What's New

I'm going to write tonight just because I haven't written in so long. It seems that I get to the point in the night of putting Sophia down for sleep, and I'm falling asleep before her. Well, I'll be honest. Joe also downloaded Jeopardy for his PlayStation, and that's been occupying a little bit of extra time.

Not much has been going on. We had our Thanksgiving at school this year. There was too much turkey. They ordered 20 turkeys, and Joe even brought the remains of one home with him. Let's just say, he's been eating a lot of turkey these days. The Thanksgiving was pretty nice although it lacked the small, family atmosphere that makes Thanksgiving what it is.

We've been busy, busy at school, finishing things up before winter break arrives next week. We are looking forward to heading home for the holidays. Although, we are really questioning our sanity because we booked a flight that leaves Hong Kong at midnight. What were we thinking? Okay, we obviously weren't thinking. I'm sure we will survive as we have so many times. We've been trying to prep Sophia on proper airplane behavior. Hmm...we'll see.

Sophia is being quite the character these days. Her latest thing is saying, or rather, yelling silly words and laughing really loud. When we get on the bus in the morning, she's really loud. Everybody is so quiet and civil, and then there's Sophia, yelling "Gaga!" at the window. Of course, they all turn to look at the weird white kid.

She's also really, really into being independent. I've learned not to touch anything until she tries for herself. If I do touch something like her shirtsleeve, for instance, she might go into super meltdown and yell, "No! Let my do it!" Translated from two-year-old, that means, "Let me do it."

It's amazing how grown-up she is. It's hard and wonderful at the same time that she is so capable. Tonight, she helped me make hot chocolate, and she helped do the dishes! I have to say, she did a pretty good job all by herself. I'll have to work this independence to my advantage.

I'm looking forward to the end of the week. I have a doctor's appointment in Hong Kong, so I'll get to see the newest little Bearns on ultrasound. (If you haven't heard, we are expecting in June!) I'm also taking Sophia in the morning on a modeling shoot. It's her first time. A co-worker suggested we try it. They were approached by a guy in the square, and one of their kids has modeled. Basically, it's companies here who make clothes and try to sell them in the U.S. They want foreign kids to model the clothes for their catalogs. I'm combining my doctor appointment day with her modeling appointment. I don't want to send her off to do it on her own without first making sure it's legit. The guy offered to pay our nanny to take her, but I'm a little too overprotective for that. We're set up for her to do it Sunday as well. I guess she'll start earning her keep. Just kidding, of course.

So that's what's new, and I'll try to be a better blog poster. We are getting a little camera phone when we come home in a couple of weeks. We plan to be better at taking pictures of the interesting sights around here. In other words, pictures of chicken feet and dog heads on the butcher's block to come!