Unexpected things that make you happy...

Emily gets up with the baby.

Sleeping in.

Waking up.

Bye-bye family!

Working at home.

Prepping for language class (and feeling like prepping for language class).

A good language class, with a teacher you like.

Mr. Doughnut.

Incredibly loving people who watch over your child while you do other things.

Your child running to greet you when you arrive at nursery school.

Your child's very cute "bye-bye" in English and Northern Island.

A walk in the park.

Encouraging the ill-conceived, messy, and exuberant fountain playing while...

Talking to some other foreigners who are also at the park.

Watching your son play in the sand and then in the fountain again.

Admiring how well-behaved, polite, and non-aggressive your child is.

Wringing out your child's clothing and risking letting him go "commando."

Meeting your wife and walking (slowly, she's pregnant) to dinner.

Getting the diapers.

Eating the dinner (yum!).

Kid is playing in the playground.

Hey, he's on the second level.

He's a little scared, but you can get him down.

(Being a parent makes you feel all-powerful sometimes).

Bye-bye playground!

(Kid is willing to go without making a fuss.)

And get in the car.

Fill up tank.

Go home.

How did it get to be 7?

Before bath, kid watches you pee.

He wants to pee.

He starts to pee by the toilet.

You put him on the toilet, but then he doesn't want to pee anymore.

You take him off the toilet.

You demonstrate peeing: we can pee sitting down or standing up!

He starts peeing next to the toilet.

You put the toilet underneath the pee stream.

We all applaud!

Yes, you are peeing in the toilet!!

Demonstrate emptying the toilet (which he has seen on potty video).

We are all flushing the toilet!!!

Give kid a bath.

And feed him cheese, milk, and yogurt. (Yes, we do sometimes have three dairy products at the same meal.)

Give him his "gum" (actually fluoride, but he is enthusiastic about it because he thinks it is gum, which I am always chewing but which he has never had).

Brush his teeth.

Read books.

Sing "Old McDonald."

Goodnight!

A nice day, all around.

1 year here; Sam is two years and five months

Today is our one year anniversary of coming to Northern Island. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year (two if you count the 2005-2006 school year), or that it took some time to arrange and execute. Some of you remember that the forced rout out of the garden state was unpleasant. It included two periods of packing, a bout of food-poisoning, multiple stabs at getting a visa (including health checks for the three of us), end of semester grading, frantic conference paper writing, extended extended-family time (mostly very good), and general post-semester exhaustion. In July and August there was a conference, orientation, a trip home, and finally the final packing. It makes me exhausted remembering it. Em’s parents put us in the car to Columbus, and my parents got us out on time (I left several things with my dad since we were overweight on baggage). Not a clean exit by any stretch of the imagination, but a successful one.

The rest has been easier. We arrived to find that our boxes had made their six week journey and were piled up in our new apartment. With three rooms (including an open study space), a nice living-eating area, and great views, this is the biggest place we’ve lived as adults. We re-started language. Emily’s now done five semesters of Mandarin. I’ve added another year and have begun Taiwanese. Sam was weaned, not by any action on his part, but simply because Emily’s pregnancy tapered him off. He’s a happy preschooler, and is taking the first steps towards potty-training (he enthusiastically sits on the toilet, having read books and watched a video about it, but doesn’t seem to understand that there’s more to it than sitting). Emily is the reluctant host to future twins, a boy (head down) and a girl (head up). We think we have a good hospital.

Emily completed her practicum and, if she finishes her pre-proposal will “only” have the dissertation to write. She’s been working on the proposal all summer and hopes to present it via skype sometime this fall. I’m working on too many projects, but am also making progress. I’ve felt a bit stuck the last month, but slowly untangling things and regaining momentum.

It’s still pretty easy to be overwhelmed by the logistics of life. We got our visa in, but need to work more on other things. We definitely need to do some house organization, and perhaps explore vehicle options, since the care we’re using won’t fit three car seats. That said, we can eat in the cafeteria again, which provides a good chance to meet students and cuts down on cooking/cleaning. We’re also getting a little better at asking for help.

Some Sam updates… Sam is working on potty training. He sits happily on the potty although he hasn’t yet figured out what to do. Twice he has peed near to the potty, which we’re figuring is a step in the right direction. Today he is officially two years and five months old. We had his baby-sitter teens over today, who tired him out properly so that now he is sleeping very well. He’s very cute with the sitters. They’re fifteen and eighteen and he really enjoys playing with them. He wasn’t at all upset when we left, but was sad when they left (and then fell asleep immediately). Now it’s a fairly relaxing Saturday afternoon and life is looking better.

Other updates? Sam’s favorite book recently is the Alaska book, but he still likes Clifford, Sam I Am, his animal book, the duck book, and others. His favorite song is now “Old McDonald,” which we use if he’s starting to break down and needs distraction.

That’s our life on the island. Today it’s blue skies and a lot of green, and the frantic nature of the weak seems to have quieted.