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I confess that my first reaction to Eric announcing a sudden business trip back to the U.S. wasn't one of dismay or even sadness, but rather one of speculation. Hmmm. What can he bring back?
We're having an interesting time with Lincoln and solid foods. The import grocery store I frequent has a rather erratic inventory. I have seen an Australian brand of baby cereal and the standard Gerber brand as well. Then suddenly, poof, no more baby cereal. At least none in a language I understood. The pictures on the front of the boxes suggested that the contents contain corn, perhaps honey, and sometimes an odd blend of fruit or vegetables. The latest item to grace the baby food shelves is some exotic Japanese vegetable powders that cost nearly $8 for a small box. I have no idea what that is all about. We have a 'fun' time visiting as many store branches as we can just to find a few familiar food items. Frustratingly, though it all the same store, each branch can carry a different variety of items. One store may have the cereal you want, but no milk. Another store has plenty of milk, but no pickles or cereal...and on it goes. You really have to think and decide how much you want a particular item.
I'm always on the lookout for less expensive alternatives. Dry cereal from Thailand, Korea, or even Italy, is considerably cheaper than the cereal from the U.S. Unfortunately, the cereal I want is plain-Jane Cheerios for Lincoln. Which is only available from the U.S. For $10 for a small box. Oh well. Since Lincoln currently eats about 3 Cheerios a day, a single box should last quite a long time.
He's still working on the hand-to-mouth coordination. He usually manages to pick one up, but then will try to stick it in his mouth with his thumb even though the Cheerio is in his palm. Mugsy is enjoying himself, eating bits of dropped food.
Here he is, intently chasing a Cheerio around on his tray. Mugsy is lurking in the background, waiting for the 'plink' that indicates a dropped Cheerio. As Lincoln is nearly 8 months (! How did we get here so quickly?), I'm going to try some lentils soon. He doesn't seem as interested in the baby mush I feed him and really would rather try what I'm eating, whether that's coffee or yogurt or toast.
Lately I've been feeling really guilty. Every time I'd eat a meal, Lincoln would watch my every move, tracking the spoon's path from my bowl to my mouth. He's been ready to eat solids for a while now; I've just been a bit lazy on the follow up. I bought some of the standard first baby food, rice cereal, and decided to give it a try this morning. I don't think the cereal was very fresh since it smelled a bit stale. I'm not sure if that's the normal smell or what, so I thought I'd try a bit and see if preparing it would make any difference.
Such anticipation! We've had the booster seat for while now. I've mostly been using it in the kitchen to keep Lincoln occupied and close at hand when I need to prepare a meal or whatnot.
That happy face quickly changed to one of puzzlement and dismay.
Poor baby! He's probably thinking 'Now I know what that pocket is for!'
I'm not sure if the reaction here is just typical for first time with cereal or if I need to look for new cereal. I'm going to bring the bag to baby group this morning and ask some of the other mothers if the cereal smells normal to them. Since I'm buying imported baby cereal, the cereal may have been sitting somewhere, perhaps not temperature-controlled, that may have affected the quality. Don't know. After such a traumatic morning, Lincoln is napping. I'm going to get ready for baby group. I'm still in wonderment that a small child can require so much gear and so much preparation, even for such a short, simple outing.
There is no shortage of children's toys. None whatsoever. Recently, the lowly stick was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame. Amazing. Here I've been trying to navigate my way through a bewildering assortment of toys, not helped in the least bit by hyperaggressive Chinese sales people. I had one woman follow me through the toy section, banging on toy drums, pushing all the buttons on every toy that made any noise, setting off a little remote control dog, shaking rattles in my (and Lincoln's) face, all in an attempt to coerce me to buy something. I did. Though nothing with batteries, nor anything as simple as a stick. I try to buy toys in moderation and to choose them with care. Which toys will be best for developing hand-eye coordination? Will spark his creativity? Teach him to problem-solve? What seems to engage him? I love Lamaze toys and I think Lincoln does too. They have these special features that are supposed to be good for the baby's overall development and are really darn cute to boot. But all that special research into what features would engage the baby the most seems to have gone to waste since his latest favorite toy happens to be a lowly tissue box.
He loves it. He bypasses the rattles that will teach him hand-eye coordination, the high-contrast black-and-white toy, the special teethers, all in favor of this simple box. He would not leave it alone while I changed his diapers. He would twist his little body to bat at the tissue box. I finally handed it to him to get him to hold still for just a minute while I snapped his shirt. It's love at first sight. Boy meets box. Box eludes boy. Mommy separates boy and box. Boy and box meet. Boy falls in love. Boy lives happily ever after with box (until he gums it into an unrecognizable mess). The end. Who doesn't enjoy a good love story?
