Super Sized Grasshopper

Can you believe the size of this hopper we found in our yard? They are huge! They are even bigger than the 'Mormon Crickets' you occasionally find in Idaho which is saying something is it not?
I was trying to help Kohen secure the big guy in the net while the girls looked on ready to bolt at a seconds notice. Through the net this guy kicked my hand and I was so shocked at how strong he was I kinda freaked out and almost peed my pants. Nathan was enjoying the whole show thoroughly.
The finale happened as Kohen was trying to tap the guy into his box and the hopper flew and landed on innocent bystander Kennedy's legs. Kennedy and Aly started screaming bloody murder and and Nathan and I scrambled to get the hopper off of her before someone called the cops on us. Kennedy actually cried she was so scared and so I took the girls away to comfort them and left Nathan to help Kohen with the critter.

Kennedy settled down and said, "I wish Caleb was here, he'd know what to do with that big thing!" Caleb is her cousin, you may remember the giant slug from a summer post??? She is right though, he is just the kid for the super sized critters around these parts.

Direct Quote

Nathan to Kohen after school:

Nathan: How was recess?

Kohen: Good, but the girls wouldn't stop chasing me.

Nathan: Did they catch ya?

Kohen: No, cuz I ran SO fast.

Nathan: Were the girls giggling while they chased you?

Kohen: No. They were merciless.

Pixar Exhibit

Tonight after a short FHE lesson on Talents we took the children to the Taipei Art Museum where they are celebrating Pixar's 20 Years of Animation. It was pretty neat and maybe Nathan and I will have to go back so we can read more, the kids moved through the exhibits fairly quickly.
There were really neat original sketches, models and storyboards all over. I got a few pics before the security guard told me "no pictures"- woops, that sign must've been in Chinese -and apparently doesn't apply if you're a local taking pictures of my 3 little ones.
They had videos playing that would show you how something was developed and also a giant screen with their digital shorts playing. The sketches were fun though because you could see how characters started out and evolved. Jessie from Toy Story 2 for instance, they had sketches of her with a skirt on and then eventually pants. Probably our favorite thing was something called a Zoetrope which is a bunch of figurines that they spin really fast in a circle and then a strobe light comes on and it tricks your mind into thinking the figurines are in motion. The kids laughed and laughed at this, it was pretty fascinating.
And last but not least we had our first beautiful sunset last night- this was taken from our front yard. It should be even better for you as you can enjoy it sans mosquito!

Coping

Most of the time I feel like I am coping pretty well over here. Then Nathan points out the insane amount of reading I've been doing in the month and a half we've been here. 9+ books, well over 4,000 pages read... gee, could it be possible I've been using books as an escape and coping mechanism? Better than some of the alternatives I guess. Of these books I'd say East of the Sun and Taking Liberties were my favorite. I found them both at Target before I left.....Target *whistful sigh*
While I'm on the subject- I thought I'd share my favorite bookmark, one I feel I am quite ingenious for thinking of if I do say so myself. Just a simple bobby pin. It works SO well. Always have one, doesn't damage the pages and never falls out. Love it. You are welcome.

So I think I am mostly doing a post so that everyone knows that the baby is still in my side rather than by my side. My due date is just a few days away and though most of the time I am fine tonight I am feeling rather uncomfortable and grumpy. Even ice cream didn't help. No woman has ever stayed pregnant forever but at the moment I feel certain I'll be the first one........I know, sounds like it's time for someone to stop counting days and start counting blessings...

