news of the girls

Tonight, both of the girls have stories...so I will tell each of them for you.

Emma: Keeping up with the Joneses
Emma's best (and only) friend, Clara, has a little Doll that accompanies her everywhere. Her dress and hair are worn from months of hugs, kisses, and who knows what else; but oh, how clara loves the doll. Each time she comes to our house, doll also comes. I think Emma can sense the love between doll and clara. I watched emma the last time clara came over - she tried to snatch doll away when clara wasn't looking. It's almost as if she's looking for a soulmate.

Yesterday was a huge holiday in this country, so we were out walking around last night. We passed this one little shop with dolls in the display window. They were certainly different than Clara's doll, but they were dolls nonetheless. I decided that all the asian parents buy their kids presents on major holidays - and we've yet to buy emma anything since we've arrived - so i thought emma deserved a doll of her own. We went into the shop, and held her up to the shelf so she have some say in the matter. She immediately pointed to a doll with brown skin and straight brown hair (the native american doll) shouted: "Dora!Dora!"

Displaying my ego-centric american attitudes, I redirected her enthusiasm toward the blond-haired, blue-eyed dolls outfitted in flowery dresses as opposed to those wearing headdresses and loincloths. We finally settled on one wearing a nice green dress with short blonde hair. We paid our $3 and finished the walk home.

Emma's doll got a warm introduction to our family; she was talked to and kissed the entire way home. Emma even perched her atop the stroller so doll could get an introduction to the area surrouding her new home. How thoughtful is my daughter...

But the best part came this evening as we were getting ready for bed. Emma lined doll up with all her favorite stuffed animals (fish, bear, puppy, caterpillar) and gave them all good night kisses. Then, she decided that doll, as the newest member of the clan, should be dressed appropriately for bed. She went to the bathroom, pulled out the dirty jammies I had just put in the hamper, and carefully tried to put them on doll. When they were finally on (in a sort of haphazard way...) she gave doll a kiss and then went to go say goodnight to daddy.



Samantha: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times
Josh is off of school for a week! Yay! A whole week of josh being around the house - to read books to the girls, to go on walks together, to play guitar, to change diapers...

We decided this morning to make the most of the holiday and we started to work on our growing list of "things to accomplish in the house". BUT, first we thought it would be fun to take emma to this little indoor playground to play. Samantha is obviously too young to play, so josh waited on the benches outside while emma and I played inside. The problem with that arrangement is that the foreign baby is stationary. As long as the baby keeps moving, the gawkers can't gawk for too long. Oh...but as soon as the movement stops, the crowd begins. Such began Samantha's day of overstimulation.

After the playground, we had lunch at a nice Western-style place. Our plan was for me and mantha to leave from there and go look at some furniture items we needed, while josh took emma home for her nap. I thought it would be prudent for me to feed samantha before leaving the restaurant so I could maximize my time shopping. For some reason, samantha just bucked up against me and wouldn't eat. Oh well, I thought. I'll just try again later.

An hour later, after walking through sweltering hot and noisy shops, Samantha was in no more of a mood to eat than before. Surely when we get home, she will want to eat. We finished our errands two hours later and headed home. By this time, Samantha should have already eaten one good meal and was due for another as soon as we got home.

We walk in the door, hot and exhausted from our outing. As I sit down to feed Samantha, she continued stiffening up and crying instead of eating. Josh and I conferred over what to do and we decided to let her cry for a moment on the bed to release some of the tension that might have built up as a result of our LONG day outside.

Boy, we didn't know Samantha could cry like that. She cried, inconsolably, for a long time. (or at least it felt like a long time to a mom!) These were no ordinary tears. They were distressed, agitated, "I'm-all-worked-up-and-just-don't-know-what-to-do-about-it" tears.

After a while, she DID calm down and eat, but it was certainly Samantha's worst of times!

But later that evening, I was giving Samantha a bath as emma looked curiously on. As emma narrated the event - "Mantha! Bath! Mantha! Bath! Splash! Mantha!" - Samantha's mood dramatically changed. Each time emma opened her mouth to say something, Samantha giggled! Those long, loud giggles we've been trying to replicate since the first time! It was like the Seinfeld episode where George tries to convince Jerry that he can't not be funny. Everything Emma did was funny. Everything I did was funny. Every splash, every word, every twinkle in the eye was cause for Samantha to open up and laugh. What a great ending to the day!