July

I’ve been AWOL on this blog for many moons. This is partly because I’ve moved over to my named blog, where I also talk about some of the cultural, family, and other issues. It’s also just been an exceptionally busy period. We moved off the mountain where we’d lived, finished out the semester, and then now we’re stateside for 10 weeks. We’ll have visited many places and a dozen churches.

As is often the case, one of my challenges is always figuring out where the kids are and how to help them. Sam’s surprised us. He was an enthusiastic but not particularly natural baseball player abroad. This summer we took him out and practiced batting and he had a good time. We’ve been working on second language by showing the kids public television. They at least have retained some comprehension (they’ll watch it) and will say some phrases (“I’m full,” “I don’t want that,” “I’m the big sister”) but I know they’ll have regressed some. Meanwhile, Sam’s also doing an English camp and will have done several other camps (zoo, church, outdoor). He’s having a blast. I think he’s probably behind a little on English. There’s a newer focus on early literacy and his English training for kindergarten was pretty informal. I’m hoping he’ll be fine when we go back and he’ll have help regardless. Still it’s always a lot of work to keep them going.  This week has been a really good one for them. They’ve been to the zoo, to the family farm, and have seen an aunt and uncle a lot.

The time with my parents was really great too. They did a lot of park trips, a visit to a science center/aquarium and a zoo, time with my brother and their cousins, and playing outside with water. We also did a vacation where they went to a national park, an aquarium, museums, and some other activities (Sam and Emily did a ski lift, I did a car museum with the twins), and we had a lot of time at the pool. The kids all have made dramatic jumps in swimming ability. Sam had had a few lessons two years ago and then weekly lessons for about ten weeks abroad (but it was not a great environment). This summer they’ve gotten the pool time and now taking lessons. They can all dog paddle and seem to love the water. I’m hoping that the last few weeks will be good for them. We’re doing an east coast run for Sam’s camp and to see Emily’s aunt and my one set of aunt and uncles in the area. I’m sad we aren’t getting to our more northern relatives in the Midwest and east coast but hope to see them on our next trip back. The time definitely goes faster than expected.

The kids are coming along on verbal ability. The twins still say “mies” instead of “I.” Eli calls Eva "Evo" and says "waffles" like "flossils." He just said "pay-peh" for "paper." Eli has a bit of a froggy voice. They’ve also invented their own very nasal baby language they do when they pretend to be babies together. Eli’s very into dogs and Eva’s on a full princess kick. So far the princess kick isn’t too specialized. She will play an alien princess from a dog movie they like and (Princess Jorala from Super Buddies), but was also introduced to Barbie by cousins and is liking the Disney collection. One of the twins games is "Doggy and Princess" (Eli as dog, Eva as princess). It's a time of imaginative play, that's for sure.

My mom introduced Sam to plants versus zombies. He doesn’t play video games a ton, but it’s a nice break for the parents on car trips or when he needs a post-class break. Sam has given us mixed messages on reading camp. He’s said he doesn’t like it, but also has had happy things to say when he comes home. It’s a good trial run for the fall when we’ll have to have him at school by 8 and he’ll have a pretty long day. I’m really glad we were able to pull off the move before we left, because I think we’ll enjoy getting to know the new place when we’re back. And honestly, it will be nice to have a few weeks before school start where I can be local but not on campus.

That’s our updates. In terms of long-term discernment, we are always a little mixed in our feelings. The last fall was pretty rough but the spring improved dramatically. I find the transitions are a mix too. We get a lot of opportunities to try out new things. For myself, I sometimes feel like this is just a challenging position to be sustainable in. I’m doing it, but I know I need to put more time into exercise and cooking and I’d like more time for research. On the other hand, I know that’s asking a lot for anyone with three small kids living abroad. I think it will also help to have a few weeks before the semester starts because it’ll give me some time to put ourselves back together. This life we live, of back-and-forths, is a relatively wholesome one, but often a bit intense. I'm sort of amazed at all of the environments we've moved between. 

Oh, mid-semester...

I'm blogging more on my named site now, but still wanted to update family pictures here. Things are going along--time always accelerates as we hid the middle of the semester. I've felt a little shell-shocked lately with efforts to finish out the spring semester, plan the summer, and prep for fall transitions. Emily's been a good listener and we're still working on possibilities. I feel like there are good ways to make it all work, but when I look up definitions of burn-out, they usually fit me too (jobs you can't complete, little feedback, poor work/life separation, etc.). It's not that I'm not making progress--I definitely am--it just sort of feels like I'm running a marathon where someone keeps moving the finish line farther into the distance.