Getting Settled

Slowly but surely we are getting settled. For several days there was no where to sit as we only brought our beds (Asian mattresses are typically very hard) and so it was such a treat on Saturday to get a couch and chairs for our kitchen table. I'll tell you what, draw a process out long enough and I'll be grateful for just about anything! It seems like we've had a steady stream of people in and out, internet, dishwasher, washer/dryer, Ikea, and on and on. What has impressed me the most is Nathan's Chinese. One of these workers will start speaking to me in Chinese and I will of course have zero idea what they are saying. Nathan will come in and there will be a bunch of rapid fire Chinese and pretty soon they are all in understanding...I'm still in the dark, lol. He is picking up more and more Chinese every day and I am grateful one of us can figure out what the heck is being said!
A few other things: Aly seems to be getting the hang of everyone's accents and is feeling much happier at school and nursery. Kennedy claims to dislike Mandarin class because it is "so hard"- but then proceeds to rip through numbers 1-10 after only 2 classes, Nathan couldn't have been more proud. And Kohen is also loving school as he is allowed to do projects to his hearts content. He comes home with all sorts of creations, having used gobs of supplies and his teachers are pleased as punch. Endless supplies, a bonus of private school? I'll take it. Anyway they all seem to be adjusting to the new house fairly well.

Kennedy started a round of colds last week, bless her heart. It has gone through everyone but Nathan and I seem to have had it the worst. Not totally surprising considering how much we've been working and how we've been getting less sleep than usual. I am hoping to feel better tomorrow, and also hoping Nathan doesn't get sick.

Random Observation: It is quite acceptable to belch here, no excuse me required. However, it is considered ghastly to pick your teeth without first covering your mouth with one hand and picking discreetly behind it with your other. Curious.

Last but not least, we got the De-humidifier's going, one for each of 3 levels. They fill up usually 2/3rds through the day. Check out how much water is getting pulled out of the air from just one de-humidifier:

The Big Move & Our Families Newest Addition

Oh how I wish my short blogging hiatus had more to do with our families newest members but alas no such luck- and I have not had the baby yet. I'll get to our mini additions in a moment. But first, we are moved in! Certainly not settled but our belongings are all here, somewhere. The night before the movers came we came over to the house and went for our first swim. I have been longing to get in a nice cool pool since we've been here but I waited until we got access to our pool so I wouldn't have to worry about everyone staring at my swollen westerner body. It was worth the wait, SO wonderful! Love how you can't feel a pound of baby when you're submerged in water. Everyone enjoyed the swim.

We live up this extremely steep and narrow hill and the movers had to fill a bunch of smaller trucks from the bigger truck with our things. A whole crew of Phillipino men did the hard labor and then helped us to unpack many of the boxes. I swear two of them were assigned to follow me around and make sure I didn't lift anything which was actually very sweet. But then I felt kind of dumb as they were trying to help me unpack boxes and I'd have to stop in the middle of a box and say, "I have no idea where this should go, we'll have to come back to it." There are very few closets or garages to be found in Taiwan and although this house isn't as old as some it still is lacking heavily in the storage department. It's going to take some time and creativity to find a place for everything.

Last night was our first night in the house and we discovered a problem we had already suspected. The house is big. There aren't many choices, especially at the time we came house hunting, you either have an apartment or a large house. We tried to rent one that was a bit smaller but would have fit our needs just fine but the owners were insane and wanted us to pay their taxes which is absurd and an agreement couldn't be made (though they called our realtor 2 months later and said they thought they'd made a mistake, DUH!). In the end this house was the only other option and we are very pleased with how great the landlord is and the proximity to school etc.

