last day in October

Wow, October is already over! I had big goals of all the things I wanted to do this month (the rest of the winter is pretty busy for us - family visits and holidays in November and December/January, some travel in late January/early February, and then we'll leave for Beijing to have baby #3 sometime before mid-March). So, all that to say, I kind of looked at October as my "chance to get some things done month".

I didn't get EVERYTHING done, but October still rates as a success in my book! I've been cleaning and re-arranging and getting-rid-of-stuff as I figure out exactly where baby #3 will lay its sweet little head once it is no longer conveniently residing in my belly. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure by the time March rolls around, I'll be more than happy to welcome this little one to the big wide world. But, it is taking a little effort to make room for this baby!

Of course, October was a busy month for the girls too! Here they are in a few of my favorite "October moments"!

Julianna colors EVERY day - she loves it!


Lydia spends a lot of her day looking for or playing with balls. (Look closely and you'll see that she has three in her hands in the photo below!)

And, no, this is not a tea party. This is "music practice".


All in all, it was a GREAT October. And we can't wait for all that's in store in the months to come :)

Happy Birthday Granddaddy!!!!!!

Today is my dad's birthday. And the girls have some birthday greetings to share :)



Dad and Mom are coming to visit - only two weeks and two days until their arrival on November 14th!

low expectations = high satisfaction

Earlier this week our apartment complex posted a notice: "ting dian ting shui" on Tuesday from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm.

Here's your translation -
ting = stop
dian = electricity
shui = water

Thus, ting dian ting shui = stop electricity stop water. You will be glad to know this was actually one of the first Chinese phrases I learned. Let's face it, the water and power tend to go off WAY to often around here. Seriously, in my ideal world, I still wouldn't know (or need to know) how to say "power outage" in Chinese!

Anyways, in the spirit of "counting my blessings", I decided to just be thankful for the advance notice. Usually I discover a "ting shui" when I go to turn on the faucet. And nothing comes out.

This morning I hurried to check email (yes - our computer runs on battery, no - our modem does not). I had the coffee brewed by 7:30 and even remembered to fill up a mixing bowl of water in the kitchen sink (to soak dirty dishes). I moved a few things from our small freezer to our deep freezer (which stays icy cold for a long time if you don't open it). All in all, it's possibly the best I've ever been prepared for a water/electricity outage.

But the water stayed on. Power too. 8am rolled around, then 9am. It was sometime between 11 and noon that the water did go off. But, here we are mid-afternoon and the power is still on. I haven't been this thankful for water and/or electricity in a long time.

My old buddy Chad loved to say, "low expectations equals high satisfaction". So true. So very true. When was the last time I thought, "man, I'm having a great day, the water stayed on til almost noon and the power is still running!"

I do have a sneaking suspicion that the story might not be over yet. When will the water return? And what about tomorrow? Is the 12 hour outage inevitable? Or did we luck out this time? But for now, I'm going to ride the "low expectactions equals high satisfaction" wave and enjoy the privilege of opening the fridge without worrying that I am hastening the defrosting process!

Lydia Lydia Lydia

Lydia is such a treat! As the reality of baby #3 sinks in I realize that I am going to miss having Lydia as my "baby". And she is going to miss her role as "baby"! She is a true momma's girl, through and through, to the core, in every sense of the word. Lydia loves her mommy :)

Here are a few photos of my "baby" - ENJOY!

This is the face she makes when we ask her to "smile for the camera"!


"Lydia, where is your nose?"



Kisses for mommy!


Without a doubt, this is one of her favorite "poses". I'm telling you, this girl is a first-class cuddle-bug. With mommy, that is!

becoming readers

Most days right after lunch we have "reading in your room time". The basic idea is that the girls play together in their room while I have a few minutes to get started cleaning up after lunch, straighten the house from the morning's mess, read email, blog, make a phone call, whatever.

It's also a good "wind down" as we approach nap time, though some days they get pretty rowdy and I love just listening to them laugh and play. Today was really quiet though - and when I peeked around the door, I knew I had to run grab the camera, because this is what I saw:




Two little "readers"! So fun!

