a few of our favourite things...

1. Eli's bike.
This bike is definitely one of Eli's favourite things. He likes to just push it around and thus far does not really ride it. He's really good at maneuvering it though, going backwards and forwards and backing up are all no problem for him. It's pretty heavy so I have to help him go over the curbs. Oh yes, the pink seat was not our choice by the way!

2. Outdoor exercise equipment. Allow Eli to demonstrate this treadmill/elliptical trainer. He is pretty good at it and wants to go on it especially if Scott or I are already on it. ("Mommy get off!" he says. We're trying to figure out how to make sure Eli knows that he can't get his own way all the time...) It doesn't have much for resistance so I'm not sure how much exercise you can actually get out of it. It may be more of a conversation piece.

4. Our little park. There are 3 slides, 1 teeter-totter and a little horse on a spring. And sand. When Eli's friend Caleb comes over, he loves to play in the sand so who knows, maybe Eli will take to it more too. So far, Eli likes the slides best and goes down on them backwards sometimes.

5. Dana. Here she is, everyone's favourite little gnome/slug. She has a few toys of her own too nowadays, but her favourite toy is Eli hands down! We play this game called "get Eli" where we "walk" her towards Eli and sit her on him, they both end up laughing which makes it really entertaining for us too.

6. Clouds and blue skies.
The past week has had some beautiful days, complete with wind, sun and spectacular clouds at times. I was inspired by another resident in our building to get outside and take some pictures as I saw her doing so outside my window, pointing her camera straight up at the sky. I quickly put on Dana (in the Baby Bjorn), got Eli ready, grabbed my camera and out I went--I was not disappointed.

7. Roses.
Eli and I walked to where the roses were and gave them some good sniffs. I tell Eli that roses are what beautiful smells like. Can you believe they are still blooming in mid-October! I'm always tempted to take a petal, roll it into a ball and shove it up my nose so I can smell them all day! (Don't worry, I don't do it though, maybe if Eli wasn't watching...)

8. Sunsets.
This is a view from outside our front door of our courtyard as the sun was going down. It was around 5 pm and getting close to supper time. I'm so thankful for days like these!

and so concludes september...

I can't believe September is over already, autumn feels different here, not as cold and crisp nor colourful (yet) as I'm used to. It's actually just now that we have stopped using our air conditioning! We had an eventful and fun month, here are some highlights of the latter weeks of September.

Here are Scott and I at the USA vs. England soccer match for the FIFA Women's World Cup. We were able to secure tickets to all five games featured in our city, they were on for half price if you bought tickets for every game! We cheered for the USA since our home country is so closeby, and they won 3-0. My favourite team to watch was Brazil, they played with such flair and passion, they were really able to attack well and keep possession of the ball. I was surprised when they lost to Germany in the finals.

Here is Dana getting her exercise in our spare bedroom/study. She has a more definite "awake-time" now and needs more attention and interaction. I think she is almost ready for a Jolly Jumper but alas, I don't think they have them here, I can't really imagine Chinese parents putting their kids in one, they really baby their babies compared to us.

On my 29th birthday, our school organized a trip to the countryside, about 1 1/2 hour south of our city (it just happened to be my birthday, they didn't do it in my honour or anything!). We saw lots of corn lying on the sides of the streets, drying out to make corn flour later and/or feed for animals. I didn't catch a lot of what our host said about his parent's farm unfortunately, either I just plain did not understand or I was too busy with Eli and Dana.

Here is a scene that captures the countryside I thought: a mule walking along the dirt road, Eli insisted it was a horse and I didn't think it was worthwhile to argue or explain how mules come to be.

So this is how peanuts grow! I had never seen them this way before. Eli in the background of course, he loved meandering along the dirt road and chasing after the little dog that was following us. The dog was equally interested in Eli and we were thankful that he was a friendly dog (no bites, thank you very much!).

It was a tiring but interesting day, I would like to be able to get out to the country more often, maybe even once a month for a change of scenery, air and perspective. It's too easy to start to think that China is just one big concrete jungle when it really isn't.