Wild Flower Reservation, New Hope, French Bakery --- A Perfect Spring Day

姥姥爱看花，普林斯顿每一个角落的花都看遍了，照遍了。天气好的时候更喜欢带高高看花，常常说，高高很会“欣赏”花，每次见到花，都兴奋得大叫，指着给姥姥看。小区里的花，高高能记住位置，带他出去的时候，他会主动带路，指给我们看。偶尔找不到他记住的花，就原地徘徊，不肯走。

四月16日，周六，空气不错，阳光不错，心情不错，带上高高，去小镇“新希望”附近的野花保护基地找花。


春天来得很迟，野花开得稍晚。但没有野花，高高照样高兴....
有高高前，我们常常觉得我们高兴的沸点很高。有了高高，常常觉得“幸福没有多远”，出来走走，捡块小石头，全家高兴得心满意足。

高高：“看，我又长高了。”
丹晨：“看看,我也长高了！”

在照什么？
 在找什么？

高高：“妈妈，要不要我扶你上来？！”

肖铁觉得高高像是要去打场架，姥姥觉得高高像是要去追松鼠，干妈觉得高高象是要把捡到的树枝当块宝。
高高：“谁也没猜对，不理你们了。”

 

妈妈：“就知道你是要把棍子扔掉！要不要妈妈帮忙？”

终于找到小花了。
“路边的野花我来采一采 ”

New Hope, 难得一块没人的角落。

Lunch Choice: Tie was in the spirit of eating Burger!  We saw two signs when deciding a place to eat lunch.  One says "Best Burger In Town", and the other one says "Best Burger Ever".  So it becomes an easy decision for us, "Best Burger Ever."

Marsha Brown Restaurant

Serve New Orleans Style food.  

Great Choice for the perfect Spring Day! 

Our Orders:

Easton: Home-made Egg Crepe & Papa's Patato Chips

Grandma:

Crawfish

Etouffee
(Louisiana crawfish
smothered in a blanket
of chopped vegetables
and served with rice.
Popular in Louisiana
Cajun Country)

Tie: (Best Burger Ever)

Marsha Burger

(Black Angus burger served with onions,
mushrooms, cheddar cheese and
Marsha’s steak sauce)

Zheng & Danchen:

Eggplant Ophelia

(Marsha’s mother’s favorite, shrimp and crabmeat

casserole, topped with grilled

eggplant and baked till golden
brown, elegantly garnished
with our Creole butter sauce)

French Bakery: C'est La Vie (肖铁的翻译：这就是生活！）

We all had a great time there.  Xiao Tie said "I don't really like coming to New Hope.  But now I do."

We had Coffee Mouse, Blueberry Tart, and Almond Cross....

Becoming a Toddler

Easton officially started his day care life, two days a week (Mon and Wed), transitioning straight from infant to Toddler's class.

Monday April 18
First day to Toddler's class, he automatically turned to his infant room.  When standing in front of his new room, he cried and cried... until he found a car.  When I called during the day, the new teacher---Jeanmary said "Easton loves cares.  He just won't let go cars...."  In the evening, when I picked him up, the teacher said "Easton is such a good boy.  He is very much qualified for a "Toddler"".


Wednesday April 19
Xiao tie dropped him off and picked him up.  On the way home, he ate, ate,  ate and finished the entire bag of cookies.  I guess he is still learning to be a "Toddler" and learning how to eat by himself in the day care is part of that.  At night, Xiao tie told me that when Easton was picked up, he was playing a bike by himself, and at that moment in front of that scene, Xiao tie wondered whether Easton will be able to become a natural member of the kids who look different, act differently, speak differently and ....

普林斯顿春游

4月的第一个星期，下了一周的雨，周六早上阳光意外光临，花未开，草将绿，决定全家以及extended family (高高的干妈-丹晨）一起去普林斯顿呼吸春天。

貌似春天....

Easton was wondering if we are going to see a spring like what is in front of him.

 Aunt Danchen taught Easton how to catch a butterfly.  Easton minic what Danchen did and used his fingers trying to catch the butterfly in front of him.

Easton couldn't figure out why butterfly was not in between his figures but always stayed where it was.

 

进校园了...

高高积极地给我们指路。我们不能走在他前面，也不能拉着他，有拉他的企图都不行，只要我们一靠近，手还没伸出来，高高就开始做准备推开我们了。

 高高一推起他的小车，就兴奋不已，和杯子都可以谈笑风生。

丹晨：“高高，你又捡起什么东西啦？！”

高高：“da.....da..... (一块小石头），dadada.....? (我可以尝尝吗？）

在learning express 玩具店买的泡泡水，质量很差，想吹出泡泡，口型要标准，水量要拿准，气力要憋足。还要让高高能看到泡泡，真是运气了！

 爸爸终于抓到了几张有泡泡的照片。
 ”照照片，真是体力活。“

比比谁的体力好...?

对付不爱睡觉的高高，我们唯一的办法就是让他尽情地玩，盘算着他玩累了，晚上一定早睡觉。丹晨预测，高高还没累倒，我们会先到下。预言很准。

校园parade

高高走路，一定要和大人保持距离。挣脱我们的看护，去追来来往往的小哥哥小姐姐，好像害怕，有我们拉着，被人家看扁。

小

骄傲地自己走！一二一...

