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!