When Cosi gives mommy a flower...

it looks like this :)

Ten Shu-shus with Boo-Boos

"I have come to the conviction that if you cannot translate your thoughts into uneducated language, then your thoughts were confused."
-C.S. Lewis

Here is the story of Jesus and the ten lepers- the version we tell Cosi, who is somewhat obsessed with blood and injuries. We're trying to tell Bible stories using words she's familiar with and in concepts that are accessible to her:

There were 10 shu-shus ("shu-shu," remember, is 'uncle', how East Asian kids address men) with boo-boos. They had boo-boos all over their bodies, very bad boo-boos, maybe some of them were bleeding. They were very sad. They came to Jesus and said "Jesus, please help!" And Jesus said "Sure!" So he made their boo-boos all better and they were happy. But one shu-shu came back to Jesus and said, "Thank you, Jesus." He had a thankful, happy heart.

Our new life with kids, still trying to figure things out...

When it comes to meeting people for the first time, Cosi is amazing! As we walk around on campus, in our neighborhood, or anywhere, Cosi takes every opportunity to yell "hi shushu, hi ai-yi" at every passing person. She makes it easy for us to talk to them. She makes it easy for them to stop and talk to us. She welcomes them in and makes things less awkward, because we're all looking at and commenting on this silly little girl. She makes us all smile. It's a good start to meeting people.

Here's a picture of her after she weaseled her way onto someone's electric bike. She liked it, but she was well aware that she wasn't in the drivers seat. After this picture was taken, she quickly remedied that situation by climbing up on the forbidden seat. I was putting away the camera, so I didn't immediately respond to the potential danger. Cosi took advantage of my lack of response. With the speed of a thousand cheetahs (or one toddler), she reached up and grabbed that bike handle to rev the engine. Since the bike was on, it sped forward and my friend was forced to run beside Cosi until she regained control of the bike. Bless that friend for not letting go!

The second time we meet with people is not usually so easy. We're still trying to figure out what works best, but here's a real life example. Cosi demands 100% attention. She will go to great lengths to get that attention - some cute and some not so cute. As Cosi & I were meeting with these girls, Cosi refused to let me talk with them. She wanted every word out of my mouth to be directed at her. She grabbed my face, so I could only look at her. When I calmly told her that she needed to wait, she full on slapped me in the face. As I began to discipline her by forcing her to sit on a step for a minute, things went even more down hill with a good old fashioned tantrum.

After bringing her back over to play again, Cosi decided she wanted to play in the dirt/pavement pebbles. She loves playing with dirty stuff like that and I'm always torn about letting her. It's culturally unacceptable and it's just plain gross, but I guess urine covered rocks have never killed anyone?? Or - have they? I'm not sure.

Anyhow, this tired mother decided to let her play. I majorly regretted it.

Here's a picture of my two new friends with Cosi. They were so sweet as they watched her play. It made me want to take a picture and this is that picture.

What you don't see is what happened immediately after this picture was taken. Cosi turned around, laughed mightily, and threw a big handful of little pee pee rocks straight into my face & mouth. I guess my mouth was open? I should work on breathing through my nose. Unlucky me.

I paused. I probably took a deep breath as I tried to regain control of the situation. I spit the filth out of my mouth and I chose to lovingly discipline my daughter, yet again.

I'm always curious about what my East Asian friends think of how we parent our kids. I'm always aware of them watching me, which is good in that it encourages me to remain calm and patient. Depending on what their own homes looked like, it might also be good for them to see another style of parenting. A style that is (hopefully) based in grace. In this case, they were able to see a mother attempting to set aside her own anger & even embarrassment. They saw a mother who didn't just let the offense pass, but instead attempted to use both truth and grace as she reprimanded and forgave her daughter's sinful behavior. My hope is that through those actions my friends will see the love of God for his children, and that I might be able to have a future conversation with them on that very topic.

Visa trip to Ma - Cow

Our visa requires that we leave the country every 90 days. So we usually end up taking a short trip to a neighboring country- wherever we can find the cheapest flights. This time, we took our first trip to Macau. Cosi was very excited about going to see a cow.

Sadly for Cosi, we never once saw a cow... But we did have fun :)


Honestly, Macau is not a very family friendly location. I pictured beautiful sidewalks with multi-colored Portuguese influenced homes lining the street. I think I saw a picture like that and my imagination flew. Although there are some tourist locations like that, the majority of Macau is a city with cheesy casinos. It's hard to navigate and bad for pedestrians (especially those with strollers, which might have been just us in the whole city). I'm thankful to have gone, but I'd be okay with never going back.













The Ruins of St Paul's Cathedral was one place that I really liked - though it could be because a Starbucks and a McDonalds were nearby. The Ruins were amazing. I couldn't read the brochure about it, because Trey slobbered it to a pulp, but I think it has something to do with a church that was destroyed by fire and only one wall was left standing. Even without the history, it's an incredible sight to see. If I knew the history....well, I can only imagine how awesome that would be...

