My Birthday

Today I turned 29 years old. I can't believe it. I am getting old. It seems like yesterday that I graduated from college and now I have two kids! All in all it was a very good day. John kept the kids while I met my very good friends Erin Ashley and Laura for a pedicure. Then for dinner we went to Danielle and Josh's house. Danielle made baked ziti which is my favorite of all her wonderful dishes. She also made me this amazing chocolate cake. It was so good. I got some really good gifts. One of which was a trip to get portraits made of the kids. So get excited grandparents you should have some great pictures of the kids soon.



Below I am opening some place mats from my friend Ellie. I have been wanting some since I got a new dining room table in the summer.

Not Much to Report

There isn't much to report today so I thought I would put this random picture of Kayleigh brushing Zeb's hair. Sometimes she can be really sweet to him and other times she stands in front of his bouncy seat yelling "no!" I am not actually sure why she does this unless she feels like she needs someone to be in charge of in the household. I was going to start my potty training today but Zeb did not have a great morning so I decided to do some grocery shopping instead. I took Kayleigh with me and left Zeb with our helper. I have learned in the past what "supplies" I need to get Kayleigh to last all the way through our trip. I packed some raisins and her water and thought that would be sufficient. After finishing her raisins 3.5 minutes after we got in the store she started telling me she was ready to go home. I guess my idea of bringing supplies did not help with her patience. What I did not know was what kind of day at the store I was in for. I got to the check out lines only to realize that there were about 20 lines open with about 20 people in each line. For those of you who have never been to China I am sure you are thinking this is impossible. But oh no, when you live in a city of 4 million people this is totally possible. It took us about 30 minutes to check out. During this time Kayleigh's foot fell asleep while sitting in the buggy and we had about 10 Chinese people come up and take her picture. I guess they had nothing better to do while they were standing in line. When we got outside there were no taxis to be found. At this point I am trying not to freak out because it was getting closer to Zeb's feeding time. On the way home the taxi driver wanted me to teach him English and write a couple of words down in a note book however, the other words written in his book were not English. I think he must be learning other languages too! This day may sound crazy to you folks but this is a typical day in China. Hopefully, I will have successful news to report tomorrow on the potty training experience.

An Hour and Half Away

Today I looked at John and said "I need to get away!" I had basically not left our apartment complex for most of the week and I was feeling really confined to my house. Having a 3 month old while living in China makes it really hard to get out. It takes about twice as long to get anywhere here. Anyway, I needed a break from the kids. Our helper came this afternoon so it gave me a great opportunity to leave while the kids were napping. John needed a haircut so I thought that it would be nice to go with him. In China you can get your hair washed and your head massaged for about $3. So it was worth it to me to go with him. After they washed and massaged my head I realized that it was time for them to style my hair. I have done this before and have realized in the past there is no use in arguing with them about fixing your hair a certain way. If you try to tell them to do what you want they don't think it looks good and end up doing a style that they think looks better. So I decided not to even fight with them this time and just let them have their way with my hair. Below is the end result. I really don't think this picture does my hair do justice. The guy basically took the hair dryer and blew my hair forward in my face. John said it resembled the shaggy dog at one point. When I got back home Kayleigh kept saying "hair mommy hair" and then taking her hands and shaking my hair around. I don't think she liked it either. All in all it was a great hour and half away. We ended our time by getting some gelato on the street. My relaxing time away was worth the bad hair do.

Kayleigh Used the Potty

Lately, I have been thinking about potty training Kayleigh. I made a deal with John that when Zeb started to sleep through the night I would start. We need to get one child out of diapers so we can start saving a little money! So, I got a potty from a friend and placed it in the bathroom. I have been talking this potty up a lot. I have no idea what I am doing so I have been waiting to get a book on potty training from a friend. The other day Kayleigh looked at me and said "Mommy I pee pee in the potty". She was jumping up and down so I thought I would give it a shot. I took off her diaper and she ran into the bathroom and actually pee peed in the potty! I was so shocked. I gave her an M&M for a reward. I haven't hit the potty training hard core yet because we have had to go somewhere most days this week but I am hoping that this is a sign that the potty training will go smoothly!

Fun Day with Friends

After the cookout we spent the night with our friends Andy and EA. We don't get to hang out with them often so we take every opportunity we can to get some quality time with them. We started off our day with Kayleigh and Emma Grace having Bible Time. As you can see Emma Grace prefers to lie down during her lesson.



Then we took a morning walk around the small little town they live in. Kayleigh was still in her pajamas because it was cool outside. We were asked if they were twins?! Do they look like twins to you?

Later that morning Kayleigh had some play time with her friend Julianna. They thought it was fun to throw rocks in the water.

As you can see there weren't that many rocks to pick up and throw. You know there are slim pickins when you try to get rocks out of the side walk!

After the rock throwing they thought it would be fun to slap the light pole for a while. I'm not sure why they thought this was fun but hey whatever it takes to entertain them.

Lydia's Birthday Party

Today we went to our friends house to have a end of the summer cookout and to celebrate Lydia's 1st Birthday. Lydia is one of Kayleigh's friends. Our friend Erin Ashley had a great idea to buy a pool and have the kids swim before dinner. They had so much fun. Kayleigh's favorite part was pouring water over all the girls heads. We had a great meal of grilled chicken and lots of fun sides. We ended the night by watching the Olympics with everyone.









