Ode to Bop

Happy Birthday Bop! My dad, affectionately known as Bop by Austin and now the rest of our family, is celebrating by himself in England this weekend. Austin has two versions of a song for your special day, Bop! One is inspired by yourself and the other one is to be expected. We miss you. Happy Birthday.


In case you can't understand the words, it goes..

Happy BIrthday to you you you

What should we think and what should we do

Should we eat some cake cake cake
and open some presents

Alleluia Amen!

Picture woes

Well, I seem to continue to run into problems with digital picture storage problems. After Snapfish seemed to stop working for me, I have tried Picasa lately. However, I know have realized that Gmail, Blogger and Picasa are all linked...so the limit for picture storage is linked. So now, I have already reached 96% of the limit! So I think I need to find something else for online picture storage now and probably delete a lot of our Picasa web albums pictures so I can keep up the blog. Any suggestions?

What's in a name

Well, we got home safely and returned with something new...a Chinese name for Bennett! We had been having a hard time choosing his name and needed some local help to pick one that sounds good and is appropriate.

Before I explain Bennett's name I will describe Austin's Chinese name. Our family name in Chinese is Gao (which is a common last name, it also means tall), which has a "G" sound like Gaertner. So all our children will have that as the first character in their name. In China the family name is always first. So Austin's name is Gao Wei Wen 高伟文 (pronounced like Gow Way When). Wei means great, which is the same meaning as Austin and wen is part of the word for literature or culture...which we chose because we were told it sounds good and he loves to read. Now many parents (well, the few now that have more than one child) will give each child the second character the same and have the third one be different. So for example we could have named all our (boys anyway) Gao Wei and then something else. BUT the Wei in Austin's name is very unique to him, since it means great. In China children are often called by one of thier character's, repeated twice. When they get older than they are called their whole name. So Austin is called Wei Wei right now by Chinese friends. So...back to Bennett.

So we met this Chinese guy this weekend whose English name was Ben...so I was curious and asked him what his Chinese name was. It turns out it was Bin, meaning goodness or courteous. I liked the sound of that. I was reminded that when Bennett was baptized, my dad gave him a "life verse" that "goodness and mercy shall follow him all the days of his life", so it seemed very fitting. So we asked this guy if he had a suggestion for a third character (you can have two or three, but three makes your name more unique). So ( Without knowing Austin's name) he suggested Gao Wen Bin 高文彬 - the same wen that means culture or literature from Austin's name- and Bin (pr0nounced Bean, also appropriate for our little red bean). Apparently there is an idiom that is Wen Zi Bin Bin-a cultured gentleman, so wen and bin go well together. So this way Austin and Bennett can have share the character Wen (even though the order is reversed) and the character meaning "culture" is especially appropriate to our family, given our interests and work! So I am really excited about Bennett's Chinese name and it is really cute- he will go by Bin Bin. You can see all the thought that goes into a Chinese name. Traditionally Chinese didn't always give the child a name until their 100th day, which is a big time to celebrate, similar to our idea of a child's first birthday, but even more so.

So, here our are cute boys, Wei Wei and Bin Bin! Today Austin kept saying "Bin Bin" to Bennett and Bennett would laugh and Austin would do it again. Sorry I did not get it on video this time.

Wei Wei and Bin Bin

rest and travel

I thoroughly enjoyed my moms retreat this weekend...and had the whole weekend with no kids! Bennett actually took the bottle and everyone got through the weekend pretty well. Chris took Austin to McDonald's Saturday night and won big points with an ice cream cone. I think that was Austin's firsts McDonald's ice cream cone- that was all he talked about on the phone.

I was so thankful to have time with old friends (I roomed with my friend Jenny who lives in another city these days), time to shop and have fun and I learned a lot from our guest speaker Sally Clarkson, a seasoned mother, homeschooler, author and speaker. She gave a fresh perspective and had a lot of great stories, which I always love. I am always drawn to the power of story and tend to remember those more than the facts or principles. I did not rest as much as I would have liked, but stayed up socializing more than I should have...it is hard to choose between fellowship with friends and good sleep.

I returned home to a whirlwind though. I had two hours after getting home Sunday afternoon to finish all the packing and get everyone ready for our trip...we went to the airport and are now in a southern city. Chris had a trip this week and after a lot of deliberation on my part, I decided (at Chris' invitation) to come with the boys instead of have another week apart. I have some friends in this city and was interested in the content of his trip, which I won't elaborate about. Our flight was delayed and so we arrived at our hotel about midnight...not so fun with two little ones. Bennett slept most of the flight but Austin did not sleep at all until he got in his tent at 12:30 am! He did take a three hour nap today, so hopefully he will catch up on lost sleep. Despite having moments of wondering why I decided it was a good idea to come, I think it will be a good week.

