marcher a quatre pattes

Ming Ming dans sa robe de 3 moins

can you believe it? this small dress is for three months old. Maybe Ming Ming is not that tall after all.

Hiking - Blue Ridge Mountain

I should not have invited my mother to go hiking with us. But there was an electricity outage on Sunday morning, so we quickly decided to go see the Blue Ridge Mountain. I thought there would have a lot of spring flowers, but actually there was not. While the new green color in the valley is incredibly pleasant, the trees in the higher altitude are still in a winter mood. Nonetheless, it is still very nice to walk in the nature and we have had a nice picnic. But the hiking was too much for my mum. We followed a trail leading to some creeks, but had to turn back before we reached any. My mum said during our way back that "no wonder so many people died during Mao's Long March!"

library visit - before the parade

a dogwood tree in full bloom...

children's corner in the Martha Jefferson library

Dogwood Fesvital Parade

The parade was very long, Ming Ming went from excitement to grumpy and finally fell asleep. Dogwood is the local spring flower. The parade probably did not do the flower justice.

Friday after five - outdoor concerts start

Ming Ming too thrilled to be able to play with two cellphones at the same time...

Before they set off for China

Civa and Rana's chinese grandparents are going back to China (to take care another newborn in the family). We met them one last time to say goodbye. Civa and Rana (with their parents) are also going to Shanghai for a month.

Dogwood in full bloom

Ming Ming just woke up in the morning...

the dogwood tress outside our building...

窈窕淑女 /my fair lady

佳姨姨送的旗袍 ...

still loving the mirror...

sunday afternoon, we read...

bedtime acrobat

hid and seek with papa...

she is trying to climb over the sofa to get some books...

bedtime acrobat... she is able to sit up and stand up on her own now, and also learning to sit back down. In the photo above, she pulled the pack of wipes from the changing table shelf through the bars. Ming Ming is getting a lot more mobile and life is getting more interesting for her. But the problem is that, sleep training is a lot harder now (it seems like we are forever on sleep training, the thing is, when I did not mention it here, it means that we were not doing it. We succeed, then got interrupted by some travel plans, and now bedtime is miserable and the night waking is worse than ever). We started again today, up to now (10pm), Ming Ming has cried for tow hours today (accumulated from two naps and going to bed at night), and we haven't had one success yet, my mum ends up rocking her to sleep each time after trying for 1hour (which would usually means 30-45 mins of crying) =(

the little mermaid

merry-go-round

Ming Ming in the merry-go-round.. still a bit scared.

portraits

Ming Ming et Tonton

Dim Sum in Chinatown...

The Field Museum

we wanted to go to the aquarium, but the wait was one hour long. So we change to the Field Museum to see some dinosaurs...

Finally Tonton Nico and Sylvie were able to take Ming Ming. During the whole trip Ming Ming refused to be held by anyone she did not know. But in the museum, when my mum and I went on hiding, and with so many things attracting her attention, she went with Nico and Sylvie without any problem.