beach bums

On our second to last day of vacation, we finally figured out how to optimize our time. Just too bad that it took that long to get it all figured out! We wanted to go to the beach, we wanted the girls to go to the beach...but with the heat influencing mantha's skin the way it did and also trying to work things so that the kiddos can get thier naps (not a happy time for anyone if they don't) we hadn't had any days as a family at the beach at all!

Then we hit vacation gold. We woke up early, ate breakfast early and headed to the beach. The beach we went to was perfect - shaded on the east by trees, ensuring extra minutes in the shade. Palm trees gently swayed against the backdrop of imposing limestone mountains on either side of the beach. The tourists were still sleepy in bed, either hung over from hard partying (too common here in thailand) or enjoying their vacation by sleeping in. The gentle surf came and went, each surge whispering relaxation and enjoyment. Yards and yards of lounge chairs sat out on the beach sat unopened, their shady umbrellas unwilling to give their shade at such an early hour.

So there we were, with prime beach all to ourselves (minus the occasional jogger or retired couple). It is true, right, that the early bird gets the worm? For two days in a row, until the morning of our departure, we hit the beach early and stayed until crankiness forced us to leave.


Self Portait, taken by Mr. Eggroll: Mantha enjoyed fishing her hands through the sand and then relishing every grain as it passed through her fingers. I agree with my sis kate that she is pretty cute! And in the shade, she was happy and delightful!

It's true, hundreds of yards of beach chairs still waiting for the day to begin...and there's mantha, just in the middle of it all.

Early morning family portrait, taken by the local dude who takes the money for the lounge chairs (no, they're not free...) barefoot in the sand...fun times...
Daddy and Emma looking for sand dollars. Total count: 8, plus one pretty seashell.

Emma loved playing in the sand making sand castles, or whatever it was exactly that she was making. The quote of the day comes from a british lady who had been watching her from down the beach for 15 or 20 minutes. She finally came up to emma and josh and said (so imagine it with the cool british accent): "I've been watching your daughter for ages and I think she's absolutely charming! She's playing so well by herself and I just feel absolutely charmed by her!"

home, sweet home

On our last night at the hotel in thailand, Emma was watching us - a little apprehensively - as we scurried around trying to pack our stuff for our 4:30AM (yes, that's AM!) departure. I think she had figured out what was going on: she found herself a little plastic grocery sack, grabbed a bottle of water, put it in, added a bag of chips, samantha's pacifier, and her favorite book. She put on her cute little pink beach hat, walked over to the door and announced: "Ok! Let's go home!"

And so we did. We somehow managed to pack all of my purchases into our two suitcases (did I mention that our total luggage was 86 kilos? That's 25 kilos (or over 50 lbs) over airline luggage allowances!) We actually woke up when the wake-up call came and made it on the flight. An entire day of transit later, we made it home.

Home. Home! Home is where Mantha sleeps through the night. Home is where Emma remembers how to use the potty. Home is where you don't worry what the other guests think of your crying children. Home is where the girls go to bed at 7:30. Home is where routine comes back; fun times are remembered and relived, but routine gets re-established. Home is, after all, where we live.

Traveling is fun, such glorious fun. But nothing is more comforting than walking through the door to where your life is.

For emma and mantha, that's pretty easy. Home is the walls of the familiar pack-and-play, or the comfy, pink bed. Home is where all the favorite toys have been awaiting our return. Home is familiar sights (cockroaches) and sounds (traffic noise).

For josh and I, it's a little more complex. We both commented how we weren't quite sure how to anticipate "coming home". Where we currently live feels the most like home than anywhere we have lived in a while, but there are such strong associations with "coming home" that it still didn't feel completely right. I remember as a teenager going on youth trips and stuff, and the thought of "home" at the end of 10 days brought such calm to my heart. The same room, the same stuff, the same place that I had lived in almost my entire childhood. Home was always the same, until we got married.

In our (almost) seven years of marraige, we've lived six different places, not counting numerous month-long stints in hotels and other such places. In all of those places, we have designated a few items that will always come with us. So home has come to mean where our wedding clock, the wooden fruits and the thai silk are.

But as we unpacked our stuff last night, we both felt more and more at home. This is certainly the place our girls feel comfortable, and is a place we have come to love. (Though we both thought our house seemed smaller than when we left...)

The girls have had a fun day exploring their new toys getting back into routine, and remembering where all the boundaries are (ie, samantha thinks that for the rest of her life, whenever she cries, mommy will immediately pick her back up; emma thinks she can disobey to her heart's content because we let it slide so many times on vacation!). As we speak, our house helper is mopping and cleaning the film of dust and dirt that has already accumulated on every surface in the house. The suitcases are unpacked, the yummy imported items already carefully arranged in the kitchen. The house is being restored to order. Josh is already meeting with someone this afternoon, I still have not taken a shower. Yep, it's true: we're home.

packing light

as we surveyed all our millions of peices of luggage we needed to take on this trip, we were a bit overwhelmed at our attempt to "pack light". So, trying to reduce the weight on our shoulders, we made the difficult decision to leave the computer at home. This is the reason I have not responded to any emails recently, should you have sent us any. Thank the Lord for blogger! :)

Anyway, I just wanted to post a quick note and tell you that all is well here; the girls are doing good, josh and I have been good. No one is sick or had any other travel-related disasters! And...if I can tempt you to wait a bit longer, I've got loads of pictures on my camera that are just waiting, begging, to be posted to my blog. AND...I've got loads of great stories and great news to post as soon as we get back home.

We've had a great time in thailand, have had a few AMAZING surprises (not pregancy-type surprises, so don't jump ahead!) but are looking forward to resuming "life as normal", whatever that means!

we heart Bangkok

We just finished our two days in bangkok, and I feel strangely rejuvenated.

Bangkok, ah, bangkok. It's a city that exudes life through all its stench-filled alleys and glittering designer shops. It's almost like you can feel pent-up energy pulsing through the cars waiting nervously at crowded intersections. Trendy twenty-somethings walk through gleaming shopping centers that cover huge areas of real estate. It's a city like no other.

I haven't always loved Bangkok. When we lived there waiting for emma's birth, I loathed the place. I was pregnant, and living in one of the most hot and humid climates in the world was not such a great match. Street vendors hawking their fresh foods made my stomach churn; now the smell of it leaves me with a sense of appreciation for the colorful diversity that makes up such an interesting city.

Previously in Bangkok, I hated walking. We walked everywhere, past street markets, past mom-and-pop stores, past "massage" parlors offering the male gender every possible service except a real massage. I still hate walking in bangkok - a city that is unimaginably stroller un-friendly, but I enjoyed the scenery much more this time around. I loved watching the convergence of cultures that is on display at each and every point around the city: moronic foreign tourists, middle-easterners, africans, asians, business people...it's an amazing picture of the many places people come from.

We indulged in many creature comforts during our brief, but busy time in Bangkok. First and most important on the list was dinner at Outback, where we ordered a bloomin onion AND desserts...yikes! Then we had breakfast at my favorite bakery in the entire world and had chocolate croissants and blueberry muffins. We had lunch at my most favorite restaurant in the entire world - called the Food Loft - and I secretly wished I could have eaten there for the next five weeks. Every day. Every meal. That's how much I love it. And...funnily enough, my parents -who know nothing about Asia - were the ones who found the restaurant and introduced us to it during our three months in bangkok. Anyway, I could talk about Food Loft all day, but since I have made my point, I will move on to dinner. After we spent about $250 on Western imported products, we had dinner at the Lebanese restaurant that we frequented during emma's birth, and found to our great surprise that Emma loved eating hummus and pita bread. Go figure!

So while I could never live in Bangkok, I love love LOVE to visit the place. Even the skies were clear and pollution free for us today. And, most of all, Bangkok is the place that brought into our lives perhaps the sweetest, and most life-changing experience of all: Emma Brighton, who turns two this week.

