Zoo

今天我们去了著名的圣地亚哥动物园。大多数动物是安娜第一次见到，以前看到的动物都是在书本上看到的。她似乎特别喜欢动物，尤其喜欢狮子和长颈鹿。在这些动物前都是流连忘返，不愿意离开。只可惜看熊猫时， 两个熊猫都在睡觉， 介绍的板报上写着：“真真（两岁熊猫的名字）每天睡觉14个小时，吃饭10个小时." 哇！一天24个小时，她除了睡觉，就是吃饭，日子过得真舒心啊。我什么时候也能这样?

Today we visited the "world famous San Diego Zoo". It's Anna first time to see most of the animals in real life. Before she only knew the animals in pictures and today she was very excited to see the real ones. She especially likes the lions and the giraffes. She didn't want to move on to the next one when we were seeing these animals. The two pandas were both sleeping when we were there and the board reads "Zhenzhen (name of the 2 year-old panda) sleeps for 14 hours and eats for 10 hours a day." Wow, all she does is sleep and eat. What a life! When can I live like that?

What's mommy doing?

今天早上， 爸爸问安娜：“妈妈怎么还不下来，在楼上干什么呢？” 安娜一边闭着眼睛把手放在脸上到处拍， 一边说“妈妈在这样。” 她是在形容我在卫生间化妆。可把爸爸乐坏了。This morning before breakfast, daddy asked Anna:"Why is mommy still upstairs? What is she doing there?". Anna looked at daddy and patted her hand all over her face and said, "She is doing something like this." I was applying the make-up when she saw me in the bathroom. It made daddy laugh very hard.

Dress up time

安娜最近喜欢试穿衣服，有一天，她来到我面前，我一看，她手提裤腰，穿着姐姐的裤子，另外一天，我上楼去卧室， 看她正专心致志的穿爸爸的裤子，正努力的把腰带系上。

Anna seems to enjoy trying on clothes recently. One day, she showed up and I noticed that she put on jiejie's pants and the other day, when I went upstairs to our closet and saw her focused on putting on daddy's pants and she was trying very hard to buckle the belt.

My sister is 11!

------ In front of Disneyland-----------------------------------------------------I am too tired to stay awake--------

-----Yay, my sister (jiejie) is 11!-------------------------------------------------I also like my sister's Mickey Mouse doll---------

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Isn't my sister's earring pretty? ----------------------------- I am dancing and singing a song I learned from preschool-------

丽亚昨天过了11岁生日。 我们的大学老同学正好到南加州来开会，我们开车把她送到迪斯尼附近的宾馆，然后走到迪斯尼一条街给丽亚买了个米老鼠玩具。安娜这期间一直在睡觉。今天我又领着丽亚和她的好朋友去扎了耳朵眼儿， 这也是丽亚在几个月前就要的生日礼物。安娜也跟着去了，她感到很害怕，我问她是否也要扎耳朵眼儿，她赶紧把两个耳朵捂上，大声说不要。 Leah turned 11 on the 25th. Our old college friend came down to Southern California for a conference, so we drove her to her hotel. The hotel was right next to Disneyland, so we walked to downtown Disney and Leah picked a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal as her birthday gift. Anna was sleeping pretty much the whole time while we were wandering around. We also took Leah and her friend to have their ears pierced as a birthday present. Anna was scared about it, and when I asked if she also wanted to do it, she covered her ears and immediately said "no."

East coast vacation

我们全家刚刚从东海岸度假回来。安娜玩得很开心，当然了，她最喜欢的还是各种吃的和甜食。尤其是两顿“包肥”(buffet), 她不知吃了多少螃蟹腿。 她也非常喜欢去纽约时代广场的巧克力豆店，玩具店，及冰激凌店。我们都很享受观看百老汇的歌舞表演。看完演出时，都已经半夜了，可令人吃惊的是时代广场周围还是人山人海，纽约真是个不夜城。说起时代广场，我就笑自己真是一个乡下人。 我们就住在广场边上，来到这儿，我就找广场在哪儿， 一说到广场，我就想起了天安门广场，我左看右看，也没有看到广场的迹象，就问先生，广场在哪儿，他说“别逗了，这条街就是大名顶顶的时代广场啊."

这趟旅行，我们还见到了大学及研究生时的好友，他们都很喜欢安娜，我们也参观了东部的几所大学，哥哥明年就要上大学了， 这些校园介绍及向导游览，是个很好的了解大学的机会。总之，这趟旅行，玩得很愉快，给我们留下了美好的记忆。

We just got back from our East Coast family vacation. Anna loved the trip, especially the food and sweets. She loved visiting the M&M'S store, Toys R Us, and the ice cream store at Times Square in New York City. She was very excited to see all the new places. We also had a great time watching Mary Poppins on Broadway. It was almost midnight when the show finished, and the streets were still completely full of people, which was amazing.

