cupcakes

We had fun celebrating Mom's birthday Tuesday night. The girls love cupcakes, and were fired up about the baking, frosting, decorating and eating.









I am really enjoying having Mom here and have tackled a few larger projects since I have her extra help around the house. The girls are loving having Grandmama as their playmate and Isaac loves all the extra cuddle time. All in all, it's a good time for everyone!

fun with Grandmama on her birthday

Yesterday we went into town to meet some friends and play at the indoor playground. The last time we were there was Julianna's 2nd birthday - over a year ago! I realized that I rarely take the girls into town unless we are going to church, so it's a rare treat :)

Julianna and her friend Kayleigh had a blast with the slides!


Lydia couldn't quite get her balance in the ball pit, and spent most of the time riding on lots of different toys.


And Isaac, well... he mostly slept, but stayed awake long enough for a few photos. [Notice that he is wearing a legit outfit as opposed to a sleeper. For the second time in his life. What can I say? The little guy knows how to relax - his mommy basically hasn't put him in anything but his pajamas since his birth 6 weeks ago.]


Today is Mom's birthday and we have friends coming over for dinner - lasagna! From scratch. Really scratch. Mom brought italian sausage seasoning, and we made sausage. And last night we made ricotta cheese. And this morning we made noodles with wheat I grew in the field behind our apartment. Ha ha. Just kidding about the noodles! I do not grow wheat. And I do not make lasagna noodles. But we did make the sausage and ricotta.

Good thing Mom is here to help out :) And celebrate her birthday with all of us!

loving our little brother

The big sisters have each come up with their own special ways to shower love on their little brother.

Julianna loves to calm Isaac by singing songs and telling stories. Her most recent tale had something to do with buffaloes - not sure where she got the buffalo idea from, but Isaac seemed to really like the story. She also makes up lots of songs to her own little tunes and serenades him when he is fussy. [If he doesn't calm down quickly she turns to me and says, "I think he might be hungry."]

I have two favorite things about the way Lydia loves Isaac. I love the way she says his name (it sounds kind of like "eyes-ICK") and that when I get him after a nap she likes to say, "Lydia see him....awwww, cute".


Isaac will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. He is such a smiley little guy and brings us lots of joy.

Grandmama is here!

Isaac and I went to the airport last night to greet my mom .... who arrived tired but grateful for a smooth trip! This morning the girls enjoyed digging in to the piles of goodies she had in her suitcases :)


My cousin Julie always sends great hand-me-down clothes from her daughter Caroline and this time she also sent little boy clothes from her son Will.


Maybe one day Isaac will be as pleased with his new duds as Julianna always is!

Caroline, Julianna LOVES to get new things from you, especially dresses that twirl!

the craft challenge

My mom arrives on Friday for a two week visit. The girls are busy getting ready by decorating the door to our guest bedroom (currently Isaac's room, formerly our office - maybe I should refer to it as the "multi-purpose room"). Their goal is to cover every inch of the door with artwork.

They haven't figured out how to get playdoh to stick to the door, but almost everything else they create is taped up there.

Julianna loves to cut and paste.....

... and they both have fun with watercolors.

Stickers and crayons are also big hits.

We can't wait for you to get here Mom!

my daily dose of culture

As a mom with three young kids, getting out of the house can be a challenge. Well, technically, the actual walking out of the door isn't too challenging. It's the flights of stairs between our door
and ground level that pose the big challenge. I've posted about this before and all I have to add to that post is that adding a third child has not made the trip any easier!

The good news is this: I absolutely love our apartment. You'd have to pay me big bucks to consider a move anytime soon. And Lydia insists on walking the entire way up to apartment 401 on her own - she's slow, but she does it "by self". So, if I am patient, really really patient, the stairwell is not the enemy it sometimes appears to be!

Anyways, you can fault the stairs. You can fault the weather. You can fault the fact that I have three children and the oldest is a whopping 3 years & 4 months old. But some days I just don't make it outside. And if I don't get outside, I don't get to interact with the local culture.

But, thanks to our daily milk/yogurt delivery, culture comes to me!

This is Grandma Wang (affectionately known as "nai nai"). That's her grandson Xiang Xiang on her back - he's 3 months older than Lydia. Nai Nai brings a milk and yogurt to our house every day. Recently I've started refering to her as "my daily dose of culture".



It has taken me awhile to understand some aspects of the local culture. And it has taken me even longer to choose to embrace some of them. [And, of course, there are some aspects that I don't think I will ever fully embrace.]

One of the more difficult is that at times, what sounds to my ears like criticism or a reprimand is actually a means of expressing care and concern.

It looks like this: A local lady sees me outside with my children. She takes one look at them and says, "They should be wearing hats. It's really windy. All children need to be wearing hats today."

I think that what she really means is, "You are my neighbor and I think your kids are cute. I would hate for anything bad to happen to them. So I think I'll comment on their lack of headgear as a means of expressing my general care and concern for their well-being."