Happy Birthday, sweet Emma.

news from thailand...

so after seven days of no blogging, I post only crumbs for you...I am sorry! :)

The last few days have been fun ones, lazily passed at the pool or at the beach, feasting on fresh fish caught in the bay or, like tonight, going out for baby back ribs. We leave in the morning to head to another location to meet up with other friends. Perhaps from there I will have more time to blog - of the seven free hours of internet that came with our place, I finally got a piece of the action with 5 minutes and three seconds left!

Tomorrow we head to bangkok for samantha to meet with a pediatric allergist...more to come later!

Toddler Property Laws

Is this true or what?!

Toddler Property Laws
1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it is mine.
8. If I saw it first, it's mine.
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10. If it's broken, it's yours!

things to be proud of...

There's a lot of prideful people around our house! :) just kidding...

But, here are a few things we have been proud of recently:

- the much requested picture of our table. I found that no matter which angle I try to photograph it from, it never looks quite like my pottery barn catalogue page, but I guess that's why I'm not a photographer! Anyway, we have been pleased with it so far. It does seem to be a little chameleon-like, in that usually it looks black unless the sunshine spills in the room via our living room windows, and then it looks nice and yummy chocolatey brown. Any of you are welcome to join us for dinner and try it out sometime (offer does not include airfare :)

- it appears that my little samantha (who at this exact moment is trying to convince herself and me that she does not need to take a nap) is quite the little (as katie would say) sneaky McSneakster! She's been pulling fast ones on us all week, but the most notable one is that several days ago I left her in Emma's bed to play. Emma's bed is nice and bouncy, and has a very expensive guardrail so she was surrounded in safety. But...when I went to go retrieve my baby bundle a few moments later, she was not happily playing with stuffed animals...she was STANDING up on emma's bed! Holy Moly! then, yesterday morning, this was the scene I walked into after leaving her to play books...

- Emma has had some good days of poo to be proud about, so just to make her feel good about herself, I'm posting a picture of her poo chart. She absolutely adores putting stickers on her paper every time she uses her potty...sometimes, she will even stop a little prematurely so she can go again just a few minutes later to double her stickers! What a crazy girl!

- last night, I finally finished the labor of love I have been working on for my eldest child...her second year video! It's a tradition I started last year, and who knows how long I'll be able to keep it up, but finally it is finished! It actually didnt' take me a terribly long time, but it sure seemed that way to josh! I tried explaining to him that normal people can work on projects in large chunks of time. Mothers, however, have brief windows of time during the day, so a 30-hour project could very likely take me 30 days to complete. Anyway, the point is, that all of our happy memories from last year are forever recorded, and now my evenings are free to go back to my happy world of Apple Pie Spice bubble baths and Bejeweled! Special thanks (even though it was duly noted on the video itself) go to: Paul, for the use of his vast music files, and Alicia O who patiently taught me how to preserve such great memories. Thanks!

In other package news, I know you are all waiting on pins and needles to discover if our packages are going to make it in time before we head for warmer weather. It's almost like how you feel the entire week leading up to the Survivor finale or something like that. But as of today, we are still sans 4 boxes...but we're holding out hope of a speedy arrival! T minus four days and counting...

We aren't taking our computer on vacation, but I think I'll still have a few opportunities to blog between now and when we return here on Feb. 28. Plus, my gals have cute swimsuits, so I'll have to share some beach pictures with you all!

going to kindergarten

It goes without saying that though Josh and I can get by in asianese, we do not speak it fluently (though josh IS trying hard to change that!). When we think about Emma and mantha growing up here, we know that they will likely speak it fluently, but right now that is not the case. Not only is that frustrating (like, when we go outside, they can't tell people to quit rubbing their hair or they don't want to hold hands) but it also prevents them, to some degree, from making local friends.

We've started thinking about letting emma go to a kindergarten one or two mornings a week for several reasons: 1) to get out of the house, 2) to have more opportunities to speak and hear asianese, 3) to make some new little friends, and 4) to give mom a break (but that one is a very distant fourth place... :)

We found a friend that owned a christian kindergarten, so we were definetly willing to check it out and see what things are like. First of all, it's not exactly kindergarten. It's more like glorified, structured daycare. Since in this country, stay-at-home mom's are nearly impossible to find, these "kindergartens" are a dime a dozen.

Off we were this morning, battling the fierce mountain wind that greets us the moment we step outside our door. We took a taxi to a part of town I have never been before. The "kindergarten" was located in a nice apartment complex full of landscaped gardens and sits right in the shadow of the southern mountains in our city. As soon as we rang the bell, we were greeted by a crowd of frenetic two-year olds, happily screaming greetings to us as we removed our layers of winter clothing. Emma stood there, unsure if she was supposed to overwhelmed or if she should immediatley join the excitement herself.

She warmed up much faster than i thought. Maybe it's partially because there are usually so few people that are her size. Even when we go to playgrounds, most of the kids are much older and more physically capable than she is. So, here she was, surrounded by twenty pairs of eyes that were right at her level. Even though she had no idea what was going on unless we would translate, she did a great job.

Even though I was happy to see her making friends, I was really surprised at how sad I felt. It seemed like I was watching her grow up right before my eyes. For the first time in her life, when she was unsure of what to do, she looked to others. Her eyes darted for the cute little girl in the blue sweater, who took emma under her wing. She looked at the teacher so she could imitate what she was doing. She followed the lead of the other kids. The whole time, I watched from the sidelines, aware that this was just the first of many times I would have to let her go and let others help her. Not even one time did she need me this morning. I didn't realize how hard growing up was - for her and for me!

All in all, it was a great morning. Emma got to play on the slides, walk around with the other kids, got to sing asianese songs, play with balls, and play finger games. I think when we come back from thailand, we are thinking about letting her go one or two mornings a week to play. See if you can spot her in the pictures, haha!

samantha had a good time too! She really enjoyed watching the kids bounce around and play. Though she gave emma a run for her money in the "garnering attention" category! All the little kids were fascinated with the little foreign baby, and luckily, today samantha was more than happy to oblige with happy smiles and sweet giggles.

With girls like this, who needs anything else?

we all wear many hats...

it's true. We all have lots of responsibilities, causing us to wear lots of different hats. But, my dear emma has taken that saying just a bit too far. You see, recently, she has discovered that inside her closet, there is a drawer full of winter and summer hats. She can spend hours filtering through the drawer, picking out hats, trying them on, putting them back, passing them out to different people in the house for them to wear, giving them to mantha, putting them on dora...truly, this occupies a significant portion of her day.

My sister, katie, commented a few days ago how my children were destined to follow in thier aunt's footsteps and become a diva, and I think she may have prophesied correctly! Emma loves clothes, hats, anything new! Yesterday, we were going through our bags of new clothes to take to Thailand, and she excitedly picked up every peice of clothing. Each peice had its own comment:

"ooooh!"

"wow, momma!"

"so pretty...flowers on it..."

"aaaah!"

"nice!"

It was quite a funny little show. Then, after looking through the stack - TWICE - she decided she wanted to try them on. She looked at me, and said "Emma wear it." So we put on a pink flowerdy dress. She then said, "Take a picture!" So we had a mini-fashion show while she tried on a new polka-dot swimsuit (though not a polka-dot bikini!), dresses, dora pants, cute skirts...she'll be styling when we hit the beach!

Here are some pictures of my hat diva:

do you believe in miracles?

well, I'm starting to!

So this week, not ALL of our five packages came, but one of them made it here yesterday morning! I was so excited to see the delivery man at the door - and just before opening it, made some sarcastic remark to no one in particular about how it was probably of our packages! Woo hoo!!!

Emma and Mantha got tons of cute new clothes, josh got his shorts, and I got some fun scrapbooking stuff. One down, four to go...!

The other major miracle since my last post (which feels like ages ago) is that our internet is up and working at its normal rate now! Of course, now the normal speed feels strangely like a car spinning out of control because it is so mind-bogglingly fast, but we're not complaining! So I guess now I have no excuse to be so lazy on my posts.

Samantha had a great day with her skin yesterday - I actually thought she was healed when I went to get her out of bed. Her face was totally clear, her arms and chest were too. Then, I changed her diaper and saw that she still had some redness and bumps on her legs and stuff, but yesterday was a great day! I waited all day to try to get a family picture since she was looking so beautiful, but it never seemed to happen.

