Christmas Eve scenes

It's Christmas Eve here!  We are busy doing family stuff, but I wanted to share a bit of our day with loved ones who might be checking the blog!  We love you and miss you!  Merry Christmas!

We finished up our two advent calenders today.  The sticker scene, from Grandma Arlette, is seen in the background.  The ornament one, from Grandma Coral, gave us a second toy rocking horse ornament today.  Here Jonathan is showing us the both of them. 

The ornament advent calender has given us a lot of cute ornaments for our tree -- a train, a candy cane, a couple of snowmen, an angel and even a manger scene.

 We just have a little fake tree, so I'm happy to put it up high on the counter and avoid the junk stress of little hands pulling things off every day.  Joshua would sure love to get his hands on it though!

He LOVES it when someone takes compassion on him and picks him up so he can see the tree and the lights up close!

So Jonathan did a little manger scene art project today.  (Becky, this is from the curriculum you sent us. Thanks!)  After we pasted Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus on, Jonathan said "But where are the animals?"  He answered his own question...."I know!  We can make some!"  What you see here is "A turtle....a special turtle....a VERY special turtle," and a "special snake," and a "special worm," and a bird and another snake.   Who said only cows and donkeys and sheep could be with Baby Jesus in the stable that night? 

Field trip -- 6th graders learn about Mount Merapi

Dave with this year's crop of 6th grade boys -- they all have amazing stories.  One was born and lived most of his life in Bangladesh.  Another lived most of his life in a remote tribal village accessible only by helicopter.  Another will be tested to see if he is "gifted" in the next few months.  One boy's father, a passionate Christian, is the owner of a successful film company.  Others are children of missionaries form South Korea.  A special group indeed!

Yesterday's post featured the 11th grade fieldtrip to search for invertebrates in a local stream.  The next day, the 6th graders went to a surprisingly good interpretive center featuring our local volcano, Mount Merapi.  After erupting quite severely 2 years ago, Merapi has been quiet enough although I hear it still burps from time to time. 

This field trip was kind of rained out ....except for the time inside the visitor center watching the short movie and looking at a few pictures, much time was spent huddling under umbrellas and trying to avoid getting wet.

Here are all of this year's 6th graders.  They are working hard to enjoy their last year of elementary school -- their last year of having recess -- before jumping into 7th grade!  Thanks for taking them out to make some memories, Mr Patrow!

Field trip -- 11th graders search for invertebrates

Dr. Livingston I presume?

For this blog post, we depart from family news to focus on what Dave has been doing at school.  Last month he took his students on a couple of field trips.  Field trips are hard to organize and a bit stressful along the way, but years later the students will remember it.  He's excited to be teaching Advanced Placement Environmental Science this year, a new class for him.   I (Jennifer) am signing off now and Dave is taking over the story....

My first field trip with Environmental Science was to a stream flowing through rice paddies.  Our goal was to find bugs and count them; which the students did with gusto.

In transit to the fieldtrip site

Most families here have a motorcycle instead of a car.  Here you see a whole line of them driving ahead of our bus.  The blue van is our town's answer to the public bus.  We normally ride these blue vans when we go shopping. 

Still in transit

Here you can clearly see the rise paddies above the stream we visited.  The students are carrying nets and buckets.

I'm doing my best to look like a true professor.  I don't think the students are fooled.

Caught one!

After catching our bugs we head back down the hill to our bus.  I must mention that it was a missionary kid who is auditing my class that found this stream for us.

And heading back to school now...

No eloquence here....responding to last week's tragedies

Although we are on the other side of the world, we too are shocked, hurting, weeping, and grieving with America after the horrible shooting tragedies of last week.  I won't say much.  So much is already being said and my words, feelings, and ideas are not really different from anyone else.

When the world doesn't make sense to me, this passage has always brought truth and calm to my spirit:  Collosians 1:15-20, and especially this:

"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." 

