Taitai knits

5 Things Most People Don't Know About me

Vero has tagged me for the first time, so here goes...

1.  I wish I was more organized.  I blame it on a childhood of household help - so what have we done to help our kids avoid it?  Moved to a country with household help!

2.  I am able to pinpoint English accents, especially African English accents, very well - if you are from Zimbabwe watch out!  I'll know as soon as you open your mouth!

3.  I am a very fair person, but cannot put up with unreasonable people.

4.  I also cannot put up with people, usually mothers around here, who act like they are better than you.  Parenting is a hard job and telling others that the way they are trying to deal with this hard job is not good enough is not ok.  You know the type, "I could never have a baby in China.  You might die."  "You feed her Chinese baby food?  It has posion in it.  She will die."  "You leave your kids with your ayi?!  She might let them watch tv and feed them whatever snacks they want.  And they might die!"  I tend to go out of my way, almost to the point of rudeness, to avoid these types.  And I am a better person for it!

5.  I secretly love moving.  I am moving to Malaysia this summer and have lists all over the house.  I have unloaded tons of stuff and I feel so much lighter.  Really I do.

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Xin Nian Kuai Le or Happy New Year!

We came upon this little piggy at a temple fair this weekend. We went to the one across from Landao and it was just enough of CNY for us. No one had a fit, everyone got something good to eat and we were out of there before it got too crowded.

We are taking it easy at home this week. The hubbo is working most of the break and the boys are at home and our ayi is away. But howdy do I miss our ayi! How on earth does she keep our house clean and tidy?? We are slobs!

Here is my own little piggy watching Chinese yo-yo's while eating strawberries on a stick which are dipped in melted sugar. Oink oink!

This is the first 'cup' of a super cute halter top I am making for Claire....this was last night, today I am a mere 3 inches from being done. I love the toddler summer knits!

My Mom needs some projects for the spring - so I went to MuXiYuan to stock up for her. The dinosaur fabric needs to be made into a short for a certain 3 year old ASAP!

This is at the framing shop and I can't wait for it to be ready!

So?

This is the view my oldest son has from the club where he takes fencing lessons. It is the Forbidden City. It is awesome. Do you think his 12 1/2 year old self cares? When I pointed out how awesome it was that he could see this every week - his response was "So?"
Argh!

2 things struck off the to do list

My friend Dina in Niamey asked to see a picture of the Chinese play kitchen I had made recently. I took a photo off the web and gave it to the guy - I also had a Chinese style kids table and chairs made - all of it costs a mere $120.

Now I just need to make some cute felt food.

Luke loving the new table.

Short timer

In the Foreign Service we have a term - short timer - for people who are moving soon. We should be leaving Beijing in 4 1/2 months - we are short timers. The to do lists are long, but do-able. This is my pile of knitting that needs doing - I think I can do it and then some. I wished I had made a bigger dent in my yarn stash while we were here, I also wish I had learned to sew properly. There is always next tour I guess.