Happy New Year 2009 Fei! After spending the Christmas in Disneyland we were finally ready to hit the Paris big time. We rented an apartment for one week at the very center of the city, halfway Champs-Elysées. There you, mom and I spent the last week of 2008 all the way until the first of January, 2009!



You're always excited to see new places and Paris was no exception. You didn't enjoy the shopping as much as your mom, but you very much liked the Christmas lights that decorated the trees along the streets. Unfortunately the weather was cold and windy, so we had to limit the time spent outside. Paris is also extremely polluted - perhaps even more so than the big cities in China - so it was overall a good idea to stay mostly indoors.

During the week you had a chance to meet your lovely French teacher Meriem. You immediatelly hit it off with her and started slapping her face with both hands, which I guess she took as a gesture that you don't like her. Quite the contrary of course. It's just that you seem to be very interested in the ways that your hands (and other objects) interact with all kind of surfaces. You bounce me in the head with all kinds of things multiple times a day and I think you obviously couldn't possibly love your dad a single bit more than you already do.

After one week I think we're all pretty much done with Paris for the time being. It's nice to be back in Zürich - it almost felt like returning home to see all the familiar buildings around river Limmat when we finally made it to the city. For you it's probably been at the same time exciting and stressful to be on the road for past two weeks. We're now going to take it easy for a while and settle down, trying to get back to daily routines... it's fun to travel but it's also very good to just be home!

Ok, so Christmas Eve was the third and final day of our adventures in Disneyland Paris. I think it's safe to say we've had a good dose of Disney for now, we'll see when the next time is. I honestly cannot understand the joy of standing in line hour after hour in a freezing cold weather. You didn't seem to mind that much though, as in the line there's always people who are willing to respond to your flirting, which helps a lot.

On the third day we were lucky, as it seems Christmas Eve is not a popular day to be at Disney. The weather was nice, and the lines were a fraction of what they had been in the previous days. We went on to several rides: Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Mat Hatter's Tea Cups, It's a Small World and Peter Pan's Flight. But before that we visited the Walt Disney Studios theme park which is right next to Disneyland. Right at the gates we bumped into Pluto, who was happily run around and came to say hello to you too!

Walt Disney Studios didn't offer much to one-year old dude like you, but it had one unexpected highlight - after having bumped into Pluto on the entrance, on the way out we met with Mickey Mouse! Unfortunately your first meeting with Mickey didn't go quite as planned...

You were asleep when we stood in line waiting for our turn. It was just about to be our turn and you were still in a deep sleep. I guess your mom was worried you might be feeling cold as she placed her hands on your cheeks... somehow her warm hands on your cold little cheeks freaked you out as you woke up and started crying as loud as a baby just can. And then it was our turn... oops! While you are usually mr. Sunshine with strangers, Mickey got an earful that he is not going to forget for a while... 

After meeting Mickey we decided to try Disneyland again. Dumbo was the first, and it also had the longest lines. The sign posted at the start of the queue said 60 minutes, but I would guess it was less than that. You were quite happy to be looking at the elephants from a distance, but the actual flying turned out to be kind of scary.

The tea cups seemed a lot more fun to you. Probably that was because you were riding with mom, who was not giving any extra spin to the cup. I surely would have given a you a wilder ride... then, the Small World was naturally quite interesting but it was also very short. Peter Pan might have been a little scary but you didn't actually see much as you were sitting between mom and I...

We missed the parade, but we'd already seen it twice. It was getting chilly so we decided to stroll through the Disney Village once more and get something to eat before retiring for the day. We thought of a balloon ride but since you fell asleep again, we just decided to get something quick to eat.

And then we found it! At the end of the Disney Village's main street there's a fantastic restaurant called Mickey's Cafe. Mickey and a lot of his friends are around all the time talking to the guests. You woke up just in time to have the second chance to meet Mickey. Fortunately Mickey is such a relaxed dude so he acted as if nothing had happened earlier in the day and so you guys had a nice little moment together!

In the end you met a lot of different Disney characters and you seemed to have a very good time. After all it seems this was the best moment for you during the Disney adventure. It's definitely much nicer to sit around a table enjoying food and letting everyone come to you than waiting ages in a cold weather for a chance for a quick photo!