Critters 2

 I've been adding photos to this post for several months as I collect them.  Time to publish!  This "critter" trumps all of the rest.  He looked pretty scary when we found him in our back bathroom.  We have found 2 others in our house at other times.  He was painstakingly captured in our new "bug box," photographed and then put to death in our freezer.  Come to find out, he's harmless and you can buy one for $30 on the internet.  He's a pretty interesting critter actually, known as a whip scorpion or Vinegaroon.   As we captured him, we noticed an odd smell, but couldn't identify it.  Turns out these arachnids produce acetic acid (pure undiluted vinegar) and emit the substance when threatened!  Now that we know they are harmless, we might keep the next one we find as a pet ...at least for a little while. 

I usually can't get a successful photo of a butterfly, but here is an exception. 

Fuzzy caterpillars that show up on our front porch from time to time.  Don't touch them because their hairs will come off and be very itchy.

Now the cicak ....our friends who chirp, who poop on our walls, and who actually do eat the mosquitoes in our house.  To describe them, I give you this quote from one of our favorite books about our host country

"Cicak are house lizards that occupy a space in every self-respecting ....home.  Bashful creatures they most certainly are, preferring to stick about on walls, behind pictures and in corners.  Cicak are everywhere -- they don't care where they stick.  While there might appear to be less cicak in a well-off, tightly air-conditioned home than in say, a Padang restaurant, al lyou need to do is look behind a picture frame and there they all are, hoping for a bite to eat.  Cicak are wonderful because they eat mosquitoes.

...They are not big, seldom more than four inches, nose to tail.  They move in zigzag directions and make clicking sounds to each other.  If you startle a cicak, they are prone, as a shock tactic, to release their tail, which then wriggles about disturbingly on its own for a while.  One of the few drawbacks with these domestic lizards, apart from little birdlike droppings everywhere, is when they die behind a wardrobe without telling you and start making decomposing smells.  Not nice." 

 

Jonathan actually was inspired to learn counting when he became aware of the cicaks on our walls. 

 

This one lost his tail once....see where it is growing back skinny?

Sigh ...sometimes cicak loose their toe suction and fall.  Usually they just run away, but for some reason they can't get their grip on the sink walls.  Finding a cicak in my sink is not my favorite way to start the day.  They are not that easy to get out ...but Jonathan is usually entertained. 

Giant grasshopper on our gate ....this is what inspired me to finally buy a bug box so we can catch and keep a guy like this for a half day and study him. 

This is a little snake that showed up on our back door handle several weeks ago.  Inside the house.  No idea how he got there.  Dave was just checking the door to make sure it was locked and ....surprise! 

So strong! Joshua is 11 months old!

I'm starting to get scared ....yesterday we found Joshua in the bathroom on the top step of the stepstool, holding onto the sink and laughing at his reflection in  the mirror.  Of course he was as cute as can be ...but I'm not ready for him to be a climber yet!  Need to do some more child-proofing!

Here's a video for your enjoyment.....be sure to watch it to the end to get the full effect!

(Yes I was pulling them. Smile.)

I also am posting a picture of Josh with his friend Xander.  They are just 16 days apart.  Xander's mommy has been bringing him over to play on Monday mornings, and the boys have a good time together.

Oh Christmas Tree! ....and the Joy of Rudolph

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, how lovely are your branches!  This Christmas is lots of fun as Jonathan is starting to understand and enjoy all of the little details that make Christmas....Christmas!

 Making Christmas cards for friends and family....now we have green and white and red confetti all over the house!  Very festive!

 "I'm Rudolph!  I'm Rudolph!"

Let me tell you what you are looking at here ....This is a picture of Santa (Jonathan) driving his sleigh (stool) with the back (basket) loaded with toys (green ball).  Rudolph (daddy) is harnessed up (clothes rack) and is pulling the sleigh wherever Santa leads.

