First Disney trip!

So I haven't blogged in months and I'm not even going to try to catch up. I'm just going to move forward with pictures from  Hink's first trip to Disneyland!

We went on a random Tuesday because Nick had some work meetings on Monday. It was a great day. Not too crowded or cold. 

Hink loved the carousel and Dumbo. He tolerated Small World, Pirates and the Haunted Mansion for Nick and I. He liked the submarines until it got to the scary part and I don't think he would ever get tired of Autopia. 

The parade was another highlight for Hink. He lived waving and clapping for all the characters. Especially Santa!

Playing with his souvenirs after a long day . Donald is currently his favorite!

Happy Birthday to Hinckley!

Hinckley had his first birthday on April 10th. It's crazy to me how fast this year went and to think about where we were this time last year. We were in the hospital on the other side of the world praying that Hink would figure out how to eat. Now we live in America and we can't eat a thing without sharing it with him. He is such a joy and everyday with him is so much fun. He took his first few steps a few days before his birthday. He is growing and changing so fast. We sure love this little guy!

We had a Mickey Mouse themed birthday since that is his favorite show. When this song comes on at the end of the show he stops everything to watch and his little head bobs along to the music. 

Sometimes we can even get him dancing just by saying "hot dog." We'll see if we can keep that up til he's 18. He will have no idea where the sudden urge to dance comes from whenever he's at a BBQ and people are saying hotdog all around him!

Opening one present early so we could use it in the pool last weekend!

He loved  floating around and kicking his feet.

We are definitely not missing the cold smog of Beijing!

Another present he got to play with before the party!

I tried to decorate...

Distracting him with pizza so I could get a picture of his cute hat.

Smashing his whole cupcake into his mouth.

I want another cupcake!

Opening presents. He loves his slinky!

Thanks for the truck Uncle Tim.

First slam dunk! This present might have been more for Nick than Hink!

Hink is mobile!

The past few days Hink has started moving a lot more than before. Crawling has made him so much easier to entertain. He loves having a new house to explore and being able to look at whatever he wants.

He is still a super skinny guy and today while he was circling the coffee table he climbed right out of his pants!

Hink is so cute with each new thing he figures out. Today after bending over and picking up a toy while he was standing against the couch, he turned and looked all around to see if anyone was watching his new accomplishment. He is so funny and super social!

We are back!

We weren't able to blog the past few months in China, so we have lots of catching up to do, here's a quick update.

We moved back to Henderson!

We are so happy to be back in the U.S. Our last few weeks in Beijing I hardly left the house due to really BAD pollution. Hink wasn't too happy about that, but his wheezy cough even indoors next to our air purifier convinced me it was better to not venture out. We did enjoy a few semi-clear days during Chinese New Year, but it didn't last long, and the day we flew out I couldn't see the buildings across the street from our place because of all the smog.


Hink is loving it here, and I am loving the fact that I won't have to travel 16+ hours with a baby again for a long time...or deal with a jet lagged baby again. This was Hink's 3rd trip back home, but so far it is definitely the hardest adjustment for him to make. We have been awake from midnight til 5 am everyday and then he wants to sleep hard til 10 or 11. He has definitely been doing great in other areas besides sleeping though.

- He finally started holding his own bottle just before we left. It is so nice for me to be able to set him down and get something done while he feeds himself.

- Less than 2 days after we got home he was crawling. He has been really close for a long time, but was having trouble on our slippery wood laminate floors in Beijing. On the carpet in my parents house he has much better traction and is so pleased with his new freedom.

-He can pull himself up. He did it a few times in Beijing, but here on the carpet its easier and he isn't happy if he's not standing up against the coffee table or couch.

CoCo also made the trip with us. He is adjusting to wide open spaces and big dogs. In China all of the dogs in our neighborhood were about half his size. Here all the dogs we come across are twice his size. It definitely makes him nervous, but he is getting used to it.

Pictures coming soon!

6 month well check

We had Hink's 6 month doctor's appointment a few weeks ago, I'm just slow to post updates. He is keeping me busy lately. He is doing really well. He is a super social baby and will smile and interact with everyone we meet. He is super close to sitting on his own too. He can balance for about 20 seconds before his big head topples him over!

