My list of complaints for the week.

The kids with their cousin Jordan. She had come to get a haircut. She's a wrestler for her high school and the girls' team had just won the state. She'll be 16 in April. I can't believe it...I remember when she curled up in the crook of my arm and went to sleep when she was TWO!

She has always loved babies.


She read "The Gruffalo" to them:


Last night, Brad had to work very late. They have gotten a whole new line of carpet, like 8 different styles. Each style has 7 different colors so that's 56 carpets they have to create to give samples to customers. They need to get it done ASAP also so he's having to work all the time to get it done. They can't do it during the regular work day b/c they have other orders. I'm a bit stressed out in the evenings.

Elias has regressed lately. He acts like a baby sometimes. He doesn't mind me. If I ask him to do something, he doesn't care and only does it (or not) if HE wants to. I'm about to blow a fuse with him but I'm trying to hold my temper in.

Ezra has decided he hates school and didn't want to get dressed this morning. This changes on a daily basis, though. Sometimes he loves it and can't wait to go see JiaJia Laoshi because "she is beautiful with her glasses and she gives me lots of kisses."

Zuri cried for about fifteen minutes last night because I had to give the other two showers before bed. He was SOOOO mad at me; his face was bright red and splotchy. I thought that at least that meant he'd be tired and go right to sleep and give me a break. Nope. Instead, he sat up and laughed and talked for a while. That kid. And when he finally did go to sleep, he would wake up if I wasn't touching him and a pillow wasn't a good dummy, either.

I need a relaxing day out on the beach. I'm exhausted.

And he sleeps.

Zuri loves his morning nap. He is only awake for a short amount of time and then he wants to go back to sleep for about an hour. He's clapping now. He's not too good at it. His hands come together on top of his belly button or one hand hits the top of the other hand, but he's trying. When he wants attention (say, from Brad as he walks by), he does that clapping. He also waves but sometimes he confuses clapping and waving. He sits up completely by himself and I don't need to even put pillows behind him anymore.

I've told Elias and told Elias, "You are too little to pick him up. Don't do it." But Elias loves the baby so much that he'll sit on the floor and then pick Zuri up into a sitting position--into his lap. Well, yesterday, he let Zuri fall forward onto his head. Poor little thing. He couldn't get his breath to even cry. But he didn't even have a red place, I think his feelings were just VERY hurt, "How could my big brother do this to me?" Elias knows he may NOT do this now. The verdict is clear, "Mamma is always right." There's a fine line between discouraging Elias from loving on his brother but maintaining Zuri's safety, if that makes any sense. I have told him that when he is 10 or 12, he will be old enough to pick up babies and he can do it with Drew's babies. "That also means 11, right? Yeah, I know that."

My hands are cold.

Oh gosh, it's flurrying again. Brad took Ezra to school about five minutes early so that I didn't have to get Zuri out in this today. YAY! I think this is going to work well until it warms up again. Saturday, it's supposed to be 20C. I can't wait.

Elias went to bed last night during dinner. He said he was too tired to eat. Usually, this is just a ploy so that he doesn't have to eat and he can go do what he wants. So, I called his bluff, "Go to bed, then." And he did. Went straight to bed and didn't wake up until 6:30 this morning.

I had to turn on the TV last night. I was the grumpiest I've been in a long time. Dealing with Zuri's nursing all night and jet lag, I just needed a nap. So, I went to bed at 6:00 after putting in a movie and woke up at 7:30, gave the kids their dinner from the crock pot(Brad came home late last night, I thought they were going to eat when he usually gets home. whoops!) I was then back asleep by 8:30. I feel so much better, though, I just really needed some sleep.

When the kids woke up this morning, they both wanted boiled eggs. When I gave Elias his, it was really close to the time he needed to go to the bus stop so I told him to eat it quickly. He took this to mean that he should stick the whole thing in his mouth at once. So, he was walking around with a whole egg in his mouth acting silly. When we got on the elevator, I told him to just start chewing because it's not gonna dissolve. And when he bit into it, he started freaking out. Poor thing, it was hot inside! I hope he's learned his lesson and won't try to stick a whole egg in his mouth again.

I wonder what the thing is about getting to hold an umbrella for him? And he insists upon taking it with him to school. I guess it makes him feel older. On rainy days, he is so excited!

I HAD to have the sex talk the other day. I can't remember what question started the whole talk. I always said that I would answer any questions honestly although I have no qualms with being vague. However, my vagueness was being returned with questions like, "So does he spit in your mouth to fertilize the egg?" At which point, I would have to take it a step further. And further. And further. So, he still doesn't understand the passion and he thinks it's only happened three times (which is true--an egg has only been fertilized three times). It was VERY difficult mainly because I was unprepared and at times, I'd start to giggle and have to get serious. I told him when it was finished, that some parents wouldn't answer their children honestly but that I have and if he ever has anymore questions, he can ask me at any time. He's a bit young but I've known for about 7 or 8 months that it was coming due to other conversations, I was just awaiting his cue. He is very interested in this and always has been. At three years old, it occurred to him that, "Cats can't get married, so how do they have babies?" So, that's that. Only two more times.

It's Monday but it feels like

Oh goodness, I'm so tired today! Zuri was up about five times to latch on last night and it's beginning to kick my butt. I'm still not ready for "cry it out" but something's gotta give.