This house is 3 stories and a lot of wide open space. As is standard each room has it's own AC unit . I hesitate to put details of where everyone sleeps on the blog so I will just say that it is a weird configuration of rooms and we are not on the same level as the children. Due to the AC blowing in each room we can hear next to nothing. I'm thinking I'm going to have to have a baby monitor in each of the kid's rooms just for peace of mind, unless anyone has any other suggestions.
Also customary in Taiwan is to work with 2-4 realtors at once, which really was odd to me when we were house hunting. We trusted and loved our first realtor Fiona and are friends with her still but the lady who insisted we just see this house only she had access to, named Jane, seemed to sneak in at the last second and now we are left working through her on house issues. She is fine and a hard worker but the bottom line is that Nathan and I don't really trust her. In example, we've become friends with the tenants previously living in our house. Angelica was going to surprise our children with a turtle for the little Koi pond we now have. Jane gets wind of this and shows up yesterday with two adorable little pet turtles. She didn't even ask Nathan or I first and she definitely stole Angelica's thunder. Jane rubs me the wrong way. Now let's look at how ADORABLE these little turtles are :)
There is a bigger one cleverly named "Master Uguay" by Kennedy -after the turtle on Kung Fu Panda, and then the littler one named "Speedy" because I think I'm funny. Kohen and Kennedy were ecstatic and truth be told I pretty much love the little cuties- I actually had two little turtles just like this for a while growing up. I wonder if we can keep them alive for any length of time...
Though there no signs of imminent labor for me as of yet- I am satisfied at how our family has expanded with Master Uguay and Speedy. You all should really come over and meet them :)

Until then wish us luck getting this place settled and send our little guy encouragement to not procrastinate the day of his arrival- there is nothing wrong with being a little early. With all that needs to still be done I suppose I could really use this last week and a half- though take just a moment to visualize what a 10 month pregnant woman moving into and unpacking a house looks like. It ain't pretty but I'm getting the job done!

The D.L. on the Grime and Q's Answered

Nathan and I were trying to find good examples of how everything here is so grimey and dirty. This picture of the car wash is a pretty good example. It's how everything looks. I think the reason is because it rains here so much and there is smog and when it rains it brings the smog down with it. After there is a fine layer of black soot on everything. Plus when it isn't raining it's so humid and it amazes me how the constant wetness just rots everything. It never fails, we'll be walking somewhere and I'll turn to find Kohen or Aly's face covered in black smudges like a full-on chimney sweep, since they unknowingly touched something and then touched their face. I did not bring NEAR enough antibacterial Wet Ones Wipes and when Nathan's boss came last month he brought me about 10 more travel packs. We are going through them like crazy.

I guess my point is that it isn't just the hospitals that are dirty. Though inside the hospital you have to wonder what the excuse is. There isn't literal chunks of dirt on the floor or anything, just an overall unclean feel. Everything is old and grimey. I saw (and then quickly tried to delete from my memory) small stains on the sheets at both hospitals we looked at. And to answer a few other questions from the last post, the new Dr. is a younger Chinese guy who speaks great English. The bag next to our broken out window by our car? I wondered about that too but apparently it was just trash. And Trevi, did they deliver in two separate places in Provo or Iowa or both? I guess I am just a little naive about how birthing is in places other then good 'ol Boise.
Okay some more randoms. There are these Koi fish as you walk in or out of our apartment building and every time we go past it attracts our children like magnets. And yes, I fully expect one of them to fall through that space before we are all said and done here.
One annoying thing that happens here a lot is misinformation. In example. Today we needed to go to Ikea. There is a smaller one near our apartment and a big one an hour away. Nathan got online and double checked that the smaller, nearer one had child watch, cuz hello that's key. We get there and low and behold, no child watch. It's only at the bigger one. And as we walked through the packed eating area I swear a hush fell over the crowd as they all rubbernecked at our family as we went by. No lie, I got pointed at with chopsticks several times and a flash to a camera even went off in Aly's direction. I feel really self-conscious being so 'heavy with child'. I wanted to disappear. But look what we found in the bathroom! How fun is that cute toilet? Just like at the kid's school. I liked how they had this one family size ginormous stall for us girls. We could potty and wash without the stares.
We went out to dinner with some friends and after we went to get this traditional dessert called Bing. It is shaved ice milk with fruit, in this case Mangos, and cream over the top. It is really a cool treat and the kids loved it. Out in the heat it is a race to eat it before it melts but don't worry, Kohen was on top of it.
Tonight in the car Kohen asked if "Space Alients" were real. I said No. Kennedy says, "Well, how do you know?" and I said something like, 'Because Heavenly Father created us in his image, so we all look like him." Kennedy says, "No we weren't. He has a beard."

