Learning to stir fry: Sophia

Sophia begged to help Abby stir fry some veg that was going into our veggie burritos. NO WAY, I said, the oil is hot, it is too much for you. And then I backed down... Abby put their scarves on, I made sure Sophia stood way back to watch the initial 'putting in ' the hot pan, and then she helped Abby stir up the veg. Cute girls, I tell ya! And boy can they cook!

Just another reason why...

we love living here:

Reason # gazillion:

When we have workers over fixing one thing, we always ask them to hang something for us or install something else, they always do, and never charge. These folks installed a ceiling fan, that was their job. We then got them to install our third smoke alarm. Thanks guys!

the weekend

Sophia's favorite person, one of David's old teachers and now our very close family friend. He will get married in March, we told him it needs to be early March so we can be sure to attend!



I will help daddy open his gift. Please take note of MY stupendous wrapping job. It was literally last minute, meaning I walked into Sophia's room, opened a small drawer with wadded up tissue paper in it and then wrapped it up with one piece of tape. This was more for Sophia's benefit than David's, of course.


a family pic from the summer. What he always wanted. He told me all I really needed to do was hand him his kindle that he bought this summer. True true, a great buy indeed.

In Daddy's shoes: Bella

The shoe fetish has begun. She loves to put on her own shoes too, but needs help with that, otherwise she just goes for the bigger ones. Bella is a crazy girl. She has some serious spunk. She is great at preoccupying herself with toys, etc. She loves to say 'mommyyyyy' for everything, though she can say other things too. She is a pretty good eater, loves dumplings like the rest of us, and noodles. She loves to suck her thumb and push her stroller around, though this has caused some tension between her and Sophia (not tension, that is too adult, just plain selfishness, unwillingness to share on both parts). She is into everything, and is unphased by normal scolding. She loves to climb and open drawers. She loves to throw random things in the trash can that do not belong there. She has been fighting a cold these past few days, but seems to be doing better. This is our Bella boo.

School quotes

"People hit people here."

"I can go to the squatty all by myself, let me show you" (and we go to the school bathroom for me to see she can in fact do it all by herself. This was self taught, she learned by watching.

"Some children do not listen and obey the teacher." (ummm...possibly because every person in the room is an only child and has never been told no)

"The little girl asked me my name and then another girl told her I could not speak Chinese"
(interesting, since she can and does speak. But she has admitted to not talking to many kids at school yet, but I think that is changing some)

"Mama, can I eat here PLEEEAAASSSEEEE" (and I sit down with her and let her just this once to see how she would do. She ate the meat but avoided the veg. The menu that day was boiled pork, a sour veg with pork, and yangsi gua, a kind of vegetable,(I have no idea what this is in English and have never seen it in America) all with rice of course. Because I do not want her wasting their food, we have opted not to do this anymore. Note to self, pick her up before they start serving food.

David's 33rd birthday

(this picture is from last May!)

10.25. 2010

Today is David's birthday. We started our celebration on Friday, inviting the JACK's over (an acronym of their names, our close friends). It happened to be K's birthday on Saturday, so I made per request by David, Chicken Parmesan, salad, garlic bread, and for dessert: snicker cheesecake. Nothing healthy or even vegetarian about this, but it was yummy. We had a great evening with them.

The next day both K and I felt pretty puny with colds/flu, whatever. David made us wonderful french toast with great french bread from a local bakery. I took two naps and still did not feel very rested. Sorry David for your birthday weekend flop. Sunday I was still really tired and knew my body was fighting something.

Today, on his actual birthday our helper is making us one of David's favorite meals, and I am making a strawberry cobbler for yet another dessert...

I cannot really wax eloquent enough about David and his heart for our family and for those around him.
These are some things that constantly amaze me about him:

1. His humility. He is the smartest guy I know, so he is right almost all of the time, but he is humble about it,and patient, and this is quite endearing.

2. His Patience. This does deserve its own line. God knew exactly what he was doing in putting me with a patient man, enduring all my flaws, carelessness (with words sometimes), and just plain uckiness. David is patient with me, with our children, with others and he is so forgiving.

3. He is compassionate. He sees the gray. This makes him see many sides to different situations, not the black and white that I tend to be so adamant about. He has compassion and mercy, I love this about him because it continually gives me a great picture of our Lord, and how I need to be.

4. His golden curly locks, and soccer player physique. Enough said. Attractive.

5. So yes, he is an amazing husband. BUT he has thrived as the spiritual leader of our home. He leads us daily in the Word and nightly teaches our children and reads with them (this among the gazillion other responsibilities he has), I have loved watching him love doing this. Incredible.

6. Lastly, he is my best friend. Very best friend. The friend who knows how to put me in my place, how to lovingly forgive, how to make me talk until I really talk, he knows how to call me out in specific sin, and leads me with patience, and knows how to comfort my hurts.

Happy birthday baby, I love you.

Sophia's first day of school

On Thursday, October 21, 2010 Sophia started Chinese Kindergarten. She waved, smiled and did not look back:


Because David and I both wanted to take her on her first day, we had our helper come a little early to watch Bella. She gave Sophia a great pep talk before the day, saying the same things I had been saying: ask the teacher to help you go potty, remember how to ask friends names, if someone does something you don't like, just ask them nicely not to do it, and on and on.


I am ready, let's go!


We decided it would be a good idea for her to go to school with Caleb on the first day just for some comfort of someone she knows being somewhat near her. (in reality his class is way far from hers and they probably will not see each other much, but just knowing it is his school too is helpful for her). As we came down the stairs that morning, Caleb yelled up to Sophia (it was so cute), then she yelled back: 'I am coming down to go to school, I am coming down to go to school.'

We rode on the bike, David on his moto, and K and Caleb on their electric moto. They had a blast talking back and forth as we rode near each other. On day two I had to tell her that that probably wouldn't happen again.


The school building. Her classroom is on the first floor, far right. One of our neighbors is in the other xiao ban class so they may see each other a lot.



She said bye to Caleb at the entrance to the stairwell


All the other children eat breakfast there, we opted out of any food at the school. Though their breakfast of noodles looked better than our oatmeal at home. She smiled and waved and walked away. I was a little shocked. But usually once she decides something she goes all in.



She was led to her seat and we quickly left, not wanting to prolong anything. We completely forgot to get the teacher's phone numbers or give them ours. A big OOPS. I got them when I picked her up.

And she had a great day. My whole not very profound prayer was that she would want to go back. And she really liked it and said it was fun and that the teacher's were nice. She tells me she doesn't understand some stuff and that the teacher takes her to the potty and helps her (which she does not do with the others who are very proficient at squatty potty's ), this I will have to work into our home preschool curriculum!

We have been so blessed with a great transition so far into what will be many days of school for her. She goes from 8:30 to 11:15 every morning. Next week will be her first full week.
We are parents of a school girl, our babies are growing up.