Return of Spiderman

We've really been busy this week but I thought I'd share what Elias just said to me since I don't have time to journal.

"Mom, do you think I look a little like Spiderman when he first got his superpowers?"

I looked at him for a few seconds and he stared back...very seriously. It's so difficult to be serious when he's asking something that is obviously very important to him but so funny at the same time. He swelled out his chest and pushed his shoulders back and looked at me expectantly.

"Yes. You do look a little like Spiderman," I said just as seriously.

"Well, I FEEL like him today."

I hope a spider didn't bite him and he's just not telling me.

They're here!

My sister, her fiance and their friend arrived here yesterday right on schedule. After only the first day of sightseeing, I'm exhausted. I'm getting to that point where even getting out of a car is difficult, let alone traveling Suzhou showing them around. I don't care an ounce about doing it. I enjoy it, in fact, I'm just tired. :)

Elias started his art class this morning and seems to enjoy it. Ezra was a perfect angel all day long. I'm happy to have such good kids...when they want to be!

Half of our a/c broke (including Brad and my room's) and we're sick about it. They're supposed to come tomorrow but who knows what will happen. We're going to the pearl market so I'm not sure if they will be able to fix it or nnot without me here...ayi will be here to let them in, though. Our bedroom is a nightmare of hot right now. I have a lot of difficulty sleeping. Saturday night, I slept in the same small bed with Elias and Ezra but last night I managed to tough it out. Brad bought three new fans which helped a lot. (So did a cold shower.)

Anyway, I'm off to bed!!

Wan an!

Less than 24 hours.

Well, I've officially finished with season 3 of Desperate Housewives. Interesting season finale. Too bad it will be a while until I can see the next episode.

Elias' school was out yesterday. He really did so good dancing on stage. Much better than he did for Chinese New Year when he was left on stage about three times while the other kids followed the instructions. he did everything as he was supposed to and Brad and I were very proud. He graduated from kindergarten! All of his grades are "developing appropriately" or "developing strongly." In fact, his reading score was the highest. He's improved so much.

My sister et al will be here in less than 24 hours. I can't believe it!!! We'll be home in 8 days. I can't believe that either!

Since school is out, we know we're not going to see our friends until the end of summer. Many people go back to their home countries or tour china or a mixture of both. We had M and C over to play with Elias and Ezra and their parents came too. The kids AND the adults had a fun time together and I really wish we'd do this type of thing more often! :) I'm learning, granted slowly, how to be a hostess. Guess that's something that comes with experience.

We went out to eat last night (mine was delicious) and ran into some of my math department friends celebrating the end of school. They were trying to convince me to come back next year. Of course, this is through many beers on their part, lol. I would love to and I just might...assuming that some things that I'm more aware of are changed this time. :)

Anyway, probably won't hear much from me next week but things are known to change. :)

Baby boy name help!

Elias and Ezra broke the vacuum cleaner this afternoon. Not really, because I fixed it very easily.

Elias was grounded from Danny Phantom--the one show he gets to watch a day--yesterday and today. We invited a couple of friends over after school and they were playing on a four-seated, round riding see-saw like thing playing spaceship. I know Ezra was on it at one point but apparently he got off and when he tried to get back on, Elias pushed him off, later saying, "We were playing a REAL game. We were up in space and he can't get on when we're up in space. It was REAL." Whatever. Like I've said before, right now, Ezra enjoys always being the monster and chasing them while they hide but eventually, he's not going to like it and he'll start getting upset with Elias. Elias must learn that EVERYONE is friends.

I've been really busy with simply life. I've been reading a couple of books, looking for baby names (anybody out there with suggestions?) and keeping the kids in line. Elias' last day of school is tomorrow. I baked brownies yesterday and sent them with him (his bus ayi helped him take them to his class) for his end of year party. Tomorrow, he's doing a "Summer Splash" concert and he's having a ceremony where he receives his certificate. He's improved so much this year but I'm afraid that most of the other kids will mature a bit earlier than him every year so he'll start out behind them and then catch up in just a matter of weeks long about March.

