Video of Zuri laughing and talking

I look gigantic! lol

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He's only 8 weeks!

So today, I was singing "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac to Zuri and he was just singing, singing up a storm with me! Then he'd get tickled and start laughing at me. He'd reach up and touch my cheek and rub. His hands ended up in my mouth once as he felt around. The weirdest thing is that he'll call for me (Mamma!) when he wants me; I've heard him once and Brad said he was doing it Wednesday night. He's also getting so fat. He has little fat bracelets on his wrists and the beginning of some on his forearms.

One of the most poignant moments of the day was to watch Elias pull away from the curb in the bus. He would start out waving at me through the window and then when the bus drove further away, he would turn around in his seat and keep waving. As the angle became more and more acute, I could still see a little hand moving up and down in the window until it was so far away I couldn't see into his window. And that was my last sight of him until four o'clock. I no longer get to see that little hand waving anymore. The bus used to do a U-turn so I could see in his side but it now just goes straight. I know that's safer but I still miss the little hand.

Elias' school cancelled tomorrow.

Apparently, Typhoon Wipha is making landfall tomorrow and the head of school has decided to call off school. Hmmmm...I'm kind of excited about having him home tomorrow but what if we're all stuck in the house because of rain? YIKES!

E-L-I-A-S

What's so special about this picture?

This morning, Zuri was being so cute. He was trying to talk. I know they show babies doing this in "Three Men and a Baby," but neither of my other two ever did it. If I talk to Zuri, he moves his mouth up and down! He also coos back at me already. He's not rolling over but when I set him down, he tries to lift his head up like, "HOLD ME!" I also think that one day he was singing with me to Ray Charles' version of "America the Beautiful" but I haven't gotten him to do it again. See? He already loves his home country.

Oh, and he likes Chicago. I was singing "Look Away" to him and he laughed at me.

I can't believe how much he's developed at only eight weeks.

Ezra's recipe for delicious sandwiches:

Put grass food and little bit of soil and cooking oil too and a ABCs food and a little bit of count ones...

Well, I tried to get him to repeat what he said this morning and he wouldn't. He's been helping me cook most every meal lately. It went something like this:

"First, you put him some cooking oil and then you add a little bit of cinnamon and some salt and pepper and a little more oil and some raw eggs. Then you stir it up and it makes the most delicious sandwich ever!"

Not really a sandwich I'd like to try.

update this week

Ezra's first day of school.
Busy, busy week! Ezra started school this week and loves it. The first day, he nearly broke my heart. He cried and cried and cried. After he calmed down a bit, I told him I was going to get some fruit and that I would come back to see him in just a few minutes. Then I told him that I needed to go home and feed Zuri and I'd be back for him in a little while. It seems the separation anxiety was caused by him not knowing I'd be back for him. It also helps that he LOVES his teachers. He's the only laowai in the class and so he gets tons of attention. Poor kid, what's he gonna do when he's back in America where there's lots of cute blue eyed boys?
Always the jokester!


But who would have thought that Ezra going to school would actually give ME less play time? By the time I walk home, he's only got two or two and a half more hours in the class. I get the house straightened up, play with Zuri or check my email and lo and behold, it's time to go get him again! He only goes for 3 hours a day but it's really paid off. He was just singing a song in Chinese to me. I've told them to only speak in Chinese to him and this morning when I went to pick him up, I spied on him for a little while. I'm honestly surprised that he repeats exactly what they say. He puts his shoes up in the closet when he gets home now and immediately yells, "Ayi hao!" which surprises me. If he sees his friends outside, he has to point them out. He did so well the rest of the week, that I told him we would go to the neighborhood center tomorrow and get him a new dinosaur. He's excited.

Elias loves to pose for me now.


Elias is still enjoying school. He's been reading for me so well lately. But really, he's the best at math and he knows it. I just hope that we can find books that he will read as he gets older. Being able to read for pleasure is something that I'm afraid he'll never understand. Of course, he sees us reading all the time so maybe I'm worried about nothing. Elias has lots of friends but most of them are girls! It seems they are the ones in his class that have the same interests in magic and bugs. He wants to go over to his classmate's house today but I had to tell him that I needed to talk to her father before I agreed to anything. Elias even made invitations once last year and handed them out at school to invite kids over here!!! No one showed up, though. I guess they looked very child-like.

Next time I'll get my hand out of the way.