We skipped Disneyland for one day and drove to Paris city instead as your mom wanted to visit Galeries Lafayette to do some last minute Christmas shopping and daddy wanted to have a chance to take some photos. It was sort of a mistake to drive there, as it took over two hours to get through the 30 kilometer distance! The traffic in Paris is definitely not any better than in Los Angeles...

The actual Lafayette department store was quite a disappointment. In fact Stockmann in Helsinki city center is better, if only somewhat smaller. For you though, the only thing that matters is that people around you like to flirt with a cute baby such as yourself, so the trip wasn't too bad. Except for the drive, which was starting to bore you a lot. In the end it turned out to be impossible to park anywhere in the city so we didn't take photos, but we did drive through Louvre and by other famous buildings. You didn't seem to think they were anything special, but it might have been that you would have preferred walking instead of sitting in the car seat...  

So the next day (the day before Christmas Eve) it finally a sunny and we decided to go to Disneyland again. This time you were clearly a lot more alert and interested in things around you. I guess the first time there were just too many new things. Now that the surroundings where a little more familiar, you were very active and looked at everything with a great deal of interest.

We thought of taking you to some rides, but then the reality hit - even Dumbo, which is just a simple carousel type of thing where you sit on the back of Dumbo the flying elephant, has 90 minute long wait with no FastPass. In fact, almost all rides that are suitable for kids your age had extremely long lines but no FastPass.

Fortunately you are perfectly fine with just looking at all the wonderful things around. I can only imagine what will happen in a few years time when you absolutely must go through every ride!  

In the end we just took a spin on the traditional carousel. You didn't quite know what was going on so most of the time you were just trying to get out of the horse's back. Live and learn though, I'm sure it was still quite an experience.

As the daylight faded away it became quite chilly. We watched the 5PM parade and the returned to the hotel for some hot bath and nice relaxing time... 

Happy birthday Fei! On Sunday, December 21, 2008 you turned exactly one year old! What a year it has been! You were actually a big and strong baby when you were born so I can't say you've grown from the tiniest little baby to a big boy, but you certainly have grown and learned a lot.

To properly celebrate your first year we headed over to Disneyland Paris. The drive from Zürich to Paris is about six hours, but with couple stops it turned to be more like eight. Add to that the fact that daddy couldn't find the hotel as my cellphone, which was used as a navigator, ran out of power just as we arrived the area, and the entire trip was over nine hours! I must say you did much better than I ever expected and in the end it was your mom who almost couldn't handle it...

Anyway, on Sunday we ate birthday cake with the breakfast. We did it the Chinese way, just on the side of the food instead of as a dessert. We decided to let you go wild with the cake and do with it anything you want, but it didn't quite work out as planned... as you're always super careful with all new things, the wildest thing was when your sleeve accidentally touched the corned of the cake as you were carefully reaching to touch a strawberry on top of it. No smashing, banging, etc... what a neat little baby you can be!

After the cake we quickly headed over to Disneyland, which was could actually already been seen from the hotel so the drive was not long and we had not danger of getting lost this time! Unfortunately the weather was kind of dark, cloudy and a little rainy, but I guess that's going to be a common theme with your birthdays to come. Late December is not exactly known for its sunshine... so we'll just have to live with it!

You fell asleep almost instantly after we arrived to the park and in fact took one of the longest naps for a long long time. Your mom and I were actually able to walk through the Disneyland park and all the way back to Disney Village, then proceed to Planet Hollywood for some lunch and almost finish eating before you woke up! Since it was already getting late, the most exciting part of the day ended up being the loud and colorful Disney parade which started right after sunset. You spent the entire parade sitting on my neck looking at the colorful show intently. I can only imagine what you must have been thinking... waking up from a nap and being thrown into the middle of a parade of Disney characters...

So, happy birthday my little boy! I will be writing more as soon as I can... now we're still staying near Disneyland and will spend some more time there (today was another day at the park, but more on that later!) Now it's time for me to follow your example and get some sleep!

It seems you've now totally figured out you are able to move yourself from A to B on your own. You now basically move all the time and it seems you really don't want to focus on one thing for too long time. All it takes for me is to look at the other way for half a second and you're already in the other side of the room!

Fortunately you're always extremely careful with new things. If there's a new toy you didn't see before, you usually first just gently poke it with one finger first, and then see what happens. Then a little stronger touch, and finally very careful examination. Of course you are a boy, so usually you proceed all the way to the point where you test how much noise the new toy makes if it's smashed against all types of hard surfaces, but the important thing still is that you are careful at first!

