The Chinese Noodle's interests

As we are coming up on our one-year anniversary of having the Chinese Noodle, I've been looking at some older photos and reminiscing. It is so easy to forget how much kiddos grow and change! This post is to document all of her interests and likes, right now, as a two and a half year old.


I'm 2...
and a half!
I love to help out Mommy and Daddy in what ever they are doing.
Puzzles are fun.
So is playing Memory.
Yum. Popsicles
Getting flipped upside down never gets old.
Nothing better than fresh cherry tomatoes off the vine--especially when I can help harvest them.

My current favorite way to motor around.
The trike isn't bad either.
I love to play with my bear...FYI, Daddy says if you plant bamboo, it will bring the pandas! I'm on the look-out.
Being together is always a good time.
Yes, I'd definitely say that this is a good age to be!

CSA Week 8

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I guess this is how the Chinese Noodle feels about the bounty of vegetables that we received this week. It was a large 1/2 share this week...and we're leaving for vacation on Sunday. I foresee numerous vegetarian dinners in our future. J is jumping up and down with excitement. Not. Included was: cherry tomatoes, a green pepper, a red onion, bok choy, a pobalono pepper, a small watermelon, kale, a banana pepper, an eggplant, 2 large tomatoes, a cuke and 2 jalapeno peppers. FYI, that zucchini in the background is from our neighbor...how neighbor-ly of her to share the wealth :)

Lunch with the birds

We often like to go down and meet J for lunch. This past time, there were quite a few seagulls who were skulking around. The Chinese Noodle had fun watching them, running after them, throwing them crumbs (which they LOVED) and then telling them "NO birds!" when they got too close. Clearly she is more into studying birds from afar.

I've got my eye on you birds!

Haha!
Aghhhh! Too close!

Mini-break with Lollie and Papa

The Chinese Noodle and I spent a few days up with Lollie and Papa at their summer cottage. J came up later, as did my Aunt and Nana. The time was busy spent going to the summer symphony (the Noodle sat mezmerized through the entire first half, tapping her hands every so often), playing on the playground, going to the farmer's market, walking around, eating ice cream, swimming in the Lake, sitting on the dock, laughing and catching up. Exactly the things you love to do with family.

Sunday, Lollie offically became a member of the Catholic church where she teaches. While it was hot, hot, hot, she had so many friends, collegues and of course family there to support her, it was well worth it.

One of my favorite past-times.
Tea party with Papa
Do they still use these things?
The Girls...minus oneOff to the farmer's market.
Taking a rest
Brrrr it is cold on my feet!
Celebrating Lollie's dedication and acceptance into the Catholic church

The only way to cool off

The serious...
...and the silly
When it is in the '90s, about the only refreshing place to be is out on a boat in the middle of the Lake (or in it). Many thanks go to Grandpa and Grandma for the fun ride and refreshing dip. It almost makes this weather bearable...almost.

In a few days we'll be heading up to Papa and Lollie's cottage, so we'll be out of commission. See you soon!

Once you get used to it, the water feels great!


This is the life.

New pillow and pillowcase

One of the things that we quickly learned about the Chinese Noodle once we brought her home, was that when she went to sleep, she would often lay her head on one of the blankets folded at the end of her bed. We couldn't figure out why she did this, but I bought her a small toddler pillow, since it seemed like she wanted something to rest her head on. She didn't want that though--only the blankets to lay on. As an aside, since she was older, we weren't worried about having blankets or a pillow in the crib. One day, while I was browsing the photos on the Yahoo site specific to her orphanage, I came across a picture of some cribs in the orphanage. In it, there were a few children who were laying down and guess what they were laying on? That's right...folded blankets. Aha! The light bulb finally went on! This must be what the orphanage used for pillows. The Noodle did that in the orphanage and just carried it over here.

Fast-forward to today. Since she has been in a big-girl-bed, we've been using some of our pillows to soften the floor, since she's had a few night-time roll offs (poor thing). Sometimes she pulls one of the pillows off the floor and wants to sleep on it. I decided that she needed her own big-girl-pillow. I picked up a package of white pillowcases from TJ M*XX and some R*tt dye in rose pink and got to work. I already had large white ric-rac and green grosgrain ribbon so that was easy to add as well. So...what do you think of the finished product? The Noodle was very excited about her "pink pillow".

Bathing beauties and CSA week 8

We slathered on the SPF and headed to the pool today with our friends. This pool is great because it has quiet an extensive "baby" area, where the water is really shallow, but because there are so many features, it doesn't really matter. There are bouncy swings, a lazy slide, lilypads to hop across, various apparatus that spew, spray and dump water (the Noodle kept saying that it was raining), plus a splash zone--and that's only in the little kiddo area! I think we will all sleep well tonight (someone certainly did at naptime).

The CSA produce this week is going to force me to peruse my cookbooks to find some new and interesting recipes again. Anyone know what to do with a kohlrabi?! Guess I'll find out......Included this week in the stash was: kale, bib lettuce, flat onions, cherry tomatoes, green beans, eggplant, garlic, peaches and kohlrabi.

Smile!!!

I LOVE cherry tomatoes!!

Wordless Wednesday

Asian Family Festival at the Art Museum

Japanese drumming
The Noodle, taking in all the sights and sounds.
Various examples of Chinese dance (unfortunately the lighting was TERRIBLE!)


The creative juices are flowing.
J and the Noodle modeling the finished carp kite.
Our art museum hosted an Asian family festival, celebrating Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures today. We scrapped the nap (a rare occasion) to see what they had to offer. It was definitely a good decision--the Noodle was enamored by it all, but especially the Japanese drumming. There was also Chinese dance performed by a local troupe as well as a variety of crafts. We opted to make a carp kite, but also on offer were origami, Chinese knot tying, Asian calligraphy and a kimono dressing demonstration, just to name a few. Earlier last month, we had been to hear some Japanese storytellers, which was also very interesting.

We are fortunate to live in a city where the art museum is still free and yet they offer so many great programs. They are known for having a wonderful Asian collection as well as many other well-known pieces. I have always loved this museum (I actually minored in Art History in college) and look forward to introducing the Noodle to many of my favorites while also exposing her to the beautiful artwork of her birth country.