Kenna's been a little argumentative lately but I had to admit she had a point in her own way.
Last but not least, shall we all take a guess what else could possibly be added to my plate right now, as if the whole world can't see me teetering on the brink of insanity? Nathan and I got callings*** last week. Nathan was called to Young Mens Presidency per usual, and then I was called to be Young Womens President. After the contraction passed and I could breathe again (I may or may not have said, "please be joking right now") the Bishop pointed out that there are only a small handful of girls (4-6) but still.... I am overwhelmed. I am not near cool enough or inspired enough for this call. You don't need to say I am in either, I am not fishing for compliments, just saying how I feel...followed by, heaven help us.

***(In our church all positions, Bishop, teachers, nursery leaders, chorister, etc. are all performed by the members without pay. So you get asked to serve in different callings say as a Sunday school teacher, and you do it as a service and as a way to contribute.)

What A Weird Day

This morning at 7:15am the whole fam headed down from our temporary 10th floor apartment to load up to take the children to school (30min away) and then make an early appointment. This is what we found when we got to the van...... That's never good. Luckily we have a lease and this is our temporary van while we wait for an Odyssey and apparently one of the reasons you pay out the nose for a lease is the service. Nathan called our contact guy and he and the police showed up bringing another substitute van while this one is being fixed.

I jumped in a cab with the 3 children and we headed to school. The entire ride was understandably, filled with a bazillion questions about bad guys and how "the" bad guy did what he did and how many bad guys are there and where are they...

Come to find out, the navigation system in all Toyotas is the same and so right now it is a hot item to have stolen- recently made considerably worse by the typhoon, so we were told. It was a very professional job, power drill to the window, pull it out drop it to the ground. Reach in pop out the console with a screwdriver, cut one wire, unplug 3 things and walk away. I would be surprised if the whole thing took more than one minute. And I was very grateful that it was taken care of fairly easily.

So, okay. We've had baby doctor drama. A little bit. Last week when I went to my appointment with the OB (my 3rd with her, I'd seen her 2 weeks previously) it really didn't go well. She is SUPER nice and easy to talk to. However, she didn't really remember me and went 2/3's of the appointment thinking I was 30 weeks. I thought something was weird and it was confirmed when she tried to make my next appointment for 4 weeks. I said, "I'm due in less than 4 weeks." She was confused and shocked but eventually switched gears to the "time to pack your bags!" speech. I asked her my questions about her policy's and I didn't love the answers. Especially regarding episiotomy's. She admitted to cutting 50% of Westerners having their 1st child- what?! and had stats for subsequent births telling me I'd 'probably' be fine. I said, "but you'd ask me before you would do that right?" She said, "I wouldn't ask you, I would tell you but yes." *frown/glare*

Then she took me on a tour of the hospital. Things went from bad to worse. Usually they only have one labor and delivery room the rest of the time you labor in one room and then are moved to the delivery room (old school like our mothers did it). The dr. explained how it get's intense at the end of labor (cuz it's my 4th and I am unaware of this) and if I'm waiting for a delivery room I "might have to hold the head in" for a bit- like that is even possible! And these are sparse rooms with no soaker tubs or showers even, a bed and tv and that is about it. Post partum rooms were shared 90% of the time. And they keep your baby as much as possible though my friends who delivered here said they were able to get their babies back after a several hours. Overall, I wouldn't be supported in a natural birth by this doctor and I was less than enthused about the hospital.

We checked out a birthing center but it is at least an hour from our home, with traffic could be much more. I was advised to not risk having the baby in the car. The birthing center was better but really far away. Then, in an answer to prayers, a new kid joins Kohen's class and Nathan is chatting with the mom who is a Doula (birthing coach). What are the odds?! She suggested the Veteran's hospital right in Tianmu that is 10-15 min away from our house. This morning she took me over there to check it out.