It's been quite a challenge to get you eating properly, mostly due to this same reason. You're usually so careful to taste new things that it takes a lot of time and patience to get to the point where you actually eat something. First there's just a little touch by the tongue, then perhaps quickly in the mouth and immediatelly out again, and so on... but you've recently started to eat more and more, in fact you've started showing some real healthy appetite.

Obviously you've all the time grown really well, I think you're somewhere in the top 5% of the babies in your age group, so there's never been any real worry of your eating habits either.

One interesting thing - you'd think that someone who moves and does things continuously would get tired and want to sleep early. No way! Our little Fei is like an Energizer Bunny who seems to outrun both of the parents hands down! I have no idea where you get all the energy but it seems you could just stay up all night if we didn't make you sleep sometimes. Not that we're complaining though. I think you're probably just so excited about everything, and that's a great thing of course!

We had an important mission: we needed to get you diapers that are made in Japan. When you and mom visited China a while ago, your mom somehow really fell in love with this specific brand of diapers. She feels you are much happier wearing it, as it's so soft and good for the skin...

We couldn't find this brand in Finland, and so far haven't found in Switzerland either. However, your grandpa in China went out and bought couple packets of your favorite diapers and send them on the way with a Chinese girl who was coming to Switzerland. She's going to be taking care of auntie Ding's daughter who is studying at a private school in near Lausanne.

We rented a car and drove through the Swiss countryside from Zürich to Lausanne. The trip was very easy - you slept the entire way. Switzerland is quite a small country so the trip also was not all that long, and the highways are in a good condition.

After picking up the diapers we headed out to the city of Lausanne to walk around a little bit. It turned out parking in Lausanne city center is nearly impossible... in the end I was able to find a tiny spot in the tiniest parking carage I've ever seen and was lucky enough to get the car in and out without a dent!

It was getting kind of late so we were pondering whether to stay the night in Lausanne or to head back to Zürich. We basically had to be back in Zürich the following afternoon anyway, so staying the night there would mostly give us a chance to do a little walk in Lausanne in the morning.

You fell asleep so we decided to drive back and let you sleep in the car... bad choice! You woke up when we moved you from the trolley to the car seat. Boosted from the little power nap, you decided to not sleep at all on the way back... and since you were not sleeping, you also were not quite content to sit still in the car seat... oh well.


During the trip I wished many times we had made a different choice and decided to stay the night in a hotel, but oh well... in the end we made it back home sound and safe! The funny thing is, arriving Zürich and driving along the Limmat river I almost felt like returning home. We've only been here for couple weeks, but the characteristic city is very easy to like, and it's easy to feel at home.

You are now almost one year old, and yet another major event has happened in our life. Couple weeks ago we packed our bags, left Helsinki behind and arrived in Zürich, Switzerland!

I'm sure for you it's been quite an adventure. In fact, it's been an adventure for all of us, really. We lived the first few days in a nice Mövenpick hotel near the Zürich airport, and then moved to a furnished apartment near the city center. Unfortunately there will be at least one more move, as we are currently waiting for all the relocation paperwork to be finished so that we can get a more permanent place to live...


You seem to like Switzerland. The climate is equally chilly, but people here are somehow warmer and more open than in Finland. Anywhere we go, pretty much everyone wants to come talk to you. In the department stores the sales people stop whatever they were doing just to come and greet you with a smile. Sometimes even the big and scary security guys cannot hold themselves and flash an adoring smile when they look at you. And you really seem to like attention! The flirt-mode switches on immediatelly when a stranger is in sight.

Congrats Fei, today you're featured in Finland's largest newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat! They wrote a nice story about XIHA Life with photo of you and mentioned your blog in it, too. You and I have a nice little morning tradition where I first read the newspaper and you then destroy it, but this time I guess I will try to save it for you to read later on!

Today was a big day for you - a living proof that Santa does exist! The grand old man himself was at our local shopping mall and you got a chance to tell him what you want for Christmas!

This will in fact be your second xmas but last year at 3 days old you were probably a little young to get too many lasting memories out of it...

You had such a good time at the grandpa's today playing with your cousins Teo and Milja. You guys really seem to get along well! Needless to say my dad was very glad to see you too. We enjoyed a little bit of cake too but for you it seems the main thing was meeting all the people.

