everything you wanted to know, and more

So after a week of no blogging, this will be my attempt to shower you all with pictures and updates on every random facet of our lives, because I know you all want as many details about our lives as my mother does. So, here goes:

Samantha's birthday, in detail. Because again, I know you want details:

Being a mother meant that on the morning of June 17th, the first thing I thought about was the fact that my youngest daughter turned a year old, much to the disappointment of my husband, who should have had the first kind words and kisses of the day for his great work as a husband to me and a father to our two girls. The fact that I forgot to mention both of those things until after our afternoon festivities were over was quite the embarrassment to me; fortunately, he was forgiving!

Samantha's party was fun, though admittedly, not quite as fun as Emma's first birthday because so many of you were not there to share it with us. We were blessed to have several foreign friends and several local asian friends who shared the day with us, so it was unique in it's own right. I had made strawberry cupcakes with purple cream cheese icing for the "cake", and then a few other snacks - m&m brownies, chicken salad sandwiches, and then some fruit and cookies. I thought ahead and brought all of emma's leftover birthhday decorations from the states, so we had lots of "I'm 1!" things around the house. I hung balloons and streamers, and along with the 1 decorations, the house actually looked pretty party-ish.

Samantha was actually the receipent of my kind benevolence that day because I decided that, in spite of potential allergies to wheat and dairy, I'd go ahead and let her eat a cupcake. She was pretty hesitant at first, but after an initial warm up period, she was willing to eat the whole thing. That's definetely my daughter! Emma, of course, was delighted that on this special day she was allowed to have a cupcake AND a brownie!

For those of you at Emma's party, I did the same thing with signing the picture-frame mat; samantha's actually has a lot of character to hers because there's not only english written on hers! Our asian friends all wrote words of blessing on hers, so that will be a fun thing to have when she's older.

Since the party was at our house and josh and I were both occupied (last time celebrating a 1st birthday, we had only one child!), I have very few pictures of the actual party. These two were taken before the party, and are included to show you how cute samantha looked on her bday. She honestly looked just like a little birthday cake, good enough to eat! Her little shirt was crumpled pink eyelet material with a butterfly on it and a matching denim skirt. She's the cutest one year old I've seen in a while! (The fact that I seldom see other one year olds doesn't really need to be mentioned!)

And I was able to get this cute picture the day after her bday, while she was playing on the slide:

And, even though we asked people not to bring gifts, we still got a few. My house helper, who truly loves the girls, made some shirts for the two of them. Even though it's not typically the type of fashions I would usually dress them in, out of respect for her time and effort, I dressed them alike a few days after the party. So this cute picture was during their morning playtime, in the affectionately named "fishnet shirts":

and mantha by herself:

Emma News

Our morning asianese play times are still going really well for emma. One fun thing we've been doing is watching the dora asianese movies together, and then playing some games after the movie that emphasized different aspects of the show. Usually, I'll try to find all the items that were in dora's backpack, and then I'll put them in emma's backpack. After the movie, we'll all pull them out together and talk about what they do or what dora used them for. This particular day, dora had an umbrella in her backpack and Emma was just dying to open it.

Today was friday, typically not an asianese playday, so we fingerpainted! Even samantha got in on the action, but after she went down for her morning nap is when emma was really able to get dirty and have lots of fun with her fingers. She was excited and enjoyed the activity, but was very aware that her fingers and hands were dirty - a very common thread that comes up in her life. Is she going to be a neat freak? a girly girl? It seems possible...(but you'd never know it from this picture!)

And if I had a million dollars, I'd give it to emma when she wears this pretty pink dress because I think she's worth every penny of it (especially this day, when the curls in the back of her hair were like perfect bouncy spirals, just begging to be pulled!)

One afternoon while running errands, emma and I stopped at a little play park, and I had yet another reminder that emma is growing up - she used to be terrified of those little rope tunnels, but she navigated this one in a flash with no difficulty at all!

The Swimming Tradition

Today is friday, but sadly, we did not go swimming today. Josh and I were both feeling yuck today, but Josh has had really high fevers today and yesterday. Fortunately, emma didn't remember that today was swimming day, so we got off the hook, but tried to make up with fun evening activities for them. But, in honor of the friday tradition, here are swimming pictures from two weeks ago, when neither of the girls were too crazy about our new family tradition, especially mantha, who usually feels a little chilly and a little too far away from momma for comfort!


But once they were out of the pool, things were ok again! :) Other stuff

On the nights that it hasn't been too rainy or too hot (which havne't been TOO many, but that's ok) we try to get out and go for walks or do something fun. This night, we decided to take mantha out of her stroller and we were so surprised at how much fun she had galloping down the sidewalks! Emma, being big sister, held her hands every moment, you know, to "help her", even though sometimes it did more harm than help. But they had a super fun time chasing each other and playing together. (You can tell emma takes her job very seriously!)

Emma's obsession with shoes has now been officially passed on to samantha, who will try on every person's shoes that enters our house. her favorites include my "inside shoes" since she can get them on and off pretty easily:

And the last picture of the evenign comes courtesy of my fabulous little art/photo shop down the street. While on a mission one afternoon to find some framed art for my bare walls, I noticed this little place that sold art but also had pictures kind of like lasered into some wood. Actually, that's a pretty poor way to describe it, I just can't think of exactly the words to describe it. BUT, anyway, when I saw it, I finally had a flash of inspiration for my very bare, very long, very empty living room wall. I carefully selected my choices, and then took a little jump drive to said fab photo store, and voila! Take a look at my new (in my own opinion, very fabulous looking) living room wall (and also, my diligent husband working hard):

So if you made it to the end of this very long post, you shoudl have a reward of some kind, right? Based on her own self-confession, I know that my cousin seldom reads long posts...so, if you still reading, the reward is that you, dear readers, will be among the first to know that in just several months, my blog contain more than just pictures of emma and samantha. No, your mind is not playing tricks on you. It means what you think it means. Lord willing, we shall birth another child in the spring. That's our happy news! We were hoping it would work out to have another child at that time, but are so very aware that in spite of our best plans, it is God who creates and gives life, so we praise Him that He has chosen to give us yet another sweet child. We think I'm somewhere between 7 and 8 weeks along right now, so that puts a due date around Feb 15, just a week or so before Emma's 3rd birthday. Maybe you should read long posts more often, huh?!

the longest day of the year, long wait, and a very special day for emma

did you know that yesterday was the longest day of the year? It's true. Hopefully for us, that means that our children will gradually start pushing back their 6:30am wake up time if the days are getting shorter. That would be, hmmm, so great. But anyway, since yesterday was the longest day of the year, my house helper decided to make for lunch a very traditional dish for "longest day of the year" lunch. Yes, every day is a day to commemorate over here. :)

So we had noodles. You know, because they are long. EVERYONE eats noodles on the longest day of the year. Long day, eat long food. Sometimes the straight-forwardness of this culture cracks me up.