If you saw it you'd die. Hospitals and health care in general are SO different here. It is not clean and Dr..'s lack the bedside manner we are used to. But I am getting used to how they all look creepy scary now and am coming to realize there is no way around it. Anna has been here 12 years and has the system down. There is absolutely NO WAY someone like me could just walk in and figure out what I'm supposed to do. She got me registered got me an unscheduled appointment with the Dr. who is open to however I want to have this baby and he answered all my questions favorably, then showed me L&D which I took in through half closed eyes. Anna kept telling me, you just have to ignore the dirt! It is very true. Everything is old and grimey. But postpartum here is much more to my liking, I can have things more my way and I liked the Dr. as well.

I am excited to have a Doula this time around, having an advocate especially in this situation seems priceless. Before we left we went to get my blood taken and Nathan had to take a picture because no lie, the place is swarming with people and it is just like the DMV...crazy. But I can see there are definitely pros to socialized medicine. Where else could I switch OB's with just over two weeks left? And pay $40 bucks for the Dr. visit, blood work and ultrasound?!

The Capes of Taipei

We have one week left before our house is ours, I know I can do it- I think I can, I think I can... My talented and crafty cousin Shelly sent a package that I've been saving for the right time to surprise the kids. This Sunday was it. The children have thus far been very creative and have done well but they don't have much to play with or any of their usual dress ups. I knew they would love what Shelly had made, a Super Hero Cape for each of them- they were a loud and boisterous hit.
Each cape is reversible and after not very long the girls capes turned into capes for Royalty while Kohen still ran around being a super hero and kind of terrorizing them with his exuberance about it. He has been missing his old crummy cape and is thrilled at his shiny new one. As are the girls, I had to convince Aly it wasn't proper school attire just this morning. Thank you Shelly for your thoughtfulness!

Of all the children the one I least suspected would have any issues with an overseas transition is the one who is having it. Poor Aly. She has been an early and well spoken communicator for quite some time. There are many Philipino women who come here to work as maids and in our church ward there are many Philipino women and some native Chinese people as well. Aly's teachers in Nursery happen to be Philipino and one Chinese. English is each of their 2nd languages. After the first week we of class she has since been coming completely unhinged when we drop her off and throughout. At first we didn't know what was wrong- and she was just crying so hard we couldn't figure it out. Eventually she started asking us things that clued us in, mainly, "Does my teacher speak English?" *light bulb* She can't understand them because they speak with accents. Her teacher at preschool is from India- same problem, same reaction. It's been rough going.

What's worse is everyone seems to pronounce her name putting emphasis on the wrong syllable and it sounds more like "El-ee" and apparently this really bothers Aly. Her nursery teacher told me how she kind of...how shall I say, corrected her strongly, about how to say her name correctly. I don't really blame her about that. Things were a little bit better this Sunday but I honestly feel sorry for her that she feels she can't understand what they are saying around her half the time. Who would've guessed it'd be Aly freaking out in Asia? Thought that target had been blown up and pinned on my back.
Lastly, part of Kennedy's homework every night is to read a book she brings home and it has become this cute little ritual among the children where they crowd around and she reads a book to her brother and sister. Nathan and I are insanely grateful for the short reprieve and can be found using silent hand gestures to communicate over the tops of their heads if we need to so as not to interrupt and cut short our coveted moment of peace. They are short enough as they are!

Our First Night Market Experience

Tonight Nathan took us to a Night Market for the first time. Lot's to see, lot's being sold, lot's of weird foods- much of which you wish you hadn't seen! As our family went along we were quite the spectacle, understandably. My OB told me yesterday that the birth rate here has dropped significantly over the last few years and the average family has 1.1 children. So being Western and then having more than our fair share of children, we get some looks.
We tried some of this juice, we chose the green lemon one (not lime after all) and it is the coldest drink I have been served in Taiwan so far and it was delicious. DELICIOUS I TELL YOU! We also had these little dough balls and like all baked goodies here they aren't usually very sweet anyway but these were just fried dough that had a hint of sweet to it and they were surprisingly addictive.
The best find of the night were these little bug catching nets. We went swimming with playgroup a week ago and the children all spent most of time with nets catching bugs (mostly grasshoppers thankfully) out in the grass. At $1 each I felt great about the purchase.
There are beautiful fresh fruit stands everywhere throughout the market. They cut it up for you right there. We made it about 5 paces away from the stand we bought some fruit from before our wagon train was halted so Nathan could share with the kids who were acting like starving baby birds. Fruit here is so good it is definitely like dessert.

