What we're thankful for...

We're going to skip ahead in the timeline to get a Thanksgiving post up as we want to share what we're thankful for this year. After this post, we'll continue updating the blog as before.

It should be no surprise that we are most thankful to have our wonderful happy and healthy baby who is a constant source of joy and love. We are also thankful for our awesome family and friends in America and in China.

But what we really want to talk about it is a semi-constant topic of conversation here...
The things we're thankful for having in America (even if they are sometimes annoying) ---- or more simply put, some things we miss while in China.  To keep the post manageable, we're just going to mention 5. (Excluding the obvious: family and friends)

1. Enforced traffic laws
2. Drinkable tap water
3. Quality control
4. Fluency in the native language
5. In general, consistent access to the food we grew up with - mainly cheese, coffee and sweets

What about the other way around? Things we're thankful for having in China that we don't have in America. (Again, excluding family and friends)

1. Free music, movies and TV series available as they come out... (except foreign movies which lack English subtitles)
2. Access to affordable healthy food. (Seriously, fresh fruits and veggies are cheap here)
3. Freedom from "needing" to own a car
4. Affordable hospital services [China has privatized insurance just like America, but it won't bankrupt you to need a surgery if you're uninsured. --  Recently a trip to the pediatrician, a follow up with a dermatologist and medicine to treat his rash cost us a whopping 1 US dollar].
5. More freedom with fashion

This post probably doesn't represent the final version of these ideas. I can easily envision us at 4a.m., we'll find ourselves feeding or changing Connor, and remember that "one more thing" that just "has to" go on one of these lists, but I think it's a good start for now.

Connor's First Halloween: Oct 31st!

The celebration of Western holidays in China is really all about what you are able to do and what you want to do with them. Halloween is no different.
1. What you're able to do:
In Jiaozuo, the city we lived in before we moved to Wuhu, you could purchase some small Halloween items... for example, some costume pieces and trick-or-treat buckets though no one in Jiaozuo actually celebrated Halloween. In Wuhu we were surprised to find no one sold Halloween goods. This is especially surprising because Wuhu is a more developed city with a much-much larger population of foreigners than Jiaozuo.
2. What you want to do:
So what did we do to celebrate? We put Connor in a special Halloween outfit (which was brought to us from America), and carved pumpkins. Since he's too young to trick-or-treat we by-passed improvising that tradition this year.

One of the coolest things about Halloween is the clothes! Connor's cute Halloween outfit was another surprise from Nana and Bumpa's visit earlier in the month!

Connor's older cousin has the coordinating girl version of this suit. Cute!

Luckily, Christian had the day off work so we were able to spend a lot of time together.

Connor playing grab Dad's finger!

 And, of course, Connor got in plenty of naps.

Sleeping in Mom's arms.

When it was time to carve pumpkins we decided we would all make our scariest faces...

Christian's face was super scary!  

Connor got a little scared.

Kim went with crazed aunt look.

But Connor made the scariest face of all!

Here's our pumpkins all freshly carved!

Kim's pumpkin is on the left, Christian's is on the right and
Connor's "pumpkin" is front and center!

Kim's pumpkin.

Christian's pumpkin.

Jack-o-lanterns!

Finally, we took our completed pumpkins outside to get a few more Halloween pictures. It was a fairly warm night so we really enjoyed the time outside.

We bought the biggest pumpkins available.

A friend of ours took a shot with all three of us together!

Here are a few extra shots of Connor looking cute on Halloween:

"Oh my goodness, I cannot believe that!"

"Hahahah, that's the funniest thing I've ever heard!"

Connor's looking pretty good in all the orange.

It's a little strange to be the only people (that we knew of) to celebrate Halloween in the city, but we had a blast and felt that we did a good job celebrating Connor's first Halloween!

In unrelated to Halloween news, here's a shot of Connor engaged in a new activity... touching Dad's scratchy face. It's pretty awesome to see Connor swiping up and making contact with Dad.

Mobile fun, nachos and a montage! Oct. 25-Oct. 30

Some day-to-day experiences with Connor

 Connor and his mobile.

Connor is captivated by Mr. Eggplant! (10/25)

Connor continues to enjoy his mobile and remained fixated on Mr. Eggplant. We've noticed his interest in the vegetables changes every few days... Initially he was interested in the red pepper, followed by Mr. Eggplant, then he had a short lived fling with the green onion and his current favorite seems to be the banana. (We don't know how to explain the presence of the banana on the vegetable mobile).


Connor is really getting big! Both of the outfits in these shots with the mobile are labeled 3M and they are fitting him nicely. (On October 27, Connor was 7 weeks old.)

Here's some kicking and swiping in action. So happy! (10/29)

An outing to Walking Street. (Wuhu's downtown)

It's always a blast to take Connor out, though sometimes it's difficult to get him ready. He really loves to be outside, though usually he just falls asleep.

Kim and Connor in front of a statue of Sun Yat-Sen (10/25)

Christian's a statue! (10/25)

All buckled into the baby carrier ready to go! (10/25)

 We are all looking forward to the day that he can be placed in the carrier facing out!

An exciting moment for Christian and Kim

With the help of Christian's French colleague, he found a supermarket that has an impressive import section where he was able to find  butter and REAL cheese! While looking around the supermarket on his first visit, Christian spotted and bought the second to last bag of corn tortilla chips...

