zelda, ohhh zelda.

Hello lovers and friends,

Jiej here. Bill and I are heading back to Wisconsin today after a long Thanksgiving weekend. 'Twas hardly long enough. Baby Django is really taken with Zelda, I am really taken with having other people cook me food and bring it to me on the couch, and Bill is taken with MiMi (as usual).

We'll be back in a few weeks for a whole MONTH to vacation at Sipes Manor.

I leave you with a clip from one of my top-5 films (a very topical one at that).

Revenge of the nerds

Mimi loves candy... there is no question that my daughter has an unquenchable desire to eat candy all day every day.
Halloween presents a full package of bribing, deal making, embezzling and other crimes all in the name of candy.
Mimi asked me one day, when JieJie was little, how many pieces of candy did I let her have per day after Halloween.
Knowing that Jiej was far away, I bent the truth slightly.

"Jie Jie was only allowed one piece of candy per day", I stated.

Then , a few hours later, I hear Mimi on the phone with her sister on the phone.
Jie Jie is telling Mimi that I let her have five pieces of candy per day.

I grabbed the phone and asked Jiej why she would say such a thing.

"I just want Mimi to like me", was her reply. The candy battle rages on.



We have a huge amount of tiny boxes of nerds.

I find myself talking about nerds a lot lately and whenever I say the word, I think of this classic scene from American Splendor.
Mimi now says "revenge of the nerds" just like Toby.

Chinese New Year song

The children are preparing a song for Chinese New Year. The song is sung to the tune, "Darling Clementine". The choreography is pure opening cermonies at the Beijing Olympics.

I want to cry when I hear their sweet little voices.

Chinese school dodge ball

Mimi and I attend Chinese as a second language at University of Michigan. We go to school every Sunday afternoon from 3:00 until 5:oo.

Our dear friends, the Zini's attend as well. Six year old Anna Zini and Mimi spent their first 2 years together in Maoming.

The normal protocol for class is serious learning for the first hour and playing and learning for the second.

Our teacher, Miss May, always has a fun activity planned for the kids.
This week was no exception. Miss May gave each child a bean bag with numbers 1- 20 written on them in English.

She made them into 2 teams and put one team on either side of the room.

She would then call out the numbers in Chinese and the person holding that number could throw the bean bag at an unsuspectiing member of the opposite team. If someone got hit, they were out.

As parents, we laughed in disbelief, that she was going to give a group of kids permission to hit each other with bags of sand. The kids loved it, and they learned their numbers.

The Little Mermaid and her Prince

I got tickets for Mimi and Annabel to see the play "The Little Mermaid and Her Prince".

It was a tiny production, four castmates in all. The staging was very simple and they incorporated a lot of audience participation.
It was all children's theater should be, overacted, over the top, and very short. Whenever the lights went down for a scene change(three in all), Mimi would reach over to Annabel and whisper" I can see you". I think that she was making herself comfortable with the darkness. Darkness is a new fear in Mimi's repertoire.
Fun was had by all.

The Artist Always Known as Mimi

Mimi loves to take photos. My iphone is used most of the time, but there are occasions when she finds Terry's camera and proceeds to take 60 pictures of her nostrils.

Every once in a while , I will find some gems.
Mimi has great prospective and an eye for detail.
At Burton Elementary they have an art contest. This year the theme is "Beauty is"....

Here are some entry possibilities, I am thinking of(being the stage mother that I am.)

Oh yeah Jie Jie

I meant to post my beautiful Jie Jie

the little man

Hooray JieJie comes home!!!!!! Just a few more days and Jie Jie will be home for the Holiday.
With her comes the little man, the light of her life, the fruits of the devil..... Baby Django.

Zelda and Baby Django have a woderful relationship of doggie kitty smackdown.

Baby Django puts his long arm around Zeldas many chins and pounds her in the face. Mimi finds this very entertaining.

Avedon and Mimi

Due to Mimi's fashion eye,I decided to take her to the DIA for the Avedon exhibit.
Grandma, Mimi and I enjoyed gorgous pictures taken by one of my favorite photographers.

It was a lovely afternoon, very inspirational.
I always take a photo of Mimi thinking in front of "The Thinker" corny huh?

mimi the designer

Mimi has a penchant for fashion design.
Like Valentino, she drapes, cuts decorates and tapes.

Frustration occurs when her dress doesn't stand up to normal wear and tear....if you will excuse the expression.

For the love of Elijah

Mimi loves Elijah. He is the son of dear friends of ours and she is absolutely captivated by him.

The other day, Mimi decided to rake a leaf pile for Elijah to jump in. She started raking in the morning. She raked for at least 2 hours . In the late afternoon, after other activities , she continued her mission.

I think in total she raked for 4 hours. All for the love of Elijah.

My mother and I stood in the window and watched the toiling, she was so committed and earnest in her quest for a giant leaf pile. We both thought of how lucky Elijah was to have such devotion.

We didn't see Elijah that weekend.

oh the shame

For all of the people that think that pugs love to be dressed up, I present this picture.
Mimi dressed Zelda up in her best nightgown and then photographed her with my phone

Wahhhhhhhhhh

beginning again, again

Ok, I am lame, I lost my usb cord and just got a new one so I am beginning posts again.