Birds Nest and Hot Pot

Shortly after the girl's afternoon nap, we got busy with some fun playtime/attachment bonding with play dough. Little did Wim know where this would lead. Clara Rose and Josie thought it was hilarious when I made a little clay birdie and had it squawking around at them and BaBa. Then Josie made a bed for the birdie and we put it on BaBa's head.   I think Clara Rose is learning that there are certain things BaBa isn't so great about doing—like taking the lid of her sippy cup so she can drink from it without the top on; giving candy canes, Oreo cookies. Some people might call the bribes. I call it whatever it takes.  :-D   Clara Rose has tried to come closer to me, but there is one other problem—Josie. If Clara Rose makes any move toward me, Josie jumps in and does this thing with her butt to bump Clara Rose away while she *gracefully* proceeds to plop in lap.  We're working on it. Josie is being very honest—she flat out told me, "I no want Rose to like you.  You MY mommy." All said in a very soft, sincere, scared little voice.   Between Tianjin being a big city, a city covered in snow that we've been told rarely gets as much snow as it has so the streets aren't great, the weather being freezing and having two toddlers on opposite times zones—Wim and I are finding that we don't have the energy or stamina to be as adventurous as we usually are.   Even so, we did decide to eat at a VERY nice, Fancy Chinese restraint last night—with Clara Rose and Josie. Yes, the lack of sleep has made us delusional to think we can actually go to a nice restraint with a 2 and a 3-year old and enjoy a nice relaxing dinner. The staff was quick to bring out plastic everything for the girls.   Our waitress put our napkins on our lap, which Josie did not like because, "that's mommy's job!" As if she doesn't have enough to deal with with Clara Rose, now some strange woman is doing mommy's job!   I ordered duck and water chestnuts which were served in lettuce leaves and dumplings for the girls.   Wim ordered a Hot Pot: you pick a broth, meat, veggies, noodles sauce. They bring an individual pot over a sterno. The hot broth is inside and you put the meat etc. in it yourself and cook it at the table for a leisurely dinner. Wim's food for his hot pot took up nearly the entire table.   His food wasn't brought out all at once—one thing he thought was the sauce wasn't because that came later. For all we know, he mixed the finger water in with his broth. :-D    Clara Rose loves noodles and as soon as she saw those she started crying for them and for Baba to hold her on his lap. She kept trying to grab things on the table and Wim kept saying, "No." I reminded him that she doesn't understand "no" and he needs to say Boo Yao. Of course, the added bit where I called him Mr. Rosetta Stone was definitely too much. Then Josie also wanted some noodles and Wim became increasingly flustered and indignified. But, we managed through dinner without making too huge of a mess—at least neither of the girls pulled the table cloth completely off the table. Although, I think we burned more calories than we consumed.   Wim thought we were going to relax in the room afterward, but I had mentioned swimming to Josie earlier and she wanted to go. Wim somewhat begrudgingly decided he and Clara Rose would also go with us.   Was he glad they did! Clara Rose really enjoyed the pool. They started off slow as shown in the picture, but she quickly wanted to ride on Wim around the pool. Played in a ring and walked around a bit without holding onto Wim.   Josie is up now, so I gotta go.