We learning a lot about Baby Jesus too -- who is real. Santa is pretend, and Jonathan knows it .....but Santa is a bit more popular to my airplane/helicopter loving boy since he can fly in the sky!  At least in this brief stage of his life.  :)  I know Jesus understands! 

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're SO thankful for YOU, our friends and family!  We're SO thankful for God's salvation and the freedom to worship Him in spirit and truth.

         I know this isn't the best quality picture, but I wanted to show you our Thanksgiving Wreath this year.  I dislike how Thanksgiving is only a single day.  This Thanksgiving wreath is our way of cultivating a grateful spirit during the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.  At the beginning of the month we hang the empty wreath.  Each evening every family member makes a "Thankful Leaf" and hangs it up.  Jonathan's first leaf this year was for "Leaves."  Our wreath is now so heavy with leaves that several are falling off every day!  I feel like we've really named and savored our blessings so that when Thanksgiving Day rolls around, our hearts are prepared!

Jonathan's birthday -- No longer a toddler!

I'm three!

So all of my child development books only go up to 36 months....which means that Jonathan is no longer a toddler.  He is now officially a pre-schooler.  Time to pull out a different set of books I guess.  I need to review Ted Tripp's Shepherding a Child's Heart right away!

I thought about having a big (i.e. 5 boys) party for Jonathan this year...but I chickened out.  Instead we just invited Jonathan's friend Zephaniah over for cake and ice cream.  Here they are together watching a video of the Mars rover landing (one of Dave's favorites.) 

When you live overseas, sometimes your birthday presents are wrapped like this!

Another birthday tradition when you live overseas is a Birthday Skype with family!  Every year Aunt Ruth and Cousins Emily and Erica have a birthday cake with candles in Spokane for Jonathan's birthday.  Here he is showing his birthday presents to Grandma Arlette and Emily.  The "bi-air-plane" is a gift from Sammy and Reuben (really, their daddy made it) and Jonathan LOVES it!

Here are a couple of videos of what our big three year old is doing these days.  :)  Enjoy!

The FIRST stitch

How many times has Jonathan fallen, and I've picked him up expecting to see blood and found none?  How many times have I breathed a prayer of thanks in those moments?  Finally it happened and the blood was there and so we had to get..... the FIRST stitch.

I'll tell you already....he's fine after his ordeal.  Thank you Lord!

We don't live in a child proofed country.  We have open ditches, dangerous drop-offs and sharp corners everywhere....and I do mean EVERYWHERE, even the "safe" American-influenced campus environment where Dave teaches!  So while Jonathan was learning to walk and in the following months either Dave or I had to stay 2 inches close in order to keep him from serious injury.  This child of ours still doesn't have much fear .....he's all "Jump in first and ask questions later." 

Anyhow, now that he's finally almost 3 and steady on his feet, we're letting him have a bit of lee way.  Last Friday (10 days ago) we (Jenn and the boys) went to school to have lunch with Dave on campus, as is our weekly routine.  After lunch Jonathan decided to refill his water bottle under Dave's direct supervision.  As he went to dump the old water into the ditch, he stumbled and fell over the ditch and hit his head on the sharp corner.  I was only about 10 feet away visiting with a friend and felt unconcerned as I watched Dave pick Jonathan up from one of only 1000 similar falls every year.  Then I heard Dave's voice over Jonathan's screams "Uh....Jenn?"  So yep, sure enough, he had gashed his forehead.

As wounds go, I think God was breaking us in easy.  Both Dave and I were right there when it happened.  The wound was less than an inch long and stopped bleeding with just a few minutes of pressure.  It was lunch time at school so there were oodles of people around to help....one ran for guaze, another ran for a teacher who knows first aid, another held Joshua, another packed up our lunch dishes, and another said "I'll drive you to the hospital if you need to go."  So we decided he needed stitches and off to the hospital we went. 