Yesterday also was Friday, which meant family night at the pool. Fun times. We hopped in a taxi after the girls woke up in the afternoon and went to the pool. Ok, so we did feel a little bit weird carrying our HUGE sea turtle floatey (Emma's) and the bright orange giraffe (mantha's) with us in the rain as we walked to the taxi, but hey, sometimes you just have to sacrifice for your kids. :)

Emma has gradually warmed up to the pool. The first visit, she sat on the lounge chair the whole time because she was afraid to get in. The second visit, she was willing to sit in the specially hand-picked sea turtle, but was absolutely unwilling to try to swim in the water with her floaties. Well, yesterday, we coaxed her to get out her BFF the sea turtle and let daddy hold her.

While daddy was holding her, we reminsced about swimming at our little villa in thailand and we reminded her that clara anne loved swimming by herself in the pool (with the floaties, of course!). We told her how clara anne loved swishing around, like a little fish, and didn't need her daddy to hold her. Emma's eyes sparkled with determination as she slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y eased away from daddy's strong shoulders.

Within seconds, she was swimming (thanks to the floaties) all by herself, unassisted in the pool. AND she loved it! She loved feeling like a big girl; she loved that we were so proud of her. And she really looked like a big girl - bobbing up and down all by herself - in that big blue pool. Wow, my sweet emma...she is so big.

Sidebar: The other day, she told me that she wanted to have a baby. (No, I'm not kidding.) I told her that was wonderful, but that she had to wait. I told her first she had to learn her letters, then write her name, then ride a bike, then learn to swim, then learn to rollerskate, then go to school, then drive a car, then she had to wait for God to give her a husband, then maybe God might give her a baby. She seemed ok with that.

Ok, so back to yesterday. So in celebration of her big-girl skill, we told her she could have her very own chocolate doughnut after we went swimming. She was jazzed about that and kept swimming on her own to make sure that her "very-own-doughnut-status" was not in question. After we ate doughnuts, we went outside (still raining) to get a taxi home. It was 5:55pm.

Being the longest day of the year, it would only seem logical that we must have our longest-ever wait for a taxi yesterday. Finally, at 6:30 we got a taxi, and the three mile journey to our home took another 30 minutes, thanks to a brand-new road construction project on the road outside our house.

But we got home, ate leftovers (another part of the friday tradition) and then...as if the day wasn't special enough, Emma, mommy and daddy watched "Cars". Emma seldom watches tv or movies, so she knew it was a special occasion - and was delighted when we brought out the popcorn and brownies. Fun times in the making.

Samantha, on the other hand, was a bit grouchy last night and a very random 101 degree fever. Once she was down for the night, she seemed much more comfortable, but even this morning and today she just hasn't seemed herself. :( Her front two teeth now show when she smiles, so she's no longer gummy baby. bummer. She was so cute that way!

**Note to self and readers: pictures to come. Post about samantha's birthday party still to come. **

so relieved, so surprised

I'm a big second-guesser. I'm the girl who goes shopping, buys things, and then comes home and wonders if I bought the right thing, if it looks/fits/works the way I thought it should. So, surprise, surprise, I also second guess my decisions.

Last night, I was writing in Emma's journal (a little book we started for her before she was born) to record two funny stories that had happened in the last few days. Since the stories I was writing are pretty crucial to the whole point of this post, I will relive them for you:

Story #1 - Emma, mantha, my house helper and I were driving back to our house a few days ago after a morning shopping trip. On the way back, my house helper was chatting away (like she usually does) about how she was making a special present for emma so that emma's feelings woudln't be hurt on samantha's birthday (tomorrow, don't forget!). The big present was a pair of homemade shoes that are supposed to be so cute I will barely be able to contain my pleasure, or so I'm told. :) Anyway, during this conversation (happening totally in asianese), emma is staring out the window and doing whatever she usually does in the car. Later that afternoon as we were eating lunch, emma looked at me and said, "Mommy, did you know that (househelper's name*)made some shoes for emma?" My house helper and I looked at each other and were truly shocked. That means that emma must have understood seriously more of our conversation than either of us thought possible!

Story #2 - Later that evening, emma was helping the two of us clean up and get ready for dinner. My house helper took several plates to emma and asked her to put them on the table. I opened my mouth to translate for emma, but then I thought better of it and held my tongue, just to see what would happen. To my great surprise, she took the plates and put them right on the table, exactly as she was asked to do.

Do I think she's so brilliant? I'm so one of those annoying moms that thinks their kid is perfect/beautiful/brilliant/insert your word of choice here, so just watch out! :) but, really, I have been so pleased at her language progress. Which brings me to the point of this thing.

I sat down to write in emma's journal, and I glanced at my most recent entry. I hadn't written in there since my meltdown at the kindergarten a few months ago, and the last paragraph in there ended something like, "I hope we're doing the right thing."

While I was writing these two funny stories, I felt so relived and SO confident that we made the right decision not to send her to kindergarten. Our plan of 3 times a week of focused language study has gone so well; her sunday class that we attend togetherhas far exceeded my expectations and is something we both look forward to now every week. Emma knows almost all of her colors, shapes, animals, several songs, many basic commands, and basic requests in asianese. She understands when people ask her to do things. She is doing so great - and I am surprised, but more than anything, so thankful that she is able to accomplish all this without needing to go to kindergarten.

AND...maybe a new motivation for emma to learn asianese - did you know that Dora speaks asianese? My ever-resourceful husband found a collection of 10 DVD's that have been made into asianese, and since many of the episodes are ones emma has watched in english, she really enjoys watching them in asianese too.

So anyway, there you have it about emma. She is super excited about samantha's birthday tomorrow. She knows that all of her friends will be coming over to play and she knows that she'll get to eat cake and ice cream. She also knows that she is going to get some presents on mantha's birthday (things I've saved back from recent packages from the grandparents!) So after her class in the morning, we'll come home for naps and then have a fabulous party! Any excuse to eat chocolate falls in the "fabulous" category.

And all the preparations are going well - the brownies and cupcakes were made tonight (though I certainly missed nana's help making the cupcakes this year!), decorations were hung, the house cleaned, the bathtub filled with water...

yeah, that's right. A notice was posted outside of our building announcing that on June 17th our building would be without power and water for the morning. So the bathtub is filled up in case we need to get a bucket of water to flush the toilets! We'll just hope the power comes on before all the guests arrive!

