Fall 2011 Miscellaneous Pictures

Here are the kids all together. Sam's got on his beetle costume for Halloween.
A picture to warm a librarian's heart.
Eva is happily scooting around.
Sam's loving playdough lately.
Eli kind of reminds me of Tony Soprano here. He's wearing the tux Sam wore around 16 months. Eli is a strong little baby.

These are jut some recent pictures I didn't have time to post until now. Hopefully they give a picture of our life in recent months.

Bath time

This is the traditional style bathtub a friend of Emily's passed down to her. It fits all of the kids, which is great and they love playing in it. It will make weekend bath time a lot more relaxing. Yesterday was the trial run and everyone had a great time.

Family Adventure

Friday afternoon through Saturday morning we went to a one day couples' retreat at our church. It was a trial run in several ways. We drove over the mountain and to the coast, which we'd never done. There were some highs and lows.

Highs:

-We did it! All 5 of us away for 24 hours.

-Sam had a total blast. He was happy the whole time, went swimming with mom, went to playground with dad, looked at the ocean, loved staying in a hotel, watched cartoon network on cable tv.

-Babies were okay. Eva was happy and ate a ton (she really liked a steam egg dish that is popular here, mixed with rice).

-Dad took lots of pictures.

-Speaker was good. Emily went to sessions while I watched kids.

Lows:

-Forgot the diaper bag, which necessitated a drive looking for diapers and binkys.

-Eli slept miserably, and Eva not great, so Emily got about 4 hours of sleep. Emily was feeling pretty awful for the second day and a bit discouraged about sleeping arrangements.

-Sam through up in the middle of the night. I won't go into details, except to say he got about four sheets/blankets and the mattress. OK, I guess that counts as going into the details. It was pretty gruesome. Anyway, he is in a fine mood today, but church is probably off the agenda in case this was something that will recur.

So, it was a gain a "glass half full" (kids) "glass half empty" (mom) kind of day. But hopefully we'll just remember the fellowship, the ocean, and the playing in a few years. I took lots of pictures, some below.

Sam has a story for you...

Sam is talking a lot more. Earlier in the week, on the way home I asked him how his day went, what had happened, etc. He started talking about Teacher Pipi who is a big bear, likes to bite bottoms, went on and on. I assumed it was a movie he'd seen. Actually, Teacher Pipi is his exercise teacher and they play lots of group games during on the games day (there's another exercise teacher, Teacher Ball, and apparently they trade off every six months). His teacher explained it all to me. Sam is able to say a lot more, although it's still sometimes hard to figure out what he is saying. We're excited that he's coming along.

He also had a kind of prayer he was saying in local language before dinner or snacks sometimes. We finally figured out what it is. It goes 感謝天感謝地感謝廚房的阿姨... "Thank you for the heavens, thank you for the earth, thank you for the auntie in the kitchen..." And then there's some thanking of the teacher, mom, and classmates. It all rhymes in the local language. It's nice that he's able to explain things. We're also at the point where if I forget a word in local language I can ask him and he may know. Not something like "nuclear reactor," but along the lines of "eagle" or "ceiling."

Sam's doing more coloring and has been on a big playdough kick. He's a fun kid.

Emily and I are still a bit wiped out from the sick kid thing. Eva's had a fever in the afternoons since Saturday. Today we took her in again, now with some blotchy skin, and she was diagnosed with roseola. We're pretty sure that this is what Eli had and Sam had it when we lived in H-Town. Anyway, it is reassuring that she is on the mend and that we have a diagnosis. Emily's day was pretty much shot taking Eva to the hospital, and Eli is coughing. I know that this is just what happens at this age, but after the scare this summer, and multiplied by two, we're pretty much ready to be done with the sick baby stage. I did tell her that at least we are planning pediatric nephrologist visits, so that's a plus.

There's not a lot else to report on the babies. Emily prompted Eli to say "goodnight" tonight and it sure sounded like "nye-nye." I have the feeling these two may talk faster than Sam. Eva is very expressive with her hands and fingers. We probably should be teaching her some infant sign language.

I'm almost done with teaching for the week. Tomorrow I have a guest lecturer so I'm pretty excited. It's just for an hour, but it will give students a change of pace and should make the class a little more relaxed for me. We're now in week six or seven. The weekend will be busier because Friday is a meeting of several schools and Saturday they're installing our president.

Nature Center

There's a nature center near the hospital where we take the kids. Yesterday Eva spiked a fever, so we took her in. The doctor said it's probably just teething or a simple infection. Her ears were clear and throat was just a little red.

Em stayed with Eva and I took Sam and Eli to the little nature park nearby. It's really a fun place to go. They have a pond with ducks, a little outdoor turtle center, a bird house, a fish and critters house, and an educational center. One of the volunteers offered to show Sam and another family a toad. He gave a fun little presentation, showed us that the male toads make a croaking sound, and let Sam and the other kids watch it hop around (video below). Sam also liked the walking stick bugs, the meal worms, and some other insects. Sam also really enjoyed the hospital. He played in a little house they have in the pediatrics division with several other kids.

The weekends are proving to be enormously fun for Sam and the kids but fairly exhausting for us. We're looking forward to grandparents arriving in a few weeks. Today Sam went to church with me and had a great time. We took the bus and he really enjoyed that. His local language is coming along, so he was wowing people wherever he went (even if it was just to say "that's mine! you can't have it"). I think he's probably going to be a bit of a rock star in another year or two.

Fireworks

Last night I heard the "boom boom" of fireworks starting, so I quick grabbed Sam and we went to the overlook just off campus. It's by a highway so thirty or forty people were clustered together watching. The fireworks were far off, in the center of the city, so Sam wasn't at all scared. He enjoyed it and could also see the top of the tallest building, which was lit up, and which he thought was a "castle." It was fun.

We also met the principal of an American denominational school up the mountain, really just minutes from us. I think there are probably a good four or five English-language schools here, but also some really good local ones. It was nice to meet some nearby Americans and we will look them up sometime soon.

This three-day weekend was long. It's nice to be back started on the week.

Thursday...

Today's my long day. Teach three hours, chapel, teacher's meeting, lunch, then two more hours of Local Language. I am always a bit tired by the end of it. Today I used some video clips in class, which worked fairly well, and some charts I'd scanned. My language has come along, but I know I'm probably still incomprehensible a certain amount of the time. Images help a lot with that, since they facilitate discussion and move things away from just lecture.

CDC did another round of spraying on campus today, because some cases were found farther down the mountain (this is third round outside in addition to two rounds inside/outside, if you are counting). Still pretty annoying. The upside continues to be far fewer mosquitoes. Afternoon walks are downright pleasant now.

Tonight Sam's watching the Jonah movie, which is our only Christian-y movie. He really likes it, and Emily just read him several versions of the story of Jonah. This is my name in local language, so I'm thinking of buying some Jonah prints to hang here. I've always like Jonah because the story balances a realism about human hatred with a picture of divine grace.

The babies are doing well. They were both shrieking some today. They seemed generally in fine spirits. They love mosquito spraying because it means an office campus adventure for them. Today they went to the local suburb and walked around while I had class. A nice afternoon.

Tonight I discovered the National Geographic webpage. Sam watched a video about tremulation in tree frogs. He, of course, acted it out with the frog puppet he has. It is a lot of fun to watch for a father whose childhood ambition was to be a herpetologist.

We are feeling a bit more upbeat about life. The first few weeks of the semester had a lot of unknowns, so it feels good to gradually be sorting them out. This is a three day weekend for us coming up, so it will be a lot of child-watching. I also have a cold, so I know we may need some laid back kid time. I'll update if we do any special activities.