UVA lawn

明明的貼堂功課

This is the best artwork she has done so far. It is an ingenious idea, put paint on paper and roll marbels on it. Apparently Ming Ming loves it, her painting got far more colors than those of the others. I have not got this home yet, Miss Danielle has put it up on the door of their classroom. =)

明明的第一個稻草人習作...

Monday night...

I should not have put this one up yet, but she is so cute. She was all smiles when she tried out this halloween costume. After seeing her pediatrician at 6:45pm to get the seasonal flu vaccine, I guess the idea of costume fitting must sound like heaven.

明明八字腳

明明走路很明顯地八字腳, 內八字果隻. 以前都唔覺, 呢几日突然覺得好明顯. Hmmmm, 需唔需要做D嘢呢?

family portrait

family portrait outting with our playgroups... thanks Amy for the great shots!

Saturday rainy day

in the rain, hitting the downtown mall after getting her H1N1 flu shot

Ming Ming pulled this skirt on herself while I was folding clothes, so we played dressing up...

東方三女俠之一

the cowboy outfit is a bit too big... and the flower pants are just too cool

I drew the cat and Ming Ming added the orange colors. It looks nice isn't it?

in Bright Beginnings

in the morning, before I left her...

ming ming coquine

when i arrived to pick her up..

Ming Ming and Dahlia

Ming Ming and her friend - Dahlia

Penguin's class artwork 1

Penguin's class artwork 2

Ming Ming and Matthew

une lettre de papa

comme ca arrive pas souvent, on la met ici pour que Ming Ming puisse la lire quand elle sera plus grande.
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Bonjour a tous,
Pas de travaux a Charlottesville, l'hiver est arrive la semaine dernière avec des températures qui ont brutalement chutées. Ming Ming porte le manteau offert par Tonton et Tatan a Noël dernier, manteau qui lui va très bien. Ming Ming a commencée la crèche et cela se passe plutôt bien. Elle y mange à midi et y dort deux heures avec ses camarades l'après midi en s'endormant sans problèmes; elle s'accroche cependant a Ting quand celle ci lui dit qu'on va l'emmener a l'école voir Miss Danielle. Elle parle beaucoup mieux Français et Chinois que ses camarades et donc, en père objectif, j'en ai déduit qu'elle était très intelligente et en avance. Les journées à la crèche la fatigue apparemment et elle a pris sa maman par la main Vendredi soir et lui demandant d’aller se coucher…une première. Dimanche, pendant son sommeil, nous lui avons coupée les griffes et les poils de la tête; comme les fauves, il est impensable et impossible de s’essayer à ses taches lorsqu’elle est éveillée (lui nettoyer le nez quand il coule relève déjà de l’exploit). La seule différence finalement d’avec les grands fauves est que nous n’utilisons pas de seringues hypodermiques pour l’endormir mais nous avons recours à une méthode beaucoup plus traditionnelle : coup de whisky dans le biberon. Bref, le résultat de la coupe de cheveux est plutôt bon : une espèce de coupe au bol qui fait qu’elle ressemble c’est selon a une Jeanne d’arc chinoise ou un Danton (chinois encore un fois) avant de passer a la guillotine. Depuis une semaine je participe activement aux taches ménagères ce qui ne m’était pas arrivé depuis bien longtemps : je débarrasse la table et m’occupe de la vaisselle pendant que Ting baigne Ming Ming (j’ai même fait une lessive et plié des vêtements hier). Apres ces taches ménagères, c’est le coucher de Ming Ming (the bedtime routine). Nous lisons maintenant un livre de poésie pour petits : très très bien.
Gros bisous a tous,
Antoine, Ting et Ming Ming

Cold Sunday - how to have fun?

I was telling Antoine that Selina yiyi is probably the only one in the world (after Ming Ming's parents) that would understand all the conversations in MM's videos. But apparently baby language is more difficult to understand (still remember that when Oscar sang "twinkle twinkle little star" to me in the phone, I thought he was singing in Korean!). Ming Ming was not saying "cooking" or "coca", she said "coquine" and "coquin" (naughty in French), and she was trying to distinguish between the masculine and feminine form - "maman coquine" and "papa coquin". This is one of her favorite words now (after "no" and "encore"), she would do sth funny and then say "Ming Ming coquine". She also likes to say "c'est bon" when she really appreciates sth. She is particularly expressive in mealtime, she says "Ming Ming er er /餓餓" (hungry), "Ming Ming bao/飽" (full), "hummmm", "c'est bon", "pour ming ming" (for MM).... And, she woud mix two languages in the same sentences, such as "nai nai/奶奶 encore", "nai nai/奶奶 all gone".

After a week in daycare, her English words is coming alone: happy, okay, truck. hummm, actually I can't think of any other words, maybe she isn't making so much progress in English.

shaking hands with a steadfast friend who does not mind the cold...

out-running papa in a race...

banging on a window to see the tv

eating delicious hot pizza..

and then hot chocolate wtih wipe cream in mama's usual hangout - Mudhouse.

last but no least, a hair-cut by mama while I slept on papa's chest... [she looks like a mushroom from behind]

一早起身搞搞震

Ming Ming, Enzo, and a new tricycle

both big and small kids had fun!
Thank you Elisabeth and Enzo for having us over! It made our papa-less and car-less day much more agreeable.

Ming Ming inventing new toys in Elisabeth's house.

Day four

Ming Ming was still sleeping when I arrived at 3pm. All the children have already woke up, and the two teachers were laughing as Ming Ming rolled over her bed and continue to nap. Before she started daycare, I was afraid that she would refuse naptime, but actually she naps even better there than at home.

snack time...

discovery museum is now the third space for Ming Ming : the stop between daycare and home, where we wait for papa Antoine. This is the coolest spot in the museum, the beehive, these are real bees that fly in and out through a plastic tunnel going outside the window.

Day Three

Class photo at 8:45am today. So we headed straight to the preschool after taking papa Antoine to work. There were only three children (out of ten) there. Ming Ming was still a bit anxious but quickly she went to play with the others (keep trying to grap a toy from a boy). I stayed for half an hour until Miss Danielle arrived. The crying was still heartbreaking, but when I stole a look at her outside her classroom door after a few minutes, she has already clamed down and started to play with the others. =)


Ming Ming's painting from yesterday... She was doing this when I arrived, it would surely be more colorful and messier if I arrived a few miuntes later, as she stopped right when she saw me.

when I arrived in the afternoon to pick her up...

the discovery museum

puppet stage in the discovery museum