Birthday Breakfast in Bed

We had a very snowy Thanksgiving in western PA in a spot where wi-fi and cell reception is so dicey we feel like we are back in the 90s, but we appreciate that. Back home, the girls and a little friend helped me decorate for Christmas in our new home.  We had a blast figuring out how to arrange all the beloved old decorations in the new window sills and shelves.  This year we have a hearth for the first time.  It holds firewood, not a fire, but it came with five old, hand-made nails. So the stockings are hung by the...woodstove...with care.





We also had the last Youth Group meeting of the year. We have hosted it in our home so far this semester, so I never quite know what I'll find when I come home from Awana with the two little girls on Sunday nights.  This week my husband thought he'd try bobbing for apples.  I had suggested putting the tub on the porch, but he assured me they wouldn't make to much of a mess.  Then one of the high school seniors slipped and went into the tub, sending a tsunami of apples and water all over my kitchen.  So, I ended up with a well-mopped kitchen floor. 

I had my first experience with a radio interview. It wasn't my best ten minutes ever, but I did get to share a tiny bit of what I've learned about Christmas.  The interview is the result of the October publication of my recent book.  It is available in hardback and for the Kindle. I have two more interviews lined up so far, each of them longer time increments. My husband has kindly been helping me prepare by throwing tough questions at me.  I know he enjoys this more than I do.

I also had the chance to give talks developed from my book this week.  I shared about the origins of Christmas with the ladies of my mother's church, and I talked about the astonishing characters of Christmas at my campus library.  These were a lot of fun.

Today was my birthday, and I had my most successful breakfast in bed ever. No one bounced my tea out of the cup, no one tried to take my food, and it came speedily, so I wasn't stuck in bed waiting very long (they once tried to make pancakes--from scratch--while I was more than ready to roll out of bed).  This year's success is partly due to my husband's thoughtful preparations ahead of time.   The girls were so excited to participate as my little maids.  Later we went out for lunch, and then I had the thrill of taking a child to the ER for a totally over-cautious, potential rabies-exposure visit.  Don't worry, all is well, but man, can Sapphire put up a fight when she sees the needles coming at her.

Everything Week

Pearl’s birthday falls at such a perfect time to celebrate summer, that we really need an itemized list to remember everything we did to make her birthday special.  We had celebrated with Grammy and Poppop early, so the parties really lasted nearly three weeks. The night before her birthday we said goodbye to seven (which is our little ritual). 

On the day she turned eight, we tried to complete everything on a list she made up, which included a family cherry picking party—this just means picking cherries at the local orchard, but she loves it--lunch with the whole family, and tea party with her stuffed animals. 

We spent two days at Cape Henlopen, a State Park in Delaware. The girls instantly turn into beach girls when we go, and Ruby and Sapphire were especially delighted with the beach. Sapphire made friends with all our sand neighbors, especially the ones with good toys.  Nana came down too and distributed birthday Frozen towels, which were a huge hit. Sadly, Nana took sick and had to abandon the beach on our second day.  

 

The birthday bliss ended with a low key pirate party with two little friends, ice cream sandwich-pirate ships for dessert, and some pirate hats. It turns out it doesn’t take much! They made a plank bridge into a deadly plank that everyone loved to walk.

In the midst of this week, we had over sixty people over to our new home, and some of them came multiple times for lunch during the youth retreat. This is exactly how we wanted to be using our larger space.  The youth spent their mornings painting a Rescue Mission property before stopping by our home for lunch and devotions. The girls loved hanging out with them in the afternoons and around the inescapable campfire.  We slept at a home kindly opened to us for the retreat, and Ruby asked if that was now our new house, poor confused little thing. The youth stayed up late goofing off and asking questions about the Bible.

Hours after the retreat ended, Daniel’s black belt test candidates were rolling up our driveway. About twelve of his students spent the night here, showing their skills at forms, breaking, and stamina.  They were amazing guests. While I am not part of the karate world, I do admire the deeply respectful, helpful attitude it engenders. They went for a run in the middle of the night and were up before me, working out on mats under our carport. The little girls were very entertained by everything they did, and I was able to rest while an exhausting fever laid me low. I'm now on the mend.

Celebrations

Cherry season! Ruby is a surprisingly dedicated cherry picker

One morning last week Sapphire gave me a hug and kiss and wished me a "happy Mother's Day." This seemed so sweet, I saw no need to correct her. Later that morning she said that she wanted Mother's Day to be "perfect," and going out to lunch would make it perfect. I wasn't too against this idea, so we tried to figure out if we could pull her daddy away from his weed-wacking project to go to Roburitos. This wouldn't do for Sapphire. She was sure Mother's Day (Part II) would be better if we went to the Chinese buffet.  In the end we tried it her way. I didn't mind the extra attention, though I started to see a pattern when she wished me "Happy Mother's Day" the very next morning.

