Packages!

We got a couple of packages in the mail on Monday. It's always fun when stuff comes in the mail that we can't get here.





























Vera got a package with two Easter books, a couple of Easter eggs, and a small bag of M&Ms. I confess to eating all but two of them... At least I gave her two!














The other package was full of food items that we can't get here. Vera looks pretty excited about the taco sauce!














V has been having fun with the empty eggs. She used them to show us where her "mou.." is....















...where her "eyes" are...















...and ditched them to show us her "cheek"!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Matt often asks me if I eat french fries because I like the french fries, or because I like the ketchup. I've been wondering the same thing about Vera.

Blogger Block!

Often in China, we find that sites we used to be able to access become blocked. Lately Blogger has been blocked, and we are unable to view blogs. Today is the first time I've tried posting since it got blocked, but surprisingly it looks like it will allow me to make a post. So...this is my test post.

Temper, Temper, Temper!

Vera's officially entered the "terrible two's"...that age that starts around a year and a half. The other morning, she walked up to the table, reached on top, and said "cookie...cookie...cookie". I told her it wasn't time to eat cookies. She proceeded to throw herself on the floor and scream...for about 15 minutes. I finally put her in her crib for a few minutes to scream and when I went back to get her she quickly recovered. Then, yesterday, she did the same thing, but this time it was because I won't let her watch a DVD.















Speaking of Vera and cookies (she does get her addiction honestly...mommy LOVES cookies)...

The grocery store near our home sells cookies that are a lot like animal cookies in the US except they are numbers instead. Vera ALWAYS searches the new pack for all of the number 8's. If we are walking along the road and I give her a few to eat, she first looks to see which numbers are in my hand, and if there is not at least one 8 she waves her little hand back and forth and says "bu yao, bu yao, bu yao" (don't want). It doesn't take long until the pack is depleted of 8's. Today she cried when I told her there we no more 8's. How could that be??? She also has a puzzle with numbers. Guess which number is the first to come out? And which number does she refuse to put back in the puzzle because she wants to carry it all around? You guessed it! What is it with the number 8?

The mystery around our house right now... What happened to the pacifiers? Vera has been very spoiled lately while she's been sick. She's gotten to watch TV much more than normal since we've spent hours on end in the house (not only has she been sick, but it rained every day last week), and she's gotten to have her pacifiers when it wasn't bed time. The problem... Yesterday late afternoon she had FIVE pacifiers. By bedtime there were only TWO! I've looked everywhere I know to look, but they are HIDDEN well! She better hurry up and show us where she hid them our else she might soon find that she's hidden them all and mommy and daddy aren't smart enough to find them!

Sick Baby

So, we did get over our Thailand issues, but only a few days later Vera got a bacterial infection in her throat. This was actually the first time she's been to the doctor for being sick. She usually just gets colds and gets over them pretty quickly. Poor baby...she's been pitiful! She's still coughing a little with a runny nose, but she's doing much better.





























One morning, she went into her bedroom, tried to pull her pillow out of her crib, then cried and cried until I went in to help her. She brought it out to the couch and fell asleep.

Thailand Pics

It's taken me a little while to get these up, but better late than never.














Vera loved playing in the sand at the resort. She as afraid of it at first, but daddy helped her get over her fears.














I think she had a tickle in her nose!














Chiang Mai has these trucks called songthaews. They are very inexpensive to ride in as they can pile many people in at once all going to different locations. The disadvantage...you have no idea what order the driver will decide to drop people off, so it could be a long ride around the city.















Vera and Mommy riding in the songthaew.














One really cool part of our trip was seeing an old friend, Andrea. When we were at the resort one afternoon, we hear, "Hi, Sneads." We both look, recognized the face and voice, but were very startled as we hadn't seen this person in so long. It was Andrea, a friend we taught with in 1999 when teaching outside of Beijing and hadn't talked to since. She just moved to Thailand a couple of months ago, and was visiting some other people staying at our resort. She was brave to expose herself to the "Suan Bua Bacteria", and in the end after only one meal at the resort, she too got "the sickness". The good news... We have all recovered from "the bacteria", and some friends of ours that were at the resort a week after we left, all came away healthy! It turns out the problem was in the water...the resort wasn't chlorinating it enough.

Playing in the Park

I don't know what I would do if we didn't have the Lian Hua Park nearby. Vera and I go almost every day...sometimes twice a day. She plays with the same kids most days and is even starting to know their names. The little girl in the pictures is Bu Bu and the little boy is Miao Miao. I bet you can't figure out which one is a boy (look closely...I'm not referring to Bu Bu's ponytail)...ha ha!!!