Question for any potty training mom!

I have to ask this question to any of you who are currently potty training or have loads of experience in this arena!! Dear, sweet Cooper was the easiest by far out of the three to potty train. We had a couple of accidents, some bribery with Geo Trax and now he is completely potty trained. The problem is, he is so independent that he believes he should dump his poop himself. Most of the time, he does get it into the potty, however, today it ended up in the sink...gross, disgusting, yuk!!! This is the sink where the children brush their teeth - I am totally disturbed by the whole thing. I have dumped bleach and any other cleaning product to sanitize, but I just can't help thinking that there was poop in the sink. I try to tell him to tell me when he does it (he needs privacy so he always goes whenever I am in the middle of something!!), but he is not getting it. Any suggestions? Who knows where it will end up next!!!

Spreading Holiday Cheer

This weekend we enjoyed a lot of relaxing family time, along with spending time with friends and beginning to celebrate the holidays before everyone goes off to different destinations!

On Friday night Danny went out with some friends. They started out having drinks and ended up getting a foot massage - I couldn't stop giggling when Danny told me about his first "massage"!! They had went to get a foot massage, but Danny didn't realize that even just a foot massage usually means the whole body (with clothes on of course!!!). I'm not so sure I'll talk him into any more massages, but he was happy he only had to pay $7!

Saturday we went grocery shopping, which is surprisingly getting easier and easier. Danny and I were talking as we waited to check out that, had this been even 2 months ago, a trip to get a few items would have taken all day, this time it only took 1 1/2 hours and that included eating at KFC! After shopping, El had her art lesson. At her last session she had told her teachers that she wanted to work on a cat. They brought a sketched cat and she had to paint it with watercolors. It was a pretty difficult project, but it turned out great - I think I might even have this one framed!! After art it was off to Friday's. My sister had talked about Friday's appetizers so I was craving them - they are not quite as good as in the US (the cheese is a bit different, and they don't have ranch) but I still ate a ton!!

On Sunday morning we had our usual breakfast at the Sheraton. Almost all of the staff knows us by now so we get our coffee quickly and the kids needs are taken care of at every moment. Apparently some of the staff thinks Danny is a movie star here!! It is too funny - he has told them numerous times that he is not a movie star and he is not in commercials, but I guess they don't believe him because they talk about it all of the time!!! We just giggle!! As Danny says, what in the world would we be doing in Tianjin if he was some big movie star!!!!

After breakfast we headed to church. The kids are very comfortable going to Sunday School and they have all made some special friends that they look forward to seeing on Sunday. The majority of the children that attend fellowship go to another international school in town. After church, and weeks of waiting, we finally got to have lunch with Jen and her kids (Kevin is out of town so he wasn't able to join us!). It is always so comfortable being with them - I feel like we have known them forever! Ellie and Rachel were planning a sleepover for Christmas break. I'm pretty sure they have everything they want to accomplish pinned down to the minute! Jen helped me with our trip to Hong Kong because she just returned from there and knows where the shopping is!!! And Danny got to sit at the "boy" table!! It was fun and as usual the time went too fast!!

This is a bright pink tree outside of the shopping complex where we went to eat!!! El thought it was pretty cool!!

After lunch we had to rush to Ellie's Christmas party at a friend's house. One of the mom's organized this entire party which included singing Christmas carols, making Christmas cards, a visit from Santa and eating Christmas goodies. She started putting it together on Wednesday and she did a fine job!! We had a lot of fun! El loved singing with our friend Sarah on the piano! Eens ran around with his friend Tilly singing Mama Mia songs...Honey, honey how he "kills" me uh huh!! I keep telling him it is, how he "thrills" me. He says I'm wrong, either way it is probably not too appropriate for a 4 year old!!! Coop was scared of a very real looking Santa - but he was brave enough to grab his present out of Santa's hand!!

When we got back home, Ellie and I decided to pass out all of the cookies we have been baking to our neighbors so we bundled up and delivered cookies! Meanwhile, my wonderful mother had sent us a huge box full of goodies for Christmas, including her delicious homemade fudge and A Christmas Story!! Coop was excited to watch A Christmas Story. Thanks mom - you can see Coop watching the movie intently (I guess I was wrong in a previous post about not letting him watch movies with guns in them!!)!!

This morning I went to the orphanage where I try to volunteer a couple of times a month. Honestly, trying to organize the ayi to come early and the driver when I go is not that easy, but once I get there and have one of those sweet little babies in my arms, I'm so glad I went through the trouble. The smiles I get are incredible. I was able to feed one of the little ones today - she was so sweet!! The ayis are always very thankful to have extra hands to help!

Please continue to pray for my grandma and my family. She continues to eat very little, however, my mom has said that hospice will start and they will do everything they can to keep her pain free.

Winter Concert at IST

Danny, Cooper, and I were treated to some wonderful singing, piano solos, violin solos, and recorder playing this morning at the IST winter concert! I appreciate so much that Danny always makes such an effort to attend the kids' events at school. There are typically very few dad's attending during the day, but Danny has been able to make it to almost everything - he even attended a PFO meeting!! (Speaking of PFO meetings, I forgot to post about the fact that we discussed pole dancing at the last one - Shonna I thought of you!!!!) I digressed, anyway, the winter concert was very impressive! The children did a great job singing and some of the solos on the piano were amazing. Ellie is definitely getting a piano this month!!! Here are a few pictures...

Our Pirate!

