sore thumb

I'm so happy to announce that my oldest daughter is officially potty trained. We really thought she'd never poop on the potty but continue to give us 2 soiled pairs of underwear everyday for the rest of her life. But thankfully she figured out "the feeling" and she's got it down pat. She hasn't had an accident for days and days and even sleeps through the night with no problems. So, just one kiddo in diapers now. My dear Steiner Dad and Mom will be boarding the plane in the morning to head to our home. We're just around the block, really. We just can't believe they are actually going to be sitting on our couch in our home in Xi'an. What a great thing. This week has gone well with starting back to school. I was so dreading it but it hasn't been so bad. My teacher is really great at speaking clearly and correcting me. It's also nice to be starting back slowly with just 6 hours a week. Lilian is doing great with being away from me a...

Here's what's been on my mind lately. Greenery - I love green space. There are places abounding with greenery here but I don't live in one of them. To give credit where credit is due, Xi'an does have more trees than other areas that we've lived in. Because of my need for green I have decided that whenever possible I will try to live on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd floor of apartments from now on. We live on the 8th and I can see trees lower down from various windows in my apartment but I'd like to be low enough that the trees where actually at my windows. This complex has a lot of beautiful landscaping and lots and lots of green stuff. That's one reason why we chose this place. Characters - I am pretty horrible at remembering Chinese characters. Tuesday (the day I start back to school) is going to be very painful since the book I'm currently studying is all characters. Milk - Today Yali stayed home with Lilian while Madeleine and I went out. It was a little trial...

We are in what we call our home now. Which means Xi'an for the foreseeable future. This, in our case, can mean anything from a couple years to a couple weeks. I have discovered that our home in Xi'an doesn't feel like home yet. We moved in on May 4th but we've actually only lived in this apartment for about a month and that month wasn't contiguous. Madeleine still considers our home to be in the other area of Xi'an that we first moved to and last night I couldn't remember were stuff was in the kitchen. Phil doesn't seem to have a problem. Today Yali came back to work and Maddie was happy to see her. Lilian seems to be happy to be anywhere that has me within close proximity so she's doing great. I'm very, very happy to be back here with my girls and my Phil.

Wouldn't it be so exciting to have a child in the Olympics? Today Madeleine and I were watching gymnastics. She wasn't so in to it but since I wouldn't play with her she sat with me and watched grudgingly. However, after awhile she got down and started trying to stand on her head and running from corner to corner of the room (floor routines) and ending with a grand throwing of the hands in the air and bowing. I was proud of her for just that display so I can't imagine having a child actually compete. In yesterday's post I mentioned that a requirment to be a stay-at-home mom would be for us to have play friends. Well, today I found out that Madeleine already has about 8 friends here. They patiently sit on the bathtub eagerly awaiting her nightly bath. They are (in no particular order) shampoo bottle, conditioner bottle, empty sprite bottle, empty coke bottle, baby shampoos bottle, wierd blue liquid in a bottle and empty juice bottle. This morning when she wal...

The girls and I are back at the office for a few days and nights. We may be here until we go back to Xi'an. Depends on when my folks return...no need for us all to share a room again when we could be at Dave's house. Dad and Mom are back in Wuhan waiting for their visas to be renewed. So hard sharing a room with Madeleine and Lilian. One or the other is doable but last night I had one girl on either side of the bed - not in the bed but Maddie was on a pallet and Lilian in her portable cradle. Everything went okay until about 5am when Lilian let out a sharp cry waking both Maddie and me. Maddie started crying and so was Lilian and it took all I had not to join in with them. But we all settled down and got another hour and half sleep before the day officially began. Phil's out of town again. 5 nights this time. The days I can handle fine but the evenings are a pain when we're here at the office. It's a vicious cycle if and when one of them starts crying. Th...

Both my girls are snoozing and seeing that I had a lovely cup of coffee over lunch with Madeleine and Lilian, I am not. We ate lunch at Peter's Tex-Mex which is conveniently located near our current apartment. It takes about 20 minutes to walk there while pushing a stroller and walking at a toddler's pace. So, not bad at all...especially if you realize how long it can take to get anywhere at a toddler's pace. Look at a rock, get to the stick stuck behind the bush, rub a hand across the side of each parked car, watch your reflection in the window of every shop, stop the stroller to make sure Lilian is still there every so often... We're in Chengdu. This is our second apartment to stay in since we got here. We've stopped telling Madeleine we're going "home" we call it "Nana and Gramp's house" or "Dave and Fan Fan's house". So "home" can still be our apartment in Xi'an. This is the 3rd city Lilian has live...