Cooper's conference!!

This year Coop had his first student led conference with me!! He was very nervous about it and basically begged to go home before we even began. Once he realized that it was just him and I, he didn't want to stop when the time was up! I'm not sure how the teachers prepared the children (according to them, the kids did everything!!) for the hour time slot in which they showed us six different activities that they do in class, but it was pretty amazing!! Some of the tasks were simple, while others made me realize how much Coop is learning through all of the play they do in class!

Coopie told me the entire Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See story using magnets. It was a great exercise in storytelling for him!!

Here Coop went through his digital portfolio with me. The teachers do a great job of capturing the kids on video learning in all different manners! We had a good giggle over some of the things he did!!Coop's favorite art activity is to cut paper and use tons and tons of glue!! He made a rocket for me during the conference!

A lot of the time I feel guilty about Coop going to school all day, 5 days a week, but after seeing the progress he has made since August, I think it is all worth it!

A Sample of Eensie's work!

This week I spent one on one time with Eensie at his student led conference!! I loved reading through his writing book. His pieces crack both me and his teacher up! Many children at this age are concerned more with the correct spelling rather than getting their ideas down on paper, which can really hinder their creativity. Eens obviously loves invented spelling and is not lacking in creativity!! "Popcorn man pooped because he was dancing too much and it made a big mess on the person."
Another popcorn man story from the beginning of the year!
"My mom is nice to me. Mom loves me and Cooper and Ellie. Mom helps me with my homework." What a sweetie pie!!

"Me and my dad like to play snakes (chutes) and ladders and play DS and build tall roller coasters and he works at John Deere."
Eens is having a wonderful year in kindergarten. I am amazed at what he is able to do at the age of 5! He reads great, he loves math and all the math concepts they have learned! He is a whiz kid on the computer. And, a big surprise to me, he is a fantastic hula hooper!! I am so proud of my little man and thankful that he will have another year in the international school setting! I love small classes!!

The Real Deal!

I made a big mistake last weekend and bought Fruity Pebbles. I know, they are full of sugar and not healthy, but, the biggest mistake was that they were the real deal, actual Fruity Pebbles and not Dyno Bites!! I usually opt for the generic cereal here because they typically cost around $7, while the name brands cost well over $10. I saw that Fruity Pebbles were on sale for less than $3 and I couldn't resist. The kids took one bite and told me they would never eat Dyno Bites again!! This was a very good shopping lesson for me...stick to the generics until we get back to the US!!

Scenes from a hotel room!!

I’m pretty sure the guys will all be a bit shocked at what a great time we had over the weekend, even though we, of course, missed them terribly!! If you would have walked into our hotel room last night, you would have witnessed pure and utter chaos with 4 adults and 7 children making the most of our little getaway!!

We decided that since the kids had been in and out of the car all day that we would just order food to be delivered! We ordered heaps of food...5 pizzas, 4 pastas, bruschetta, and 2 caprese salads, all for about $60! By the end of the night, we did eat almost all of it - it was delicious!!

While we were eating, I had contacted a man who does watercolor paintings to come to our room and show us his work. He has some beautiful works of art and he ended up staying for over an hour. I’m so excited about the painting I bought because it will match some furniture that I have in storage (it’s exciting knowing that in a little over a year we’ll be decorating our own house!!)! He does a lot of paintings of hutongs (houses that unfortunately are being torn down now) and he then adds splashes of color. He told us different stories about the paintings and it was really interesting to attempt to understand how he, as the artist, views his own work! He even agreed to give my mother-in-law a lesson when she arrives at the end of April! I think she will really enjoy it!!

While we were finishing up buying some paintings, we had four foot massagers arrive!! It was a riot how they totally reconfigured the family room to make room for all of the chairs and tubs of water!! We enjoyed the foot massages so much that we asked them to stay for another hour...I ended up with a guy who claims he was a Chinese doctor and am still very sore from whatever he did to me!! We giggled away the whole time and the two hours only cost us each $35!

We only had one spilled glass of wine, one missing Georgie (Coop’s pacifier), and one call from the front desk making sure our room was not on fire!! Overall, I would have to declare the weekend a wonderful success!!

A Beautiful Day in Beijing

Yesterday, the kids and I ventured to Beijing for a day and night of fun with our wonderful friends!! The dads went to Hong Kong for the Hong Kong 7s (rugby tournament), so we decided that we would enjoy ourselves too!! We were very busy and thankful for a very patient driver who took us all over Beijing!! We met up for a very American lunch...hamburgers, chicken wings, french fries, and hot dogs. Then we made our way to the hair cutting place to get 5 kids’ haircuts!! Next stop was Jenny Lou’s for some groceries and a little toy (must have bribery on long days!)!

