So here I am again waiting far too long to post. I wouldn’t say that I’ve been on my death bed, but I was definitely on the bed next to it as I was sick the past few days. Before I continue I should say that it’s been a pretty difficult past month and a half as; Aubrey, Heather and I have all dealt with multiple sicknesses. When you’re overseas or live overseas it’s when you’re sick that you most miss home. Just the simple comforts that you grow up with that you don’t have can make being sick very discouraging. But luckily I’m feeling good this morning and so I’m happy to get all of you caught up on our lives and throw in a few funny stories at the end.
Sydney started pre-school a couple weeks ago! We are very happy to have found an amazing setup that is almost too good to be true. Just outside the gate of our apartment complex is a Kids bookstore. We’ve gotten to know the owners and some of the workers and Sydney really enjoys going there. Well a couple of weeks ago a handful of us families living here (also foreigners) approached the management of this bookstore to see if they would be interested in putting on a pre-school for our kids. They happily agreed and we have now been sending Sydney for 2 weeks. The schedule is; Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, from 9:30-11:30, so it’s a very relaxed schedule for both Sydney and us. The best part is that it’s all in Chinese (with an English translator standing by if the kids need help)! This will be great for Sydney’s language. So far Sydney has really enjoyed it; she loves people and desperately needs times to interact with others, so again, we’re super glad to have found a place that’s a one minute walk from our home to do this. YAY!
Our little Aubrey has hit that stage of discovery. She will literally walk around all day going through cupboards, pulling out toys, clothes, kitchenware, and whatever else she can (for example yesterday I pulled out a piece of Tupperware and a plastic piece of chicken out of our dryer… that was put there by her). She’s a handful… of love. So chasing after her all day can be pretty tiring. And after this realization set in that it’s not just a today thing or a yesterday thing but a season of life thing, I turned to Heather and asked “How long did Sydney go through this phase?” to which she responded “A year”. I don’t know if Heather was playing some cruel joke on me with that answer, if she was, then good work Heather. I should also add an observation that Heather made (and that I have since confirmed) that I would say started with this new season of Aubrey’s life. When Aubrey gets mad she protests by walking backwards and most of the time running into things. She’s so crazy.
Kid stories and quotes:
Heather had the privilege of experiencing this one first hand (which I wish I could have been there for). Sydney was ratting out her little sister Aubrey and what she did was come storming into the living room to find Heather and when she did she said this to her “COME SEE WHAT YOUR DAUGHTER DID!”, when Heather went back to the girls’ room she discovered a mild mess and again Sydney said “LOOK AT WHAT YOUR DAUGHTER DID!” It’s nice to know that we have a spy on Aubrey at all times.
Lately Sydney has gotten into the habit of eating cinnamon sugar toast from time to time. Well one day Heather was in class and our Chinese friend was watching Sydney. Heather’s class time was interrupted when Sydney came to Heather and said “Mommy look” while holding a piece of toast. Then Sydney said “this isn’t sprinkly toast” (which is what she calls cinnamon sugar toast), but what Heather discovered was that it was a piece of toast dusted with black pepper. Our Chinese friend was trying to make her a piece of “sprinkly toast” but our cinnamon and pepper bottles seem to look the same. This undoubtedly left Sydney disappointed.
November 21, 2009
November 9, 2009
Spiderman, Halloween, and Quotes
It’s been way too long since my last post, for that, I apologize. So I’m gonna write the best post that I’ve ever written! (Or at least it will be marginally ok and have most people stopping midway through!)
So last weekend we had one of our best days here in China. A family that we’ve gotten to know here (who are also Americans) had a Halloween party. What they did was get about a dozen kids together and then drove them to several different houses, each house was set up with various activities. They decorated cupcakes ate some candy and more importantly, brought some candy home for Mom and Dad. It was great to have Sydney enjoy some time with her friends here and they had a wonderful time. Heather and I were both super blessed, because living in China you worry that your kids won’t have the same fond memories that you have of your childhood. Well the truth is they won’t have the same memories as us, but that doesn’t mean they can’t make their own wonderful memories… and this past weekend was one of those. It was also a great day because as the kids were off to one of the other homes my friend (Chris) and I went out to get some Chinese food… wearing our matching Spiderman suits! It was great walking down a packed street and seeing every Chinese person with the same look on their face of “Who are these people?” and “Why don’t crazy people just stay at home?”. Crossing the streets of a city of 7.5 million people was a suicide mission (because what Spiderman movies don’t teach you is that Spiderman suits rob you of your peripheral vision), but in the end we had some good food, and made some great Halloween memories of our own (and didn’t get killed).