Mom weekend

This weekend I am attending a mom's retreat...a little get away for mom's at a nice hotel. I am SO excited...but a little nervous. Bennett has not liked the bottle lately and certainly has never had it more than one feeding in a row, much less 10! Please pray that he decides to take it when he is hungry enough and that he will still be his happy self without me. Otherwise I will pick him up on Saturday if he is not really eating, but I could really use a weekend to myself to recharge. Pray for Chris too, who also has a busy weekend (we have a babysitter for mid-day Saturday when Chris has something to do). THEN on Sunday we are traveling to another city to see some friends and partly for business. That is a lot on top of me being away, so hopefully the boys will do fine with all this change of schedule.

Well, I have more getting ready to do. Will update you after the weekend.

No strep throat!

Well, we got the official results today- Austin does not have strep throat! Yea! I am glad my mom instincts were right. When we saw the doctor Friday, she wanted to start him on antibiotics right away and I was hesitant- if it might not be a bacterial infection I didn't want to unnecessarily give him antibiotics. After talking to our SOS insurance doctor, I was more confirmed that it seemed much more likely to be a viral infection after his other symptoms and lack of fever. But still I was going to be very sad for Austin if I made the wrong call and DIDN'T give him the antibiotics and he did have strep. He seems to be feeling better today. He woke up fussy but took a good nap and seems a little more back to his happy self tonight. His snot output is considerably less, though we still got laughs at the park today for his dirty face. :) Bennett seems to have a runny nose now, though is not TOO unhappy. I hope he gets a milder version of this cold. My throat is finally better tonight though I haven't really started the cough/runny nose yet. Well, one day our whole family might all be well.

Happy Easter!

He is Risen, He is Risen indeed! We unfortunately did not make it to church to hear those words this morning. Austin is still sick...Friday I took him to the doctor and he had a red throat with white dots. They did a throat culture to check for strep, but we don't get the results until Monday, so we stayed away from other kids today. I think it probably is a virus, since he has a cold virus for sure, but we need to make sure. And I did not go to the effort of dressing Austin and Bennett is their matching white polo shirts I have for them. Sad. Well, that will have to wait for another day.

So, we did our own little Easter egg hunt, service of singing and listening to sermon and an Easter picnic at the park across the street with deviled eggs and ham biscuits that I made . It was still a nice day, except that Austin continued his very fussy behavior that he has displayed this whole week- but poor guy he has been sick for two weeks now. Hopefully the end is in sight. It makes me long more for our new bodies when we will not get sick!

We dyed eggs Saturday- thank you Nana for sending the coloring kit! A is for Austin... (notice the snot-dried face. No matter how much I wipe his face it reappears a few minutes later, so now I have given up).

Austin's Easter basket...thanks to Nana for her contributions. I found this great Thomas the Tank Engine T shirt set at the wholesale market in town...look for it in the next picture. Austin had his first taste of mini-Cadbury eggs and Reeces cups too.

Our picnic in the park. I love this park across the street from us...it is beautiful right now with all the flowers. And this is one park in this country that doesn't really care if you sit on the grass.

Bennett was here- but this was his view at the park. He took a nice little nap.

V is for Victory!

Go HEELS! We have been talking a lot about the sounds of letters and what words start with what letter...so today I asked Austin what victory started with. It took him a couple of guesses and then he did guess "V". We watched the game over the internet, with our TV hooked up to the computer. It was choppy at times, but it always came back around and we are excited to be National Champions.

Austin unfortunately was actually not very happy through most of the game...he still is not feeling great and wanted to go outside the whole time. I made him wait until after "One shining moment" and then finally took him out. But one day hopefully he will appreciate it and be glad he was present and appropriately attired. In fact, he really liked wearing the jersey and wore it outside. Ｉ　ｗａｓ　ｌａｍｅｎｔｉｎｇ　ｔｈｅ　ｆａｃｔ　ｔｈａｔ　ｎｏ　ｏｎｅ　ｗｈｏ　ｓａｗ　ｕｓ　ｏｕｔｓｉｄｅ　ｈａｄ　ｔｈｅ　ｓｌｉｇｈｔｅｓｔ　ｂｉｔ　ｏｆ　ａｐｐｒｅｃｉａｔｉｏｎ　ｆｏｒ　ｏｕｒ　ｖｉｃｔｏｒｙ，　ｂｕｔ　ｏｈ　ｗｅｌｌ．　　Ｗｅ　ｅｎｊｏｙｅｄ　ｉｔ．