Or maybe she really does think that it's too windy, and she really doesn't want them to get sick, and she really thinks hat-wearing is the perfect preventative. So the only right thing to do is warn me about the lack of hats.

Unfortunately, all too often I fail to do the "meaning translation" in my head and only hear the actual words she says. And my reaction is, "You're crazy. I can decide if my children need hats. Who made up some rule about the amount of wind and the need for hats anyways? That's baloney."

Matt tries to remind me, "If they didn't care, they wouldn't say anything." And sometimes I think, "Now that would be ideal. A world full of neighbors who didn't care about me and thus kept their mouths shut and didn't criticize my every mothering-move." But other times I realize, "I'm so thankful that they do care. I really do want to hear the care and concern, and be able to ignore the means they choose to express it."

All this to say, the more often I am exposed to this criticism=care part of the culture, the easier it is for me to accept. It is good for me to be outside and be criticized (sounds weird, but I think it's true)! It is bad for me to stay inside and avoid listening to the criticism.

Here's where Nai Nai enters the picture. And why I've started calling her, "my daily dose of culture". This lady LOVES to criticize me. And I know without a shadow of doubt that she loves my family and cares a lot about us.

Some days it's a whole new criticism I haven't heard before. Other days she chooses to repeat one of her favorites. And some days, she doesn't criticize me at all!

Here are a few of her favorites:
"It isn't good to carry Isaac upright on your shoulder like that, you'll hurt his neck."
"Lydia needs to be wearing socks, it's cold outside."
"You shouldn't carry Lydia so much, you'll get too tired" (This was a favorite of hers when I was pregnant with Isaac... the bigger my belly got, the more often I heard this one!)
"Make sure you put this yogurt in the fridge right away, otherwise it will taste bad."
"Here are some straws [for the yogurt], but don't let your children use them, it's bad for them to use straws."
"Don't they need to be wearing more clothes? They'll get sick."
"Your mother should stay longer when she comes to visit. It's too long of a trip and if she comes she should stay a long time."
"Your husband rides his bike too fast. He should be more careful."

And some days she drives me crazy! But other days she sits on my couch and holds Isaac and grins and I think, "Nai Nai is such a sweet lady".

And then, the next time I am out and about with the kiddos, and a complete stranger walks up and informs me that I shouldn't let Lydia play in the dirt I can think, "Thanks so much for your care and concern" then look at Lydia's dirt covered hands and smile.

little mommies

Julianna and Lydia love to imitate me and these days, a lot of my time is spent being the "mommy of an infant". So, that's the role they imitate most.

Last night in the pre-dinner crazy hour I carried Isaac like this....


And later, in the middle of the dinner craziness, I fed Isaac using this nursing cover.



Watching the girls play after dinner was like watching a recap of the previous two hours!

Dinner is definitely the most challenging time of my day! Starting about 5pm I feel like life rapidly gets more demanding - everyone seems to need me all at once, everyone is hungry, and someone has to get dinner on the table. So far, I haven't attempted much cooking, we are still eating freezer meals most nights. And, this past week, on the nights I did cook, I made enough extra to re-stock the freezer a bit, so I'll be able to rely on the freezer for a few more weeks!

finishing the first month

Here in Asia the first month of life for a new mother and baby is a HUGE deal.

Babies rarely (maybe never?) leave the house for the first month. The most frequent question I get asked when I am out with Isaac is, "has he finished the first month?" And my answer is usually "almost" or "soon" - which is typically met with a look of horror. How could I dare bring my baby outside when he has not yet "completed his first month"?!?!

But I think folks are even more shocked that I am out and about. New mothers are really 'protected' for the month after they give birth by all kinds of "shoulds" and "should nots". The list is long and extensive and varies depending on who you ask, but here is a brief version of some of the things a new mother should/should not do:

Should NOT shower (no, I am not kidding - no shower for a month!)
Should NOT be outside.
Should NOT be anywhere windy, and should especially avoid wind blowing on her head.
Should NOT open the windows in her house (presumably to avoid the wind problem?).
Should NOT expose her ankles.
Should NOT drink cold liquids.
Should drink the soup made from boiling bones and ginger for three or fours hours.
Should rest and rest and rest some more.
And the list goes on.....

Usually the thought of following all these rules makes my skin crawl. No showering? Laying in bed and resting for days on end? No taking Isaac outside to enjoy the sunshine and breeze?

But I do have to admit that they are grounded in some good concepts. A new mother does need time to rest and recover. A new baby is vulnerable and should be protected.

And then there was the day that our helper was (again) emphasizing the importance of following these rules (she never stopped trying to persuade me, even when I brashly drank a cup of cold water just moments after returning home from the hospital). Isaac was four or five days old. It was about 9am. The breakfast dishes were still on the table. The floor was covered in crumbs. The girls were running around having a grand time - spreading toys and chaos in all directions.

And our helper said, "When I had just given birth, I spent days lying down, someone brought me all my meals in bed, and I just rested".

