What else daddy is missin'....

"Mommy, I am going to be the mommy and you are going to be the grandma, okay?"
Thanks girl.
But today, I felt like a grandma. Well, that is not fair, the grandmas I know have more energy than I do. I am dragging. But things are going well. Bella has a cold and is very clingy, she did not nap well, Sophia did not nap at all. But they 'rested' I suppose, and I caught up in language study....while eating chocolate and sipping a little coke lite (never did this with pregnancy one, rarely did it with prego 2, and do it more often than not this prego go round, only half a can, really).

We received a much anticipated package from Poppy and CC, it included Shutterfly picture books I had made. I was so excited to see these. I am very pleased and so glad I made them. One included our 2009 year of pictures, so glad I finally captured these moments. I am now caught up!
They also gave the girls a few books, one of which has them reading it aloud via recording. Sophia LOVES this book. Laura and Lee gave them one awhile ago and she loves them both! very special gifts!
thanks guys for the gifts!



enjoying the book

While Sophia and I fingerpainted, Bella explored what was under the rug in the living room...




we had fun opening our new fingerpaint! Sophia made a sign for daddy (she already told him this, no surprise). I actually enjoyed myself too...

Now we are waiting for K and her entourage to come upstairs to eat take out with us!
the kids will play play play, and then we will call it a night!
One more day before daddy arrives!!! We miss him something terrible!

Adore more in 2011

Some people have a word for the new year. I have never done that. Ever. But as I was praying the other day, I really thought about what I would like to do a whole lot better this year. I contemplated areas of weakness and struggle, and oh there were many.

But if it was one thing that I really failed at a lot, in my walk, in my marriage, in parenting, and in daily life, it was the idea of adoring. Adore Jesus, adore my husband, adore my children, yes it goes along with enjoying and not just doing. But I chose adore because I was praying for David and I just thought how little I really let him know how much I adore him, truly treasure him, really trust him, truly just enjoy him, who he is and the amazing husband, leader and friend that he is….and my confession just spiraled from there.

You see I am a task oriented person. I love lists. Lists are good. But I can check off a reading plan, a reading plan intended to help me know and adore God. I can check off books I have read, good marriage books, intended to help me better communicate adoration to my husband. I can instill all the great parenting techniques, time management techniques, all intended to help me enjoy more...but all this doesn't mean I am doing it.

In the area of parenting I confessed to David that even though sometimes I am sitting there playing with the girls, my thoughts may be on how to better organize the room, when I should start with dinner, how much language study do I have left (the multi tasking brain is a must have for a mom, I know, but too often for me it really has precluded pure adoration for the gifts that they are to me, and prevented me from just enjoying them). My thoughts are far from them….and boy do I do this with my Father in heaven as well…

It has been a trend in my life as my life has gotten busier. ..

It is the whole Mary and Martha thing, one was doing something, the other adoring someone. And which was the better way? We all know. So do I.

I do not plan on missing out on that enjoyment anymore. This year, I plan to tell, and show, and love my husband by truly adoring him. With the girls, I will work hard to just be with them, play with them, without moving on in my brain to the next task on my list….I want to have fun with them and show them how much I adore them. Because I do.

And with my Lord, yes, I have a reading plan, and some memorization goals. But it is prayer and praise, and the Journaling thus far that is keeping me thinking on who He is and adoring Him more. The plans help me, they guide me, they keep me consistent, but having to put down on paper what is impressed on me that day, attributes to reflect on, this is keeping me more contemplative, more at his feet like Mary, more just sitting in wonder than moving on to my to-do list.

I know this will be a daily battle. But I press on to adore my God more this year, and loving him by enjoying and yes, even adoring, those good gifts he has given me.

Adore more.