We're hoping when we go to thailand on vacation next week - yeah, that's right! Vacation....NEXT WEEK!! - that the humidity and warm air will help her skin! We are so excited about our upcoming trip and hanging out at the pool, the beach, and Outback Steakhouse!

There's lots more to write, but I sense in my spirit that the precious naptime moments are quickly passing through the hourglass...so I shall leave you with a few cute pics of my gals!

a week of miracles - warning!! long post!!

So I don’t necessarily want to call this a week of miracles, because putting some of the things that have happened this week on the same plane as oh, say, being healed or raised from the dead seems a little frivolous. But, nonetheless, there have been some unusual happenings this week that are worth mention…

For starters, on Sunday morning – bright and early – my new table came! YAY! It was truly worth the wait and now it sits in all of its bigness in my dining room. It actually sort of dwarfs the room, but hey, if you ever want to have a big gathering, my house is now the place to be. And, if we have four other children, everyone can be comfortably seated without much ado, like bringing in the old card table, folding chairs, or someone sitting on the piano bench. Now, putting down all that cash was a little more difficult to accept…but I’m glad we waited to get what we wanted and didn’t settle for some random piece of cheap furniture. How we will get it back to the States should we ever resettle in America is certainly another issue since each chair weights about as much as I do, but we’ve got a table for the ages now!

Today was another accident free day for Emma – woo hoo, emmy! If I can recant my opening statement, I think that deserves to be on a plane at least close to some of those biblical miracles!

But here is the find of the century for all of us Asia-dwellers…

Somehow, in some conversation somewhere about something, something about avacadoes was mentioned in the presence of our ever-resourceful, snake-fat-oil-suggesting house helper. So she takes it upon herself to check out some of the wholesale bakers markets in town…and reports back to us with the word that, if we wanted, we could buy avacadoes here in our town.

The thought that this is possible was truly baffling to us, because though there are many imported items you can get here in our asialand, avocadoes is always top on every expat’s “things-I-miss-most-about-home” list. The name doesn’t even translate well into the local language, most people have never heard of one, much less seen one or tasted one.

So she pops in one day and tells us the good news that we can buy avocadoes, but then the bad news: we have to buy them in bulk. Bulk here means in boxes of 30 or 36. Wowza (to take rachel w’s word…)! That’s a lot of green stuff! But we agreed to it anyway, and today, just as promised, a box of 30 avocadoes was delivered to our home. Those nice and bumpy skins just waiting to be cut open and destroyed by tortilla chips…

Tonight we feasted on taco salads with refried beans, sour cream, guacamole, cheddar cheese (another hard find), Tostitos, and topped off with chocolate covered strawberries. The other good news is that we have like, 25 avocadoes left, still sitting in the kitchen!

So, in keeping with my miracle week, I am hoping beyond hope that some packages we are waiting on will come. Now a quick word about packages – packages are truly a lifeline to home. It’s where friends and family send you lots of little goodies that make life easier and more fattening when you are away from the obese land of the USA. Chocolate chips, cute baby clothes, Christmas presents, good quality anything…packages are so fun to get and even more fun to open. They bring warm fuzzies and remind you that people back home love you and remember you and take the time to pick stuff out just for you and then take even more time to make sure you get it. The good feeling lasts for days, and sometimes even weeks if you can wisely ration your goods. But, Mr. Postman has been playing a cruel joke on us and we are still waiting on FIVE – yes, count them, FIVE – packages that should have already been here weeks, even months ago.

It is agonizing to me every time I think of it – the contents of some packages were Christmas presents that have been much anticipated…hmmmm, I think a new pampered chef garlic press, some scrapbooking stuff, new clothes for josh to wear on our upcoming vacation in Thailand, and who knows what else? That’s the fun of packages – you don’t know what’s inside! Anyway, along with those packages are three boxes of books we had shipped over here.

Books, sure, are replaceable. I even made a list of the contents of each box so that I would know if something was lost or opened. But there are a few irreplaceable items in those boxes – my Bible, given to me as my wedding present from my husband, which I have used my entire married life. (I foolishly thought it just a little too heavy to pack in our luggage and decided instead to ship it.) It contains many notes and personal reflections since 2000, including the beginning of my life overseas, the passing of my grandfather, the birth of my two children, and many other impacting, but less significant events. Its contents can never be replaced or replicated. If it is lost, I shall truly be crushed.

Another important item in one of those boxes lost in post office abyss is Samantha’s baby book – which contains the only ultrasound pictures we have while she was her cute little self in utero, exact details and personal thoughts of her birth, and her “just born” hand and footprints that were taken at the hospital that happy day of June 17th. I sigh and my spirit falls every time I think about it.

But, I’m starting to drive my husband crazy, because I got this crazy idea on Sunday when our table came. I decided that this was my week of miracles and that this would be the week that our five boxes came. Every time the doorbell rings, I jump and scurry to the door. My poor husband probably feels rejected every time he comes home, because he knows I’m hoping it’s the delivery man! When we walk into our apartment building, I try to throw a casual glance toward our mailbox, hoping to see a notification slip that we have a package waiting for us. I give expectant looks to the apartment manager people who sit mindlessly at the little desk by the wall of mailboxes.

But now it is almost Friday morning, and my miracles haven’t come yet. There’s probably some wife of an asian FedEx guy who is happily using MY garlic press to press HER garlic! I guess since I said “my week of miracles” I (or God, or FedEx or EMS or someone) still has until Sunday, but…

mama eggroll made it online!

What follows is perhaps my most random post ever, full of all the thoughts I’ve wanted to blog about over the last several days but have been prevented from posting due to the thorn in our flesh, the broken underwater fiber-optic cable:

What a great life it must be to know that Dora the Explorer and chocolate can solve all your problems! Not that I have ever underestimated the powers of chocolate, but still…

Today was Emma’s first accident-free day! Yeah, I know…it was December 27th when we started the whole potty training ordeal. There were many days that almost won the title of “first accident-free day”, but then something would happen – either an early mistake when she first woke up, or being too careless late at night. Oh well, it finally happened today! AND, I might add (to brag on my daughter a bit) today was accident-free even through 1)going to clara’s house for most of the morning and early afternoon (meaning TWO taxi rides where she set me in a panic by announcing with a dead-pan look on her face “poopoo mama!”) 2) wearing her cute little panties even at naptime and staying dry and 3) spending most of the evening running errands with us and going potty at her first public restroom (in the States, even public restrooms are not so clean. You can just imagine the situation over here…) SO, props to emma, huh? She did great today.

The thing is, we’ve been luring her by the promise of adding a Dora sticker to a little piece of paper that is taped above her potty chair whenever she goes poopoo on her potty, and of course, a small piece of chocolate. Amazingly enough, after she would poopoo, she would be so distracted by the thrill of putting the sticker on the paper, she forgot about the chocolate!!! So, thank you dora, for being such a good inspiration to my sweet girl.

Speaking of Dora, josh recently has been making up bedtime stories for emma, which she totally loves. She will lay mesmerized in his arms while she listens to him spin a story that would impress anyone. One important part of the story is personalizing all the characters. Josh will ask emma, “who should mommy be? Who should daddy be?” The usual characters shake out as follows (if you are not up on your Dora trivia, tune into Nick Jr. if you want to be a friend of Emma’s!): EmmaDora (pronounced as one word, not divided), DaddyBoots, MommaTico (how I was chosen by her little mind as Tico I will never understand) and ManthaIsa.

So as josh’s tales get taller and taller, I just listen with amusement while I watch them bond. So a few nights ago, Josh was telling a story about how mommatico was driving through the forest, picking up all her friends, including of course, emmadora, daddyboots, and manthaisa. An interesting thought hit me as I pictured Tico the squirrel driving through the forest: he is the only character on the Dora show that speaks no English (the rest of the are bilingual, you know) yet, he is the only character on the show who has a drivers license. Where’s the logic in that???

