Golfing Ming

This past week Ming, Mommy and I spent a few days at our home away from home in Bigfork, Montana. We hung out during the days, but made sure we worked in 9 holes of golf each evening. Lil' Ming-A-Ling wandered carefree around the golf course when she wasn't sitting in the golf cart enjoying snacks. Sometime soon she'll probably be swinging a club too!

Wouldn't You Think?

Wouldn't you think that a little girl who got to spend the morning at Wonderland playing miniature golf with her Mommy, brothers, and cousin would have a big smile on her face? Not so....because it's too hot!

The Musical Genius

Backyard Sundays with Ming

I haven't posted a picture of our little princess in a while - here she is in the backyard sharing her big smile. She had recently gotten up from a nap, which she still takes joyfully.

In her hands is my Chapstick. She knows that Nate and I always have Chapstick in our pockets, so her favorite game is to touch her finger to her lips and gives a little sing-songy noise (kind of like a seal makes). When we give her our Chapstick she lets out an enthusiastic "dah-tah" (which is her version of Chapstick).

Nice Britches

Here's Ming enjoying the good ol' outdoors....

Happy May Day!

Well, I went the whole month of April without a picture update of Ming Mei...shame on me. Here are a few of the little darling. First a shot in her pink dress:

Princess wave!

Sitting pretty...

The Good Life

Three of Mings favorite things are eating, watching her Elmo tape, and her pink blanket. Here she is laying in the 'big chair' eating an apple slice while enjoying Elmo and her blanket. This little girl lives the good life!

How Cute is This?

I'm keyboarding from downtown Vancouver, B.C. tonight while I'm here for the Vancouver International Boat Show. I took this pic of Ming this week before I left town. She watches her brothers play video games and loves playing with the controllers. She's not really playing, but she'll be a serious 'gamer' in true Szym fashion before it's over.

Super Bowl Celebration

Tonight after the Colts victory Levi and I ran to McDonald's for ice cream treats. Mommy, Titus and Levi had hot fudge. The Mingster and I had strawberry. Ming loved hers, and even got to clean out Mommy's hot fudge cup. The picture makes her look a little sad, but she was a happy little girl!

Ya Gotta Love This Shot

This week we have our post-adoption interview with our social worker. We were requested to submit several pictures that will go in 'the file,' including a shot of Ming with Mommy and Daddy. Oddly, we have a guhzillion pictures of Ming, both with Mom and Dad, but none with all of us. So we took this shot for the file. It's great to see Ming smile. I think she likes us.

Isn't she beautiful? [And her daughter, Ming, is pretty cute too! :-) ]

The Good Girl and the Bad Boy

OK, first I'll tell you about The Bad Boy - that's me. I haven't posted a 'fresh' picture since December 7th. Where have I been? What have I been doing? What am I thinking? It's a long story, but let it simply be said that I've been very, very busy...and I don't really have any good excuses. So I'll post a few pictures tonight, then I promise (I promise!) I'll upload a few pictures from the past month, including Christmas. And thanks to several of you who have reminded me that you want to see current pictures.

Here's the Good Girl...

With Big Brother Levi...
'Sup, Gangsta Homegirl?

My Pretty Girls

Mommy went to a Ladies Christmas dessert tonight, so I had the joy of hanging out with Ming. Here's a shot of my two gals just before Mom headed out...And here's a click of Baby Ming in her winter stocking cap...isn't she precious?

Baby Steps

This little sweetheart is getting better and better at walking these days. When she really needs to move fast she still resorts to her monkey walk, but she's quickly realizing that walking on two feet gives her the freedom to do other things with her hands!

We've decided that orange really is her color...even if she does drool on her shirt constantly :-)

Ming's First Turkey Day

We have much for which to be thankful this season - not the least is our precious little daughter Ming Mei Ruth. She continues to bring untold joy to our lives, and we think that she show us her thanksgiving with her smiles, hugs, and steady stream of kisses.

Ming loves to eat, and eat ANYTHING she does. We really haven't found a food item that she doesn't like. Here's a cute shot of Grandpa feeding her a jalepeno cheese popper as a snack before our Thanksgiving meal.