Nathan thought we should go to this area that is all kinds of different Chinese foods and have dinner there. Let's just say I was less than willing. Well, we walked through this giant tented area for about 3 minutes before Nathan said over his shoulder, "We've got to get out of here!" I was so completely thankful and relieved. The horrors that I witnessed both sight and smell were so offensive I was too paralyzed to even use my camera, where would I start? And it was so crowded and gross, GROSS, GROSS! There is a food here called "Stinky Tofu" which is rotten tofu I believe, I never actually saw it, but I smelled it and it burned the nose hairs clean outta my nose, not even kidding. The kids wanted out too. It was bad. Poor Nathan was apologizing to all of us, kinda funny. We will have to find a better place to try some food next time- and I will take pictures. I'm sorry, I really was just focused on getting out of there.
Instead we went to our favorite Dumpling restaurant. Ahhh, safety. You can double click the pic, it's pretty cool how they make the dumplings. Thankfully they smell just fine. After we spent all week getting our children to bed early we kind of blew it tonight cuz we didn't even have dinner until an hour past their bedtime and they were all pooped but had enjoyed the outing... except for when Kenna about put Nathan and I over the edge when leaving the market with net and treats in hand she had the gal to say, "I thought you said we were gonna do something fun!" We tried to remember how truly tired they were but I really hate it when they do that. Especially when they have "fun" in hand. Other than the nightmare that was the food tent, I'm gonna give the Night Market a thumbs up.

Yu Kids Island and Other Randomness

This afternoon I met some of the girls from church at this play place called Yu Kids Island. Everything they had to play on was either blown up with air and rotating or blowing balloons around and the kids had a blast. We were inside but my children were still dying of thirst and even though I had brought water, I can never seem to bring enough here.

Everyone except Aly loved this Coconut Tree, it spins slowly around and you have to hang on. When Aly finally made it up there she kept getting pummeled by the coconuts, they were making her lose her balance and knocking her over. She was having none of that. However, it may or may not have been the highlight of my day to watch.

Kohen was Kung Fu Fighting the giant balloons below- he was entertaining all of the other Asian adults there "watching their children" but really watching mine.

Okay, guess what this ^ picture is of that Kohen drew. I had no idea until he told me- obviously, it's Nathan driving the car! He made it at school and I love it. I want to frame every darn thing he draws. It kind of looks like Nathan was frowning but upon closer inspection the lines of Nathan's neck just ran into his mouth, happens to the best of us. And that is some wild steering wheel eh?

Other randomness. It is incredible how many people smoke here. Young and old. Our children point it out constantly as we drive, lot's of "thumbs down" handed out as we go along. Then Kohen made a keen observation the other day that really stunned me. He pointed out that it's always the men smoking, never the girls. You know what? He's totally right. I am sure some do but so far I personally have seen zero women smoking. What is up with that? I really wonder why that is. It makes me sad though to see so many young men smoking around here.

Randomness #2: of 18 kids in Kennedy's class she is one of only two students who brings a lunch. Of Kohen's 12 classmates he is the only one who brings a lunch. Kennedy asked me why just she and the other girl are the only ones who bring their lunch and suddenly feeling insecure I told her, "Because your mommies love you more, but shhh, don't tell the other kids!"

