Year of the Rabbit

After the beginning of the 'Gregorian' new year, we had high hopes for the start of the Year of the Rabbit. The Rabbit is supposed to be a time of peace and calm, and we were really looking forward to that.

Unfortunately, that has not been the case. We found out that Jason's mother was losing her battle with lung cancer in February. Mel had been through chemotherapy at the end of 2010 and although she seemed well over the holidays, had since taken a quick turn for the worst.

Jason flew to Florida at the end of February. Merise passed away quietly with Jason and Tracey by her side on a sunny morning in Florida. They celebrated her life a week later in a quiet service in a lovely garden. It was attended by family and a few close friends.

Jason has spent the past four weeks in Florida with his family. He will arrive home tomorrow and Abigail and I are really looking forward to seeing him!!

2011 Begins with a Rocky Start

2011 got off to a very rocky start for us. We returned from the States (and the UK) just after the new year and a few days later, Christy's Grandad went into the hospital. He spent five days in Lakeland Regional Hospital before he passed away on Saturday the 8th of January, surrounded by nearly his entire family.

He was eighty eight years old and had enjoyed an incredible Christmas with his three one-year old great-grandchildren; Greyson, Michael and Abigail. Everyone had spent Christmas together, and it was one that we won't forget for a long time.

I flew back to Florida for the service. Those of you who know us well, know that we're a very close family, so it felt right that we all be together for such a passing.

Throughout January and into February the three of us have all been battling bronchitis. It seems that a combination of Shanghai pollution and winter are taking their toll on us. We have really been looking forward to spring.

Last Quarter, 2010

It is ridiculous that I haven't posted in six months. The only excuse that I can possibly offer is that Abigail started walking at the beginning of October and we have been chasing after her ever since.

As you can imagine, a lot has happened in the last six months. In September, we went to Chicago to attend Alex Philips and Alice Ockleshaw's wedding (such a blast!). It was a great time with friends and the Wright family travelled from Florida and San Francisco to meet us and it was the first time the two cousins were together.

It was a busy few days. Morgan drove up from Louisville with her mother and we were able to spend some time together. She got to see Abi again and we all toured the Institute of Art in the city center.

In October, Abi took her first steps and shortly after began terrorizing the house...and everything in it! We still take Abi everywhere, but she has become more and more challenging. She just wants to be up and around all the time!

Abi has found a new friend since the Litts moved upstairs. Arin is about 8 months older than Abi and I entirely credit her with Abi's early walking skills. She just wanted to be able to chase Arin around!

As you can see, now that she's on two feet Abigail is climbing on everything. She has stopped getting into her walker and stands on it instead. She's completely attracted to the most dangerous item in any room.

We began in earnest the 'food fight'. Abigail has decided to be a difficult eater...basically is completely ambivalent about food and will do whatever she can to not eat food. Luckily for us, the few foods she will eat is plain boiled veggies. Good grief.

In early November, Abigail got to meet her new friend Eve Xing Wilson. She is the adopted daughter of our friends David and Amy Wilson and she and Abi have become fast friends with lots of playdates.

In later November, we travelled to Moganshan to spend Thanksgiving in a mountainside bamboo forest with friends. We rented a cabin with two other couples and the 6 1/2 of us spent the weekend lazing around in front of fires and hiking across the hillsides.

It all started with an afternoon nap for the girls. Christy, Abi and Korrie all cuddled up on the sofa and sacked out for awhile after the long drive. Sort of set the town for our entire weekend.

We went for a great hike through the bamboo forest. We walked into the next village for lunch and then back again through the tea plantation.

Abi was only just walking so to save us all a very painful experience, we strapped her onto Jason's back and headed off. She enjoyed it as long as she had a view...so she loved the downhill bits when she could look over Jason's head. She just peered around him all afternoon. Such a funny girl.

the Ambrose family after the long day of hiking.

The nightly bonfire provided evening entertainment. After a long day of walking it was the perfect relaxing night with friends.

We ALL enjoyed the evening by the fire. Abi enjoyed the entertainment before bedtime in her grotto upstairs. A crib filled with down blankets...she nearly disappeared when we laid her down in it.

Thanksgiving dinner. A guy from the US came in and deep fried a turkey in our back yard and made all of the trimmings and fixings in our kitchen. Such luxury!

Christmas found us in Florida once again. First we spent a week with the Ambrose family in Stuart where Abi got to enjoy her first visit to Santa (such trauma and tears!), enjoyed watching basketball for the first time and bravely chased various animals all over the house.

Abi was confidently running around by this time. She played with the dogs, the cats, her Nana and cousins, and a very funny stool that amused her for a very long time.

Abi and her cousins Nicole, Mark and Gaby

We were back in Auburndale for Christmas day where Abi met up with her two cousins, and the other 20-odd members of her Central Florida family.

Daddy and Abi playing in the yard. Such a nice sunny Christmas in Florida!

Abi discovered the wonders of swings. Sadly, China doesn't have much in the way out playground equipment and parks in the way we expect to find parks all over the US. So it wasn't until Christmas that she really got to try it all out.

Grandad Wright bought the kids a trailor. They LOVED it. We all took turns dragging them up and down the street, down to the lake, or just around the driveway. They just did not tire of this.

We'd let them out once we got to the lake, but they just wanted to jump in and mess around in the wet sand. What a mess! So we'd strap them back into their trailor and off we'd go back up the hill to Grammy's house.