Emma lately has been quite the bucket of laughs. It seems like everything that comes from her mouth is so innocently funny and cute (except, of course, her impetuous “NO’s!”) Here are two of the funnies we’ve had around here:
-I was admiring emma one evening as she was reading a book. Her hair was messy (as usual) but something about the way it fell on her face that night, the way her little eyes twinkled all full of toddler excitement, and the precious curves on her face just melted my heart. So I said, “Emma, wow, you are such a pretty girl! Momma loves you!” She smiled with innocent pride. Then I said, “Emma, we can thank God for everything – we can even thank God for your beauty! You can say, ‘Thank you God for my beauty!’” So, in obedient fashion, Emma replies, “Thank you God for my booty!” What’s not to love about that?! J


Samantha has decided that she will not give up the limelight easily to her big sister! She is getting to be a big girl in her own right! Recently, I’ve stood her up next to this activity table that she loves, and I’ll surround her with pillows on all sides in case her leanings take her a bit too far. The girl can stand up by herself for 10 or 15 minutes! Holy moly, where did that come from?! This ability has been the delight of her days recently, and has freed up my arms quite a bit to actually get some stuff done!

I’m sorry to say, though, that her eczema is not doing so great – it’s particulary itchy on her head because in the morning when I go to get her, she has red scratches and bloody areas on the back of her head where she has cut herself from scratching! Yuck! So we are trying yet another strange form of asian herbal remedies…actually, I’m not sure if its herbal or medicinal, or what. It smells weird, but they all assure me that its safe and stuff. I just want her to be more comfy! So we’ll see how that all works out.

Well, there you have it for now. Tomorrow night is game night with a few other foreign couples in town. Hopefully, the kiddos will go to bed early and we can stay up late and catchphrase or scrabble or quiddler to our hearts’ content…

hanging in there

For whatever reason, my internet connection is flying like a space-age jet, so I will take advantage of it and post!

I want to say thanks to you guys for your encouraging words and thoughtful responses to my crisis of motherhood a few days ago. The last few days truly have been better, for lots of reasons. First, I think, is that (at least a few of the days) I got up a little earlier than the girls and took a few moments to quiet my heart before Him and prepare for the day. Even just a few moments seemed to change my attitude for the day and influence events from there. Truly, that we have the ability to come before an amazing God who not only loves us, but has the power to change us should never be taken for granted.

Another more sobering reason is that a few days ago, through a friend of a friend, I became aware of a family in colorado who, on Friday (usa time) had to make the heart-wrenching decision to take their 7-month-old child off of life support. He had been critically ill for many months; the best efforts of doctors only left them more confused to his ailment. But, the testimony of the family and their trust in the Lord during such emotional agony is utterly amazing. As I read their blog over and over again, hot tears spilling over my cheeks (while emma obliviously watched Dora save the soccer game), I realized how easy to take the days for granted. It gave me the extra motivation I needed to remember that I ought to "give thanks for everything", including the opportunities to help my children become more christ-like!

In other, more random bits-and-peices from our life, Emma can recite huge chunks of songs, poems and books that she has consistent contact with. Since her powers of memory have been on such great display, we decided last week that we'd try to help her start memorizing things that can truly benefit her (not that there's anything WRONG with saying quatro, cinco, seis, or reciting every page of "I'm a big sister" - the long-standing favorite on the bookshelf). So we started last week with Genesis 1:1, which she knows when prompted. Then, thursday, we learned part of Acts 5:29 - We must obey God. She really remembers it and can say it! Of course, we think she's brilliant-child!

Samantha is making quick work of becoming mobile. Yesterday, she transported herself about three feet (though I hesistate to call it crawling just yet because it still looked...well, a little strange. But she got from pointA to pointB, and isn't that really the point?) She can stand alone for a while on her own, and is quite happy with her newfound abilities. We bought a huge blanket to put on the floor of the living room so she has a safer, and more public place to play (she didn't like being sequestered on the corner of the couch). I've been a little sad at how fast she has seemed to grow up! Can't she just make it stop...?

anyway, thanks again for all your prayers and comments. More from us when the internet works...

Motherhood is not for wimps

After almost two hours, I finally pulled myself away from my steaming bath where I mindlessly played Bejeweled on Josh’s ipod. (yeah, apparently that super-addictive game that comes on cell-phones can be purchased for your ipod, too! And my husband, who knew I spent some of my early labor with Samantha playing it, decided to buy it for me as a new year’s present. Hmm…that five dollars just might ruin all my free time…yikes!)

Anyway, my blog is sort of on life-support now. Not because I am tired of blogging – no, on the contrary! It’s still that stupid underwater cable that slows down our internet. I could mail a letter individually to all my readers faster than I will be able to post this blog. Nevertheless, that is not the point of my post.

The point of this blog (as you can tell from the title) is that my motherhood abilities lately have been stretched. The way I see it, one of these two factors is the issue: (a) I have TWO children or, (b) I have one child who is two years old. When emma was samantha’s age, life was happy, fun, and do-able. There was little I needed to do for her except feed, change, and love her. Kisses and focused attention were cures for anything.

Oh, but now that Emma is a two-year-old, there’s more to the package than just meeting physical needs. There are other parts of her little self that are maturing – her spirit, her will, her soul. Those aspects have required much more of me than I thought. It’s true – when the battle is just against “flesh and blood”, solutions come easy. But now the battle is against “spiritual forces”, that ingrained nature that wills against everything that her conscience prods her to do.

And I am her mother – I have the God-given job of tear-wiper, nose-cleaner, boo-boo-kisser. I also have been entrusted by God to help guide her on a path towards righteousness, to point her towards God Himself.

But how can I do that when I rely on my own power? Sure, no one would outright say that they live their life in their own power – but my actions are screaming what my words would never be bold enough to say. My actions say that I’m too busy changing diapers, getting lunch ready and cleaning dirty toddler panties to really spend much time with Him. My actions are saying that since my children have an insane tendency to wake up with the roosters that I get a free-pass for not being diligent to rise before them. My actions say, “Sorry, Lord…I’ll try to handle today on my own.”

And recently my world has come crashing down. Nothing drastic, nothing terrible. Just the constant grind of daily demands that saps my kindness, my gentleness, my godliness. Being the best mother I can be is just not a good standard anymore. There are some days when “the best I can do” is a pretty pathetic display of behavior. Just because that is “the best I can do” does not mean that is how God intended me to parent my children that day.

My call is to be the mother HE wants me to be. That means exhibiting His qualities towards my children. That means that when Emma pees in her panties for the six-billionth time, that I can firmly punish her but can do it without letting my exasperation shame her. That means when Emma chooses to act like a two-year-old, I choose to act like the Lord, NOT like a two-year-old. That means if I spend the entire day holding Samantha, dealing with emma, and keeping the house in quasi-order, I can do it without carrying my “woe is me” attitude around with me. I can do it, as serving the Lord, not serving men.

But it also means that I need to make my time with Him more of a priority. If I have to wake up earlier, so be it. (perhaps I should go to bed earlier instead of posting to my blog at 1130pm…) Most certainly, something has to change. One thing is certain: I’m a pretty decent mom. But pretty decent is not my standard, or His.

Will you pray for me? I truly feel like Emma is at a crucial time in her life – she is learning her boundaries, she is learning right and wrong and the consequences of each. The spiritual foundation she will carry with her all of her life is being laid during these early years. Many days, I feel I am far from adequate for the task. I feel like I respond to her from my own flesh and my own wisdom. I feel exasperated. I feel frustrated. I feel like all my glorious visions of motherhood are swirling wildly down the drain. And yet, I want to respond to her with God’s love, in ways that point her towards the infinite kindness and tenderness of her Heavenly Father. What an overwhelming responsibility!

Please pray that my time with Him will set the tone for each morning; that my relationship with emma will flow from my relationship with my Father. Pray that I can get my lazy duff out of bed in the morning so that I have some moments of solitude before the chaos begins.