On the flip side, the kids are mostly gleeful and are at a really fun stage now. Eva was dancing to the Dorothy the Dinosaur dvd tonight, Eli's started drawing, and Sam does artistic pasterpieces. I get to go to the zoo with Sam's group on Thursday. They're pretty excellent park goers also. Emily took them to the huge park recently, where they played with friends they see there. They all have pretty good language. Last night I heard Eva talking about the four tastes in local language, so she's really making rapid progress. Sam does more formal translation, and his vocab is also more complex. Eli moved to the big class at church, which takes him out of mom's English class and puts him with 8 or 10 kids his own age. He liked the drawing/cake combo in the class, and so I may take Eva up next week too. They definitely are moving on to new things. This summer should be a lot of fun, since Sam will be at an age he can do camp-type stuff. The three do "pretty well" together, but it's also nice to get them some solo time.

Here are pictures from a recent trip up the mountain to some botanical gardens.

Gymnastics

They're enjoying gymnastics lately. The teachers are very good with them and go through an array of activities. Emily said there's less tumbling than in the States, but they seem to be working on basic skills (moving forward and backwards, arm and leg strength, balance, vaulting, hanging from a bar, etc.).

Eli is always a little fidgity and reluctant to stay with the group. Today I saw him and he wanted to come over and sit on me. I talked him back into practice through an appeal to the advanced gymnastics training of the ninja turtles, Robin, and other superheroes. That said, Eli is really strong. He does jumps that most kids need help with. Eva has a blast the whole time, and is flexible.

We've also realized Sam generally does not have the "thrillseeking" gene. He'll do the upside and the flips, but still occasionally gets spooked by lnog flights of stairs and escalators. He'll do them, but he doesn't particularly enjoy it. Both my dad and I are like this with heights. My brother could sit ont he edge of the cliff, but I always wanted to be back five or ten feet.

I'm trying to use my camera more. We've been taking a lot of cell phone pictures, but I miss the clarity of a traditional camera. I'll try to post more pictures in the coming months. I'm splitting my blogging now between this site and a more public one.

Church and Park

Kid update. Their favorite music lately is a new Disney DVD from Grandma Barb. Sam likes We are Siamese and a song about pirates, Eli likes Lion King, and Eva is officially into princesses now. She often wears her princess dress and the boys alternate between Darth Vader, various super heroes, and some legacy bug costumes (a beetle, bees). For reading, they do a mix of things. Sam and I had done Lorax for a while. We are now reading an illustrated Bible I have. It’s written for older kids, but he likes doing two or three little stories at a time.

Emily’s also got him working on English with a workbook I found here. I think one of our dilemmas will be whether 80% of grade level in local scool and 90% of grade level in English is okay. So far, he seems very happy with everything, so we are happy with it. However, if he ever feels like he’s left out we’ll figure out another way. He has a very good vocabulary and is interested in all different subjects. Today we watched a TV show and it had a little girl with an appendicitis in it. He seemed worried that this was something that could happen to him, so we spent a while discussing the body, organs, etc. The weather has turned warm sometimes recently also, so Emily has been taking them to the park. Sam has two friends there, one Spanish-Japanese and one Canadian-local, so he enjoys playing with them in English. Emily says the three boys are a little rough together but all like each other. They range from 4-6.

As I write this, I’m at church. Sam is in his class and Emily is leading her class. Sam’s re-accustomed to his class and likes it. They have a snack and drawing and a story as the 5 year old class. There’s also a time when they’re all together for singing and an activity. I just saw the mom of a kid that was born in the same month as Eva and Eli. Her oldest is finishing sixth grade and their plan is to move to Canada, I think so he can really do English hard. She was trying to figure out if it would be too hard for the daughter to readjust to local schools in five or six years. It really is a dilemma here. Two of our faculty members at my school have kids abroad. We also met someone who was born here but moved to the States at age 7. They adopted a son here and she just brought him back for several months so he could do preschool and work on language. It's interesting that so many people are working on the same challenge, but from a different direction. 

There are little things that are hard to figure out. Eli’s started throwing small tantrums. Today we couldn’t find a small batman helicopter for him as we left and he screamed for probably the first ten minutes of the drive. When he’s like this, it’s hard to know what to do with him. Punishment and bribes don’t really work. At home, sometimes I have to carry him and put him in time out and after a while he will calm down. He just seems to take the transitions a little harder. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure Sam had a period that was similar, so I hope it’s just a phase. Generally speaking he does very well and seems to do well at school, but the tantrums will make us crazy.

We’re still trying to figure out this summer. The balance is how much time to get with two to four family locations and how planned versus how much freedom we want. My students graduate mid-June and there are real benefits in having grading and everything wrapped up before going home. Sam’s graduation is the 22^nd and it would be really nice to be able to take part if possible. We’ll see. Tomorrow we go to the denom office in downtown Taipei. I don’t know what else will happen, but that’s the basic plan.

