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.