Birthday updates and pictures will come soon!


* I did not omit our house helper's name for security reasons, but I just thought if I wrote her name in asianese you wouldn't really even understand it, so that's the rationale behind that!

the suggestion box is open

So it is June 12th, and that means only five days until Samantha's first birthday. I have gone against all my better judgement and decided to have a party here at our house. I will be inviting some foreign friends and local friends so it will probably be quite the mix of languages, cultures, and assumptions about what exactly a birthday party is, but it should be fun. That is, apart from the fact that samantha is smack-dab in the middle of a seriously strong bout of seperation anxiety. If I leave the room, her world falls apart. It's crazy, I tell you. I'm sure it will pass, like every other phase I have worried through so far, but still...

So anyway, more about samantha since her birthday is almost here. One little known fact about her is that she is quite the scavenger. When she is tired of sitting in her high chair, she will make it so very obvious that she is ready to be out (ie, screaming and throwing her food). Out she goes, toddles over to her room to play with toys...only to return in a matter of seconds. Her little head brushes under the dining room table as she heads back to her high chair - to pick up all the leftover food bits that have fallen to the ground in the previously mentioned chicken discus event. She usually is very fortunate to find no small amount of food particles on the ground, to her great delight. She is samantha the scavenger.

One of our mosty enjoyable new mantha-tricks is like this: I (or josh, or emma) will sit on this little step in our living room and we will open our arms wide and say, "Samantha, can you give (mommy,daddy, emma) a hug?" and, patter-patter-patter, she will run from wherever she is with a bright grin on her face and collapse into our arms and nestle her head in that perfect spot by your neck. It's a great little trick that I welcome you all to come and experience!

Samantha's word count is about as high as her tooth count: 2. But she's got four on the way - and this could be applicable to teeth or words! We're still holding strong at two bottom teeth, but the top four are threatening to break through at any moment. Where words are concerned, she does mama, daddy, and hi really well. "Emma" sounds like "mama", but we know she's talking about emma because she looks at emma. She can also say "eeeeeeeeeeat!" and "all done", but that one sounds more like "aah dah". I think there's a few more that we understand, but maybe there's a bit too much parental bias in there to classify them as words yet. She also has quite the collection of gobbelty-gook phrases that sound like a mysterious and foreign language that has yet to be recorded, and we just smile and say, "oh really?".

Samantha loves to play with emma, loves to laugh when emma laughs, and increasingly likes books. Realize, I didn't say likes being read to because that's about equal to being tortured, but she likes books. She'll totter over to the shelf, carefully select one (with all the accompanying grunts it takes for her to get a book that is wedged on the shelf off!) and then tuck it under her arm while she goes about her other afternoon activities, like scrounging under the table, or checking out the bathroom, a very annoying habit of hers.

Her bright blue eyes shine and sparkle and make you wonder what she must be thinking in her head to have such happiness bubbling out - and then when she laughs, her eyes crinkle down and she cocks her head to the side and then you know for sure whatever it was she was thinking was certainly mischevious. She loves putting crayons in her mouth and then then abruptly putting them down as soon as she thinks you're watching her. She screams when she's happy and upset (that's one phase I thought would pass long ago!) She sways so heavily to any music that is playing you swear she'll lose her balance and fall over, but somehow she always manages to stay up and keep swaying. Her recent favorite has been "Twist and Shout" and hey, with all that twisting going on, what's not to love about that?

Anyway, even with all her recent separation craziness, it is with so much happiness that we celebrate her first birthday and remember that day when she joined our family.

Yes, that day that was June 17th. That day that was our anniversary. And with all the hubbub of planning her birthday, we just yesterday realized, "oh yeah, our anniversary is here too!" We both admitted we've just got so many other things we're thinking about, and then planning stuff for her birthday just makes our anniversary seem like an afterthought.

But, of course, anniversaries are not afterthoughts! Anniversaries - and friday nights, and scrabble games, and cooking nights in the kitchen together, and bedtime chats, and long walks in the park - are those special times when relationships are celebrated and protected. But in all fairness, it's just going to be impossible to celebrate samantha's birthday and our anniversary on the same day for the next 80 years (I'm giving myself a long life span). So what should we do?

Should we arbitrarily choose another date on the calendar which will be the day we celebrate our anniversary? That's my only idea to be able to properly devote attention to both very special events. What are your ideas? If you are in favor of arbitrarily choosing a date, how about you submit a proposed date? Drop your comment in the suggestion box!!!

And in the meanwhile, think happy thoughts about samantha. Videos went out in the mail sunday, so hopefully one will make it your way or be passed around to you. I'm toying with the idea of posting it our blog, but I'm such a privacy freak I don't know if I'm quite willing to go that far yet, but we'll see...

guest hosting...papa eggroll--on traditions

I'm honored to be able to guest host on this, on of the most popular blogs that I know of.

I recently attended a seminar. The seminar was about how to give lectures on certain topics like dating, 'it' before marriage, what is real love, how to be a complete person, and parenting. Parenting seminars are always interesting to me because I feel like there is so much to learn from other parents--both parents who have had children for 30 years as well as those who have just had children. There are things they do that I've just never thought of, or they do things and put it into words like I never have been able to. So, although the word "traditions" has not been in my or mamaeggroll's vocabulary to describe things we do, it now has entered. Traditions create memories; traditions build closer relationships; traditions gives accountability to being the parent we know we are supposed to be by giving us pressure to do things we know we are supposed to do with our children--spend time with them, undivided attention focused solely on them. And now that "traditions" has entered, he have become more intentional about seeking out traditions.

One recent tradition that we have decided to start is that every Friday afternoon during the summer time after the girls wake up from their nap, we are going to take the girls to a pool at one of the local hotels and swim. After swimming we enjoy one of the hotel bakery's delicious donuts with chocolate icing.

We both have lots of great memories of going swimming as a kid. I remember coming back from playing baseball all day in a hot summer day when my dad was coaching our team, and we would come back home to the in-ground pool. It was easy to look forward to the pool at that time.

So, yesterday began our new tradition. We set off for the hotel by taxi, taking along orange giraffe, which is the only floaty toy that we have. Everyone asked us on the way, "where are you going?" And we would answer, "going swimming!!" We arrived at the hotel, made our way to the counter where you buy the entry card and realized there was a special going on--if we bought 20 times of entry, they would give us ten for free. Since each time we go, we use two (one for me and one for mamaeggroll; the girls are free until they are older), that means we get fifteen entries instead of the original ten (20 divided by two); not bad for the price we paid to use a five-star hotels private indoor pool.