On this particular Friday afternoon, the "emergency room" at the private hospital was empty and we had no wait.  The nice female doctor decided he needed one stitch.  We burrito wrapped Jonathan in a big blanket and 4 adults held him down as he screamed 100 times "I WANT MY WATER BOTTLE!"  The male nurse put in a nice little stitch and we were out of there in about 30 minutes.  Our bill:  the equivalent of $15. 

Jonathan points to the blood stain left where he fell.  "My blood came out" he says.

Full view of the ditch.

I confess I do often get scared if I think about all of the horrible things that can happen to my children.  Dave and I are more safety conscious than most parents we know here ....for instance we are the only family I know who make our child wear a helmet just riding bikes around our neighborhood.  I go through periods of increased fear sometimes when I have to wrestle with the Lord about this dangerous world we live in.  It's not that I think living overseas is necessarily more dangerous than living in America.  I think Bethany's death has taught us that the bad things really CAN happen to us.  Yet our experience with Jonathan's first stitch help affirm to me that when the bad things do happen, God is there providing His agents to help and he prepares the way. 

Joshua 10 months -- 10 milestones!

We've had 3+ weeks of sick kids here -- I find that blogging time got sucked away by the time spent wiping runny noses.  I never knew it could take so much time!  When you consider how much time it takes to wipe the nose, dispose of the tissue (and the garbage can is way back in the storeroom behind a closed door now safe from a little guy's curiosity) and then wash hands.  At least one minute x 2 kids x 30 times a day -- that's a whole hour a day just wiping noses!

Ha, ha, excuses, excuses.  I think there is some truth to it, though.  I have much I could tell, but today's post is dedicated to Joshua who is 10 months old now and trying so hard to leave his babyhood behind.

So 10 months .....10 milestones:  ( I had to look in my What-to-Expect book for some of the milestones.)

1.  WALKING -- He took his first 10 steps on October 19 during our evening devotions at age 9 months, 9 days.  He gained strength quickly and is now walking like a pro, turning corners without falling, doing full 180s, walking backwards, squats, walking while clapping or waving a dish towel, and slow bee-bopping to music.

2.  TALKING -- He says (all at the appropriate times) "ma-ma,", "da-da", "ba-ba" (ball), and "a-meh" (amen.)  Believe it or not, he's also saying a quite recognizable "Thank you" on a regular basis!

3.  THROWING OVERHAND -- He is going to be our athlete I think.  He loves to play with balls and can kick things with quite a lot of accuracy.  He'll go around the house throwing his little orange ball and then chasing it and  picking it up.

4.  PICKS UP SMALL OBJECTS -- Yep, he's been doing this for a while.  I call it his "puppy" stage because if I don't watch out he will crawl around under the table looking for crumbs to eat.  He often succeeds and I'll find him sitting somewhere "chewing" on something.  He's gotten good at the jaw-shut-tight thing too so I don't take away his treat!

5.  PROTESTS WHEN SOMEONE TAKES SOMETHING AWAY FROM HIM -- Jonathan delights in taking away any toy that Joshua is holding, and yes he has definitely learned to protest!

6.  PLAYS PEEK-A-BOO -- He loves this game in its various forms.  Dave says it's not a very exciting video for a man, but that the grandmas might like it, so here you go.

7.  FIRST BIG SICKNESS and ANTIBIOTICS --  A few weeks ago he was so sick I got scared.  He had been having fevers for a day or so but that Thursday he spiked from normal to 105 F in about 30 minutes, just 2 hours after I had given him Ibuprofen.   His hands and feet turned dusky and he got very lethargic and just whimpered.  We got some labs done and they were normal and he gradually got better over the next few days.  It was probably just one of the normal viruses that go around, but I didn't like it. 

8.  WAVES BYE-BYE--He's just mastered it this week.  When he waves he also says "Da-Da" which is Indonesian for Bye-Bye.

9.  UNDERSTAND NO -- Actually he's a lot better at this than his brother who is almost 3!

10.  DRINK FROM A CUP -- He can do this, but watch out and be prepared to totally change his clothes afterward!

Wished for, but not yet achieved, milestone:  Sleeping through the night.  Sigh.  