After all the errands were done, we took the kids to Chocolate World, which is a temporary exhibit set up next to the Bird’s Nest. The kids were excited to eat chocolate, but I think the mommies were even more excited! The exhibit was really amazing. They built so many things out of chocolate, including the Great Wall, terra cotta warriors, and a life sized BMW! It was a great way to end our afternoon and thanks to spring making her debut, we even got to watch kite flyers and the street vendors make all of their goodies!

Happy 4th Birthday my Darling Coop!!

On Wednesday, we celebrated Coop’s 4th birthday. We had actually celebrated with dear friends on Sunday (he got to pick 4 friends from his nursery class), so Wednesday was low key with presents in the morning, cake at school, a special play date with Sophie and Lucy, and then dinner at Din Tai Fung. I guess after writing all of that it wasn’t low key at all, but really all that mattered was that he enjoyed his very special day!!

Another one of Danny's famous cakes!!!

Karen drew this scene for the kids to color at their play date!! Coop loved all of the cars!!

Coop has grown so much this year, both physically and emotionally. He has gained over 5 pounds this year, which is more than he has gained since his first year of life! He is well over 3 feet tall and will soon overtake Eens!! His keen sense of smell (I often wonder if he developed that while in the NICU??) caused some grief during our quest for finding a puppy - he couldn’t go into any of the pet shops with us because they were “too stinky”! He continues to fight seasonal allergies since the fall, with them starting again now. I will be interested to see if some of those “allergies” are linked to the pollution when we get back to the US! During this past winter his eczema around his lip flared up weekly - again, I wonder if this is not due to the environment we are living in! Besides his “allergies” and eczema, he is thriving and I love watching him grow up!!!

(The Batman costume on the right is what Coop wore for Halloween in October, the left one is his new one which fits perfectly!)

Coopie loves super heroes and everything boy!! In the picture above you will see him dressed as Batman (thank you grandma and grandpa) on his big day!! He loves video games and is definitely more technologically advanced than I am!! He can work the I-touch much faster than me and he conquers levels in Super Mario before I do!! I have also noticed this year that he is a risk taker. I watch him ride his scooter outside and one would think he has been on it since he was a baby. Much of this has to do with the fact that he wants to be just like his big brother and sister, but I think he also has a very daring personality, which is a bit scary for me!! His creativity is developing thanks to his best buddy. He is even venturing into art by drawing his interpretations of Disneyland!! Lately he has learned all of his letters, both upper and lower case! He goes around the house telling us how to spell everything that has letters on it!! His favorite is, “I know how to spell IST (abbreviation for the kids’ school!), IST”!! He just giggles after he tells me this!!

Of course, some of Coop’s challenging behaviors still prevail at times. He doesn’t like when other adults touch him or try to help him. We are working on this, he just requires a bit of warming up time. I’m also hoping this year he will gain a bit of patience when we are out and about - the world still definitely revolves around him!! Living in China does not help either of these two personality traits because people are always touching him (or trying to - he scares them when he yells!) and when you go out for what you think will be a 2 hour adventure, it can very easily turn into a 6 hour outing! Coopie also has trouble calming himself when he gets upset. I am really trying to help him learn how to control himself enough so that he doesn’t spin totally out of control, but this task is not an easy one for him or I!! He has been a fighter since day 1, and I’m sure this will be an asset as he gets older, but for now that determination gets him into a wee bit of trouble!!

I feel so blessed to have Cooper as my son. He, without knowing it has taught me so many lessons in the last four years... Each day is a gift that must be cherished and appreciated!! Hug your babies many times throughout the day, they are special treasures full of love!! And, when all else fails, count to 5 and breath deeply!!

The memories of his birth and the months that followed it are (and probably always will be) still fresh in my mind, but I have tried really hard this year not to relive the scary moments, and instead to focus on the fact that I have a beautiful, healthy, energetic, loving four year old!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COOP!!!

Spooky Sky

We woke up on Saturday morning to an orange sky - it was quite creepy. Danny went outside and saw a layer of dust on all of the cars, and only then did we understand that a massive sandstorm was going through the city. This was our first sandstorm experience since we have been in Tianjin, and I wish it would be our last, but I'm sure we won't be so lucky. The sky was thick with pollution, and many people were wearing their masks to protect there lungs from the particles in the air. Last year we experienced so many clear, blue sky days that many times I dismissed the books and others accounts that the pollution was really bad here. This year has been a totally different story! It is sad that the measures the cities put into effect for the Olympics truly worked and now they have gone back to their old ways and the pollution and sandstorms have returned. I'm sure there is much more to the whole story, but that is how I see it.

This is an article about the sandstorms that have hit the cities...More sandstorms on the way

And, here are some pictures that Danny captured of our orange sky!!