cold and heat

hello blog followers! after eight days in beijing, we are now in taiwan where it is really hot and humid. all three of us managed to get colds while we were in china -- the culprit, we think, is from all these people touching siri. of course, we can't tell them not to since it's rude, so cold virus spread from someone to siri to jeff and now me. we're recuperating rather nicely in taiwan, since we are pretty much trapped in my grandmother's airconditioned home as siri hates the heat and begins to complain almost immediately when we step outside.

siri's first trip abroad has been interesting so far. for us, it has been exhausting! traveling with a baby takes a ton of patience and energy, which we have some days more than others. the respite is that at least we are with family now, which eases some of the burden. when we visited taiwan in the past, strangers used to stare at jeff, practice english with him, or even pose and taken pictures with him. this spotlight has been transferred onto siri in both beijing and taiwan. people are constantly commenting on her looks (especially her eyes) or the fact that she is mixed race -- not necessarily to me, but since i can understand them, i usually smile and say "thanks." some people have also made siri the object of their photography. it seems that all the attention has overwhelmed siri a bit b/c this morning she got pretty teary when a group of elderly women started fawning over her -- we have a picture to capture the moment.

i would write more, but i'm getting pretty hot right now and am going to go to the airconditioned part of the house. we'll try to upload pictures soon.

New attempt at being a ham

Here are a few pictures of Siri this evening when I was feeding her dinner. She kept resting her head on her shoulder, looking at me and smiling. Unfortunately, I was only able to get a couple of good shots before she grew tired of the high chair, and eating, and was mad at me (as indicated in the picture of her looking bratty).

siri the flirt

we're starting to settle into our new place little-by-little. it's difficult to unpack with a baby; we usually wait until after she goes to bed to do the unpacking as she'd just get in the way while awake. our progress is good, but i think we've both lost steam the past couple of days. we'll pick it up again soon since this place has to be unpacked by the time we leave for china/taiwan next weekend.

siri is a HUGE flirt, and we're beginning to experience it more each day. her recent antics involve trying to get people's attention by making eye contact while grinning. if that doesn't work, then she giggles or laughs. when they do eventually pay attention to her, she acts shy and hides behind jeff or me. cute, but where did she learn this behavior?

pictures from this week include:

* siri extremely sweaty with messy hair after playing a game of crawling chase with mommy and daddy

* at the eureka valley rec center learning to steer not one, but two steering wheels

* basil jumps in the tub as siri finishes her bath

* family of three at crissy field with golden gate bridge in background

* siri wearing the cute jumper that nana made for her