Tobin at TWO: What he's up to...

Tobin eats....almost anything. And if he doesn't like something he says: 'don't like it'. He can put away 12 dumplings in one sitting. (they are small). He loves strawberries and green smoothies! He does not like sandwiches. He has licked the peanut butter and jelly off, I think he just doesn't like bread that much. He definitely prefers rice.

Tobin says....a lot. He narrates his life in short words and sentences. His vocab in both languages is pretty good. And since it is baby sounding, it is quite cute.  He was showing us ants (we have a lot), and saying "right dere right dere!"  He now can say Sophia's name very well (hers being the hardest), and can understand and communicate almost anything. He is at a very cute talking stage. The cutest is when he has to say: 'I sorry Sophia' or 'I sorry mama'. I just caught him sitting on top of the Homeschool table, I said: 'Tobin Elias!' and he said unprompted: 'I sorry' and flashed his grin....

Tobin plays....with shoes, with balls, with his baabaa, with his sisters. He loves any kind of ball, but with his big hands he can bounce the basketball pretty well, and says: 'bounce bounce'. He loves to be outside and get dirty, play in the sand, or drive a little car. He will put on anyone's shoes, and since most of them are girl shoes, this also is quite funny. He loves his sisters and they love him, but they can fight over a toy any day...he can still scream a good scream. He knows how to annoy them as well. When they are watching a video he will climb up on the couch and start kissing them...on the lips....in their face....because he knows they are trying to watch something. He also loves to dance around and has quite a strut with the swing of his arms.

Tobin gets in trouble....daily. We are daily training this two-year-old. The other day he locked himself in the bathroom on accident. We didn't have a key. I tried to talk him through unlocking it (LOL), until David just went and got a screw driver. A few months ago it was socks in the toilet. And these days he loves to sneak toothpaste, or open up my night cream containers on my night stand.

Tobin LOVES...his baa baa and baths (and sucking his thumb).

Tobin dislikes....balloons, they scare him for some reason.

Tobin sleeps....a good nap in the afternoon, 2-3 hours, and still remains an early riser, waking around 6:30 a.m.. We tell him it is not time to get up (David is better at this than I am), and he usually goes back to sleep until after 7. So at night he goes down around 7:30 and sleeps a good 11 hours.

Tobin looks....like his daddy. This is what everyone says. He does look like David, but he does not look like David did when David was little. We were not sure if he was going to have the hard-to-tan skin like mine (but does tan eventually), or porcelin white, or the golden tan like David's. Now we know, since being at the beach, that he tans easily, not sure if it is real olive (like my dad, bro and sis, or golden olive like David's), but it does get tan, not red.

This boy is the charmer in our home. He has such a fun personality already, we consistently laugh at his antics and drama. We are so thankful to God for Tobin Elias, God is indeed good!

Tobin turns 2: April 10, the party

We invited one other foreign family over right after dinner for cake, and we invited some neighbors, people who see and play with Tobin every day.

 This is one of Sophia's friends, but she knows and plays with Tobin too. Tobin loves to say her name 'LuBingHua'

 Tobin received an awesome truck from the S family, given by sweet Annabelle.

she also gave him a precious kiss.

So, yes, all the gifts started coming out first. Bella found hers and gave it to him, nice wooden blocks with big screws and a wooden screwdriver.

He actually loves the bucket they came in better.

Sophia gave him these cool legos with windows and wheels, etc.

Next it was time for cake! Cupcakes. He was so surprised and loved the bear (we told him it was a bear and he believed us)

 Two candles, ready to blow. We sang in Chinese first.

He blew out one candle and then got scared.

I blew the other out and he was okay.

and slowly he started to eat. The chocolate chip eyes first, and then the face....he actually did not make that big of a mess, surprisingly. He wanted to get back to the toys.

everyone else digs in....

At one point he started growling at his bear cupcake, this was hilarious.

Happy birthday Tobin. We love you!

Next post: Tobin at Two: what he's up to....

Tobin turns 2: April 10, the morning

Once again I felt like I was throwing things together for Tobin's birthday. I happened to have been in bed sick the whole day before. But it was going to be small and simple anyway...and it ended up being perfect.

 How old are you Tobin? Two! And he puts he all his fingers up to show us.

 "Thank you, God"

 I started trying to follow my sister's family's tradition of number pancakes. I finally got the '2' right.

Our helper came in, one of his favorite people, and gave him some gifts, a water gun (water splashing festival is here!), 

And some flip flops. He LOVES to wear the girls' flip flops. This was a great gift. But his feet were too fat/wide to fit in these so she exchanged them.

While Tobin played, the girls and I decorated cupcakes. I surprised them with what we were making, they LOVED it. They were supposed to be little bears. But with the supplies I had they look more like owl-bears. Oh well. 

 They loved helping with this, and they were really good at it. This was very helpful for me too. We had a little assembly line going.