The Black Jack team in a huddle.

For Father's Day we cheered their daddy on through two Ultimate Frisbee games, then we enjoyed some frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog.  This had been Pearl's plan all along.

This month has tons of celebratory importance in our house. We were able to celebrate Daniel's birthday with his parents, who also surprised the girls with an Easter egg hunt. With moving, we haven't all been in Chester County much lately to visit, but the girls thoroughly enjoyed their late Easter treats.

Finally, our little orange belt was promoted and received her first stripe this past Saturday.

We discovered a leak in the pond yesterday, and the water level has dropped a bit. The ducks don't seem to mind, but I wish they would figure out how to plug the leak. It is beyond me. 

Characters of Christmas

My mother's Fellowship Committee of very audacious planners organize a Christmas dinner for the women of their church and guests. This year my mom decorated her table with the Santa collection that used to grace my grandmother's mantle every December. Other tables had a vintage Christmas ornament theme, a red, white and black theme, a Russian nesting doll theme, and a Rochet chocolate theme.

After the meal, I was able to share a talk I prepared from the chapter in my book about the gift-bringers in different cultures. This is one of the more unusual figures. The Krampus comes to Bavaria to scare children into good behavior.  It is unlikely he will be replacing Santa Claus at the mall.

These guys are the Icelandic Yule lads. They would each arrive on a different day leading up to Christmas to cause trouble for the farmstead. One stole sausage, one bothered the sheep so they wouldn't give milk.

And here is our own little elf. Today was my birthday, so my family took me to a Hibachi lunch and then worked with me to decorate the house for Christmas. I don't think it has ever gone faster--three eager little daughters and a neighborhood friend practically had the ornaments flying out of my hand!

Pearl's Birthday Season

Stage one of Pearl's birthday season--a cherry picking party.  We picked far more cherries than I thought we could eat, but since we only get them these two weeks out of the year, we might as well go cherry crazy.










Stage two of Pearl's birthday season: birthday party with friends.  The Greek mythology theme worked out well, but wasn't I thrilled when Pearl said she wanted chocolate icing and I could give up fretting over what Greek god I was going to have to draw in frosting.  The boys are trying to create togas.

We had our birthday Olympics, a myth themed scavenger hunt for Pandora's box, lessons on Greek letters, and some time to just play (the kids used it to choose Greek god roles and there was much debate over who was more powerful). I thought our educational theme might fall flat, but it really was a hit.

Birthday fun stage 3: head to the beach.

With so many little ones to watch, Jasper's sand castles have been toned down, but he still manages to throw something together.

This was Ruby's first beach encounter, and she just stepped into the sand as if she had done it all before. We held hands a lot the first night we walked on the beach, but soon she was lugging her little sand bucket around all by herself.

Pearl wanted to bike ride every day, so we made time to do that and wound our way around Cape Henlopen's trails. The two little ones munched snacks in the 'princess' carriage behind my bike.

Nana came for a night and Pearl's birthday dinner at a Mexican restaurant.The next night we went to a Chinese buffet, which suits our wiggly children well. Here Ruby contemplates how to consume this crayfish. Her daddy helped her figure it out.

We climbed the WWII watch tower as well. Pearl counted all 114 steps. The weather was great for the beach, though it was also pretty good for the biting flies for two days. The last day the flies had evacuated, and we played on a playground then made a late afternoon beach visit that lasted into the evening. A perfect beach day.

First Visit to the Doctor

Ruby's own birthday mark-CM2

We finished up the girls' birthday celebrations with a family gathering hosted by Grammy and Poppop. It was so nice to hang out together with cousins and aunts and uncles for the afternoon.  The girls loved the big balloons, dollies, and books they received as presents.

Ruby's language is starting to grow, I think. In the last week she's started repeating more words after we say them, though not using them independently yet.  This is new for her. It is as if she's decided to learn to speak English.

Here's a list of English words she does use independently: uh-oh (she knew this one in China), more (she learned that one pretty quickly!), no, up, mama, dada. 

This week marked the start of the big girls' co-op. It meets one day every other week. Their daddy is teaching a class on martial arts there this semester, and I plan to stay home with Ruby.  He takes them for three hour-long classes, allowing Pearl to learn about the solar system, manners, and drama. Sapphire plays and works on a letter worksheet.  Pearl was excited about the start of this group, and she created this poster and asked me to put it up to 'celebrate.'