Of course, the quiet didn't last long. Lydia turned to a noisy (read: battery operated) toy and a few minutes later Julianna hopped off the bed to join in on the fun. But it was nice to see them both reading - even for the briefest moment. I love to read, and hope that my girls learn to love it too :)

So, now you know how I spent today's "reading in your room time" - writing this post! Gotta run now, going to do a little playing with my little girls before nap time starts.

when your favorite neighbors move 12,000 miles away

My favorite neighbors leave for America tonight.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what life will look like when Andy, Erin Ashley and Emma Grace are not here. It will look pretty different, that's for sure :(

When their family leaves the foreign population in our town is cut in half! Matt becomes my only local "English speaking buddy" (well, technically I guess the girls might count in this category, but conversation with them is a bit limited). My girls' best buddy (Emma Grace) disappears.

It would take me paragraphs to list all the things I love about living near them. And, honestly, it probably won't be til after they are gone that I figure out even MORE things that I didn't realize I enjoyed about their neighbor-ship!

The good news? They'll be back (and when they come they'll be bringing baby #2 with them!)

The bad news? They aren't coming back until February.

We spent a lot of our day hanging out with our neighbor buddies. And I'll go to the airport with them tonight to say my last "goodbye". (Their flight takes off at midnight... pray for them if you think about it, 30 hours of travel with a 16 month old is not a walk in the park. I know. I've done it.)

Here are a few photos I took this morning as we were enjoying our final hours of play together

It's a ....

(probably) GIRL!

Now what I can't figure out is if knowing its "probably a girl" is better or worse than not knowing anything at all. I mean, "probably".... what exactly is that supposed to mean? Of course, that's what they told me with Julianna - and she is 100% girl :)

It's funny, I've had my hopes set on a girl, but the past few days I've been thinking, "well, a boy would be ok too", so I was really prepared to hear BOY. Then the tech said, "I'm pretty sure it's a girl, but not positive, come back later and I'll be able to give you a better answer." [Can you tell it's pretty easy to get an ultrasound in this country? Just walk in to the hospital, tell them you want an ultrasound, fork over about 10 bucks, and you're on your way to an ultrasound tech..... so I will go back :)]

The main message to the grandmas: It's still too early to start shopping for a wardrobe for baby #3!

Matt and I are mainly just thankful for another healthy baby. Pink or blue, we're delighted to add another GIFT from the Lord to our growing family. (And next spring, when I'm delirious and sleep-deprived and drowning under the never-ending needs of three small children, please feel free to post a comment on my blog and remind me how I am committed to ENJOY my GIFTS from the LORD!)

lots of questions about baby #3

I've started getting lots of questions about baby #3 - hopefully this post will get you curious folks up to date on all the details :)

First things first: Yes, I too am eager to know if the baby is a boy or girl! We had an ultrasound on Monday morning - everything looked great, the baby was active and moving around BUT spent most of its time with its body turned facing my spine, so we couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl. The ultrasound tech said, "it is keeping it's secret". It did turn its face to one side, which was fun... we got to see a lot of clear face views and the baby kept moving its hand like it was brushing its hair (of course, I can pretty much guarantee there is no hair to brush, and there will not be any for a good long while - but the baby is getting lots of practice anyways.)

We'll try again soon - maybe this week - to see if we can convince the baby to let it's "secret" out. I am not at all interested in waiting until the due date to find out about the boy/girl question. I consider myself a patient person based purely on the fact that I waited all the way until week 18 to have the ultrasound :)

Other stuff you may (or may not) care to know? The baby is definitely getting stronger and moves around a lot - but not the spastic crazy movements like Lydia dealt out - so I'm thinking this pregnancy might be more comfortable for my internal organs :)

And, we're still in the process of deciding exactly where this little one will be born. If you've never moved halfway around the world or halfway across a continent for the birth of a little one, consider yourself lucky! It's no fun to uproot your family in the final weeks of pregnancy. I would LOVE to be able to give birth and bring my new baby back to MY OWN HOUSE! What luxury! But, it just doesn't seem wise given the medical situation in our city. We're pretty sure this little one will be making his/her grand appearance in Beijing - same hospital as Julianna.

