Music in the Park - Try again

Ok, I am attempting to reload this video from Austin's little performance last week. Hope it works this time.

Why not?

Bennett and Austin are always saying funny things so I am stopping to record a few of them before I forget. Bennett especially is picking up things left and right and often has an attitude to go with it lately. I have continued to do a LOT of "weeding" lately, as both boys often don't obey and have quite the sassy attitude with it. Sigh.

But anyway, today Bennett wanted to get in his highchair (which he doesn't really use at all anymore) and I said "Why Bennett?". And he just looked at me and said "Why not?". Well, why not. So in he went.

Last night I had my usual Wednesday night small group and Chris was gone. Usually when that happens I put the kids to bed and give Jason next door the monitor and he checks on the kids. Usually I try to get them down early enough so Austin is asleep and don't tell them, but last night he was not at all tired so I said- Jason shu shu is keeping an eye on you and if you need something go ask him ( we leave the doors open). He was mad and did not want me to leave and said "Only you and Daddy can take care of me, and Chen Ayi...and Chinese people! But not Jason shushu. " I just laughed. The idea that Austin was ok with the masses of "Chinese people" taking care of him is funny, since he sometimes can get quite an attitude about the masses. However, he has many favorite ayis that usually are the ones to babysit him if we have to go out.

Bennett also is a swinging pendulum lately, swinging from the extreme of Mommy doing everything with him and becoming hysterical if I leave to "I do it myself!". Lately whenever we are walking on a street it seems like he does NOT want me to hold his hand so I end up sort of dragging him along, since I am not about to let go of his hand on crowded China streets.

This morning Austin and Bennett made "Noah's Ark" in the living room. It started with Bennett wanting to make a boat out of a comforter, then Austin decided it should be the ark and was filled with almost every stuffed animal we have. Bennett said he was Noah but then the bossy older brother said "No, I am Noah Bennett. You can be Ham (Noah's son)". Amazingly Bennett complied.

Chris got back from a few days' trip today and stayed with our good friends' Jenny and Alex. Jenny sent me some girl clothes- my first! They were so fun- I can tell I will definitely enjoy getting to dress a little girl- dresses and tights and hairbows, oh my. But Bennett started talking about "mei mei" and said he would share Larry the Cucumber (one we don't even own but he plays with every time he goes to Miriam's house) with her. That is a really big statement coming from Bennett- usually he plays with it almost exclusively and is very unwilling to share him). Hope more of that continues.

Well, I guess that is all, just some random funny things that have been going on around here.

Music in the Park

One thing I miss about American summers is the evenings of outdoor music you often find around town. At least in Richmond, there are often good concerts outdoors that are fun and festive. Well, we don't really have any of those around here that I know of at the moment, but we did have some music at a park this past weekend. I found out last Thursday that Austin's school was having a "Children's Day" family gathering at a local park and that the kids were performing songs at it. I had seen the notice about it, but they titled it the "June 1" (which is children's day) event and I had failed to scrutinize the Chinese details saying it was actually on May 21. Oops. Austin did not even know about it ahead of time it seemed.

So Saturday morning was a warm, very sunny day. Chris had previous plans so he (sadly) could not come at a 2 days' notice. But it was a fun day, I got to talk to another mom of a boy Austin has had some conversation with lately and we got to watch lots of this:

OK- this should be a video, but after 3 attempts to load it, blogger informs me there is an error with my video. SO...enjoy the pictures below and I will try the video another night. Not sure what the problem is.

Austin was so cute and serious about it and did a good job. He obviously has been learning these songs and hand motions at school. I noticed him mouthing all the words to the songs...some of these songs I had not even heard him sing at him. It was a fun time and cute to watch, though by lunch we were ready to head home. I even got a little sunburned, not knowing it would be that hot or that we would be out in the sun the whole time.

In the Pink!!!

I can't believe I get to write this post, but we went to the doctor on Wednesday and found out...we are having a GIRL! Wow, I was hoping but really expected that we would be having a third boy. I love my boys and would never change them...but I have to admit I am really excited we can add a girl to the mix. I had to clarify with the technician- "how positive are you that this is a girl?" It seems like most times boys are 100% (or I guess 99%, can they ever tell you 100%?) but girls aren't so sure. But she said "It is definitely a girl". Whoo hoo. Austin had wanted a another brother and looked a little startled at the declaration, but didn't cry and actually seems pretty ok with it. He hasn't ever shown LOTS of excited emotion since we broke the news of this baby to him, but he seems very normal about it, so I think that is pretty good for our low-change eldest. I am anything but "normal" but very excited to welcome a little girl into our family.

