The View from Here: {alter ego}

Bei Bei had a pretty low key Halloween this year. While her oldest sister traipsed off to a costume/birthday party on Saturday night, and older sister had her pants scared off at a five-star spooktacular Halloween party hosted by her classmate (whose father is the general manager of a Hilton hotel) replete with a haunted trail and creepy dinner (ghoul-masked waiters, eye balls in goblets of green slime); Bei Bei and her Korean classmate contented themselves decorating hard, tiny pumpkins with Sharpie markers and playing in the relaxed way five-year-olds are famous for.

But even without a Halloween party of her own, and without any trick-or-treating this year, Bei Bei found a way to "alter her ego". In fact, she does so nearly everyday! In the single day that this was photographed (with camera on my first generation iphone) she wore this sequined mask, a purple tutu, a witch hat, and a Hawaiian hula skirt. She daily plunders the dress up bin and creates great combinations.

My older girls don't dress up so much anymore. Yes if there is a birthday party invite that stipulates a costume is required. Yes if it's Halloween, or Book Week or International Day @ school. It used to be there wasn't a day that went by that EHJ wouldn't don the Old Navy cow costume (circa 2000) and spend the better part of the day in it, but it's been ages now since my middle dabbled in dressy-ups. And forever and a day since my oldest did.

So I will relish the moments Bei Bei spends altering her ego. Even if it means that if I round the corner to see how her teeth brushing is coming along I find her in a cami and baggy Chinese undies posing in the mirror in a sequined mask, without toothbrush in sight!

|This Post is Linked to The View From Here: 8 {alter ego} Photo Challenge over @ gogovivi.com

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{Nesting}

My friend over at gogovivi.com began a photo challenge a few weeks ago called The View From Here. (Be sure to click and follow her links in my sidebar). The photo entries have been beautiful, often coupled with thoughtful prose on the week's topic.

My blogging style is relaxed to say the least. I often write as an outpouring of what I've been ruminating on, and thus, posts come weeks after the actual event, and never daily. Yet, the idea of an assigned topic was interesting, and this weeks topic of "Nesting" correlated perfectly with the increasing autumnal feel of Qingdao's October weather.

As I started thinking of what to try to capture with my "point and shoot" style, I saw our sweet old pup, exhausted at the day's end, stretched out in the awkward way she favors. Something about the way she relaxes at the end of the day (and in the middle of the day, and in the morning just after the bustle of activity trying to get three girls out the door on time) makes me feel like she has the idea of nesting figured out perfectly.

Most days, she chooses to take her lazy snoozes in a space closest to wherever the nearest family member is. (As I write this, mid-day on a Thursday, she has plopped down on the hardwood floor, directly behind my computer chair.)

But after the girls go down at night she fully resigns herself to her proper nest. She paws at her bed as if digging, and gives the fabric cover a tug with her teeth... before finally declaring it properly feathered.

Then she lays down, often with her head dangling down on the cool marble floor ... and nests.