大连行 - 小宝篇

Nathan went to DaLian on July 25 and left on August 8. We stayed at my younger brother's apartment. It's sort of in the middle of the city, 5 minutes walking to ZhongShan Park, 10 minutes walking to a Walmart.

We went to that Walmart a lot, where grandma bought food, we shopped for clothing and shoes for Nathan, and Nathan could play the toys, and household items there.

We also bring Nathan to the Park in the late afternoons. He played in the big inflatable playhouse there twice. Well, the first time I let the nanny in with Nathan and didn't find it quite dirty. The second day early morning, Nathan started to have high fever.

Nathan ate less in DaLian than in HK for a few reasons, I think: (1) no high chair; (2) not used to the food cooked by Grandmother; (3) sick for a few days.

The most memorable events about Nathan are:

(1) Half-hour big-cry in Shen Zhen airport while waiting for the delayed flight: Neither yogurt nor candy could distract him. He held mom's hand and wanted to go back somewhere. Unfortunately the escalator direction he tried to step on was always wrong. I had to drag him to the correct way and you can imagine what happened. He cried so loudly that so many people expressed concerns or paid attention to us. One lady asked me if I am not the boy's mom and he was looking for mom :-(

(2) insist pushing his stroller in many places: the zoo, the park, the shopping mall, the hiking trail. He didn't care about the time, the things adults want to do. He just wanted to push the stroller forward, alone independently. He took a rest when he was tired. He got frustrated sometimes for some unknown reason.

(3) had high fever for 2 days and cried non-stop during the infusion (输液): Nathan started to have high fever around 5:30 am on the first Thursday morning. I brought him to Children's hospital at about 10:30 am. We waited for about 1.5 hour before seeing the doctor. The doctor suggested 灌肠和验血, which seems to be common practice in Mainland. I accepted it after the doctor's impatient explanation to me. Then we got some medicine and went home.
But high fever came back at 1pm, and 1am and 8pm the next day. I was little worried. So we went to the hospital again at 9pm on Friday. This time doctor suggested 输液, first we had Nathan do the allergy test. When the real 输液 started, me, my brother and the helper had to face Nathan's stuggle trying to move the tube with a needle into his forhead. As we hold his hands, he kept crying, moving his body and kicking his legs. What a mess and the room has no air-conditioning. Nathan was the most sweating one, of course. Poor baby. I will never bring him to 输液 unless it's the really necessary.

大连行 - 食物篇

人老了，才过一俩个星期，已经不记得都吃了什么山珍海味了。慢慢想起来，再补齐吧。

天天渔港：海胆，鱼翅汤

上海城：

紫航海鲜大饭店: 小龙虾，舌鱼尾段， 这家的装修可以算是比较奢华大气。

新东方渔人码头：最好吃的牛肉粒，

皇城老妈：火锅汤极其鲜美，一流的虾丸和冰品，竹笙，羊肉片，蔬菜，每人一条黄丫头（鲜但我嫌没味道），鱼头剩了打包。

大连行 - 观光篇

We only went to 2 tourist places, because Nathan is not interested in sightseeing yet at this age. We adults really enjoyed many shows inside the following two parks.

(1) DaLian Forest Zoo: It was divided into 2 phases or 2 big areas: Captive District and Stocking District. Long tram connects the two phases. Finally we saw a children's playground in the zoo. Believe it or not, I tried to find playground in many places, park or shopping mall and was disappointed. Most parks provide exercise equipment for adults, but nothing for kids. Nathan plays the slide for many times.

Captive District: Animal (monkey, bear, etc) Show, Tiger Show.

Stocking District:
Thai Elephant Show is impressive, one elephant did massages to two volunteers from audience. It's funny that the elephant chose different body parts for the male and female volunteers, respectively.
Baby tigers and baby leopards are so cute. And you may touch them if you're brave enough.
I also liked the bird show.



(2) DaLian Ocean Park: It features Polar Animal House, Marine animal Shows and Bird Show.

Marine Animal Show: Walrus 海象, Seals 海狮 and Sea Otter 海獭.

Dolphin Show: It's the most crowded place I've ever been. We managed to find a place to put the stroller and Nathan was sleeping lying on it while we waited almost 45 minutes. My mom found one seat, helper and I stood beside the stroller protecting it from being pushed. Just before the show started, Nathan woke up. My mom asked me to sit down on her seat holding Nathan. Nathan was very exciting to see so many excited people surrounding us. He plaused, smiled. I also fed him snacks. It was the best time for all of us.

Bird Show: Parrots do skating, addition and subtraction, swing, and lots of more. It's the most interesting to watch them collect 10 dollar bills, only 10 dollar ones. They first fly near you if you hold your hand up with something, but if you're holding 1 dollar or 5 dollar bills, they simply fly away.