Height- 67cm
Weight- 6.9kilos
Head- 44.4 cm

Hink jumped to the 50th percentile for height (from the 25th last month) but is still super skinny and in the 10th percentile for weight. I'm not too worried about it though since he is going to be eating us out of house and home very soon! We are still slowly trying new fruits and vegetables, some more successfully than others...he hates peas, but loves pumpkin and carrots and tolerates green beans.  The foods that he likes, he eats a lot of! He screams if I take too long between bites. I can't wait til he gets some teeth and I can give him real food.

Hink got his first taste of ice cream while we were at Cold Stone last week. This video is super cute and only 12 seconds so don't skip it!

Hink's First Halloween

We celebrated Hink's first Halloween at a party with a bunch of friends here in Beijing. Our costumes were thrown together at the last minute after a hectic weekend, but I still think Hink is the cutest football around!

Church at the Great Wall

This weekend we went to the Great Wall and had church!  

It was great to meet new people.  We went hiking up the wall, played some cards, had some good food and danced a little bit.  

Here is a picture of the service being held in the courtyard of the resort.

Look at Hink grow!

Just after we brought him home from the hospital- about 2 weeks old.

 6 months, what a chunk!

Little Fish!

Hink is loving his baths these days. No matter how cranky he is, when I start undressing him for a bath he starts smiling so big! He starts the bath in a chair, but he really likes to just float and kick. I hold his head and neck and the rest of him floats. He loves kicking off the side of the tub. He is so much fun!

Best Friends

CoCo has always loved to sit on the windowsill and watch people and puppies outside. Hink has started to join him. He switches back and forth between watching CoCo and looking out the window. He will be happy sitting like this for 15-20 minutes. It is so cute. I'm really excited for Hink to start interacting more with CoCo and playing with him. For now he just watches him mostly, but he's starting to pet him and grab his ears if he's sitting next to us on the couch.

Instagram

Since I discovered I can use instagram on my phone here in China without a VPN(the thing that allows us to access facebook, youtube, blogspot, and all the other restricted sites) I have been a very lazy blogger. I have been taking tons of pictures of Hink while we are out and about, but none of them have made it onto the blog for all our friends that don't use instagram. These are just some of the pictures we have posted lately. Enjoy!

Playing superman.

We borrowed a bumbo from a friend. Hink loves it!

I'm going to fit this whole ball in my mouth!

First swim at the Hyatt in Beijing. Hink did great!

Out for a stroll.

 

 

More swimming!

If you want to follow us on instagram my username is danainchina. I will try to be better about sharing our pictures and adventures on the blog too.

Rice Cereal!

Hink had his first food this morning!  He didn't have a very high opinion of the rice cereal, but he put up with it for Nick and me! Most of it ended up on him, so along with his first rice cereal, he also got to take his first shower since I am too lazy to bathe him twice a day. Hopefully tomorrow he is a little more excited about it now that he knows what to expect.

5 months!

I can't believe Hink is 5 months old. Next month is half a year! Crazy.

His doctors appointment last week was pretty traumatic. He had to have a routine eye exam and it was no fun. First his eyes were really slow to dilate. They gave him the drops every ten minutes and had to do it 5 times. Usually it takes no more than 2 or 3. Then the doctor freaked me out saying there was something wrong because they weren't dilated enough so she told us to go see the pediatrician and come back for some tests.

Well the pediatrician during her exam said his eyes were fully dilated and we had better run back upstairs and get them checked. The eye doctor did the exam which required 2 nurses to hold Hink down in a dark room while they did the test. I didn't stay in the room because it was just too sad to hear him screaming. I thought the test would be quick, but 15 minutes of hearing Hink scream through the walls took FOREVER! Everything was normal and I was pretty upset with the doctor for scaring me for no reason.

Hink had to get one shot this time and then we go back next month for two more, and the following month for another one. Then he will be on a normal checkup schedule. I will definitely miss all our extra doctors visits. I like seeing how much he has grown and getting some face time with his doctor. She is really good at answering emails quickly, but it is reassuring to have her check him out.

Anyway, our boy is still growing:

Height- 63.5 centimeters (still 25th percentile)
Weight-6.2 kilos (10th percentile!)
Head- 43 cm (HUGE!)

The one thing people always comment on when they talk to me in elevators is the size of Hink's head. I didn't think it was abnormally large, and the doctor said it was normal, so either Chinese babies must have super small heads or Hink's just looks big because he is still a skinny guy.

This month Hink started grab anything put in his hands. I was so glad when he started showing some interest in his toys. It gives me a break from constantly singing silly songs and dancing to distract him! His favorite time of day is bath time. He loves to float. He "talks" to me constantly. He loves to watch CoCo. It is so funny to watch him follow CoCo around the house with his eyes. He has rolled over a few more times, but most of the time chooses not to. Stinker!

