Dad's last night

Just got home from dinner (Korean food) with Dad on his last night here - check out this fun pic of the kids before they tumbled into bed.  It was late, they were giddy, but lots of fun too!

fall crisp

In the summer I just could not get enough of summer.  LOVING every minute of the sun and heat and all that good stuff.  Then the pregnancy yuck hit and I, well....... I didn't like anything.  The sick-y feeling  colored the rest of the summer, painting it in a not-so-great shade of yuck.

So maybe that's part of why I'm so grateful, so excited, so delighted with our fall.  This morning was one of those perfect fall mornings that could best be described as 'crisp'.  After two rainy/misty days the fall crisp was even more delightful.... and we were outside in a hurry.

I had a few piles of veggies to buy before I could fill the crock pot for tonight's dinner (4 of Matt's buddies joining us).  Seriously, with years of feeding college guys under my belt, I'm sure not much about my kids' teenage appetites will surprise me - except maybe that I have to prep that much food every night! 

And just because the blue sky beckoned and I grabbed the camera on the way out the door - this is part of my "commute" to buy veggies.

Our walk cuts through a neighboring apartment complex filled with delightful little paths and gardens.

Why go the most direct route when the day is perfectly crisp anyways? 

And in the same spirit of 'why be in a hurry when you can just go slow?' we stopped to ride the toys -

A list of all the things my kids have taught me could fill pages and pages of paper.  One of them is certainly this:  JUST SLOW DOWN.  Life is not meant to be lived in a hurry.

Today I was so glad to be moving slow.

Dad's birthday trip

Dad's birthday is Saturday and we celebrated early with a day-long outing to a nearby historical site. 

Actually, much of the outing was an attempt to use most every kind of public transportation available :)  We started on the subway, then switched to a bullet train. 

Lydia looking out the bullet train window.

Inside each car was a digital display that tracked train speed.  Pretty cool, huh?

Upon arrival at the train station we transferred to a public bus and finally ended up here - an ancient irrigation system.  The kids were, of course, enthralled with the intricacies of a dam-less irrigation system that both prevented flooding and irrigated huge portions of arable farmland.

Or maybe they preferred the train ride, hard to say :)

Isaac put a lot of miles on his brand new tennis shoes - it was a perfectly pleasant day for lots of walking, talking and snack eating :) 

By the time we looped through most of the irrigation system site and crossed two different swinging bridges it was time to head back to the train station for the ride home.  Transfer to a taxi, battle rush hour traffic and we ended up here, a Turkish restaurant for the celebration dinner. 

What a day!  And what a fun way to celebrate Dad's birthday here in China!

crayola.... how i love thee

My kids are crazy about crafts.  Crazy.  I'm not sure where they got this from, because Matt generally avoids the craft table like someone with an allergic reaction to crayons, and I certainly have no crafting talent at all. 

But the kids - especially the girls - are drawn to our craft table like a moth to flame.  And I love watching them create.  And I love Crayola products, because they keep me from having a nervous breakdown once a week.

My love affair with Crayola started years ago when I sat the girls at the kitchen table one Sunday afternoon.  I turned my back for a very brief moment - or maybe left the room for a few long minutes, hard to say :)

I do know this though: the next time I laid eyes on Lydia she had water color painted the entire front of her Sunday dress. 

I congratulated myself on raising a creative daughter and thought "well, we'll put this little "washable" claim to work" and tossed it in the washing machine.  That precious pink sundress came out of the washer sparkling clean.  Fan. For. Life.

So my recent fascination is with Crayola Glitter Glue.  It basically takes a many-step process (run lines of glue over paper, shake on glitter, wait for it to stick, deftly remove un-stuck glitter, spend days picking glitter out from between your toes, etc) and turns it in to a one step process.  The glue, and the glitter, are in one easy-to-use squeeze pen. 

Seriously, I'm thinking the guy who invented Crayola Glitter Glue is probably related to the guy who invited Ziploc bags.  Ingenious. 

I no longer flee from art projects requiring glitter.  I don't even think about art projects involving glitter.  My kids create them.  And all I do is admire - no glitter between the toes, thankyouverymuch.

buddies on the walk home

These past few weeks I've been walking to pick the girls up from school.  There were some wonderful months when I always rode the electric bike, but the kids have just gotten tooooooo heavy for me to feel like I can handle all three of them plus the bike safely!  I must have well over 100 pounds of child, plus the bike isn't lightweight, and I'm not tall (so my leverage is limited) and it's just gotten to be too much for this Momma. 