I told them they could add personality if they wanted. A lopsided grin, a frown. These were truly original.

Friends, both foreign and domestic

By 'foreign' I mean like us, foreigners here, and by 'domestic' I mean local friends. 

The same family that we vacationed with in February came to visit us for a few days. They are in the milk business and were looking at some water buffalo which we have aplenty (not us personally but our area). They have five kids and our kids love their kids! In the evenings we had things quiet by 8 p.m. and the adults got to spend time laughing and chatting. We even had a date night with one more couple, what a treat! 

Yes, all of us fit in our apartment. Four adults, 8 kids. 

At one point all of the kids (minus one that I didn't capture) were drawing all at the same time in different parts of the house. Here Tobin is sitting drawing, but the drawing in front of him with a good little stick figure and something else is not his. I just discovered this as I posted it. Nice try buddy, passing yourself off as a two year old artistic genius.

The day that family left, some of our closest local friends came over. This is one of David's old language teachers who became a best friend to us. They now live an hour away teaching. They had a son last year, and brought him in town to visit (it was tomb sweeping festival so they had some days off). This was a pleasant surprise. We ate dinner, played, and talked about parenting. I always get a ton of questions from young parents: when do I feed them this, how long do I nurse, when can I give them this, what about sleeping at night? I actually had to pull out my 'Super Baby Food' book to get some more accurate answers.

 This boy is too cute!!! Sophia loves playing mommy.

Daily life crazies

 I really would like to do another few posts on 'ten years of marriage', but mainly to document a few stories from early in our marriage (pre-blog days) that were really important to us. It would probably get long and not so exciting to most, but I may do it just for our family documentation. BUT until I get around to that lets stick to some daily life happenings, that really aren't that crazy....it just feels like it sometimes.

The girls love to mother Tobin, whether he likes it or not. Here he doesn't mind because he LOVES the dry erase board. Bella is feeding him a fake bottle while Sophia combs his hair. This is exactly how I found them. 

 Bella recently got a bike, her first one, she loves it, and now we are trying to become a bike riding family. We usually do NOT ride like this, as I don't trust Tobin to hold on tight. The other day our entire family biked a loop in our neighborhood, the girls on their bikes, David on his and Tobin on the back of my bike.

 

 Our daily life is filled with visitors usually. Friends, or family of friends we know. this happens to be our helper's mom, who lives an hour away. She came to town to go to the bigger, 'better' hospital for a check up with a problem she has.

Our kids really like spiders. I think this is because they HATE mosquitoes (our girls get eaten alive by them), and they know that spiders can eat them. Here they are chasing a spider and saying, 'let's make it our pet', and they often come up with some great names for them too.

 This pic was just yesterday (on Tobin's birthday, another post). I am introducing new CC stuff. We are on the timeline. Tobin was just sitting there on the table with his baabaa sucking his thumb, David thought it was hilarious so he captured it because Tobin rarely does this (I appear to be having a perfect homeschool day, pictures can deceive). I happened to be explaining a little bit about Napoleon conquering parts of Europe and invading Russia (I don't always explain every person or event, but if they can understand it, I try). With the map right there, this was easy.  Bella is on the other side of Tobin in her chair.

Up from the Dead!

Oh Praise the One who paid my debt,
And raised this life up from the dead!
(Jesus Paid it All)


Why do you look for the living among the dead,
He is not here; he is risen! (Luke 24:5-6)

Happy Resurrection Day.

Doing Life with you: Ten years of marriage: Hard Work

On the ‘Ides of March’ ten years ago, David and I were married. From first date to first talk of marriage was two months. From first date to actual wedding day was eleven months. Now, ten years later, we both would agree our marriage is incredibly awesome…and not without lots of hard work, patience, and trust in the Creator of marriage.

About 7-8 years in we realized (David more than me) that we were in functional mode. I was certainly living to be served, and so tired, and felt I had every right to be (self-focus tunneling all vision). We were living more as roommates than friends and lovers. This ‘just functioning but not thriving’ probably does happen to many married couples in the stage of raising littles, one right after the other.

But once we really started talking about it and agreeing, with David’s lead, we became much more prayerful and intentional. We decided to spend the upcoming year really focusing on our marriage, and less on parenting. We had read every parenting book (and are still reading some good ones) but knew that our marriage would be the best influence (or worst potentially) on our children. I am so thankful for David’s leading in this area. We talked more daily, stopped to show affection more, and consistently (weekly) went on dates, and these have grown into better habits and a strong marriage. Even back then, when all weariness was affecting daily life, we both would have said that we had a good marriage. Now we are starting to see what a really good marriage is like….and don’t you know, the parenting struggles have lessened. They are still ever-present, but because we communicate more and in more effective ways, we are on the same page and are winning some of those daily parenting battles.

At ten years our marriage is stronger, our love forging deeper, and our friendship the best it has ever been, all completely by the grace of God. Completely.