Baby Girl

How have I not put a single post up here about Naomi? Nothing since her birth story!!! Life of a busy momma, I guess!

It's something else having a girl. I had no idea! She melts my heart in a whole different way than the boys do. Not to mention, it's super fun to dress her up! Although, poor girl, has no where to go and no one to see her in her cute outfits. So, I just take a lot of pictures. :)

In the last month or so, she has really gotten her giggle down pat. The deep, belly laughs are the absolute best!

We all adore her! I'm doing my very best to not take a single minute for granted, since she might be our last.

So much so that she's the only child we've allowed to throw late-night parties. Aka, not make her cry it out when she won't go to sleep. She's a fantastic sleeper (best of the 3), so they don't happen super often, which is maybe why we allow it. (She's trying to throw one right now, as I speak! ha!)

Speaking of sleep, as of now, at 9mos, she still takes 3 long naps. She just dropped her 4th about 2 weeks ago. The girl likes her sleep!

She also still likes to be swaddled, and cuddled up next to a pillow in her bed. (I know, everything "wrong." I blame it on wanting sleep for myself.) We've tried a few different times to unswaddle her, but she doesn't do so well. As soon as we re-wrap her, she sleeps like a rock! I hope to break her of it by the time she turns 1, though, because she's about to outgrow her sleep sack!!

We started feeding her pureed foods around 7mos. It was slow at first, but she has really picked up quantities in the last month! Now, she eats everything I give her--even plain broccoli! Go, girl! And she grabs for all of our food, too. So, because she's so cute, we oblige. ;)

Around 3mos old. So tiny and sweet!

Easter. Getting over a fever. ha!

Smiley. All the time!

About a month ago we had to give her a lil trim. You can see why. I just clipped a little off the top and a smidge off the back. We're not calling it a haircut. I can't go there yet!

Pretty princess!

I could (and often do) stare at her all.day.

LOVE her!

And, just like that, she's 9mos old. I'm so not ready for her to be 1! Slow down, time!!!

Two Birthday Boys

Epic fail. I haven't recorded Josiah OR Malachi's birthdays! So, at last, here they are....

I cannot believe my boy is SIX! He's growing so fast in so many ways.
Physically--tall and thin, just like Daddy. He's also getting the hang of some coordination skills and sports. He'll be a great athlete!
Spiritually--he loves Jesus and is learning how to obey him!
Mentally--the boys is a math whiz. He's been asking to do harder and harder math for a long time now. I keep giving it to him! Why not?! He's now able to do triple digit addition (including carrying), simple subtraction, and simple algebra.
Emotionally--he LOVES his sister so so much! I can count on him to drop everything and go play with her if I'm busy and she's fussy. He always want to hold her, cuddle her, and tickle her. So, of course, she laughs the hardest at him! Those two are quite the pair!
We pray he continues to learn more about how to be a man of God!

Traditional blueberry buckle for breakfast!

He requested a Lego party! Hannah, our teammate, made this Lego man for him. So creative!

My attempt at a Lego cake. Glad he doesn't care much what it looks like. :)

His first sets (he got 3 from us and our teammies!) of Legos. One happy boy!

His dinner requests: all Chinese food. :)

Sweet siblings! Love to see them interact!

A sign made by Keri and Molly (teammies) because, in true Ashley fashion, I ran out of time. I think it turned out *awesome*!

It was a fun night!!!

*****

Malachi turned FOUR at the end of August. He is our fun, outgoing little guy. He's starting to move out of those famous 3's and into a more self-controlled boy. We're thankful for each step he gets closer to that. :) He loves to make silly faces, spit one-liners from out of no where, and have dance parties! He just started Pre-K and is surprising Mommy with staying focused on the tasks she gives him! He also loves Jesus and enjoys listening to the stories about Him. We pray he is able to turn his passion towards the things of Jesus!

He requested a Big Hero 6 party. Well, with Mom's suggestion. Hidden motive: easy cake!!

Baymax by Hannah Banana!

Tacos for dinner! A fave of his!

:)

See? Funny faces. Always.

These two.

How do I have 3 babies!?!

:)

Some Chinese friends came! 

Special present from Josiah: a box of rocks. Ha! I'm sure they were special, hand-picked rocks! ;)

Expressive eyebrows.

The C's gave him this giant sucker...

Thankfully it wasn't literally one, giant sucker!

Oh my cuteness!

Sugar HIGH!

Haha! It took him a while to come down of his party/sugar high!

Quotables

So many to catch up on! I love my kids.

