Sneaky baby

For the last month, one of Aviva's favorite activities has been "hiding" behind the armchair in her room. I say "hiding," because, well, this is what it looks like:



It's just not that sneaky. Sometimes she emerges, and then "hides" again while we're watching her.



We play this game with her, I'd say about 12 times a day. She NEVER gets tired of it.

Aviva's duck suit

Warning: this is another video clip in which Aviva is not really doing anything exciting. However, we know that our main audience (grandparents) will still enjoy it.

It's been rainy recently, and we discovered that the Sevin twins gave us another great hand-me-down: a raincoat! Aviva loves going outside, so now we don't have to worry about her clothes getting soaked.

Working Girl

Aviva has been "making phone calls" for months, so it's no surprise that she's starting to imitate more and more of our activities. Lately she's been very interested in sitting at the Mac.



Instead of a tea break, though she just takes a short paci(fier) break.

Waterfall Hike

Two weekends ago we went on a hike to a beautiful waterfall. Aviva even hiked part of the way herself!



At the top, it's not so impressive...
...but where we picnicked, it's very beautiful.

Here's our group: Leslie, Nicole, Lily, Holly, Brandon, Victor, and Erik.


Lily joined our family shot. She's a great hiker (at age 5!) and Aviva loves watching her.

Aviva drives the car

Aviva's car seat faces backwards, and she rarely sees either of us start a car. So how does she know that the keys go in the ignition? I like how she smashes her face against the steering wheel to get to the ignition.

Eating peanut butter

Aviva loves peanut butter (like her father.) She eats it the way adults wish we could eat all the time.



Of course we know that it makes a huge mess, but like I said before - it's still cute.

Chocolate chip pancake face (and talking)

Last weekend we had chocolate chip pancakes. Aviva says a few of her words for us, and shows us that she's not afraid to hit camera-people.

Not a dog

Just as we're always trying to get Aviva to answer questions, we sometimes try to get her to do things. In this clip she shows us definitively that she does not follow orders like a dog.

Rainy New Year's Eve Day

On New Year's Eve Day, we met some friends for lunch. It started to rain, but we had chosen a restaurant with a garden and playground so that Aviva could play. It wasn't cold, so we let her play in the mud.

Guess her new favorite word?

Alas, the long dreaded "NO!" has reached our household. It's still pretty cute (for now.)

Gifts!

In the last few weeks, we've received wonderful gifts, both for Aviva and for us. I'll be posting videos and photos of her using them. Here she is enjoying an activity center/push toy from her Auntie Sarah and Uncle Christian. As you can see, over time she gets better at reversing (though for some reason she still gets frustrated at the end.) I like the little driving song she sings in the last of the three short clips. Thanks, Sarah and Christian!

Daddy-Baby Time

Aviva has a great time snuggling and messing around with her dad during the last few weeks. Here's a clip of her helping Peter fix the refrigerator, and then playing what we call "face smash."

More love for the rocking elephant

In 2009, when Roger and Barbara visited us, they bought us a beautiful rocking elephant. Aviva has loved it for months, but in the last couple of weeks, she's figured out how to get on and off and to rock by herself! She even sings/makes a high-pitched happy noise when she rocks on it.




Thanks to Roger and Barbara again for the wonderful gift!

Cat/Mao/Cattykoo/Eish-Meow

A few weeks ago, our good friends Jinty and Benoit, and their two boys, Leo and Emil, moved to Mozambique. We were very sad to see them go. Jinty is an avid gardener, and we inherited many of her beautiful indigenous plants.

We also inherited...

Mao!

Cat!

Cattykoo!


Leo named her Cattykoo, but we'd like to give her a new name. Aviva calls her "Mao," which is the Chinese word for cat. Then again, she calls every cat "Mao." The cat also goes by "Cat."

Our friend Beth suggested Eish-Meow. To explain, Swazis and South Africans use "Eish!" as an exclamation. (It's pronounced "eesh.") We might say "wow," or "yikes" or even "oh no." Eish-Meow sounds like the name "Ishmael," and it's our favorite so far, but it's a little hard to say, so for now it will probably be her middle name.

She is a very sweet cat, and her best personality trait is that she allows Aviva to follow her around, pet her not-so-gently, and even pull her tail, and she has never tried to scratch or bite Aviva. She just simply walks away.



If she's tired, she even lets Aviva sleep on her.


Peter didn't want her to be an indoor cat, but even he wasn't immune to her charms.

Happy New Year!

Our friends, Ben, Beth, and Mikayla Kickert, came to visit us for New Year's Eve this year. They live at St. Phillips, on the Cabrini Mission, about two hours away from here. The Kickerts were hosting some 21-month old twins from the Mission, so the twins stayed with us, too! Nosipho (the girl) and Simo (the boy) were very sweet, and it was wonderful to have them. Our friend Keri joined us as well.

The four kids had dinner together.



Mikayla is almost three, and the four kids got in the bath together. I have a short and funny video of them; let me know if you'd like to see it.


