总觉得让一个两岁的小人老老实实地躺在椅子上，张着嘴巴让医生看５分钟太不可思议了，平常我们给易峰刷牙，叫他张１０秒钟他还吱哇乱叫呢，所以拖到现在才去看牙医。易峰的表现出乎意料的好，老老实实地让小护士刷牙，还咯咯笑，大家都说易峰是个快乐的男孩。牙齿目前没有问题，我们回来之后要更加仔细地刷牙。

Alex had his first dentist appointment Thursday. We were prepared for the worst–Michelle and I both picked him up from school and hung out at the dentist’s office with him–but he did great. He was a little apprehensive at first, but no more so than he generally is when being placed in an alien situation, and he was very cooperative.

Good kids get a token at the end of their visit, and then they can go to a vending machine and redeem it for a prize. It’s a clever idea and I’m seriously considering changing dentists to take advantage of it myself. Alex got a little puppy dog figurine in a plastic bubble.

For all you fellow parents out there:

• First dentist visit is recommended at two years old.
• I’ve been trying to get Alex to brush his own teeth. The dentist said not to bother at this point, and that we should do it ourselves so we know it gets done right and he doesn’t develop any cavities. I’m now getting him to lie on the bed with his mouth open and I’ll brush for him.
• We’d been using training toothpaste with him, but the dentist had us go with toothpaste with fluoride in it. He says the water in San Diego is inadequately fluoridated.

天天现在不仅会爬，而且爬得快得很，转身也很麻利。看他每天到处乱爬，觉得很开心。

Tiantian is capable to navigate to any corner of our house. He crawls really fast.

天天已经不满足于爬了，他要站起来，要走出去。他现在自己已经在摸索着扶着墙走了，我可不想让他这么早走，到什么时候做什么事，九月份就要走，太早了。

天天穿着易峰小时候的衣服，很多时候我都有错觉，什么时候易峰突然变成天天喊着自己是个大男孩的两岁半的小伙子，好像昨天他还穿着今天天天穿的衣服到处乱爬呢，时间真是过的好快好快呀。所以我就老是要在繁忙的工作或不开心的时候提醒自己，和孩子们一起成长是多么快乐而又短暂的时光呀，每天晚上我和易峰一起看一休，有时还手拉着手，觉得幸福极了。

Tiantian likes to stand up whenever possible. He even tries to slide his hands on the wall and walk little by little. I don’t like him to walk so early though.

去年易峰上了游泳班，觉得成效不大，更谈不上易峰喜欢游泳，对我们买的各种各样五颜六色的游泳器械也不感冒，现在想想有点儿拔苗助长。一年过去之后，易峰自己就提出来要去游泳，到了爷爷奶奶家，坐进气垫船里，玩得甚欢。今天也是天天第一次进游泳池，有点害怕，多数时间处于紧张研究状态。

We haven’t seen much of Grandma and Grandpa lately but now that they’re back from following minstrel quilter Ricky Tims on tour in Oregon we spent a lot of time at their house this weekend.

Prior to heading up to the compound on Saturday, we stopped by the local frozen yogurt shop. Alex digs froyo. 易峰在吃酸奶。

While we were at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Nicky took the opportunity to show off his newly-discovered skills at drinking from a sippy cup. We just tried him for the first time this weekend and he took to it like a thirsty baby to water, so we may be looking at an end to bottles quite a bit sooner for him.

天天会用杯子喝水了。开始他不知道怎么用这个杯子，老是咬杯子嘴，咬了一会，不知怎的吸溜一下喝到水了，一下子豁然开朗，现在每天喜欢都抱着自己的杯子喝水。

He’s just got to be teething–still no teeth and we’re coming up on nine months.

It finally got warm in San Diego this past week, and it was quite hot in Escondido, which made the pool look even more inviting than it usually does.

Alex and Grandpa teamed up to strain the floating stuff off the pool’s surface.

Alex hadn’t been in the water for months, so we were worried that he’d be scared. He didn’t exactly swim, spending most of his time in the cool water car Grandma and Grandpa got for him, but he wasn’t scared at all.

Alex did get some time out of his ride with Grandma, and he practiced kicking and putting his face in the water.

