January in a Flash

Oh dear, well the months have just gone by.  I will try to do a month by month update in a week.

In January, I was done with school and spent more time at home.  I guess the big news was that we bought an upright piano.  Alvin has been looking on a Chinese ebay site to look for second hand pianos.  Finally, he found one that fit for us.  It was only 7 years old, and according to the owner, wasn't used that much.

We hired professional movers, 4 guys, that helped move the piano.  Meliya took to the piano right away.  Everyday, she comes by to "practice," esp. if we are trying to play.

Also, at the end of the month, I received the  sad news that my grandma was not doing so well. My parents gave me the news and so our whole family flew to Los Angeles to attend my grandmother's funeral (as we were leaving for the states, we found out she passed away).

We were only able to stay 9 days in the states.  We were able to have a family reunion with my side of the family, celebrate and remember the memories of my grandma, and also Meliya was able to play with many of her cousins.  The sad part was that Meliya had roseola (an infant virus that has 3 days fever and then a rash for 3 days).  Those 3 days, Meliya was acting terribly cranky, and she pretty much stayed at Alvin's parent's house sleeping, except on the day of the funeral where she spent a lot of time in the car sleeping as we traveled from event to event.

After a long whirlwind of a trip, we packed up to go on our already scheduled annual trip to Thailand.  Come back and read about it in a couple of days.

Growing Up

Meliya is now one year and 3 months.  She still can't walk, and can only say "mama," but we still feel like she is growing up fast.  She can crawl pretty fast, and enjoys going to the jungle gyms to go down slides and crawl up and down the gym.

She enjoys breads, crackers, and cheese still.  She also really likes spinach, yogurt, and oatmeal.  She doesn't particularly like oranges or green beans.

She enjoys breaking down the Duplo Legos that she got for Christmas, and threading large beads on a stick.  She enjoys things with latches, and could play with them for a long time.


















She also has improved in her sign language. Now she can do the following words: more, please, milk, eat, all done, hat, outside, book, and bowl. Surprisingly, she likes to do "hat" a lot. We are shocked at how quickly she can pick up a work.  Sometimes we feel like we say it a couple times and she starts using it.  Although some words like "water" or "drink," she still hasn't used even though we used it for a couple months.

Can you tell which signs she is using?

Walking on Ice

One of the things we wanted to try out with our friend Angela was walking on ice. It has been below freezing temperatures here in our city for awhile, and the lakes have all been frozen. At one of the parks, you can walk on the ice for free, and you can also rent a wooden bobsled to slide around on the ice. We decided to take our friend, since she was coming from Singapore where there is no such thing as frozen lakes. We also thought we would pack a lunch and eat at the park before we got on the ice.

But the day we went, the temperature was really cold. That day, it had a high of 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and a low of 8 degrees. Also, it was really windy and there was some snow flurries. We walked the 20 min. to the park, sat there in freezing temperatures as we ate our lunch and fed Meliya, ran out on the ice for 5 minutes, and then walked back home. By the time we got home, our faces and feet were frozen. Meliya did pretty well, but at the end did have a little bit of a whine.

It was a unique experience. The ice felt super thick. The next day, a whole bunch of the expats were playing Broomball on the ice. They got their 80 cents broom from the store, and just jumped on the ice. This is a lot cheaper than playing broomball in the states, but a little more dangerous since there is no guarantee that the ice will not break.

Have you walked on icy lakes before?  Would you want to try in China?

Christmas Parties

The week of Christmas was pretty busy. We had a ladies Christmas tea on the Saturday before, at then on Sunday we had two parties in a row at our house. The first one was with the parents and kids from our complex (mostly locals), and the second one was with Alvin's company's interns.
 Here is the kids' party: 

Here is the interns' party: We were about to read the Christmas story and sing songs.

Here we are on Christmas Day at our friend's house:

















My friend Angela, from the states, also came to celebrate Christmas with us:

Christmas Tree

Earlier this month, we decided to buy a Christmas tree for the first time in Alvin and my life.

 So here is our family's first Christmas tree:

Meliya didn't seem to care about the tree. The first day, she was curious, but after that, she wasn't interested in going near the tree. Sometimes I wondered if she was a little scared of it. She never even tried to touch any of the ornaments.

Playing in Taiwan

While we were in Taiwan, we also went to the Da' An Park.
 

 It was Meliya's first time on a swing. She loved it:

















Here we are enjoying our last day in Taiwan:

Taipei Zoo

This is Bethany.  It has been a while since I have blogged, but I blame our internet connection.  Due to internet blocking issues in the country we're in, I'mm unable to sign in to edit the blog at home. Alvin, on the other hand, is able to connect through his work computer. If you have questions about that, just ask Alvin.

Last week, we took a trip to Taipei to visit friends and family. Our first day, we went to the zoo.  This is Meliya's second trip to a zoo.   We went with our friend Shirley who also came to visit Taipei at the same time.

Here is Shirley feeding Meliya to the lions.  I like that the animals felt so close.

This is the second time Meliya has gone to see pandas.

Also, the most interesting part  was seeing the gorilla.  Shirley's parents, kept telling us to go see King Kong, but when we went to visit, the gorilla was eating.  Then after closer inspection, we found out what he was eating.  (Viewer discretion advised, this is not for people with weak stomachs.)