April 29, 2009

Sickness and Sydney

Well I’m writing this post while we are in the midst of some of our most difficult times in China. We have all been sick or sickish for the past week or so and it is really wearing us down. But I will try and update you as best as I can.

Sydney about a week ago got the flu or a variation of it and for a couple nights or so was throwing up. It was really hard on all of us, because we weren’t getting out of the house much as we took care of Sydney indoors mostly. As well as not sleeping that great. Then Aubrey started to get cold symptoms and now Heather and I both have cold/flu sickness. It’s no good at the Peterson home. Outside of that though, each time we have gotten outside it’s been a blast. We are pretty familiar with a lot of our neighbors and enjoy getting out and chatting with them in Chinese. So many people in our community love our daughters… I swear our daughters are so spoiled by all our neighbors. We rarely return to our house without a new toy or some candy. I know what a lot of you are thinking, “Is it the Swine Flu?”…the answer is “No”. There have yet to be cases in China so I highly doubt that it's the Swine Flu.

So Sydney and I (Matt) have recently developed a new game to play. For the record, Heather doesn’t think it’s a good game to play with her and she disapproves. That being said, Sydney from time to time will tell Heather and I secrets, but usually it’s just a mumbled incoherent sentence or two. Well a few days ago Sydney told me she had a secret to tell me and she leaned over and rambled a few sentences off that was just her mumbling. I leaned away from her and gave her a serious look and calling her by her first and middle name to show the degree of my seriousness said, “Sydney Joy we don’t talk like that”. She looked at me with confusion and not a second later I smiled big and said “Just kidding”. Well she burst out laughing and wanted me to do it over and over. We played it one more time and this time I whispered my own incoherent phrase of nonsense into her ear and she sat back and tilted her forehead towards me and in a stern voice said “Daddy Joy, we don’t talk like that”. I almost died of laughter… I tried to explain to her that my middle name was John, but that lesson will have to come later. Don’t worry the game will die off and not be played anymore and I know it’s terrible of me to joke around about discipline, but hey, we had some good times.

I have more to share, but I will wait till the next post. Till then, keep it real.

The Petersons