The speed of life has certainly picked up this month...homeschool, Chinese school, friends returning from trips to America, used book sales, Chris is traveling this week and so on. And we haven't even hit birthday week yet for Bennett and Lucy or Mid-Autumn Festival (this coming Thursday). But in some ways things also have a slowed down feel...about two hours of the afternoon it is just me and Lucy and we are enjoying walks outside in the cooler weather. Here are some of the latest views.
Lucy makes friends wherever we go it seems. This is a little JieJie (older sister...by a few months) we met outside the other day.
Lucy and Bennett also seem to be enjoying each other more than in times past...or Lucy is more excited/less scared of Bennett's rambunctious affection!
Welcoming our neighbors back from 6 months away for pizza night.
So Saturday Chris and I had to "divide and conquer". He had about 4 things to do, but we also were all invited to the fanciest birthday party I have ever been to. For a one year old. The first year is a big deal here, as in many cultures. A local musician couple we met our first year in this city were excited to finally welcome their son after much waiting. This party was at the Crowne Plaza hotel, had a overwhelming buffet of steak, shrimp, sushi, Indian food, salads, tons of dessert and ice cream and so on. So I took the kids and we loved on this family by...eating a lot. The kids did a great job of talking to people in Chinese and tolerating a lot of attention, something the boys do not love (Lucy eats it up though). A fancy Saturday morning.
Chris notwithstanding...Austin is joining a soccer "team". Chris actually is fine with it, though he always said he wouldn't teach his kids soccer. This very informal group of kids from our homeschool connections is learning the basics and playing small scrimmages with each other for the next 6 weeks- but it is lots of fun for Austin. He really is liking sports and works really hard. He has wanted to practice a lot. Bennett ...had no interest and probably is a little too young anyway. But they are so different.
After some not-so-amazing weather, we had a beautiful Saturday.
Speaking of sports, Austin hit his first "outside the park" homerun with Chris. They play often just outside our building door in a small-ish concrete space. But he has never hit it all the way into the lake until the other day...he was excited, but wouldn't show it. He gets so shy about his accomplishments and didn't even want to tell me at first...but I could tell how proud he really was. Baseball is still the first love.
What is that, you say? I had a new fruit for the first time last week. It is called "The northeast girl" fruit, comes in paper-like wrappers and tastes almost like a mango and a fig. You pop the whole thing in your mouth to eat. I am also starting to make kefir, after getting the "grains" from a friend (kefir is a yogurt -type drink with lots of probiotics and good for digestive health). It is super easy to make and I am learning how to make it palatable for my crew. They like it now in smoothies with fruit and honey and hoping it helps us all feel good. I go in spurts and waves of trying different types of healthy eating and am experimenting with some gluten free grains, though definitely not going all gluten free (yet, but the thought of total gluten free is way too overwhelming at the moment). But I was pleased to learn I can get buckwheat, brown rice, rice and tapioca all ground into flour at the market across from the boys' school. Who knew?
0 comments:
Post a Comment