Jamie is hysterical

What a great age for hearing Jamie funnies. He is a real hoot! Sorry I haven't updated since January--I really post just about every day on Facebook and post a lot of funny things Jamie says there so I'm going to copy and paste some of them here so I'll have one place as a record of some of them.

Jamie is really into 'Mary Poppins' right now (he loves Julie Andrews) and he particularly loves the song in the movie 'Step in Time'--featuring the dancing chimney sweeps. He's developed some skills from watching it. He can now do a few new dance moves and the added bonus of learning to mimic an English cockney accent. He came up to me the other day and said, " 'ello Govenah!" as he was dancing to the song.

Here are some recent Jamie funnies. I am sorry the font is incredibly small. I copied the funnies from my facebook entries and for some reason when I try to size the font larger they letters run into each other:

Jamie is currently reenacting 'Step in Time' from ' Mary Poppins' yet again. He loves Mary Poppins so much I overheard him asking a classmate last week on the after school playground time, " Do you know Mary Poppins? The chimney sweeps?" The other day he came to me and said he was a chimney sweep assistant because the boss chimney sweep was sick so he was working and he is working in Vermont (he knows we had a traditional chimney sweep clean our chimney when I was a kid in Vermont--complete with top hat!) Jamie just ran in just now and said in Cockney English, " 'ello Govenah!"~~april 5th 2012

Today Jamie morphed the Mary Poppins cockney chimney sweeps saying, " 'ello Govenah!" with the English butler Jeeves that he enjoys impersonating and he said, " 'ello Govenah! Jus' getting ready for the holiday coming up. I must tidy up!" as he pantomimed cleaning up ('course he wouldn't really clean up without being forced, lol.)~~april 6th, 2012

Tonight over dinner:
Jamie: " Mommy, I had a dream. You were different in the dream."
Me: " Oh yeah? What was different about me?"
Jamie: " You looked like me. You had a round face."
Me: " You mean I was Chinese, like you?"
Jamie: " Yeah. And you had a beard."
Me: [Bursting out laughing] " I had a beard??! Ha ha!!"
Jamie: " Yeah, and so did daddy. And so did I. I was a butler. I was your butler [he likes to pretend he is the butler Jeeves complete with English accent sometimes when we play.]
Me: " Well Jamie....that was definitely a different kind of dream!"~~april 2012

I get home this evening to find several practical jokes on me...David and Jamie replaced the toaster oven with Jamie's little toy microwave--all of my shirts are in Jamie's closet and his are in mine--the bed is made up backwards with pillows and turned down blanket at the foot of the bed, etc. Jamie thought it was delightful of course! ;-) Then when I told him it's Wednesday morning, time to get ready to go to preschool and then said April Fool's he whined and got grumpy, telling me I didn't get to do jokes, lol.~~April 1st, 2012

‎" Do you know what's at the middle of the earth??!! Millions of...LAVA!!" Jamie yelled excitedly to his Mom Mom & Pop Pop today. They returned from a wonderful first-time visit to Hawaii last week and their video of volcanoes made a huge impression on the little impressionable one. ;-) Pop Pop replied, " No, Jamie. In the middle of the earth are people, don't you know?" Jamie guffawed and said, " Nooo, Pop Pop! That would be...ooh! oww! Hot! Hot!" he said as he jumped around on one leg waving his arms, lol.~~March 31, 2012

At playgroup today my son came over to me and the other moms and said, " Guys!" trying to get all of our attention as the other ladies were still talking. I said, " Honey, you need to wait until they aren't in the middle of talking and say excuse me." I wondered what he was so enthusiastic about since he doesn't usually address the moms as a whole group. He waited a minute then did another advertisement for our friends' new wonderful coffee shop that just opened about a week ago, lol. He said, "Excuse me.... Sola opened! Their mini donuts are delicious!!" He tells virtually everyone he knows about it, it is so cute!~~March 31, 2012

Much as I want Jamie's speech to improve, there is something incredibly endearing about hearing your child say very seriously, " Da wittle pawachite [ parasite] ish [is]micwoshcopic [microscopic]. You bedder not dlink [drink] waddaw flom [from] a wivah [river.] I had dat pawachite when I lived in China!" ;-) (yes, he came home with ghiardia.) I still have to translate for people often but not as much as a few months ago--he is improving. He's been able to get a few isolated decent S's in too which the speech teacher wasn't sure he'd be able to do (like ever, even when older.)~~March 22, 2012