Ruthie et al. arrive Sunday. We're so excited! Elias will be in cartoon drawing all week for 3-4 hours but he loves drawing so much and from looking at the syllabus, it looks like he's going to learn a lot. Not necessarily HOW to draw but more like doing what they do...like learning about layers and composition. It theory based but I know SSIS won't allow them to sit behind a desk and be lectured to.

We started him in piano lessons a couple of weeks ago. Had I mentioned that? His teacher told us that he is learning very quickly. He really wanted it this time, even though it means he misses Danny Phantom on Sunday morning (*waaaaa*). His reasoning, however, is different from what you might expect. He wants to play violin with Brad and we've told him he must learn the piano for six months before he can move on to violin.

Since we're going to be home for so long this summer, I'm looking at swimming lessons, piano lessons and maybe some more art classes for him.

Ezra has become one stubborn kid. Not stubborn to a fault necessarily, just he really has become his own kid. He rarely listens to what anyone has to say. You ask him a question and never get an answer. I have to get down in his face when I'm explaining something and be very serious. On the other hand, he is extremely sweet and loving.

I'm exhausted and tired and loving sleep as much as possible but since I bought Desperate Housewives Season 3, I'm not getting as much as I should. ha ha.

I'll try to write on a more regular basis!

The meaning of love

Elias brought a tube of Hello Kitty gum drops yesterday. As I said yesterday, I brought Ezra with me to pick up Elias from the bus stop and when he saw Elias, he started running toward him just as fast as his little legs could carry him with his arms outstretched wanting to give Elias a hug. It's all an act...they secretly love to fight.

Anyway, Elias had saved three of those gum drops: one for Ezra, one for Brad and one for me "for after the baby comes." I used to eat up all of my candy as soon as I got it so that I wouldn't have to share.

We found a kitten.

I absolutely refuse to have another cat in the house so why do I feel this intense need to try to save it from afar?

Ezra and I went outside to play and we could hear it meowing from somewhere in the car garage. So I started meowing back at it and pretty soon, we found it under a car. It wasn't too afraid of us but it was still wanting to hide up inside the car. From afar, it looked like a brown cat, similar to Maggie, but when we got up close, we realized it was orange tiger striped but just completely filthy. It was also evident that it wasn't meowing for its mother...its mother has been gone a long time for it to be that dirty.

Poor thing. Ezra and I went upstairs and got it some food and it ate the whole pack of food and afterwards, it would come over and let us pet it. I actually didn't pet it because I think it was covered in poop and ya know the whole pregnancy thing and cat poop...

She has a problem and I'm not sure if it is congenital or some kind of abuse. Her bum is swollen up really badly. She would try to clean herself and she'd fall over backwards. When Ezra and I left (I had to lure him away with the promise of buying ice cream), she followed us out meowing at us.

However, when Ezra and I got Elias, we decided to come back home through the garage and I meowed at her a bit to see if she was still around. She meowed back and do you know where she was? She had climbed up into Ezra's bike basket and was asleep in there! Is this cat choosing us or what?

Elias and Ezra picked her up and carried her around and petted her and she was just as friendly as can be. Someone, at one point in time, has given this kitten some kind attention.

BUT, we cannot get another cat. We don't like the one we have very much. I'm torn between continuing to feed the thing and letting someone else "take care" of the problem. There isn't an animal shelter I could call and while I could possibly try to adopt her out, there may be vet bills due to her "problem."

I'm at a loss!

My kids aren't really that healthy.

Elias and Ezra love raw vegetables. Chinese people are continually surprised that they eat so many veggies. (I think it's mostly surprising because we eat them raw and not cooked. They even cook cucumbers.) With the exception of onions, they'll eat an entire salad full of healthy vegetables. The secret is, however, all in the "dip" that I provide them with. I "smuggle" in Ranch packs from the US and keep a constant supply of Ranch dressing on hand. Ezra's fave is carrots. Elias' fave is cucumbers. I love it all mixed together.

I bought Elias and Ezra a small swimming pool at Auchan yesterday. Brad took them outside to play so I actually had a chance to explore a bit in Auchan. It's really irritating to be asked for everything we pass so I always skip any aisle that might make me lose my patience with too many repeats of the question, "Can we buy this?" (Toy aisle, bike aisle, candy aisle, drink aisle...) Anyway, they had the best time in that thing but even though the temperature outside is like 80 degrees, the water we filled it up with was not and they sat in that pool shivering. Brad tried to warm it up by taking pots of hot water out to the pool. But by the end of it, both boys had blue lips! The sun will never directly hit the water so I wonder how long it will take to warm up and by that point in time, will the water be green???

