Surviving

Here's a few pictures from one day last week.  Adam was in Beijing, and the name of the game was survival . Since Willow is getting around mostly on foot now, she's become a lot more destructive. Lots of messes everywhere. 

She found a crayola marker and drew all over her face, the back of her head and her arms....

One of her favorite cabinets to attack

She's got the baby-squat mastered

Huge mess eating chicken alfredo. This is the day that I learned Willow doesn't enjoy being messy. She rubbed the sauce all over her face, hands, arms, and hair---and then she cried. As soon as she was cleaned-up, she was happy again and ready to eat a second helping. 

Brunch date with the lovely Danna. If you are reading this, do not feel like a creeper, girl! You are such a sweet young lady, and I love how you play with Willow. Thanks for babysitting, and being such a fun person to work with in drama! I will definitely miss you, but am happy for you as you being the next chapter in life.  

It was a hot day! So we walked down to the river, in hopes of a breeze. 

It almost looks lush. 

We had to leave this location eventually, because Willow was obsessed with  another family's stroller. It was loaded down with stools, toys, and all sorts of snacks and drinks. She wanted everything in that stroller--after try to distract her from emptying their stroller of its contents on several occasions, we just said zai jian and left the swings. 

Willow's favorite person = Emily! She adores this girl! 

Bubble Butt 

Willow is persistent in trying to get Emily to hold her. Unfortunately , I think Willow weighs more than half of Emily's weight. So that probably wouldn't work out. 

I can't believe that I went two weeks without Adam. He came home for a weekend visit, and just returned to Beijing today to finish the last week of his course. I'm very thankful that he got to visit us this weekend; I was worried that Willow might have forgotten about him. We looked at pictures and videos of Adam every day, since communicating on skype wasn't always possible. The two weeks went by relatively fast. I must admit, the last few days before Adam visited were tiring. I was getting little sleep, and my patience was running thin! I'm so thankful to be married to a man like Adam who is such a natural at being a loving and supportive father. Whew!

~julie