Back to reality

Well, it is definitely back to reality for me. It snowed again this evening and there are a few inches on the ground. Today is the last official day of Chinese New Year and the fireworks have been going strong since dusk. It will be illegal to set them off within the city tomorrow, so everyone has to have one last hurrah. Thankfully, the boys are both sleeping through it. And the biggest reality check...Chris leaves tomorrow for the first of his many trips this month. Tomorrow it is an overnight retreat in the city, that ends right before his flight to the Big Apple. He will be at an arts conference there until the 9th. Then a few days home and off on another 2 week trip. Then a few days home and a quick 3 days of meetings in our former city. Sigh. I am trying to have a good attitude and plan some things for the boys and I to do, but I know it will be a long month.

Here are a few more shots from our vacation trip, to keep reality at bay a little longer :).

Here is a family picture taken at a restaurant we found near us. Everyone is looking at least. :)

Cool dudes in the water.

Chris learning about ropemaking in the Chamorro village. We took a short tour one morning. The woman who rented us our beach house founded this center, trying to preserve a dying culture.

Bennett continues to be an extrovert, despite his love to always be close to Mommy. Here is one of our tour guides he befriended. He also befriended half of the passengers waiting to get on our flight in the Tokyo airport. He is hard to resist!

Austin sporting a hat made in the Chamarro village out of coconut tree leaves.

East or West, Home is Best

I think for a 3 year old, this saying is true no matter how fun or exciting your vacation was. I, on the other hand, could have easily stayed another week or two. We arrived home safely last night. It was a long day of travel, but definitely worth it for our time away. Austin loved our time in Guam, loved the water, extra time with Daddy, warm weather etc but he was also very excited to come home. Bennett also perked up (after being asleep when we carried him into the house) as soon as we were home- recognizing it as home. Our flights were smooth and fairly on time, though both flights were almost an hour longer each than on the way there. Bennett had a few rough moments, due to being VERY tired and not wanting to be contained, but overall they boys did well. Bennett only slept about an hour of the second flight all day, which led to one tired little boy. Of course they both woke up at 6:40 this morning after finally getting in bed at 11 pm. When we looked out the window this morning...you guessed it. A light dusting of snow. That was about the last thing I wanted to see after being on a tropical island 24 hours earlier. However, I am VERY thankful for our trip and that I had an escape from the weather for a bit.

Austin made friends with this little Japanese boy who sat behind us on our second flight. Despite the language barrier, they had a great time together. They would laugh together, play hide and seek and just run around. He shared his toy bus with Austin. Austin gave him a page from his coloring book. Then the boy gave Austin a lollipop. I think the friendship was sealed with the lollipop. The flight attendant sort of reprimanded us and his mom and we had to get them to tone it down, they were laughing so loudly. But it was fun for us to see Austin make a friend. Here is a shot of them on the plane.

Last day

Chris and Austin had a great trip together. There was lots of Daddy-bonding time and it was great for Austin to get to be with Chris so much before he travels. They had lots of great conversations, laughs and adventures. Most of the trip, Bennett cried if I left his side so often Bennett and I played by the water's edge while Austin and Chris played in the water and explored.

Bennett was content for long stretches with a shovel and bucket (as long as I was near). He continued to try to eat sand, but would stop if I so much as looked at him.

Bennett and I enjoyed the water's edge and he spent a LOT of time on my hip as well.

Austin tried "snerkling" today. He got braver and braver around the water over the course of the week. He loves water but is also very afraid of it. But by the end of the week he would put his face in the water, blow bubbles and go pretty far out with Chris (remember you could go for 500 meters and still only be up to your knees or waist) as long as he was wearing his vest. Today Chris, Austin and I all got to see some beautiful fish right near our beach.

The boys actually did not play together that much this trip, but I was happy to catch a moment of them together today. Bennett is still a little young to understand most of what Austin "directs" or asks him to do and there is often frustration on both sides. Hopefully the day is coming where they will be able to really enjoy playing together.

I am sure I will have many more posts with pictures, since I was trying to use my new camera a lot! But here are some shots of our last day. We are packing now and leave tomorrow- 15 hours of travel for about 7.5 hours of flights. Pray for smooth travels and happy children!