I have talked about Eensie before, but I have to tell you that this boy amazes me everyday. Some of the words I would use to describe Eens are...confident, a leader, creative, compassionate, and sensitive. Never in a million years would I have thought of Eens as being a leader. He continues to be a people pleaser, but he is so much more. He has managed to get all of the boys in his class into pirate mode. Danny and I were at school this morning for the Winter Concert and we were looking at the PreK snowmen - all of the boys had made pirate snowmen. I was talking to his teacher later on in the morning and she said it had been Ethan's idea!! He has also managed to build a "volcano" with his friend Oscar out of recycled items!! His teacher said there are even sound effects which include Eens spitting (on accident of course!) all over the place!! The other night he came home after school and fashioned an entire pirate outfit out of paper! He is so absorbed in his "projects" and will spend hours at the kitchen table until he is finished! I continue to be so proud of him and all of his accomplishments! I keep asking myself if this move has given him the confidence he has, is it his school and teacher who have encouraged his creativity, or is it that I am finally able to sit back and enjoy watching him grow into this sweet, wonderful, independent boy?

This morning after the concert, Coop and I went to Eensie's class so that I could read to the class! He has the sweetest classmates. There are 16 4 year olds in the class with one teacher and Ms. Snow (who loves my children so much!!), she is a TA and also teaches the children Chinese! Eens' teacher is very energetic and it is obvious that she wakes up almost every morning wanting to go to work! I read to a group of 8 and then they treated me to waffles that they had prepared in the morning, muffins, fruit, and juice. Cooper played with Ms. Snow the entire time - she cannot wait until he starts school! He gives her hugs and kisses and tells her he loves her in Chinese! I was so happy I was able to witness Eens in his school environment! Each time I go to school I feel more and more like a part of the community - I am beginning to understand why people say it is harder than you think to go back! Don't worry mom, we won't extend the contract, but I am very thankful we are surrounded by caring and supportive people!!

A Day Without Ayi!!

I decided that my Ayi has been working too hard lately so I gave her the day off today. She typically works from 10:00 until 7:00 or 7:30 five days a week. When I told her she didn't need to come in, at first she thought maybe I was upset with her, after she figured out that I was not, she was very concerned about what we would do for dinner! I thought it was pretty entertaining that she doesn't think I know how to cook! She knows that we go out to eat all weekend when she is not here, so she just assumed I didn't know what I was doing! She will be proud tomorrow when she sees that I made a big pot of my friend Nik's yummy chicken chili!!

I also decided that today would be a good day to do some Christmas baking. My friend Naoko came over and we baked sugar cookies while the kids were at school so that when they got home, they would be ready to icing! Ellie and Minori were experts at icing and Eens was an expert at licking all of the knives!! Coop ate two cookies and then had better things to do (he was engrossed in watching the Beauty and the Beast Christmas DVD!!).

It was a fun day and I proved to myself that I can make it through a day here without help!! I even did a few loads of laundry!!! Don't get me wrong, I know I can function fine here or anywhere without help, but if you only knew how hard it is to find all of the ingredients to make a simple meal. I have to go to several import stores and I'm still not guaranteed to find what I need. Finding meat at the grocery store is also difficult because I can't read the Chinese writing and I'm pretty particular about the meat we eat!! I am very grateful for the help we have, but I will look forward to more days on my own!!!

This is completely off the subject, but if you could please say a prayer for my grandma (my mom's mom). She has been in a nursing home for several years suffering from alzheimers disease and recently her health has been declining. Please pray that she is pain free. Please also pray for my mom and aunts, they mean so much to me and I wish I were closer to give them all big hugs and support them as they have always supported me.

Our Soccer Boy!

Coop is obsessed with soccer. If he sees a ball or anything for that matter, he kicks it. He is actually extremely accurate when he kicks to his daddy so maybe there is some potential here. His newest thing is that when he puts on socks he likes to pull them up as high as they go and call himself soccer boy! Tonight he had on little ankle socks so instead, he pulled up his sweats and was running around being "soccer boy"! He is so funny you can't help but laugh!!

I have to also mention two other things that Coop is into...mooning people and swatting tushes. What is wrong with my third child? El and Eens did not do either of these things, so I'm not sure where he gets these ideas, but it has and I'm sure will continue to make life interesting for me! The other day at Gymboree class, he was chasing his teacher pretending to put out a fire and he's being all funny and winds up and swats her in the tush in front of everyone. Of course the Chinese find this hilarious and I am mortified. Then later that day I had some friends over for tea and a playdate with the kids. We were sitting in the dining room enjoying our tea and in comes Coop. He turns around, pulls down his pants and shakes his little, skinny booty (as he calls it!). Now that I'm writing it and not in the moment, it is funny, but when it is happening I just watch in horror!

Clark would not be disappointed!

The outside lights put up in our compound would make Clark Griswold proud! They have put every color and type of light they can find on trees and bushes. It's hard for the kids to fall asleep because the lights stay on until the middle of the night and they are extremely bright and flashy! Oh well, it is all in good fun and it helps us get into the spirit! We were very appreciative that they even put a light up tree on our front porch.

My friend Sharon had told me that I could find a big blow up Frosty at a store here. I was so excited to go and buy it, but then I started to look outside for outlets and I couldn't find any so I just assumed there would be no lights outside. You are probably wondering to yourself, how then did they put up lights and trees on porches? I must show you pictures because if I told you what they have done, you would not believe it.

This is on our porch and they have used the wires from our light and connected it to the light wires on the tree.

This is hanging on our deck - it is similar to the one on the porch (connected to our light wires) except that they have put a plastic bag over this one. I am not an electrician, but I cannot imagine this is safe??!!

Now that I see what they are capable of, maybe I should go and buy Frosty, they could probably rig it up pretty easily! Or else, a better idea, wait until we move back to the US and buy a great big Frosty and plug it in properly!!!