Rainy Weekend

This was a pretty typical weekend for us, perhaps even more quiet than most. On Friday I went to class, then caught bus/MRT downtown to go to the main presby office, and then I met someone at another school. We're working together on a project, so it was a source of encouragement. Also, I'm hoping he'll publish a friend's dissertation. Then I came back home, saw Sam, who was slightly mosquito-bitten from being out with Emily, and called it a day.

Saturday was quiet. Sam woke ridiculously early, 5am, I think, and we went out to the main room around 5:30. Because of rain and erratic sleeping, we stayed home all day (the first in quite a while.) We skyped both sets of parents and watched a little too much of the movie Up. I can never tell how much tv is too much. Sam doesn't get a lot, but it always brings out the "bad parent" fears. We've limited him just to DVD's at this point, so no commercials and less violence, and we often watch in Chinese, for him and for us, but it's still probably more than is good for us. Any other parents working on this? In some ways I'm glad we have the balance in our life of family time, school time, church time, and campus time. It means he gets different interaction.

Today he woke earliesh again, but my saintly wife woke with him. We went to church, which is still a struggle for us. The language issues are always a challenge. I think most long-term expats seem to go to English services. We may head in this direction occasionally. I really like the little church we attend now, but I never know exactly what I'm supposed to do there, and it's not really amenable to family worship. Probably twins will destroy the possibility of Emily and I sitting next to each other in church for the next four or five years anyway. As a kid, I usually went to church with my brother, and my parents were up front, so I recognize that kids eventually learn to participate on their own terms, and without parental assistance. But in the mean time, we don't want the screaming kids, we like the idea of worship, oh, I don't know...

So after church Sam and then Emily fell into a deep sleep. I stayed up for a while and then fell asleep myself. We all took long naps, something we haven't done really since I had regular Sunday work.

Other news? Sam can say "rice" now. He REALLY loves fish. It is probably his favorite thing ever. You can him near a big baked fish and he starts gesticulating and saying "fissh, fissh" to anyone he sees. It's a little embarrassing, but it's a sign he's fitting in well. Tonight we were counting to three and then he'd race off. He's a fine little dancing boy, twirling in circles, throwing his arms out, and occasionally falling dramatically to the ground. We're lucky that he's reasonably easy.

Oh, some other things... Emily's milk seems to be drying up. Sam still says "other side" when he wants milk. (He used to say "again," for a while "I," and then recently he says "other side" because Emily asks if he wants "the other side.") Weekdays were no problem but on weekends he often wanted to nurse all day. He's started drinking a lot more liquids lately, water, milk, and juice, and only nurses a little at night, mostly for comfort. It's still a transition. It's not easy growing up, but on the other hand he's had a pretty long run.

We're still not entirely settled on a hospital. It's hard, because everyone here goes to the Presby hospital. It is one of the core institutions of the church, but it's also a place that is not really geared towards foreigners. Emily's going to check out one more place this week, and then we might try visiting a few different doctors at the same hospital. I've worked up a nifty pregnancy vocab sheet, which has already come in handy.

This week I'm moving towards more administrative type things. This includes a trip downtown to headquarters, visiting the tax office, and some other responsibilities. I'm going to take probably two weeks to work on finishing out my class I'm co-teaching and a student I'm advising. We plan a week or two of vacation at the end of June and Emily wants to work some on her big project.

So, as you can see, our life is pretty mundane right now. After adaptation and daily drama and the awe/terror of early pregnancy, we will gladly take it. More news to follow...