The girls had a great time, well, sort of. Emma is definitely going to take her sweet time getting used to the pool. I don't know what it is, but she's not exactly pool crazy. But we have hopes she will be willing to float in the water soon all by herself. Samantha had a good time as well. The pool was a little cold and took some getting used to, but in light of the fact it was about 100F yesterday, the pool felt nice.

We then ventured downstairs and to our surprise, the bakery still had some chocolate covered donuts. Why to our surprise you ask? You can't bank on anything being consistent in this country (is that a bit of foreshadowing...?). The donuts were great; the hotel uses good quality chocolate, so it's definitely worth it. It was getting late, so we started to head home.

We stepped out in front of the hotel to hail a taxi. As we were waiting another couple got in front of us and got the next taxi. We weren't in any rush, so no worries. As that taxi drove off, I couldn't help but comment for the 1,452,874 time in this first year of living hear on how crappy the taxis are here. I mean, they aren't clean (maybe 5% of driver's actually clean their taxis), they are usually older so the seats are totally uncomfortable, and if they ever have a minor accident, they don't repair it but just take the money from the insurance company or other party and pocket it. I am sure that some of the taxis here (1) are fake taxis in the sense that the person doesn't have the license from the gov't to be a taxi, and (2) some of the drivers don't have real licenses (you can get anything fake here, even a Harvard Ph.D. diploma). I've yet to be in another city in this grand land with taxis as crappy as ours. So, I commented again, making it 1,452,875. And then a taxi pulled up...a crappy taxi.

We got in; the chap was friendly as most taxi drivers are here. That is one bonus about the crappy taxi, at least it's a friendly person driving it. He asked where we were going and we told him. Off we went, returning home from our first day of a new tradition. We were near our apartment building but still a little ways off when he began to look down at the floor when we were stopped at a stop light. I thought maybe he had dropped some money and was trying to get it. Oh no, it was not money, but instead...the gas pedal was stuck to the floor and wouldn't release and come back up so he could push it so the car would go (it was stuck to the floor but the car wouldn't move, which I'm thankful it wouldn't move versus wouldn't stop! :) . So, there we are stuck in the middle of the road at an intersection, and so what would any good-hearted, country boy do? That's right. Get out and start pushing. (People here love to honk their horn although it's illegal, and boy, were we getting' honked at). So, I got out, started pushing and was able to push the guy over to an entrance out of the way of traffic. He didn't want to take any cab fare but because we were so close, I made him take some.

So, we walked the rest of the way home because it was close enough and commented on how today was a great day of starting a new tradition of going swimming on Friday's and eating a donut. We'll see if the crappy taxi becomes part of our tradition as well.

is there medicine for blogfunk?

I've been in sort of a blog funk lately. It's not necessarily the case that I haven't had much to say, but more that my drive to sit at the computer and type it all out has been decreasing in massive proportions. And then once you haven't written in a few days, it becomes easier and easier to put off, until finally one day your blog just disappears. Ok, well, maybe it's not quite like that, but anyway.

We'll start this post with two cute little pictures of the girls on swings at this little play area down the street from our house. They both LOVE swinging; emma always says, "higher, mommy! please push me higher!"

So what have we been up to lately (besides swinging)? Well, for starters, Emma has started letting us into the deep and mysterious world of two-year olds lately, telling us great and protected secrets like her favorite color (purple) and what she wants to be when she grows up (an M&M, she says). After hearing her say so sweetly that her favorite color was purple, I wanted to change my favorite color to purple too. We also were sitting at the piano a couple of days ago and talking about playing the notes. She was asking about which note this was, and which note this one was, and so on. I showed her C, and then told her that some of C's best friends are E and G, the other notes that make a C chord. I told them that when they all get together, they make such a pretty sound. Then I asked her, "Emma, who is your best freind?"

"My best friend is daddy," she said without missing a beat. I think josh has never felt so honored in his entire life.

Another thing we did recently - well, I don't know if a month ago counts as recently or not, but - was getting pictures taken of the girls together. I thought it would be so fun, since they are both at such sweet and mischevious ages. You may be asking the all-important question that I did not ask myself: what are you thinking? It was not so fun. Emma thought it was so fun, as evidenced by the fact that we now have multiple precious pictures of her doing every single thing the photographer asked her to do. Samantha did not think it was so fun. She cried every time my skin so much as brushed her arm when I would try to sit her down at the studio. She would have none of it. So, we got like, two good pictures, and they dont' even really qualify as good. They were actually grimaces of anger and fussiness, not the innocent face that the picture may actually seem to be. So maybe when she's a little bit older, I will try again - it's just that josh's sister had sent all these cute outfits, including one matching outfit, and I thought it would be perfect. Sorry about that, kristen. I guess you'll have to do the next pictures...! :) But the goood news is that more sweet outfits have been coming their way, so they are not having ANY shortage of cute photo clothes! So, I'll post a few of the pictures for you:

sorry - these pictures are boycotting right now. I'll post these later when blogger is in a little better mood.

The other fun thing we did was go out of town last weekend - yeah, sort of like a weekend getaway, except josh was in meetings for 2 of the three days. The place we were going was about 2 1/2 hours away, and so emma and mantha got to ride their first train (can you see that train ticket there?)! Two of thier friends that live here got to ride a train a few weeks ago, so they had a reason to be excited. They both did really great and had lots of fun watching the scenery as we ZOOMED by at almost 200 mph! Oh. My. My parents also sent some Dora fruit snacks for emma to get hooked on sugary sweets (like she's not already...) but emma knew nothing of it until the big trip, when she got to eat one packet per day. How Dora can be the highlight of someone's day, I don't know, but then again, I'm not two!

We decided that we'd take an extra day after the meetings just to hang out and have a little vacation (because, you know, me + hotel rooom + two children - husband = not-so-much-vacationey-feeling.) But in fact, even the days josh was in meetings were enjoyable. This city is super-popular among tourists and is located right on the coast, so the weather and breezes were enough to make me contemplate moving. :) The pollution that churns out of factories all over the country just must not have enough time to settle in the air there before the ocean breezes blow it all inland, because the sky was so clear and blue and things were so green and welcoming. There was a park/public square just a few miles from our hotel that the girls and I went to each morning while josh was busy. The square was carpeted with lovely, well-kept grass (surprisingly hard to find here in asia-land) and bordered with bright flowers and bubbly fountains; of course, if that wasn't enough the crashing ocean was on the other side of the grass, blowing its salty breath at you every other minute. Old and young alike decorated the blue sky with a kaleidescope of kites that kept our girls awed each time they looked up.

