Below is a video of us trying to make Lucas laugh. He has the coolest "Heh Heh" laugh in the world, but it hasn't been easy trying to get him to do it.
Two Months?!
8 years ago
Trying to Make Lucas Laugh
Bring On The Rolls
My son was born at a healthy weight of 6lbs 15oz but quickly began to lose weight, as do most babies right after they are born. Unfortunately with Lucas he continued to lose weight and at 16 days Lucas weighed in at 5lbs 14oz. Doctors recommend that babies should be back to their birth weight by 10 days! As you can see by the picture on the left Lucas was very skinny and dehydrated. It was a very difficult few weeks nursing constantly, carefully keeping track of feedings, wet & poopie diapers and weighing him every night to see if we were making any progress.
Today Lucas is 3 months old and looks very healthy (picture on right). Today he weighed in at 12lbs 14oz!! Way to go Lucas, you even have a double chin!!
Today Lucas is 3 months old and looks very healthy (picture on right). Today he weighed in at 12lbs 14oz!! Way to go Lucas, you even have a double chin!!
Lucas Raymond Morton Carman
Lucas Raymond Morton Carman was born on July 29, 2009 at 10:20am in Beijing, China. At birth he was 3.15 kg (6lbs 15oz) and 50 cm (19.7 in)! He was born at American Sino OB/GYN hospital by natural birth.
With her friend, Ruth, Jacquelyn headed up to Beijing on a train on Monday, the 27th of July. That night, perhaps caused by the traveling, her water broke. Though her water broke, she was not yet in labor. This wasn't a bad thing though, since I needed to get up to Beijing to be with them.
The night that JK's water broke, she called me at 4am to tell me to get on the earliest plane available. I was a little out of it, but managed to get online and purchase my ticket. Since I was able to catch the earliest flight, the cost wasn't very high. I arrived and we immediately went to the hospital. At the hospital the doctors decided to admit JK, even though she wasn't technically in labor yet.
Jacqueyln eventually did go into labor. However, 33 hours after her water broke, the doctors decided to induce. Lucas was born shortly after.
Below are some pictures.
Apologies for not Blogging
Apologies for not blogging lately. Busyness, laziness, having a new child and blogger being blocked in China have all contributed to us not blogging lately. I hope to add some blogs soon.
My Beautiful Daughter
I took these shots while Anna was reading a book Sunday afternoon after lunch.
~Jeremy
I’m working on it. I’m working on it…
The other day we were at a restaurant ordering food and Anna Mae repeatedly asked me if she could have some juice. She said, “Daddy, I want juice,” in her ever-so-cute way. After the 4th time she asked me, though, I impatiently said, “I’m working on it, I’m working on it.”
A few minutes later, she turned to mommy and said, “Mommy, I want some juice”. Mommy, who didn’t hear me say earlier that she could have some juice, said, “No, babe, I think we’re just going to drink water tonight.”
Tears welled up in Anna’s eyes and she said, “But Daddy said I could. He said, ‘I’m working on it, I’m working on it.’”
I had to laugh at the way Anna took my impatient words to heart.
Wax Berry?
I have seen this fruit many times when I would go to the market and buy my fruits and vegetables. But being a unadventurous person I have never had the courage to buy it. I showed it to my friend the other day and asked if she knew what it was. She said she didn't and I thought that was that. The next day when I was over her house she had bought some! She told me I had to try one and I instantly fell in love. This weird berry thing tastes a bit like a cherry. It looks and fells like a hard ball. There is a small cherry pit like seed in the middle.
My friend did some research on the Internet and found that they don't have an English name but is most commonly called a Chinese wax berry. So whatever this fruit is it has made my top 5 most loved fruit!
With June comes . . .
I would eat soo much of them and our Chinese friends would worn me and say that a person should only eat 10 of them a day or it would cause the body to have too much riqi (pounced houqi here in QingDao). I didn't care - I would eat as many as I could.
Lechee is famous for growing in the south but is only in season for the month of June. The emporer way back when also had a love for these fruit and would have them brought up over the rough roads of the day to be delivered to him.
After two years of eating them while living in Dongguan I was delighted to see them in Beijing while we lived there. When I went to purchase them I was shocked at how pricey they were, but I knew how much I loved them and it was worth the price. I was greatly disappointed when I got home and they were not very good. Because lechee only grows in the slow this fruit was imported making it so expensive & not very fresh.
Since moving to Qingdao I saw my favorite fruit out this past June but was very hesitant buying it since my horrible experience in Beijing. I don't know what changed my mind but I decided to give it a try and boy was I glad I did. These lechee were very delicious! I have been reminded how much I love this fruit . . . . I think I might go and finish the few we have left.
Which is better? McD's or KFC?
The other day Anna and Mommy went to the doctor for a checkup. Afterwords, they headed to KFC for lunch. Anna now seems to have associated KFC with the doctor and pregnancy. We thought it was pretty funny.
Alphabet Song & Downhill Ride
Anna Mae has been learning her alphabet. Although she doesn't quite get it in this video, she's usually able to sing through the whole song.
At the end of the clip Anna and I are headed down a hill on a little car-thing in the park next to our house.
Jeremy, The Police & The News
The other day some friends and I were invited to hear the local police explain how they can help us foreigners in case of a dispute. A local news crew was there ready with their cameras. We all sat down at the table while the police woman explained that if we have a dispute we can call the police and have a "sit-down" with the other party to resolve the problem. It is actually quite nice knowing that we can do that. After I volunteered to translate for English-speaking foreigners, the news team asked me why I volunteered.
