Well so did I, but I guess we need a bit more practice coming down off our hill of goats.

I tried to comfort William as best I could. You see, we spent ever waking moment for the past three years trying to adapt, understand and even at times mimic a completely different culture. There were times when we tried to "be Chinese." There were other times when we felt completely lost too, but we usually tried to understand those times and figure out how to we could 'fit in' better.

Anyway, that's a lot of effort put into a another culture and sometimes even to forget or let go of our own.

But now we are back in our own culture. Mostly. We are still living in the upper south of the US, which is totally different from California where we both grew up.
So I think it's going to take us a little time and maybe a little more effort to adjust back. Or maybe we just never will and we'll always feel a bit out of place where ever go.

At any rate, please forgive us if we stand too close to you in public, or if we crowd the elevator door, if we forget to how to stand in line, or if we don't have what Americans seem to think is proper ID.

tea for fussy babies and fatties 73/365

Today was a weird funky day. Baby didn't feel quite right and was fussy all morning. She's such a happy baby all the time so when she's not happy it really worries me. I held her and tried to comfort her as much as she would let me. Finally I gave her some chamomile tea and read her some books till she calmed down enough to nurse herself to sleep. After her nap she was our happy baby girl again.
She played and laughed and ate lots of dinner and then had a nice long bath. I'm glad she's feeling better.

And speaking of tea, I have the box of tea that a friend in China gave me...

From what I can tell from translating the box, it's lotus root tea. Apparently it's good for losing weight. With my weird food allergies and because I'm nursing I don't like to try things without researching them first, especially weight loss stuff.  So I looked online and tried to figure out if this was ok for breastfeeding moms.

My favorite breastfeeding site, kellymom.com, doesn't have much on Chinese herbs (although it does have a lot of info on other herbs that should be avoided) so I was trying to translate Chinese sites and figure it out. I'm so out of practice is sad.

I did find this site www.zixiutangusa.com and thought the Cheng-lish description of lotus root was very funny.
Here it is EXACTLY as it's written on the site.

 [Tageted Group] Pure fatness .postpartum fatness,induding fatties unable to reduce and control their weight with diet controe or sports
.
[Not suitable for ]pregnant and breast-feeding women ,adolescant,people with serious disease and allergic to this pruduct.

 So there you go. This tea is good for fatties!

our beautiful spring sunset

the sun set over the pond

Happy St. Patrick's Day Part 1 66-67/365

 HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!  I love St. Patrick's Day. I have so many wonderful memories growing up with St. Patty's day, and several in my grown up years too.

We started our day of right with a wonderful breakfast of Green Eggs and Ham.

 Then I made very green cupcakes. I added some apple cider vinegar to the batter to get to green to stay nice and bright.

 I made clover candies to put on top of the cupcakes. It turned out to be more work than I thought it would be. I bought the quick drying candy coating and that didn't like being squeezed thought a frosting bag so William came to the rescue and figured out how to make the stuff not dry so fast. I think he added crisco to it. Then he figured out it could be goopped on the wax paper and spread out into the desired shape. It ended up taking all day ( I had to keep walking away and coming back to it) but the end result was totally worth it.

 Here are my loved ones all dressed up for St. Patrick's Day. Aren't they the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?!

This year, we decided to do something we've never done before. We went to St. Patrick's, the local catholic church, for their special St. Patrick's day service. Since he is their patron saint they have a special service in his honor. It was so much fun! The whole church was decorated in Irish Bells and green.

 And they brought out a special statue of St. Patrick ...

 I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be taking pictures in church so I snuck these two. I thought it was so much fun how every one in the service was dressed in green. Even the priest had a special robe for the special day.

 We've been going to the church for some time now. We aren't catholic but we've been enjoying the warmth and love and feel of this church. The priest is so kind and practical and it's been so baby friendly. So We've just been sitting in the back and enjoying it. Since the St. Patrick's day service was so small the Priest asked us to bring the elements up to the alter for communion. I was so nervous the whole way up that I was going to do something wrong and offend someone, but it was so much fun to be asked to participate that I couldn't wipe the stupid grin off my face for the rest of the service.  It was such a fun and personal service that ended with the priest taking out his guitar and leading every one in a song. So much fun!

After the service was a potluck (which is what I made the cupcakes for). A lot more people showed up for that and there was tons of fun. The best part was there were also lots of kids running around and Baby Girl loved that. She ran around and laughed and laughed. Sadly I forgot to take pictures of that.

We also got to meet a few people from the church, and then I won a door prize!
I won St. Patrick's Day dish towel and pot holder. Which I love since I'm on a mission to collect dish towels for every holiday.

So that was Thursday.
Today we went to a consignment sale and bought a bunch of used but in great condition clothes for baby. She's been growing so much lately that she's almost out of all her clothes. Plus it's getting warm now and I don't have any summer things for her.
I've been buying 18 month clothe for her, but today I bought 24 month clothes. My baby is growing so fast!

 On the way home we stopped by a liquor store to get some wine and brandy. I snapped these pictures of William coming out of the store with his brown paper bag. He has such a guilty look on his face like he's up to something that it made me laugh.

 On the drive home we passed amazing trees in bloom. Spring and Sprung in Tennessee!