Bob the Builder features a video called 'The Golden Hammer' about a pirate named Brickbeard. This morning Jamie was pretending to be Brickbeard but said he was going to be Brickbeard as a baby. He came up to me and said in a cooing sweet voice, " Goo goo argh? Goo goo argh?" ;-)~~March 6, 2012

Jamie was wearing a nice Hawaiian shirt yesterday and said, " I am wearing a surfer man shirt." "Yes honey, it's a Hawaiian shirt. They have really big waves in Hawaii for great surfing." A couple of people complimented him on his shirt. Later that afternoon while doing make believe play with me he pretended he was a giant and told me to be Goliath. He asked if giants would be much bigger than Goliath. I said yes, Goliath would probably come up to about their ankle! Jamie then said, " Hi there little guy. What's your name?" " Goliath" I said, " What's your name?" Jamie answered in a deep dramatic voice after pausing to think for a second, " My name is...Hawaiian giant!"~~March 2, 2012

‎" I have my very own back pack!!" Jamie enthusiastically exclaimed this afternoon...he was positively radiant with delight today after music class upon being given it. The materials for music class come in a backpack--his first. He wore it immediately (with all of the materials still inside, including a small drum--- thus not very light) and then wanted to show daddy right away this evening, then wore it into a restaurant (still fully loaded), then wore it around the house (still fully loaded) and even upstairs to go to bed (still fully loaded.) I think the first thing I'll hear in the morning over the monitor: " My very own back pack!!"~~Feb 24th, 2012

Jamie, after jumping off from something way too high at playground today (think sprained or broken ankle height) lay there crying for a moment as I ran over to ascertain if it was sprained or not (at first I thought yes but then no.) A little while later I pulled him aside to have a brief talk about not jumping from high places. I told him I wanted him to do safe things. (He usually always plays it safe and isn't a risk-taker.) He said to me, " Mommy, I'm alllllwaaaays safe...[long pause]....well... [he shrugged his shoulders]... *most* of the time I'm safe....well, okay [ he laughed in a grown up chuckle]...*sometimes* I'm safe!"

I love him! He had little grown up-like gestures too with his hands. He is a hoot!~~Feb 17, 2012

Today during a Scripture reading leading into church worship, after the reader said something like ' The Lord God..." Jamie piped up loudly, " God is the real God. Not Baal!" Also, he did some funky dance moves during the opening worship song while standing on a chair next to me (no one else was dancing so it was quite entertaining to those around us.) And he kept repeating in a slight shout the last word of each song verse during that song. Like the last word was 'grace' and he would echo, shouting GRACE! And then when it would say ' the Lord' he would say, " Jesus is the Lord!" Then during another song when he was fairly quiet, he was loving on his blanket named hammy and I heard him say, " Jesus wants us to love our hammies."~~Feb 12, 2012

Jamie brag (more so than usual, so you've been warned, lol):
Jamie has a good sense of rhythm and likes to play songs on either the piano or more often his recorder or banging on a drum (always the same note or random notes but the exact rhythm of the song he is choosing. His song choice is often ' Doe a Deer' from the Sound of Music. Jamie went to the piano and played various notes but with the Doe a Deer rhythm. Then he started gently playing pretty sounding 'stuff' mid-keyboard he was just making up then while he was playing he started talking and saying that he was making up a song about a hawk who was very sad and then became happy. I was thinking, " Wow." I said to him, " Jamie, play the part where the hawk is sad." Jamie touched some notes near the top of the piano quietly and pressed them long so they were slow. It really did sound sad! Then I said, " And what part is the happy part of the song?" And he started playing happy and fast sounding music in the middle of the keyboard again. I really think God has given him a gift with his interest in music! I am excited to see how he uses it! (And if anyone from church is reading this, he said he was being Mr. Charles [ our worship leader].)~~Feb 8, 2012

Tonight at dinner: Daddy: " Jamie, you need to stay in your chair--it is not time to run around and get down and go everywhere." (and this wasn't the first time he said it.) Jamie: " But daddy....I *need* exercise." (Ah yeah Jamie, play the exercise card since we're always telling him that it is important to exercise, lol.) What a manipulator!~~Feb 3, 2012