Here's Cosi holding her new keychain. The ruins are behind her.






















Cosi, the destroyer of idols (a veritable Josiah of modern day), stroller-rammed a Buddhist offering that was sitting outside a store. It looked much like this one, but had a lot of fruit. I guess Buddha likes pomelo. What Buddha-lovers do not like is a stroller running over their offerings. What they like even less is a culturally insensitive mother who tries to upright the offering with her foot. I know, I know, it was an impulsive move for a non-Buddhist. I realized it as soon as the store owner yelled at me. But, I was trying to hold onto a wirey 4 year-old girl who often forgets that she's not allowed to push the stroller into the busy car-filled street located mere steps away. What I'm trying to say is that my hands were otherwise occupied, as they have been for the past 10 months since Cosi joined our family. Anyhow, what I'm really trying to say is that if you want to tick off a Buddhist person, knock over their idol and then upright it with your foot. Works every time.







The most disappointing part of our trip (for me) was missing the Macau Grand Prix. It's a car race that happens on the streets of Macau - how awesome does that sound??? It happens every year in November. Since I didn't know anything about Macau before our trip (except that it's a cheap flight in & out, therefore a good location for a quick visa trip), I had never heard of this race. But, once we arrived and I couldn't help but hear about it and see it at every turn. It was then that I knew my forever dream was to see cars go fast on streets. I picture it being like a James Bond movie. What's not to like? Sadly for me, the Macau Grand Prix was Nov. 17-20. We were there Nov. 14-17. All we got to see were the signs and street preparations mocking my lack of proper travel plans. I blame it on my preoccupation with the children....too many poopy diapers slowing me down...The closest we got to the action was walking past this grandstand a few times a day. In Macau's defense, we should note that our view of macau as bad for pedestrians might be strongly influenced by the preparations they made for the Grand Prix.





And - who's that boy? (rocking the swing like it's his business) who's that boy? It's Trey!

We took this on the day that we ate at Fernando's. (no pictures from the lunch itself) It's a famous, beach-front Portuguese restaurant. Rob had no desire to go (there was a McDonald's in Macau, remember?), but I was determined. We took a bus for 30 minutes to get there. We could have taken a taxi, but we're cheap. We waited in line until the restaurant opened at 12. By this time, our kids were already fussy. They didn't have any kids seats (Rob pointed out that McDonald's has kids seats). Our kids were the only kids present. Their usual clientele didn't need kids seats. I'm kinda surprised they even let us in the door actually. Anyhow, in a classy mom-like fashion (or desperation), I sped through the menu and picked out our food, which were the only two non-seafood items on the menu. Since the waitresses were all at other tables, I approached the server station, baby in tow, and begged to get our food order in first. I need not have begged. They wanted to get us out ASAP, too. I then proceeded with the next phase of my plan = nurse the baby to sleep and then Rob & I will outnumber the awake child and be able to split the work while we eat. Fail. My normally good little eater kept pulling off and exposing his mother to the other guests. I could have forgiven his lack of discretion had he eventually dozed off, but it was not to be. The two little ones teamed up to make lunch a mildly unpleasant experience, somewhere between getting a splinter and minor surgery. Rob was right, McDonald's might be our best choice for eating out these days :)

So, there's an overview of our trip to Macau! One of the things that I like about our life is that we get to travel. In honor of thanksgiving, I'm going to write a list of things that I'm thankful for. This will be near the top.

Things we probably shouldn't do...

Exhibit A: Strap our son into a chair and place him in front of a tv


But, at least one of our kids can be hypnotized by the power of the television. This mama needs a break sometimes...

Don't buy the cheap diapers!

Maybe this is why Mamy Poko brand never made it to the USA?

And - we didn't take any more pictures, but every morning he wakes up with the stomach/crotch area totally soaked through. It's gross, but I'm too cheap to just throw away the diapers.

On another topic, Trey is doing a little better with eating. Thank you for your suggestions! It seems that he likes avocados and sweet potatoes. Well, so do I! We also found some imported ($$$) egg-free baby teething biscuits at the store here in EA. He does much better if he has one of those to suck on. I'll sneak a spoonful of food in, then he'll swallow the food down while he's chewing on his biscuit. He also seemed to do better with apples after I added cinnamon. But, he had some sort of allergic reaction to the cinnamon. His chubby cheeks & both chins were really red. Next up is self-imported Walmart baby oatmeal!

Cosi & Trey in Asia - Portraits!

Here are some of the cutest pictures ever, which is good, because it was miserable taking them. Cosi is 4 and Trey is 6 months old. Enjoy!

what Cosi did during ballet class

(Before Class conversation)

Cosi: (happy screaming)
East Asian Dance Teacher: "Will she scream like that during class?"
April: "Ummm....If she's having fun, she will..."

Maybe we'll try again next year?