First Big Mac

Samuel has graduated to the Big Mac.  No more happy meals.  He must have been really hungry.  This means he is eating as much as I am!

Bedtime buddies

Every night, sometime between midnight and 6pm, Samuel manages to sneak into our bed and brings along his stuffed animal contingent: Fatty (panda), Mr. Fox, Luigi (thanks for the correction Uncle Vince), and Samuel (sweater bear).

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Peking Duck

Samuel loves Peking Duck.  Unlike his brother who has pretty much stuck to a diet of pizza, hash browns, chicken nuggets, and pasta; Samuel has dived into the land of Chinese cuisine, which we didn't really prepare much in Boston, and still neither here in Beijing.  But his kindergarten serves breakfast, lunch AND dinner with snacks in between, and he gobbles it all up.

Can you put on my seat belt?

At dinner tonight, Samuel asked me to put on his seat belt, because he was having such a hard time suppressing his urge to walk around and play with his toys. So I used a plastic jump rope to tie him in.
He explained, "I can't help myself daddy."

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Don't go momma

Annette has to travel 10 out of the 30 days this month to Berkeley, Singapore, and Shengzen and so all of us are missing her very much, especially Samuel.  He gives momma a reluctant goodbye hug as she waits for ride to the airport. 

Learning Chinese

After 2 months, I am so proud of how Samuel is handling being in a Chinese school.
His class is a real black box.  We drop him off at 8am, and pick him up at 4pm.  We don't really understand the teachers very well, and we don't any other English speaking parents in the class, so we know very little about what goes on in his class, except that he gets lunch there (which he really loves), naps afterwards (which Samuel really hates because he has a hard time falling asleep), and he's learned how to jump rope really well.
But it is neat to see how his Chinese has been progressing.  He regularly speaks to his teachers now in Chinese:  "Xie Xie (thank you)"  and "Jia Jian! (goodbye)"
At home, he likes to say "Bu Yao (don't want)", "Shenme (what?)", "Haochi (tastes good)", "Ahya (oh no)", "Jiuming (save me!)", "Jendi (really?)".
While walking home today, he proudly told me, "Dad, guess what, I got a yibai today!"  At first, I thought he said he got some E-thing, but repeated "yibai!" and I realized he meant "100".  He is slowly incoporating Chinese into his speech.  :)

Bedtime Prayer

Samuel's Prayer tonight:
"Dear Jesus, please help mom have a good trip.  (Annette's back in California for a conference).
Please help me grow strong.
And please give me a new Ipad."