Elias also loves Zuri. His favorite thing to do (right now) is wash his hands and let Zuri suck on his finger. He's so in love with Zuri. In fact, if I'm cooking dinner and Zuri starts to cry, Elias will run over to him before I do and speak to him soothingly or give his paci back.

My own Christopher Robin


Zuri has really started to interact this week. He smiles at just about anything you say to him. The past couple of days have been quite a pain for me as he's really wanted to nurse just about constantly. I guess he's having his growth spurt (late, not surprisingly) because he's been asleep this afternoon for over three hours! I tried some cheese last Sunday and really regretted it for the next couple of days-- his body was so gassy again and he cried so pitifully.

I'm trying to get this picture like the other two boys!


Ayi was just playing around with this keyboard. She thought it was funny that the arrows made the cursor move up and down. teehee.

See ya!

Ezra the computer scientist

If Elias is going to be our professional artist, Ezra is going to be our computer scientist. He is constantly moving the icons around; he moves them into other folders (or the recycle bin) where we can't find them. It keeps our desktop clean, though. Actually, we've decided that they're all going to dental school and open a practice together called "Ginger Brothers."

School called today and asked me if I'd teach again. Zuri is six weeks old today but I just can't leave him. I wouldn't actually be leaving him; so many teachers have had babies that they now have a creche at the school. I could go feed him whenever I wanted, but I don't need to work so why do it when he's this young? I'd love to do it but I have other priorities right now. (Plus, I don't have any fat-professional- clothes! You working mothers remember what I'm talking about.)

Ezra told me today that we would play dragons and I would be his best friend. He wants friends so badly but he doesn't want to go to school. So now that Chinese school has started up, he's left with only the babies to play with. Today, he did the same thing as a few days ago: walked up to an 18 month old baby and dumped his dinosaurs out and they "played" together. I've mentioned before that the Chinese don't wear diapers after about 3 months old...that their pants all have slits in the middle (until the babies are completely potty trained) where they pee on demand? Well, this baby had his "binkie" hanging out of the slit in his pants and Ezra reached over and touched it! I tried not to laugh because really, he didn't know any better! (He does now, lol.)

Elias and Ezra and Brad are playing monster and Zuri is just watching them, a bit confused. He can't wait to get up and play with them, you can already tell. When Brad comes home EVERY SINGLE NIGHT without fail, the older two yell, "Let's hide!" and go behind the orange chair. Brad comes into the room and sits in the orange chair and the kids jump out and roar at him. Well, that chair has become Zuri's nap place and he's kind of spoiled the fun for them because if they jump out to scare Brad, it wakes Zuri up and he starts crying. They've got to find a new place to hide!

Aaaaaah, the duty, er, the baby, calls!

Happy Baby

The apple of my eye

Marmie made this quilt for him.

Zuri is doing much better! It makes me so happy that he'll sleep longer and while he still spits up occasionally (Elias almost never did) and has gas a lot, that will fade a bit more in a couple of weeks. It will take another 1-2 weeks to get the milk protein out of HIS system now. I read so much on it today. His digestive system should be mature enough by 6 months old and I can probably have dairy products again. (YAY!)

I can't seem to catch a photo of him with a smile on his face. Believe it or not, his first two interactive smiles (not sleep-smiles) were at Ayi on two different days. But then yesterday morning, Brad asked him if he wanted to go watch football and he smiled the biggest smile I've ever seen!

Poor Brad, he couldn't watch it on TV, so he just sat at the computer on ESPN and watched the score board for 3 hours! He'd say, "It's on the three yard line with only 10 seconds left in the half!" It cracked me up. He'd get mad and excited just from watching that score board...and all of us Vols fans thought John Ward was exciting!

Elias' first week of Grade 1

Elias has enjoyed his first week of school. His teacher this year is a lot different--a lot more regimented than his teacher from last year. I'm looking forward to seeing him grow this year.

First day of school, getting on the bus.



This is a picture of his class. Look at the two cute blonds!


Claire is a good friend of his but in Grade 2. Before we moved, we lived in the same building with her family and Claire, Michael, Elias and Ezra became good friends. Claire and Elias have lunch at the same time and on Thursday, she asked him if he wanted to go play outside together after they ate. Of course, he agreed and he said, "And we held hands all the way outside."

Uh-oh. He's already mackin' on older women!