Off the beach

We have done a few things off the beach this trip as well. Mainly, Chris was really excited to see some of the WWII Pacific Memorial sites. That might not have been my first choice...but it provided some fun and chance for interesting conversation with Austin.

Sunday morning we drove around to the southern end of the island and stopped at a little park/memorial site. We actually got Austin looking at the camera this time, but not Bennett. Getting all four to look seems almost impossible.

This was a definite highlight for Austin. This is what the locals call a karibou- pronounced like a cari-bow (like you bow after a concert, not a hair bow). The man with the mohawk is Big John and he let the boys (Bennett rode for a little bit too before deciding he would rather be with me). But Austin stayed on and rode "all the way to the car" down a hill and into the parking lot.

This is at one of the big memorials - a spot where Japanese soldiers had a strong hold that Americans eventually won over by landing on the beach behind us. Austin liked the big field to just run around freely in.

As a mom, there are a lot of reasons not to like this picture. However, Austin learned some things about history. He kept saying though "soldiers are not going to hit me". We reassured him of course they would not, but finally realized somehow talking about soldiers had made him think of the soldiers that hit Jesus before the cross. I didn't even know he knew about that part of the story. His active imagination may cause him some fear at times as he processes different things he learns about.

Well, lots more pictures to come, but I am off to bed. The sleeping arrangements have been a little less than ideal. There is a pullout couch that Chris and I slept on the first night but it is really uncomfortable. So the second night we put Austin on the couch and he was fine. But the third night he woke up crying in the night and wanted to sleep in the bedroom again and we let him sleep with us (in the middle of 2 single beds pushed together) and he won't go back to the couch. So we have all been in the bedroom, but Austin tosses and turns a lot. Oh well. We can't believe tomorrow is our last full day. It goes so fast!

A few pictures

This is the beach. I saw two people on it briefly today, otherwise it is completely ours. Beautiful.

Chris was very manly today and found a coconut, broke it open on a rock and ate it. Here is Bennett trying some. He liked it, of course.

Austin loves the water. He and Chris spent a significant portion of our time on the beach in or near the water. They had a great conversation at one point. We had passed a cemetary earlier in the day and explained what that was. Later when he and Chris were floating in the ocean he asked "Daddy what does dead mean?" and Chris was able to explain a lot of significant things. So glad for extended time together!

We walk through these woods to get to the beach. We had our picnic lunch here, a little out of the sun today. The woods are also a great place to find dropped coconuts, big sticks, palm tree leaves and other things a little boy thinks are fun.

Inarajan Village

The little travelers...Bennett LOVED the moving sidewalk in the Tokyo airport. If we put him down for a second, he would run over to it. Chris must have walked up and down with him on it about 20 times. Here he is trying to walk the wrong way, against the flow.

Little traveler #2. I got Austin this new backpack for the trip...so we could fit more carry on stuff with us and because he loved it. It is a Spiderman backpack, though he insists on calling it his suitcase, not his backpack. He also insisted on walking through all the airports pulling it, instead of riding in the stroller. A few times we had to force him to ride to be on time, since he is NOT a fast walker. We told him he was easily distracted, so now he often asks "What does it mean to be distracted?".

Here we are in Guam. Our travel went fairly well...as well as international travel can go with a 3 year old and one year old. Both boys did pretty well. Our first flight started off a little rough. Bennett was shrieking with delight running up and down the plane aisles before we took off and tripped and cut his lip. It was a very small cut, but lips tend to bleed a lot. I was thinking "We haven't even taken off and we are bleeding". However, it went pretty well after that. When we landed in Guam, one of our bags did not land with us. It was a bummer, since Bennett's tent was in that bag. But the owner of the house (who lives 2 miles down the road) had a pack and play and lent it to us. We got our bag the next day.

We are in the south part of the island, in a local village of the Chamorro people. It is kind of a wierd mix of very nice island and somewhat run-down/almost redneck looking yards. Lots of old cars in yards and dogs and chickens running around. Bennett loves roosters and says "caaa...doo" every time he sees one.