Life in a fishbowl

Life in a Fishbowl

Life in asialand has been a little frustrating lately, especially as it relates to anything internet-related (which, let’s just face it, includes a whole lot of stuff). That earthquake that hit after Christmas in Taiw@n damaged a major cable that ran under the pacific ocean, connecting internet users from the asian and north American continents. Even though we do not live in Taiw@n, the damaged cable has affected nearly every Asian country – Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, even some parts of Australia. For the last week, our internet has been largely non-existent. Today was the first day I’ve even been able to pull up blogger since the 27th. So, you have my apologies for my unplanned absence. All that to say, I’ve got lots to blog about, but it will be coming in little chunks, as my husband has less of a capacity to stay up late than I do, and the nighttime hours are my only chance to blog.

So here’s the story the title alluded to…

Here in our city is this place called “Gymboree: play, ,art, and music”. Yeah, the ultra-expensive kids clothing store in the States also apparently has an ultra-expensive educational daycare program for babies and toddlers. It is advertised in this country as a place to get your kids to be exposed to English (as all the activities are supposedly done in English) but the truth is, there are few places like this in this country. Gymboree here does do lots of fun things – like special art and music emphasis, planned activities that encourage thinking, stimulation, and are geared to challenge different age levels. The locals here think it is super cool, and it truly is a neat place, even from me, who hails from the American land of plenty.

Yet, like I said, it is ultra-expensive. Sure, our US dollar goes a long way in the local currency, but I don’t think even WE could afford it. You sign up for a certain amount of sessions that are once a week, 45 minutes a session. So, a two-year commitment (the standard contract) will cost you about $1200! Over a thousand dollars to take your kid once a week to play! Yikes!

We have opted out of the sparkling clean Gymboree play sessions, but were all too happy to accept an invitation to a birthday party for our friend “ding ding” (yes, I’m serious) held there after Christmas. Even though the party started at 7:00pm (just a hare before bedtime for Emma), we showed up and participated in all the fun games. We played the parachute thing where all the adults grab a handle of the parachute and then make it billow up and down, there were games that involved catching bubbles that were being spit out of a bubble blower, and lots of big cushions where the kiddos could bounce and bounce to their hearts content.

Then, after every ounce of energy that could be sapped from the toddlers was gone, they escorted us all down to an open lobby-type area for some small snacks and drinks. Here’s where the story gets interesting. The Gymboree is located inside of a huge supermarket with lots of other stores, similar to a large shopping mall. The outside walls of the Gymboree are all glass and open up to all the foot traffic coming and going from the grocery store. We ourselves have walked passed the Gymboree many times as we have made our weekly grocery shopping trips, and usually throw a quick glance over there to see what might be going on.

But December 27th was different. December 27 had foreigners playing in the Gymboree! So all the foot traffic walking by the Gymboree decided to stop and look and stay and stare. It might take you a moment to figure it all out, but look closely at the picture. You can see that Rachel and I are talking on the couches in the upper left. John is playing with his daughter somewhere in the middle, and Josh snapped the picture. All along the wall you can see the attention that was attracted by the curious mob, wondering what in the world the foreigners would have been doing inside the Gymboree.

It honestly felt like a case of the haves vs. the have-nots – all the people who can’t afford the thousand-dollar investment in their kids English ability looking longingly at the people who have forked out the dough.

It was funny to see this microcosm of what life often feels like for us. It truly feels like we are constantly being watched, observed, scrutinized, criticized, adored, revered…life over here is such a strange feeling. It really is like living in a fishbowl.

Just like any other day

Today started out just like any other day. Our usual morning milk routine, for both girls…getting breakfast in everyone’s tummy…getting dressed, and so on. It wasn’t until 11:00 that things started getting weird.

For the third day in a row, Emma came to me asking to use the potty. Three days ago, I started thinking, “ok, well, if she asks to use the potty, I’ll let her so as not to discourage her from eventually wanting to use it.” Each morning, she has asked to use it, and has successfully gone twice.

Even though Emma is my first child, and usually parents are excited for them to master new skills, I have been the one procrastinating on Emma learning to use the potty. She has seen her friend Clara Anne use the potty at our house numerous times – and Clara Anne is quite the potty-er now! But since we’ve got about three weeks of travel planned in February, I had been pushing out of my mind visions of rushing Emma into the bathrooms on planes in favor of images of casually changing diapers whenever it happens to be convenient for me. I, mama Eggroll, had no interest in potty training. So what if Emma did? I did not.

But perhaps it was not meant to be. Just like the previous two days, today was the same story. So, after peepee #2 this morning, I sort of spontaneously decided we’d start potty training right then and there. We got out some paper and markers and made a little potty chart. We opened all the packages of big girl panties we had hoarded from the US. Out they came, Disney princesses, Care Bears, and of course, Dora. We created quite the snack spread on the table – raisins, Dark Chocolate M&M’s from the States (thanks again, Kim!!!) , crackers, milk, water.

And as the morning went on, we would talk about going potty. As she scampered around in big-girl panties, we’d remind her every few minutes to come use the potty. Each successful potty got a Dora sticker on her potty chart, three dark chocolate M&M’s, and a full round of the Dora “we did it” theme song. (we were very tired by the time evening finally rolled around!) Emma glowed under all the praise she received, and she got lots of chances to receive it! She was going potty almost every 5 minutes most of the morning!

That being said, we certainly had our share of accidents today – most notably, at lunch and dinner time when Emma, preoccupied by the assortment of delicacies in front of her, completely forgot that she was a human being capable of emptying her bladder. We had two significant puddles then.

But all in all, for an on-the-fly day of potty training that was neither planned nor wanted, the day ended like this: 8 accidents, 22 successes, including a bowel movement during what we thought was a late-night excuse! The pre-nap efforts found emma peeing every 5 minutes or so, but by bed-time, she had worked her way up to 20 minutes or half an hour.

We still have a long way to go – please don’t hear me saying she is totally potty trained - but she is largely the one initiating now and we made lots of unexpected progress today! Who knows what tomorrow will bring???

Special thanks to: Rachel (for making the mistakes for me to learn from!), Clara Anne (for being such a good example for us!), Dora (for being such great inspiration) MiMi and G (for extra panties and the Dora Potty Book!), Mantha (for giving up your normal amount of mommy-time), and Daddy (for giving me second chances at bed-time!)

Christmas pictures

So, do these girls win the award for cutest girls in the world? Ok, maybe erica and rachel would be mad at me for going that far, but they sure are cute to me! For some reason, Emma's pictures turned out a little fuzzy, but you can still get the idea...

hope you enjoy the christmasy pics!

Merry Christmas!

There are certainly disadvantages to not being in the US during the Christmas season. All those great christmas sales where bath and body works stuff is cheap...lavish christmas decorations and Christmas CD's on repeat at every store...the soft glow of white lights buried under a mass of evergreen...the warmth and intimacy of circling around the tree with those people who have lived with you since birth...the loud chatter that overtakes the room when all the family has arrived and things are in full swing.

Certainly, there are things to be missed about an American Christmas.

But living outside of the US has given us the chance to start our own new traditions that might not have been totally plausible were we still back in oklahomaland. There are no expecations here about how christmas should be celebrated; emma and samantha are still young enough that the only traditions they know are the ones we share with them.

In 2003, we spent Christmas Day on a plane coming to Asia. In 2004, we spent Christmas Day on a bus - pregnant though I was - as we drove 5 hours to pick up some friends who came to visit us in Asia. Emma's first Christmas was 2005, which was spent in America, so this year, 2006 was truly our first eggroll family christmas.

I know that many of you are not so interested in a blow-by-blow account of how we have been celebrating, but since I know my mother reads my blog and I know that she hungrily waits for any update to our news, I shall give you every last detail. Besides, some of them are truly fun.

The last few days have honestly been a whirlwind of activity. It all started when Josh and I sat at the kitchen table (still minus our new PB-inspired table) and tried to hash through how we wanted to handle christmas this year - both in terms of our plans with others, and how we wanted to set precedents for our family. As we thought it over, we felt strongly about raising our kids to understand the true meaning of Christmas, not just "ok, let's go to church and sing about Jesus, but when this is done we get to go home and open all our tons of presents."

Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying presents are wrong or bad. We just want Emma and Mantha to feel that christmas should be devoted to celebrating Christ's birth. One of the most important facets of Christ's birth is proclaming it! So, we decided that we are still going to give presents (super-important for me since I am a "gifts" love language person!) but instead of them being Christmas presents, they are going to be presents for them to begin the New Year. New Year's presents.

In the Christmas spirit, we prayerfully tried to think of ways that we could share the meaning of Christmas in a non-threatening way. We landed on passing out cookies in the public square on christmas eve.

So on Friday night, our friends came over and we had a cookie-baking-bash that would have made Mrs. Fields and my good freinds at the Great American Cookie Company proud. We baked hundreds of cookies (ok, well, only one hundred...and twenty!) Snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, peanut butter...on and on they came, batch after batch, until our home felt like there should be a new Bath and Body Works scent named after it. Christmas Cookie Cheer, maybe?

Delusional from fatigue, we finally put the last shake of sprinkles on the cookies as one o'clock in the morning approached. All the little christmas angels had fallen asleep, though clara anne and chloe had to be roused from their slumber to be carted home.

Saturday morning, Christmas-eve-eve, came awfully early after such a late night, but no sleeping in was allowed, thanks in part to our ever-prompt alarm clock (emma) and the fact that we had guests coming at 10:00am. Some english majors from the college down the road were coming over for cake, singing carols, and reading the Christmas story. The parties are such a fun time because explaining the christmas songs leaves us with little need to explain further, though we get to answer lots of questions that are brought up. Each person leaves our house hearing the full Christmas story, a special Gift, a belly full of Apple Spice Cake, and hopefully, a heart that is a little softer than before.

Saturday afternoon brought the second party of the day, and since these were graduate students (not undergrads), the English level was quite a bit higher, so we truly had great and deep conversation. One girl left this party with a final thought: Now I understand why you say that Christmas is the most wonderful holiday!

Sunday morning, Christmas eve, we all got up and got ready and headed out with our cookies in tow to meet our freinds for a quick bite to eat before surrendering our foreign faces to the frantic hysteria that happens when you give out free stuff to Asian crowds. Emma was our designated gift giver, and she said "Merry Christmas" in asianese more times than she would care to remember, I am sure. As we walked through the square, we found families with young children that Emma could give a bag of cookies to, and then we explained why we have a tradition of giving gifts. We loved recounting how we received the best Gift ever, and no gift we can ever give can compare, but that with each gift we give we remember the First Gift. Especially meaningful was watching how emma thoroughly enjoyed giving presents to others. Yes, Emma, it is much better to give than to receive!

We attracted tons of attention (not exactly our intent) but were able also to have short conversations with families on the outer edges of the square. Our 120 cookies were no match for the 2-3,000 people that were at the square that morning, but we shall try to handle those another christmas.

Our two families headed back to our house, where Rachel (not this Rachel) sat at our piano and we sang Christmas carols. All of them. In order not to miss a single one, we just systematically made our way through the hymnal and sang them all. It was a small group gathered around the piano, belting out harmonies and Hallelujah's, but it was sure a good time. As we worked our way from Joy to the World to Greensleeves, we stumbled on perhaps my new favorite Christmas carol, simply titled Carols Sing. None of us had ever heard it before, but as we played and sang it, the simplistic beauty of the song captured the truest essence of Christ's birth and glory. The melody lingered in my mind long after we had finished singing, and my heart rested on peaceful melody of the last line, Jesus Christ our Savior.

Later that evening, after all the girls had gone to bed, Josh and I had planned on doing a little celebrating of our own...by watching an OU game that my parents had sent to us on DVD (come on, this is a public blog. What did you think I was going to say?) We popped a buttery bag of Orville Redenbauchers (again), ate some of the Hello Dollies I made, and then drank American cokes from our big frosty mugs as we snuggled on the couch and watched OU and OSU duke it out for state bragging rights.

As 10pm approached, we saw a tiny figure shadowed in the doorway. Sure enough, our child who should be from New York because she never sleeps, had heard all the fun going on in the living room and decided she should be part of it. Being Christmas eve and all, we felt like we should give her the chance to do something out of the ordinary, so we pulled her up on the couch and taught her all sorts of new words: Boomer! Sooner! Football. Touchdown. We comforted ourselves and rationalized the late bedtime by saying it was a learning experience for her!

She really got into the action, and it was so funny to watch! She would lean up right as a play would begin. If the ball was fumbled or otherwise dropped for any reason, her face would fall in a worried frown and she'd say, "Oh no! Ball! Dropped! Get...the...ball!"

Finally, we all turned in for the night, happy that OU had won and we got to watch it. (Sorry, kim and kristen about OSU...maybe next year?) Sunday morning, emma crawled into bed with us, content enough to play with our alarm clock and give us just a few more minutes of much needed sleep. Then, the baking began. The imported ham, macaroni (which emma can now say each syllable with appropriate enthusiasm!), mashed potatoes, rolls, cupcakes and hello dollies...sure, it turned my kitchen into a disaster zone for a while but it was so fun to eat! The ham was great and worth all the wait and expense. Maybe by the time all the leftovers are eaten, I will be able to last another year!

Sunday afternoon we had an unexpected local friend pop by for a few hours, but the girls were sleeping and so we had a nice christmas afternoon chat. We all left together, and with a few more hours of Christmas spirit still left on the clock, we decided to go out and spread a little more Christmas cheer while the 25th was still around. We loaded our children into a taxi and headed over to our friends' house for some unexpected caroling, then dashed away to give christmas gifts to as many taxi drivers as we could before 8pm. It was truly, truly fun...mentally, linguistically and physically exhausting, but so much fun. As we asked people, "Can we tell you the story of Christmas?" and they replied more like a five-year-old child than a thirty-five-year-old taxi driver, "Yes, please!" our hearts brimmed with love and thanksgiving as we recounted all the great Christmas details.

Emma gave tons of gifts this Christmas. Emma learned "Merry Christmas" in asianese and used it a jillion times. Emma was carted to and fro in a flurry of Christmas activities. But this evening, as she stood in our doorway rosy-cheeked from the winter air and waiting for me to unbutton her coat, I noticed something in her. Her eyes were wide with wonder. Perhaps she was taking in and processing all the day's events as she stood there, almost motionless, eyes fixed on me. But I felt glad to think that her tiny heart, much to little to understand the christmas story herself, felt warmed by all that had happened around her tonight.

And that she could feel a sense of wonder, even without Santa Claus and a pile of presents waiting for her under the tree.

Since my husband is patiently waiting for me to turn out the lights, I will end this December 25th by signing off and wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas. May the words of this hymn focus your heart as you celebrate today:

Good Christian men, rejoice!
With heart and soul and voice!
Now ye need not fear the grave:
Jesus Christ was born to save!
Calls you one and calls you all,
To win His everlasting hall.
Christ was born to save!
Christ was born to save!

hop the bunny, part 2

While we were back in the States, Emma got some pictures taken with an easter bunny. No, not the easter bunny, a real-live, furry with big floppy ears easter bunny. She liked it so much (and we got such great pictures from the photo shoot) that emma's daddy decided she needed her own, full-time bunny. So, "Hop" the bunny (as he was so aptly named by emma) came to our house and began his initiation of becoming an eggroll.

Unfortunately, josh and I are not really "pet" people. It's not that we don't like pets, it's just that we seldom remember to do all those things that pets need. Kids, obviously, are different. Fear not - we remember to feed, clothe and clean up after our babies. It's just that pets are a different story.

All the eggrolls, including hop, weathered one hot oklahoma summer and though hop seemed a tad bit worse for wear, he made it through.

Then it came time for us to return to asia, leaving an unspoken question looming largely in the air: what will become of hop?

He was sort of just "left" at the house we were living, under the care of Josh's very-capable-but-often-quite-full hands. We aren't sure what has become of hop (nor have we asked...), but we are sure that whether he made to the PetsMart social club or has gone to bunny heaven, or is still sitting on the front porch chewing on his grass, he is probably ok.

