Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today is Grandma's birthday! Grandma's most recent claim to fame around our house is "sender of the jelly beans"... she put jelly beans in the girls' Easter package, and Julianna is hooked! She asks for a "bean" at least once a day :)

A week or so ago we were going to lunch with some friends and Julianna asked if she could take a bean to share with Kayleigh. She carefully picked out two jelly beans, put them in a little plastic container, and dropped it in my bag. Sure enough, when lunch was over, Julianna came over to get her two beans - one for Kayleigh and one for herself.

I haven't yet given in and let Lydia eat a bean, but I'm sure she'll be a "bean fan" one day soon! Here's one of my favorite photos of baby Lydia with her Grandma....


and some video Matt took of Julianna this morning.....

28 months and counting...

and still no haircut!

Yep, folks, in the spirit of "birthdays" (we're celebrating Matt's dad's and mom's, Matt's brother's, my mom's, and our neighbor Andy's this week) I thought I would point out that yesterday was Julianna's 28th month birthday. And, with 28 months of life behind her, she has yet to grow enough hair to merit a haircut!

Julianna does have a TREMENDOUS amount of hair when you compare her current 'do' with what she was sporting just a few months ago, but she still hasn't needed a haircut. The really amazing thing is that with as little hair as she DOES have, she earns a spot as "second hair-iest head in the family"!

I love these three heads SO VERY MUCH!!

first bath together

The girls took their first bath together on Monday night... still not sure if this is going to be "easier" or not, but it was a lot of fun. Lydia is a splasher :)



Lydia has added "na na na" and "ma ma ma" to her repertoire, so I am still hopeful that one of these days she is going to look right at me and say "ma ma"! A few days ago I was semi-convinced that she was saying "na na" to refer to her big sister, but I've changed my mind. [you know, Julianna called herself 'nana' for months, and she still does every now and then, when she starts talking fast and can't get all her ideas to turn into words as fast as she'd like them to!]

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

It's birthday week for the Kvernen household... no one in our immediate family, but three grandparents and one uncle celebrate birthdays this week!

First up is today (Aprl 21st) - Matt's dad's birthday. Here are two of my favorite photos from our time in ND late August/early September 07...




And Julianna singing her birthday wishes....





We love you and miss you Grandpa! Hope you have a great birthday :)

sharing with my little sister

Julianna loves to share with Lydia - well, to be more accurate, Julianna loves it with Lydia shares with her! Lydia is a "passive share-er", Julianna tends to dominate the process.

For example, when Lydia is in her high chair snacking on Cheerios, Julianna likes to help Lydia share. So, she grabs her little stool, heads over to the high chair tray, and pulls up for a little Cheerio sharing. Thankfully, there are plenty of Cheerios to go around, and Lydia is delighted to have Julianna as her pre-dinner entertainment.



We're enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon. Yesterday we spent the morning playing ultimate frisbee and celebrating our neighbor Andy's birthday. After the game we enjoyed grilled chicken and hot dogs with all the fixins. About 20 of us Americans gathered for the event. It was SO FUN. Matt and I were teammates - it's been a LONG time since I played ultimate, and it took me a little while to get comfortable, but I had a great time.

Here's a bunch of us sitting around after lunch...

hey pwincess... the photo version

Well, after I wrote yesterday's post I decided I should try to get a photo. So this morning when Lydia woke up from her nap, I ran to get the camera.

hey pwincess

Matt loves to use nicknames for the girls. He calls Julianna "treasure" and Lydia "princess". A lot. Like maybe half the time? We even call Julianna "T", which is short for "treasure". If Matt says, "hey T, come here, I have something to show you", Julianna runs to find her daddy.

So, following her daddy's example, Julianna has started to call Lydia "princess". But there are a few tricky letters that she doesn't pronounce quite right... and R happens to be one of them. (The other is, of course, L. "oh no, I got an owie on my yeg" she says.) In Julianna's world, pRincess becomes pWincess.

When Lydia wakes up from a nap, Julianna always wants to be first to rush into the bedroom. She stands on tip-toe to peer over the side of the pack n play where Lydia sleeps and says, "hey pWincess, have a good nap?" Lydia responds by flapping her arms and pumping her legs. She loves to be greeted by her big sister. It's cute.

It reminds me a bit of this moment:


That's 1 day old Lydia in the hospital bassinet. And Julianna, on her tip toes, straining to "give" toys to her new baby sister.

8 months old

Lydia hit the 8 month mark yesterday - can you believe it?? I meant to post yesterday and put up a few photos, but got busy at the last minute and it didn't happen. And then this morning we were without power for a bit... and no power = no modem = no internet = no updating the blog. So, that's my excuse.

Now it's my favorite time of day - naptime!! Just kidding. That makes it sound like I don't like being a mom. And I DO like being a mom. Afterall, I named this blog "enjoying our gifts from the Lord". But, of course, I have my days when "enjoying" morphs into "enduring". It's amazing how a good, solid nap rejuvenates the girls (and me!) and I can persevere in "enjoying" mode through bedtime!