In the middle of summer when noon temperatures were blazing hot and I was newly pregnant and constantly felt yucky, I resorted to driving.  But it seems silly to drive it -  so now that temperatures are cooler, and I'm feeling better, we're walking.  It's a brisk 20 or 25 minute walk to school (with Isaac in the stroller). 

And a not-quite-as-brisk 45 minute walk home with all three :) 

The other day Dad walked with us (and took these photos). 

There is one particularly yucky intersection and I like to chant "no talking just walking" as I hurry my precious ones across the roadway!  Other than that, it's a delightful way to spend a long hour in the middle of the day.  We'll definitely be enjoying this activity as long as the temperatures hold out! 

construction sightings

Isaac loves construction trucks. 

And our complex is across the street from a construction site.

And "safety regulations" take on a whole new meaning in this country. 

Good times for a little boy who loves construction trucks! 

The view from the bike seat is enough to thrill any boys' heart.

The noise level is high enough that Granddaddy has to lean close to hear what Isaac has to say.

And this particular morning the articulated front end loader was joined by a paver working on the other side of the building.

 

Momma's not too sure how close is too close.  

But she does know that her little man loves the action.  And on mornings like this one (the girls in school) when I'm only responsible for one - it seems like a good way to spend our time!  

game time

We love to play games - and we're at a great fun stage where we can really play too :)  Isaac loves to tag along and play his own little version of the game regardless of what the others are doing, but the girls are patient and it all works out just fine. 

In Candy Land when it's Isaac's turn to draw he chooses his card and then moves his little man to any space on the entire board that matches his card.  Forward, backwards, skipping significant chunks of the path.... he's just ready for 'his turn'.  We watch him, amused, and then move on to the next person.  Needless to say, he never wins Candy Land!  But he is a whiz at Zingo! and will beat you if you're not careful! 

UNO is one of our new favorites and now that Dad is back the competition stepped up a notch!  [The orange rope-looking things laying on the table is our snack  - dried sweet potato.  We've been eating so much sweet potato and pumpkin that I'm afraid our skin is going to take on a bit of an orange tint!]

In addition to UNO we're enjoying having Granddaddy back for more fun!  Monday we're headed out on a day long adventure that involves a ride on one of the new bullet trains, and the kids are pumped :)  

Totally unrelated, but 100% precious: check out the girls and their new socks :) 

Seriously, dontcha wish these two were students at your preschool? 

a (little) man and his car(s)

My Isaac LOVES cars.  LOVES THEM.  He current favorite is a yellow matchbox-sized pick up truck that we take, well, everywhere.  For Isaac, life just flows better when your pick up truck is in your pocket. 

Every day he spends time laying on his carpet, in this exact position, pushing cars around. 

His interest in this activity seems endless. 

I'm not complaining, since it keeps him happily occupied and gives me a chance to get a few things done without my favorite two year old helper at my side :) 

But I'm also a pretty big fan of the cars myself :)  A few weeks ago I cut flaps in the sides of an unused puzzle box and made two "parking garages".  If you're handy with blocks it doesn't take long to make a double decker parking deck. 

Such fun for my little man (and his momma too!)

the author

Sometime this summer Julianna really got into "writing books".  She staples together pieces of paper and comes up with her story line and gets to work :)  It's so fun to watch her create.  I seriously hope that I manage to hang on to copies of some of these early writings, but just in case took photos and decided to document them here as a second method of memory keeping!

One of her earliest creations, and my personal favorite is called Boy Booc [book] and she interviewed her little brother to get an expert opinion before writing her manuscript.  Each page has line(s) of text and illustrations.  I wish I had pics of Boy Booc but it's late and the camera isn't readily available, so I'll share some of my favorite lines (taken straight from the little brother interview) instead:  "I like mie sistr." and "I like parcing lots." 

And one entire page that says simply "bloo pas" - she butchered "blue pants" and has this awesome sketch of an empty pair of blue boys pants.  I can so picture her asking Isaac "what do you like, you know, what do boys like, I need to write something in my boy book".  And Isaac answering "Boys like blue pants." 