You absolutely don't like driving in a car though. One hour each way was about 50 minutes too long! Poor little guy. I hope you will get used to it one of these days as driving is kind of necessary or we will end up being being stuck at home!

Today's the first time you got up to standing on your own, without anyone helping out! Couple days ago we lowered the bottom of your old crib (which you have actually never used before) to see if you'd like to spend some time there. Right from the beginning you started trying to figure out how to pull yourself to a standing position and after two days of hard work you already figured it out. This makes me think you probably would have done it a lot sooner if we'd given you the right opportunity before...

Your first time standing was quite wobbly, but in almost no time you've learned to stand quite well and even attempt to steer your way left and right holding the rail!

It was your first Halloween so we had a little pumpkin carving fun! I think the pumpkin turned out quite nice, and you were a good helper through all of it! 

Last month was quite an adventure for all of us. I spent the month in California while you and mom went to Beijing. You finally had a chance to meet your grandpa, as well as the famous Madame Ding.

Despite the long distance we kept in touch with daily Skype video chats so it wasn't totally horrible. I can only wonder what you were thinking of, seeing dad every day on the computer screen, hearing my voice, but not being able to touch. Your mom was telling me that you always got very excited when she started Skype!

When we all returned back home, it was kind of as if nothing had happened. I was afraid you might be angry at me, or even not really remember me, but you behaved just like the happy little boy you have always been. I'm sure the daily calls helped a lot, so it probably didn't feel like I was so far away. While in China you met with some very famous people, such as Wang Hairong, who was a personal English translator of chairman Mao Zedong. You also got to visit Diao Yu Tai, "King's fishing garden" which is a place in Beijing where very few people have access to.

During the month you grew a lot, and obviously you've learned a lot of new stuff too. You now sit up very well and play with multiple toys, holding different toys in each hand, moving toys from hand to hand and looking and feeling them from all angles.

I've been playing a little "choosing" game with your bath toys. You have these "little people" type of toys, which are basically tiny people with colorful clothes. I usually pick two or three, and ask you to pick a favorite. Out of yellow, green and brown guys you almost every time pick the green. Today somehow you picked the yellow, even though I tried twice... and one day you you simply grabbed all of them. Most of the time though, you carefully move your little hand through all of the toys, gently touching each of them, and then pick up the green guy with a wide smile on your face.

Just yesterday you picked another new skill - shaking your head. When you don't want something you shake your head from left to right just like saying "no". Extremely cute! You also really enjoy looking at mom and dad copy you and do the same.

Oh and what a chance one month means in terms of mobility! You're now pretty good at crawling around, and sometimes almost get up on "four wheels". Rolling is like a snap, and you move great distances amazingly quickly. In the bath tub you can get up and move around in standing position, too. I guess you'll be walking all over the place in no time!

Oh my, it's been a really long while since I last wrote to you. Daddy's been busy you know, as always. But at least we've had a chance to spend some quality time together every day, even if I did't have time to write about it.

So today the big thing happened - you said it loud and clear, and more than just once - "DADDY!"

Over the past few months you've kept growing and you're quite a tall boy already. Your favorite thing these days is use a "walker" to cruise around our home, checking out every place you can. Opening drawers, cabinets, reaching for everything you possibly can! Fortunately the walker kind of keeps you in check and prevents you from reaching everywhere... but of course it's just a matter of time when you start moving on your own.

Something you are not really doing, is eating. You love fruits, you're somewhat ok with oatmeal, but you absolutely hate "real" food. We can only hope you'll learn to like eating later on or you're gonna be a skinny boy... (or, if you keep your taste sweets perhaps I should be worried of the opposite?) Your doctor was saying she's never seen an adult who doesn't eat food so the odds are you'll get over it sooner or later.

Fei, you are a Mozart in making! I remember we let you check out the piano several months ago when you were a little baby but your little hands were not strong enough to even make a sound. All we could do was "walk" along the keys but you were not really excited about that... I guess the strong sound of piano at that time was kind of scary.

Well, things have obviously changed quite a bit! Two days ago when mom was playing you were showing a lot of interest to join in. And sure enough - you're now strong enough to actually play sounds, and that turned out to be a nearly endless source of enjoyment! 

I'm attaching a little video of you playing. As you can see from the video you're basically reading the notes, but I kind of have a feeling you're putting a little bit of your own ideas to the mix! Great job little maestro!