Below are all the women that were here in the city this summer. They are all very special friends.









Poor Lydia got a little overwhelmed at all of us singing Happy Birthday to her. She didn't know quite what to think.





Check out the serious drool on this boy's shirt. John jokes and says he has to be dehydrated from loosing so much water!

Dress in the rain

During the rainy season we have a lot of time indoors, so Kayleigh decided the other day that she wanted to dress up in her princess dress that was given to her by her Gran-D and Gran-Me. The pictures below show her getting tired of wearing the dress. I was lucky to get a few shots in before it came completely off.

Bath Time at the Greenes

The other night I wanted to give Zeb a bath and I asked Kayleigh to "help". I thought it would be fun for her to help as a big sister. Well my idea of her helping and her idea were drastically different. I thought she would stand in the big bath tub and help me wash him. However, her idea was to get in the bath with him! As you can see there wasn't much room for the both of them. Zeb thought it was fun though. Notice the pink thing he is lying on. He was the first boy in our city amongst many girls so he gets the shaft sometimes and has to lie on pink things. Oh well, we have two new little boys coming to our city tomorrow night. We can't wait to meet them and for them to become great buds with Zeb. I do however realize that this is the first of many fun bath times together as brother and sister.

Rainy Day and Pizza Hut!

This morning we woke up to lots of rain. It ended up raining all day long and we were all really bored and wanted to get out of the house. Our friends EA and Andy called us to meet them for dinner at Pizza Hut. We of course said yes for any opportunity or reason to get out of the house. It was a good ending to a rainy day.

Every morning when I go into Kayleigh's room she asks me "baby wake" which means is Zeb awake? She loves to go see him first thing in the morning. This is a picture from this morning when they were playing together in the bed. As you can see Zeb isn't quite comfortable with Kayleigh being that close. Earlier this week we started our day with Zeb screaming when Kayleigh threw her baby doll ( which has a very hard plastic head) on top of Zeb's head while he was still in the pack-n-play!

Here is Kayleigh and Emma Grace playing at Pizza Hut. Kayleigh calls her Grace. They share the same birthday only a year apart. It is hard to believe that Kayleigh was that small just a year ago. She is growing up so fast!

Olympics Celebration

Friday night on 8-8-08 we celebrated Josh's Birthday party by going out to dinner and then watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. It was so much fun! We had no idea that the opening ceremonies would last for 4 hours! It was so weird to see that hardly no one was on the streets. It was the quietest I have ever seen China. John and I put the kids to bed at Josh and Danielle's house and then woke them up when was time to leave. What we didn't realize was that everyone would be looking for a taxi at the same time once the ceremonies was over! We ended up walking home which was quite funny since Kayleigh was really loopy and kept telling us that it was dark outside!

Here is the four of us at the restaurant. Check out Zeb's shirt. That is a bunch of drool! John keeps telling me that Zeb is getting teeth! He better not be getting teeth at 3 months!

Here we are celebrating Josh's birthday at a Japanese style restaurant where they cook in front of you.

Cymbal Man

It is amazing what kind of noises we hear in our complex through out the day and night. We can hear things from kids playing till midnight to Celine Deon blared at the top of her lungs. Recently a neighbor of ours has decided (we assume)to take up the cymbal and that annoying instrument that is played in the Beijing Opera. He starts about 8:00 in the morning and goes to about 6:00 at night. We are not sure why he thinks this sound is a beautiful one. Normally, we would probably laugh it off and go about our business but the last three nights Zeb has woken up about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. We are not sure why and are trying to figure out his deal. As a result of no sleep this cymbal sounds more annoying everyday. Yet I am still amazed at how God can use random things to remind us of scripture or things we need to learn. As I listen to the cymbal outside my window I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:1. It says " If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal"! At two in the morning when I just want to give up, I think about how I need to love that little boy who can't take care of himself, can't change his diaper, feed himself etc. I am reminded that I would be just like that annoying cymbal outside our window if I didn't have love.

Zeb and his Virus

As you may or may not know, Zeb is only 3 months old and he came down with a fever three days ago. This made both Alisa and I very concerned, so we decided to take Zeb to a local American doctor here to get his advice on the situation. Since the doctor is limited in what he can do here, because of the limited medical facilities in our city, he had to make best guesses as to what was going on with Zeb. After two full days of running around the city trying to get blood tests and urine samples tested, Zeb's body got better and better. Now he is feeling less hot and his fever is low. We are so thankful to all that have been praying for Zeb and praying for us!

The pictures below are the most recent pictures we took of him today. He is in good spirits and is interacting and smiling at us very well. We think he is feeling better. The doctor now thinks that he has/had a stomach virus that caused his fever.

Lunchtime PB&?

It's lunchtime at the Greene's and peanut butter and jelly are in abundance! Even dad got into the PB&J buffet. Usually, everyday Alisa and Kayleigh eat some sort of sandwich with peanut butter as one ingredient. Today, Alisa decided it was a peanut butter and banana sandwich day. It looks like another rainy and wet day here in KM. We don't like these kinds of days very much.

Local Pool

Today we decided to go to the pool with Josh and Danielle while Alisa took Zeb to the Doctor for a checkup. We had such a great time and Kayleigh loved it. Although the pool was a little cold, Kayleigh didn't care. All she wanted to do was to swim and have fun. She especially liked "swimming" back and forth between Josh and I.