Which Blue Are You?

We have been pretty worried about Austin. He started out in full support of the Tar Heels (what choice did he have really?) when he was old enough to understand. Chris always told Austin that we like when Duke loses, which Austin later repeated as "we like Duke when it losses". But over a year ago, when he would play with certain toys he would comment "I like Duke blue, I don't like Carolina blue"...meaning the color. I think he knew even then that it would irritate us. Then later he would sometimes say "i like Duke when it wins and losses", which of course makes no sense but he seemed to find satisfaction in that. Then he would say he liked both Carolina and Duke. And he was always very curious why Uncle John likes Duke (we wonder that too - ha). But lately he was going down a very dangerous path- saying he liked Duke and NOT the Tar Heels!?!? WHAT? How could we have a child, who at age 4 was choosing to root against his parents and long heritage. He seemed to take pleasure in saying it as if he knew exactly what he was doing (I think he did).

BUT, not to worry, today we had a breakthrough. We were about to go outside to play in the snow and Bennett had grabbed our Carolina toboggan. Suddenly Austin wanted that hat and insisted on wearing it. Sweet Bennett gave it to him freely and was happy with another hat. But then Austin looked at me and said "Mommy, I don't like Duke anymore, I like the Tar Heels now". I told him he was making a very good choice :). He said "I keep changing my mind about Duke, I don't know why". I told him it was alright to change your mind as long as you like the Tar Heels in the end. SO, he could change again of course, but for now, we are back to being a complete Tar Heel family. Now if only we can beat Duke next time!

Wrong child, but this is the hat that sparked it all this morning. And a cute picture too I think.

A Lego day, old friends and more

Well, I have no great excuse for not blogging other than laziness perhaps! Today was a "Lego day". We had a quieter day at home and the boys played Legos for a good part of the morning. Austin is enjoying making more complex creations, like houses, castles and boats. Bennett loves Lightening McQueen lego car and all the animals from our Lego zoo. I was surprised at how long they stayed entertained today.

You can see Austin's house with the steps, the boat in the front. He is pretty creative with what he wants to build.

Bennett with "Light-nin Ma -Keen" and a runny nose...he doesn't seem to go long without one.

Austin transported his Lego family in the car to an art museum- which was his comforter. Of course only our child would pretend to send his legos to an art museum :).

We have also had a number of old friends we have seen or run into lately, which has been fun but busy. Our good friends Christy and Jess from Chengdu were in town and had dinner a week ago or so. Another friend who was a student at the school where Chris got his master's from was in town a few days later and got to come over. He has now graduated and is working in a nearby city. The most amazing story was last Sunday we were on the subway on the way to church. Chris noticed a guy across from us with his wife and son who looked familiar. However, it was hard to tell because it had been 10 years since he had seen the guy. It turned out it WAS a guy that Chris had met our first year in China. At the time, he was a senior and though he was really interested in friendship with Chris, was gone before they had spent a lot of time together. Years later Chris had gotten an email learning this guy was like-minded and doing well. Now he is married, has a son and is off to school in Boston in May. But he lives one subway stop away from us! Crazy.

Austin's school will start next week after a long holiday break. Big changes are coming though. The mornings are now all English (learning simple spoken English and ABC's- Austin would be bored to death), with some new teachers and a new program. So we are switching him to a few afternoons a week. Though the afternoon is definitely not an ideal time, it is all in Chinese then. Tuesdays and Fridays are actual Chinese language lessons, starting character recognition and some writing. I think he will enjoy that part and get a lot out of it. He doesn't usually sleep during naptime anyway, but getting him there while trying to get Bennett down may be a challenge. Bree will probably be doing the same things though so we can share the transportation load. That's it for now. Chris is gearing up for a trip to the US- he will be gone 2 weeks (so I am gearing up too).

Magic, happy water cube

Monday (Valentine's Day) we had a special family treat. Angie found these coupons online to the Water Cube (site of Olympic swimming). All I knew was that you could go there to swim and they had some slides and things. The night before I looked online to discover it was now home to Asia'a largest water park. It would normally have cost more than 400 rmb, but our coupon cost 138 for 2 adults and 2 kids. We all had a fun time.The English signs at the park all said "the magic, happy water park". Bennett loved it- the water was more like bath water and I think he must have just not liked the cooler water at the beach.

