Happy Birthday Caden Luke!

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Caden turned 1 year old on January 22, 2014! Wow, this year has flown by and has been full of many changes! Thankfully, the Father gave us this little “surprise” baby with an easy going, contented, happy personality. He hardly ever cries, and just seems to be enjoying life every second no matter where he is or who he is with (we could all learn from him – ha!).

He doesn’t seem like he could be a year old already.He sleeps from 7p-7:30a – wakes up around 5:30am, but will go back down. He has been walking for a couple of months, he doesn’t talk much (with Colt and Kylie around he probably won’t need to. . . ever.), and he still nurses 4x a day. Colt and Kylie were 100% ready and weaned by 1 year old, but Caden is different. Not sure how this is going to work out. He is all about any other food you could feed him too though – hence, he is our sweet sweet “fatty patty” or “chubby bubby” :)! He is just perfectly squishy and kissable.

We all adore this baby and are so thankful for his life! Here are some pics of his first time trying cake! He L.O.V.E.D it! Thanks Aunt BB and Mom for providing all the party goodies!

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People and their dogs here. . .

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Everyone seems to have a poodle.  It is definitely the most popular choice.  It’s also popular for dogs to be clothed and primped to the max!  This dog we snapped a picture of was the most outlandish we had seen until yesterday when I saw a poodle (of course) with LACE UP SHOES ON! Oh, I wish I could’ve gotten a picture of that! Maybe we will see it again though?

Yíjiā

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I’m nearly convinced that we should give up on trying to go to Yíjiā (IKEA – Swedish Furniture Store) here in our city.  The first time we went as a family it took 2 hours to get there when it should’ve taken 30 mninutes, and it was packed full of people because it was a Saturday (note: don’t go on a Saturday).  The second time we tried to go was on New Years because we were told only govt. workers were off for this holiday (note: don’t go anywhere on New Years, the whole country is off).  The third time, which was this past week, we went on a Tuesday because they have an indoor play ground that we wanted the kids to enjoy, AND they have free coffee on Tuesdays!

 

It had been so crowded the past 2 times we went that we basically just left as soon as we got there.  The play place always had a long wait too.  So this time we were excited to see the kids should be able to play!  Until we got to the sign in area. . . Kylie was too short, and Colt was nearly too tall!  Whaaaa?  There was a VERY slim margin for the height of children who could play.  We let Colt go in though, and Kylie happily watched from the outside.  It wasn’t boring at all for her since half the kids were playing with her through the window 🙂 photo 1 copy

We also wanted to get a dresser and some shoe storage from the store. . . but . . . they didn’t have the shore storage we wanted and the dresser wasn’t on sale anymore.  So, after our nice little hour there of playtime for Colt 🙂 we tried to go home.  KEY WORD: TRIED.  We waited for 3 buses that were soooo full that people were cramming on and jamming the doors.  Then we tried to flag a taxi for at least 30 minutes.  Whew.  (note: never go to Ikea on a Tuesday. . . or just never go again maybe?)

Waiting to pick up Colt from school :)

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Putting Colt in the local kindergarten was my biggest concern about moving overseas.  I just wanted what would be best for him, and we had no idea what that was!  So after much pr@yer and counsel, we had peace about starting him in the local school.  The Father has really prepared him by giving him an outgoing, friendly personality and a bright mind.  So far Colt has done an outstanding job!

His school has been super to work with us too.  We are the only foreigners there, and have gone back and forth with just about everything.  For example, we started at half days, then Colt wanted to go for a full day once, then he wanted to stay for dinner once, then he went to all full days, and now are picking him up and bring him home during their rest time.  I’m sure they think we are crazy 🙂

Kylie likes to go pick him up though.  You can see in the 2nd picture she is carrying the card we have to give to the guard when we pick Colt up.  She wears her backpack . . . and dresses herself obviously 🙂photophoto (1)

Happy New Year

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We were off from language studies, and Colt was off from his school on New Years Day. Our tutor said only govt. workers would be off. So we decided to take a trip out into the city and let the kids play. I think all of East Asia was off work though because it was RIDICULOUSLY crowded. The public transportation was soooo crowded. Once we reached our destination, it was too crowded for the kids to play. So, we ate and headed home. It still took about 4-5 hours total. The taxi’s weren’t moving any faster than our bus either. It was just jam packed traffic. We learned a valuable lesson. Stay home on New Years Day.

Christmas Eve Service in Hong Kong

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Our visa run to Hong Kong was December 22-25th. That means that we were there for Christmas. It really wasn’t a bad thing though. We were with good friends. The kids had playmates. The city was decorated beautifully. There was constant Christmas music playing everywhere we went. We were able to eat some yummy western foods at some familiar restaurants. We even got to go to Disney in HK (post on that to come)! I mean, what’s not to like. . . besides that being away from family (MAJOR) part? 🙂

Another cool part of the trip was being able to go to a Christmas Eve service on Christmas Eve! We went back and forth about going with the 3 littles since it was late, and let’s face it. . . it’s not easy to get around town. Anywhere. We ended up taking the bus and walking a little instead of the metro, and it was actually pretty close and easy! What a relief!

When we got to the Ch*rch, they had a table set up with costumes for any kids in attendance. How cool is that?! It was super family friendly, and we were all totally glad we went. It was refreshing and encouraging. They even had the candle light part at the end and some cookies and hot chocolate afterwards! Again, glad we went!
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New Years Festivities at Colt’s School

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It’s a little bit comical to have your child attending an all Chinese speaking school 🙂 They have a teacher that speaks pretty good English, and she tried to tell me that Tuesday I needed to bring Colt to school at 9:30 instead of 9. She also communicated that there would be no school on New Years day. Ok, I got that. THEN, I picked him up from school on the Monday before, and he was carrying this paper all in Hanzi (Chinese characters) – yep, I can’t read that. Shocking, I know.

So, as we walked to market and back, I looked and listened for ANYONE that was speaking ANY English 🙂 No luck. Then, as we got on the elevator at our apartment complex a couple walked in that spoke English really well!! Thank you FATHER! The man said that a parent needed to accompany the child to school the next morning at 9:30 for games and New Years fun! School would be only a half day, then no school Wednesday. That was helpful to know since that meant that David and I would need to rearrange our class time as well so we could go!:)

Here are some pics from that day at Colt’s school. It was funny because the first game he played, he didn’t win. . . but they obviously favored him and gave him the prize! Oh my. I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t want to offend them or make them lose face (new concept for me and a really big deal in this culture). . . plus my Chinese isn’t near good enough to talk through that situation. Colt was confused too because he knew he didn’t win. As we walked through the school to various stations of games all the kids were saying, “Hello Colt Hello Colt!!” It made my heart happy to see that everyone genuinely seemed to like him 🙂

Then, when we were leaving, he turned in his tickets for a prize. He only had 4 tickets. . . he should have only received 1 little prize from the “4-ticket section” of prizes. BUT AGAIN, the teachers were showering him with gifts and he walked out with 2 toys, 1 stuffed animal, and a pack of markers. Oh dear. Teaching opportunities all around.
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