Monday

Well, today was a pretty good day. Chris gave me the afternoon "off" to go out to Starbucks and have a few hours to myself. I was feeling the need after a busy week last week and enjoyed myself. It was good "refueling", as Chris will be gone the next three days. But this week brings us the return of good friends. My friend Laura is here for a month or so to have baby #3. We plan to hang out with her and her two girls as much as we can while they are in town. And tonight our neighbors the Shaffars come home after 6 months away. We are really excited to have them back in the neighborhood.

I am attempting to upload a video again of Austin 'reading' to blue puppy...hopefully it will work this time. I think Chris needs the computer, so you may have to wait until Friday for another post.

Reunion

Today we had a playgroup reunion. Goldie and Isaac are back from Australia with their newest addition, Daniel (born December 5). The sad part...is that they are here for a month to pack up and then relocate to Australia permanently. We will definitely miss them, as they had become good friends here right after we moved. But it was fun getting to meet each others' new babies and reconnect. The kids had fun as well...here are some shots of the day.

Here is the whole crew with all our new additions ( and one in Emily's belly).

New babies... (l-r) Daniel, born Dec 5, Jesh, born in June and Bennett ( will be 5 months on the 25th!)

Austin with his buddy Isaac, who came back with such a cute Aussie accent!

SNOW 2!

Here are some more snow pictures...read below for our adventures in the snow. Sorry- I have video but it is taking WAY too long to upload and I am tired from my 4 am bedtime last night (keep reading).

At our hotel outside the morning it started snowing.

Yes, Bennett was here too! Though our friend Mandi was kind enough to watch him while the rest of us went to the ski slope. Here he is with our friend Talia ( who belongs to our friends' Paula and Hamilton, currently held by one of our favorite shushu's, Nate). By the way, Bennett is almost 5 months, Talia is almost 9...they are about the same size. :)

I think even by Chinese standards, Austin was very well bundled up. He had on so many layers it was a little hard to walk. Nai Nai (Chris' mom) had just sent a package that just happened to includ snow pants and a longer winter jacket...perfect timing (thanks Nai Nai!)

SNOW!

After a week of temperatures around 50, this week we had a surprise- snow! We were out of town for a three day trip (just an hour north so not too far) and we had two days of wonderful snow. It was very powder-y and soft- perfect for playing in. We happened to have already planned to spend one afternoon at some ski slopes- the day it started snowing. Chris went skiing with some of our group but I did the inner tube with Austin. He loved it, as you can see below. He wasn't scared at all on the tube and we had a good time until he got too cold and wet. Today we returned home and there was snow on the ground here as well.

We had one crazy night last night though. About 11 pm right before I was about to go to bed i noticed I had this bright red dot on my eyeball, in the white part of my right eye. I was a little worried but not too much- Chris encouraged me to call our SOS doctor to ask their opinion. Well, the doctor said "Its probably not anything serious, BUT you don't want to mess with eyes. I strongly encourage you to go to the ER tonight just to make sure". What? So, we debated but decided since the doctor had such a strong opinion that it probably was a good idea. SO, we had a friend who was with us come sleep in our room with the kids. We go to the front desk of our hotel to ask about getting a car. Now, we were out in the middle of nowhere. At midnight. And it was snowing outside. Not a good place to start. The girl at the desk kept asking if it was really serious to go tonight...if not it was better to wait because it would be really hard to find a car.
She called the manager, who called our friend who had arranged our travel. At this point I was feeling pretty stressed and ready to just forget it and wait till morning. But Chris encouraged me to persevere and our friend called a taxi hotline, who happened to have a taxi in our general area. He finally found our "hotel"- which was over a narrow, one-lane snow covered bridge with no lights to speak of. With the bad weather it took us about an hour and a half to arrive at the hospital. I was there 30 minutes, to be told it was a popped blood vessel- a large one, but should be fine as long as it didn't get bigger. SO we then drove an hour and a half back - in the snow. We saw several trucks that had gotten in snow-related accidents. We got back at 4 am- I felt a little silly, but was glad it wasn't anything serious.

Now we are home and enjoying our hot house- I am very thankful for it after three rather cold days away.

I taught Austin to make snow angels. He thought it was fun, but afterwards stood up and said "Make God". I explained to him it didn't work the same way with God, but thought it was cute.

This is the ski slope. See that tall, almost vertical slope in the background? After gaining confidence on the intermediate slopes, Chris' friend convinced him to try it. He ended up coming out of his skis and sliding (rolling, falling etc) 100 meters down the mountain...without getting hurt, thankfully!

This is the tubing slope. We rode up (me and Austin) attached to a mechanical arm that dragged the tube up and then deposited you going down. Wheee!

Tarheel bread

"I'm a Tar Heel born, I'm a Tar Heel BREAD and when I die I'm a Tar Heel dead..." After our sweet victory over Duke this morning (well, this morning for us) I was singing this song and Austin was singing along to some of it. I realized after awhile that he thought a "Tar Heel bred" was Tar Heel bread, one of Austin's favorite foods. That was the line he kept singing ( and the rah, rah, rah at the end) and it was really cute.

Chris and I got to have a date going to watch the game live this morning at a local restaurant with the local branch of the UNC alumni club - can you believe they have one here? It was very fun and we of course enjoyed our win over Duke at Cameron. History was made as Tyler (and Danny Green) became the first players to go 4-0 in Cameron in the Coach K era. GO HEELS!

Sleeping woes

Sorry for a week of no posts. Austin and Bennett both have had colds. Austin is better but still coughing a little, Bennett is still rather miserable. Neither has been sleeping very well. Bennett did better last night, but woke up around 5:30 and didn't go back to sleep for awhile. He is now taking a good morning nap, but will not sleep much at all in the afternoons. Then he is very cranky by 6:00, when we usually eat dinner.

Austin's sleeping problems are of a different nature...more of a two-year-old, tantrum nature. While he has not consistently been sleeping during his afternoon nap for a few months, he was at least content to talk and play in bed if he didn't go to sleep. Not anymore. This week he has started screaming/crying first at nap time and now at bedtime too. He starts saying he doesn't want to go to bed, he wants to play with toys, he needs another song, another hug, something to eat etc. Then he started just screaming and crying. At first I went in to see what was wrong (once he actually didn't have his precious blue puppy so we had to find him). But the minute I walk in he stops crying. So yesterday I told him I would not come back in if he fussed. I guess he wanted to see if I meant it because he cried non-stop (literally) for 1 HOUR AND 45 MINUTES. This happened to be while we had guests over, of course. I didn't know he had it in him to be that stubborn, but he did. Tonight he cried for about 30 minutes after we put him to bed. And woke up early this morning too. SO...this is yet a new phase and challenge to my mothering skills. Hopefully soon I can actually have an afternoon where both of my children nap ( at all would be nice, at the same time would be amazing).

Well, I think after this I will go to bed.

Haircut

Well, Austin was WAY overdue, though i do like his hair long. But it was out of control, almost forming dredlocks and I am tired of explaining every time we go outside that he is a boy, not a girl. So its shorter than it has ever been, though i am confidant that his curls will come back. He looks older I think. Well, its late so that is it for today.