I think that's about it for the baby news. I'm off to bed -

anyways, then I won't have a sister anymore

My newest bedtime battle? It's not coming from the place you might suspect!

Lydia is still a twice-a-day nap taker... her afternoon nap (usually!) coordinates perfectly with Julianna's, but the other falls right in the middle of the morning. And who fights that nap? Not Lydia! It's Julianna who protests - because she doesn't want to loose her playmate.

These days when I announce, "ok girls, time for Lydia to take a little nap" I typically hear some type of creative objection from Julianna.

"But we're cooking dinner and we are very very hungry so we need to eat first."

or

"She doesn't look very tired, I don't think she wants to take a nap."

In the past week or so I've started hearing this one:

"But anyways, if she has to take a nap then I won't have a sister anymore."

I suppose this one is intended to cut straight to my mother's heart and convince me to let Lydia skip her nap in the interest of developing strong sibling relationships. It doesn't work. Lydia naps. Julianna survives. But it is kinda cute to hear her say it :)

They do have lots of fun together and I love watching them...

whether it's coloring a poster for our friend Uncle Qi (he and his wife invited us to dinner last night)

or playing with a puppy they met outside



Of course, it's not all grins and giggles. Neither will hesitate to look right at her sister and grab a toy straight from her hand. But the good moments make for much better photos!

first haircuts? not yet

The bald-headed legacy continues around this house, but Lydia is busy growing lots of hair so maybe it won't be too many more months! Lydia's locks definitely have a bit of curl to them, and I'm excited to see what the "final product" will look like - I tried to capture a bit of the curl in this photo, but her hair is still so wispy, it doesn't really show up in a photograph.



Her big sister Julianna is miles ahead of her in the hair department - she's finally got enough for a ponytail! Just a few months shy of her third birthday, and she still hasn't needed a haircut!

more flower photos

To fill you in on the details from our flower market/flower arranging class trip yesterday afternoon..

We stopped at one flower shop where the owner taught us some of the basics of flower arranging. First up? Making bows! This was way fun and so easy.....


Then, he showed us some basic flower arranging techniques - your goal is depth, height, and a variety of shapes (circles, triangles, etc) - that about sums up the lesson :)

Here's his finished product:


It's really interesting to me that cultural definitions of "beauty" vary greatly. Erin Ashley and I were the only two foreigners in sight. And while I don't want to criticize the work of a professional, I thought his final product looked a little lopsided. I think we westerners tend to like symmetry. The other girls we went with (all locals) thought he did a great job. They pointed out that it was shaped like an "L", and I should be a special fan of this arrangement since L is, afterall, the first letter of my name. I just thought... an "L" sure is a weird shape for a flower arrangement!

Anyways, then it was our turn. We basically got run of all the flowers in his shop, and created our own masterpieces.


This is when the professional was helpful - he didn't criticize my symmetry, and he had lots of helpful suggestions for adding depth and disguising the floral foam at the base.

Here we are with our finished products! It was so fun :)

wholesale flower market

This afternoon some friends and I went to a wholesale flower market.

Where I spent 14 cents on this...


and 57 cents on this....


and made this flower arrangement all by myself!


It was so much fun. Erin Ashley took lots of photos, so I'll get some from her and post more details tomorrow.

learning to use chopsticks

We got Julianna a pair of "trainer chopsticks". I actually haven't seen local kids use them (most little children here stick with the spoon - it's much simpler). But a baby store that carries imported goods had this pair of trainer chopsticks - a Japanese brand (which means I couldn't understand a lick of the instructions, but figured out the basic idea based on the illustrations).

You can't really see in the photo, but there's a little piece that helps hold her hand in the right position, and the chopsticks are bound together at the top so they don't slip and slide in her grip.