Babies in China

Babies in China are a big deal! Ever since I started looking pregnant with Hink I haven't had to wait in a line. Ever.

While getting a taxi home from the airport when I was pregnant, Nick asked one of the airport guards how long the wait was  so we could decide whether or not to take the airport express subway. Well she looked at me and ushered us off to the front of the line.

At customs at the airport when the line was an hour long, and I was alone with Hink, I got ushered to a special lane off to the side and was through in less than a minute.

Just yesterday I went to Subway to grab lunch. It is in the basement of a large office building and it was noon so the line was pretty long. There were about 20 people in front of me. Hink started fussing in his stroller so I picked him up and was playing with him while we waited. After about 3 minutes the manager of the restaurant came out and wheeled us to the front of the line. I felt really bad, since everyone else was on their lunch break, and I really had nowhere to be, but she wouldn't take no for an answer.

Getting on the bus last week the attendant who collects fares yelled into his microphone til someone got up and gave me their seat because I was carrying Hink. Many times when I get on the bus really old women hop up immediately and make me sit down if I have Hink in the Bjorn. They look super unstable but will not sit back down no matter how much I gesture and protest. Luckily we usually make enough of a scene that some younger person will usually give up their chair too so the old woman and I can both sit down.

Often in China I hear people complain about taxi drivers being rude, or people pushing ahead to get on the subway or order at a restaurant (I know I've done it when I've had a bad day), and those things can get frustrating, but there are also so many nice things that go on, I thought I'd better document some of them too.

4 months!

I can't believe how fast this month went by. Hink is more and more fun to play with everyday. He is responding to me more everyday and has the most contagious smile. He loves reading books and his favorite is currently Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (Thanks Terri!).

I have been running all over Beijing lately and Hink has been such a trooper. He is happy to be in his Bjorn for at least a few hours a day. I started letting him face out sometimes and he loves it. When I make him face in he turns his head as far as he can to try to peak out the sides. It's so funny.

The one thing that makes him fussy faster than anything else is being hot. If I try to walk to the market with him in the stroller he gets angry quick. We have to go really early in the morning before it heats up outside to keep him happy.

Our Dr's appointment went really well this month. He only had to get one shot (pneumococcal) and he wasn't too upset about it. He also rolled over for the first time while we were at the doctors. He hasn't done it since, but we are working on it a lot, so hopefully he will have it down soon.

Here are his stats:
Height- 62 cm (25 percentile!)
Weight- 5.54 kilos (3 percentile- we have a skinny boy)
Head- 41 cm

We have to see the Dr again next month again to get some more shots. She wants to see him once a month for the first 6 months, but I really enjoy seeing how tall he is and when they weigh him since me holding him on the bathroom scale isn't too accurate.

Hink is already addicted!

To TV that is...

If we turn on the TV he is happy on his tummy at least 3 times longer than otherwise.

He is fixated!

My cute pup :)

Tianjin

We went on our first mini vacation with Hink a few weeks ago. We took the speed train to Tianjin on Friday afternoon. It took about 30 minutes to get there. It was kind of a spur of the moment trip. Nick had to go there for work one day and enjoyed it so we went back. It is always nice to get out of Beijing for a little while. Even though Tianjin is still a busy city it didn't feel near as hectic as Beijing.

We stayed at the Astor Hotel there. It was beautiful. It is almost 150 years old and back when it was first built it was used for a lot of diplomatic purposes (the American consulate was established there for a long time). The hotel had a museum downstairs that was fun to walk around. It showed pictures of all the famous people who have stayed there over the years, showed how the rooms would have been decorated and included the menu from Christmas dinner in 1949. Nick said he had never heard of anything on the menu.

After we laid around for a bit we went out to explore Tianjin. We found a yummy restaurant for dinner and then walked along the river outside the hotel. The next morning we explored some of the other buildings around the hotel, then checked out the Italian district before heading home. We got back just in time to catch a taxi before the crazy rainstorms that caused massive floods in Beijing started.

The train

Picture in the hotel museum. Ulysses S. Grant when he stayed a the Astor.

We really wanted to ride in the elevator.

Outside the hotel at night.

An old church in Tianjin

The Italian District

We had a great time and will definitely be going back to Tianjin. It was a great way to escape Beijing without having to travel for hours with Hink.