4 months

Our baby girl, Aubrey Rae, is four months old. I know I say it a lot, but she is the sweetest baby. Her big blue eyes (yes, they are still BLUE!) and sweet smile just melt my heart. She is so laid back and is content on the go. Thank goodness, because we are always on the move. She is happy in her stroller, in the Ergo and being touched and stared at by curious Chinese people.

On a good night, she is up twice to eat and I won't go into how many times she is up on a bad night. She loves bath time and you still find her watching her sister most of the day. As I am writing this she is on the floor playing and cooing. She has just found her feet and grabs them and then looks at me like she is asking "what are these?".

The other day I asked Brynn if she wanted to help me change Aubrey's diaper. I went to get a diaper and wipes. From the other room I heard Brynn say, "Pee-Yew Auby Rae, You stinky". I ran back in and found that Brynn had unsnapped Aubrey's onsie and taken off her diaper. Aubrey was a trooper and Brynn did a great job changing her.

Visitors and More...

This past weekend we had some of our very best friends come visit us in Chengdu. We had a great time and enjoyed showing them around some "real" parts of China (those places that a normal visitors would not go to).  Matt took off of school Monday to have an extra day with them and took them to the Panda Research Center. Brynn has thrilled that she got to go along too. She had the best time showing them the pandas. I asked her what she wanted for dinner that night and she said bamboo!

Brynn made some cupcakes the other day and this picture made me laugh. I had forgotten she licked a cupcake. Oops, I wonder who ate that one????

 Aubrey loves to sit up and watch what is going on around her. Her silly big sister usually keeps her 

entertained. We don't have bumbo seats over here, so I tried propping her up in a high chair. She enjoyed it for a few minutes and even read a book.

 

Brynn is going through a phase when it is almost impossible to get her to look at a camera and smile. She usually runs when I get it out. I am almost always the one taking the picture, so this one is a rarity. Me in a picture and B smiling.

Today was book character day at Matt's school. Can you figure out who he was dressed like?

If I wasn't the one cutting up a pillow case and making ears at 9:00 the night before I wouldn't know either. He is Dobby the House Elf from Harry Potter. His 12th grade homeroom dressed as characters from Harry Potter. Brynn decided to be Tinkerbell. I was holding Aubrey and sitting by Brynn near the side of the stage. Before I knew it Brynn decided to join her daddy on the stage with his students. She announced on the microphone in front of the whole school her name was Brynn.

Aubrey decided she was cute enough without a costume, so she went as herself. I  can't believe she will be four months old tomorrow. She is just about to roll over from back to stomach. Matt and I found ourselves cheering like crazy when she was about to roll over the other night. She just looked at us like we were nuts and rolled back to her back.

Getting Ready for Halloween...

Holidays are a little different in China. In the States decorations are everywhere and there is no way you could forget a holiday. Here in China a holiday is upon you before you even realize it. Brynn decided during the summer, she was going to be Dora the Explorer for Halloween and Aubrey would be Boots. This week we started getting ready for Halloween.

Earlier this week we did a counting lesson with candy corn. In theory it was a great idea, but before I knew it all 10 pieces were eaten. It was a short activity. Brynn did learn one thing...she loves candy corn and has asked to count them again.

 Brynn is wearing one of her new favorite articles of clothing, blue jeans. She loves them because of the pockets. She made me wait to take the picture so she could pose with her hands in her pockets.  

 

 Aubrey is getting ready for Halloween too. I think she will be wearing headbands for a while. It doesn't look like she will get hair anytime soon.

I have seen this car around the neighborhood several times, but have never had my camera with me. We see Chinese signs like this all the time. They take a Western saying and it gets lost in translation. I don't think they want their baby on the road. Ha!

Jeff, Scott and Eric are in route to China right now. I will be picking them up at the airport Friday while Matt is in school. We are looking forward to their visit and showing them around our city. Thank you Tara, April and Ashley for letting them visit.

Random Pics...

 Matt was making up Brynn's bed and tucked in Aubrey. She was so cute with her head on the pillow and covers pulled up. She looked ready for bed!

 Every week or so we have a random firework show that can be seen off of our balcony. Since it is a Chinese holiday we have had fireworks for several nights.

 

 Brynn loves her Dora band-aids Lou Lou and Papa sent her. She was excited to get a boo boo (actually a bug bite) on her cheek so she could wear a band-aid. She loves getting ready with me in the morning. She almost got the lipstick on her lips.

 Brynn talks all the time. Since this blog is suppose to serve as a scrapbook of her childhood, here are a few things she says that we think are pretty cute. She calls piggy tails- pippy tails (after Pippy Longstockings). She thinks flies are called- Shoo flies. She has finally decided to now call herself Brynn Perdue after months of being Me Du.

 Matt's school has a new little sandbox by the playground . The other day I told her she couldn't play because we didn't have a shovel or anything to play with. Yesterday we went to playground to play. Brynn insisted on bringing her purse. When we got there she asked to play in the sandbox and I told her I was sorry that we forgot her shovel again. She went straight to her purse and took out her shovel. 

 This year she can make it up the climbing wall.

 This little sweetie hung out at the bottom of the slide!

 We went to our old neighborhood and visited the market. I bought vegetables from the same lady every week last year. I have missed buying from her this year, but Walmart is just so much more convenient now that it is a five-minute walk from our new apartment.

 Pumpkin has become my new favorite ingredient this fall. Chinese pumpkins look a little different (see it in the top right corner). I put it in my rice cooker and 15 minutes later it is cooked and ready to be made into something yummy. I have made pumpkin pancakes, oatmeal, muffins and even pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Brynn wanted her picture taken by the snakes as she called them. I think they were eels, the other buckets are fish and there was even a basket full of frogs. We were hungry, but decided to eat something else for lunch :)

Matching PJs

 Granna sent the girls these cute matching skeleton pajamas. Here they are modeling them after bath time.

Matt is off of school this week, because of a National Chinese Holiday. He was gone from Saturday to Tuesday at a teacher's conference in Beijing. I survived being a single mom for a few days, but was very happy when he came back.  We have no plans for the next couple of days, except to relax and enjoy the fall weather.