Nosipho and Simo didn't enjoy it at first. I felt bad for them, but it was sort of funny how Aviva and Mikayla seemed totally unaware of the crying around them. Pretty soon all four of them were happy.

The kids all went to bed, and the adults geeked out on a board game called Settlers of Catan. It's sort of Risk meets Dungeons and Dragons meets Monopoly, and it's very fun.


The next morning, Simo and Aviva helped Peter unload the cooler.


All the kids enjoyed the toys.

Aviva and Nosipho even rode the rocking elephant together.



Ben and Beth made a great avocado-picking team.


Happy New Year, everyone!

New Year's Eve Eve

On New Year's Eve Eve (yes, the night before NYE), we had a Chinese Shabbat dinner. I've mentioned before that we try to have Chinese food every Friday night, so that we're celebrating both of our cultures at once. That night we invited some friends over to help us.

We had recently found some dumpling wrappers in Pretoria, and I was eager to try them, so I made two kinds of fillings: chicken and beef. Both were seasoned with soy sauce, ginger, green onions, and sesame oil, and included a bit of cabbage and mung bean noodles as filler.

Aisha and Erik were hard at work.

Keri, Nellie, and Nicole were also helping out.


With everyone's help, we finished the whole stack of dumpling wrappers in less than 30 minutes! Then we cooked them and feasted. Also on the menu:

Roast duck (basted in soy sauce and brown sugar): a Chen family favorite, and my mom's specialty

Braised beef and daikon (Chinese white turnip)

Tofu with shiitake mushrooms and bok choy

Szechuan cucumber salad
Here's the whole gang. Aviva enjoyed the duck, but in the photo she's having her favorite: whole milk.

Pictures and videos of New Year's Eve to come tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!

Sorry about the late posts, but we've been awfully busy lately.

A few weeks ago, we went to a Christmas party for the US Embassy community. As with almost all of the potluck parties here, there was an amazing spread of food. The hosts had prepared turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, and gravy, and the guests brought all kinds of salads, side dishes, and desserts.

There are many kids in the Embassy community, and Aviva liked watching them run around. They mostly ignored her, except when she tried to grab food off their plates.



Then on Christmas Day, we were going to go out for the afternoon, but someone fell asleep.



Eventually she woke up, and we went down to the Lugogo Sun Hotel in the Ezulwini Valley (about 15 minutes away) for some swimming.




Later that night, we went to another party, at our friend Erik and Nicole's house. Aviva had fun with their daughter, Lily.
As you can see, Aviva is wearing a beautiful party dress! It was a gift from Nana Frances (Aviva's Great Grandmother.) It's a 12M, red and black plaid dress from Carter's. It features a little fabric and lace rose on the left side, and a wide black ribbon across the front. Adorable!

This video clip is not that exciting, but you can see how the dress poofs out beautifully around Aviva's legs. She was the best dressed person at the party!



Here's our friend Aisha, decorating a pan of brownies.

Nicole made some frosting for us to decorate cookies.

Erik's roast turkey and gravy were delicious.

Aviva, Aisha and I posed for a quick photo before dinner started.

Everyone decorated cookies beautifully, but our friend Robert won all the awards. He actually drew a picture of the Earth with a Ziplock bag of frosting!


And he even put a silver candy to mark Swaziland. Aww....Merry Christmas, everyone!

Peter's Birthday and Susan's Visit

Peter's birthday is November 30, and this year we just had a small gathering of friends for some cake and ice cream. (We borrowed the candle from Aviva's birthday party.)

Aviva had fun with Natalie.

A few days later, my friend Susan came to visit from Johannesburg. We had a terrific time with her, even if it meant that Aviva then wanted to stay up and play with Susan every night.

One day Susan was having a peanut butter-banana sandwich, and it seemed like feeding time at the zoo. Aviva loves banana, and apparently she loves peanut butter, too!


I love how Aviva has her hand on Susan's leg in the next photo, sort of like your pet dog or cat might put their paw on your leg while waiting for attention (or food.)

We had a wonderful time with Susan, and can't wait for her to come back. We also look forward to seeing her in Johannesburg soon!

Cow Maniac and "Bedtime"

As you may remember, Aviva's Uncle Henry gave her a fabulous stuffed cow last year. She still loves it, and now she carries it around. Here she is playing with it in the kitchen, narrowly avoiding bonking her head on the hard tile floor.


Some of you have heard about how Aviva feels about going to sleep at night. She basically hates it, and wants to run around all night. Here's a typical example of what happens at about 8 pm, after we wrestle her into her pajamas.



We're working on it.

An Early Thanksgiving in Swaziland

Since we were going to be in Cape Town for Thanksgiving Day, we had our own Thanksgiving dinner in Swaziland two days early. Our friends Natalie and Uriel, and their kids, Liam and Tessa, came over to celebrate, as did our friend Emma.

Aviva had lots of fun with Liam and Tessa, and enjoyed sharing Tessa's food.



I baked an apple pie for dessert.


Richard played with all three kids in Aviva's corner of the living room.

Liam snuggled with Susan after dinner.



It was a lovely Thanksgiving, and we were so happy to share with friends and family!