Am I seriously the only person left who is going to make their child's lunch?! Nathan and I had talked about it and thought that the kids could pick a day to have hot lunch once a week but otherwise I can make their lunch so why not? It's cheaper and I'd like to believe it's healthier (seeing as Kennedy is looking forward to the juice and snickerdoodle that will likely be all she eats of her hot lunch tomorrow) I don't know, be honest. Am I just out of touch?

Speaking of food. There is no fiber here. How do these people poo?! I'm sorry but I'm serious!!! There is NO wheat anything, anywhere. Until a few days ago the most fiberous cereal we could find was Raisin Bran which really, doesn't have that much fiber in it either. When I happened upon some All Bran at a store I about fell over. Everything as far as breads go is stark white and most stores carry a small selection of sugar cereals. I really am curious where this population gets their fiber- I wonder how you say that in Chinese...and how horrified they'd be if I asked them how they stay regular.

Lastly, Nathan said the sweetest thing to me today. The apartment is all tile except for the creepy old carpet in the rooms. I was apologizing to him because it was dirty under the kitchen table. I told him I was sorry but the broom in the apartment is a little half broom (just Aly's size) and the angle absolutely kills my back to use and he interrupted me and said so sincerely, "Honey, I don't expect you to do anything." I was so grateful he didn't make me feel guilty (not that he would) but he actually did the opposite. If I have to do this whole "adventure" thing, I'm grateful to be doing it with him.

9 Months

9 Months... home stretch. I feel like I've been writing this post in my head all month though at the moment I have nothing significant to say that isn't complaining. Pregnancy is difficult and I guess that is all there is to it. But it is good to be within the last few weeks. I think the Asian people are flattering me because when they ask when the baby is coming and I tell them they say nice things like, "So soon?! You not very big!" And then I fight the urge to kiss a perfect stranger. I am big though, this baby is heavy. At the last appointment the dr. did an ultrasound and said he was measuring a week ahead- not that that means anything except he's a big baby- big by my babies standards. The other fun thing she seemed shocked by was that the baby has hair. It looked just like his dads, kind of like a perfect little crew cut. It'll be funny if the baby comes out bald, lol- then I'll be wondering what in the world I'd been looking at! I had my blood drawn and I will have the platelet results at my next appointment. I will let you know if there is anything to report there.My Romanian friend Alina had taken to calling me a Kinder Egg- if you don't know what one is -it's a chocolate egg that has a surprise little toy inside. Quite a fitting nickname I'd say... though I do hope this little guy doesn't come out red with a devious smile.

***Picture by Tara Lynn Photography

Kohen's First Day of K-A

Kohen had his first official day of K-A today which is great minus the fact that because of how far away our apartment is we all had to leave the house by 7am to get to school on time. If you know me well you know the only thing that get's me up early enough to be out the door by that time is a flight (preferably to somewhere I want to go) or fire- so this morning is definitely blog worthy. Aly had orientation for her preschool too, hence the 'uniform', which is really just another way to nickel and dime you to death.

Tonight for FHE Nathan told the Bible story of Jonah and the Whale to the kids using one of Kohen's figurines, his pirate ship and a whale-ish looking box to tell the story. Our lesson was on obedience because heaven knows we could use a refresher on the subject. After, we went for a walk to a park several blocks away and played some red light/green light on the way as an obedience game. At one point Nathan asked Kohen to hold his hand as we approached a busy street, Kohen quickly snapped to and said in all seriousness, "I don't want to be eaten by a whale." I guess that's what Kohen got out of the lesson, obey or be eaten by a whale.
This was one of the nicer parks we've been to. Many are so old and death trap looking. Several of them even have slides where the part you slide on is concrete...Chinese idea of fun??? But this park was newer and it was a nice night (and by nice I mean 90 degrees and not 100% humidity) so lot's of people were out. The girl sitting behind Kohen came right up to us and in the best English I've heard any Chinese child use said, "Hello, my name is LuLu!" and she just chatted us up from there- a really cute little girl. I also love how Kohen has no hesitation what so ever when it comes to playing with local kids. The fact that they can't usually understand him doesn't phase him a bit.