Counting Blessings

I really like these two pictures; they capture some of the sweet moments that Ming Ming enjoyed with Papou immensely. Basically, when Mamie and Papou are around, Ming Ming wakes up early either to read with Mamie (in French) or solicit Papou to read with her (in English). The first few days when Papou arrived, Ming Ming picked up this rather thick Berenstain Bears book (Jessica loaned her that book) and read it to Papou. She is in the reading stage in which she likes reading to an adult, she got most of the words right, but needs help from time to time. This is a bit tedious for me because of her reading speed. With Papou it is just prefect. Sometime Ming Ming would translate a word in French to Papou, sometimes Papou would explain a word to Ming Ming, and sometimes they would argue over a word and papou would look it up in the dictionary. As the stories are mostly about the silly things that little bear and papa bear do, I heard them laughing out loud all the time, with a sense of intimacy or complicity that you can only envy.  

 and papou is always there for silly things!

and for a game of memory or jeu des sept familles in which he would cheat so badly that it is not fun when he does not (which never happens).

and for taking Ming Ming out... (Mamie is always there too, but she is behind the camera) 

in the busy holiday season, I also squeezed in time to take MM to catch the last showing of 2013's most acclaimed Japanese anime - the Tale of Princess Kaguya (which recounts the traditional Japanese folk tale of the bamboo cutter and the moon child).

Taking advantage of the last few days before school started again, we finally finished Harry Potter Book 4 - The Goblet of Fire. It was quite an intensive experience for Ming Ming. for a few days she did not want to stay in her room or go to the bathroom alone, because "the Harry Potter people is everywhere in this house" and "I am afraid I will suddenly see lord Voldemort."

X'mas present from Xiao Tie and Li Zheng

from Selina Yiyi!

Ming Ming retelling a story that she just read with Mamie