The Harris Family

As of today, we’re 37 weeks along which means, in medical terms, the baby is officially full-term! In other words, if labor started today, the doctor would make no attempt to slow it down or stop it.

(We’re hoping, of course, that she bakes for a few more weeks.)

Among other accomplishments this weekend, we got the car seats installed in each of the cars. At first, it seemed like it would be easy because of the LATCH connectors on today’s car seats.

But then it turned out that the seats can’t go back very far if the car seat is directly behind them and the middle position doesn’t have LATCH connectors in either of the cars, so we had to learn to install them the old-fashioned way: with seat belts.

This turned out to be more complicated than I thought it would be, but hopefully we have them secured correctly now.

The house is in total disarray with the construction crew ever-widening the number of rooms they’re working in. Lynne puts the chances that the first steps the baby takes being on Ram Board as 15%.

Everyone have a happy Thanksgiving, and we’ll post here as soon as we have any more news.

In June, Lynne and I spent nearly two full weeks in Beijing. This was an exciting an interesting time to be in China; less than two months before the Olympics, Beijing was a city in the midst of transformation. Cranes and construction were everywhere as the city prepared to reveal itself to the world.

Truth be told, we really enjoyed our time in Beijing. The city is vast but, in many ways, beautiful and modern. English is not widely spoken, but it’s possible to get around with little trouble.

The taxis, while plentiful, drive more aggressively and dangerously than any place I’ve been. I’ve never felt it more likely that I would die in a taxi (and that includes a ride in Buenos Aires in which a taxi driver got out of his car and punched out a fellow driver onto the trunk of the taxi we were in.)

The smog was crippling, and both of us experienced cold-like symptoms because of the reduced air quality. But we also experienced a few beautiful days, climbed the Great Wall, experienced the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, had some great dumplings, and saw most of the main historical sites.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Beijing

I hope we’ll be back in China soon to continue exploring!