Lydia was inspired and wrote the sequel, Girl Book, which is equally entertaining.  The writing in "Girl Book" is a little tougher to decipher, but Lydia is a great artist, so what she tends to muddle with text she nails with her illustrations. 

So, all that to introduce the one book I do have pics of.... on Thursday she came bouncing out of her classroom, "Mom, I need to find all my books, I need to bring a book that I wrote to show my teacher."  After more consideration, she decided to start from scratch.  Her teacher specified "no text just pictures" and that she needed to be able to narrate the book to her classmates.

Julianna got out her paper and scissors and stapler and crayons and went to work.  She LOVES this kind of project, poured her heart into this little book and was delighted to present the final product:

[obvious: She did her own hair on Thursday.  yeah.]

The title is 小猪的学校 （Little Pig's School).  I wrote out the characters on a different sheet of paper and she copied them on to her book cover.  As far as I know she can only write a very limited number of characters - following in her mommy's footsteps on that one!  Ha!  Seriously, while I will easily outpace her in ability to read Chinese for a few more years, she's probably not far away from being able to out-write me.  I can't write hardly ANYTHING!!!

The plot line isn't that complex, but she did manage to illustrate approximately 26 pages detailing most every aspect of little pig's day at school.  (I say approximately 26 pages because while she numbered every page I noticed she skipped at least one number and am open to the possibility that she duplicated others?  Apparently her editor was a little off task that particular afternoon!)

Below is little pig eating lunch and then getting ready for his afternoon rest :)  She's probably not a future artist, but does include details like cloven hooves and a hair bow between the ears to distinguish that his lunch buddy was female :)

She also clarified that she almost wore out the pink crayon because every pig on every page had to be pink :)  The trials and troubles of a book illustrator, I guess :)

If you ask Julianna what she wants to be when she grows up she will definitely answer "Mommy".  [Confession: I have brainwashed my kids and almost every time we have a conversation about "what people do" or "that's their job" I will finish with "who has the best job in the whole world?" and they each grin up at me and say "you do!"] 

Julianna often adds to "Mommy" that she wants to be a ballet teacher - she and Lyds have worked out a plan where they will share ballet teaching responsibilities and childcare with one another  - one will teach class while the other watches both sets of children and then switch.    While I could care less if they teach ballet (and realize the chances are slim) I am delighted that they both aspire to be Mommies, and would be thrilled if they were close friends and watched each other's children!  

Maybe Julianna will soon add "author" to her career list though?  

leaf rubbings and waterfall ponytails

Today we gathered leaves and did some leaf rubbings because..... well, no reason, we just did :)

You can see that we don't have many leaves changing color yet - still lots and lots of green.  Actually, this is our first fall in this city, so I'm not sure what to expect in terms of fall colors.  Maybe we'll go straight from green to brown?  I do know we arrived in early February and the color was most decidedly brown :( 

Neither of my girls have the perfect hair texture to do little waterfall ponytails .... don't get me wrong, I LOVE the curls, both the little curled ends of Julianna's locks, and Lydia's crazy head full of curls but they don't have fine straight hair.  Waterfall ponytail hair. 

And Isaac, well, he does :)

But he is a little boy, so he never wears ponytails.  Well, almost never!  He often sidles up for some cuddling when I'm doing the girls' hair, and every now and then a stray ponytail holder finds its way towards his sweet little head! 

No worries though - he is all boy - wrestling his sister on the living room floor (and winning!) as I write.  Gotta run!
 

in the garden, again

I meant to update yesterday but we were mysteriously without phone and internet for about 24 hours.  Things like that just keep life interesting :)

As further proof that I am feeling close to normal, we're back out in the courtyard, even doing a little work in the garden again.  If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times .... this little courtyard is such a tremendous blessing.  I'm not sure you can totally appreciate it unless you've also lived with many people in small quarters with no outside space, but lemme tell ya - I feel like this sweet little space quadruples the "live-ability" of our current apartment!!  

Today we were sitting outside for afternoon snack, and who should show up but the lawn care man.  He had a captivated audience of one :)

I 

who moved over to the fence line for a closer look!

I love the smell of fresh cut grass.  Isaac loves the noise and energy of a lawn mower.  We were a pretty content pair. 