Time flies

Where did this week go? They say time flies when you're having fun but I think it flies faster the older you get.

We have all been very tired lately. I guess it's the hot weather but I think Ezra is also going through a growth spurt. All he wants to do is eat and sleep. And when I say eat, I mean EAT. The kid will eat and eat and eat whatever you stuff in his throat and then he says, "My tummy hurt!" in a really pitiful voice. But he's still ready at the next meal. Usually, he just eats one really good meal per day.

Speaking of eating a lot, I'm hungry ALL DAY LONG. No joke. That's all I want to do!!!

Brad left for Beijing early this morning so we're daddyless until tomorrow evening. They have some carpet issue up there. Seems the dudes are complaining about the smell and getting headaches which is impossible so Brad has to go up and find out the real culprit.

I had to drag the kids out of bed and get them both ready and walk down to the bus stop. This is much easier than it used to be mostly because Ezra will walk all by himself now and b/c Elias will get himself completely ready but we also have an elevator, lol. So we got down to the bus and Ezra and I got on and helped buckle Elias in and get his backpack and breakfast in the proper places. Ezra and I then got off and shortly thereafter, the bus pulled away. Ezra was soooo upset. He buried his head in my legs and just cried and cried and through the hysteria, I mananged to pull out a "ride the bus with Elias." Of course, after I explained that I wasn't going to Elias' school and that Ezra would have to go to school all by himself, Ezra said, "But I want to be with you." And he obviously remembers his bad experience there and is happy with the decision NOT to be on the bus!

I left Ezra with ayi yesterday and went and had my toe- and fingernails painted Grandmother Reed Red. It's one of the first times in my life that my fingernails have all been a good length at the same time so I'm taking advantage of it! I LOVE them!!! (But they were laughing at me in the salon.) I also found out that Chinese women don't do this kind of stuff when they are "as big as" me. But Chinese women rarely leave the house when they're as big as me! Even worse, after the baby is born, they're aren't allowed to bathe or wear make up or ANYTHING for one month. It's like confinement but worse. That's kind of gross. I told Brad he needed to ask his male co-worker how he felt after his wife had the baby.

Anyway, Ezra had a great time with ayi and I'm thinking about paying her a bit more to stay longer a couple of days a week. It is so good for Ezra to get this interaction with her!

Elias and she also went down and picked yao meis after he got home from school. She washed them up and we all eat them up even though they're a bit sour. The guards came over and told her that she couldn't pick them, though, and she said in a very pitiful voice and gave Elias a hug, "But it's for the little foreign child!" and they let her do it!

Yesterday, I closed the screen to our balcony door for the first time because the flies are getting worse and worse. Maggie ran right into it and knocked it loose and it flung open, scaring the crap out of her. So, Ezra and I laughed and laughed at her, especially as we watched her try to build her courage back up to go through the open doorway. I re-enacted Maggie's actions for Elias last night and as soon as I left the room, he ALSO re-enacted the scene except he ran right into the screen and pulled it loose at the top and the bottom! I was so mad at him but luckily, Brad says he can glue it back in and no one will be able to tell. Can't live without superglue and duct tape, so they say.

Also, EARLY the other morning, Maggie came upstairs yowling. This is the yowl that cats use when they've caught an animal and they're proud of themselves and want to show off. I've heard many cats use this on small rodents and birds and even bugs. In my sleep, all I could think of was it had to be a bug that came in through the open window. I figured it was dead already and I didn't need to worry so I just threw a pillow in the yowling direction (missed totally) and told her to be quiet. Worked like a charm. However, when we did get up a couple of hours later, I remembered to go check what she had caught. Know what it was? A HOT DOG! I had left Ezra's hot dog on the table in case he was hungry later and she had "caught" it and was showing off.

She's been an indoor cat TOO long.