The beach is amazing. We drive 2 miles to our leaser's house, park in the drive way and walk across the street to an almost completely private stretch of beach...white sand, blue water and very shallow. It is great for the boys. Bennett ate about 10 handfuls of sand the first day, but seemed to be getting the picture today- it was only a handful or two.

Well, that's it for now. Chris and are want to be more technology free this trip, so I may not post again for awhile. Trying to read books!

Getting packed

Our bags are mostly packed...packed with everything with will take, minus the 15% of things that you cannot pack until the last minute. Plus I have a stack of books I am still deciding which ones to take and how many is too ambitious for a mom with 2 toddlers.

Chris has had a weird stomach thing the past few days...no throwing up, but feeling pretty uncomfortable and achy. He is better now, but please pray he does not pass it on to the rest of us, preferably not showing up on a plane ride. We would like to spend our vacation on the beach, not by the toilet. I have had a little bit of weirdness, but not nearly as bad as Chris so it may not be the same thing or anything.

I got Austin a new travel backpack that also has wheels and you can pull. I figure now that he has his own seat, he can carry some of his own stuff. He was very excited about it and keeps talking about pulling it through the airport. It is blue with Spiderman on it. I will take some pictures I am sure.

So, Guam, here we come. We are staying at a little one bedroom house away from the main drag, renting a car and looking forward to the warmth and beach. Not sure what our internet situation will be, so I may be posting or I may just relax and post when we get back.

Happy (Chinese) New year!

Tonight is New Year's Eve (the "real" one, according to local's), the 30th of the month of the lunar calendar. As I write, the fireworks outside are coming at more frequent intervals and the noise factor increases about every half hour. It is only 9:30 pm, which means they have really only barely begun.

We spent the late afternoon and evening at a New Year's party at the Shaffars. We "bao jiaozi" (wrapped dumplings) and ate them. I tried a new recipe in my bilingual cookbook- apple jiaozi. Someone compared them to McDonald's apple pie- though hopefully a step up. They are jiaozi, but the filling is apples, cinnamon and brown sugar. You deep fry them for a minute or two and then roll it in cinnamon sugar. I think they turned out well. The Shaffars had gone all out with decorations and encouraged dressing up in local costume. I didn't, but I found these matching outfits for about $5/each and could not resist.

Despite Austin's obvious aversion to having his picture taken ( he looks so sad in the first picture, but it is only b/c he did not want his picture taken) , he loved the outfit and wanted to wear it all day. They had little stuffed tigers for the kids (tomorrow begins the year of the Tiger) and hong baos (little red envelopes with money in them). Chinese kids are all given hong baos at the New Year from parents and relatives- in fact, often they receive them until they are married and then they are expected to give them too.

After we ate, we all headed outside to set off some fireworks of our own. Well, I did not actually set anything off nor did our children, but some of the dads and older kids had a blast. In America you would never be allowed to just set off fireworks on your street outside your house, but that is what everyone here does. Little stands selling fireworks suddenly appeared on every street corner about a week ago. This was right outside the gate to our complex.

The boys watching the fireworks. They both seemed to mostly like it and Austin said nothing about the loud noise. He did comment that it was "So bright". Bennett either said "ooh" or "Uh oh" every time. I am not sure what the "uh oh"part was for, unless he thought that the falling from the sky was like something falling down.

Our crowd setting off some firecrackers in the street.

Happy New Year/Spring Festival. Here is hoping for a little sleep tonight!

Bennett's first haircut

We have been in haircut mode, as you can see. I was kind of sad to do it, but the poor guy could barely see and it seemed like a good time to do it before we go on vacation. So...here are the photos.

Before...pretty wild, like the rest of the males in the family.

What are you doing Mommy?

As long as I have food, I am happy. We had a rather random dinner of homemade pizza and couscous. Bennett actually loved the couscous and kept asking for more. It was not an ideal food to go along with a haircut, but helped me a lot. He was mostly content and let me cut away.

Halfway done. Chris wanted me to keep it like this, so it would look like a mullet. I obviously refused. :)

Finished product: Where is my little baby? Chris and I both felt sad, he looks so much more grown up.

