Zavoral Villa!

Tanner started crawling during President's weekend while my parents were here. He took his first three crawling steps when my dad placed a can of Dr. Pepper a few feet away from him. During the subsequent days, he spent most of his time rocking back and forth on his hands and knees, scooting his legs forward and pushing back ward with his arms. This made it so that he either moved nowhere or backwords. Here, he pushed himself backwords into the couch, and he couldn't figure out how to move forward! Look at my chubby bud! During the next few days of crawling, Tanner did a lot of pivot turns on his belly, and tried taking a few steps on his hands and knees. Here, he made it forward under the piano bench to see the golden piano peddles, but then he got stuck! Within two weeks of his Dr. Pepper move, he was roaming all over the house. His favorite places to play are at the laundry pile in our room, the crack in the kitchen where we keep the broom, and anyplace that has a rug. Huh, ...

On Thursday, March 15, Jeremy was in China. Here's what he wrote to me about the world he was in: "Since my dinner plans were canceled, I wandered around aimlessly in the city for about three hours. Saw some interesting things. It's kind of like looking at the tide pools...at first it doesn't look like anything interesting is there, but when you really take some time to look you start seeing all kinds of cool stuff. Even though it was about 10pm and raining, the streets were bustling with people, car horns, bikes, and mopeds. Really active and interesting stuff. Oh, and I ate at KFC. Why? Because I felt like it. That place is seriously a part of Chinese culture now so deal with it. Also, 7-11's don't sell Slurpees here. I asked the guy where the Slurpees are and he looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. Probably because I was speaking a foregn language. But yeah. No Slurpees in China. I couldn't believe it. This must be a third world country. ...

Jeremy is in China right now learning about various businesses with his MBA program at USC. He went with 70 of his classmates. They will be enjoying lectures, touring offices, visiting production plants, stores, and markets. Here is a blurp from one of his first emails that he sent a few days ago!! He's gone from March 9-March 18. I am super jealous, but so happy that he gets this experience! "Really a fun day today. We did lots of shopping/haggling/bargaining... We went out a few times and tried to just see as much as possible. People have no personal space issues. They just push right past you...even old ladies! Especially old ladies!  It's fascinating to see super modern luxury things right next to crappy old junk. Like the roads are filled with luxury mercedes and BMWs and also rickshaws and rusty bikes with whole families piled on. The buildings look brand new, but everyone dries their laundry outside, even underwear. And they don't even put their laundry on their...

My mom knitted this BEAUTIFUL sweater for Tanner. It was a big undertaking for her; it was her first time knitting something that isn't just straight like a scarf. A few weeks into it, she was told that she chose one of the hardest sweater patterns out there- esp for a beginner. I'm so honored at the amount of love that Mom put into every stitch- and restitch, and re-restitch- of this sweater. It took her hundreds, probably thousands, of hours. And it paid off. Tanner looks soooo handsome in it. Thank you, Nana. We love it!! I took these pictures on our couch when he was 7.5 months old (last month). And the little trooper was a very happy sport, despite having a 102 fever and a double ear infection at the time.