The Usual from Xiamen

If there are two things we have learned from our dedicated blog readers, it is:

1. That they have expressed much concern for Ann's mother (thank you all).
2. That they have no confidence in my abilities to parent alone (thanks again!).

In fact, Ann mentioned her trip at Helen's bus stop and the general consensus was that I couldn't do it. Given that they don't know me at all, it seems a serious 'no vote' on Chinese fathers (and they only have one kid).

As you can see, I know how to feed kids out of a prepackaged bottle like any other modern parent.
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Yes, I cleaned her up afterwards! (eventually). By the way, Sophia is now clearly fixated on figuring out who is a man, and who is a woman, and who is boy and who is girl. Every once in a while she asks if Daddy is a girl. [No comments from any of my worthless brothers.]

Below, Helen would like to offer you a shrimp. Yes, it's still alive. People in Xiamen don't seem to believe in eating fish unless they see it swimming ten minutes before it's on their plate.

Helen had an open house at school today. It was very lovely, and Sophia inserted herself into the middle of all the kids as if she was in the class. I'll post on it in a few days (after Ann emails me instructions for getting pictures out of the camera).

I'll leave you with two Helen quotations. The first was when Helen, Sophia and I were walking down the street and four people turned to us, pointed, and began laughing. This is a common occurrence for us. As I was thinking of a variety of non-Christian responses, Helen said "they're pointing at us because my jacket is so unusual". Ah, ignorance is bliss.

The second was a classic 6 year old quotation: "I know everything. And when I get older, I'll know even more!" Amen, and another that all goes well back in Michigan.