Overall though his first haircut was SO much easier than Austin's. He was much less concerned about what was happening and I was much more relaxed, having some cutting experience under my belt.

A few more post-bath pictures. Bennett is hard to dress these days. As you can see I got him halfway in his pajamas before he escaped. He LOVES his big doggie. I am afraid he is going to have to travel to Guam with us...Bennett is always asleep on top of the dog when I check on him at night. We have been trying him the tent that past couple of nights. Tonight was the first night I put him to bed without crying, so I guess he is getting used to it.

Mr. Climber.

Growing

Yesterday I had a great day with Austin. He was more obedient and helpful than normal a lot of the day (of course he still had some sharing/obedience issues at times, but..). He has been seemingly resistant to anything spiritual for the past few months...not wanting to pray or sing at night anymore, not interested in Bible stories and in general wants to do the opposite of what we ask him to do. But last night he accidently broke a basket by standing on it upside down. Afterwards though, his little ears filled with tears and he voluntarily said "I'm sorry Mommy". He was so repentant and I think it was the first time I had seen him really seem repentant for something he had done in a long time. I encouraged him and told him he had a repentant heart, which was much more important than any basket, and we talked about what that meant. Afterwards, he wanted to pray for our meal at dinner and said the prayer outloud. He hasn't done that in months and months! Then later he was asking questions about God and seeming very thoughtful and open (like, God can see us? Why? ). Then later we were talking about something and he said "I have sin Mommy". Which I agreed, but also reminded him so did I and Daddy (and Bennett does too Mommy). Then I also said "Yes and Nana and Bop have sin and Grandpa and Nai Nai and he said "No, they don't have sin. Just us." Well, you all are great, BUT I told him that everyone does.

Chris and I had prayed recently that he would not be so resistant and are thankful to see that answered. Of course, the next day he didn't want to pray again or even sing songs before bed, but we will celebrate all the small steps. He is a sweetie though and definitely has a sensitive heart, even though he doesn't often show it lately.

First haircut OUT

No, not Bennett actually, though he needs one pretty badly. But Austin had his first haircut done by a professional -not me. He actually wanted to go to a barber shop and said "i want a chinese shu shu to cut my hair, not you". So, today was the day and off we went.

First came the hair washing...always my favorite part but probably not his. He was very well behaved and did not scream at all. But he sat up a few times before they were done and so a second "hair washer" sort of held him down while they finished. They kept telling him in Chinese not to move, but he didn't understand them so I would translate.

He sat remarkably still - much more still than he ever does for me- and the guy did a decent job, after finally understanding that I did not want him to cut all the way around his ears and did NOT want the razor used.

He kept combing the front in this poof and leaving it sort of long. I finally convinced him that I would NOT be combing his hair in a side-swept poof every day and just to cut it straight and shorter.

Bennett was entertained by the seemingly 20 woman standing around the shop- he liked the fish in the tank. This freed me up to take pictures. In China it is almost always men who cut the hair and women who wash it first and sometimes massage afterwards (no, Austin did not get a massage). They really wanted to cut Bennett's hair too and I can understand why, but I couldn't do his first haircut without Chris and I think I would prefer to do it myself. Don't want all his cute curls gone by someone who doesn't understand about "first haircuts".

Here is a not-great-shot of the finished product. Still a tad longer than I would have done, but not bad. Actually, I think I cut it about the same, but it was totally worth the $1.30 I paid to have him sit so still and quiet! Afterwards, Austin wanted to go upstairs where they have a spa-like place for massages and eyebrow plucking and such. He asked the woman "Aiyi, go zhe ge?" which means "Auntie, go there?" in Chinglish. She happily complied and took us on a "tour" of the third floor, showing Austin the rooms and beds upstairs. Then he was ready to go and so was I, so we walked back home. I chose this place primarily for location- it literally sits outside the gate of our complex. I figured they are all about the same and the closer the better for a 3 year old walker in the cold.