Jamie: " I want a pet chicken." Me: " Jamie, chickens would have stinky poop and it would be a lot of work to take care of them. We aren't going to get a chicken." Jamie, thinking: " Well....[smiling slyly]...we could get TWO chickens. *You* could take care of one of them, and *daddy* could take care of the other one!" Me: " Ah, I see...so, who would play with them then, you?" Jamie: " Yeah, me! I would play with them and you and daddy would take care of them!" Then he giggled and giggled. Haha!~~Feb 2, 2012

On the way to church today:
Jamie: " Mommy, when I grow up and have children, you be the mommy." Me: " Well I will be their grandma like Mom Mom, Jamie. I can take care of them all the time if you want me to like I take care of you." Jamie: " No mommy. I want you be the mommy." A few months ago he told me that when he grows up he will marry me. *Finally* it seems I might be joining the ranks of the mommies whose sons adore them! It took him awhile to warm up but he is doing so much better with me now (still not where I'd like ideally, but much more attached than the first year and a half.) It is so precious when your little guy says he wants to marry you when he grows up! ;)~~Jan 22, 2012

Tonight at dinner:
Jamie: " I make joke. You laugh." Us: "Okay honey." Jamie: " Mustard in a pan." Now in a dictator-like snapping command he followed that with, " NOW LAUGH."~~January 16, 2012

Jamie's been getting afraid at night more recently. We give an extra back rub, come back in a few times to reassure and started a night light a couple of nights ago. David tried lying on the floor but Jamie wouldn't go to sleep with him in the room the other night. So last night, after several return reassurances from both of us and my final leaving of the room, after 10 or 20 seconds of crying it was silent. Then we assumed he was asleep. About 15 minutes later we hear over the monitor his wavering little voice, " God, please help me be brave. Amen." I wanted to run up the stairs to him! But I'm glad that he was seeking comfort from Jesus. And I'm glad I didn't run up there again b/c I'm sure he was asleep soon after.~~Jan 15, 2012

I know nothing about sports but on yahoo a little earlier there was a picture of Tebow playing football. We were eating lunch and Jamie said, " Who is that?" I told him it is a famous football player named Tebow and he knows Jesus too! Jamie said, " I just love that man. I love that Tebow. I wish I could meet him. I wish we could meet famous people." lol-- Jamie has never seen him before and already loves the man after hearing about him 2 seconds later! Also the other day we met an especially beautiful and sunny dispositioned mother at the playground there with her baby. Jamie asked her a couple of things and when she turned to do something with his baby he looked at me and said, " I just love dat woman. I love her so much!" Jamie told me he wanted a playdate with the lady's baby and her some time.~~Jan 11, 2012

Pictures

I feel rather guilty for not having posted at all in December. I find my only free time to post on here is during his naps and I'm usually doing something else to unwind and don't feel like blogging. Sorry I'm not much of a blogger! I tend to post a lot of funny things he has said to facebook so if I'm friends with you there you can read his funnies there.

Jamie got a ton of Christmas presents this year--so much so that I don't even think he's really played with all of them yet! I ventured into the world of Playmobil for him. Maybe a little early but he seems to be enjoying them. They come with practically microscopic parts. See this capital O? That is the actual size of little 'gold' coins in his treasure chest that you can take out and play with. Where they are right now, we are not sure!

Jamie has a flair for the theatrical at times. The other night we were visiting my parents and Pop Pop, walking us out to the car pointed up at the sky and said, " Look Jamie! The moon!" It was a full moon and clear sky. Jamie made a dramatic sweep of his arms skyward and said in a deep theatrical voice (think movie trailer voice), " The light..of..heaven!!"

This week we start speech for the first time. I am so glad he qualified with county services. He gets it once a week at a public school I"ll bring him to for speech. He *hates* being corrected and has this inner drive for perfection the 'first' time he does anything or he gets angry, and he absolutely hates when we try to get him to say something differently, so this is going to be very interesting and I'm curious how we'll be able to do the 'homework' with him for practice at home. Wish us luck!

Here are some holiday pictures!

My precious boy...