And I thought, "You know, that sounds like a great idea. I'd like to crawl under the covers and right now and have someone wake me in a few hours to serve me lunch on a tray!"

Mostly though, no matter how you choose to spend it, the first month of a baby's life is amazing. Full of many precious moments and sweet memories.



Tomorrow Isaac and I officially finish the first month.

Now I can proudly announce to all bystanders and curious passer-by: "Yes, he has finished his first month!" And they'll probably think, "No wonder she's smiling so big, she's enjoying sunshine for the first time in a month".

And the fact that I've been outside enjoying the sunshine for weeks now and am smiling because God blesses me immensely with my three precious children will just be our little secret!

goodbye Grandma

Grandma Jan left early Easter morning, headed back to America. We just called her after breakfast, she's in Chicago waiting for her final flight home.

What a GREAT visit we had! I loved all the extra help around the house and the children enjoyed so many special times with their Grandma. Here is a photo "tour" of our days together :)

We did crafts .... like making playdoh


and dyeing Easter eggs.


Grandma spent many hours holding Isaac.


We found time to do a few special things....


Last week Grandma and Matt took the girls to an outdoor park with lots of fun rides!


One morning she made bread with Lydia....


and then they washed dishes together.


[Grandma is MUCH more patient than mommy with tasks like this - I love to cook because it is relaxing for me, but inviting Lydia to help me knead the bread takes away from the relaxation aspect!]

Thanks for coming Jan! We love you!

whet your travel appetite

Back in the pre-kids era I LOVED to travel. Actually, I still love to travel. I just don't really like travel with kids. I mean, would I really enjoy hiking in the mountains of Central Asia with a 3 year old, 20 month old and an infant? Not so much.

So I have put some of my travel dreams and desires on temporary hold. And in the meantime, my list of "places I really want to go" just gets longer. My cousin Beth (well, our husbands are cousins ... I'm not exactly sure what that makes us) pointed out this list: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/11/travel/20090111_DESTINATIONS.html Oh WOW! So many places to go!

Check it out! Even if, like me, you aren't going to be doing any major travel anytime soon, it's still fun to dream :)

Easter Sunday preview

Living overseas can be kind of weird. Especially around big holidays. The way we celebrate holidays is so tied to our home culture - and when the rest of the world around you isn't celebrating, it just feels weird.

Like Christmas this year was on a Thursday. Julianna goes to preschool on Thursdays. And school was in session. On Christmas Day. (She didn't go.)

On the other hand, this past Monday was a big locally celebrated holiday (Tomb Sweeping Day) and I pretty much forgot all about it until later that afternoon when I was out shopping with Julianna and noticed that over half of the little stores in our town were closed. "oh yeah, it's Tomb Sweeping Day", I remembered.

Anyways, Easter is this Sunday and the girls modeled their Easter dresses earlier this week. I'm pretty sure Julianna is the only girl in her class who has a new Easter dress. In fact, it's very likely she's the only one in her class who has ever even heard of Easter.





We'll be celebrating!

3 weeks

Isaac is 3 weeks old today. In one sense, it seems like he just arrived.... but it also already feels like we've had him forever. Must be the sleep deprivation that lets me entertain those two very conflicting thoughts without a feeling of disconnectedness :)

He is such a sweet little guy and we are so thankful to have him!

Lydia's big bed

Lydia's big news is that she now sleeps in a "big bed". I did a bit of rearranging in the girls' room a day or so before we left town to wait for baby Isaac. Now both girls have beds that are 2/3 the length of a normal twin bed ... so it's a bit of a make-your-own toddler bed set up.

Lydia officially slept in her big bed for the first time the day we got home with Isaac! The first few times she was a little skeptical, but now she's officially a big fan of her new "sleeps in a big bed" status.


Here's the view from the doorway of their bedroom - you can just see the corner of Lydia's bed (on the far left of the photo) and Julianna's bed (on the far right of the photo). [I didn't bother to straighten the room before I took these photos so this is a pretty accurate "real life" view!]

And the view from the other direction (the doorway is just outside the photo on the left).

The girls' beds are basically hollow boxes laid end to end. I ordered them from a local carpenter after spotting the idea in a Pottery Barn catalog. I love them because of all the storage space underneath! You can see the storage space under Julianna's bed in this photo - and all the dress up clothes hanging at the foot of her bed.


Yesterday afternoon I heard Lydia talking to herself as she woke up from her nap. I walked in to get her and distinctly heard her say something about her "big bed". I wasn't surprised - she loves to talk about it. She started to list all the members of our family and their "bed status".

"Lydia, big bed. Julianna, big bed. Isaac, small bed. Mommy, big bed."

She hadn't mentioned Matt, so I asked her, "What about Daddy, does Daddy sleep in a big bed?"

"No sir-ree Bob", she answered!

Fitting, since Matt is the one who taught her to say "No sir-ree Bob" :)

a big sister's love

Isaac is one blessed little boy.


Oh, how his sisters love to hold him.


And kiss him.


And snuggle him tight.