The day after thanksgiving we were driving home from Ye Ye & Nai Nai's when Madeline enlightened us on a new decision she has just made. "I am not going to eat eggs anymore becasue eggs are chickens." I said to her, "Madeline, chickens are chickens and you eat them." "Yes," she said, "but I am not going to eat animals anymore, except chicken nuggets (we were driving by a McDonalds at the time)...and bacon!"

Prime Real Estate Property Opportunity

While in Chongqing, China we noticed all the construction that was going on and the fact that there was not a whole lot of space to build in. It appears that the builder of this "neighborhood" found a very unique solution, building under a freeway. We saw several apartments throughout the city that were built under freeways. Just thought it was interesting.

I'm 1

Hullow every one, I am 1 year old today - YEAH!!! We celebrated Rebekah's birthday at Ye Ye & Nai Nai's on Saturday which was Nai Nai's birthday. We had a great time opening presents and eating cake. Although, Rebekah did not find much interest in her presents themselves as she did the wrapping paper and boxes. Madeline LOVED helping open all the presents. She also was more interested in feeding cake to Madeline and Kelly than eating it herself. Rebekah has discovered TV which is a good or bad thing however you look at it. The good thing is I can leave the room for 30 seconds without her crying, the bad thing is she like "Elmo's World" on Sesame Street and I REALLY DO NOT LIKE "Elmo's World." His voice is so annoying! Rebekah still likes the Wiggles and is now beginning to dance to the songs, it is so cute. She is trying hard to put the shaped blocks in the geometric box but not the right shapes in the right holes so there is a lot of banging. No words yet but a lot of "da da's, ma ma's" and now "va va's" but she is trying. She is learning the art of giving a kiss, however slobbery it is, it still is a kiss and I'll take them. We are really looking forward to her reaching 20 pounds so we can finally turn the car seat around, just 1 more pound to go.

"but I'm asking nicely!"

Friday and Saturday mornings Madeline had difficult time at getting started so she had to spend some time in her room "thinking" about her attitude, most of that time was spent yelling though. On Saturday she was arguing and fussing so much that I told her to go to her room and when she was quiet and asked nicely she could come out. Well, as she was in her room crying loudly, she yells asking, "can I come out of my room now, CAN I COME OUT OF MY ROOM NOW PLEASE!" When no response came from Mom or Dad, she then yells, "but I'm asking nicely, I said please!"

Happy Sweet Giggling Sounds

With Madeline being sick and unable to go to school, she asked if she could sleep in Rebekah's room last night and had a rough night of coughing so we were both up periodically throughout the night. I was taking advantage of sleeping in a bit this morning waiting for Madeline to come bounding in our room, climbing into bed with me and asking to watch "Martha Speaks" on PBS. Instead, I woke up to Madeline singing "Silent Night" to Rebekah in Japanese (she is learning it in school) and sweet giggles. It was nice way to wake up.