Our other family news is that the paperwork is not over. I've begun learning about the process of China's post-placement reports. We make one through our agency once she's been home one month, six months, twelve months, then three more stretching out to the final one at six years. We'll be scheduling the social worker to come to the home, take a look, and submit photos and medical info showing we are taking good care of Ruby.  I can't help but wonder who in China gets to read all of these reports.

Ruby had her first doctor's visit and four shots, and then we walked across the hall and filled four tubes with blood.  She did very well--didn't cry for her TB test, but waited until two nurses hit her up with needles in both thighs.  She was a little shocked that these nice ladies would do that!  We have no concerns following her medical exam, so we'll just keep updating the shots we promised the government we'd take care of. 

The big girls were impressed by all of her bandages.

Birthday Girls--and the Welcome Party

One of the goals, once we were matched with Ruby, was to have her home before her next birthday.  God saw to that, and today Ruby turns two. It has been a low-key kind of day, but the weekend was all about birthday bliss!

Sapphire has been requesting a dolphin cake since May when Sophie T. reported that this was what her grandma would be making for her birthday. They must have been trading "how-we-will-get-the-grown-ups-to-do-our-bidding" secrets.

This is what I came up with after searching the internet for easy ideas.  The ones I saw there all involved drawing a dolphin in icing (or sculpting one out of fondant). I came up with this instead. The paper cut outs were easy and they let the big girls help design the final product.

We had a family birthday party at my parents' house with my siblings and sister-in-law. My in-laws are planning a party next weekend; we like to draw out birthdays around here!

Pearl is 6.25!

We got three hats in an market in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, and I plan to bring them out for birthdays. The two big girls wore theirs, but Ruby barely let it touch her head.

Sapphire turns 3!

Ruby turns 2!

The aunts and uncles had picked out some real winning gifts.










This dolly got a whoop out of Ruby, who swung her around and promptly dropped her

Then, in the late afternoon, the "Welcome to the Family Ruby/Happy Birthdays Too" party began. My parents graciously opened their home to our Chester County family who cannot easily get to our house two counties over.

It was great to introduce Ruby to so many family members.  She received a big welcome from some really nice great-aunts and uncles, cousins, and long-time church friends. She charmed them all, I think.  They are pretty charming themselves!

As for other updates, she seems to be doing very well with her daddy.  Because I had to teach, he took them to a wedding rehearsal and then on to Chester County Thursday night, so she relied on him for about 18 hours straight. I think this warmed her up to the idea of him as her protector.  I know we are not yet even in her eyes, but maybe soon we'll get there. 

And I just watched Sapphire and Ruby play very nicely together. Pearl is on a play date this afternoon, so the little girls were able to play in their own meandering style--less narrative, but less tension too.

Thanks to all the friends and family who are helping to show Ruby what a family is all about!

Start of School

All 5 of us on The Rock, the official photo site at my parents' house

So far we've had Ruby for 3 1/2 weeks, and we've been home as a family for 2 full weeks.  Things are settling down.  Last weekend Ruby visited my parents' house, where we stay most Friday nights so my husband can run his karate school. She took to the house very well, but the new change did upset her sleeping, and she cried out more than she had for some time. It took two more nights for this to get out of her system, but when she's home, she sleeps very soundly.

This week Pearl started first grade. Here she is on her first day.  She's continuing some simple piano lessons and we're learning about the Pilgrims as well as reviewing some math facts that seem to come very easily to her.

Sapphire wanted to start school too, so she is looking at a letter each day and doing some coloring. Otherwise she and Ruby run around while I try to explain things to Pearl. It is not a very quiet environment, but it works.

Pearl's other big news is the loss of her second tooth. They are falling out like crazy now! It wiggled one  moment over corn and fell out by dessert the same meal. Sapphire tells me she has loose ones too. 

The big girls are always eager for Ruby to wake from her nap, I guess because they like the chaos of all three trying to play together. Sapphire had to learn to stay out of her sister's room when she's sleeping.  She calls her "Baby Ruby" like the folks at our church call babies when they first arrive, until they are about 18 months old. My older girls used to be "Baby Pearl" and "Baby Sapphire" too.

We all went to the Chinese buffet we like in York, and Ruby actually screamed in delight when she saw all those tables of food.  She made a little dent in them.  I think she liked everything.

We have some big birthday plans this weekend since two of our daughters celebrate a new year. Maybe we'll see you there!!