The Waiting Game

Have you ever waited for something for so long that it starts to feel like it will never happen?

Like Christmas--it seems like you wait forever, 

it comes, and then 

it's over.

Why does this happen? It's like I'm always looking forward to or looking back at something and the actual something passes by without being fully enjoyed.

Miss A was born a week after her due date and only after being induced. I got to the point where I felt like I would just be pregnant forever. 

This time, though, it would be different. This time I had already had a baby (only 17 months ago). This time I walked everywhere to get that baby out. This time, we packed our bags at the beginning of December. This time, we knew our little boy would come early. Wrong.

He's never coming either.

I guess I'll just be pregnant in China forever.

Here's our boy on his due date! On Friday he measured in at 8 1/2 pounds.

Mister gained a little sympathy weight this time. Or maybe he's just getting ready to help out Santa Clause...

This little one can't wait either! She just doesn't know she's waiting. :)

This isn't completely true. Our doctor wants me to get induced no later than tomorrow. We plan to actually head in to the hospital Christmas afternoon!

In the meantime, we will try really hard to enjoy the joys of waiting.

Like a little more sleep than a newborn gives you 

and the crazy feeling of a baby moving around inside you

and a little more sleep than a newborn gives you. :)

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our humble nativity. :)

A nurse would ask her terminal patients if they regretted anything in their life. 

There were a few different answers, but a common theme was this: they would spend more time living in the moment.

I very obviously needed to read this General Conference talk this week. (It's a really good one for the New Year, too.)

Chinese Children

Chinese children are pretty weird. (At least from my US-raised perspective.) Here's the thing:

-they go to school for 10+ hours/day during the week
-they take extra classes on the weekend (like history and language)
-when they're not in school they're doing homework
-the little ones are crazy (running around their English school, sitting on each other, getting completely out of hand)
-they like to eat weird things--like dried squid and chicken heart for a snack
-they (want to) wear pink when they are boys
-they wear very trendy split pants so they can relieve themselves anywhere (young children)

Chinese children are also pretty cute.

-They sing English songs with their cute accent
-When you ask them "how are you?" they answer "fine sank you, how are you?"
-They are entertaining (a little girl on the bus sang a song about all the things she loved "wo ai...wo ai...wo ai...")


Although not a Chinese child, we have a pretty weird one of our own. :)

she finds unique ways to carry her baby

putting things in her shirt is way fun

she's very good at hide and seek

and playing dress-up

she likes to feed herself

or just use her food as makeup and hair gel

she watches Curious George with her dad

Her style is one-of-a-kind

(one leg out of the pajamas)

oh so fasionable

She begs to get on the little rides, but cries when they start moving

She loves shoes

a lot

She likes to work

She may be a little odd, but we sure love it and think she's pretty darn cute! We're enjoying these last few days before our family of 3 becomes 4.

Bringing a White Elephant to China

Sometimes I feel bad for the Chinese. Holidays are what get me through the winter--and they don't have many. No Thanksgiving. No Christmas. No Easter. None of the great holidays we celebrate! They may not get to celebrate exactly like we do, but gift giving is an integral part of their lifestyle.

It's actually a pretty big deal from what I understand. There are certain expectations for the type of gift you should give depending on your status, the relationship, the occasion, etc.

-Our friends received a large paint-by-number when they hosted a dinner for a Chinese couple.
-We got a huge cake, you probably remember, when our neighbors came over for dinner.
-My tutee's parents (my employers) gave us a beautiful Chinese style blanket for our soon-to-come son.
-Our friend's husband was expected to give a large sum of money for his employee's wedding present.
-When a gift is given, it is often expected to give one in return. (We were told to bring lots of gifts from the US so we wouldn't be caught empty handed in a situation like this.)

In the spirit of Chinese culture and our own Christmas tradition, we had a White Elephant gift exchange with some Chinese flair!

Almost everyone packed in our apartment for the White Elephant exchange.

Some of the gifts:

-chinese style electric hand warmer (think quarterback hand warmer, but fluffy)

-toilet golf

-socks, scarfs, hats

-chinese animal slippers (shown in the middle of the above picture), mouth covering, and phone chain

-Chinese spinning top

-Chocolate

Here is Miss A showing off the lovely mouth covering (these are very popular here, seriously). In the back you can see the toilet golf gift. Mister found this on Tao Bao-who thinks of these things?!

The Chinese children don't go without either--at least Miss A doesn't. Almost every time we go out she gets some sort of gift. Her stash from strangers includes: 2 regular balloons, 2 flower shaped balloons, countless pieces of fruit, little packages of gummy food things, a heart shaped "diamond" ring, crackers, candy...the list goes on.

Did this baby get humongous all of the sudden? 1 week and 5 days until our little guy's due date!

We thoroughly enjoyed this Christmas tradition. It will never be quite the same as it was this year in our Nanjing, China home.