Crazy Kids

yes, I can roll...one way.

And I like to spit up when I do this.


I love to say 'cheese' to the camera...I am a very silly girl.


I am a strong willed, sharp thinker...but I love all things princessy


Bella made all this food for mommy, but it would not fit on her desk because...

Sophia had already made her all of this food and put it on her desk.


I thoroughly avoided my nap today, and mommy found me like this. I then told her: "I was singing 'Holy God' in the basket".


I like mommy to put my dress like this because Sophia says I look like a peacock this way. And with my bows in my hair I look like a little gift.


Mommy take a picture of me eating like Templeton (the rat from Charlotte's web).

Yes, I am blogging as the girls eat their snack. What a funny day it has been with them, not without many episodes of discipline, interspersed with laughter and fun. I told them, 'what will daddy and I do when you guys grow up and you are not here for us to laugh at? I know! You can come back and we can all be friends and still laugh together...'
Sophia interjected: 'but I am not going to get married because I always want to stay in this family, I don't want to leave this family.'
I replied: 'Sophia, you will always be my daughter, but when you grow up and God gives you a husband you will love it and consider marriage a gift from God. Right now it is my job to train you to be the best wife and woman of God you can be. But it is all based on his grace, because mommy fails at being a good wife and mom all the time, But isn't God's grace good, his forgiveness and patience that helps us be more like him?' ( I lost her at the end, of course, but I won't stop preaching).
Sophia: 'will you come to my wedding?'
'Of course sweetheart, I will help you in every way plan your wedding and be there for you'. (we better start saving now!)

These are the conversations around here lately....though they do vary, some become very theological on a kindergarten level, the world and the way it works begs so many questions doesn't it? I love the child's take on it all...

The interviews

I interviewed the girls today, all answers are exact quotes.

Sophia:
How old are you? 4
do you have a favorite color? pink
do you have a favorite animal? well, let me think....spiders.
why? Because they can catch flies and bugs and mosquitoes
what do they do once they catch them? they eat their blood....eewwww.
who is your best friend? Big Caleb and also little Caleb
your favorite food? paigu (pork ribs)
Is there something you want to do or be when you grow up (I gave her examples, like wife, mom, doctor, I know she doesn't want to be a wife yet, because she says she doesn't want to leave us)? 'princess'
favorite place to go? a play place
favorite video/and or story? Laura Ingalls and also the three little pigs
favorite dessert? There are a lot of chocolates that I like, chocolate eclair cake....lemon pie
favorite thing about living here (since China is her home I think she thought I meant in this actual apartment location)? going outside and playing with Caleb
and then she just added: 'one day I want to go on a helicopter'

Bella:
how old are you? I am two years old.
do you have a favorite color? yeah. Friends. (and then Sophia told her what colors were and she just repeated them all)
Favorite food? vegetables (good girl)
favorite sweet? greens (really she loves skittles and though she refuses granola bars, chocolate chip cookies and the like, she LOVES mango and pineapple, and yesterday at lunch ate a whole bowl of soup that was quite spicy)
but what do you love the most (in the context of food)? Poppy and CC
who is your best friend? (I gave her examples like Sophia, Annabelle, and a few others, she first said Annabelle but then stuck with this answer):Uncle Jim
do you have a favorite song? (she starts singing) 'Holy God...' (this is the gospel song)
favorite animal? kitty cat

And here is a Bella quote from the other day:

You are not going to go on a date mommy, you are going to stay for a long hour…

(She said this because we did go on a date the other day and when we left she was fine, but she would not go to bed without crying. And because Ayi will not let her cry, she tried to get her in bed and finally called us, we were on our way home anyway, but when we arrived they were all still out on the couch. All she needed to do was actually put them in bed and shut the door, but I don't think she is comfortable with that...oh well.)

Chinese 'class'

This is a tidbit of the girls' 'class'. It is supposed to be split 45min/45 min but sometimes they are together playing, especially when songs are involved. Bella really did start singing this song, and Sophia already knew it.

The roll over

Tobin really started rolling over yesterday. He had done it a few times before but I always thought it was a fluke. But yesterday he did it and would get stuck, whine, and then do it again once I put him back. He is FOUR months old TODAY!!!

And because he was so tired from all the rolling yesterday I woke him up at 7:10 a.m. with his last feeding the night before at 8:50 p.m. Wowzers. that probably really is a fluke.

He is cooing, smiling, and engaging a lot more. He is a bundle for sure, and probably weighs 15 or 16 pounds. I was going to start rice cereal TODAY because he had been waking so early, but I will wait a little longer ('solid foods' is a whole other ball game, I like to wait as long as possible for this...).

He is a cutey and the girls love him, we do too of course!

A village day, perfect.

We love getting out to different villages, and though it rained all morning, the afternoon was perfect for spending time with friends in their home. Just about 15 minutes from our house, this village is where David lived when he was learning 'local' language, the people out here do not speak Chinese, or much of it anyway.


Sophia wanting her new friend to come play with her. Sophia did not like that the girl did not speak Chinese and asked me to teach her some of the minority language. I told her I did not know much, and she insisted that she needed to learn it....possible.