Living on the Wild Side

Well, Riverdance seems to have gotten this busy, tired momma out on the town more than I have been in a long time. Last night there was an "After show party" for the cast and crew of Riverdance. They finished filming a DVD and it is the 15th anniversary, so the hotel where they were staying hosted a buffet dinner/live music party and we went. We got a babysitter (who planned to spend the night) and LEFT our house at 10:30 pm (when I am usually hoping to head to bed). I was wondering how I would stay awake, but once I got there it was fun. Free food and drinks, we had good conversation with both the Chinese musicians and some of the Irish ones. At one point the former director and founder of Riverdance sat down at our table and talked with us awhile. He was very nice and down to earth. He told me he used to love a Roy Orbison song called Leah and was planning to name his daughter that...but it turned out to be a boy. He told me to check out the song. We got home about 1:30 am and fell into bed. Austin now comes in our room in the morning after he wakes up (usually around 7 am) and it was hard to get up! He kept saying "Mommy, I think you can get up now. But I think Daddy needs to rest" Ha. How come Daddy needs the rest? We both got up anyway and somehow made it through the day. Tomorrow night we actually get to see the show (well, Chris has seen a lot of it from backstage).

Chris with the Irish saxophonist and the Chinese bamboo flautist. (I had to look up how to spell that, by the way)

What are outside country people?

I decided I needed to change up the blog a little bit. I never loved the "Gaertner Tales" title and decided to go with something different. In Chinese, the word for a foreigner is literally "outside country people" and that is what we are- people from an outside country. I love living overseas...a lot of the time. There are plenty of days I long to live closer to my family, to live in a place where everyone understands me all the time (well, that is probably impossible wherever you live, but..), to live near a Target that I can easily get to by loading my children into a minivan filled with carseats, etc.

But I am so thankful for the chance to live in such an exciting, influential part of the world, I enjoy learning a new language and the satisfaction that comes with actually being able to speak it, am excited to raise children in a place where they will (hopefully) be bilingual and understand from an early age how to interact with many different kinds of people and see the world from a different perspective. I hope they will learn early on that everyone is not just like us, that while we are so blessed materially many people are not. That being a part of what God is doing in the world is a blessing and an exciting journey. So, that is where our new title comes from. It is often fun, definitely challenging, but overall a great benefit to live as "outside country people".

Riverdance

So have you heard of Riverdance? You know, the Irish dancing, jigging, musical number that tours the globe? I had heard of them, but had never watched or listened to any of it personally. Well, that changed after Chris got a call from the composer of Riverdance a few weeks ago, asking if he could help him find local musicians who played traditional instruments to accompany their shows here in the city. Chris was easily able to connect them with some musician friends and has now been hired to translate for the musicians at their practices, concerts and a video recording.

So, before they arrived we borrowed a friend's DVD of "Best of Riverdance" so we could familiarize ourselves with it. The opening night is tonight and it will run for another 6 nights. Chris is enjoying it immensely- loving being able to use his love of language and music to do something like this. And it is a great opportunity to meet people both locally and international. ANOTHER really fun thing he got to do was this:

Chris' upright bass had its public debut, along with the Irish fiddles, saxophone and some kind of Irish bagpipes that you pump with your elbow. And the Chinese dulcimer. So, as Chris pointed out, it is a good thing he got this very-large-in-a small-apartment instrument. He is already quite good at playing it.

He got to know some of the musicians during practice and they actually have a lot of time on their hands in between shows and wanted to jam together. So Chris and 2 of his band mates played with 3 of the Riverdance musicians at an Irish pub last night. I was able to find a sitter and several of our friends went too. It was lots of fun, even though the Riverdance musicians came over an hour late (almost upsetting the pub manager into thinking they weren't really coming) and they all decided it was too noisy an atmosphere for great jamming. However, I think everyone enjoyed it.

Chris is getting a couple of comp tickets, so are going to the show next week. Fun.

Bread Toast Peanut Butter Not Really

Today Austin wanted to have a meeting with me. He put the big, blue exercise ball on the loveseat, sat on it and instructed me to sit on the couch. After a minute he said "I am going to tell you a story" (perhaps influenced by Nana reading him a Little Bear story about Grandfather Bear telling a story via SKYPE this morning, but who knows).