I just picked Ezra up from school and left Zuri with Ayi since it's still so cold. She was holding him in a typical Chinese fashion: he leans against her--standing--with his feet in one hand and her other arm wrapped around his waist. When he saw me, he started doing "jumpy, jump, jump, jump," which is what I call it when he starts jumping up and down (just in case that's not obvious *wink*). She started saying her version of the same thing which translates as, "jump, jump, dance, dance." It was cute. I love to see that they have nicknames for the same thing but just different nicknames and I love learning them.



Zuri has been grumpy lately, though. I swear, I can eat big chunks of cheese and he doesn't have a problem but as soon as I touch Mozzarella to my lips, he starts screaming with gas pains. I even took the cheese off the pizza but of course, some small pieces remained. When am I going to learn?

Ezra is making an alligator and a bull play right now. I can hear him talking behind me (or making them talk). It's cute. He's so tired this afternoon. In fact, I thought he was sick.

I can't believe that artificial sweeteners make you fat. Well, I actually can. I've told Brad on more than one occasion that as a diabetic, if I drank diet coke with dinner, I always craved dessert afterwards but that if I just drank water, I forgot about it.



I think ayi and her husband and her son stayed here while we were in America. I don't care, though, I hope they felt rich while we were away. She scrubbed everything beautifully while we were gone. My windows are all so clean now that I *notice* it when I look out the windows! I don't know how she did it b/c we're on the 17th floor but she did! The only thing is that we didn't have any gas when we got home and thus, no hot water. We had turned the gas completely off. I wanted to make sure we didn't have a leak so I asked if she had turned it on and she said that she had turned it on to wash clothes b/c the "cold water didn't get them clean the first time." Also, some outside shoes were lined up on our balcony suspiciously like Papa Bear, Mamma Bear and Baby Bear. Like I said, I don't care.

As usual, random thoughts

Brad has worked all weekend. All day. It sucks but I'm getting over it. I took Elias to his piano lessons this morning for the first time in a month. Let's just say I was a bit disappointed. I think Brad has a lot more patience when he starts acting silly during piano. I mean, I want it to be fun but at the same time, when the teacher asks him to do something, he really needs to do it and not just fall over like he's asleep. I was holding Zuri (asleep) and Ezra was wandering around playing in the store and I still had to watch Elias because he won't do ANYTHING if someone isn't there telling him to. It's weird because Chinese teachers don't command much respect. I think they're just not used to the little white kid attitude "entertain me."

They're used to:
Brad was once watching a painting class. He said the kids were not much older than Elias and their drawing was amazing. But they were re-drawing a picture of a whale (the original was in front of them) and one little girl thought she would think outside the box and give her whale a white stripe down its back. The teacher saw it and picked up another paint brush, dipped it in blue and painted over the white stripe. Funny thing, didn't bother the little girl at all.

Anyway, after the piano lesson, they all played outside for a while with their friends. It's so cold here today and I felt bad for Zuri's little pink nose but it's not going to kill him. Ezra chased after Elias and Michael who were riding their scooters. He kept "disappearing" and I'd have to run around and hunt him down. In the meantime, the other children's parents were watching Zuri for me and told me a story about a little white boy who went lost in the grocery store. When they reported it, the store locked down and they finally found the little boy abandoned in the bathroom, head shaved, wearing peasant clothes. NOW, no one is sure if this is true or not, and I imagine it is not, but it's not really something you want to hear. No one at home should be afraid, though, we live in a completely different area from that but I'm always on my best guard.

Last night, I was asleep after 7:00 and awake around 4:00 but everyone else is basically back to normal. When I say "I", I'm actually referring to Zuri because he's the one who controls my sleep schedule right now.

Zuri with my sister:

And we're back!

Thank you so much to everyone who let us stay with them during our time home. We appreciate your hospitality.

We are so jetlagged! I've been up since 2:30 am (it's 5:30). I managed to stay awake until 6:00pm though and Ezra til 3:00 and Brad and Elias around 8:00. But everyone's awake now except Elias.

Elias got his report yesterday. It was glowing. He is developing appropriately or strongly in every area except in math problem solving and gym skill development. One theme that many of the teachers talk about with Elias is that he is a risk-taker, an important part to the PYP program.

Thursday morning, I took Elias down to the bus stop and several other moms were on the bus. Turns out, their CNY concert (which was postponed due to snow) was that day and Elias needed his witch's costume. So I ran home, got the other two kids ready and left quickly. I luckily got to the school just in time for the concert.

He was so cute. Like last year, he's late in doing all the "moves" because he relies on the person next to him but he was still the best one up there in my eyes. :)

So, Ezra missed his first day back to school but when I took him yesterday morning, the teachers were so excited to see him. He was the hit of the school! Everyone was hugging him and talking about how much he'd grown in the four weeks since they'd seen him last. Even though it is now very warm, I let him eat at school and when I picked him up, he'd eaten THREE helpings. He must have missed Chinese food.

In my "sad" news, I've been doing research on schools to put Elias in this fall and had narrowed it down to three magnet schools in Hamilton County...but the deadline for applications was Jan 31. We just weren't sure what we were doing and so weren't too concerned with it. sigh. I just remember my fifth grade teachers and do NOT want him to be with teachers like them...so we'll see what we're going to do.