They work fantastic! Since we opened them yesterday afternoon, she's used them for every meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner!). I baked cookies yesterday afternoon while the girls slept.... when Julianna woke up she used her new chopsticks to eat her cookie! It's amazing how well she can handle them - she's at least as effective with these trainer chopsticks as she is with a fork and spoon, maybe even better?

the bet

Way back in June Matt and I laid bets on when Lydia would walk. I chose Sept 15 (her 13 month birthday) and Matt chose a week prior (Sept 8). Well, the verdict is in - although she technically took three independent steps on September 8th, she's still not a big walker.... these days she'll take 5-8 steps towards a person, but rarely chooses to walk somewhere on her own. Clearly, I'm the winner :)

The bet? Loser cooks dinner for the winner. I teased Matt and jokingly suggested that he prepare one of his two specialties - French toast or instant pudding from a box (which, come to think of it, French toast topped with chocolate pudding might not be a terrible dessert). Last night he cooked and really showed me up.

Hard at work marinating chicken....


The menu?
Potato skin appetizers


Lemon Chicken Salad


and Key Lime Pie



Yum! It was fabulous!

Now, the real question is: why doesn't he do more of the cooking around this house? Just kidding, I really do love to cook and I think I'd be bummed to give up my role as "chief cook", but I do like to take a night off every now and then - especially when a dinner like this is what waits!

our dinner guests really "measure up"

We are at a great family stage where having guests for dinner is tons of fun, and usually amounts to less stress for me! I love when the guests show up early enough to entertain the girls during the pre-dinner crunch (5:30 to 6pm seems to be the fussing/whining/crying/irritability peak around our house). Guests who want to sit and play with the girls = the perfect way to fill the final 30 minutes before dinner.

After dinner, the fun continues (I never thought I would count it a privilege to sweep the dining room floor in peace and quiet while the girls are otherwise occupied, but two little ones in the house have taught me to appreciate the little things in life!)

Julianna and Lydia both love to play with measuring tapes. Julianna "measures" anything - people, objects, you name it. She'll walk up to me, pull the tape out, stretch it over my knee and say, "mommy, you are twenty three". Or, she'll measure Lydia's foot and declare "sixty-two eleven".

Imagine her delight when she discovered a dinner guest who joined in all the measuring fun. Together they measured almost everything in our living room.



He was SO patient with her and even let her measure his neck - with a metal measuring tape!



The girls LOVE guests. If the phone rings in the afternoon Julianna loves to ask, "who is that??? Are they coming to eat dinner with us???"

If any of you would like to join us one evening, we'd be glad to have you! Just let me know when to expect you - we'll meet you at the airport :)


PS - Julianna just found two safety pins laying on the window sill and came running to me saying, "oh mommy, look at your earrings!".

ready for a game of football

Monday was absolutely gorgeous - clear blue sunny skies. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the running track in our little town. After lunch, the girls played in the grassy area in the center of the track.

I took a few photos and after I got home realized that in several of them Julianna looks like she's training for football season (even though she's playing with a small basketball).

A talented quarterback (left-handed!).....


She also practiced snapping the ball.....


Lydia wasn't too interested in playing football - she entertained herself in the grass. Matt and I sat next to the girls and enjoyed the sunshine.



We had a great time!

welcome to my world

I realized this afternoon that I have now written not one, but two entire posts about pacifiers. For those of you who would like to believe that life overseas is full of adventure and daring and drama and .... well, sorry to burst your bubble. It's not. I spend a lot of time thinking about pacifiers. Welcome to my world.

no paci updates

Well, after I wrote my "no more pacis day" post things took a turn for the worse... for Lydia, that is. She fussed and cried almost 30 minutes before finally sleeping without her paci. Argh. I had my first "was this really a good idea?" doubts but decided I would stick with it. And I'm glad I did - she's doing much better again, just a little fussing, then falling asleep, but she's still not taking her normal long afternoon nap. Oh well, I'm going to hang in there a bit longer.

Julianna, on the other hand, is golden. Doesn't even really mention the missing paci. Yay for her!