This is pretty much verbatim the story:
"There was a baby bunny named Phone and a big bunny named Phone too. They had a daddy named Egg and they went to the beach. Phone and phone saw a bear in a cave named Peter. Then they saw a friend. His name was bread (um) toast, peanut butter not really. (me "really, wow that was his name?" ) yeah. "

And then there was some more that I can't remember as clearly, but he was a very animated stroy teller. I don't know where all that came from...the beach I am sure is because of our impending trip to Guam.

I guess I haven't mentioned this on the blog yet. We decided we have so many frequent flyer miles built up that we would take a vacation somewhere in SE Asia. You only need 20,000 miles to go anywhere in SE Asia. So we tried Malaysia and Thailand and even considered Singapore (though it is so expensive) but there were no tickets available. None, in a two week period, since it was around Chinese New Year. So I had pretty much given up, but Chris started looking at more options and came up with Guam...tropical island that is basically America, out in the middle of the ocean. I was a little skeptical at first, fearing a horrendous travel schedule. But we prayed and the only place with tickets for dates that worked for us was Guam. It is actually a pretty easy flight schedule too. Two 3 hour flights with an hour and a half layover in between. So, I digress from the story, but that is our new news. We leave Feb. 18.

Austin has been really into "not really" lately. He keeps asking me how to say it in Chinese...there is no good exact translation that I know. Anyway, his little mind is always working and coming up with funny things. I think story telling may become a new thing with him. Next time I want to have the computer out to transcribe it.

There you go

Bennett seems to be following in his brother's footsteps in liking music. However, he always gets really excited when there are heavy drums or bass and will dance. If we say "play the drums" he will bang on the nearest chair, trash can, etc. Maybe Austin will be the classical violinist and Bennett the drummer?

Bennett is growing up so fast! I realized I have not really posted about him much and I need to record his developments. He is talking a lot these days. His newest phrase (his first phrase actually) is "there you go", though it sounds more like "therego". I realized that I say that a lot when I give him things or help him do something and now he repeats it if any of us say it to him. he is also saying mao (chinese word for cat),no, juice, cheese, lots of animal sounds and his favorite two words are down and more. He mostly says more about wanting more food (he continues to be quite the eater and almost always out eats Austin) and getting down. Actually, down means down and up and hold me and sounds more like "dow!".

Bennett loves building and stacking. He LOVES legos, but gets frustrated when he can't get them apart or together. He stacks cups, his bowls, food, blocks, you name it. This is at our mall's play place- his favorite part was the block area.

Speaking of wanting to be held, Bennett has been quite clingy lately. He will entertain himself for awhile, but after a bit he always pads around the apartment to look for me. When we go outside or even to the cool playplace at the mall lately, he just wants to be held. My arms are not too happy about this, but I like his affection. He LOVES giving kisses right now and will almost lick you or he will make a kissing noise and say "mmmuh". He will give them to me over and over. Remember how he used to eat anything? Well, he has suddenly become quite the picky eater. He used to love jiaozi and broccoli and now won't touch them. He loves granola and cries to have it anytime he looks up and sees it on the shelf in the kitchen.

His will is "maturing" (or maybe the opposite of maturing, whatever that is) and is becoming quite strong. He will cry and throw a little fit whenever he can't have what he wants (which is often). If I don't hold him the minute he wants me to, if I only give him one cracker instead of two (he wants one for each hand). Did I mention how he cried for about 10 minutes one morning after I had dressed him? He had grabbed a pair of overalls out of the drawer when I was dressing him and I finally realized he wanted to wear them. The minute I put them on him he stopped crying. What? A 16 month old boy caring about his outfit? Chris and I have decided the next year or two we might be in for it with a strong willed child. I guess everyone has at least one. He can be so happy, but is becoming quite the drama king too. But he is so cute and we love him!

This was a moment at the play place when I walked away from him the tiniest bit...like I said he has been rather clingy and is VERY dramatic.

Here he was almost running...he is quite the walker now and gets around pretty fast on 2 legs.