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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>expat-mama</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/15393112"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Another NH lover here! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/thumb.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="thumbs up"> Do you all still have the license plates "Live Free or Die"?...those were my favourite.</div>
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It's funny just how many people have PM'd me about how much they love NH. I do feel so lucky to live here, but often think of us as a dinky little state tucked up into the corner of the country away from everyone else....<br><br>
Yes, we're still the Live Free or Die state - in fact the Free State Project (liberitarian group) has chosen NH as their spot to form a real presence and try to affect the local government. Should be interesting to see how this plays out.<br><br>
There have been some changes in recent years, while there is still the 'keep your laws off my life' yankee-ism, the state seems to be moving a bit more towards the dems than the libs (although we'll see how that plays out in upcoming elections with the economy still struggling).<br><br><div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>expat-mama</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/15393112"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Your DD sounds like a smart cookie- you can't fool her when it comes to ice cream! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/orngbiggrin.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="orange big grin"> My kind of girl!</div>
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She is a trip. The funny thing is that I wasn't trying to hide it, I really thought we were out. Her ice cream is usually in a certain spot and it wasn't there this time. I do wonder if she saw it when someone opened the door for something else or if she was playing a hunch, but either way she got the goods.<br><br><div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>expat-mama</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/15393112"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">What do you and your family do together to have fun/relax?</div>
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These days it's all about DD (she's 2.5). We spend a lot of time outside at home doing things around the yard - DH built our house 10 years ago, but are still just getting the landscaping/yard sorted out. Currently DD's favorite thing is to drive the tractor. She wants to go check the mail at least 3 times a day (mailbox is a mile down the driveway, so she gets dad to drive down w/ the tractor), thinks the lawn needs mowing every day and insists on putting the trailer on the tractor to "pick somethings up".<br><br>
She's just getting to a great age where the aquarium/childrens museum/zoo/etc would be fun, so I'm hoping we get a chance to do that before this little one arrives (or depending on how I feel maybe while I'm on leave w/ the little one).<br><br>
We also get to spend a good amount of time with family - my parents live just 10 miles away in the house I grew up in (I'm embarassed by this for some reason - like I never got away - but in fact DH and I lived in OR for a few years, then in MA for a couple, when it was time to come home we figured we'd land back in NH, but who knew it would be in the next town over from where I grew up???). At any rate my brother and his family live adjacent to my parents (they split the land), so we've got lots of family right here. And DH's family is spread over the north east, but they all make an effort to come up and visit regularly, and we manage to travel to them somewhat frequently as well.<br><br>
And as horrified as I am to admit this, DD's favorite thing as of late is to go the mall. Or in her words: the spaceship and train house. The only maternity store in the area is at a mall, and I've had a horrid time finding plus size maternity that fits me (small on top/giant belly/big legs) so we've gone in to check for new stock about once a month. I do my shopping very quickly and then she gets to ride on the miniature train and crawl all over the spaceship toy that eats quarters (little does she know that the thing turns on if you feed it money!!!)<br><br><div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>expat-mama</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/15393112"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">When you imagine your little boy, what do you see?</div>
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Being that my DD looks exactly like DH but is a carbon copy of my personalty (STRONG willed, too 'smart' for her own good, empathetic, did I mention strong willed???), I rather imagine (hope?) that this little boy is going to be just like DH.<br><br>
DH's genes will always win (asian vs irish/english), so I expect he'll look a lot like his sister, but I hope that he gets a bit of his dad in terms of personality. Quieter, funny, mechanical (able to reason out how something works and fix anything), sure of his ideas, but less overpowering than his mum.<br><br>
I actually picture the little guy as a quieter version of my DD. Maybe b/c my brother (younger than me by 2.5yrs, just like this little one will be compared to his sister) is the more subdued one in my family. It's also hard to believe that anyone could be as full of personality and energy as DD - if so our house will be very interesting!<br><br>
We're not much for gender roles in our house (in fact friends often joke that DH is my wife - taking care of me and making sure things get done, and some of our less "enlightened(?)" friends feel the need to ask why DD has so many "boy toys" - umm what???) so I am not really expecting big boy/girl differences, more first child/second child I think.<br><br><div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>expat-mama</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/15393112"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Does your family celebrate your husband's Vietnamese and/or Jewish culture?<br><br><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/love.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="love"></div>
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Mmmm, this one makes me sad.<br>
DH grew up in northern NH in a very rural area. (He actually went to a one-room school house with 2 kids in his grade.) From what I can tell his parents thought things would be easiest if he just 'blended in'. As a result if you met my DH w/o being able to see him you would likely assume that he was a (white) northern NH hick (complete w/ bad accent). In fact to this day his best friend calls him RAJ (******* Asian Jew).<br><br>
Which is a really long way of explaining that until I went through the papers that came with him when he was adopted he had no idea where in Vietnam he was from, he knows nothing about Vietnam itself (up until a few years ago he was _convinced_ that the entire nation lived in grass huts), and has absolutely no interest in learning more.<br><br>
This is in contrast to my family which is white as white can be, living in great white state of NH and was so concerned about this that they imported exchange students to live with us to expose us to other cultures. In fact the last "summer" exchange student we had ended up living with us all through high school and we consider her one of our siblings.<br><br>
As for his family's jewish heritage, his mum's family is non-practicing so he didn't get exposed at all there. His dad is non-practicing but his extended family is very observant. I'm not sure how this all played out, but DH has issues w/ his grandmother who apparently tried to stuff religion down DH and his brother's throats in such a way that both now consider themselves agnostic/atheist (depending on the day).<br><br>
That's all a very long explanation for 'no, while my DH has all sorts of cool backgrounds, he/his family have done nothing with any of it'.<br><br>
I'm sure it's clear how I feel about all of this, and that our children will be raised with a much different perspective. (Right now DD wants to go live in Japan b/c she thinks that sushi looks enough like birthday cake that it would be cool to eat it everyday - mind you DD has never had bday cake b/c she's allergic to wheat, eggs, milk, etc, but for some reason it's her favorite pretend food).
