Miscellaneous updates (T=7 months)

This has been a very long week. It started with David having very weird stomach pains all night long. Of course we thought it was what he ate, but the way this manifested was very different from all the 'stomach bugs' we are used to. We started consulting with some docs and considering other things, including appendicitis. He got blood tests and scans, and though by day one the worst was over, the pain lingered and lingered. It is now the weekend again and he is finally well. So thankful.
We think it was something he ate :)

Tobin is now 7 months old. He can sit up, if you put him in that position, but does not get there himself. He is all over the place with the inchworm/army crawl, and does get in the real crawl position and just rocks back and forth. He has been waking up EARLY, around 4-5 a.m. He has done this consistently and I actually feed him at this time, he is hungry. But the boy does eat. This week new on the menu was carrots and peas.
I am certainly missing a full nights' sleep, don't remember the last time I had one.



Bella loves to play with Tobin, and because she has a perpetual cold (allergies, who knows?) we are usually telling her to stay away. But not lately. Bella also loves playing with her Chinese tutor (xiao chen ayi, seen below). She likes reading books, and is quite the talker. Her favorite toy is by far her little baby doll. She takes care of her baby very well. She can speak some Chinese and goes back and forth on whether she wants to go to school next year (she won't have a choice, but it is fun to hear her reaction). My favorite phrase of hers lately: 'yes, I think so' (in almost a British accent).


Sophia is here with my friend and her tutor. We just restarted this. She comes every day and plays with Bella on MWF for an hour and on TR with Sophia. This has worked out well so far. She is great! David and I have a plan to work in some of our own refreshing of Chinese with her, we hope she is game for it.
Sophia is loving school and does well with our homeschool k4 stuff too. She loves making friends, we are very proud of her for making friends wherever she goes. She loves princessy things, playing chase/tag, playing hide and go seek, dance, and when we go to the track she loves to kick the soccer ball around the track (her record high is 5 laps at one time with a good dribble of the ball too). Her favorite movie right now is Beauty and the Beast. Her favorite story? There are many, but at night we are reading 'The Magicians nephew' and she is liking it, she is anxious to get to 'The Lion, the witch, and the Wardrobe".

pics by Sophia

once again I let sophia use our old digital camera. Here is what she came up with....
the first one of Tobin is an old one, included to show his BLUE eyes! Good picture takin', Soph!




yes, you can see right into our neighbors house, and they in ours!


self portrait


are you getting my face in the picture?


we take pictures of each other taking pictures

(Tobin chews on the strap to the highchair)




a good one of Bella eating lunch. (yes, we play musical highchairs. Bella doesn't really need it, but we still use it anyway if it is available.


And then Sophia give Ayi a tutorial on how to use the camera and wants her picture taken with Bella. Check out Bella's face!

random old pic

here is a pic from August of Sophia with some neighborhood kids

A field trip

I am continually finding out things at the last minute when it comes to Sophia's kindergarten class. Last year I had to tell her teachers more than once to keep me in the loop (I mean, they only have 54 students and parents to keep up with). On Thursday I saw a sign posted, I could read some of it, I knew something was happening and made a mental note to ask her teacher about it when I picked her up.

But as many of my mental notes of late, this one was lost. I forgot to ask.
Then David and I went on our 'date night'. We stopped by the grocery store after having a very bizarre reaction to what we ate (tightness/numbing in upper extremities, chest, and throat, not real constriction like we couldn't breath, but just eeriness, even in our face muscles, we both had the same exact reaction. David had this reaction last time he ate at this place when I didn't eat it, and I completely blew it off and rebuked him for mentioning the term 'heart attack', but then I understood. It lasted maybe an hour. David dared try it again because last time he thought it was weird indigestion, and we love this particular style of food we were eating.) I digress.

Every elementary school child and their parents were in every grocery store buying snacks. We asked around, every school was having an outing the next day to different places. The Aha! moment happened and we called Soph's teacher to see if the kindergarten classes were going. Yes, yes, in the morning. They would stop by the gate where we live in the morning to pick up Sophia.

We thought they would be walking. All of the elementary school classes walk to their outings, and it is usually a fairly long distance. We thought it would be the same. But when I met them at the gate it was her three teachers in a car, and then Sophia hopped in . I asked quickly where I should pick her up, we found out on the phone that they were going to an army base/barracks nearby. They said they would bring her back. Oh, okay. Easy enough.

They called and said she was on her way back and would be coming home in a police car. Interesting. And indeed she did. It was the parent of one of her classmates. Everything was really sinking in, how I had utterly botched this whole thing...

I had packed her a few snacks (nuts, dried fruit, and a few marshmallows), she came home with all the snacks her friends shared with her (and no one wanted her snack, duh). She shared everything with us, a chocolate bar, strawberry Oreos, a 'hot dog', some gummy things, etc.

She had this to say about her visit to the army base: we did nothing, absolutely (her words).... We walked around. We got to see where they sleep, in so many bunks, and how neat they keep it, with their shoes by their bed and hats on top. They said we need to keep our stuff very organized too.

She said she had so much fun and really liked going with her class. She offered her snack to people and they did not want it. I asked her many questions...and really found out why I will not be voted PTA president, or even invited to join.

Here is what I learned. If we want to do what is 'normal' in this situation here, we need to:

• buy her very sugary snacks, enough for her friends, candy, cookies, crackers, etc.
• we actually need to take her to the field trip location like every other parent did on that day
• we actually need to stay with her on the field trip like every other parent did that day
• we actually need to take her home, like every other parent did that day

mental notes are etched in my brain, not to be forgotten.

Yesterday another note was posted on their classroom door. I actually took the time to try to read this one, and got it all, but asked a parent to read it to me just in case...just trying to be thorough to make up for lost time. This one was about their performance/assembly/group games planned for the end of the month.

kid pics

Tobin's crawl predictions

Tobin started forward motion today. He has been getting on all fours for a while and rocking back and forth. But today he started the army crawl, dropping back down to his belly and pulling his body forward with his arms. Sophia did this for months before a real crawl. She did the army crawl until 11 months, then did a real crawl, and walked right at a year. Bella did the real crawl early, and then waited to walk until she was 15 months.
Our predictions for a real crawl:
We asked the girls, how many weeks until Tobin crawls?

From Oct 30:
Bella: one week, Nov 6
Sophia: ten weeks, Jan 8
Daddy: Thanksgiving, Nov 24
Mommy: three weeks, Nov 18

Pomelo head and other stuff

Ayi cut up the pomelo and put the rind on her head, I had seen other kids do this, so funny.


fireman Tobin




Sophia wearing her skirt weird.


ready for dance class. Now on Wednesdays they asked Sophia to attend class in the mornings to practice for a performance in December. This means that I take her in the mornings, pick her up for lunch, and then take her back for her dance class at 5 p.m.


Our friend gave us some easels for fun art projects, this was our first time using them, and Sophia had a blast.