When he finished his grass mowing we all moved over to do a little gardening.  One of our gourd-like plants had a crazy summer, adding inches and inches to its thousands of vines every single day all while I laid on the couch and barely squeezed through August as a wife and mom. 

By the time I got out there with the clippers last week the vine was clearly large and in charge of the garden.  So I started clipping and ripping and carting loads of green growth off to the trash can.

And it wasn't long before I uncovered our tomato stakes and plants and all sorts of weeds, some errant pieces of sidewalk chalk, plenty of earthworms and even a pool toy.

This afternoon I got out the garden hoe and broke up some more of the soil, which led to more earthworms :)  And inspired the kids to get their gardening-groove on and do a little work alongside mom. 

Julianna loves the clippers -

and the dirt inspires us all to get a little grimy. 

Here's the whole scene, looking in through our courtyard gate. 

Perfect fall days.  Perfect. 

aquarium trip

This morning we joined a few other friends and visited an aquarium.  One of the bazillion reasons I love kids is they encourage me to be excited about almost everything!  I seriously think without kiddos along I would have walked past many of the fish tanks and thought "well, that's neat.... what's next?" 

But they wanted to stop and see every tank, each and every glass window to check out the fish.  Watch them swim, and open their mouths, and look for the babies, and wonder which one is fastest, and marvel at how huge they are, or how funny they look or .....

Well, suffice it to say there was no shortage of conversation!  [Not that I have even one child who lacks for words!  I seriously feared that Isaac might not talk because his two big sisters never gave him a chance to get a word in.  Then he started stringing two and three words together at 15 months and I realized my fears were unfounded.  If our family is to have a child of few words he/she has yet to show up!] 

If there is some trick to taking good photos in an aquarium (dark rooms, lit up tanks, lots of glass) then I haven't discovered it.  By far the best exhibit was a huge aquarium with sharks and manta rays and eels and all sorts of fascinating fish - and by huge I mean you could walk through it in connecting tunnels with floor to ceiling glass walls.  On the far end there was a stadium seating style room where you could watch divers.  The divers acted out a narrated performance (hokey) but the kids were initially captivated by the presence of divers in the tank with all those crazy looking fish!

And after a break for lunch at an outdoor eating pavilion we watched the sea lion show and then headed home.

(sea lions in background, the blond curls belong to us!)

It was a great family outing -  a friend helped us score massively discounted tickets, and we had a real fun time! 

not your normal day

Today was one of those days.  Doesn't fit a mold.  Throws you a ball from left field.  Delights with it's unexpectedness.  And challenges your socks off.

First off, Matt is home!  This is delight of delights!  Though he technically hasn't traveled since late August his September kept him busy busy busy.  And now he's got a three day weekend (it runs Wednesday to Friday, but we'll take it!!!)  We started off by tackling a lot of family projects - cleaning out the porch, putting some padding under our carpets, fixing the kitchen electrical sockets, etc. 

A little before lunch Lydia and I loaded up and left on a "date".  She asked to "spend two whole days with just you [Mommy]" and I was hoping lunch plus a grocery trip would do the trick :)  I hadn't been to one of the in-town grocery stores since before I got pregnant (hello!! that's a long time!) and we were desperately in need of some basics (peanut butter, the few rare canned goods that are available, etc). 

During our lunch date I asked "besides Julianna who is your best friend?"  Lydia looked me right in the eye and confidently answered "YOU!"  Love this little girl of mine!  Such a rare treat to spend a few hours with just her! 

We got home and Matt shared that the kitchen sink piping had fallen apart while we were gone.  This, unfortunately, is not one smidge outside of normal.  Today I got to thinking.... you know that saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"?  Well, I'm pretty sure in this country the translation would be "if it ain't broke, just wait a few days - it'll break, and then you'll need to fix it". 

Well, we were expecting company (some neighbors we've started hanging out with recently) and I was super grateful I had started the crock pot early this morning, before the sink disaster.  I pulled out my frozen rolls, laid them on the pan, and turned my attention to the other zillion tasks that were on the "to-do" list for the day. 

[Side note: if you make your own bread, this is my best tip ever: freeze your shaped dough before the second rise and store the rock-hard rolls in a ziploc bag in the freezer.  Pull them out 4-5 hours before you want to bake them and you'll have fresh bread for supper without ever measuring out yeast!  This is so perfect because you can bake two rolls, or ten, and it's a double bonus on afternoons when you're hosting company for dinner and the kitchen sink piping collapses a few hours before they arrive!]

