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.

Shifen Waterfall, PingXi

My biggest driving accomplishment happened when we went to PingXi and Shifen Waterfall. I borrowed a friends GPS but it wouldn't find our destination so I just winged it. I stopped once for directions but was totally patting myself on the back because I was on the right track. 

Once we got to PingXi (the place where the lantern festival is held) we got out and had a picnic before exploring the little town a bit. 

Lot's of sights and smells and "culture".

This sweet lady sold us these hats for about $1 U.S. each. That is a deal I can handle.

Grandma "Pixie" and Papa John with the three amigos.

I first heard about Shifen falls from Pinterest. I didn't put it together that it was so close to PingXi until I googled it. I was excited to go check it out but not holding my breath. 

                           

I was pleasantly surprised. It's rare in Asia that something exceeds my expectation.

But Shifen Falls definitely did. It was beautiful.

You can actually take a little train from PingXi up to Shifen waterfall which could be fun to do another time with different visitors (HINT, HINT- to anyone who wants to take it).

It was a stunning waterfall. I was so glad we went to see it. 

I was also glad we left Ander home with a sitter. It wasn't really an Ander friendly outing... though most aren't these days. He is a WILD man. But that is a story for another day. 

Grandpa Time

 My dad was certainly busy this trip. He spent literally hours, roughhousing with the kids out on the trampoline. They would beg him to go out and play with them and day after day, he obliged. It's a testament to his endurance and courage that he could handle 4 wild things at once. It is what the kids have talked about the most though so it was obviously their favorite activity.

 Nathan was gone most of when my dad was able to be here but we did all get to go and see Hunger Games together which was awesome (except that for some reason the ENTIRE audience broke out into laughter every time it cut to Gale watching the games from District 12. There were no words on the screen at the time as nothing was being said and other friends reported the same experience when they saw it. So strange. Anyway, I digress) but once Nathan left it was up to me to get us around which definitely stretched my abilities. We did eventually find the beautiful Calla lilly festival going on further up the mountain.

 Plenty of time loving on this little sweety pie.

And we also went to the zoo one hot day. We had a pretty good time, we got to see the Panda Bears which is always pretty neat. Aaand I even got us home without having to make an international call to have Nathan tell me where I was and where I needed to go, success!

Spring Break Visitors!

 When my parents heard that Nathan would be out of town for the week before spring break this year, they decided to come for a visit when they could both give me a hand and also get some quality time while the kids were home from school. It all came together rather last minute which is my favorite way. Before we knew it Grandma and Grandpa were on their way to us.

They arrived early Friday morning and decided they felt well enough, in spite of jet lag, to accompany Nathan on Aly's field trip to the strawberry patch. They literally left our house after arriving only a half an hour earlier.

 Aly was excited to have her dad and her grandparents go with to the strawberry patch. She enjoyed picking her strawberries and getting to eat strawberry ice cream.

I met them back at the school and Nathan and I took my parents to Din Tai Fung, the best soup dumplings in the world. So. Good. Not bad for a first day battling jet lag. We were so excited to have them!!!

Father Daughter Ball 2012

 This year, for the Father/Daughter Ball the theme was Alice in Wonderland. My options are limited and different than how I would go about getting a costume for Kennedy in the states. I find myself making do a lot, which is good for me, right?

Thankfully I have some of my old dance costumes with us so I sacrificed one and had a local sewing lady take off the sequins that had been on it and fit it to Kenna and she wore it over a Cinderella costume we had and it worked perfectly! (well, perfectly enough)

Nathan rented a tux and it was the first time he's worn one since we were married. He looked so handsome, I was a little envious I wasn't going out with him. He searched all over Taipei to locate a top hat since the invitation suggested he wear one, and Kennedy was really hoping he would find one.

 Kennedy, or rather, Ms. Alice, was wearing a hair bow, where her bow was made out of her hair. I ran out of time and ended up feeling like the practice run the night before had been a pinch better but she was thrilled how it turned out so I resisted the urge to keep primping and let her go.

 Not too shabby. It makes me wonder how easy it would be to do this if we didn't have 4 other kids running around and in the mix.

And of course the Mad Hatter has the fraction on his hat which upon Googling it's significance is supposedly the price of the hat, 10 shillings 6 pence. Interesting.

 They were off, headed for a night of fancy food, fun games and dancing. They were not disappointed. Kennedy looks forward to this night all year long. Truth be told, so does Nathan.

 This was Aly after they left. It's hard being a 5 year old -excuse me- 5 and a half  year old, when there is a magical Ball on the line. Maybe next year sweety peety. (I should mention Nathan took her out on a date the night before, lest anyone feel too sorry for her).

 

Kohen, however, was ready to party.