Bennett went down this slide over and over. He usually landed right side up, but a few times got completely submerged. He didn't seem to mind though and it did not deter him from going again. He would say "Bennett go under water!"

Austin also loved the slides in the kiddie area and went down a taller one. He had no qualms about the bigger one- it landed in a tube with shallow water, so there was no fear of going under water and he was not scared at all.

See the red slide there? It was called the Tornado. Chris did it, I did not...you started locked into a tiny capsule, then the floor dropped out from beneath you and you shot straight down, then completely up again and then down. Not for the faint of heart.

Both boys loved the pink dolphin. Bennett was no surprise, since he is generally more affectionate and outgoing. But Austin surprised us all by also loving to shake his hand, hug him and even be picked up and carried around by it. It was also funny and very Chinese that there was a stage beside the wave pool complete with very loud music, karoke, pink dolphins and girls in thigh-high boots and mini-skirts.

We stayed till 4 pm with no nap...someone was all tuckered out!

A White Spring Festival

We had snow today! The first precipitation since October 10- four months to be exact. I am glad for some relief from the dry weather and the boys were excited to finally get some snow. We played outside twice today. Bennett liked playing in the snow this year- last year he never seemed to get over the wet and cold. Bennett woke up covered in diarrhea and throw up. I mean, when will this poor boy get healthy? But after that, he was happy and seemed to feel fine all day and was pretty much done with that. He ate three meals and was fine. So who knows what that was, but I am getting tired of cleaning out that tent he is sleeping in.

Here are some fun pictures of the day.

Sliding down the stroller ramp

Year of the Rabbit

Happy Year of the Rabbit! Chinese New Year is in full swing. New Year's Eve was February 2, with February 3 being the first day of the 15 days of celebration. Fireworks have been our nightly (and sometimes daily) companion, but are not too bad around our neighborhood. Spring Festival Eve we made jiaozi (dumplings) with our foreign neighbors, the first day (Chu yi, or day one) we visited a party at a Chinese friend's home, where we ate a lot, Sunday we visited another Chinese friend's home and their parents were in town and ate some more. I learned this year that usually fireworks are loudest on Chu wu or day 5, because that is the day of wealth and good fortune. So people are especially anxious to scare off the bad gods or bad luck with fireworks to ensure a year of more money and prosperity. It was louder and longer that day. It will culminate on Chu shiwu (day 15), also known as the Lantern Festival. Today ( the 8th day) a lot of stores started opening back up (like our local vegetable market) though our yogurt delivery has still not started back. However, eating and visiting are the hallmarks of the New Year and we have been taking part. Here are some photos of our jiaozi party.

Angie made "guo tie" or iron pot, jiaozi (partially fried and partially steamed) JUST LIKE HER MOM's. They were amazing and definitely my favorite.

As you can see, there was a LOT of wrapping going on. We had quite a variety- egg and spinach, italian sausage, spicy peppers and pork, pork, shrimp and cabbage, and of course I made my fried apple jiaozi for dessert. All homemade and MSG-free, fortunately for Chris.

Hard at work stuffing, wrapping and sealing.

Lots of fun too!

Thailand shots at last

We spent most days going back and forth between the pool and the beach...however we did go to ride the elephants one day. Austin had a great time. Bennett seemed really excited right until we were about to get on our elephant...and then he started screaming "no ride mommy, no ride!". So I was not about to wrestle a screaming child on top of an elephant, so we watched the elephant show instead. He liked that a bit better.

He did get excited about the baby tiger. Yes, I am holding a real, baby tiger. They instructed me to be sure and keep the bottle in his mouth. I am pretty sure they would never let you do this in America, but when in Asia...

Chris was rather fixated on getting coconuts off the tree and cracking it open for some fresh coconut. He won a new friend...Vera Swem (our friend Jenny and Alex's daughter). Vera was very impressed and interested in the coconut business and followed Chris around a lot. She is very cute and we had fun getting to hang out with their family at the beach.