Long-time readers might remember that we started Alex off with the neck brace swim ring pretty early on, but we hadn’t done that with Nicky. In fact, he’d never been in a pool before, making today a banner occasion.

Nicky was a little hesitant at first, but I think that’s because the water was nice and cool and he wasn’t used to the temperature. Here’s a jolly pic of Nicky and Grandpa that unfortunately turned out very blurry.

After a while, Nicky was cruising around the pool in the swim ring all on his own. He had a great time!

Here’s some video of Alex motoring on the water car.

我们都在猜想易峰长大之后会做一名厨师，因为他太喜欢做饭了。在家在学校，乐此不疲地玩着锅碗瓢盆，每次玩橡皮泥都要玩包饺子。看的网上说，找老公就要找会做饭的男人，易峰真的是很体贴，犯了错误马上说对不起，见你哪里疼了，就过来亲亲你，问你是不是好些了，我每次都告诉他，因为他的亲吻，他的关心，我感觉好多了。

礼拜天我们一起做了muffin,是美国的一种早点，这是易峰第一次做烘烤，做完之后他的鼻尖还挂着面粉，好认真，好可爱。给他录了像，他高兴地大叫：“我做的！我做的!”

Alex is pretty into cooking. When he plays with Play-Doh, he likes to make dumplings and pancakes. He’s always taking pans out of the kitchen to “cook” with–I would have expected that a kid his age would just do that to bang them around and make a lot of noise, but he takes them down to the coffee table and puts his plastic fruits and vegetables in them and stirs them around like he’s stir-frying.

Yesterday Michelle and Alex went to the library and picked up some cookbooks, and this morning they conspired to make some mean cupcakes banana bran muffins. Alex did a lot of stirring and mixing and dumping ingredients into the bowl, and then he helped pour the batter in the muffin wrappers.

Sorry for the video cutting off in the middle of the third “I made it!”, but I wasn’t expecting him to say it again and I can’t be bothered to edit this stuff.

礼拜一我在天天面前示范怎么爬，他的眼睛瞪得滴溜圆，跟着我前前后后地看，礼拜二我阿姨就告诉我，天天会用手脚爬，而不是用肚皮爬了。这小子真是在用心学了。

Nicky started crawling this week!

天天除了还没长牙之外，其他都很好。他已经开始四处乱爬了，但他总是很不情愿爬，每次一让他爬，他就爬到大人的身边，哼哼唧唧地要抱，我阿姨叫他小懒蛋，我觉得我家阿姨不会变着法儿地鼓励他，一般我在的时候，他都爬的挺好的，开始是有点不愿意，但分散他的注意力，跟他说说话，让他对某个玩具感兴趣，他都爬得挺好的。

TianTian still has no teeth. Other than that, everything else seems on the right track with his growth. He has been working hard to practice crawling no matter how much he dislikes it. For parents, patience and encouragement are the keys.

“I did it!”　“妈妈，我爬得不错吧！哈哈”

TianTian has been wearing Alex’s clothes since the day he was born. Now TianTian has a good reason to demand some new clothes for himself.

艰苦朴素的天天。天天一生下来就捡哥哥的衣服，多好的孩子呀，衣服有洞了也不嫌弃。

美国国庆节又到了，前年看了一次游行，那时易峰刚刚五个月。去年我们去大熊湖没在家看游行，今年我们决定让易峰记住什么是美国的国庆游行，明年就可以给天天做解说了。

Longtime readers may remember that Alex watched the Fourth of July parade that goes by our street with us in 2008. He was a little young to get much from the production, though we did get this photo of him looking awe-stricken. That was Michelle’s first parade in the United States.

Last year we were in Big Bear and we missed the parade, but we had good seats for the festivities this year. Our friends Eric, Vivian and Olivia were able to join us for the parade.

It’s about 10am in this picture, and Alex and Olivia are raring to see some parade.　易峰和olivia在等游行开始。

“Hey, look, it’s finally starting! Here they come!” “看，来了！”

The nice thing about the seats in the front row is that you can approach some of the parade elements. Alex had the most fun giving high-fives to the drivers. Here Mommy is helping him get to the police truck driver.

