a tale of two girls

I forgot to mention in Samantha's birthday post that she got a bike as one of her presents.  It's not girly and pink like Emma's bike, due to some convoluted form of supply-and-demand out here (if it sells out, things don't get restocked). In fact, Samantha's bike is blue and green and pretty boyish.  I feel like I should loan it out to Alex and Peter, two boys in our city.  

but I'm not going to be doing that anytime soon, because she loves that bike.  

I've always known my girls were different.  Looks.  Personality.  Preference.  But it wasn't until we got the bikes that I could get a really clear sense about how different they are.  

It's like, Driving Miss Daisy meets The Fast and The Furious.

I'll let you guess which is which.  As if it's unclear.  

The funny thing is, the bikes even confirm this.  Emma's bike has nice curved handles, perfect for a sunday stroll.  Samantha's handles are straight across and have the feel of a racing bike.  

We've found a little alley tucked away behind our building that is used for bike practice after dinner.  I love "after dinner" in the summer.  It's perfect.  

Here's Miss Daisy:

...too busy posing to be riding her bike...yep, that's Emma.
What did I tell you? The Fast and the Furious.  I didn't even manage to get a clear picture of her.  All of her pictures have a blurry feel to them, and it's not exactly my fault. 
She's dangerous.  She's not even concerned about keeping her eyes on the road.  Are we ever going to let her drive a car? I think not. 

No, definitely not.  

Meanwhile, Abby gets parked over in the corner and left to fend for herself.  She's not always happy about this arrangement, even if she does have toys velcro-ed to her stroller.  
Watching them together reminds me of all the evenings I spent as a kid riding bikes with my brother.  How happy and carefree and blissful it feels to ride a bike.  And to ride it with a sibling is even better.

abby, meet the camera

Abby's at the stage where it's so easy to sit and take pictures of her.  

So I do.  

Often.

And I'm glad you all are here to pretend to look at them with me. 

...and I guess she's also at the age where she's starting to reach for things.  Like the camera strap.

Get used to it, kid.  You'll be seeing a lot of it.  


(and apparently, she's interested in books.  I'm thinking of starting her on the 100 lessons here pretty soon.  They say it's never too early...)

birthday fun

...and was even more excited when she discovered there were donuts for breakfast!  I tell ya, even if they are named Bimbo, I still love them.

She was allowed to eat breakfast with "mick".  It is her birthday, after all.  

After waiting out a morning downpour of rain, we headed out to a park to play.  This is the only picture we all got of us all together.  Samantha is sporting some great sunglasses I bought at the grocery store the week before.  She calls them her "firefighter glasses"...you'll be able to why soon enough.
...maybe it reminds her of flames? =) hee hee.  Anyway, they're cute.

Josh helping his ladies feed the fishes:
No doubt, he's surrounded by chicks in a big way.  He's not getting relief anytime soon.  
The selling point of this park is a big area with shallow water where kids can play and get wet, which is nice in this hot weather.  
Birthday girl didnt' really want to get too wet, so she just stayed over on the side and watered the flowers.  

After trying to engage her in a water fight, josh gave up and decided to play her way.  He went and watered the flowers with her.  She loved that he did it with her!

Wet rocks + crocs = trouble...as samantha found out once.  
After that, we went to McD's for lunch (sorry, no pictures - it's a madhouse in there!) and then home to eat cake.  

Don't do it, Samantha! Don't blow them out! If you don't blow them out, you won't actually turn three and you can stay little and not go to preschool and still snuggle in bed with me and give me pats on the back and kisses...no, no...don't blow it out!!!
Too late.

I love how Emma was so excited for her...
Eating up the sunshine cake...
opening presents - Trouble?  Is anyone other than me having a flashback from childhood?  Family Game Nights?  I'm SO all about that.  
She got lots of fab presents from us, from my parents, from josh's parents, from friends here...she's quite a loved girl.

Yes, yes...happy 3rd birthday Samantha.  We love you - how your hands are always busy, how your face is always happy, how you are generous with your toys and your love, how you're trying so hard to learn Asianese, how you pat my back when you give hugs, how you pray from your heart, how you always have a song, how you're growing up to be a big girl.  

Early on in Samantha's life, I struggled so much with trusting the Lord with her.  Remember all those months of battling her eczema and allergy?  As I  reflected on Samantha's life this year, I remember one night thinking I kept hearing screaming and crying coming from Samantha's room.  I got up over and over again only to find a peacefully sleeping baby.  Finally, I laid down on the couch to cut down on the time it took to get to her room when I kept thinking I heard her.  This was happening at a desperate time with her skin and allergies, and I remember feeling so exhausted and anxious about how things would ever work out with her health issues.  

My Bible happened to be laying on the couch, so even though it was the middle of the night, I flipped it open and immediately the Lord started ministering to my heart.  When I read Isaiah 54, my heart rested on the promise in verse 14: 

...and your children will be taught by the Lord, and the well-being of your children will be great.  

I'm not saying I've never been concerned about Samantha after that, but I don't feel that I ever truly worried about things with her after that point.  And, as always, the Lord has been so right.  She is a happy, healthy little girl who captures my heart almost every time I look at her.  

birthday prep

It's possible by reading this blog to get the mistaken impression that all I do around my house is prepare for parties and eat cake.  Though those often make the blog, I promise - and my fingers aren't even crossed - that there's more to my life than that.  

But in fact, this post is actually about parties.  And cake.  Sorry about that.

Because I've taken a wad of pictures from Samantha's actual birthday (yes, I haven't even caught up to her birthday yet...) I'm posting pictures of the cake ahead of time...so that you wont' have to scroll through an embarrassing amount of photos.  