Other than the "not so good napping" problem for Lydia, we're having lots of fun with Matt (he's had two days off, in additional to his normal weekend of Sunday/Monday). Julianna and Lydia love to brush their hair - Julianna gets on a stool in front of the sink and uses LOTS of water and a little brushing to semi-tame her locks. Lydia just waves the brush near the top of her head. Sometimes Julianna decides she needs to get involved and help Lydia - like in the photo below.

no more pacis day

Sometimes, my timing is a bit off. And I really hate it when I realize that my timing is bad, but I can't go back and re-do it.

Like this week. I've been searching for "just the right time" to kick the pacifier habit around our house. Julianna has managed to hang on to hers (approaching the three year mark) and Lydia was following in her footsteps. With no major travel in sight, and baby #3 right around the corner, I was ready to get rid of some pacis! This week seemed perfect.

I planned a "no more pacis day" celebration - admittedly, this was mostly for Julianna, who knew of the anticipated event. Lydia was blind-sided. And, yes, I do realize that it's not fair that Julianna got to use a paci for almost three years, while Lydia only got to keep hers for 13 short months.

Julianna arrived home from the camping trip exhausted - which I thought confirmed my timing choice. Extra tired, extra easy to fall asleep without the paci. That evening before baths and bed, she gathered all her pacis into a ziploc bag. She thinks we might save them for the new baby. I know that they are definitely filthy, perhaps even toxic, and no way are they getting close to our new baby's mouth. But, it's a nice gesture that she wants to save them for the new baby, so I'm not arguing with her.



And she did great. Falling asleep that is. But a terrible cough struck and she was up for a significant chunk of the night. So was I. It might have been our worse night of sleep since Lydia was a newborn. At least she got lots of practice falling back asleep without the paci. Unfortunately, we were all exhausted when the next day hit, and then naptime rolled around, and she was distraught to find that the pacis were still gone. But, again, tiredness won out, and she fell right asleep.

After her first "paci-free" nap we celebrated with a cupcake and balloons.



Now she's in a groove. Before bed and nap she usually says, "but I don't have anything to put in my mouth". And I say something comforting like, "that's ok, time for bed anyways". And that's that.

[Lydia has fussed, and then slept, paci-less. She fusses less with each nap and bed time. I do miss her quiet little "drift off to sleep routine" but trust that it will return within a few short days.]

So, looking back, my timing was off. I am still fighting a cold and Julianna has a terrible cough. (Oh, and did I mention that Lydia cut a tooth - a big one - in the midst of all this?) Probably not the week to remove everyone's "pre-sleep comfort device". But there's no going back now. And I, for one, am looking at 6 paci-free months before #3 arrives!

Oh yeah, even with the minor disturbances that "kicking the paci habit" has brought to our little home, I'm encouraging baby #3 to use a paci. For one, it's a lot easier to get rid of than a thumb. And a paci on a long airplane ride is a beautiful thing when you're dealing with a sleep-deprived little one :) Plus, I've got a ziploc bag of pacis just waiting to be used - ha :)

camping photos

So, I am a few days late with the camping photos. And actually, I only have two right now - Matt didn't take our camera, so I need to get some photos from the others who went on the trip. I did take a few right when they got home.

Coming in the door of our apartment..


Sisters reunited! They missed each other a ton! Lydia asked for "Nana" over and over again. And Julianna told the other campers about her little sister who stayed at home with mommy.



It's good to be a whole family again - but I did really enjoy the quiet two days with just Lydia and me here at home. Matt was off work yesterday (Thursday) and then again tomorrow (Saturday). It's a national holiday in China, which means lots of folks are on vacation.

The holiday? Founding of the People's Republic of China (Oct 1, 1949). So, in a way, it's a tad bit like July 4th. Except no fireworks. And no cookouts. No burgers. No picnics with frisbees. No 5k races. No Old Navy shirts with the American flag on the front. No Bruce Springsteen singing "Born in the U.S.A." Come to think of it, it's pretty much nothing like the Fourth of July. Oh well.