On our days at the park, emma picked out a new little coin purse. In typical girl fashion, she had a hard time choosing one of the three she was eyeing - the purse with the boat won out over fish and dolphin. And she chose it - all herself! Said purse has now vaulted to No.1 Most Favorite and Treasured Object and must always be accounted for at any given moment. One afternoon, josh casually asked emma where it was, and you would have thought her passport and life savings were in it and it was lost. She freaked out until she realized she was sitting on it.

Samantha also enjoyed the fresh air, but did not quite share my enthusiasm for the abundance of green grass. She could walk on it ok, but if she bent down or fell down or came in contact with any of the green stuff, she could give it a curious little look and then scowl at it. Like scowling at it would make it go away. So maybe the grass wasn't up her alley, but she loved the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks! One morning, they both sat transfixed by the waves for about 20 minutes, as they ebbed and flowed beneath then.

Of course, no trip to a big(ger) city is complete without buying goodies! Some of the loot on this trip included pepperonicini's, black-eyed peas, chocolate chips, Goldfish, german chocolate cake mix, and crisco. I know food is probably not as important to you as it is to me, but I just thought I'd share the news of our treasures.

In this picture, samantha is actually showing you one of her funniest new tricks. She has other cute tricks, like knowing exactly when to clap to "When you're happy and you know it" and anytime she sees her high chair, she screeches "eeeeeeeeeat!" But this trick is super funny - if we say, "Samantha, lay down!" she will stop whatever she is doing, find the nearest blanket, pillow, or soft spot, and lay her head down and smile at you until you clap and tell her she did a good job. Then the cycle begins - if samantha does something, emma has to do it too...So don't be fooled - this picture isn't two girls sleeping, it's actually one of a very smart one year old!

So even though it was only actually a day of vacation, it felt like being a million miles away from everything. Maybe it's something about being somewhere new that lends a feeling of adventure, of unexpected surprises, of never knowing what you might find just around the corner. The clean air and freshness of the ocean, with its endless energy, was a special treat as well.

this one was taken by the timer on our camera - there was actually no one around us for about five minutes to take it for us. that is almost unbelievable in this country!

I am SO still alive

I borrowed one of emma's newest verbalisms for my post today. Every thing she says is SO something:

my toy is SO broken
my finger is SO hurt
mantha's hands are SO dirty
I am SO grouchy

No kidding, those are all things that have come out of her mouth recently. More favorites include the "compoo-ger" and todays reflection, "No, mommy, blanket wants to go with me," when I told her after her nap that blanket needed to stay in her bed. She cracks me up.

But tonight for a brief moment, everyone was having drama. And what better time to have drama than bath time, I ask you? Well, emma has recently enjoyed jumping in the tub...yes, jumping. This is a relatively new skill for her, I mean, actually being able to get both feet off the ground at the same time. Her previous jump attempts were funky, little skipping things. But now that she can really jump, she wants to do it all the time. Even in the bath. I usually let it slide because I'm in there the whole time and can keep an eye on her antics, but tonight I had reason to put an indefnite stop to all the horseplay. In mid jump, her nose and mouth crashed down on the side of the bath, causing tears and blood to spew forth in nanoseconds. We got her out of the bath, cleaned up, and then of course, she wanted back in. So in she went, and mantha too...my two little naked jaybirds running around the house during bathtime first-aid intermission. Mantha herself had quite the little scare exploring her own newfound skill of unassisted bath time, though maybe I'll sit just a tad closer from now on...

Anyway, all is well here. I'm gorging on 3 Musketeer bars (parents are so great. who could live without their parents? Not me, I tell you.) and happy to report that for the last several days, samantha's skin is better than it has been in a very long time, and I have not been on any type of restricted diet of late. So that's news to celebrate about!

It's also been package-central around here: my parents, josh's parents, and our friend rachel all sent stuff to us in the last week, so we've been SO enjoying (thanks, emma) all sorts of happy goodies from the US.

Ok, now it's back to work...I promised josh I'd get samantha's one year video done by tomorrow to clear up space on our computer (oh yeah, and so I can mail it to all of you so you can see our fabulously cute gal!). So, I hope you all have a great day and I'm out for now!

I am woman, hear me roar

yes, yes, can you believe it? It is finally an update from the procrastinator of all bloggers. But with the story I've got to tell, it's well worth the wait.

So around here, josh and some other guys usually get together once every week or so for Guy's Night. Sure, back in the states he and his buddy steve would get together and play poker or some playstation game where you play the air guitar...you know, typical male bonding rituals that someday will be recorded in an anthropology book and college students will read it with astonishment. But, here there are no playstations and no poker tables, so the guys have to improvise - enter kabobs.

Guys night has evolved into a weekly ritual where the guys go out sometime after the children go to bed, sit at toddler-sized tables out on the sidewalks and stuff themselves with kabobs and fried bread. In the winter, it is especially lively and bustling, because your kabobs are cooked over an open grill right at your table, so you get some added warmth while you make yourself disgustingly sick with all the meat you are eating. The whole atmosphere feels really bustling and almost frenetic, with customers shouting out to busy waitstaff how many more kabobs they want, waitstaff barking at the cooks, foamy beer flying all over the place (I guess beer and beef go together everywhere)...and of course in asia, the louder the better.

Ok so what does all this have to do with me? Well, we met this girl who was my age, a strong believer and had some free time. She callled me a few days ago and said, "hey I'm going out for kabobs with some friends, do you want to come?"

I said yes, and then josh (taking after his dad) butted in, "Just don't let her drink too much beer!" yeah, right, josh. Like I drink beer. Like I even smell beer.

Anyway, I was so jazzed. Partly because I might finally have some friends, partly because I had the chance to break into the mysterious realm of guys-only kabobs. So the other day, I met this friend, her sister and two other friends. Perhaps the first strike against us was that we met at 5:00pm, and everyone knows that kabob places don't really get moving until about 8:30pm, but we were a group of girls so what did it matter anyway?

Josh, in all his guyness, gave me a briefing before I went: only eat lamb. Don't mess with anything else. What do you think was the first set of kabobs brought to our table? They were white and sprinkled with chilis and cumin, and my friend encouraged me to take a bit. It obviously was not lamb, so I was unwilling, but their insistence was so strong, I felt helpless to refuse more than several times. I took a bit and then asked the million dollar question: what is it exactly? Hmmmm. Artery. Cow artery. Let's all give it up for rachel (applause from all blog readers). Thank you.