Bennett seemed concerned the whole time at the doctor visit that I needed to "wake-up Mommy" since i was laying on a table. And he loved the curtains that surrounded the ultrasound machine. About mei-mei (little sister)- he had a moment of interest in the moving blob on the screen but doesn't seem to care much either way. I guess most 2 and 1/2 year old boys are not so into that. He has actually shown an interest in live babies outside the womb lately. Maybe he does have a clue, since he likes to look at and "soft" (pet or touch in Bennett-language) babies we see.

We are also excited that our friends Josh and Danielle's baby boy was born last night. They live in another city but are here just to birth their son. We visited them tonight and Bennett "softed" baby Harvey, declared he was scared when he cried and drew him a picture of a baby with fingers and toes. Also another friend here called me tonight to say she thinks she is having contractions and tonight may be the night...so it is babies in the air around here.

Planting and weeding

Snapdragons in the window box.

My busy little helpers...amazing how entertaining dirt and water are.

Austin with a tomato plant before putting it in.

After 10+ years here, I finally have a little space to plant. I was hoping our backyard would be dirt, so we could have grass and a garden patch, but unfortunately it was tiled and not much chance of changing it since we rent. BUT, there is lots of outdoor space and sun, so I am trying it. I have a couple flower boxes, a row of basil, 2 tomato plants and plans to also plant red pepper and yellow squash (I have seeds but have not planted yet).

I have little experience in gardening, though maybe it is in my genes since both my dad and Nana have green thumbs. Anyway, it is worth trying and the boys LOVE helping- they did great at scooping dirt into the plant containers and love to help water. We are also learning patience in waiting for seeds to sprout.

As for weeding, well, I have been doing a different kind of weeding (I am sure the gardening kind will be needed soon enough too). Austin has been having some pretty strong attitudes and a habit of answering NO to most requests lately. When he is disciplined, he has had some pretty strong reactions to it, saying things like "I am going to die" or "you hurt my feeling when you put me in time out" or "you are going to kill me if you spank me". So the other day we had a good discussion after he had calmed down about the purpose of discipline- that discipline is for his good, because we love him and to help him grow. The gardening analogy came to me, maybe since we had just been working on it. But we talked about how discipline is like weeding a garden- we need to get the weeds out so a beautiful flower or delicious fruit can grow. We are trying to grow that good fruit in Austin's life, so some weeding and pruning is necessary to help it grow. That finally seemed to resonate with him and he seemed to accept that as a good reason, even though it isn't pleasant.

Then today, Austin came home from school telling us (which was reiterated by his teachers and Bree) that "Bree told me to bite Zhao Hao Xiang and so I did". What? You actually bit a boy at school? Yes. He did. This is my first test of my child, the aggressor, at school. He did seem pretty sorry afterwards, had a timeout at school and apologized. But we had a long discussion tonight about doing the right thing, regardless of what a friend tells you to do and so on. So, some more weeding for us tonight.

However, it has helped me a lot actually to think of discipline this way and help put it in perspective when it feels like I am not seeing much fruit. Yet. I know the harvest of discipline is often years away from seeing its true results. So, we are doing some planting outside and a lot of weeding these days...will let you know we get to harvest.

He's waited 17 years for this...

Yes, that is Chris "laying some lumber" on his opponent. He made many fine tackles and caught an interception and his team won 49-0.

Sadly, this past weekend was "Baseball Weekend" in the city we formerly called home but Chris was not there. But something helped make up for missing that great tradition- another sport, usually referred to here as American football. Chris recently heard about a new football league here, that is free to join, uses real helmets and pads and is trying to start and promote American football in this country. So Chris has been to several practices of the Guardians and yesterday got to play in a 5-on-5 game. There are a few foreigners and quite a few Chinese, eager to learn the rules of the "dangerous" game of American football. Chris said he has waited 17 years, since the end of high school, to play again with real tackling, pads and such. Thankfully, he had a great time AND did not get hurt. The boys and I went to watch the last hour of the game. Chris has also been worried about how our boys can really learn about the cultural icon of football in a country that doesn't play it. Perhaps this well help them stay somewhat connected to the sport. Then we went out to eat afterward to celebrate Austin's half birthday...he turned 4 and 1/2 yesterday and was pretty excited about that.

The adoring fans. Austin especially actually was able to pay attention a lot to the game, but mostly kept asking "which one is Daddy?" Even Chris' long hair did not really stick out of his helmet and it was hard to tell who was who.

The team...notice the 2 fans standing behind their daddy. One of them is wearing "daddy's hat". It wasn't actually all that big on his head, though it looked pretty big on his little body.

Future star?

Mother's Day...yes a bit late

Me with my 3 kids (yes, the belly is pretty obvious now- 19 weeks now!)

The boys busy making me cards for Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day- to all the mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers in our lives. I have been meaning to do this post for a week now. Even though the celebrations may be over, we have remembered you and want to blog about it.

I had a great Mother's Day. Chris made pancakes for breakfast, we had a nice lunch out after church and I was given flowers and sweet cards as well. We love all of the women in our life who have come before us!

Nai Nai- Chris' mom and loving grandmother- we are thankful for her kind heart, she always has gifts to give and places for us to see, the boys love getting up at her house for a yummy breakfast and watching Curious George together.

Great-grandma Haney- my (paternal) grandmother with Austin. I know I have more recent photos than this, but it was the latest on my computer. Great-grandma Skypes with us, sends great e-cards and always has a story and a song for every occasion.

This is Gran to the boys and Nana to me- my maternal grandmother. She still lives on her own and doing well at age 90! We love her yummy cooking, especially big breakfasts and cakes, giving spirit and tender heart.

Nana to the boys and mom to me- she loves to read stories and supply books for the boys, also a wonderful cook like her mother and often sends thoughtful packages as an overflow of her loving heart. We are looking forward already to her visit in October for baby #3's arrival.

Trip to the mountains

We took a 3 day trip to the mountains with some friends this past week. It was a fun time to get away, be with people and enjoy some time out of the city.

This was our "room"- it was really 3 rooms and felt like a real log cabin. We had a great deal on it and loved the accommodations- something I cannot always say when I have traveled in China. It was great for our family.

We spent a lot of time "climbing" - this path ran right past our cabin and up a small mountain. The boys loved the rocks and Austin was quite the climber. This picture is Bennett with our friend's daughter helping. Her brother also helped Austin climb and catch lots of tadpoles.

A trip with local friends would not be complete without some karoke...Bennett really discovered his Daddy's love of the microphone and entertained us all.

You could "fish" in the stock pool- they had a lot of stock fish for the restaurant. They had little poles with bait attached if you wanted to fish- though you couldn't keep it unless you wanted it for dinner. We did have grilled fish one meal - Austin got to go watch them pick it out. He came back and told me "Mommy I saw them hit it on the head and make it dead so we could eat it". I guess the mystery of where meat comes from is quickly cleared up in this country.

We had a good time, enjoyed driving there in "our" car and the boys enjoyed lots of fun "ayi" (auntie) time with our friends on the trip. Glad to be back safely though and in our own beds too.

Cleaning the car

Here he is at church

We have spent a lot of time cleaning the car this weekend. Rather I should say Chris has done a lot of cleaning the car and I have done a lot of laundry. Both boys have had a not-quite-normal digestive system lately. Bennett has lately had a once a day blow out...usually when he is diapered at nap or nighttime. I had attributed it to the mostly vegetables he seems to only want to eat lately. But then last Thursday and Friday Austin pooped in his pants at school. This is definitely not normal and it was all down his pants -type of incident. I came and got him early on Friday. Everyone seemed ok Saturday. Sunday morning we are finally driving to church for the first time (last week we had the dead battery incident) and half way through the drive Bennett started saying his stomach hurt. Moments later Chris was rolling down the windows...smelled like another blowout. I was teaching Sunday school and we were running a bit late, so Austin and I hopped out of the car and rushed to class. The very unfortunate thing is that while for the past few months I have always carried an extra diaper/pullup or pair of underwear and pants in my purse, but somehow that morning they were not in there.

So I left Chris a big pack of wipes and told him to the little foreign-goods mini-mart next to the church building. Well, he did and they had no diapers. The pants, socks and pull-up were all unwearable. At one point he debated wrapping his ice-pack wrap around Bennett, sumo style. I managed to borrow a diaper from a friend and another friend took it up to Chris. So Bennett spent the rest of the service in his little polo shirt and a diaper. At least I was his teacher in class. The car was not ruined, but we did have to wash the car seat.

So that was Sunday. Monday was a holiday (technically Sat and Sun were too) and we had planned to have a low-key family day at a local park with a few other families. We loaded up the newly washed carseat, Austin's bike, and a bag full of baseball and football gear and headed to the park. Once we were there Austin kept saying he wanted to go home and lay on the couch. At first I sort of ignored him, thinking he was somehow bored. However, as time went on he seemed rather listless and just kept repeating it over and over. Finally we just went home without eating our picnic. He laid around a lot of the afternoon, though seemed to have no specific complaints. Chris had planned to take him out on a date to Starbucks (at Austin's request) and decided to go ahead and try it since Austin seemed inconsolable at the thought of missing his date with Daddy. But not long after leaving, Austin threw up in the car. Sigh. Poor guy- he really did not feel good. So I got Austin and cleaned him up at home while Chris again cleaned out the car. Washed the other car seat cover. Austin kept saying he was going to die...the little dramatist. He seems a lot better today. We are supposed to go out of town tomorrow for three days...we are still planing on it at this point but holding plans loosely.