To Hong Kong and Back

Last week, our family and Alvin's coworker's family took a spontaneous trip to Hong Kong to get our business visa.  Alvin and his coworker has been working on getting the visa for their office for about 8 months, and after a couple of snafus, on Tuesday, July 10th, they received all the paperwork to go.  So we left that Tuesday.  We flew to Guangzhou first, and then took a train to Hong Kong.  The coworker's family are also from the states and have a daughter around the same age as Meliya.  The whole trip was 5 days, and everything was very last minute.

It seemed like everyone had fun though.  We even went swimming two days at the hotel in Hong Kong.  We all went to eat some dim sum and then our family also went to see the ferry.  We didn't ride it, but we did see it.

Here is Meliya enjoying the train ride with Alvin's coworker.

Diaper

Meliya's Big Diaper Butt

One thing that has been great living in this community with Meliya is that I have gotten to meet a lot of my neighbors. Everyone will come up to her and want to ask how old she is, if  she is a boy or girl, and then, where we are from.

They also like to give helpful comments. It usually is either about whether she is hot or cold, that we should shave off all her hair because it will make her hair thicker, and that we shouldn't let her wear a diaper because it will cause diaper rash. The last comment, we have heard a lot because kids Meliya's age don't wear diapers anymore. Instead, they go around with split pants and are supposed to pee and poo on command.

It is true, none of their kids have diaper rash. But there are other side effects with the split pants. I thought it was really funny that last week, twice, while I was getting chided for having Meliya wear diapers, at that exact same moment, their kid was peeing on their leg and onto their couch or play mat. I said, "oh yes, you are right, my baby could get diaper rash, but, umm, btw, your baby is peeing on your right now. OK, well you go clean that up."

I have realized that many of our Chinese friends can't wrap their minds around cultural differences. We like to tell them, "no, it is not wrong, it is just different." I like to also think about that for split pants. Yes, pee on the floor and couch is not wrong, it is just different. I do get a little scared when the kids come over to our house to play. We just got new carpet, but I just have to remind myself that pee is sterile, and it is just carpet.  Well, maybe I will put a waterproof mat on the carpet when they come over.

Crawling

Here is Meliya when she first started crawling. She has gotten a little faster now. I like how she celebrates by killing  a giraffe.

More Pictures

Reaching

Here are some more pictures of little Meliya.
The first picture shows her reaching for one of her favorite toys, coasters.

These pictures were all take before her second haircut.  You can also see her excitement when she is standing.

9 Months

Meliya turned 9 months this week. This month, it feels like Meliya was learning a lot of milestones. She started crawling about two weeks ago. It is still on her arms and legs, but it doesn't really look like an army crawl. (We have a video that we will post soon.) She also really enjoys standing with our support, and she has now conquered clapping hands, waving while making sounds that sound like "hiiaeeeaye", motioning "more" in sign language, feeding herself finger foods, and kissing. When she kisses, she opens her mouth huge and gives an open mouth kiss. Very juicy.

Here she is pretending to talk on the phone

 She loves oatmeal, squash, and yogurt with mangoes. She also loves bread with cheese (just like her mommy). She has gotten a second haircut already, although people are saying this last haircut makes her look like a boy.