While coloring.
Me: Malachi, you could try to color like Josiah is.
Josiah: I'm just doing art! Stop being so proud of me.

After seeing 2 kids doing karate in a book:
Josiah: Mom, I need to go to ninja school like them.

While chatting with Uncle Eric, he asked Josiah what he had learned lately on BrainPop (an educational app that Josiah is known for memorizing facts, just like said Uncle): 
Josiah: After a clause, you need to put a comma.
Once our laughter subsided, we asked for an example.
Josiah: Like after a name.
Um, wow. Go, kid!

After disobeying once again, I asked what the boys' punishment should be. 
Josiah (head hanging low): 40 years in the desert.

Malachi (after inspecting my newly-painted nails): I want to paint my nails!
Me: It's really only for girls.
Malachi: Ok, when I'm 100 years old I want to paint my nails!
Well, I guess if you make it that long, do what you want, buddy!

Malachi: I asked Jesus into my heart, but he didn't listen to me!
Me: Yes, He heard you. If you asked him, He will come.
Malachi: Yeah, but I can't hear him!

Josiah successfully read my Facebook status. Then he asked what my hashtag said. I told him. 
Josiah: Why did you use a phone number sign with it?
Things you don't explain when your child is learning to read...

Buying Paint in China: Not For The Weak (or Poor)

I had such high hopes.

I perused Pinterest the night before, finding colors that had been rolling around in my head.

Got 'em. Colors picked, tabs saved on my phone for easy access to show the clerk in the store.

We head into town and arrive at a different store than we originally saw before. No biggie. There are many.

As I walk in, fumbling to adjust Naomi in the Ergo, I see a large display of 1-gallon paint cans with a tiny sign on top: 558 RMB (That's the equivalent to $90.) I about. fell. over.

That's not it, I thought.  There are other options. They're just putting the most expensive right out front. Stay calm.

I walked through the tiny, yet clean and organized, store and found more of the same. Way over-priced gallons of paint. I turned to Michael and said, "We can't do this. This can't be it. What is going on? The Chinese do NOT pay this much for paint!" They grumble when the carrots are 5RMB instead of 4, for heaven's sake!

The 5 clerks in the store were suddenly surrounding us. Nothing new. They fawned over Naomi while I was stifling a mini panic attack. We asked one of them if there were other options. She showed us some 5 gallon buckets. 700-800RMB. WHAT?!

We asked her why they were so expensive. She rattled off, at warp speed, some answer that I'm sure was full of valuable information. Too bad we didn't have a class on paint-buying terminology.

We called a friend who introduced Michael to a man in the village who we may hire to do the paint job. (Which will turn out to be cheaper than the paint itself!!) And she speaks English. I explained to her that we were trying to buy paint, but was it supposed to be this expensive?! She said she'd call us back after talking to her painter friend.

She called back and said the small cans should be under 100RMB. That's what I thought! Whew. I wasn't crazy. Let's get outta this Prada Paint Shop.

Our helpful driver knew of another place to go. We go about a mile and arrive at another shop. I could tell it was a step down. Good!

We walk in and see a range of small cans from 300-500RMB. Better, but still too high for my plans! I had ideas for 5 different colors!!

The clerks swarmed again, giving direct advice about Naomi. Her feet are cold. She's hot. She's sweating! She's too tight in there. Thanks, ladies. I've got this. Don't mess with this already-stressed Mama.

After talking for a while, I realized we may have to paint our entire home one color. I wasn't super happy, but anything is better than white.

I mentioned to one of the ladies that quality paint in America is around 200RMB, not 500! She said, "Just buy a big can! It's cheaper that way!" I told her my dreams of several different colors and how there's no way we could afford that many different cans.

"No problem, we can just divide a big can into many different colors!" (Well, that's what I heard. I would find out later I must've missed a few words.)

Hallelujah! That's our solution! Buy a big can for about 400, then they'll split it up into different colors. My blood pressure dropped significantly. To avoid too much confusion, I still cut out a few colors and narrowed it down to 2. Ok, good. We have a plan.

By this time, my nervous rocking had paid off and Naomi had fallen asleep. We were both sweating profusely. I moved over toward the single fan in the place. One of the clerks decided I was thirsty and brought me some hot water. Perfect. I love drinking hot liquids when my body is already over-heated. (That's what they do, though. Better for your body. Even when your body is already warm. Yeah, I don't know.)

Michael was getting his money out...they were working the color-mixing machine. Such relief.

Then. THEN, they put the color-y liquid in a small plastic bag (no Ziploc--just a small, open-topped bag) and wrote some characters on a piece of tape and secured the top of the bag. Um, what's going on? Is this hot water getting to my head? I just kept watching.

They did it again with the other color mixture. Then put them both in a dixie cup. Ya know, for safe keeping.

It all started clicking. We were going to be mixing this 5-gallon bucket of paint ourselves. Oh my.

We got the gist of the instructions---pour the color in the paint, and mix! (How much color in how much paint? Mix with what??) Silly me, too many questions!

We just chuckled, took our paint can, dixie cup, and "free" paint brush and were on our way.

Our plan from here is to contact the village* painter and hope he has one of those mixing machines. If not, let's hope he knows how to mix paint. Hope is the key word because he only sells white paint. I can't make this stuff up.

I feel a Part 2 coming on. Let's hope it's not quite this exciting!

*Oh yeah, I haven't written about our new location. We live outside the city about 30 minutes on a college campus. The only things near us are the mountains and a village. Albeit small, the village has some handy little shops. We're thankful for the village people who help us out and saving us a trip into the city!

That time Josiah made his tutor cry...

About a month ago, Michael asked the students gathered in his office hour (open time for any students to practice their English) how he would go about finding a tutor or language partner for himself and the boys. (Let's be real--I'm no where near ready to study again. I barely stay afloat as is!) Immediately, 3 students started basically giving their verbal resumes! Two of them are seniors and have tons of free time. (Generally, seniors don't have many, if any, classes. The time is free for them to search for post-grad jobs.) One of those seniors is moving to England in the summer to study for a year, and wants all the English practice he can get. The third is a very bubbly freshman who loves kids and has good English.

We didn't know it would be that easy to find tutors, but there they were! They were hired. :)

Michael and his tutor meet weekly and spend equal time in Chinese and English, just chatting, learning new words along the way.

Malachi only lasted 5 minutes. Literally. :) We had high hopes--a bit too high. He's a squirmy 3-year-old and just not ready to sit and learn another language right now.

So, Josiah acquired his tutor and has a lesson twice a week with 2 different girls. We spend the first 20 minutes chatting with them in English so they get their share out of the deal. Then they work with him on basic vocabulary. Sometimes they go outside and explore while learning. Other times, they work with the good ol' flash cards.

This week, we asked his tutor to take him for a walk and work on colors. She wasn't too excited because it was "hot." (Meanwhile, we're loving the 80s!!) But, she obliged anyway. Anything for the kiddo.

They usually come back no later than 5:30pm (which is way past what we tell her, but whatever). By 5:45 I was wondering what was going on. Michael's tutor then said, "Um, I just got a text and Cherry said Josiah isn't coming home. They're at the soccer field."

Of course, our reply was along the lines of...be firm! Just tell him to come home!

But it's not that easy. These college students usually have zero experience with kids. They don't babysit when they're young. Who would they babysit? They have no siblings! So they do what they see other grannies and parents do--dote on the child, spoil them rotten, virtually let the child be in complete control. I knew this is what had happened.

A few minutes later, Josiah stormed in the door. He doesn't usually get angry, and especially not with someone other than one of us!

I asked him what happened. "She kept following me! I told her I could walk home by myself! I didn't need her to follow me home!"

Meanwhile, Cherry is standing back against the door looking terrified and hurt. Great.

I explained to Josiah that we have never let him walk home alone, so why would she? There are tons of cars on that road and it's just too dangerous. He wasn't having it, so I sent him to his room so I could unwind Cherry a bit.

She started crying (usually a shameful thing in this culture). I felt horrible! I explained to her that she did everything I would have done. I told her the boys get mad at me, too. They say hurtful things. (Apparently he told her he didn't like her in the midst of it all.) But that's just part of taking care of kids.

She replied, "I don't think he likes me. Maybe I cannot teach him anymore. I don't know if I can do this with my own kids." Great, this just ruined her ever having kids.

I gave her a hug. I told her he loves spending time with her every week. She can't take this so personally.

Of course we made Josiah apologize. He made her a card, too. He's over it. :)

In the end, it was a great lesson for both of them. Yes, Josiah definitely needs to learn to respect those older than him, and anyone who is left in charge of him. He doesn't usually have a problem with that, but something set off his little power trip. And I hope Cherry learns that she must be firm and in control. The more she lets him tell her what to do, the worse it will get. Same with any child!

I checked in on her the next day. She was embarrassed, but I hope she takes to heart the big lesson at hand! It would sure help in this generation of little princes and princesses.

And I Quote...

I've been collecting these gems for quite a while!

Grammy to Malachi: What did you dream about?
M: God
G: What about God?
M: Jesus {way to go with the classic Sunday School answer, kid!}
G: What about Jesus?
M: He dead. {clearly we have some theology issues to work on}

Before Naomi was born, I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the boys seeing me breastfeed. Especially Josiah. He's into that very curious, ask-very-detailed-questions stage, and I wasn't ready to answer all of them. But, life happened, and they saw me nurse. Malachi--oblivious (what's new?!). Josiah--curious. One time, he was pelting me with more questions about nursing. "What is she doing? What is she drinking?" After giving a simple explanation, he replied, "so those are like straws and she sucks the milk?" YEP, we're going with that!

One day, while riding in the car with all 3 kids crammed in the back, Josiah says, "I know how to spell 'warning,' Mom! w-a-r-n-i-n-g." For a second, he had me. I was impressed! Then I realized what he had done...read the "warning" sign on Naomi's seat and spelled it out to me. But, hey! He read the word!

Uncle Eric (after being begged to play after dinner): I'll play with you after you count to 60.
Malachi: 1,2,3,4,5,60! (In the sweetest, most innocent voice)

While wearing his super hero shirt that is headless (HE is supposed to be the hero..):
Hannah: Which is better, Superman or Batman?
Malachi: ME!

When laying down for bed:
Malachi: I'm gonna think about Jesus and going to heaven.
Josiah: I'm gonna think about math.

Love these boys! They sure keep us laughing!

My Other Family

This past week, our organization had it's annual conference in Thailand. It's a week (sometimes more if we decide to travel) out of our hectic and usually stressful year to take a break, relax, and surround ourselves with 500 of our best friends. That's what it seems like, anyway. I could sit down with anyone at that conference and connect with them on several levels. Because even though we may serve in different roles, cities, or even countries, we all seem to have the same highs and lows. The struggles and trials don't care what culture you're trying to adapt to--they're just about the same.

This conference, chock-full of corporate worship, lessons from the pulpit, and seminars is so life-giving. Even more so if we've been living in a city without any of those things. The corporate worship gives me goosebumps every.single.time. Of course we get to sing and worship in small settings back in China, but I think it's the large group that gets me. Gives me a picture of what heaven will look like. Only that will be a million times better.

Not only is the actual conference amazing, so are all the lunches, dinners, coffee and smoothie dates, trips to the zoo and other excursions with new and old friends. We can speak in English! We can wear shorts in the middle of winter! (Especially amazing when living in our last city that hovered around 0 or lower for 5 months!) We can eat delicious food! Thai, Western, Indian, oh yum! And Thai iced tea! (If you haven't had this, find your nearest Thai restaurant and order some!) Thailand is known as "The Land of Smiles." It truly is! The locals are so kind and helpful!

Josiah and Ellie, friends from our first years in China. They hadn't seen each other in 2.5 years, and played together like no time had passed at all.

So why write about all the wonderfulness of our conference and Thailand? Because we missed it this year. I knew it would be hard to look at all the pictures of the beautiful people I miss and only get to see once a year. I knew I'd miss the warm, mid-winter break (although, this midwestern winter ain't half-bad with its up-swings into the 60s several times!). I knew I'd miss Lemongrass, the best Thai restaurant in town. Lunch for the fam costs $10.

But it's hard to talk so highly of a place and people I love when we're at home (the one on this side of the world, anyway) with family and friends. Of course I love being here, too. On those bad "China days," I long for America with its free libraries, parks in every neighborhood, and any comfort I could dream of with little effort to make. When I'm in the States, I long to be back in Asia. My heart is torn. There are amazing things about each place.

Missing conference made me realize that the friends I see there are more than friends..they're family. Wow, that sounds mushy. But it's true. With every team we've been on (4 different ones so far), our teammies become our family. I thought it was just for that year while we were teammies, sharing birthdays, holidays, ups and downs. But, no. I now see that we'll forever be bonded together. Since we all move around so much, we often don't get to spend more than a year together. That's why conference is so amazing. We get to reconnect with old friends..er..family.

And that's why it's so hard to miss being in Thailand. I'm missing out on seeing my family. My one chance for the year.

So American friends and family, if you hear me talk about or read a Facebook post about my China family, don't be jealous. Our hearts are torn between Asia and America. A great reminder that we are aliens in this world and our citizenship is in heaven. (Phil. 3:20)