Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Chase Updates

Chase's favorite books these days include "My First 1,000 Chinese words" book, "My first book of sign" and "My first 1,000 words (English)." She loves these books and hauls them everywhere. Her next favorites are "Meg & Mog," "Corduroy," and "Where The Wild Things Are." She loves rumpusing.

She loves her harmonica; she actually plays it, holding it with her right hand while keeping time to the music (hitting her left knee with her left hand). Definitely goes down in my book as one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

She continues to enjoy Chinese food. She actually won't eat vegetables unless they have garlic and a touch of oyster sauce on them. Then she'll eat the entire bowl and ask for more.

Chase has started forming an attachment to her doll Molly; she drags her around by her hair. I keep trying to show her how to hold her, but she keeps dragging her around by the hair.

She's named her pink bear, Lola, which I think is quite remarkable. Not only because she named her own stuffed animal, but also because she took the name from Kar Kar's kitten that she loved so much.

Chase really enjoys drawing, and has gotten quite good at scribbling. Her ability to hold the pen like a grown-up has really surprised me. She also likes painting and playing with colored tablets in the bathtub.

She loves her hula hoop. She likes to stand inside the plastic, blue, sparkly circle. She also likes to stand outside it. She likes to put her doll inside, as well as her books and anything else.

Chase is very good at sharing. Very good at playing with others. She has started to be more aggressive about taking things she wants in crowded kid filled situations, but doesn't mind if another kid gets to a toy first. She knows she's bigger than most of them.

Chase has also started to test us. She has identified three things that we keep saying "no" to, and enjoys pushing us as far as she can. Thing 1: standing on the couch. Thing 2: grabbing a very nice scroll painting on the wall and trying to pull it down. Thing 3: playing with the computer power cord while we use the laptop. She thinks it is so funny when we are serious.

She now enjoys throwing balls. Large puzzles. Blocks. Running. Shaking hands. Saying hello. Blowing kisses at everyone.

Chase also gets bored easily. She loves the outdoors. We've been going on more walks. I've been taking her out at least twice a day. I can't wait until I can enroll her in swimming and a couple morning sessions of Montessori.

Mars

Just found out that Mars thing is a hoax. I deleted the original post.

Chinese Boudoir

People often ask me what I do with my days...

Well, today I had Chinese boudoir photos taken.

It took at least an hour and a half for the make-up artist to apply my make-up (aka, cover my face in skin-colored spackle, fill every pore, and then add fake eyelashes and blue eye shadow). For my hair, they used product that made my hair into a helmet (think Clark Kent), and then added four huge flowers, extensions, and various decorative doowaps.

When my hair and make-up was finished, I put on a gorgeous blue silk robe - the kind you see hanging on someone's wall.

I looked in the mirror - and couldn't believe the transformation. The bags under my eyes were gone. I did not have crumbs or spots on me anywhere. I had been transformed. It made me seriously consider spending an hour and a half doing my hair and make-up everyday.

From there, I was handed over to the photographer, a young Chinese guy, who instructed me to pose in various ways, using some lovely Chinese antiques for props. So I posed with a lute. At a desk. In front of a "balcony." At a window. At one point they handed me a Chinese paper and instructed me to appear to be reading it.

It was hilarious; I hope to be able to post a couple pictures soon.