Tuesday after the weekend

We were pretty busy this weekend although nothing really important occurred. We went to International Family Day. It was kind of cool although Elias wouldn’t stop asking EVERY SINGLE VENDOR, “Is this for free?” “Is this for free?” “Is this for free?” He even ended up stealing a little Chinese hand-made decoration because apparently there was a language gap. The guy told me 10 yuan but when we got home, Elias swore the guy said it was for free. Afterwards, we came home and then went to watch Brad play tennis. The boys found the coolest bug ever and I’m so glad that they didn’t touch it because you should have seen the pincers on that thing! I’m not sure if I’m still in the bug-killing business or not; at any rate, I didn’t have a bug jar anyway and I also didn’t allow the boys to torture it. I put it in the bushes behind the tennis courts.

Elias and Ezra also played with Michael and Claire for a little while at their house. After about 30 minutes, Ezra climbed up on Claire’s bed and ignored everyone else and just played with his Doc Oc and Spiderman.

For some reason, Elias’ mind has turned to mud. He came running downstairs and whispered something in Michael’s ear. Knowing the “sign” that something was up, I followed. What was up was Claire, who is seven, had put on an elastic wasted skirt for a shirt and it had fallen down below her baboos. Elias thought this was so funny. And then, he came home from school yesterday talking about a little boy who had showed himself under the table at lunch. Everyone had looked and thought it was funny. I can see where that would be funny to a kindergartener but someone needs to tell the kid it’s also a bit inappropriate! Was it wrong of me to call the teacher and let her know? She freaked out and I tried to tell her “It’s just kids, don’t worry about it! They do stuff like this!” but she was VERY concerned. They also have been talking about all the different names you can call the girls’ parts and the boys’ parts in different languages. Oh gosh, do they really need a sex talk at five? We went over the scientific names of all the private parts of both sexes so hopefully, when it comes up again, Elias can be an educator.

Ezra’s quote of the day yesterday after I asked him if he loved milk:
“Yeah…and I love you too.”

I am completely caught up on Grey’s Anatomy, I am happy to report. I am looking forward to the next season…which I’ll be able to see in about December. 

We’ll be home in less than a month!!!

Wonder Pets, Wonder Pets! We're on the way!

That's Ezra's favorite TV program now. There's three pets--a duckling named MingMing, a guinea pig named Lenny and a turtle named Tuck--that live in a school and have secret identities when the students leave. They receive phone calls on their can-and-string telephone (that also transmits a picture of the animal in need) and rush off through secret doors in their cages on a flying boat to save the day.

Ezra'll curl up next to me and everytime they do something cute, he'll laugh and look at me and hug me. He gets so excited when they save a baby animal. I think it doesn't hurt that one time they saved a baby triceratops. The cutest is MingMing, especially when she says her catch phrase, "This is SEWIOUS!" with her speech impediment. I just read some intersting facts about the show at http://www.nickjr.com/home/wond_about.jhtml

It has finally rained here. I think we missed most of the rainy season...possibly because it rained so much this winter. I've been saving Ezra a baby bathtub filled with rice so that he'll have something to do. He enjoyed his miniature sand pile immensely! From hiding his dinosaurs to riding cars through the rice, he played unaccompanied for a long while...of course, he also got inside the baby bathtub when I wasn't looking and rice was strewn all over the floor!

We're all exhausted these days. Absolutely beat by 9:00. Brad's over his illness but he's still not 100% again. I bought Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and we're going to enjoy it this evening.

I keep coloring our clothes. Things that I have washed 100 times will suddenly bleed onto the other stuff. At this point, I'm of the belief that the new dry cleaner I sometimes take Brad's clothes to is using some kind of chemical that makes the clothes bleed when it rinses out in the regular washing machine. It's really irritating. In fact, I was extremely angry when I turned both of Ezra's khaki pants the wrong color but now it's turned one of Elias' blue school shirts a nice shade of purply-pink. I've washed it three times now and let's hope this one is better because I'm NOT buying him a new shirt with only 3 weeks left of school! I wonder if he'd even notice if I didn't say anything?

Tomorrow is International Family Day at SSIS. I donated some hot dogs and buns to the American booth. I hate having diabetes during these times because I can't freakin' eat all of the international food that I so love to try. *cry* BUT, Elias also likes to try everything so I can live vicariously through him!