Our Next Adventure...: Another month in the Yuen household...

The weeks are passing by and as such as are getting warmer weather with less rain. So the kids have enjoyed playing in the backyard more.

They all helped out refilling the bird feeder with sunflower seeds.

Xiao Yu found a sunflower seed on the ground and was about to shove it in his mouth when Elvin stopped him. When in China, maybe he had seen people eat these before?

Xiao Yu still very much enjoys going on the swings. He can hold on by himself while someone else pushes him.

With the good weather, we went out for a hike with some friends. Xiao Yu wanted to walk, but that meant walking at a snail's pace. So sometimes he was carried.

Gabriel enjoyed the hike very much.

He found branches to wave, pine cones to throw, and rocks to kick.

Here is a rare moment of silence and contemplation from Eliana.

Towards the end of our hike, she found a newt lying on the trail. It looked lost and was several dozen feet from the nearest stream, so we decided to help it along.

Elvin scooped it up and put it in the stream, and then had to keep the kids at bay--they wanted to poke at it with a stick to "help" it get into the water.

Meal times are still interesting in our household. Xiao Yu went from being not picky with what we serve him to being semi-picky now. He still eats a fairly wide range of food but will now reject certain foods, especially if he's not very hungry. Oatmeal is not his favorite and he doesn't seem to care for pizza either. His pediatrician said that this is actually very common with adopted kids; once they learn that they can have food on demand and not have be hungry, then they don't feel compelled to eat everything put in front of them.

One of Xiao Yu's favorite things is yogurt. Here he is trying to drink his yogurt, because he's still not that good at scraping the last bits out of the bottom of the cup...

Yogurt moustache!

He also went crazy on his noodles and got some on his face.

Xiao Yu tries to drink and slurp EVERYTHING, even if they are not slurpable, such as a spoonful of steamed rice. Old habits die hard...

Xiao Yu is very observant and copies everything his siblings do. Karina was picking her nose which she occasionally does.

Monkey see, monkey do. Except, judging from his expression, maybe he was a little bit too aggressive? Also, he is not actually picking his nose to get at boogers, he is just copying Karina.

And Xiao Yu is not the only one who does goofy things during mealtimes. Here is Gabriel eating a slice of watermelon (which he loves and eats about 8 slices of each meal.) Yes, in case you have eagle eyes and were wondering, Gabriel did slather his lasagna on top of his watermelon and is eating both at the same time.

Emily makes home-made play-doh every once in a while and Xiao Yu spent some time investigating this new substance. Is it food or is it a toy?

Eventually he got the hang of it.

He does other silly things. Pink sunglasses anyone?

Gabriel and Karina still do a lot of things together. A while ago, they stopped calling each other by their names and just refer to each other as "Honey" (which is what Mommy and Daddy call each other.) Here they are playing with doll stickers that you can dress up by overlaying more stickers on top.

Here is Karina's 'masterpiece.'

And here is Honey whispering a secret to Honey.

And Honey is whispering another secret back. They are great friends and we hope that their friendship lasts through the teenage years.

Karina has also taken an interest in writing. She's been carrying around this little notebook and will every once in a while, flip to a page and start writing or scribbling.