易峰和Olivia和开警车的阿姨击手庆祝。

Fire trucks are some of Alex’s favourite vehicles, and he had to repeat the high-five exercise with this one, even though he needed a lot of help from Mommy to get him high enough.

易峰一项很喜欢救护车，这次他有机会和救护车的叔叔击手相庆了。

“That was totally awesome, Mom!” 当妈的比儿子笑得还开心，呵呵。

Alex had such an incredible time at the parade that his Elmo sunglasses were blown backwards, just like Daddy wears his. Dave喜欢把墨镜戴在脑后勺，易峰一学就会了。

Unfortunately, Nicky wasn’t able to get much from the parade this year–he only saw a little bit of it before it was time for his nap. But Mommy and Nicky went down to Hoyt Park for the ice cream social while Alex was napping later, and they had a lot of fun on the swings.

天天没怎么看就回家睡觉了，醒来后，易峰要睡午觉了，（我们家要挑个时间大家都出去，还真不容易呢。）我就带天天去公园玩，天天第一次荡秋千，一点都不害怕，还嘎嘎地笑呢。

Happy Fourth, everyone!

当爸爸妈妈在准备着第二天的国庆游行时，易峰也忙得不亦乐乎呢。很喜欢他做事一丝不苟的态度。

When Dave was cleaning up the chairs and yard for the next day’s parade, Alex found the way to be involved in the preparation and keep himself happy.

奶奶的好朋友和易峰都是金猪年生的，她来看奶奶，给易峰带了很多玩具，易峰为了表示感谢，亲自给奶奶开车。（当然是作秀）

Do you remember the Golden Pig Club? When I went to Houston for my university reunion, the Golden Pig Club reunion occurred in San Diego. In thanks for the many toys given to him by Golden Grandma Beth, Alex volunteered to give her a ride.

我们家附近的图书馆里每周五都有一小时中文课，老师教的很烂，但我有空的话，还是带易峰去那儿遛一遛，大部分的时间都是去喂鸭子了，易峰听不大懂，也不怎么爱去，但有一堂课改变了他对中文课的看法，他现在到自己记得礼拜五去中文课，可惜，从上礼拜中文课又停了。在那堂课上，老师带了五颜六色的麦圈，大小和录像里的差不多，就是有颜色和更多的糖。老师是有两个目的，一个是让学生认颜色，一个是让他们联系用筷子。老师教颜色的时候，易峰根本没用心听，教怎样用筷子的时候，易峰动都不动，拿着筷子，不知道他想什么呢。看的很多小孩都已经在老师的教导下拿筷的姿势都很像模像样了，我真是替易峰着急，深吸了一口气，想还是由他去吧。很快，小朋友们迫不及待地围在装着甜麦圈的大碗旁了，易峰是最小的一个，但在诱人的甜麦圈面前，他一点羞涩感都没有，倒是有个看上去四五岁的女孩子突然吓哭了起来，躲在妈妈的怀里说“我做不到，我不会用筷子”。随即，老师一声令下：“开吃！”，只见十几双筷子冲向碗内。我瞄了一眼易峰拿筷子的手，不禁大呼小叫起来，这小家伙真是个天生的“吃货”，拿筷子的姿势无师自通，太标准了，易峰不紧不慢，认真坚定，在妈妈的不停鼓励下，第一个夹到了麦圈，大家都对这个不会讲中文的小不点刮目相看，易峰那天感觉很好，我也是。

回家后我很激动想让易峰给爸爸显摆显摆，但易峰在图书馆吃的过程中，发现把筷子从麦圈的中间插过去更容易，所以他就吃成在下面录像里那样了。

Alex’s chopstick practice. He did it, and he wants a high five.

Alex was a big help washing the van.　易峰在帮爸爸擦车。

Alex and Nicky cooling it with some toy cars in the crib.　易峰想尽哥哥的责任，但天天好像不领情呢，天天其实是又饿又困了，没心情跟哥哥玩了。

Alex takes a fall.　天天能扶着东西站一会儿了。

Nicky takes a fall.　天天被哥哥的演奏技巧“倾倒”了，哈哈。