A good start

Things were going too well, I just knew. I got Sophia off to school, a friend took her by the hand and led her to play. I replaced our lost 'entrance' card to the school, and then bought fruit on the way home. Bella and I had some good time together, as I finally taught her how to use the gift that Sophia (and Daddy) picked out for her for Christmas, this was great fine motor skill practice, and she did it no problem. Stringing big beads to make a necklace. They are all shapes, some are fruits, some animals. great buy.



wow, girl. good job.

I even took Bella on a bicycle outing. We went to the book store where I found a great Chinese version of 'guess how much I love you,' Sophia still loves this book and it will be great language practice too.

We headed home. Off to pick up Sophia from school (trip number three of the day up and down the stairs, it usually totals five or more). I watched outside the door for a minute as they sang a song with motions and I could tell she was loving it. She did not want to leave. Her friends wanted her to stay too. She wanted to eat there, but the food had not arrived. She usually likes the thought of eating there but not always the food and I hate and am embarrassed by the wastefulness of it. But....she only has two more days with these friends for a while, I reasoned. I went to the bakery and came back. They were eating rice, corn, and a sour veg that I don't even like. I made her eat half of the bowl, since she asked for it. Out the door and on the bike a whine and complain turned to crying as I refused to give her a snack....
And then ensued what I hope to be the end of the drama for the day. ...

Her complaining and bad attitude subsided a little. We received a package with goodies, and then the selfishness set in and turned to meanness towards Bella. What followed was a thirty minute session of discipline and calming down. Everything taken away. (David and I are on a serious kick to STAY consistent with first time obedience). I stuck it out. Discipline, Prayer, Forgiveness, fresh starts. Meanwhile, our helper was feeding Bella, and listening to a very dramatic Sophia through closed doors....oh well. Sophia knows if you whine for something you will not get it, end of story. We will see what happens when she wakes up from her nap and wants a piece of chocolate...

Did I expect perfect obedience while daddy was gone? No. I was just on an upswing in attitude, joy, etc. And I had to fight anger, impatience and all the other attitudes that come when a child is not doing what I would like, when a child, my child is simply acting out what my heart is feeling (complainy and whiny)...ouch. This is why I love the restoration part of our discipline sessions, restores calmness in every way, it brings us all back together, just how God intended. And He will give grace for the next time and time after that of training our children to be wise and not rebellious. Constant training for my heart and hers....
Day two without daddy, only half way done.

What daddy is missin'

01.11.2011

David left mid morning, as the rains came tumbling down. I took a tuk-tuk to pick Sophia up from school. She did not want to leave...I am so happy she loves school. We had a great day yesterday.
I gave them baths in the middle of the day thinking I would not have hot water that night. I am glad I did, since I didn't feel like doing baths later anyway.

In the afternoon Sophia's friend, Anna, came over to play. I thought of all kinds of things to do with them, but in the end let them enjoy the kitchen together. I let them take out EVERYTHING from the kitchen. It was fun to watch them. One would 'do the dishes' while the other 'cooked' and they talked about this too. Three year olds are serious fun.

We went downstairs to eat take out with K, whose hubby is away with David. Caleb and Sophia played well together, and they even shared some marshmallows with us that they roasted over the gas burner. YUM.

I put the girls to bed, regulated that for about 45 minutes on and off. I sometimes think Bella instigates and Sophia can't say No. I tell her to ignore Bella, but how hard is that? There was some discipline involved for some direct disobedience. They finally fell asleep.
I read books about teaching your child to read...(sounds fun I know, but it engrossed me until 10 p.m. I had planned on going to bed at 9:30)



first we have to put lipstick on...


too many cooks in the kitchen...but they managed well.

We are home

We are back home and have our work visas!!! We are so excited. No more leaving every two months, except we will leave in two months to have a baby....
We are so glad to be back home. Sophia now has one more week of school before spring holiday begins. The schools will be out until the END of February. Crazy. And the fireworks have already begun. Daily. Next week I predict an ever increasing onslaught, until Chinese New Year.

In other news, a mighty Hail storm blasted us the other night around midnight, or who knows when it was, it was LO-UD. The girls slept right on through it...