You know what this means?!

NACHOS!!! (10/25)

"What!? Did someone say 'nachos'!?"
(10/26)

Made with real sharp cheddar cheese! Christian topped the nachos with onions and a red pepper that turned out to be insane-o hot.

Yum!

Don't worry Connor, one day you'll get to experience the deliciousness that is nachos!

Some nice random moments with Connor

Connor and Mom playing smile games. (10/29)

Connor looking a little sad with his big eyes. (10/26)

These days simply saying "Hi" or "Hi Baby"
produces one of these big happy smiles. (10/26)

"Sometimes it helps if I hide in my blanket"
Connor calming down after a big cry-fest. (10/26)

 And a few shots of Connor sleeping peacefully. Ahh!

I love all these brown and cream colors together. (10/26)

It's pretty fun spending time with Connor and watching him grow and develop bit-by-bit. It's very "new-parent" of me to say, but it's even great just watch him sleep.

Look at how open his little hands are!
The awesome yellow shirt with dragon was made by
our friend, Amy. (10/27)

 Montage: The Many Faces of Connor! 

Photos from October 26

Wrapping up October was a blast! We had a ton of fun these past few days, but of course in the back of our minds we were all thinking the same thing; Halloween!      

Next post: Connor's first Halloween! Oct 31st.

Oct 21st-24th

Nothing like starting a post with a super adorable grinning baby shot!

10/21

The most exciting thing happened on October 21st, Connor lost the last little bit of his umbilical cord! You may remember from a previous post that Christian was the one who cut the cord when Connor was born, so you can imagine how stressed out Christian had been in anticipation for this moment.
But, as fate would have it, there was nothing to worry about. Here's the first shot of Connor's little belly button - now, a cord free location!

A little blurry, but you get the (mid)drift...
Also be sure to check our the funky mushroom diaper decor.

These 4 days we got more shots of Connor smiling away. I'm only going to post 3 that I think are pretty awesome, otherwise I'll let my new parent pride get the better of me and upload over 100 photos; many of which, I've been told by not-Connor's-parents, look remarkably similar!

By sheer coincidence, these three favorites were all taken on 10/23!

SQUEE! Crazy baby in action!

A sweet little smile.

AAAH! Unbearably huge smile!

But smiling isn't the only cool thing that Connor has been up to...

Here you can see that Connor isn't only swiping around with his hands;
he's letting his legs get in on the action! (10/22)

Connor touching Mr. Eggplant for the first time. (10/23)
Dad helped by temporarily lowering the toy, which hangs from Connor's vegetable themed mobile, within reach.
(But Connor did all the hard work - read, the aimless swiping until he made contact with his goal!)

 

Connor was also invited to his first banquet!

The new mom,who is wearing a pink sweater, is standing in the back of this photo.
Kim and Connor are in the foreground. (10/24)

This is a banquet given to celebrate the end of the 1st month in a newborn's life. It is being held for the infant of one of Christian's colleagues who gave birth to her first baby a few weeks after Connor was born. We were served a very nice meal and each guest was given a box of eggs; a traditional gift for this kind of banquet.

We couldn't decide between cute and funny to end this post... so we're giving you both. 

First is another shot of Connor sleeping. I love all the handcrafted goodness going on in this photo!

The blue and white crocheted afghan that Connor is laying on was made by his Nana.
The lovely red knit laced afghan was made by his Aunt Marian.
(10/21)

And the final photo features a onesie that Kim embellished... 

(10/22)

 

SMILES! Oct 19th & 20th

10/19

Since Connor's birth, we'd noticed it was easiest to capture photos of Connor, for obvious reasons, while he was sleeping. That's not really a bad thing considering he's a beautiful sleeper!

 However, it did get a little annoying when it was time to capture specific moments, like, for example, Connor's smiles!

10/19 I love his big blue eyes in this photo

We'd been trying to get photos of Connor smiling since Nana and Bumpa's visit near the beginning of October and he'd been a little shy...

Then, all of a sudden, the photo floodgates poured open!!!

          It's as if Connor thought "Should I smile for the camera?" "Hmm" "Why yes, I think I shall!"

After "smile time", Connor needed another nap and some play time. Then he would be ready to smile again.

Check out Mr. Super Relaxed!

A post-playtime crazy smile. (10/19)
Check out his pointy little tongue!
 (Seriously, he's not just about to cry!)

Playing with his mobile. 10/19

  October 19th marks the date that Connor first started swiping at his toys! His lovely vegetable mobile was his first swipe 'victim' though he didn't actually make contact.

October 20th brought even more adorable smiles...

We dressed Connor in a long sleeved shirt and pants combo with matching hat to go on a little walk and caught some cute shots before we left home.

This photo really shows off Connor's adorable little dimple!

Say Ahh!

There's wisdom in those eyes.

And of course, by the time we got home, Connor was completely conked out!

This photo shows Connor's complete outfit. This was a gift set given to us by the a yi's (aunties) of our building when Connor was born. The set also comes with a matching bib and a pair of feet-less pants.
True to Chinese style, they have no bottom... underneath this outfit, Connor is wearing a plain white onesie.

Connor continued to smile after these dates, but we decided that we should continue to organize the blog by date and not by smiles captured. :-)