Then yesterday...

Some girls that I meet with each week had come to visit, this time bringing a surprise gift for emma.

Of all the things they could have chosen to bring, why in the world they chose to bring something live, something that would require my daily attention,I have no idea. They bounced through the door, and enthusiastically presented emma with a bowl full of fish. Six fish. Two goldfish and two hammerhead looking fish.

truly, emma loved them. She sat around the fish bowl, neck craned towards the ground to get up as close as possible, and watched them flutter around for ages.

Tough somewhat disgruntled from yet another addition to my daily routine (do I not already have enough mouths to feed around here?), I quietly resolved that since emma was so enamored with the fish, I would do my best to keep them around as long as possible.

Who knew how long that would be?

As I was laying in bed last night, I found myself wondering about when and if fish sleep. If they sleep, do they just float, suspended in the air, or do they settle down towards the floor? I was truly curious (and still am, if any readers know the answer. I am just too lazy to look it up on wikipedia.) I also wondered if they fish would get cold in our house, because we turn the heater off in the living room while we sleep. (Each room in our house has its own seperate heat system)

This morning I awoke to the usual morning sounds - emma's pitter-pattering feet and mantha's hungry cry - and stumbled to the kitchen to get emma some milk. I glanced over at the fishbowl, and subconsciously quieted my steps. I had my answer - several of the fish were sleeping, sort of rested against the edge of the bowl, laying peacefully in the water.

I returned to an excited Emma, waiting anxiously for her morning milk. After a while, we returned to the dining room, where the fish bowl was situated. As Josh started studying the fish, I cautioned him, "Shh...some of them are sleeping."

"Uh, yeah, Rachel, " he replied sarcastically. "If that's what you want to call it!"

I looked closer. It was true. One of the fish was dead. His little black body was floating upside down, a crucial fact I had somehow failed to notice on my morning milk run. the other black fish looked perilously close to death as well, but roused as we tapped the bowl.

I dont' know how it happened. Maybe he was weak when we received him. Maybe it was too cold in our living room. Maybe he was self-conscious and Emma's constant perusal of him was just too much. I'm not sure, but one thing is certain: we are not pet people!

The Wonder of His Creation

I have lots to say about lots of different topics, but since I am pressed for time at the moment and have already had an unusually busy day, I just want to share this quote my friend Cindy shared with me from Augustine.

I hope as you read it, you will allow Father to renew your love and wonder at His most unique creation this holiday season.



We stand in awe of the ocean,
The thunderstorm,
The sunset,
The mountains:
But we pass by
A human being
Without notice
Even though
The person
Is God’s most
Magnificent
Creation.

Give me a BREAK!

I know, I know...it sounds like the beginnings of another post about chocolate. But, in fact, I'm talking about my kids!

The other day I was telling a story to my friend Rachel about some of Emma's less-than-desirable antics and somehow I rambled long enough to start complaining about the fact that sometimes Emma and I need a break from each other! She must certainly get weary with me occasionally, too! I mean, truly...we spend every single day together. Since we live in a foreign country, there are no grandparents to give Josh and I a special night out. There are no "mom's day out" programs around here. Not even church nurseries on Sunday! It is Mom-time/Emma-time, all the time.

Then, Rachel and I struck gold.

We decided that once a week we would trade off. This week, she would watch emma, and next week I would watch clara anne. Sure, we'll still have our littlest babies...but we've now entered the world where only caring for one child feels like a break. Kindly enough, Rachel let me go first (maybe because of my previous rant?)

so today, I dropped emma off at the door for a full morning of play with Rachel and Clara. Then I got into the taxi - without squeezing tightly on to little hands to make sure they don't run in the street, without singing every song I know in the taxi to ensure a smooth ride for a 2 year old, without keeping dirty sneakers from leaving their imprint on the white seat covers. Just me and mantha, who sleeps or remains otherwise content a large majority of the time.

I went shopping at the two biggest department stores in town. I bought josh's christmas present. I found lots of interesting goodies I had no idea existed in our city. I found a play-kitchen here that I was considering ordering from the States for Emma. I walked around in the sunshiny coolness that the noon hour brought. I walked, browsed, shopped and lingered without any thought whatsoever to what time it was.

And then I left, happy to be on my way to seeing Emma again. I returned to my real life, and emma certainly did not disappoint. When I got to rachel's house, she was seated at the table, happily shoving fistfuls of asian noodles into her mouth. They had read piles of books, played hide-and-seek, and pushed dolls around the house in make-believe adventures.

Next week, Clara will come here and perhaps rachel and john will go out for some lovely night on the town celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. And it helps me to remember that as much as I love this little child who is even now sitting at my lap, reaching longingly at the clattering keys on the keyboard, sometimes, we just need a break.

well, wake up already!

As I was glancing through some of my recent posts, I came to the interesting realization that every single one of my posts have something to do with my children. (Therefore, the title of "Adventures of mama and little eggrolls") So I thought for some post in the future, I will make a post that is just about some general subject of interest - like what a normal day is like for us here, what our life is like, things I like/don't like about where we live...questions that people often ask us. But that will have to wait for another day because the hour is already later than I intended and also because emma did something funny that I have to share.

We have a cute little Frosty the Snowman thing sitting on our piano, and tonight as emma and daddy were doing the nightly routine of teethbrushing and prayers, frosty got special mention. Here is the conversation that played out:

Josh: Who loves Emma?

Emma: mommy!

Josh: that's right...who else?

Emma: daddy!

Josh: yep! What about pappy and gigi?

Emma: pappy! gigi!

Josh: and mimi and g?

Emma: mimi! G! (pause) Frosty? Frosty love emma?

Josh: (laughing) yes, frosty probably loves emma, too.

Emma: (looking at the frosty on the piano with arms outstretched) Frosty, Emma hold you!

Josh: No, Emma, you can't hold frosty right now. Frosty is sleeping.

Emma: (Emma is still for a moment) Frosty! Wake Up! Good Morning! Hold you?



What fun she is! :)

a bit of christmas cheer

Now that samantha has finally quit throwing up, things seem to be in good shape around here! Tuesday was an exciting day for Emma - she got her first (and maybe only?) christmas present

from mom and dad! In fact, i wanted to wait for christmas eve to give it to her, but it was just too big to hide around the house where she wouldn't see it.

What was it? A bean bag chair! I have such fun memories of bean bag chairs, and when I saw this one (even though it was a bit expensive) I thought it would be fun for her to climb up in it, read books, look out the window...or whatever

else she can come up with to do in it! so, yay for bean bag chairs!

We also have presents under our christmas tree as packages have begun arriving from the grandparents back home - thanks pappy and gigi, and mimi and G for helping our tree have presents!

And, to top it all off, today I found white lights that don't twinkle - my tree looks great now! What a find!

hope you enjoy these fun pics! (samantha has been competing with emma for bean bag time!)

cute girls and other ramblings

So my best intentions to post every day for a week in honor of katie's finals week ended rather abruptly a few days ago. My sincerest apologies. I truly intended to do it each day...but it just didn't happen.

I'm posting a few pics that give a glimpse of things that have been going on the last few days around here. This nice, cute pic of samantha sitting happily in her high chair, waiting for some yummy rice cereal has been a distant memory of late. Three days ago (or maybe it was two, I forget) I made some rice cereal for samantha with milk that somehow must not have stayed fresh or something. Just a few moments after the meal had ended, the entire contents were thrown in violent fashion to the floor below. I was just preparing to put her to bed for the night, and I reasoned that she must be throwing up the cereal that she eat. It will be ok to nurse her one last time before she hits the sack. So, dorky mom Rachel feeds her again.

Just a few moments after that feeding, what do you think she did? yeah, she threw it all up too. So far, that has also accumulated to two of my shirts and two of her sleepers that had been dirtied in a very, very short time. After cleaning her all up, I put her to bed anyway. When she awoke in the morning, tummy growling and ready for a good meal, I fed her...only to watch her throw it all up again ! This time, I saw it coming and instincively thrust my hands forward, thereby "catching" all of the nice stuff in my cupped hands. Why again did I do that?

anyway, now seems to be a bit better and she has kept her meals down yesterday and all of today, so we are happy. She is lookin cute today, if you were wondering...wearing a cute little pink Tommy Hilfiger sweater and some khaki colored corduroy pants. Oh, to be six months old and stylin like that!