My precious boy, do you know how much I love you? Today I took you on a walk with our friends from playgroup in Mimi's neighborhood. Each of you children carried their own basket to collect leaves in (thank you Kristi!) I loved watching you run along ahead with your arm flapping at your side and your little legs making your body bob up and down. I loved when you squatted down to examine a leaf carefully and select some for your basket. The best part for me was towards the end of the walk when I looked down at you, squatting down at the curb, busily stuffing wads of broken, brown bits of leaves into your leaf basket, as happy as when you were putting in the carefully chosen red and orange and yellow ones. My boy, you are precious. I wish I could freeze time. I love you, little one. :-)

More pictures

Jamie had his first overnight at his Mimi's house recently (first overnight without us anywhere actually!) He packed his suitcase all by himself with only a little help. He was so proud. Here is a picture of him getting ready to wheel it out to the car. He managed to lug that thing all the way out to the car!

Yesterday we went to the state fair and he enjoyed petting and holding some baby chicks and ducks. He was looking forward to that part for days; he has a soft spot for baby ducklings and chicks and they are often featured in made up stories we tell him when he asks for them to be characters in his stories. ;-)

Recently on a Sunday afternoon a local firehouse was having an annual open house day for kids and families with about 10-12 firetrucks present and other emergency vehicles and demonstrations all day of various fire-fighting techniques, jaws of life, etc. We took Jamie and he enjoyed himself. You can see him here with a fire fighter and the hose; they had a wooden toy house front with windows that could be sprayed over by the force of the hose and the windows had flames painted on them. He enjoyed putting out the 'fire' on the toy house.

You see the picture of him in a box filled with corn. It was from the fall farm day we went to but I couldn't fit more pictures in the last post. He enjoyed many things there that day but I think that was his favorite. David got in with him too and both enjoyed burying their legs, etc. When I was doing laundry last week and checking their pants pockets I found many corn kernals in them! Jamie even had corn in his underwear, lol!

Fun fall farm day!

Our local playgroup for families who have adopted children from various asian countries goes to a popular farm each fall. We went last weekend and we all really enjoyed ourselves! You will see that in many of the pictures, Jamie is holding a popcorn box. If you didn't already know this about Jamie, he is quite the fan of popped corn. Definitely one of his favorites, right up there with cake and french fries (if only fruits and veg were his favorites!)

It's October!

Oops, I never posted in September!

Jamie has been in preschool two mornings a week for a few weeks now. He did great at first but last week and today he was clinging to my leg sobbing, poor boy. He got over it pretty quick though (I hid nearby to listen.) Jamie told his teachers that he made pumpkin muffins at home with us. We were lucky to have daddy at home for 5 days in a row (he gets a lot of vacation time which we're grateful for!) Quan Quan sure missed his daddy today when he went back to work.

Jamie has been enjoying some fall festivals that local churches or schools have put on lately. He has the routine down. Go into some bouncy houses, then play games to win tickets, then pick out prizes. He is so cute when playing the games to win tickets because he'll walk right up to whatever he's supposed to toss a hoop over and just place it carefully over it, not throwing it at all. And then they give him the tickets, as if he'd made his shot from 6 feet away. It was adorable.

Recently there was a storyteller at a plaza telling German stories to preschoolers (not with books, just telling them.) She shared the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. As she was starting, she explained what porridge was (us Americans don't seem to know what porridge is, which surprised me--I think every preschooler in England knows what it is and eats it!) Anyway, she asked the kids listening to the story what their favorite foods were. Most the kids were silent/shy. Not Jamie. Nope. When she asked the children what their favorite foods were he immediately shouted enthusiastically, " Cake!!" Yep, he's his mamma's boy, that's for sure. ;-)

When David and I told Jamie that we were taking him to yet another festival with games and bouncy rides and then to a beautiful arboretum afterwards (well we said very large flower garden to him) he was so excited, he jumped up and down and yelled out, " I just love fall! I love it dis much!" holding his arms out wide. He had a great time at the garden which kind of surprised us. We thought he'd be begging to be picked up and whining (his usual mode, sadly, when we try to walk anywhere.) Nope. He was really into going on the paths and seeing what was around corners. He even said things like, " Ohhhh! Such pretty flowers!" and " Awwww, the ducks so cute!!" at the ponds.