Samantha requested a sunshine cake for her 3rd birthday, and her dear friend Becky further required that the cake have sunglasses on it.  This is not a Top Chef challenge, people.  This is a cake-disadvantaged-mom-who-also-has-to-do-something-for-Father's-Day-and-her-anniversary, thankyouverymuch.  

But anyway, I did it and I'm posting pictures just to prove it.  Ha.  

I also had to use my last yellow cake mix to make this little guy, so I figured if I'm emptying out the cupboards, we're going to go out with a bang.  So I added the food coloring business from "rainbow cupcakes" (more technical people would insert a link here) and went for a rainbow-colored sunshine cake.  

Step 1:  Cut the shape I wanted out of the pan.  I used a big pan for this project.  Think of it as a cake mural. 

Step 2: Extraction.  Get the cake out of the pan.  Actually, I just liked the way the colors swirled in the pan so I took a picture.  

Step 3:  Assemble the pieces I cut onto my big cutting board for decorating.  
Doesn't that make you feel all happy inside?  The random conglomeration of colors? I really like it.  
Never mind that the sunglasses look a bit jacked...the end product looked something like this:
I even busted out some streamers I bought in America (note to self: streamers are a hassle) and a Care Bears tablecloth I bought in the Big City up North.  

Samantha woke up with the house declaring to her that she was turning three.  She was super excited to start her day...

85...whew!

Woo-hoo!  Lesson 85 - the next prize marker - is behind us.  Actually, it's been behind us for quite a while, I just haven't gotten around to posting it.  In fact, Emma is scheduled to have her 100-reading lesson party next week.  

Oh yeah...it's gonna be a par-tay! I'm excited...1) because I like to eat cake, 2) because I get to decorate and use paper plates and 3) because in the history of her life, I've NEVER made Emma a birthday cake.  How can this be, you ask?

Well...it's because for Emma's first birthday, my lovely Nana made all the cupcakes for the big shindig.  They were Rainbow Chip, with Rainbow Chip icing.  Three cheers for Rainbow Chip icing.  Let's have a Rainbow Chip icing party and leave the middleman out.  I mean, really, the cake just functions like a spoon for the icing.  Rainbow Chip, I love you forever.  

Ahem....sorry about that.  Anyway, birthdays #2-4 have all been in Thailand...and we usually find fun ways to celebrate, but it doesn't feel the same to me. I don't get to be in my element and surprise her with things I've done after she's gone to bed, or whatever.  No cakes get made in hotel rooms, I'll tell you that.  

So I feel this little hole in my heart where a birthday cake for my Em should be.  I'm trying to pay my way out of birthday cake purgatory by making her reading accomplishments a disguise for a birthday party I wish I could have thrown for her (especially this year, since she celebrated in the hospital with her mama...and her new baby sister)

Well, anyway, that's coming up next week, but for now, here's the pics of her little yellow bookmark getting covered more and more by those little red stars:

Her prize was a Dora dry-erase Trace board that my sweet Aunt Marilyn sent...do you remember this marilyn?  You must have sent it ages ago, and I stashed it away in the "surprises" bag under my bed.  It so TOTALLY came in handy! Emma loves it and is old enough to use it properly!
just a few more lessons to go...

the babies go swimming

Several weeks ago I met a lady in my apartment building who had a baby just month or two older than abby.  We met outside one evening, while my girls were running off energy for the day and she was letting her baby "get some sun".  

I've since really felt compelled to get to know her a bit more, so I organized a little swimming outing for us.  (This is AFTER I checked it out first the week before.)  Talk about paranoid - this little baby had never even been outside of our apartment complex and she was five months old! But anyway, I thought it would be a fun and easy way to get to know each other.

Baby's mama asked me to give her an English name - such a hard job, if you ask me!  I want to choose good names and not weird ones (like the people here who are named Quasar, Money, Apple, Star...etc.  Um....try again).  Her Asianese name sounded somewhat similar to Madeline, so I settled on that.  I like the name Madeline.  Plus, it makes me feel all organizational, what with the "two straight lines" and all that.  

Here's little madeline and abby, chillin out before their spa experience:

She just looks so different than abby!  I know I'm stating the obvious here, but I just get so used to abby's look that it's sometimes shocking to observe other wee ones:
The spa attendants were amazed by Abby's brilliance.  "Look at her!" they exclaimed. "Look! She's so smart!  She's unsure and uncertain about where she is so her hands are clasped together! Wow! Have you ever seen such a smart baby!"
"And look, now that she's been in for a few minutes and knows its safe, her hands are unclasped and she's relaxed and happy! It's so amazing! She's so smart!"  Ooooooookaaaaaaay.  They were trying to be supportive - and I really appreciate that - but it was a little overboard. I think she was just holding her hands together because that's just what babies do.  

The ring around the neck...tsk, tsk...I just don't know how comfy that can be.  
When a whimper rose up from her little baby spa, I checked to see what was up.  Sure enough, her chin had fallen down below the ring.  Good thing she didn't fall through!
Um...madeline wasn't such a big fan of the baby spa experience.  
Do you not think this is such a cute picture?  Do you think it's a little strange that I think a baby's bum is so cute?  Do you think it's a little strange that I put it on my blog?  Do you think abby will totally hate me when she's 14?  Hmmmm...it's possible.  I'll delete it before then.  
Another quick break to adjust the freaky little blow-up ring.  Seems to me if you have to keep adjusting it, maybe you should think of a better banfa.  During the break, abby chilled on the side of the pool and crossed her feet.  I think this is the quintessential picture of baby-life:  kick back, relax, and let people take care of me. 

Me and Abby, my friend, the nanny and madeline: (yes, my friend has a baby-nanny AND a house helper.  I'm not quite sure what exactly she does all day, but that's not really my business)
Note to self:  don't take madeline to baby spa.