A group of men showed up to visit.


David's old teacher and now our family friend, with his niece who is about 4 months younger than Sophia.



Bella chats with 'uncle' and Tobin chills out in the corner, you can see his chunky legs


wood piles and clothes drying


my fave: the water buffalo...the girls LOVED going to look at him too. We explained to Sophia that they love to be in the water and maybe we should call her a water Sophia, since she does too, she laughed and laughed at this!



they had two pigs, quite cute. Sophia and Bella immediately dubbed one 'Wilbur' and I saw a big dead spider still hanging from a cobweb, which became 'Charlotte' which was fitting since Charlotte does die in the end of the story...the girls loved this too. (Sophia still has not stopped talking about raising our own chickens 'so that we don't have to buy eggs anymore.' Good point, girl, but where would we put them?


David found out why all the men stopped by, they wanted to buy this family's liquor, rice liquor, must be the best in the village or something...


Bella was refusing to look at the camera, she even put a hand in front of her face as if all the paparazzi was just too much, and she giggled on...


Some other friends of our friends came over, they were incredibly nice and loved on our kids so well


There go the men, off with their liquor...


Bella ate her weight in pineapple, and everyone thought her spunk quite hilarious, though it often turns into rebellion, not so funny...


the kitchen. Sophia really wanted to help prep the meal, which happened to be the best village meal I had ever eaten, four different dishes and I ate from each one, usually there is just about 2 that I can eat (either because it is too spicy or has something raw in it).


Eh zuo, the girl, loved talking to Tobin. He did great...sucked his thumb and went to sleep for his nap, then woke up happy. The folks were amazed: 'we have to carry our kids on our back to get them to sleep.' Yeah, but they also don't have the nasty thumb habit...


Are these the biggest woks you have ever seen?


more food on the stove...



driving in the living room, what fun


Sophia was shy at first with everyone watching, but once people stopped paying attention, she started dancing...I knew she was itching to get her groove on, she is pretty good at the local dance.


Both our girls love the village...they had a big creek near their house that was running strong with orange clay water, we started calling it orange juice. I took the girls down to where it met another little river, and we touched the water a bit. With it being rainy season, these waters were flowing fast. 'uncle' met us on our way back to his house because he forgot to tell us that the bathrooms run off into the creeks and rivers. Oh yeah. I definitely should have remembered that. We promptly washed our hands a few times.

This was a great visit with friends, we did not get back until after 8 p.m. and we all slept until 8 a.m. (except Tobin (and me), who woke up at 5:45 like he has done consistently now...rice cereal is coming soon for you boy!).

By the numbers

• 5: approximate number of times we have lost power in the last ten days. Usually for hours. One day as the sun went down I had all the candles lit and ready. It happened to be one of the hottest nights of the year so far. No fans. No fun. The girls were having trouble going to sleep in the heat. A little after 8:30 I was putting soothing cream on Sophia's mosquito bites and the power came back on! We said a prayer of thanks right then and there! With all the construction going on and it being school break, I predict this will be a trend over the next few weeks.
• 89 degrees: the temperature in our bedroom a few days ago

• 79 degrees: the temp in our room last night (with fans, this feels wonderful)

• 30 cents/lb: the price of local mangoes that taste like medicine

• 62 cents/lb: the price of mangoes that come from just across the border and are yum!

• $1, the price of one big pineapple (we eat about one a day, great in our green smoothies)

• $2.50/lb: the price of pork, a 60 cent increase in the past few weeks because of some 'problems with pork' which is actually a disease among the swine population...

• $5/hr: the price we pay for the girls' 'summer chinese class' which is really just a lot of play and story reading/listening and fun. We will probably keep this going with Bella once Sophia goes back to school. The 'tutor' comes three days a week, they love it.

• 71/100, number of reading lessons Sophia has completed.

• 1 to 2: approximate number of buildings in our city that currently have a functioning elevator (most buildings are not taller than about 6 stories)

• 10-15: the number of buildings under construction right now that will need to have elevators (at least 10 stories or more)

• 95%: percentage of the number of villagers we know that are scared to ride in elevators (in the new hospital)

Bubbles, Forts, and more

For reaching reading lesson number 60 Sophia got a big bottle of bubbles with a long wand, she loved it....she reached lesson 70 today and received a 'doctor' toy kit, which she LOVES. She is doing well with reading, though she does not love every lesson. We are teaching her perseverance at this point.





I love this photo because it captures their anticipation so well. They were playing the 'the big bad wolf' game, and Daddy was the big bad wolf. He is trying to blow down their house...


It is hard to get candid shots of this girl, because when I pull out the camera she looks at me, smiles big and says 'cheese!'


Sophia and I chat from across the room...she is probably saying: 'I have a good idea...' this is one of her favorite phrases.


while I nurse Tobin, Bella likes to sit on my leg and play 'trotty little horsey' I later see her do this with her baby doll, quite funny.


a living room fort, we used to call them 'igloos' and then 'tree houses' when we read a shortened version of Swiss Family Robinson, but they are just good 'ole living room forts.

the girls chat in their home. Sophia was the daddy and was about to go out hunting...