This past week we also renewed our VISA’s to live here for another year! I will be completely honest with all of you reading this. We have had to go to the VISA office here maybe like 5 or so times and usually one of the following happens; it rains and we can’t catch a cab, the girls are going crazy from boredom, the lines are long… and have no order to them (which for an American can cause brain failure, heart failure or both) or some other mild disaster (most of the time it is stressful and very unpleasant). Seriously sometimes the lines can drive you crazy, we get to the VISA office and it’s packed with no justice or recognition of who got there first. Anyways, this time we came away with some great memories, here are a few of them;
As we waited to catch a cab from our home our 1 ½ year old daughter stuck her hand out to hail a cab. It is one of those moments you realize that raising a family in a city looks a lot different and we were amazed/shocked by our little girl.
On the elevator up to the office, Sydney was given a stuffed bear claw key chain by a random stranger (Chinese people are so friendly that half our toys in our home were probably given to us in some similar manner). As we got off the elevator there was a police officer walking away from us at the end of the hallway opposite of us and Sydney in her deepest imitation bear voice yelled “Zai Jian” (which means “good bye”) as she waved the bear claw in the officers’ direction.
Sydney must just want to be polite to police officers because after that she kept walking around the floor with me at her side and each time we passed a police officer she would salute them and say “YES SIR” with a bit of confidence in her voice.
Well I have more to write, but will save it for the next post, check back soon! We love you all, thanks for stopping in and being part of our family and story.
Till next time,
The Petersons
P.S. Sydney starts pre-school tomorrow, so check back as I will be writing about it soon!
So last weekend we had one of our best days here in China. A family that we’ve gotten to know here (who are also Americans) had a Halloween party. What they did was get about a dozen kids together and then drove them to several different houses, each house was set up with various activities. They decorated cupcakes ate some candy and more importantly, brought some candy home for Mom and Dad. It was great to have Sydney enjoy some time with her friends here and they had a wonderful time. Heather and I were both super blessed, because living in China you worry that your kids won’t have the same fond memories that you have of your childhood. Well the truth is they won’t have the same memories as us, but that doesn’t mean they can’t make their own wonderful memories… and this past weekend was one of those. It was also a great day because as the kids were off to one of the other homes my friend (Chris) and I went out to get some Chinese food… wearing our matching Spiderman suits! It was great walking down a packed street and seeing every Chinese person with the same look on their face of “Who are these people?” and “Why don’t crazy people just stay at home?”. Crossing the streets of a city of 7.5 million people was a suicide mission (because what Spiderman movies don’t teach you is that Spiderman suits rob you of your peripheral vision), but in the end we had some good food, and made some great Halloween memories of our own (and didn’t get killed).
This past week we also renewed our VISA’s to live here for another year! I will be completely honest with all of you reading this. We have had to go to the VISA office here maybe like 5 or so times and usually one of the following happens; it rains and we can’t catch a cab, the girls are going crazy from boredom, the lines are long… and have no order to them (which for an American can cause brain failure, heart failure or both) or some other mild disaster (most of the time it is stressful and very unpleasant). Seriously sometimes the lines can drive you crazy, we get to the VISA office and it’s packed with no justice or recognition of who got there first. Anyways, this time we came away with some great memories, here are a few of them;
As we waited to catch a cab from our home our 1 ½ year old daughter stuck her hand out to hail a cab. It is one of those moments you realize that raising a family in a city looks a lot different and we were amazed/shocked by our little girl.
On the elevator up to the office, Sydney was given a stuffed bear claw key chain by a random stranger (Chinese people are so friendly that half our toys in our home were probably given to us in some similar manner). As we got off the elevator there was a police officer walking away from us at the end of the hallway opposite of us and Sydney in her deepest imitation bear voice yelled “Zai Jian” (which means “good bye”) as she waved the bear claw in the officers’ direction.
Sydney must just want to be polite to police officers because after that she kept walking around the floor with me at her side and each time we passed a police officer she would salute them and say “YES SIR” with a bit of confidence in her voice.
Well I have more to write, but will save it for the next post, check back soon! We love you all, thanks for stopping in and being part of our family and story.
Till next time,
The Petersons
P.S. Sydney starts pre-school tomorrow, so check back as I will be writing about it soon!
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