napping in a coffeehouse

face paint

well, it was on her arm, I was afraid that she would not hold her head still for so long...

her favorite museum

peekaboo..

first swim of the season

failed shots...

it is a shame, this can be a great shot.

cherry picking

Ming Ming learnt to spit out the cherry stone today!
明明學會把櫻桃核吐出來...

the cherry picking season starts early this year, owning to a warm spring.

me climbing a tree, it does not happen very often.

Ming Ming wanted to climb too.

Children's Art Fair

Ming Ming made a cool guitar

painting picasso

Ming Ming's favorite exhibit in the discovery museum

cooking

new friends in the park

These three girls approached us head on when we arrived at the playground.

"do you want to play with us?"

"sure" (I answered for Ming Ming)

"What is your name?"

"Ming Ming"

"Isn't that a Chinese name"

"yes"

"Why?"

"Because she is half Chinese"

"Wow, how cool is that!"

I am pleasantly surprised. Not just that "being Chinese" is "cool" for these kids, but also how color-blind they seem to be. From the way they asked their questions, it seems that when they look at Ming Ming (or me), they don't see Asian/Chinese but American. That is why they are surprised that an american girl would have a Chinese name. Or, is it because most Asian-looking people uses English names? hummm...

I was on the phone with my sister while Ming Ming played with these girls, and then, one of the girls' brother asked me "what are you talking? are you talking Spanish?" "not, I am talking Chinese" "you talk English and Chinese?" "yes" "how do you do that?" "I guess you just learn it, not?" It turned out the boy (maybe 6 years old) is trying to learn Spanish (Spanish parents I guess), and he is finding it hard. Are we really arriving at a multi-racial America?

Ming Ming kept calling them "guys" when she wanted to go the opposite direction... She took it after Miss Danielle, she often say "come here guys"... =)

Ming Ming got a fever on Wednesday, misearable day in day care, she fell asleep on the carpet and over lunch... speaking of guilty mother... On thursday, dignosed by Dr Micheal as suffering from another ear infection (the 7th time!!!). By the way, she loves Dr Micheal, her comfort when the nurses cleaned her ear was that "Dr Micheal is coming back to see Ming Ming" (she said it herself =) ). Despite being sick, she had a very good and happy day. But then aftern taking her antibiotics, she vomitted, twice, the second time during her sleep. The next morning, we struggled in her day care for more than an hour, and finally I decided to take her home with me. The main reason was that Miss Danielle was not there due to a minor car accident. And then Ming Ming vomitted again in the car, twice, then another time when we got home. Fortunately I took her home with me! Finally Dr Micheal changed the antibiotic for us and this time it works.

PS: In the process of changing medical insurance, we has not got the new insurance card yet, and you know what, we paid more than US$200 for antibiotics in two days!!!

party at Ming Ming's day care

Ming Ming's class's presentation... It is intended to be a play, about the way dinosaurs say goodnight. They did a good job during practice (they learnt the songs a few weeks ago), but when it was time to preform it in public, the kids either got totally distracted by the presence of parents(Koen just walked off), or got stressed and become timid (Ming Ming's case I guess), or got too attracted by the story book (that would be Camilla). =)

Ming Ming's favorite teacher Miss Danielle.

a following pot-luck party

with Camilla (who speaks English and Spanish)

with Eva (another billigual kid, English and German in this case)... Eva just moved to the 2 year old class.

time to leave, feeling very proud in her school t-shirt, and demanded to sleep in it that night.. =)

picnic with the francophone playgroup

beautiful day for a picnic...

Ming Ming listening very attentively to Natalie's story.

Saturday with Mama

Ming Ming got all excited by the dancing group.

Little girl being mean.. even at the end of the video, I was not sure whether it was more hitting or a "nice hands"... The initial intention of taking this video was to show how she climbed.. this is the frist time she climbed it all by herself!