Ａｕｓｔｉｎ　ｐｌａｙｉｎｇ　ａ　ｌｉｔｔｌｅ　ｂａｓｋｅｔｂａｌｌ　ｂｅｆｏｒｅ　ｔｅｈ　ｇａｍｅ　ｓｔａｒｔｅｄ　（ｗｈｅｎ　ｈｅ　ｗａｓ　ｓｔｉｌｌ　ｈａｐｐｙ）．

Ｗｅｌｌ，　ｔｈｉｓ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ｈａｖｅ　ｂｅｅｎ　ａｎ　ａｐｐｒｏｐｒｉａｔｅ　ｐｉｃｔｕｒｅ　ｉｆ　ｗｅ　ｈａｄ　ｌｏｓｔ．　　Ｇｌａｄ　ｗｅ　ｄｉｄｎ＇ｔｈｏｕｇｈ！

Ｏｆ　ｃｏｕｒｓｅ　ｔｈｅ　ｈａｔ　ｄｏｅｓ　ｎｏｔ　ｆｉｔ．

Ｐｓｙｃｈｏ　Ｔ＇ｓ　ｊｅｒｓｅｙ

First bites

Today was a beautiful day and we took advantage of it by having a picnic at a local park. It was so warm- at least 80 degrees and a very blue sky- a rare treat. It was fun, though Austin is still fighting this cold and so was having a love/hate relationship with our outing...liking going outside, but feeling bad so anything could make him upset. Poor Austin - last night he went to bed at 6:45 pm and I woke him at 9:30 this morning， worried about how he was doing. When I went in he said he wanted to get up, but wouldn't physically move or open his eyes. I got him up and then realized his eyelids were "glued“ shut with this mucus...he was so pitiful.

Bennett was happy the whole time during our picnic, despite not getting much of a nap.

You can see Austin crying in the background...can't remember what the issue was at that moment, I think maybe he was upset that I was taking the picture and not playing with him. But check out that sky!

This evening we gave Bennett his first bites of rice cereal. It is about time to give this big boy some solids...I am hoping this will help him sleep more at night. He has completely regressed in the "sleeping through the night" part of development. He had started to and now what I thought was a growth spurt is apparently just a new habit. Bennett seemed intrigued by his first few bites, shown in this video. But after a few bites, he wanted nothing to do with it and stuck his tongue out at every bite. Well, we will try again tomorrow.

Gan Mao

The Chinese word for a cold is gan mao...but I am not sure that "a cold" is the best translation. Gan mao can mean anything from a sniffle to a fever and everything in between. One of the biggest cultural differences between the east and west has to do with sickness- both how you get it and how you cure it. Chinese tend to blame a lot on the wind...and the cold...and the changing temperatures. But there is really no talk of germs, bacteria, viruses etc and therefore hand washing isn't all that popular. But wearing lots of clothes and avoiding the wind are very important in cold-prevention theories here.

For example...I was at the park with Austin this week and he was playing in the sandbox when a Chinese grandma brought her 18 month old grandson over to the sandbox, pulled his pants down and let him pee IN the sandbox. But was concerned about the amount of clothes Austin was wearing. I actually got a little mad at her and asked why she was letting him pee where children like to play...her friend actually agreed with me but she seemed unphased. So I digress, but obviously there are different opinoins about what is dirty and what is an acceptable way of getting sick.

Strangely though, they also are very quick to prescribe antibiotics for "gan mao", which aren't effective in treating viruses, so that is a contradiction I have not really understood in Chinese health care. Now, there does seem to be some connection with cold weather and colds...I have heard possibly that cold viruses thrive more in cold weather. However, while there is some truth in every culture and I am sure some great things that Chinese medicine can do, I tend to be rather biased toward western medicine.

So why am I talking about "gan mao"? Well, because we are all the victims of it...surely by some germs we contacted along the way (that also may be affected by the changing weather, who knows?). Chris is finally getting near the end...after two full weeks. Austin has been pretty miserable coughing, runny nose and yesterday ran a little fever, though it is gone today. And this morning Bennett has started to get a runny nose...I am guessing he is the next victim. Somehow mommy has not gotten it yet...it always seems like mom is the last to fall. So I am hoping I don't and popping Airborne and vitamins. It is finally getting warmer here- today is quite nice outside. So who knows...maybe our extreme cold and then warm weather has something to do with it after all.

In other news, Bennett rolled over yesterday! Finally, past six months our little "butterball" managed to roll from his stomach to his back. Afterwards he just smiled like he knew he had done something important. With all this sickness we will probably stay home tomorrow (Sunday ) morning...which is also rather convenient as the Heels are playing at 8:45 am our time Sunday morning. GO HEELS :). And wash your hands!