Today I thought I would post all the cute photos of Lydia from the past month. ha ha. Our internet is so slow, it would take me DAYS to post all the cute ones! I'm going to try to get four uploaded, but you might have to settle for only two or three :) So, here goes....

Check out all her hair - seriously, her current look qualifies as a "head-full of hair" for Kvernen children. If my memory serves me correctly, this is significantly more hair than Julianna was sporting at this age.

Here's her "my big sister just took my toy and I am NOT happy about it" face.



This is another very "Lydia" face. Kind-of a "I think what you are doing is somewhat entertaining, but I'm going to hold off on giving it a big smile" look.

She might want to consider a career in acrobatics... who needs a Cheerio when you can snack on your own toes?


Happy 8 month birthday Lydia! We are so glad you're part of our family!

oh me, oh my

Julianna is confusing "me" and "my" a lot these days... which leads to some really interesting sounding sentences.

"mommy, come play with my"

"No Lydia, that one is for my"

"Let's do it together, you and my"

And, when she wants to do something by herself without interference it's "my my my".

Of course, I consider it my good-motherly duty to correct her :)

Actually, most times I just let it go. Why? Let's say Julianna is trying to climb up on something by herself and is chanting, "my my my". And let's say I choose to correct her: "do you mean 'me me me'"? The result? She looks at me, and says in a loud voice, "ME ME ME ME ME".

Hmmm, that's not exactly what I'm going for either.... I mean, I want her to use "me" and "my" appropriately. But, a toddler chanting "ME ME ME"? I think I'll settle for the confusion and let her work it out on her own. Chances are, she'll get it straight one day!

Besides, correcting her grammatical errors could be a full-time job.

"Yeah, I will give it to she"

"Oh, look at her, her laughing!"

"I share it with Lydia my bowl"

"Remember when mommy a baby she eat cake, right?"

[This last one is because she saw the photo compilation that Matt and I played at our wedding rehearsal dinner... it had lots of photos of the two of us as we were growing up. Somehow she managed to connect the photo compilation video with the video from our actual wedding reception when Matt and I cut the cake and, voila.....mommy ate cake when she was a baby! Makes perfect sense to me!]

Her favorite "starts" to conversations are:

"Remember when...." and "I got an idea, let's...."

All this to say, I am glad that Matt is back and I can have some real conversation with him! I get lonely for someone to really talk to when he's not around!

oh the joys of life overseas

There are many days that I love living overseas. I mean, MANY days. Life is definitely fun, interesting, challenging... all those good things. I like the people. I like (most parts) of the culture. I like the language.

BUT, it's not always a walk in the park. Recently, I've been having a bit of, ummm, well, let's just call it "cultural stress". What that means is, if one more person points at my girls and says, "look a foreign child", or walks up to the stroller to touch my kids, or hollers out, "how come you have two kids?" as I walk by, or says, "ooooh, they are both girls, no boys" then I just might SCREAM!!!!

I can understand their comments. I can rationalize why they say the things they say. But, man oh man they are about to DRIVE ME CRAZY!!! Sometimes I long for the long ago days when I had just arrived and did not understand what the people around me were talking about.

Now, I know that cultural stress tends to ebb and flow. It has been worse. It will get better. Usually it's worse when I've been in country for a long time with no break, but the funny thing is I was just in Thailand a few months ago (which is always a WONDERFUL retreat).

In my head I come up with smart retorts to their comments. I have yet to actually use one :) I want to be gracious. I want to be loving. I want to be understanding. I know I am being watched. BUT STILL.....

Julianna, with the social filters of a two year old, is not quite as gracious, loving and understanding. She's been a bit on edge recently too. Her technique? She looks the potential "threat" right in the eye and hollers, "NO!!" At times, she'll swing her arms to try to keep them from touching her.

It's even harder when I know they are bothering my girls. Lydia, of course, doesn't really care too much. Julianna understands more and more what folks are saying. She knows what it means to point. And to be pointed AT. One time a little girl looked at her and said, "look, a foreign kid". She responded, "I am a GIRL!"

I am a lot more patient and understanding with the little children. Most of them just want to be friends with Julianna. But the adults. Now that's a whole 'nother story.

It makes me want to hole up in the apartment and retreat from the world. But, the weather is gorgeous and the girls love to be outside. Besides, I can't spend my days in our apartment without going stir-crazy.

Matt is gone for the weekend. It feels a bit like it's just me and the two girls versus the whole world. Maybe the three of us will wear hats and dark sunglasses... think we'll be able to fool them??

first words??

Lydia is starting to really babble. She just talks and talks. And she's getting louder every day. Yesterday Matt called during lunch. I put my phone on speakerphone and set it in the middle of the table so Julianna could say Hello. Lydia banged her hands on the high chair tray and hollered at the phone for the duration of their short conversation.