This past Monday with David still off from work we made pumpkin muffins. Jamie wore his chefs apron and enjoyed stirring and then slowly (laboriously, lol) filling the muffin tins. He loved the muffins. Talk about easy. Three ingredients! A box of spice cake mix, a can of pumpkin and 2 eggs. That's it. Mix all three together really good and put them in a 12 muffin pan (we use the paper muffin liners) and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

That afternoon after his nap we did a craft. He is not one for crafts, so I wasn't sure he would participate. We all did one. I made paper tree trunks and branches to glue on construction paper and then had long strips of red, yellow and orange papers for him to cut with kid scissors like confetti to be leaves we could glue on. Well, David being especially artistic made his look fantastic. Jamie seemed enthusiastic at first but once it came to gluing the leaves on, he stopped at, well, 2 leaves ont he tree and one on the ground, lol. Then he confidently informed us that he was, " All done!" I did a medium amount of leaves on mine. Then we put all three up and I noticed that daddy's had the whole tree full of colorful leaves, mine had a few on and a pile on the ground and Jamie's was bare w/ just 2 on and 1 off. I told Jamie, it could be like the fall season where the tree starts out with lots of leaves then the medium amount is the middle of fall and then yours is like the end of fall right before winter when most of the leaves are blown away. Well he loves this idea and has mentioned it every day he sees it several times. ;-)

We're going to make pumpkin spice scented playdoh on Friday.

Tomorrow Jamie is getting assessed to see if he might qualify for speech. His vocab is very advanced (he regularly uses complex words like, " I particularly like the way this looks in the evening". Yes, he's advanced w/ his vocab! His comprehension is above his age as well, but his spoken, well, we can understand him but few kids almost ever can and I usually translate. He is getting clearer than he was but we are soooo hoping he qualifies for speech! Let's hope he's a bit garbled tomorrow so he qualifies! We haven't been trying to teach or correct him in a like a week in hopes that he doesn't improve before tomorrow, lol!

Jamie said something really funny the other day to David. A little background: While Jamie is great about peeing on a potty and wears underwear for that, he absolutely refuses to poop on the potty no matter what we bribe him with. And we are talking truly alluring bribes that any child in their right mind should leap at the chance for! Nope, not him. He tells us, " When I older, I poop on potty. Not now. Now I want poop in diaper." (Then we put him in a diaper and he promptly poops as soon as it's on.) " Even if you can watch the whole cars movie, have a bag of m&M's, go out for popcorn (his favorite treat) AND buy a huge toy (that he's seen) from the toy store??" I ask increduously. " No! I want to poop in diaper." Well David's mom MiMi promised Jamie that if he poops on the potty instead of in a diaper she would take him to the hardware store to get a bag of popcorn. (An event that normally delights him.) He still tells us no. So the other day, David reminds him that if he chooses to poop on the potty instead of doing it in a diaper that MiMi will take him to get the popcorn. Jamie replies, very seriously, " When I older then I poop on potty and I drive car myself and drive my car to buy my own popcorn." Ha ha ha!!! I nearly cried I laughed so hard when he told me what Jamie said. I am having visions of him wearing a diaper to poop in at 13!

I recently asked a staff person at my son's orphanage if they ever saw other people in his birth city of Chengdu with curly/wavy hair like his (after I emailed her some pictures with his curly hair showing.) She said that a good friend of hers and also a number of children at the orphanage have wavy/curly hair. Sure enough not only them but I'm now friends with another woman from Chengdu and she has wavy/curly hair as well! They said it is more common in the Sichuan province than elsewhere in China. So I guess he's not as much of an anomaly as I thought. I just love his hair!

A few recent pictures here. The one in a classroom is his preschool class, that was from the first day! That is one of his teachers there. There are 8 children in the class and two teachers. A great ratio.

A picture of daddy, Jamie QuanQuan and the great grandparents! They live close by so we get to see them from time to time or share a meal with them.

The picture of Jamie by duck statues was taken at his preschool. I included it because ducklings and ducks are one of Jamie's favorite animals and often requested book (Make Way for Ducklings) and often requested characters in made up stories we tell (he currently has over 100 ducklings following and playing with him in an ongoing story we tell!)

One of the fall festivals had rides that Jamie enjoyed as you can see.