No pictures of Jonathan in this post ....he has a birthday this weekend so I have something planned for that.  :)

Our life in pictures -- October 2012

Normally I would separate these photos into separate posts and make them a little more cute and a little more organized....but I have quite a backlog of cuteness going on here and I realize it's now or never!  The boys have been sick with colds and fevers the last week or so, so I'm just happy to be getting them on the blog as they are.....ENJOY!!!

If you look closely, you can see that Jonathan is slowly learning to write some of the letters in his name here!  We enjoyed this cheap box of colored chalk we bought locally last year.

Shadow play

Did you ever know that Thomas the Train is also a pilot?  While I think it's safe to say that Jonathan and Joshua like their toys, I have to confess I have a true toy obsession.  Over the summer, I spent much of my spare time on the hunt for "new" toys at thrift shops and garage sales.  What you see here is part of the results of my treasure hunting! 

Awh, this is my old friend Minarni, a colleague from Bethesda Nursing Academy where I worked when I was single on the island of Kalimantan.  She was passing through and stopped by our house for a few hours.  Joshua fell asleep in her arms within 60 seconds of meeting her. 

Jonathan put these puzzles together ALL BY HIMSELF!

Morning tooth brushing time.  I have to work hard to keep him from spinning around in circles while he is brushing....try to get him to focus on actually getting his teeth clean!  (In the evenings, I do the brushing for him, so they get one guaranteed good scrub per day.)  Blue potty chair in the background is now stored on the toilet instead of the floor to keep little brothers hands out of it!

It's not the first time you've seen train tracks in our house, and it won't be the last!  This one was special because of the "tunnels" going round and round under the bed!

Our guest room got a bit of use this month when our dear friends Paul and Becky Geary came to stay for a few nights.  They still serve at Bethesda Mission Hospital in Kalimantan, and currently their youngest child is attending Mountainview.  They are coming to town from time to time this year to check on their kid, which is great for us since they are some of my most favorite people in the whole wide world! 

We are getting more and more of this in the house every day -- Jonathan and Joshua sharing toys and playing peacefully together.  It still usually ends with Jonathan hitting Joshua on the head (and subsequent consequences from Mommy), but at least it's progress!

 

Awh, isn't he sweet?  This is his 5 a.m. smile, and indeed this photo was taken at 5 a.m.  Sometimes I can keep him quiet in bed until close to 6 a.m., but often he makes so much noise cooing and being happy that I just take him into the guest room so he doesn't wake up the entire household.

Yep, he's got four big teeth now.

I turned my back on the baby for 2 minutes, and this is what he did ....climbed up on the ottoman and then to standing by holding onto the couch.  He was pretty pleased with himself....his first big climb.  When I ran to grab the camara, Jonathan had to show that he could do it too.

We got some Cheerios via a friend who went to Singapore for visa purposes.  Rice Krispies and Kellogg's corn flakes have gone global, but we still can't get Cheerios here.  It's so hard to find healthy snack foods for kids here...so the Cheerios are a big blessing.  I can make a 14 oz. box last for 2 months by keeping it in the freezer in ziplock bags and doling them out in scanty portions.  Whenever a Cheerio lands on the floor, I grieve the waste.  Joshua loved them INSTANTLY. 

Did you know that Cheerios can make you so tired?

My birthday pedicure!  I turned 38 on October 20!  It was a lovely day!  Dave watched the boys while I went for a pedicure with Becky Geary (who also had a birthday that week!)  A two hour pedicure here only cost $6.50.  Dave and I were also able to slip out for a date night in the evening while the boys stayed with a babysitter. 

This little guy has been loving mommy and daddy's bed lately and often will not sleep in his pak-n-play!

Yep, it's another train track picture.  This time with our thrift shop Lincoln Log ("Winkin Wog") station and signal house. 

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of "Our Life in Pictures!"