Moving on, somewhere in the middle of our lively conversation (remember, the louder the better?), the lamb kabobs finally made their way to our table and they were really good. Not like I've-got-to-eat-these-every-week-good, but definetly good. Not long after the lamb kabobs started arriving, one girl asked another girl a question that I could understand but I thought was a joke, or something else, I couldn't exactly put my finger on it. When two chilled mugs of foamy beer arrived, I stifled a laugh. These little wispy asian girls were going to drink beer with their kabobs. Crack. Me. Up. Of course, they ordered it for me, thinking I was a heavy drinker...ahem, thanks josh for the joke earlier in the week. They totally thought he was serious. Anyway, I deferred - about a thousand times - and pretty much drunk myself just as silly on pepsi. Actually they split these two glasses between the four of them, but the sight of it was still a hoot!

Truly, though, I had a great time. These ladies were the same age as me - all born in 81 - and all were believers (though apparantly we diverge a bit on drinking...haha!) and were so kind. We had great conversation and enjoyed each others company. We're getting together again next week, not for kabobs. It will be at my house, so it will certainly be a notch lower on the lively and bustling scale, but I'm sure I can think of something good to serve them! Check out the pics...

Here's me modeling what a kabob looks like for you:
And here we all are: from left to right, by number of kabobs eaten - 21, 25, 20, 25, 12.





And as if kabobs weren't exciting enough, I've got pictures that have been trapped in camera prison for you. Emma has now gone to her second week of class and is having fun times. I can tell that she is really tired out by the time we get home, having to think in two languages and try to process what is going on, but she's doing a really good job. The teachers and other mothers in the class are really quick to encourage her when she answers a question right, or even just when she is brave and volunteers to come to the front of the class to sing a song or whatever.

The class is an hour long, and the first 30 minutes is listening to the teacher tell a story or talk about animals and then sing a song or learn a poem. This is the part where you can look at emma and really see the gears turning in her head and boy, she is trying to process it all. The poem we learned last week says (in rachel translation):
I am a big apple
All the little friends love me
Please go wash your hands
if your hands are dirty, dont' touch me.

So you can see, my kid is getting quality education. We're all like a big apple, right? :)

But emma's favorite part of the class is art/activity time, the last 30 minutes. Last week she got to tear little peices of tissue paper and glue them on to a tree with a q-tip. Ok, even though she's several months younger than the other kids, she was SO the best at this activity. She was so diligent and sat at her little table and one-by-one, glued every single peice on. She was the last one to leave, even when class was over because there were still tiny specks of paper that needed to be adhered to her tree. Even the teacher commented on what a diligent student she was! :)

So, here's emma, befriending all the other kiddos, especially this one little fat girl who is really cute:

And then when we got home, we were having breakfast for dinner, so emma got to help me make those fabulous biscuits that I borrowed from homesick texan. The recipe calls for butter to be worked in by hand to the flour mixture - which I knew that emma would totally love - and then for the dough to be beaten with a rolling pin, another interesting activity. She got so dirty - and let me know it every few seconds: mommy, emma's hands are so dirty! - but it was a fun activity to do together, and we all enjoyed eating the fruit of our labor!

She looks like she's going to be quite the little cook, huh?!

And random picture of the night comes courtesy of emma giving mantha an unexpected hug as mantha climbed up the slide:

oh, ok...one more - this is our house helper's daughter, whose nickname is, interestingly enough, "little apple". She and emma have a fun time playing together, though emma learned pretty quickly that her friend doesn't respond to "no", so she has learned to switch to asianese when she wants to talk to her! Two little energetic girls, that's for sure!

on being a mother

Does it sound strange that sometimes I forget I'm a mother? Ok, well, I seldom forget this fact on a daily basis - as there are always diapers to change, hungry mouths to feed, or little bodies needing a nice, warm hug - but yesterday, I forgot. It wasn't until today (one day past the much celebrated mother's day) that josh and I both realized, oh yeah, I'm a mother too! We'd spent much of the day before talking about our own mothers and sending them mother's day wishes and so on...but never realizing the fact that I too have reached the pinnacle of all important jobs: my very own holiday. Some good it does if I can't even remember!

I attribute it to the fact that I've been so fortunate to have many great motherly examples in my life to keep my memories occupied, primarily, my own mother. Could someone on this earth have asked for a more compassionate, gentler person than my own mother? I think not. I watched my mother in action for the many years I lived at home - and was always amazed at how spending just a few brief seconds with my mother would disarm anyone of their anger or hatred. She just has one of those hearts that not only can understand and empathize with people, but it's almost as if by her kindness to others, you can visibly see little arms reaching out from her heart to hug people.

Through many years of difficulty in her life, I watched her exhibit great faith and trust in the Lord. I've watched her struggle and overcome things that have defeated many people. Though she would deny it to her last breath, she is a person with an amazing amount of inner strength. But even that pales in comparison to her love. She just loves people. She can take in an outcast, befriend someone who has no friends, and charm herself out of nearly any quandry. Her doctors love her, the pharmacists at walgreens love her, the little old ladies at church love her - and it's so obvious why: she just loves people. I've got so much to learn from her. So, happy mother's day mom! If I'm half as cute as you when I'm 50 - or more importantly, if I can love people as completely as you do - I will consider myself a very successful person!

And the list of remarkable mothers in my life continues with my nana. I remember as a kid how my mom would talk on the phone almost every day to my nana, and I always thought, "What in the world do they have to talk about?" (Then I grew up and talked to my own mom almost every day!) Of the many admirable qualities my nana possesses, those that stick out most to me are her leadership in the family and her prayers for her children and grandchildren. Almost every time I've seen my grandmother or we talk together, she'll say things like, "Rachel, I've been praying this for you, or let's pray for so-and-so, or how can we pray about this?" I feel her prayers so often, and even when I can't, I know she still prays. Her leadership by example in our family has been profound and I shudder to think where many of us would be were it not for her prayers. Her love of music has deeply affected many of us in the family, and it is these qualities - leadership, prayer, and music - that I hope will pass on from her to me to my girls. Happy mother's day, nana!

And rounding out my list of remarkable mothers is my mother-in-law, debbie. I think I will never meet a more capable and giving person than she. I have been enriched as a person by watching her serve those around her - often quietly and thanklessly, to people who will never know to thank her - and I know that she is just as happy without the thanks. I have learned and been inspired by her organization and ability to handle a wide array of situations. Her attitude of cheerful sacrifice is amazing to me. And certainly after cooking my own thanksgiving dinner last year, I have a profound new appreciation for her culinary skills! It is impossible to dream up a better family to have married into, and I feel privileged to have a mother-in-law that has contributed to much to me as a person. Happy mother's day, debbie!