Now, I've never been interviewed by the news before. I had no idea who to look at. To make things more confusing, it wasn't the reporter that asked me the question, it was the cameraman. Should I look at the camera, the reporter, or the cameraman? In the end I looked at the cameraman. Is there a standard protocol when being interviewed?
3 years have past
My baby is no longer a baby. A day does not go by with one of us saying "You're/I'm not a baby any more, you're/I'm a big girl!" She has changed a lot these past 3 years.
Here are some things she has accomplished since turning 3:
- Potty Trained (yeah! no more diapers!!)
- English language: she is able to express herself using words but still struggles with distinguishing when to use his/hers & when speaking about time she always uses yesterday
- Can be polite when she wants to be: "Excuse me mommy" my favorite is when she spontaneously at the table says "Thank you mommy for making dinner, thanks daddy for making the bread"
- Can sit through a whole movie (as long as it interests her
- Writes both a capital and lower case "A"
- Draws a face
- Colors in the lines (most of the time)
- Loves to dance
- I think she is a little lonely, she gets upset when I'm not in the mood to talk back to her. She looks at me as says "Mommy, talk! Use words."
- She is very excited about mommy having a baby - she talks about it everyday, for awhile there I think she really thought she was pregnant to
It has been a great adventure raising a 3 year old, many tears, laughs, exiting times & dull times. I am so thankful for all those times. I look forward to many more years!! I love you Anna May, Happy Birthday!!
The Daddy Book
During Anna's bedtime routine, one of the things that we do is read, "The Daddy Book". First I will read it, then Anna will take her turn. It's one of her favorite books, which always makes daddy happy. How can I resist when she asks, "Daddy, can we read the daddy book?" Of course we can!!!, I always say.
Merry Christmas!
We all had a great Christmas this year. Check out the cute video of Anna playing with some of her new toys.
Tribute to Granny Carman
My cousin put together a great video with pictures of the whole Carman-side family. Most of the pictures are from the reunion that we were not able to attend. The video centers around my "Granny" who passed away in August of '07.
Obama nothin', I can make the front page too!
A couple of weeks ago Obama made the the front page here in China when he won the election. Well, it turns out that it's not that hard to do! (For those of you who have kept up with us, you'll remember that I made the newspaper another time as well.)
I recently took the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi - Chinese Proficiency Test). It is nick-named the "Chinese TOEFL". Over 600 students took the test at Qingdao University. In my particular class I was the only "Western-looking" student, as everyone else was *Korean. In fact, on my way to and from the test I didn't see a single "Western-looking" person!
The HSK test is quite difficult as it is only in Chinese characters. There were quite a few questions that I just had to guess at. I have to wait 50 days before I find out the results. If you don't see me blog about the results within 2 months, that means I probably didn't do very well on the test and am ashamed to tell anyone about it :)
PHOTO CAPTION: Overseas students take the "Chinese TOEFL"
*The Korean population is Qingdao is huge!
Baby Fever
Someone in our house has baby fever and her name is . . .
Anna Mae! Recently Anna has been very into playing "babies." She actually takes care of her babies very well, feeding them, changing them, putting them to bed. Sometimes they are even potty training.
Last Monday we had study at our house. There are several new babies and Anna was was right there observing, learning how to be a mommy.
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A New Rug
One of the things that we've been meaning to buy, but just haven't gotten around to buying it, was a rug. The other day at Home Depot...and, yes, we do have a Home Depot here...the perfect rug was waiting for us. We picked it up and brought it home.
Not only does the rug really tie in all the colors of the room well, but it is also good for make believe fun. In addition to acting as a boat that saves us from sharks, it is also a swimming pool that you can jump in to...
Ready. | Set | Go! |
Oh, and we can't forget about the practical purposes of it...
Obama In China
47-year-old Obama was elected the *56th American President, becomes the first black president in American history.
奥巴马 (Obama - pronounced: "Au-ba-ma" in Chinese) made the front page of our local city's newspaper. Not only did he get the front page, but he also got a section-A, 4-page spread. At the corner store today, I showed the fruit-seller-guy the newspaper and asked if he thought Obama would be better than Bush (**Most Mainland Chinese people don't like Bush). He said, "There's no way to tell. He's not president yet". Although people in both parties are making their predictions of Obama's future grand success or utter failure, this Chinese guy has voiced what is probably the most honest, non-partisan remark possible. In other words, "We'll have to wait and see."
Here are a few of the other headlines (These are my own translation...could be a bit off):
-Black horse puts on White house
-Obama: I have a dream
-Black man rules the roost, but the "white" in White house remains
-From "little poor baby" to big president
-Kenya takes holiday to congratulate Obama
*Notice the misprint on the front page. It says Obama is our 56th president. The last I counted, he's actually only the 44th. Hmm, not sure if the local papers can be trusted...
**One of the first things Chinese people ask you is, "Where are you from?" Of course my reply is always, "America". More often than not, the next thing out of their mouth is, "布什不好" (Bu shi Bu hao), meaning, "Bush is Bad".
Halloween Update
We're not sure if anybody still reads this blog or not, but we just wanted to let you know that we're alive and well. We had a party over at our house to celebrate the day after Halloween. We carved and painted pumpkins, ate home-made chili and hung out with our friends.
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