I just wiki-ed 2008 just to see what else has been happening in 2008 besides the birth of a fantastic baby boy. It seems that this has been such an eventful year. Perhaps it's because I'm living in China and I am seeing the world from a different perspective. Obviously, living in China makes me hyper aware of issues in Asia; things I'd likely overlook if I were back home. Food safety problems in China, protests in Bangkok, military junta taking over Burma...the list goes on. Oh, apparently it's also the Year of Sanitation. Very important.
America looks different from over here, especially when seeing it through the eyes of expats from so many different countries as well as that from the local citizens. Yesterday, I watched the presidential election unfold with dozens of other people, Americans and Chinese. The American Women's Club and the American Chamber of Commerce hosted an election party at one of the hotels here. Essentially, it was a bunch of people watching CNN and eating together. It started at 8am local time and was scheduled until 1pm. I went with Lincoln around 10:30 / 11:00. The results came in earlier than expected:
It's Barack Obama. I confess that I was not at all surprised. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I was expecting Obama to win back in the primaries.
Here president-elect Obama and his opponent John McCain make a special appearance.
November already. It's hard to believe that it's really November. Fall is really my favorite time of year. The heat of summer is past and the chill of winter not yet here. There's a slight nip in the air that feels so refreshing. Wherever you walk, you can smell a hint of smoke in the air. In New Mexico, this meant wood fires and roasted chiles; here that means the sweet potato vendors are out. The sweet potato people have half of a rusty metal drum welded to a cart. The top has a square cut out and the inside is then filled with wood (I assume). Scrubbed sweet potatoes and corn in the husk are placed among the embers and left to roast. The sweet potato vendors usually come out around noon to peddle their wares. They arrange cooked potatoes and corn on top of the barrel and wait for customers. You simply point to which potato you want and they will bag it and weigh it for you. An average sized potato costs about 2-3 RMB (30-40 cents); a big one about 4 RMB. I love them. I take mine home and scoop out the soft flesh. It doesn't need butter or any adornment, really. Many people immediately break open the potato and eat the insides right there standing on the sidewalk. They're so good I wish I could feed some to Lincoln.
He's almost ready for solids. Almost. I just bought him a booster chair with a tray in preparation for the big day when he starts solids. I expect it to be within the next few weeks.
Here he is giving it a trial run. I can't believe he is already 5 months old. Time really gets away from you.
Lincoln also enjoyed his first Halloween. Another mother here was giving away a few baby costumes and I managed to get the pumpkin. It's sized for 3-6 months and Lincoln just fit into the suit.
Here he is with his friend Mila. We didn't do anything special for Halloween other than dress Lincoln in a pumpkin suit and go to baby yoga. We did go out for lunch with Eric. At Hooters. The Hooters girls serenaded little baby pumpkin with 'I'm a Little Teapot', which was a bit surreal. I suppose it never occurred to me that would be a song they'd know or know to sing to children. Perhaps that's in the Hooters employees guide. Who knows.
Now we're preparing for first election, first Thanksgiving, and first Christmas. We'll be joining a bunch of other Americans (mostly women) to watch the election results unfold tomorrow morning. Thanksgiving will be spent with a group of friends at a hotel buffet. One of my girlfriend's husband works as a chef at the hotel so it'll be some good food. I can't wait for the fixings and the pie. Christmas will hopefully be in Malaysia, someplace warm and beachy. Can't wait.
Lincoln had his 4-month well-baby visit about 2 weeks ago. He had a couple of shots and is doing quite well overall. Last week, I brought him in for another vaccination (All his vaccinations are imported so I had to decide early on which vaccines I wanted to give him and then place an order for them. They are stored at the clinic as are the vaccines for all the children treated there. This particular vaccine didn't get ordered with the rest so I had to place a special order for it.). So, he is all caught up for now with his immunizations. Yesterday morning, I noticed that he had a bit of blood from one of his inoculation sites so I brought him in yet again. Just to be sure. The doctor checked it out and pronounced everything as being tip top and just fine. While we were there, the nurses weighed him. Over the course of those two weeks, Lincoln gained about 350g or about 25g a day. Just to put it really concrete terms, I did a google search of what is equivalent to 25g. A mouse.
It turns out that the average size mouse is about 20-25g. So Lincoln is gaining a mouse a day. He weighs about 308-385 mice now. Think about that this winter when there are little visitors in your bread drawer.
