video from playground

Okay, the blog is really not totally private.  It's only for people who don't criticize my cooking and ability to feed my kids (who are not vegan, by the way.)  If you are reading this, you made the cut!

It takes a while to go through photos and pick some for the blog, but here is a video from the playground a few weeks ago.  Willow still likes wearing her squeaky shoes from China.  She can put them on herself!  Ariel is in her last couple days of school before winter break.

Some more notes off the top of my head:

• Willow is 25 pounds, Ariel is 35.  Willow is fitting well into Ariel's recently outgrown clothes!  Ariel has grown tall in the last year.
• Willow will see a neurologist next week.  Maybe she will have some insights into the cerebral palsy diagnosis from China.
• Ariel has been very happy at school lately (according to her teachers.)  Willow and I visited the class last week to read Dim Sum for Everyone by Grace Lin, and show some Chinese food (bok choy, dragon fruit, pomelo) and other Chinese things (money, silk dress, panda toy.)  The 3rd graders were studying China.  It's a mixed class: half K-1, half 2-3rd grade.  They have a partition between the classes that they remove at times during the day so all the kids can mingle.  I love visiting Ariel's class.

Ariel dancing in Guilin

We made it here late last night.  Ariel & I napped a lot on the plane rides, but Jeff didn't sleep much.  So we let him rest today while we hit the town.  Here's a video of Ariel enjoying the pedestrian streets of Guilin.

an old "sushi" video

I apologize for not posting more videos. We take so many, but getting them on the blog can be tedious. I just realized I have this old one (from last year sometime), eating veggie sushi rolls at H Mart (and Asian grocery store with food court.) If it has rice, Ariel is crazy about it. I noticed someone commented on the video in Japanese. It says "Ariel-chan, kawaii desu" (little Ariel is cute.)

video from Chinese New Year

I found this video in our phone photos. It's short and ends with a smile.

dancing to Wiggles songs

We played a CD of Wiggles songs.  Of course Ariel saves her best dancing for off-camera.  In the song, "Shakey, Shakey", you shake your hands side to side (according to Greg, Murray, Anthony, and Jeff in the video.)  We are big fans of The Wiggles.

homework with the cats

Ariel has a green bin of "independent work" that her teachers send home with her. We were working on it before breakfast one morning, with support from Ralph and Nene.

We love The Wiggles

This is how we cut loose after school when the weather is bad:

Ariel reading "The Three Little Kittens"

Listen for "kitten! mitten!" "Purr, purr, purr!" and "What?!" (approximately.) It's super-cute how she loves this book and its illustrations. She has many favorite books in our bedroom that she likes to read aloud to us.

Counting Coins

running on the Arabian Coast

Getting lots of exercise at the Arabian Coast (at Disney Sea):

dancing

Ariel was dancing to Disney (and Raffi) music on Pandora Radio. Of course, the best of it ended when I turned on the video camera. Thanks to instruction from the Wiggles (an Australian kids' music group that makes videos), Ariel is trying different forms of dance.

baby body slam!

It really is fun, and she agrees to it. No toddlers or cats are harmed in the baby body slam:

Sanshin song

A short video of Yuuka playing her sanshin for Ariel:

reading "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around"

This video is cute, but a bit long. She loves to read this book and recite the song. It goes: "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn around. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear shine your shoes. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear say... Skidoo! Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear go upstairs. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear say your prayers. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear switch off the light. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear say good night!

Easter at the Bunny Store

We went out for lunch at Yamada Udon on Easter, and also visited the Bunny Store. It's really called Nishimatsuya, and is a great place for kids' clothes and supplies. Ariel gets happy about seeing the big white bunny on the sign. And she loves riding on Jeff's shoulders.

The Teddy Bears' Picnic

This is one of her favorite books du jour.  She likes to read it to herself and sing something like "go today!  pi  NUH!"  Since this video, she's perfected it a bit more.  Excuse my singing in the video - I was trying to prompt her to sing after me.

Yoshino Baigo (Ome Plum Park)

My friend, Megan, and I took Ariel to the plum park.  The plum trees weren't in full bloom, but we still enjoyed the hillside paths.  At the entrance, we found this roller slide that Ariel liked.  Megan took this video.  The man was working at the park, and probably wearing a mask because of allergies.

Megan and Ariel.  Megan has two kids who are now teenagers.  Her husband, Hank, is a helicopter pilot.  We know them from our last assignment.  It's fun to have them here!  They've been stationed in England, so are no strangers to tiny streets and left-sided driving.

hula hoop!

Elmo Says "Achoo!"

We spent last week in Singapore. Here is a video of Ariel reading Elmo Says "Achoo!" to herself in the hotel room:

kissing Nene

I heard Ariel laughing and stopped to see what she was doing. She was walking up to Nene (on the couch), kissing her, then going to her Chinese-English animal book and kissing the cat page. Back and forth. She thought it was so funny, and so did I. Nene just looked at her with a sleepy eye. Of course, when I started filming she stopped doing it, but you get the gist: