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.