Julianna's first word was "baba" which means Daddy in the local language . She still calls Matt "baba" about 70 percent of the time. And, here's the kicker.... not only was 'baba' her first word, but she didn't say "mama" for a few more months! She even called ME 'baba'!

So, with Lydia, I was determined that she would say "mama" first :) But what is she babbling? "Ba ba ba ba ba". And, occasionally, "da da da da". Nothing that sounds even remotely like a "mmmm" or "ma ma ma".

I still maintain that "baba" is not her first word... that her babbling has no meaning, yet! Matt grins and says that Lydia knows what she is talking about! It doesn't help that Julianna exclaims, "look at Lydia, she's saying Baba!" That's two votes against me. Ahhh, where's the love Lydia?

oh no, look at that fish

Just a normal day here and nothing too special to report. I got back from a walk with the girls a few minutes ago - it is ABSOLUTELY beautiful outside and I love to be out in the sunshine :) The high for today is 28 degrees... celsius, that is. I think that's about 80 F.

So, things are heating up around here. May is actually our warmest month and then the typical summer months are a little cooler, thanks to the arrival of the rainy season. It rains almost every day in June, July and August. But, it doesn't rain ALL DAY long, usually just for short periods during the day.

We got a package both Monday AND Tuesday, thanks to both sets of Grandparents! The package highlights for Julianna were....from ND: kitty cat stickers and from NC: the Cat in the Hat book, which we have already read multiple times :) "oh no, look at that fish" she says when the Cat plays the "up up up with a fish" game [i guess the other mom readers of my blog will know what I'm talking about here... if you haven't read the Cat in the Hat in a while, it's a good book!]

Both of the girls love to read... I took this photo of Lydia and Matt reading before bedtime a few nights ago. She will sometimes sit still to read a book, but also likes to chew on them!

family day!

Matt and I have decided that for our anniversary we definitely want to celebrate as a couple, NO KIDS! But, we also want to celebrate with our kids, after all, our wedding was the beginning of our family - so it's only right to include them a bit!

So, with that in mind, and since today was Matt's day off, and since our anniversary was Saturday, I decided that today was FAMILY DAY. I captured some of the highlights of our day on film, so enjoy :)

We started with breakfast on the town - these little stalls set up in the empty lot across the street from our apartment complex every morning.


Julianna loves EVERYTHING they serve - here she is chomping away on "baozi" - meat-stuffed steamed dumplings. (no, that's NOT the proper way to use chopsticks, but it sure works well in this situation!)


the man who made the "baozi" - he is retired from the factory in town. I think he probably runs his little breakfast stand in part for the additional money, but also just to have something interesting to do!


For lunch we loaded up the double stroller and walked down to the park for a picnic.

Lydia skipped out on the sandwiches, chips and fruit in favor of a little baby-food-take-out from the family fridge.


I gave Matt two maps for his birthday and finally got them framed for his office. We hung them this afternoon - that's Julianna pointing out Indonesia (Matt's sis and bro-in-law Krisanne and Paul are moving to Indonesia, so we talk about it a lot! And, NO, she can't locate it on her own, we have to point her in the right direction!)


We finished off our day with a home-made pizza dinner with two of Matt's buddies. Julianna calls our friends either "ayi" (auntie) or "shu-shu" (uncle). She LOVES visitors and her excitement level rises about ten points when anyone walks in the door.

Julianna frequently wants to pray before meals. It usually goes like this, "thank you Jesus, pray Mommy and Daddy and Ju-nana and Lydia. AMEN". But today it went like this, "thank you Jesus, pray Mommy and Daddy and Ju-nanna and Lydia and shu-shu and 'nother one shu-shu. AMEN."

That's shu-shu on my left, and 'nother one shu-shu sitting next to her!


What a GREAT DAY!!

the last time I was in San Antonio....

... was March 1998 and I watched the Tarheels loose the semi-final match of the Final Four at the Alamo Dome. Yuck. This morning (local time) Matt, Julianna and I watched the Heels' season come to a similar early end. We were all decked out in our UNC gear (except Lydia, who snoozed through the game). What is it with UNC and San Antonio???

5 years

5 years ago today, Matt and I were married in a church in Raleigh, NC on a beautiful spring day. It's beautiful here today too, highs about 75 degrees and SO SUNNY :)



Matt and I are planning a little get-away... leaving in an hour or so to go to a local hot springs resort. We'll stay for the afternoon and through dinner! Xiao Li will be here with the girls :)

I had breakfast in bed this morning - it's a Matt-tradition on my birthday and our anniversary! I took a photo because he did a great job making a BEAUTIFUL plate - fresh fruit and everything! Especially impressive since he was also balancing feeding two little girls in the midst of trying to get breakfast ready for me :) The camera is in the room with napping Julianna, so I'll have to upload and post the photo later.

Ok, off to get ready for the hot springs!