昨晚闯禁区了

因为周六妈妈要带着工人和小宝去深圳坐飞机，爸爸妈妈探讨多条去深圳机场的路线和爸爸送到哪里的问题。其中一个方案是：爸爸开车把我们送到福田口岸，我们自己过关之后打的去机场。

昨晚便是去熟悉道路，按照GPS的指示，比较顺利地开到了皇岗口岸（过境巴士用的）附近，然后沿着一小路继续开。两边看到不少停车场，应该是让客人停下私家车，打个的士去福田口岸。突然我们看到一个警障，我们减速，说我们想去福田口岸。警察说,"你们走错了，前边掉头之后，我告诉你怎么去。”

结果爸爸错过了开几步路就有的一个小环路，只能往前开。这下好了，没处可掉头了。我说警察该着急了，好不容易左边有个巴士停车处，我们调转头往回开到警障处。警察用大手电晃着，让我们停车。

警察严肃的样子让我们惊觉到我们可能不只是“开错路”这么简单。 果然，警察说，你们闯禁区了，这条路只有出租车和黄色小巴可以进，再不掉头回来就XXX （广东话我不能都听懂，这词没听明白）。我回头看了一下上面写着“XX禁区”的小牌子。刚才确实没看见，即使看见了可能也不明白什么意思。我觉得他们应该提前多挂一个指示牌，不能仅仅依靠这个小牌子。不过错过立刻掉头的小环路是千不该万不该的。

总之，香港还有很多规矩我们要了解。希望不是每个规矩都要花这样的代价来学。多问同事，多查网络，学的快点。广东话也一定要学好。

怀二宝14周半

妈妈又怀孕了，而且肚子似乎过早地明显。记得怀小宝的时候，很晚才被别人看出来。

12周时作了早期唐氏筛查，得到的比例是1：866，对于妈妈这个年龄算是较低风险。妈妈决定赌一把，这回不做羊水穿刺。以后超声波时希望医生仔细观察有没有任何唐氏儿的征兆。

真的非常非常想给小宝添个妹妹，不过做唐氏筛查的医生说好像是个弟弟，想要妹妹的话再生三宝吧。Well, that is not going to happen. Two is enough, Three is not affordable. 虽然还有一线希望医生可能看得不准确，妈妈也已经在做思想准备，将来家里要闹翻天。怨都怨爸爸家里的遗传基因，只会生男娃。

不管是弟弟还是妹妹，妈妈都会很开心的啦。再过一段时间，要想着怎么给小宝做思想工作，培养他对小baby的感情。

almost 1.5 years old

(1) read books UP SIDE UP

终于认得动物的头和脚，所以书拿倒了会把它调个头。

(2) FAKE CRY, fake smile

叫他假哭，他就做出哭样，发点哀号声。看妈妈生气了，有时主动用假笑来求和。

(3) JUMP on the sofa, turn around, tap right foot

每次洗完澡，光着身子在沙发上蹦跳。在儿歌声的引领下，会拍手，跺脚，原地转圈。每首儿歌结束，都要鼓掌。

(4) LOVE baby swimming pool

今年第二次带他去屋苑的baby 游泳池，喜欢在水中踏步走，坐在游泳圈里也很开心。爸爸还带着他溜了3趟最后冲入池中的滑梯。当然最后也是他主动要求回家的 (Enough for today).

(5) POINT body parts: Head, Finger, Toe, Tummy, BellyButton, Ear, Nose, Mouth, Eye, and Tongue. 每指完一处，自己拼命鼓掌。

mommy's Y-th birthday

Mommy's friends know what the Y is. Mommy couldn't believe that how she had lived so many years on the earth already and went so few places on the earth. Also Mommy felt a little bit ashamed because of lack of achievements.

However, to Nathan, July 1st was just like a regular holiday when the helper goes out to have fun and Mommy is home to be with him. After breakfast, mother and son went down to the VP garden to take a walk and watch birds for 1 hour. Before we wanted to take lift to go home, Summer appears in the lobby. Two toddlers were very excited to see each other. They blow bubbles, watch boats and chase in the club house for another hour before we all go back to our house to eat snacks.

To "celebrate" Mommy's birthday, Nathan slept from 12:45 pm to 3:45 pm, 1 hour longer than usual. Then at 4:30 pm, we met up with Tara on the shuttle bus to Ma On Shan. Tara was so nice that she offered to buy a cake and drinks for Mommy. Mommy insisted not to buy a whole cake. In the end, three of us got 3 slices cake from A-1 Bakery and found a good seat in the shadow at Ma On Shan Park. Nathan liked the cheese cake and blueberry so much. Also it was his first time to drink Lemon Tea and he was so into it.

It was almost 7 pm when we got home. Nathan had no appetite for dinner. Then Summer and her mother came to play and chat. Nathan ate little dumplings after 8pm and drank his milk at 9 pm.

The highlight of this birthday was definitely in the afternoon in the park. Mommy felt so good seeing Nathan eat cake and drink lemon tea so aggressively and seeing Nathan play more independently than before. Mommy felt so grateful that she had met a good new friend Tara.