We’re beavering away at getting Will’s room ready, although our motto is “never do today what you can put off until tomorrow!” We still have 4+ weeks; it’ll be ready. Anna talks about going to China almost every day. She’s excited, although I’m sure she doesn’t really understand what she’s in for. She has asserted several times lately, “Anna Chinese. Mama Chinese. Baba not Chinese.” I don’t know what she thinks Baba is, but he is NOT Chinese. Perhaps Martian? All we know is he is renouncing his Penn State alumnancy after today’s loss to Michigan, so he is no longer a Nittany Lion.
I’ve been collecting pictures, so I’m going to put up a few. I’ve purchased a new little point-and-shoot camera for our upcoming trip. I struggle with my big Sony hanging around my neck while I’m trying to carry Anna, and with the suspicion that I will likely be carrying either Anna or Will most of the time we’re in China, I decided to hunt for a camera that I could stick in my pocket, or in the front pouch of the Ergo carrier. Something I could grab easily when I want to take a picture, but that won’t be swinging around, banging into me while I’m trying to climb the Great Wall. I researched the issue exhaustively, in stores and on line, and finally decided on the Fuji FinePix F20. I chose it based on numerous reviews from professional photographers who have opted to carry this camera for their quick snapshots. It has two characteristics that I find very desireable: it has a minimal shutter lag time (that’s the time between pressing the shutter and the actual exposure – all digital cameras have more of a delay than SLR’s, but my Sony is ridiculous – Anna is almost always out of the frame by the time the camera has decided to shoot!), and it has a very large light sensor, which allows it to produce much better shots in low-light situations, without necessarily using the flash. Naturally, Fuji is no longer making this camera, but they discontinued it recently enough that there are still stores out there with new ones on the shelf. I searched e-Bay and Amazon.com’s marketplace, and after bidding unsuccessfully on a few on e-Bay, I ended up buying one from PhotoWorld for a good price. I’ve been playing with it the last 2 or 3 weeks, and am basically pleased with it. The size is wonderful. Truly about the size of a deck of cards. I charged the battery initially, and have not had to recharge it yet. It also shoots video clips, just like my Sony. I may not even lug my big Sony overseas with me. By the way, anyone interested in researching cameras should check out Digital Photography Reviews. Excellent web site.
Anna loves to visit the horses that live a few doors down from us. We walked there a week or so ago, and she refused to leave. I had to drag her kicking and screaming on the rest of our walk. I can hardly wait until she’s old enough to start asking for a pony for every occasion. I’ll put a saddle on Siri first.
We traveled to Boston to Joe’s brother and sister-in-law’s home to watch Penn State play Notre Dame a couple of weeks ago. (This was before Joe tore up his undergraduate diploma and severed all ties to Penn State.) We got to meet the new baby, Colin. Anna’s has got “baby” and “cousin” figured out, but “Colin” seemed to escape her. She’s been talking about Jon and “Een” quite a bit, though, along with “baby cousin.” Grammy and Nono were there, too, so she had a nice visit with the Casciari clan. I’m afraid that Jon and Eileen will have to have at least one more child, otherwise poor Colin will be confused about his ethnicity when he’s with his Casciari cousins; he’ll be wondering why HE’S not Chinese, too!
JUST this past week, Anna has begun to show interest in some of the approximately 2,465 stuffed animals in her crib. Her very first love interest is a little Bernese Mountain Dog puppy that was a gift from some very wonderful clients of mine. She started carrying it around a week ago Friday, and even had to take it to church with her last Sunday. I’m so excited! It went well with her sailor dress, so I had to take some pictures, of course. You can tell she’s getting the “cheese” face down while posing for photos.
We’ve been struggling with bedtime this week. We haven’t made any major routine changes, so I don’t know what’s going on with her. The kid can be falling asleep on her feet, but when she gets into bed, she suddenly reverts to energizer bunny mode, and lays there kicking her feet and squirming for hours. It was after midnight 2 nights ago before she finally went to sleep. Spending three hours trying to get your kid to sleep does not make for a happy mama or baba. If we leave the room, she screams, and believe me, she can scream longer than either of us can stand it. Tonight went a little more smoothly; I gave her a bit of ibuprofen before bed because I’ve been wondering if all the kicking is related to some soreness in her legs. She is growing now, and growth hormone levels are much higher at night; perhaps she’s experiencing some growing pains? Anyway, it only took about an hour tonight. I found her some Elmo slippers at Target this week, so she’s having a good time with those. Looking at the pictures, you don’t suppose any of the difficulty falling asleep is directly related to Anna and Baba’s pre-bedtime trampoline activities, do you?
Today was the annual fall art show in Littleton, so we made the rounds. It was a beautiful day, sunny, about 80 degrees (much nicer than most of our summer!) We didn’t find any “art” to buy, but Baba found a lovely pair of earrings for the Mama, and we got to spend some nice outdoor time. Anna enjoyed the new pedestrian bridge across the Ammonoosic River. Pooh has been accompanying Anna on most of her adventures this week, and today was no exception. I had to hang on to him while she was climbing up to look over the bridge railing; he was getting entirely too adventuresome for his own good, and I was afraid he might make the plunge into the river!
, so I think things are pretty much set in stone. Here’s the almost-finalized itinerary:
