Simple Gifts

I guess it was in early 2012 that I was really feeling like all I was doing was nursing, changing diapers, cooking, cleaning, nursing some more... in short, I felt like all I was doing was mothering. Don't get me wrong, I love it, and I'm grateful for this job even when it is exhausting. But I needed to find some outlet, some thing that could fall out side of the realm of constant mothering. It doesn't hurt to mention this was around the time Ander started his slow and steady escalation of "busy-ness". I needed to take a page out of his book and escape the premises for a bit.
My friend Carrie has been in the ICC choir for years and I have actually been to many of their performances. So when Carrie suggested I join, I was unsure if I could hack it.
Desperation may or may not have played a minor role in my decision.
In January I got up my courage and joined the Taipei International Community Choir, the first official choir I have sung in since high school.
Never have I been so grateful for what I had learned in those h.s. choirs!
There was so much music, we moved really quickly and our director Helen Wood is a very accomplished (but strict) singer/director. She has credentials for days. I was intimidated at first.

 As difficult as it was, I pretty much loved it. It felt so good to raise my voice for a joyous cause for once and not at my children. And to help ease my stress some nights Nathan would play my music on the piano for me after we put the kids down, and go over parts I needed help with (I. love. him.).

By March though we had an increase in practices and I realized a bit late that I had committed to more than I was prepared for. 4-6 hours a week of practices became difficult to manage. Especially when my kids were asked to sing a song in a children's choir at our performance, so we added their practices onto my own. 

Our final performance, Simple Gifts, was May 5. We performed at a little Catholic church and all of our proceeds go to the St. Anne's Orphanage. 

It was a great accomplishment for me, a lot of hard work, and a lot of fun.

Just a few of my favorite girls after the performance, which turned out beautifully. If you need further proof I will attach a video of one of our songs. Listen for Matina and I's couple of notes at 1 min 43 sec and 2:43.

Away From the Roll of the Sea

The kid's song is here: Rainbow Connection
(and yes, I was just grateful Aly's dress didn't make it over her head.)

Kennedy's Orph Performance

In 3rd grade at TAS each student needs to pick "Orph" or strings. Kennedy chose orph which includes some singing and dancing and it seems a lot of percussion. She really loves this class and I know the extras like music are often the first to go when budgets get tight in public schools. I am so grateful Kenna has the chance to learn some of these fun and cool things.


You can barely see Kennedy in the back but she is playing base so listen when they come in to hear her handiwork.

Easter Fun 2012

Yes, this might be an Easter post in May. Let's work with me here. This was a fun afternoon to be remembered. My mom was still visiting at this point, seems so long ago already.

 We did our Easter games and baskets on Saturday before Easter. The 5 Statham kids + one of the Chile's came up for an egg hunt. The more the merrier on those types of activities, right?

 It's nice when we live so far away from our extended family to have neighbors who will scoop up your baby and snuggle em up for a bit whenever they get the chance. Scarlett is content with Jeremiah any time, which can't be said about just anyone these days.

 Even in sports mode it's hard to get a good picture of this one. All these pics are thanks to the Stathams and their new camera. We had about 350 pics from the afternoon. Action shots add up fast!

 Aly found the golden egg with the mulah! Lucky girl.

 Next we went out in our yard for some Easter races. There were sooo many funny pictures, literally about 100. Here are just a few to give you an idea. The first race was the bunny hop, with the finish line being the trampoline.

 It's pretty hard to hop like a bunny actually...

 Poor sweet Aly had by far the best bunny form, and because of this she came in dead last 3 heats in a row. That about broke her heart. We complimented her on her fine form to try and help her see that she was truly the best at that. Hard lesson though. Grandma had to take over from dad and console her.

 As any one who has ever had the privilege to give him chase would remark (usually with some level of surprise), Ander. is. fast!

 Pretty soon we started having the older kids do a one legged bunny hop to try and handicap them a bit. They kept racing for a long time, I was exhausted just watching.

The finale was when the kids started chanting for the parents to race, then proceeded to make our rules for how to hop. The Dads had to have their hands behind their heads, the Moms had to pretend we were holding our baby bunnies, and all of us were to jump one legged.

I was so happy to see how strange we all looked in every frame. Apparently I'm not as athletically graceful as I'd imagined.
I'd like to note that this was when I was first sick, thus the pj's, and also, it's super hard to jump like a bunny! I even just ran at the end and I still didn't win.
What a fun afternoon of Easter activities.

"Busy"

"Busy" is the word people use to describe toddlers who are all kinds of crazy. It is a loaded word choice because though it is short and simple, there is much implied. Like, "WOW, that Ander is busy." really translates into, "WOW. I am SO glad he isn't mine!" 

In the last 6 weeks Ander has undergone an incredible change. He has become certifiably "busy". Everyone comments on it. Everyone is right.
He is.
I know what a normal 2 year old is like, and it's a lot of work, for sure. And I have heard horror stories of children that were unusually destructive, active, and all over the place and I'd say Ander falls somewhere not too far from them. Thankfully though, I realize it could yet be worse.

Part of the predicament seems to be that he problem solves rather quickly. He figures out how things work, like the sling shot, for example, and then we all pay the price. I'm often simultaneously impressed and loathing that he has discovered how to make something work... like, say, the car. 

He is not deterred by normal toddler limitations, he simply figures ways around them. I don't have a lot of persuasive picture proof because I rarely can/should stop to take a pic when I happen upon him in the middle of a mission of madness. 

We noticed when he was as young as 10 months old that he had figured out how to leverage his weight to his advantage. He has spent the last year and a half honing this skill, not to mention that he is crazy strong. The combination has enabled him to scale counters, dressers, fridge shelves etc. 

We have these cement lights in our yard. They are as tall as Ander is. He pried the heavy stone lid off of the top of one and proceeded to throw rocks at the exposed light bulb until it shattered. He repeated the process a few days later, then sliced open his foot on the broken glass. Completely undeterred, a day later he lifted off the 13 lb lid again and this time accidentally dropped it on his toe. Is it bad that my reaction was that maybe, just maybe, it might slow him down for a few days?! No such luck. He just scampered around on his heel with his swollen, black and blue big toe in the air.

It's not all bad all of the time. He plays a lot more with the older three now, he speaks more clearly each day and still snuggles up with me on occasion.

But then I will walk into my room and find my 3 month old laptop like this...

For the record, you can't just clip the keys back on. You have to buy the whole bottom piece which is $275. Thankfully it was somehow covered or I might have sold Ander off to the lowest bidder.

Usually you can at least say they are cute when they are sleeping, right? Ander newly transitioned into his big boy bed in Kohen's room. He now gets up at 6am with the rest of the family. It sucks. I know that's not a nice word, but believe me, it's fitting.
Fun story:
I had a bad bought of bronchitis a few weeks ago and one day after I got the babies down for naps I laid down to try and get some much needed rest before the older three came home. An hour later, my neighbor Brandie is peeking in my bedroom door saying "Erin?! Are you ok?!"

Ander had woken up, pried the toddler proof thing off of his door handle, gone downstairs, climbed in the pantry to get a snack, put the snack down at the front door where he let himself out, went over to the van where he opened the trunk (as he can't quite reach the door handles) climbed in and proceeded to change every setting, turn on and off every possible button and finally he opened the big gate to our house/yard. So he started walking down the lane and eventually Brandie heard him crying and went out to find him wandering barefoot down the lane. She knew I was really sick and panicked thinking maybe I had passed out or something so she came to make sure I was alright.

I was fine, just sleeping while Ander roamed the countryside! The really scary thing is that at both ends of our short lane there is an extremely dangerous road. We are working on ways to ensure he stays in the house, and if he gets out, to ensure he at least stays in the yard. But even then who knows, I am willing to admit this kid is giving us a run for our money.