Lately, Emma imitates everything we do. Truly. Everything. Holy Moly! Be careful! Come here, please! No, ma'am. Josh! Rachel! This also applies to behaviors as well. This morning, I saw a renegade cockroach in Emma's room (of all places) and the gravity of the situation forced me to break my usual practice of indirectly killing them (by using spray, or by shooing them into the sink or anything that does not require me to actually come in contact with the creatures). I said, "Oh man!", ran to the entryway to grab a shoe, stomped the cockroach, and then got a baby wipe to bury his remains in.

So, Emma in in the living room playing a bit later, sees one of those green little things off the christmas tree and assumes he is a cockroach. "Oh man!" she says. She toddles off to get the same shoe I used before, stomps the floor, and then grabs the closest thing (her dora bib) to wipe up the "cockroach".

The other thing she did after this was...

She walked up to the front door, got the snugli that I wear to carry samantha around in, put her dora doll inside, put on her shoes and said, "Outside! Ok?" That was my cue that emma was getting bored!

So after lunch, I bundled up the three of us and we went to josh's school to play. Emma had so much fun crunching around in the leaves, finding sticks and waving to everyone who walked by us. Plus, she looked cute in this yellow poofy ski jacket thing that our landlord gave us from a childrens clothing store she apparantly owns. (It seems every week brings knowledge of some new enterprise she manages!) It was certainly chilly, but it was a nice fun afternoon. Now if I could just get her to go to sleep...

another sneaky trick

You are all aware of our attempt to curtail frivolous spending around our house here, which means no unnecessary chocolate purchases. But the truth is, I don't feel like a meal is complete until something sweet has been eaten. (that's the real reason we have made so many trips to the little store that is on the first floor of our building!)

But even though we aren't making any new purchases of chocolate, I didn't figure that the ban existed on already owned chocolate. So in an attempt to maneuver around the ban, I busted out some cocoa and a stash of Reese's peanut butter chips and did it the old fashioned way - by hand.

There were some delicious chewy chocolate peanut butter cookies that came out of my oven, let me tell you. And it made enough to last at least through this week. Yay! :) We'll just have to make a new plan for next wekk...

In other news, as I sit here on my bed and type my post, I have realized that I am not the onl sneaky one in the family. In the last two minutes, Emma managed to sneakily and quietly get out of her bed. It's late - well, at least for her! It's 9:20 and she went to bed at 8:00. That means she's been playing, talking, praying, singing or doing whatever else she does for over an hour. We heard a little pitter-patter outside our door, and she immediately informed us of the reason for the infraction: poopoo, she said with great gusto (hoping it would save her from certain punishment). Fortnuatley for her, she was telling the truth (which doesn't always happen when it comes to bodily functions) so she was indeed spared.

So, four cookies heavier, all the sneaky eggrolls sign off for the night. Have fun, kate. :)

in honor of Katie

so this post is dedicated to my sister, Katie, who is trudging through finals week (and MacroEcon, which I foolishly recommended to her to take...) and needs a study break via eggrollmama's blog. :)

The only new news in our household is that we have instituted a budget. Yeah, I know...a budget. Those words just sound so grown up and so desperate. Though we are fine financially, mu husband ( ever the saver ) is convinced we need to try to live a little more frugally. So this month begins the invoking of the "no frivilous spending" rule. Somehow, unbeknownst to me, cokes and chocolate got categorized as frivolous spending. How, I ask you, are those ruled frivolous? With all the known health benefits chocolate can bring? With all the warm fuzzies I get in each bottle of Coke? My opinion was obviously not weighted equally in the decision making.

Well, ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. We decided together to try it for a month and see what happened - just dont' buy stuff we dont' need. Seems simple, right?

Another area of newly appointed frugality was taking a bus when we previously took taxis. This can usually save a few bucks each ride, provided the distance is not too long and taking the bus will cost you 1 hour and a taxi will cost you 10 minutes. So this afternoon, I had to run to the store to buy a few things, and since it's not far from my house, I thought I'd walk. I often walk to the store, and it usually only takes about 10 minutes. Savings: 1 local dollar.

Then, at the store, I only purchased the things that were on my list. No extras (maybe a first for me). Since I only had a few bags, I thought I'd take the bus home and walk from the bus stop to my house (only about a 5 minute walk) instead of taking a taxi. Savings: 6.5 local dollars.

When I reached my house, huffing and puffing from the effort it took to lug all my bags and my cute samantha back home, I had a brainstorm: with all the money I saved, I could buy two (forbidden) cokes for us to drink with our frito chili pie dinner and still have money leftover!

So maybe in the end I didn't end up saving any money at all...but it sure felt like it!

Deck the Halls and all that stuff

We've really been trying to get in the Christmas spirit around here lately. True, Christmas decorations are not nearly as abundant in this country as in America, but they can be found. The trick is sifting through the mounds and mounds and aisles and shops of decorations that seem chintzy, cheap and tacky to find those very rare indeed diamonds in the rough.

Not to say that I have entirely succeeded; in fact, I think I have succumbed to the pressure of a chintzy Asian christmas. My tree is not the towering and full-looking evergreens that exist in the States. It is a tree that is rather short, thin and - I'm sorry, Mrs. Wind, so say - that it reminds me rather of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. You know how those look...not so many branches, you can kind of see the wires in between. But my tree cost three dollars, so what can you really expect from three dollars, I ask you?

I also have not found any white lights, which I am quite fond of. Something about the soft glow of those little lights just pleasantly makes me think of jingle bells and mercy mild and harkening to hear angels sing. I cannot seem to find them anywhere except on this commercial building down the street from me - they have a little christmas montage thing set up on thier lawn. I thought about sneakily going in the night and nabbing thier lights since I can't find my own...but then I reconsidered after contemplating what a night in an Asian prison might look like.

So we are making do with what we have. We found some cute little snowflakes and some cute little snowman-stuffed-animalish things that we are using as ornaments. As Emma helped me "decorate" the tree, she loved putting the snowmen in and out of the tree. She especially loves anything Frosty the Snowman, thanks to my parents who had a lifesize, motion-sensored snowman that delighted Emma to no end...even in March...even in July...even in September. Fortunatley, it is now December again, and Frosty has had a whole year to stretch his legs. Come January, he will probably go kicking and screaming back in that box!

Anyway, so I think as we proceeded in our decorating extravaganza, emma thought that since frosty was a stuffed animal and HE went in the tree, perhaps all her stuffed animals should also go in the tree. So, it started out innocentl enough, as she went to go get her beloved dora doll and put him in the lower branches of the tree. I snapped a picture so you could all see Dora cozily nestled in the branches. Then came blanket. Then caterpillar, zebra, giraffe, bear, and finally lamb. It was then that the boughs were so stuffed with animals that the tree (remember it's a cheap asian tree) could no longer withstand the weight of so many freeloaders that it tumbled to the ground. At that point, mom called a halt to all the fun and sent all the stuffed animals back to their room.

As I picked up the tree, Emma decided she had had enough of decorating, and decided instead to see how much of herself could fit inside the christmas tree box. She stayed entertained that way for a long while and then she was willing to play with samantha while we tried to get a few christmas pics out of the evening. The best one, though not GREAT, is posted at the top of this post. They still both look cute, so I thought it would pass for now. :)

In other news, mantha's skin is doing much better, thanks to the snake oil and vasoline. She is also now sleeping officially 12 hours through the night - 8am to 8pm! What a great thing for all of us! I have also busted out her 6-9 month clothes because all her other clothes were too summery for what is now getting to be a very chilly city, so she looks really grown up and especially cute almost every day. Don't you agree...?

More from us later. Hope you are all eating lots of christmas goodies and hitting all the good sales for me!