So there you have it. You can see why i forgot that I was a mother - I've got all these incredible women on my mind! But, since I did finally remember that I have my two precious own daughters - who hopefully, will someday write lovely and flowery things about me, too - I'll share some of my own thoughts.

Being a mother means...

that things don't go according to your plan. Ie, I was totally unprepared for motherhood when that little pink line stared back at me in the bathroom several years ago. In fact, I remember the exact spot I was when it was completely confirmed that there was a little Emma inside me - and I cried. I wasn't ready for motherhood. I wanted to travel (as if living overseas wasn't enough!), I wanted to have fun vacations with josh, I wanted to be young and trounce around exotic countrysides and stay in villages and...ok, well forget the part about staying in villages, but keep the rest. :) My plan was certainly not the plan that happened. I wanted children, but just not so soon. But once the plan, His plan, happened...I can't imagine any happier life than the one I'm living right now.

you get the jobs no one else wants. Like doing the dishes when everyone else is playing games after dinner, like picking up the seventeen thousand bits of potatoes that have been slung from the high chair, like changing sheets that have been peepeed in during the night, like diapers... And what post from me would be complete without Poop Story #6,783,492? So it goes like this: I'm doing the dishes a few nights ago while samantha is playing in her drawer of plastic bowls and spoons just below me. I see her stretching up her hand to me, as if her arms and face are about to fall off, she is stretching with so much gusto. I bend down to pick up whatever peice of food or trash she has scrounged, and to my great horror discover it is a peice of broken glass! In an instant, I scoop her up and rush to the bathroom, frantically checking all over her body for a gash or cut. I found a spot on her finger where she had been cut while clinging two baby food jars together - obviously, her concert ended abruptly! So, I'm running the water over her hand, and trying to hold a paper towel over the spot to stop the bleeding, but of course...she's a typical 11-month old who would rather be dead than still, so it is close to impossible to keep her finger still. I decide it is time for her first band-aid. Enter: Hello Kitty band-aid.

As the day goes on, samantha is awestruck by this new appendage. She plays with it, emma plays with it, she coos at it, she chews on it, she rubs it against things, she scratches with it. Later on that night, I noticed it wasn't on her finger anymore, but since she and emma had both been preoccupied with it all day, I wans't concerned and assumed it just fell off sometime. The next morning, we start on our morning routine of diaper changes, and lo and behold, there is hello kitty smiling up and me, surrounded on all sides by other things that had made it through samantha's digestive tract! Crack me up! the girl ate her band-aid! So, yeah...being a mother means that I see hello kitty in poopy diapers.

you watch firsthand the miracle of growth. How my children have progressed from helpless infants to functioning toddler and pre-toddler is astounding to me! I really try every day to spend a few moments consciously enjoying being with my kids - reminding myself as I watch them stack blocks or open and shut their fingers or make muffins on the pretend kitchen that they are growing so fast. And I remember hearing people say, "They just grow up overnight!" and I have living proof of that...

For the last two weeks, samantha has been toying with the idea of walking. Two steps here, four steps and a lunge, three steps and a retreat to the hands and knees. But something in her clicked today, like she just woke up and decided that she was officially a walker! Every time she has wanted to go somewhere today, she has stood up and walked. When she eyes emma playing on the slide, she stands up, takes about 10 or 12 steps over to the slide and climbs up it. She walked to the toy box from across the room. She walked over to her high chair from the living room. It was literally like overnight. And even though I was sad to see her pass so quickly to this new stage, I feel comforted by the fact that she's still little enough to let me snuggle her before she goes to bed. She'll burrow her little head in the crook of my arm every night and let me kiss on her as a sleepy smile passes over her face.

But she's not the only one growing! One of emma's funny "growing up" things has been in her vocabulary development, which is astounding already. BUT..she has always referred to her best friend the blanket as "gan-ken". We've never really told her she was saying it wrong, only have said, "oh, your blanket?" Well, now she doesn't say "gan-ken", she now says, "blanklet", which is seriously just as cute as ganken. :)

you can create memories for your family. Funny how so many of my memories revolve around food, but when I think of memories that are specific to my mother, I think of making brownies and licking the batter, or going to walgreens to hoarde strawberry creme easter eggs, or making chicken and rice. I think I'm continuing that trend in my family! Tonight, after further inspiration from the previously mentioned homesick texan, I made homemade biscuits and they were really good, especially for a first try! In fact, when emma woke up from her nap today, she said, "Mommy, can I have a snack? How about a muffin?" (and she was right - banana chocolate chip muffins had just popped out of the oven!) So maybe we are destined to have food memories together...

you love and sacrifice more than you ever thought possible. I think I didn't realize how much my mother did for me until I had emma and samantha. I also think I didn't realize how you don't really think about how much you are doing for your kids - only that you are able to do things for them and how happy it makes you to do it. Things that we do today - whether by putting money away for them or not eating chocolate - so that their life is made easier or happier doesn't even register on the radar of sacrifice, because we're so happy to do it. I really didn't expect how overwhelming the connection is between a mother and child. When I look into samantha's delightful eyes, or laugh as emma gives me zerberts on my tummy, or sing songs with them or tell them the most hare-brained story I can think of, I have the fiercely strong feelings that millions of mothers before me have felt...and that one day my children will feel as they watch their kids laugh...

and then it seems unimaginable that I forgot I was a mother.

beware: previously uncharted territory ahead

I've sometimes joked to people that I didn't really grow up until I moved to asia. I would say that is generally true (especially since I came just after graduating from college), but in no area is that more true than in the kitchen. Now, I'm not like a Michelin 5-star or diamond or whatever kind of chef, but I think we usually eat pretty good around here. I've even found that a little confidence in the kitchen works wonders on your willingness to host people - I used to dread what I would make if company came over, but now I enjoy planning things that people will enjoy and that I know I can make.

Since moving to asia-land, I have successfully mastered lots of things: macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers (you've gotta have kid-friendly fare), fried potatoes,tasty casseroles and hearty stews, homemade breads and rolls, pineapple upside down cake, homemade brownies, shortcakes, muffins, and many varieties of chocolate indulgences that make eating so much fun.

But there has always been one entree strangely missing from my cookbooks...

...the elusive chicken fried steak, the bread-and-butter of all good southerners everywhere.

I think the reason is that ever since I was a kid, my dad made the best chicken fried steak ever, so I was always intimidated by the sight of him pounding, breading, frying, pounding, breading, frying. I told myself it was too hard, it was a guilty pleasure for me to enjoy when at his house - certainly not something I could eat on my own.

