A Funny Encounter

Someone at church gave Sam a rubber rooster, which he has come to love.
Twins in their fall glory

The sun has set on the first year of twins-parenting...

About a week ago, we donated a number of the twins’ toys, seats, clothes and other things (Emily’s amazing double-breastfeeding pillow) to a couple expecting twin boys. We heard about them through a coworker’s wife. It was a very funny feeling, because I am already forgetting how big a transition it is from normal life, to intense pregnancy, to double newborns. A year later, it was a surprise to see how far we had come. Sleep is still a challenge, and the kids want as much time as ever, but they also smile and crawl or walk, can go longer without eating or sleeping, and seem a lot more solid and healthy. The responsibility is the same, but the anxiety is a lot lower. The couple seems happy and nervous. I hope everything goes well for them. I gave them some (possibly unwanted) advice on baby-feeding and considerations on whether they want more kids.

When they left, our house suddenly looked a lot less like a preschool. The jumper, a seat, a swing left with them, and we suddenly had more space than we’d had in a while. This was well timed with the approach of Thanksgiving. It's hard to believe how far we've come.

Thanksgiving

We had our third/fourth Thanksgiving on the island. I had my first in 2005 over dumplings with an elder dentist here. It's hard to believe how the time has passed.

Last night was a lot of fun. Emily ordered a turkey and some of the side dishes from a restaurant, but then made or bought some great other dishes. Linda did a stirfry, Barb and Randy tracked down sweet potatoes, Emily did homemade stuffing. It was a very pleasant meal. We invited about six other adults, and then with the neighbors and kids we were technically 15 of us, which is a personal record.

I had a long day yesterday. In the morning I taught from 8 to 11, then in the afternoon I had language class and the evening was Thanksgiving. I also attended a lecture and then did some work last night. I'm doing a major push for a book I'm working on with my advisor. I am really looking forward to it being finished. It's been a long time in the works.

That is our news here. Today a package came from my Uncle Paul and Aunt Joan with a lot of clothes, and we inherited some older boy clothes from another American I know. We're feelnig grateful and blessed. It's been a nice few days. Next week will be busy, since we also have people coming from denom. I think it will be a good trip, but time will tell. I feel like we're juggling everything, but it keeps on going.

Sam went to the zoo with the grandparents today. He had a great time, but I can tell that he is quite tired now and it could be ugly getting him to bed.

Day at the Park

Yesterday our church was at the park. It was a fun day, and we walked around for several hours afterwards. This is our first time at the park, but it really had some wonderful features. There was a small playground, a garden shaped like a whale, and even a maze made out of bushes. Lots of fun!

Eli Walks in the Park

Eli Walks Around the Apartment

Retreat 5

For some reason at first I got an error image uploading these, but the upside is I think I've now figured out how to post more than five pictures. This is a lighthouse near the beach town where we were. I wasn't there for this part of the trip, but it was fun to see the pictures of everyone else. I know one of the families we met on the retreat said they had family photos from this place over many, many years. Aside from the long-ish trip, it really is a fun place and the weather was great.

Retreat 4

Three babies! With my classmate-coworker friend and their baby.
Sam runs on the dance floor.
Sunset
Mom with Eva
The brown-haired ones (self-portrait)

Retreat 3: The Pool

Here he is at the (huge) pool. Fun times...
Kid's pool
Dressed up and ready to swim
Apparently Sam was pretending he was a robot. To the side is a balloon animal a staff member gave him.

Retreat 2: The Playroom

Slide!
Crash!
Emily had said Eli was trying to climb up the slide, and I didn't quite believe her...
Eva's scooting
Sam is a rocket on a car like this

Retreat 1

It's been a busy couple of weeks here. We went on a church related retreat over the weekend, only our second overnight with the babies (which, you may recall, kind of killed off Emily). This one went better.

The trip there was long-ish but uneventful. It took about eight hours of travel between cab, train, and bus. We did a lot of stops, which has pluses and minuses. Our neighbors said they actually like more stops on longterm air travel, and I can see some advantage. I wish on the way home we could do medium-long legs rather than one medium and one long.

Sam was able to sleep in Emily's parents' room, which meant he didn't wake up the babies or get woken up by the babies. Sam had a blast on the trip. He enjoyed seeing everyone, there was a great playroom he could play in, and he got to go to the beach and to go swimming in the pool (he played "robot" with his goggles on). Sam wasn't great at the first meal, but he soon had an older Korean mom take him under her wing. He ate almost exclusively shrimp and fish for dinner. I think he must have been starving. It's nice that he can speak local language now, and makes it easier for him to play with others. There was one other boy, but communication was a little hard. We had dinner in the disco room of the (awesome) hotel, and Sam loved running around, dancing, and being swung. He's at a high-energy, exciting age.

The babies got backpacked a lot, which they like. They slept in mini-cribs or in their double stroller. They loved the time around others. Eva's more reliably standing up and Eli's a champion crawling. He's beginning to walk. Emily says he looks like "a drunk penguin" walking, which is a quite accurate description, I would say.

The retreat was very good for me also. On the last retreat I didn't get to participate much, but this time Emily and I were able to lead the opening worship and one or both of us were often able to participate in things. I think we probably have a long time where it will be hard for us to participate in things as a family, but now if we have to one of us can take Sam to a talk or service and he can last through at least part of it.

My plan for the coming weeks is really to bunker down and to write as much as humanly possible. I'll have to see how it goes. We're planning on submitting a book manuscript in the first week of December.

In terms of daily life, there are some small trials. Emily's screen on her laptop broke, without a major fall. So that is frustrating. We have a fair amount of computer redundancy, but it makes sense that she wants a good machine as she dissertates.

That's the news! Pictures to follow...

Birthday 2

Eli's high stepping it...
Party!
Sam with a beloved big sister
Two cakes! (See guys, you never had to share...)
Sam holding a lizard that the boys next door caught. They also caught butterflies, grasshoppers, and other fun critters. Sam really liked the lizard.

Birthday 1

So, we did the double birthday! It was a bit exciting, and we brought together a fun mix. There was the history teacher and his family, a music teacher, Emily's parents, the next door neighbors, a friend of Emily's and her family, and Linda. Sam had a great time playing with the boys and girls. It was fun to watch him move between games and languages. He practiced "toasting" with the girls (ganbei!) and caught bugs with the boys. He got an awesome cement truck. We had just the right amount of pizza and two cakes. It was a fun afternoon. We reminisced about the excitement, anxiety, and joy of the last year. It's hard to believe they're getting so big. As I write this Eli is up to eight or ten steps in a row, and Eva is faster on her bottom and doing great pulling up. Sam's reading with Grandma and has been really enjoying the extra attention. Emily's getting some sleep and I'm feeling a little more put together. Here's looking forward to another exciting year...