First Call from Day Care

April 7 Thursday afternoon, got my first call from Day Care.  always heard that phone calls from day care means sick baby, taking baby back home immediately, off work, days of recovery....

so the moment i heard the voice of Easton's teacher's voice, i almost started to pack my bag and prepared to talk to my boss right away.  it turned out that Easton slipped over a toy, hurt his lower lip and was bleeding for about 10 seconds.  the teacher warned me of Easton's swollen lip yet calmed me down saying the Easton didn't even cry and already started to eat his afternoon snacks.  what can i say!  this is the second time Easton hurt his lip,  i just hoped that there will not be a scar on his lip!

when i picked him up around 6pm, he was already completely fine.  Lyuba told me that Easton slipped when he was trying to give a Pacifier to a baby.  In Lyuba's word "Easton is such a sweet heart!"  After Tie learned the story, he simply said "i just hope that Easton won't be too sweet!"  i guess not in the price of hurting himself.

High Five

Facts with Uncle Jianqing:
New skill learned at age 17-month from Uncle Jianqing. (everyone witnessed the process)
Other skill learned from uncle Jianqing: saying "bagel" (only aunt Danchen was lucky enough to witness that)

What happened that night?
Uncle Jianqing and aunt danchen visited Easton on Monday night, making a typical Monday more delightful for all of us!

Easton got so excited to see people visiting him, showing off all of his new skills - dancing, throwing balls, carrying things to the kitchen as directed by mama and papa, riding his "motor cycle---dieago"...

When uncle Jianqing was about to leaving, he put his hand up, trying to give Easton a high five.  Easton stared at jianqing's hand for a few seconds, confused, not knowing what to do first.  Jianqing kept his hand up, Easton kept staring at his hand, back and forth for a few seconds.  Finally Easton put up his hand and clap his hand with jianqing's hand.  Yeh....We count it as Easton's official 1st high five!  I guess smart Easton probably figured that Jianqing uncle wouldn't leave unless he gave a high five to him.

In statistics class, we were taught that "to prove the validity of an experiment, you have to be able to repeat it."  So prove that Easton really master the skill, aunt Danchen seduced a high five from Easton, so did papa and mama.

So it is the official First Skill Learned from Uncle Jianqing!   

去丹晨阿姨家做客

Sunday morning, after her first trial of making Chocolate Chip Cookies, Danchen called and warmly invited all of us to try her new cookies & cake!  we were excited after getting off the phone，because finally we found a good reason to take Easton out on a cold spring day!

We even ate dinner early to be prepared for the evening get-together, like we are going to have a holiday celebration!  I guess living in the country side, an event like this is a true holiday.  nothing could be better than a couple of close friends, a cup of warm tea, a piece of sweet cake, random chat, and lot of laughs at no reasons.

As we had a good time, Easton had just a better time!

 Easton just didn't care what's going on with us.  He chose to sit here and ate Aunt Danchen's oatmeal raisin cookie.

Aunt Danchen: "Easton, look at me!  This is the right way to eat my cookie."
Easton: "Aunt Danchen, i didn't drop cookies on the floor!"

 "taste good!

"

 "now it is running time!"


Easton: "can I have that, Aunt Danchen?"

 

植物园

四月了，该开的花还没开，该变暖的天气还很冷。周日清晨一点点的阳光，就足够点燃我们全家出去的热情。

..... Garden (忘记了名字，顺着mercy county park一直向前开，就在路的右手边）

只要出来，无论冷暖，不管阴晴，高高都很高兴。

“妈妈，可以让我自己推车马？”

“看，我推得多好！”

自娱自乐

高高捡了个松果，兴奋得要尝尝味道 ！

父子时光

高高和姥姥大事记！

2010年10月6日，高高11个月大，姥姥第二次来新泽西看高高，风尘仆仆，从北京到普林斯顿，14个小时的飞机，1个小时的汽车，刚进家门，高高大哭了几声。姥姥说，“开始认人了，不错！” “过几天就认识我了！”

2010年11月3日，高高一岁了，姥姥抱着高高切生日蛋糕，高高很贴心地把手上的奶油送进姥姥的嘴里。姥姥怕甜，小心地舔了一小口。

2010年12月，姥姥在自己的卧室给高高设立了“训练基地”，每天晚上汇报高高训练走路的情况，第一天会站立5秒钟了，第一天会蹲下站起来了...终于有一天，高高会走了，姥姥用相机拍下了历史时刻。

一转眼，六个月过去了，183天，除了上幼儿园的36天，高高和姥姥形影不离。现在开始爱看书了，经常在我们吃饭的时候，非要拽着姥姥，指着最喜欢的一本书，让姥姥给“讲故事”，我和肖铁谁也不要。想出门的时候，拿着鞋让姥姥给穿上，想吃东西的时候，拉着姥姥去储藏室，想听音乐的时候，把CD拿到姥姥面前...姥姥出去锻炼身体，回家推开门，高高一听到响动，无论在哪，在干什么，都会停下，大叫着跑到门口，无论叫什么，我猜都是在叫“姥姥”。

这个周末，终于把姥姥的机票延期了4个月，高高可以和姥姥一起过夏天了！一时兴起，整理姥姥的相机，看到了许多只有姥姥才看到过的高高的故事。


高高饿了....

高高吃饱了...