Here are some pictures from the park today

February a blur

This has been an intense, exciting few weeks. Emily's now been back for more than a week, and is back on US time. She's been writing well.

New Year worked out impressively well. The weather held and so we were able to spend some time outside. I took the kids to the palace musuem the first day. The second day we visited our friend about 50 minutes a way for a meal (I made spaghetti casserole, which they liked). Saturday we did a park and Emily came back that night. Sunday was church (which was very mellow since the English service was cancelled--we just played in the baby room). Monday and Tuesday were fun days with Emily back and we logged some good playground time. She'd also carried back Randy's baseball mit, so we practiced chasing and scopping baseballs. The rules are still a bit of a mystery to Sam, but he enjoys it and plays well with others (we have a practice tonight). He has his dads propensity for staring off into space or playing with the grass. On the other hand, he's getting started really early. The rumor is that the baseball season starts next month, so I'm hoping we can get some tickets and see a game at the local stadium.

In terms of books/media/music, they are pretty into all things superhero, but love their books. From the neighors we've borrowed the idea of a quiet time, just ten or fifteen minutes after dinner and before bath. Everyone is to go to their beds and look at books or play with a toy. It's continuing to be a highlight of the evening (for us), and the kids even ask for it. I know they love each other, and they play well together, but they also need some solo time and some one on one time with us.

Tonight I plan to take Sam to baseball and then to the movie. It will be a rush to get there, and I hope I don't miss too much of it. Still, it's a rainy day and it will be a nice treat for him. I hope it's fun.

We're also starting to plan the summer. I feel like I'm always a little behind on things. We're still not sure how to do this. Fly to a major airport near family? Fly out of a major airport? When in June do we return? How many church events should I plan? I'm hoping to fill this in during the months ahead.

Not too much else to report. Everyone is healthy and energetic. We watched some of the Olympics, which encouraged a number of gymanstic performances around the house, on the couch, etc. Fun times!

Through Week #2

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Stitches the day before Emily left, Eva and Eli out of school for five days because classmates had the flu, and several stretches of solo-care (~6/16 days). This falls during what should be grading and prepping for the next semester. I know this time doesn't last forever, but it can sure feel endless.

The kids are making real strides. They're all very verbal, Sam seems to have his alphabets and basically can count up to 50. They all love to read and enjoy playing with Legos and superheroes and probably watch a little too much tv. They've got about six months here where they'll continue to do school and gymnastics and so on. 

For the lunar new year (it always feel funny to write that) we're visiting another person we work with and doing a kind of traditional lunch. I hope they're ready for us! Weather is holding up so far, which makes a big difference in mood. 

We saw our neighbors yesterday, which was fun. She said when her kids were little she started giving them a set period of quiet every day. I'm thinking it might be a good idea. Perhaps a cooking timer and ten minutes. It would be nice if everybody could have some time looking at a book or playing quietly. Part of what is challenging is that we just have three very energetic, vocal, enthusiastic children. Time will tell.

January

The weather has been back and forth here—cold and damp for several weeks, then beautiful for days, and now cold and raining. At first we thought Sam would be rained out of a fieldtrip, but then he was able to go after all. The trip is to a local nature park. He’s been there before, but I hope it’s a good time for him even with the rain.

Everyone is speaking a little more. Linda reads to the kids some in the mornings which is nice, mostly just working on things like animal names.

Emily flies to the US next Wednesday. Her initial plan is to visit Paul and Joan and Reina for a few days, then go to the conference, and then she’ll have six or seven days at the end. It doesn’t look like she’ll go to her school. Logistics always take a while to figure out.

Sam was tired this morning (we thought he’d gone to sleep last night, but he was till up pretty late—sometimes he waits for one of us to go to bed). This morning he was super grumpy. We’re still working on discipline. We do a mix of time-outs, “talking-to’s” (usually very calm), giving toys time outs, and a counting thing I do. Most of the time, even if two are flipping out, one will quickly calm down to be the good one. They’re pretty good but the three of them really can compete. It’s common for Sam to discover that Eli is playing with a toy that was Samuel’s, but which Samuel hasn’t looked at in forever, and to demand it back. Not sure what to do here? Maybe we should create a sequestered drawer where any off-limits toys for Sam have to go. Still thinking about this.

I don’t have any great plans for this month’s daddy fun weeks. I’ll have two weekends and two holiday days plus assorted evenings. I think it could be fun. I’m going to do local museums as possible, which they enjoy, and am also thinking of doing something like inviting people for the Thursday holiday for a potluck. This is, however, probably overly ambitious.