Christmas Day was at the Wright family house in Auburndale. The entire Kersey/Wright family attended...23 in all! We only seem to keep multiplying, as my cousin Alex had recently gotten engaged and my cousin Christopher has since gotten engaged. The family gatherings will only get bigger and we're really looking forward to it.

Mom threw a birthday party for the two babies since Christmas falls in-between Michael's December 1st birthday and Abigail's January 6th. It was great and the three cousins enjoyed the Auburndale City Park with all of their friends and family.

Abi loved the balloons best of all. She ran all over the park when she wasn't in a swing wearing us all out.

Grandad braved the cold and donned three jackets to spend the afternoon with his three great-grandbabies. Grandad and Abi are playing with her birthday balloons.

Grandad and great-grandson no1, Greyson. Such a doll. As the oldest great-baby he's leading the way for the other two!

Abi finally got a taste of cake for the first time. A bit sweet for her taste (she can't be mine!) but she did a pretty good job. Her cousin finished off his without pause, but he'd already had a practice birthday at home in San Fran in December. What a pair!

the Ambrose family has visitors!

At the beginning of this month, our friends Amanda, Rod and little Mae came through Shanghai on the last leg of their very ambitious global tour which saw them in London, Copenhagen, Madrid, and Shanghai, in no particular order. We all had a great time! We haven't seen each other since Rod and a pregnant Amanda moved home to Australia from London, just before Jason and I got married. So it was a fantastic catch-up.



Mae is nineteen months old now and was great fun. She and Abi definitely enjoyed each other. We even treated Mae to a trip to the 5-storey Shanghai Barbie super-store...so much pink and so little time!

We also managed to work in some good time at the Shanghai world Expo. Something I haven't really been interested in but was completely bowled over by. A lot of the pavilions were AMAZING and the whole experience was definitely not to be missed. These are some photos of the UK pavilion which was definitely the most impressive of all.

The outside is very cool. It looks like a dandelion or spore of some kind. Which is of course what it's meant to be because the whole thing is based on the millenium seed bank that the UK has been building up in Kew Gardens.

This is a shot from inside the pavillion. The spines are poured acrylic and each go from outside straight through the facade to let in light. It's very dramatic.

and at the base of each spine is a seed or cluster of seeds, from each of the species represented in the seed bank back in the UK. It really is amazing.

So...we went through a few of the pavillions, or at least as many that would let us to the front of the line with the kids (hehehe). It made such a difference, i'm tempted to rent out Abi to expo visitors. :)

Here are the 'family portraits' in front of the China pavillion.

As you can imagine, despite Mae's seeming lack of interest, these two girls were very very popular with the chinese visitors. They were photographed by countless people and will probably feature in thousands of holiday picture albums. As you can see by this picture, people weren't shy about getting in for a shot!

And despite the two very tired babies and four tired adults, a good time was had by all!

Ambrose Family in Haikou

Thanks to a Saturday government presentation that Jason needed to give in Haikou, the Ambrose family finally had a weekend out of Shanghai (yes, the irony is not lost on us). So we piled out to the airport and flew to an island called Hainan at the southern tip of China.

Three hours of wrestling a squealing, bouncing Abigail and we were stepping into the tropics of Haikou. We stayed in a nice enough Sheraton beachfront hotel with lovely pools and great gardens and we spent the weekend there without leaving it (except for Jason of course).




We have discovered that Abi loves to swim and splashing around in the swimming pool, and she's not afraid to go underwater with us. She's also didn't mind napping poolside, particularly since she had some company.

So it all went very well until we needed to get home. Due to a number of incidents, we managed to miss our flight by five minutes. Thankfully we had flexible tickets so we could get onto the next one out...five hours later. It wasn't long enough to go back to the hotel and we didn't know anywhere else we could really go, so we settled into the waiting area to wait.

Over the course of five hours, Abi required two naps and two bottles and all but one of the diapers we had with us.



The one positive side of this is that I have been training Abi since birth for 'urban napping' so she wasn't entirely out of sorts with napping on the fly. As long as she has 'jelly piggy' with her, she's pretty much happy to sleep anywhere. Even on a pair of cafe chairs!




Eventually, many hours later, we arrive in Shanghai with Abi's fan club in tow (otherwise known as the other airline passengers). She managed to charm everyone on the flight, despite the ear-splitting squealing stage she is currently going through. As I got up with her to change her in the toilet, no less than twenty people across the plane started waving her arms to get her attention...and Princess Abi gave her loyal subjects some smiles.

Spoon Fed: Attempt #1

A week into month 6 we decided to start with rice cereal. So Sunday we loaded Abi into her highchair and got started. It took quite a bit of time and a computer screen to distract her, but we managed to get nearly a bowlful of soggy rice cereal in her.

Actually, to be perfectly honest, Jason seems to be the only one who can get her to eat. So she'll either only eat food on weekends or her 'ayi' and I will really have to change our approach.

We'll continue to try but I'm not really sure she's getting the hang of it.

Six Months Old

Abigail turned six months old on the 6th of July. We didn't really celebrate but she certainly did, by learning to sit up all by herself!

At her well-baby 6mo checkup she weighed in at a hefty 18.5lb (8.4kg) and measures 26.5" (67cm). Not as big as her cousins (thank goodness!) but at least she can hold her own with the boys in the family.