But last weekend, I tried it. My trusty source at homesicktexan.blogspot.com inspired me (even though she may be from texas) and I gave it a shot. I was shocked at the results.

I finally began my quest for yummy CFS after locating a meat mallet at an obscure restaurant supply store in an impossible-to-find alley in one of the most crowded districts in our city. That night, I pounded my meat - as instructed - until doubled in size. I prepared my egg mixture and my breading mixture, then used the recommended dredge - drench - dredge (dry-wet-dry) procedure to get every last possible ounce of breading to stay on. Then I watched it bubble into a beautiful warmish brown color in the skillet, and silently prayed that my freakish habit of overcooking meat because of the fear of it not being done wouldn't take over. I carefully lifted my crunchy looking steaks out of the skillet and left them to warm in the oven while I finished the mashed potatoes and mac-and-cheese (yes, I very starchy meal, I know!) Beautiful. They were beautiful. And I made them. It was almost surreal.

Not that the process was as calm as I describe to you now - no, in fact, it was nothing like that. The gravy was almost a total disaster (though, in the end, it worked out ok) and it was certainly not a brilliant idea to try to make the gravy whilst simultaneously beating mashed potatoes, whisking cheese and milk together for the mac&cheese, and trying to seperate out all the utensils that had touched any part of the raw meat (another product of our freaskish meat habits). Further complicating the effort was the fact that my blender cord kept falling into the sink filled with water. My kitchen felt like a disaster zone; adding to the tension was the fact that I sent josh to the store in the middle of my gravy whisking because I had to counteract the fact that I was mindlessly spooning flour into the saucepan and then subsequently needed much more milk than was available in my fridge. Here's a picture that might give you a sense of the drama that was happening in my kitchen, though it doesn't quite accurately capture my frenzy:

Anyway, the kitchen drama died down, and then I was able to pull out my lovely steaks from the oven, where they were nicely sunning, oblivious to my frenetic movements just outside. When I sat them on the table, josh too, was stunned. I think he had secretly planned a back-up dinner at mcdonalds when I told him I was trying CFS for the first time.

One bite, and we were hooked. Sure, the gravy was a tad too thick, and the steaks a hare on the salty side. But I had no idea it was so easy. I vaguley remember my dad telling me "it's so easy," and me ignoring his comment in typical teenager fashion, but it was true - it was so easy! I'm sure I still have many years of tweaking my own recipe before I am anywhere near chef randy caliber, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...or something like that, right?

is it possible to have any more fun than this?

So it's holiday week here in asia-land. Apart from the fact that this means daddy is home all week, it also means that my house helper is gone. For seven days. Sigh. I'll have to actually do all the things I've been getting so spoiled at not doing. But it also means that there's special fun stuff all over the city for kids to do. This morning, we took the girls to this way cool courtyard full of inflatable toys. Emma was super skittish at first, but we paid a nice chunk of asia change for her to have an all-day pass (which we used all of like, one hour of) so she had no choice but to get used to it. And once she did, she really loved it. We all had a super time, just being out with other families and doing stuff together. Here's some of our pictures from today:

Yay, Emma! Slam Dunk!



So then there's these little hand-powered kiddie boats that emma was begging to do. So we acqueised:

This is the general idea, you know...all thekids out in the little pool powering their little boats:And then here's the child who would have died had she not ridden in the boat...totally content to stay on the side by daddy (and no amount of convincing worked!):So while emma was boating about, samantha had no other sibling to take some of the attention:ok, now back to the slide:And climbing...wow, she's a great climber!

This slide was so tall, my tummy had some serious butterflies going down! Can you see us at the top there?

This one was probably emma's favorite; all the things in it were just her size and she could practice going down the little slide any way she could imagine:

Which sometimes worked...

But not always!But it's always more fun to do it with someone else, right?

And even mantha had a really great time, giving us some of her famous little laughs!

And a family shot as the end to this incredibly long and picture-filled post:

why must so many of my life stories involve poop?

will it always be that way, or is it just because I have small children? or is it because I live in asia? I know not the reason, but it sure seems to be true. My life has a constant supply of poop stories.

The first recent one is kind of interesting. Last week, emma had been having some loose stools, so of course, me and my chatty house helper tried to devise various solutions over our daily lunches. After some serious thought, she finally told me she had a great idea and would tell me about it tomorrow. Day 2, she comes back with a sack full of grass and sticks. I looked at her, a little bewildered, wondering why she was presenting me with such a, um, thoughtful gift.

"It's my solution for emma," she said.

"Oh, right," I convincingly agreed.

She proceeded to BOIL the grass in water...and then fill it up in a little basin (which, of course had winnie the pooh on it). Then, emma got her first little foot massage! She told me that "grass has properties in it that can help firm up the stool and just simply massaging your feet in it can bring a lot of help." Hmmmm, is that so?

Well, at any rate, emma really enjoyed her little foot bath. At first the water was terrifyingly hot to her, and would bravely dip her big toe in and then pull back. Finally, as she got used to it, she put her feet all the way in, and then a few minutes later would tell our friend that she wanted more hot water in.

If you want more hot water in, the procedure is that the massagee puts their feet on the outer rim of the bowl while the new water is beign added. That works great for kids who get their feet washed every night ( as I found out, is a very common custom here). But for emma, who had never had this relaxing experience, she found that putting her feet on the side of the bowl could cause a spill of catastrophic proportions!

My other poop story came last week when the girls and I went to josh's school for show-and-tell day. (Emma and Samantha were the show and tell!) Of course, everyone wanted the girls to stay late so they could talk, hold, touch, pinch, etc, etc, etc...but samantha was starting to get a little grouchy that all these curious people were intruding on her nap time, so I decided to take her home early while emma stayed with josh - which of course, she loved...getting to sit in daddy's desk at school, meeting daddy's teachers, and so on.

So as I'm walking home, samantha drifts off to sleep in a rather uncomfortable position in my arms, but our house isn't really so far from josh's school, so I just keep going. Then, I feel this sudden plop of wetness on my forearm and sandaled foot.

Nas-ty. A bird. Pooped. On me.

Gross.

Ok, so samantha, my fabulous pooper, managed to escape mention in both of today's poop stories. Instead, I'll just leave you with these cute pics of her:

Her first tooth on bright display! She has another one coming in, this guy's little neighbor:

And oh, how she loves to stand! She's probably happy too because we just finished having dinner at pizza hut. Not that she got to eat any of it, but oh well...