Exhibit #956 of things that break and need fixing - the kitchen outlets hanging off the wall behind the crock pot need a bit of work, dontcha think?  Bad news is they look terrible.  Good news is they still work. 

So at this point I was starting to think "this is officially turning into one very interesting day".  

The worker with the new kitchen sink piping arrived and started doing his thing.  And that's when Julianna puked all over her bedroom carpet.  To give her a bit of credit, she was en route to the bathroom when it happened, and she felt terrible she didn't make it in time. 

I checked my watch.  4:25pm.  We had told our neighbor-friends to come between 4:30 and 5.  We are definitely in the "just getting to know them" stage, so it wasn't like I could send a quick text and say "could you give us an extra fifteen minutes, we're still looking forward to supper, but having a few hiccups along the way".  So I prayed.  Lord, you know when they are coming.  I will rest in that.

And we cleaned up Julianna, and the carpet, and the mess the sink fix-it man created.  I washed dishes in the kitchen, got out the pot to boil noodles, pre-heated the oven for the rolls, checked on Julianna thirteen times. 

At 5:13 pm our neighbors arrived.  Wonderfully, perfectly LATE!!!  They are a really neat family (with a three year old daughter) and seriously some of the easiest local people to just hang out with.  One thing Matt and I really enjoy about them is that they ENJOY parenting!  Yay!  So do we!! 

Julianna lazed on the couch, but Lydia and Ting Ting (their daughter) sat at our craft table and went to town with the markers and stickers.

What a day!  Full of delight.  Full of challenges.  On tap for tomorrow: the kitchen piping is installed, but leaking lots.  And praying that Julianna's stomach troubles are a one-time thing and not a bug she plans to share with the whole family!  

busy Isaac

Yesterday morning I was scrubbing the tub (long story, more on that later) and heard Isaac yelling for me from the courtyard.  "Mommy, Mom, I'm stuck."

I saw this from the living room and grabbed my camera on the way out :) 

And by "I'm stuck" he wasn't referring to being stuck on the bike and unable to get down.  No, the front wheel of his BIKE was stuck, and he was creatively trying to figure out a way to solve his problem. 

Get off the bike and push it away from the fence didn't come to mind.  Instead he figured he'd climb up the handlebars and give himself a big heave backwards? 

I'd like to think I arrived on the scene just in time to talk him out of his plan, but in reality he tends to solve his own problems pretty well, so I might be giving myself too much credit. 

Regardless, I decided he might be better off helping me in the bathroom.  I switched to all non-chemical cleaners about six months ago and have not regretted it for one single day.  I think my only regret is I didn't do it earlier.

I tossed all my chemical cleaners - everything - and replaced it with a vinegar/water solution in a squirt bottle and a big tub of baking soda.  One big perk is my kids help with the cleaning - no worries about their safety.  In fact, all three of them have a perhaps unhealthy attachment to the squirt bottle :)  Good thing vinegar comes cheap! 

All that to say, Isaac pulled up a stool and cleaned the sink for about twenty minutes.  The results were a relatively clean sink (I re-scrubbed a bit myself) and one sopping wet shirt. 

I was finished in the bathroom before he was done playing with water, so he moved out to the kitchen sink.  His shirt was so wet we just left it behind! 

 

 

Seriously, does it get any better than this when you are two years old?  This busy little boy leaves tomorrow to go camping with his Daddy.  Matt camps most every October with a group of students, and when appropriate brings along a kiddo.  This year Isaac's name is on the top of the list :) 

I'm past the 14 week mark and feeling good good good!  My energy level is definitely back up and I haven't taken any anti-nausea meds in 5 days!!!  Earlier this week I was almost sure I was feeling the little baby moving, but not positive.  Then one afternoon I was sitting quietly on the couch and was absolutely sure the jumps and bumps in my tummy were the baby..... and getting stronger every day!  Last night baby must have been on some sort of sugar high from all the oranges I ate because it was moving so much :) 

Yay for a busy little boy who climbs bike handlebars and helps Mommy clean the bathroom.  And double-yay for a pregnancy that is starting to bring joy and a baby that is growing bigger and stronger!