Yes, she even eats broccoli...and turkey, and mashed potatoes, and yams, and stuffing, and break....and she even opens her mouth like a little birdie to have a sip of Mommy's coffee!

Yo Mom! Hey There! I'm outta food here!!

Our after meal entertainment was a tune from the lil' piano prodigy. (She's especially partial to the black keys.)

My Little Eskimo

Another Saturday morning when Daddy got to spend some fun time with Ming! We, along with Levi and Joe the Dog, headed out this morning for a little fun cruising around town.















We started at McDonald's where Ming scarfed some eggs. She'll basically eat anything and everything. It's amazing, really. Our boys were fairly picky at this age, but not Ming. If you put it in front of her, she'll gobble it up.


After breakfast I let her climb around on the Play Place at our McD's. She didn't wander too far, but she enjoyed the fun.


Levi found a car in the parking lot that he decided he wanted. I told him that we didn't need a golf cart! :-)


After the fun at McDonald's we went over to Aunt Cindy's for a visit. Cindy used a scrunchie to put Ming's hair up in a little Chinese ponytail.
Ming is standing up regularly these days and taking a 4-5 steps. She really hasn't decided that she wants to walk yet. She does her monkey walk on all fours most of the time. She'll stop, stand up, look around, then drop back down on feet and hands (no knees!) to motate around.

The Ming and I - Part 3

We started our Sunday morning at McDonald's for some sausage and eggs - and a bottle. And yes, we did skip church. I figured that other Mommies would appreciate one less runny nosed baby in the nursery while Ming is nursing her sniffles.

Ming was able to experience her first-ever visit to Play Place while at McDonalds.

Later in the morning we tied Joe Dog to the stroller and took a long, enjoyable walk.

Our afternoon was spent hanging out at home. Titus did a great job keeping his eye on Ming as I worked to tidy up the house for Mommy's arrival back home. As the afternoon progressed I honestly think she was getting a little edgy without her Mom. It was one of those special 'mother and child reunions' when pretty mommy arrived home around 5pm after a long drive from Portland in the rain.

Now it's back to playing second fiddle for me...

The Ming and I - Part 2

Since I am only able to post a limited number of photos per blog entry, it looks like I'll have multiple entries for my Ming-A-Ling Weekend...
Lunch (after the nap) consisted of pizza...Hey, I'm a guy! She loved it, by the way.

We hung out at home for the afternoon, just playing and messing up the house. Then for the late afternoon we headed out to one of our favorite haunts - Starbucks.

I have this little made up song that I sing that goes like this..."I am the emperor of China..." I usually sing it when either me or Ming is wearing a goofy hat.

By the time I gave Baby Ming her bath and read her a book, she was good and ready for bedtime after a fun-filled day with Daddio.

The Ming and I

I have been neglectful of my blog, so I'm going to do a little catching up tonight. Recently I spent 7 days in Alaska, so I got thrown off my groove. But this weekend I had some good Ming-Time while Linda and Levi went to the Portland area to visit Nate at college. Titus was busy doing his senior-in-high-school thing, so for the most part it was just Ming and I.

We bagan our Saturday morning with a yummy breakfast at Chaps. If you live in Spokane and haven't been to Chaps, you're missing out. Chaps is across the parking lot from the Latah Bistro next to the old Tidyman's (Chaps Coffee Company4235 S. Cheney-Spokane Rd.Spokane, WA 99224509.624.4182 ). I had an enjoyable bowl of oatmeal while Ming feasted on watermellon rind. While cruising I took this over my shoulder at a stop light. Ming's not sure about my driving.
We made a stop at one of my favorite clothing stores where Ming joined me in the dressing room while I tried on a shirt.
We couldn't resist a saunter through Sportsman's Warehouse - Ming liked the camo gun cases. Notice the rosy cheek and red nose...she's been fighting the sniffles lately.
By the time we headed home for Ming's noon time nap she was tuckered out...she didn't even wait for the crib.