And David is leaving today on a business trip for four days. Just the girls and me until Friday. We don't plan on doing much, taking Sophia to school, hosting a play date, cooking some soup, and then some chili, Eating take out, making sugar cookies (David outlawed these this Christmas since we ate too many last year), possibly finger painting, who knows what the week may hold. We hope it to be very uneventful. I may try to post every day, our usual: 'while daddy is away,' in order to fill him in on the mundane tidbits and hilarious happenings that make up our daily life. He, meanwhile, may be freezing cold has he leaves the subtropics for a more northern, much windier climate.

Doctor's appts

Originally David was going to go to Chiang Mai today, but because he cannot deal with visa stuff until tomorrow and there were no flights that could get him back in time to do that, he stayed. This meant that we headed to the hospital for my 25 week check up with my doc.

He did an ultrasound and everything looked great, very healthy. AND, definitely a boy! Okay, now I can paint the room and by some blue clothes...

We also took the girls to their doc appointments so that I would not need to do it by myself tomorrow. This proved invaluable to me. Tomorrow while daddy is at the embassy and then in Chiang Mai, the girls and I will play, play, play!

From Bangkok

Happy New Year everyone!

We left our city on Thursday and have been enjoying a very non-busy Bangkok. Everyone is out of town, making traffic flow smooth and outings enjoyable. The weather too is great, we know in late March when we return it will be HOT, so we are loving this.

The evening of our arrival we ordered in Lebanese (possibly our favorite here) and went to bed. The girls traveled really well, Bella slept for 1.5 hours of the 2 hour flight to Bangkok. David and Sophia enjoyed games on the iphone (this thing is proving to be well worth the price (though we were blessed by it as a gift to us)). But it probably is really well worth the price, fork out the dough and enjoy an iphone.

Our first full day we went to a mall with a 'play place' and also shopped some. I forgot my list at the guest house, and have proved to be inept at making even small decisions when overwhelmed with choices. That and I hate spending money. So, which bag of brown rice to buy? Couldn't do it. This girls underwear seems too expensive, I will wait. The bed rail for toddlers? At almost 100 USD, I said I would have to wait, and David nixed that too (we can make one or find it on taobao). My indecisiveness is also inefficient, I hate to waste time too, which I did. I forgave myself and asked God to help me relax and enjoy whatever the next day might bring, shopping, playing, eating...and I have done this more. (the starbucks toffee nut latte helps too)

We are here to deal with our visas, and of course we knew that the Embassies would be closed, including today (Monday) which we were not quite expecting. David has rearranged his trip to Chiang Mai half a dozen times, and because we could not change our tickets back to China, we will return home On Thursday, not the next Sunday. It is just as well, we are ready to get into the new year with good home routines.

We have enjoyed play places, walks, playing with new friends at the guest house, David and I took turns going to see 'the Tourist' at the Theatre, and eating good food. The movie was pretty good by the way.

We will live at this guest house for baby 3 so we are getting our bearings and checking out the neighborhood. We think it will be great for the potential of friends for the girls to play with, this trumps a lot of the comforts we might find else where (that and it is really cheap).

Last night we ventured on a long walk and ate Thai food at a nearby hostel (David would eat Thai food every meal off the street and we would save big bucks, but I can't do it and am scared since they use shrimp a LOT and one wok to make the stuff in).

I brought some preschool stuff in order to not skip a week and Sophia was eager to do it. To my surprise I have been listening to a lot of language review as well. I set some goals for listening to all my reviews three times by Jan 15 (I set this goal a week and a half ago). In order to meet this I knew I would need to listen for at least 5 days of our ten day trip (our trip is now 7 days). So far so good. I may even try to get ahead so that when we get home I won't be as pressed. The tentative plan is to start phase 2 of this language gig and talk talk talk, plod plod plod! Must find a teacher...I digress.

That's it for miscellaneous from the Kingdom of Thailand, our home away from home.