picnic at the point with Paola and the Bohnenkims

Ming Ming and the Chicago gang

Professor Duara is in town, and so are some colleagues who have graduated already, for the Association for Asian Studies annual conference. A memorable dinner last night at China Town. I took Ming Ming with me as I have so little time to spend with her these day.

Winter days

We have a brutal winter this year, and it has not ended yet. For almost four months, we have continuous freezing and snowy days. we are now only ten inches short of all time snow record, and February's bitterly cold temperatures help rank this winter as Chicago's third coldest since record-keeping began more than 140 yrs ago. We had many under zero (in F, i.e. more than -15C) days, which, after counting windchill, can go as low as -40C. And twice, all schools were closed for two consecutive days (arghhh!) as the bitterly cold temperature endangered kids waiting for school bus.

I have no pics of the extremely cold days. It was simply too cold. For the first time I felt that leather gloves did not help, my hands still froze. We spent most of our outdoor times in the car, except when we were digging the car out (which Ming Ming loves). Our car broke down twice because of the extreme cold, which led to a total sum of $1300 at the repair shop.   

and here is one rare day (Jan 2nd) when the wind stops blowing and the brave kids played outside in the snow.

the snow is fine, dry, and hard... see the tunnel/slide they built..

another warmer day (Feb 18)... this pile of snow did not melt for the whole winter. 

then miraculously (March 10, monday), as spring approaches and we changed to day light saving time, it is warm for one day and everyone is out in the courtyard.

Kids play in the snow pile and water puddle

then, it started snowing again the next day, and on Wednesday morning (march 12) we wake up to this. 

the snow is considerably wetter and the wind is not so bad, thus creating a scenic winter picture.

I took these on my way to the university.

the view form the Regenstein library

Mon retour a chicago le 18 aout

I left for Chicago first... and stayed in Max's place for a few days before I got the key to my own apartment.

leaving Ming Ming this morning was not horribly hard. She was sleeping when I left and the big question was whether to wake her up to say goodbye, decided against it. She seemed to be doing okay with my absence, except that she did not want to talk about me when I was not around (which is her way of dealing with it i guess).

visiting papa's MBA school

papa teaching MM to sit like a lady

in the plane flying back.

museum of science and industry

Antoine and I took the two kids to a local museum in hyde park. People thought that they were sister and brother at the entrance. =)

friends!

Oscar and Ming Ming

They were looking at Max.

really into dinosaur eggs

put them in front of TV while the adults had dinner. great parenting!

waffle making

going out...

They were really happy to play togerther at the beginning. Although MM declared in the plane that she prefered Julian over Oscar now, she gave Oscar a big hug upon seeing him. The joy simply multiplies when she was with another kid.

But after the frist day they did sometimes get on each other's nerves. there were a lot of negotiations going on between them, sharing toys, trading toys (and spiderman cards), even deciding which song to sing. sometimes Ming Ming was aware that she was in the wrong, but still could not help it. At one point she told me "我是一個海盜" (I am a pirate) and to Antoine "je suis un tiroir" (I am a drawer, what she wanted to say was "je suis un tyrant" - I am a tyrant). =)

when we were about to leave, Oscar was upset about something and did not want to say goodbye. MM said to him: i am going, and you will stay here alone! I was really surprised how she can talk mean. and since this was said in English, i supposed that it was not me she was imitating.

dinner at U Chicago

Our departmental dinner. It was the first time I took MM to a departmental gathering. Everyone was surprised to see her. Most of them saw me being very pregnant, but had never seen MM before. It was quite a shock to see her being so big I guess. children are such literal representation of time.

MM was, surprisingly, very much at ease. Oscar was no doubt a big help, she walked around and played with Oscar and some other people like it was a familiar place. The two behaved extremely well, no whining or anything. Even though at the end MM was really tired.

Oscar playing with one of our professors. MM was too timid and hid under the table.

you don't see it here, but both of them were extremely tried, it was well past bedtime.