This is mostly what Bennett did at the pool. Sit with Mommy. He did not like the water this time. I don't know if it was because it was a little cold at first or what, but the most he got in was to let his "toes swimming" by sitting on the side.

Austin loved the pool, though it took several days to get him to go underwater, something he had "mastered" last summer. We started rewarding him with ice cream for doing something brave in the water. The first "brave" thing he did was go underwater. Then he jumped off the side into our arms. Then by himself with a ring on (in the kiddie pool).
THEN came the slide. This slide was the highlight for many kids at the pool. The first day Austin went down twice, then he must have thought better about it, b/c he then refused for many days. Finally, he decided he had worked up to the slide being his next brave thing in the water. He sat up there for a long time several times (with his ring and Chris at the bottom to catch him) but couldn't do it (but also could not give up the idea of trying). Finally, he said he would pray and ask God to help him be brave. So here he is, turned over prostrate at the top of the slide at the end of the day, praying. After that, he FINALLY went down!

Here he is another time going down the slide...this time someone pushed him when he was taking a really long time to get his nerve up, making him really upset that it wasn't his own initiative. But he was up there for 15 + minutes trying to go down.

THIS was what Bennett liked about vacation- he liked drawing in the sand. Mostly drawing Bob and Larrys ( i think he is officially obsessed with Veggie Tales). They had these cool, long shells that were perfect for drawing. Bennett seems destined to be an artist- he really loves, loves, loves to draw. I think he would do it all day long if we had that much paper in the house (or chalk).
Late afternoon tide pools formed on the beach. Chris and Austin spent a lot of time this day- they were full of hermit crabs and one day we even found a starfish.

"Hi, I am cute and attract attention wherever we go!"

Happy Chinese New Year and funny talk

We are back home again, safe and sound. I have a LOT to catch up on. We did not use the internet once during vacation- which was really nice and refreshing actually. But now of course I am behind on so much. Happy Chinese New Year! Tonight is New Year's Eve and the fireworks are in full force right now. However, they are not allowed inside our complex and our building in smack dab in the middle, so while there is a distant roar around us, it is not too close. Our old apartment was near the street and so it got quite loud and close. We had a jiaozi party with our foreign neighbors- both boys ate a lot and loved it. We finished with apple jiaozi- deep fried in oil and then rolled in cinnamon sugar- mmmm.

I have lots of pictures but they will come another night. Of course, my last post was written only one night too soon- Austin ended up throwing up that night (but only a couple of times) and then a week later (on vacation) Bennett threw up and then Chris...I had a really mild version of upset stomach the day before we left, though I never actually threw up. Now both boys have colds...but so goes it when you travel and conference and are around lots of other children.

I did want to write some funny things that Austin and Bennett have been saying lately, before I forget.

The night after Bennett threw up, he woke up crying in the night. I jumped up, sure he was about to puke again. He was wearing a onesie and kept pulling on it, saying "I can't find my belly button. Where is my belly button? Shirt off!" I giggled and unsnapped his onesie. He lifted it up and touched his belly button "Oh, there it is!" and laid back down and went to sleep.

He has also been answering questions in a funny way- giving answers that have nothing to do with the question. Like I will say "Bennett, how old are you?" and he will say "Good". When I was giving him tylenol for his fever, he kept asking for "more Thailand, Mommy." We asked him what bacon was made from at breakfast one day and he said "butterflies". He doesn't miss a beat, even if he doesn't know the answer he will give some answer immediately.

And then Austin. Sorry if this is crude, but Chris was helping Austin go the bathroom and Austin said "Daddy, sometimes if my poo poo is too loud it scares the pee pee out of me". I laughed a long time at that one.

The night we got back from Thailand, Rebecca had invited us and Hunemullers over for dinner (which was so nice after just landing in town). At dinner Bree suddenly says to Austin "Austin, will you marry me when I have a baby in my tummy?" to which Austin replied "yeah, I think I will". Nice proposal huh? Apparently Bree had been learning a lot about the Christmas story and thinks that everyone gets married before they have a baby (and if you are having your 2, 3 or whatever child that the parents have to get married again every time before they have the baby). Then Jesh said " yeah and I get to be baby Jesus!".

Anyway, a little entertainment for you. Pictures soon!