We visited several of our college and graduate school friends and they all enjoyed meeting Anna. We also visited colleges in Boston, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia because David is going to college next year, and this was a good opportunity for him to get a feel for the colleges he is considering. All in all, we made many memories and had a great time.

First dentist appoinment

-------------------Waiting for my turn------------------------------------------------------I can do it--------------------

------I am too tired ---------------------------------------------My swim suit fits well (that is a toy between my legs)

----------------I want to have ice cream--------------------------------------Forget about it. Mama, I can almost do the splits!------------

今天，我们全家去看牙医，先是让安娜看姐姐怎样洗牙，然后告诉她也要一样的洗。安娜表现得出人意料的好，她两个小手背在身后，躺在椅子上，给她洗牙，检查，她都特别配合。牙医和他的助理都非常惊讶， 说从来没有遇到过三岁孩子表现得这么好。检查结果，居然一个虫牙也没有。姐姐象她这么大时，有8颗虫牙。看完牙后，我们去给安娜买游泳衣，因为从下周开始，她的学校有玩水日。 由于看牙，安娜没有午睡，到了商店她已经悃坏了，坐在购物车上就睡着了，我们赶紧把她抱到下面躺下睡，她睡了有一小时。
安娜还会时不时的发小脾气。前两天，她要吃冰激灵，因为快到晚饭时间了，我没让她吃，她开始缠着我要，见我不给就躺在沙发上生气。不过没几分钟，她就又蹦又跳了，还练习劈腿给我看。真是来得快，去得也快。
Today, we visited the dentist. Anna did a wonderful job, she did everything the dentist asked her to do without making any fuss. The dentist and his assistant were very amazed that Anna was so cooperative. Knowing that she eats a lot of sweets, we were very surprised that she doesn't have any cavities. That was great news because when Leah was her age, she had 8 cavities. After that, we went to Target to get Anna a swim suit since she will have water days at her preschool. She was so exhausted since it was way passed her nap time, she fell asleep while sitting in the shopping cart, so we lifted her into the bigger basket. She seemed to be very comfortable and slept for an hour.
Anna still occasionally throws fits. The other day, I didn't let her to eat ice cream since we were about to have dinner. First she just pouted and whined and then she ran to the couch and tried to ignore me. But she gets over her tantrums very quickly, which is an improvement。 Just a few minutes later, she shouted at me that she was doing splits. All in all, Anna is doing great.

Learning the alphabet

最近，安娜突然对英文字母很感兴趣，这26个字母中。她能认出21个。我领她到外面散步时，她经常停在各种路标前，汽车牌照前，及她所有能注意到的标记前，大声的念这些字母。前两天，她突然跑到我这儿，给我看她写的字母，"A", "N", "L", 和 "D"，我真是欣喜万分，这小家伙居然自学成材，我真得吹吹牛了，我为她感到骄傲！Recently, Anna has become very interested in learning the alphabet. Out of the 26 letters, she can now recognize 21 of them. Whenever she sees the alphabet, for example, when we go out for a walk, she stops in front of a "STOP" sign, a car's license plate, and pretty much any letters she notices. She will point to them and spell them out loudly. She also started learning to write on her own. The other night, she showed me a few letters she wrote: “"A","N", "L" and "D". I am so proud of her.

Happy 4th of July!

Heading to Doheny State Beach ------------------------------------------I am ready for a full day of fun

我们同两家大学老同学去了橙县的州立海滩庆祝美国独立日。 俩个老同学一大早不到8点就到了海边，他们占到了最好的地方， 还有一个野餐桌子，架起了遮阳棚。我们于11点钟到达。大人孩子都高高兴兴的晚了一整天，大家带了各种饭菜， 一起野餐， 真香啊！ 安娜一直喜欢在游乐园玩儿，大的孩子在海边玩水和游戏。晚上9点一刻，开始放烟火，烟火是从海里的船上打出来的，我们坐在一个至高点上观看，景色非常壮观， 迷人， 持续了有30分钟。安娜觉得很新奇，看得很开心。看完后坐在汽车里已经10点多了，她还说个不停。可是几分钟后，她突然就没了动静，我一看已经进入梦乡了。到家时已经快11点了。 We went to Doheny State Beach in Orange County to meet two of our college classmates and their families to celebrate the 4th of July. Our classmates got there early in the morning in order to find a picnic table and a good spot. We got there at about 11 am. We all had a lot of fun playing games for the whole day. Anna enjoyed playing on the playground and the older girls enjoyed playing in the water. The boys enjoyed playing the board games. Anna was impressed when the fireworks show started from a boat in the ocean at around 9:15 pm. The fireworks lasted for about 30 minutes and we all walked quite a bit to our car. Anna was still very excited talking non-stop when she sat in her car seat, then a few minutes later, she suddenly became quiet and fell asleep. We didn't get home until almost 11 pm.