Bring your kids to work

One part of our job (working with International students) that I love the most is hosting. Even more specifically, throwing a Christmas party.

On Friday night we had almost 30 Chinese students in our home for a Christmas party. It was such a great night! The first guests to arrive were high school students. They go to the City School (same as Lilia). They are here practicing piano, hoping to get into Curtis; the best music school in the world. The doorbell rang and a car load of students showed up. More and more Drexel undergrads poured in by the car loads.
Once everyone arrived we prayed, ate pizza (they like meat-topped pizza & mushroom-topped pizza), enjoyed some fruit and homemade cookies. So many students told me how they enjoyed the homemade cookies. There are no ovens in China. People don't bake. They are also not a culture that likes a lot of sugar, but they liked chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.

After we ate it was time for games. We started off slow with Christmas Bingo, which most never played. I went over each picture, and they learned new words like "holly," and "Santa's sleigh."
The second game was really funny. You put a plate on your head and I give you things to draw. You can't look at the plate, you just have to guess where draw the Christmas tree so it is on the floor. And you can't tell if you drew your stockings on the mantel until the instructions have stopped. I gave one girl a prize because her drawing was so good, but it was a guy named Ronald who won the most points. He's an impressionist artist.

Lilia as a snowman

The last game was the most fun. It was build a snowman. Each pair received a roll of toilet paper (from the $1 store), a scarf and a contraction paper carrot nose. The first team to build a snowman wins. Both Lilia and Alex played and loved it.

Reading the Christmas story in Luke

We moved on to singing Christmas songs, both popular ones and Christian ones. Dave had each student read along in a Chinese Bible as Herold (a Chinese Christian at Temple) read the Christmas story in Luke. Dave shared about Jesus and how history has been leading up to this moment. Christ the newborn King is born.
We then turned out the lights, and slowly passed along a flame, while Lilia led us in singing Silent night. It was a really fun and beautiful night. I loved watching my kids play games with the students, have conversations and lead when it was a beautiful moment to lead. It doesn't often work out to bring your kids to work, but when the opportunity is right - it will impact both them and those they interact with forever.

Alex the Snowman

Chicken's feet or Dumplings?

I was excited, but I wasn't ready for what Tuesday would have in store for me.

I had agreed to meet with 2 Chinese women to practice English and maybe talk about Christianity. I was excited. I have a lot of patience to take the time to talk slowly, and simply with people from another language/culture. I actually enjoy it. 

Alex, Cheryl, myself & Daniel

I met Cheryl & Daniel at 45th and Walnut and we walked over to Anna's house. Cheryl and Anna are the wives of visiting scholars. Daniel is Cheryl's 10yr old son. As we walked we conversed. I found out that Cheryl had only been in America for 3 weeks and was only staying for an additional 3 weeks. Daniel has been in America since September and he's enrolled at Penn Alexander School in 5th grade. I was able to talk more with Daniel because his English was decent.

Cheryl is a pediatric nurse back in China. Her husband is a pediatric doctor. He is doing 6 months of research and 6 months of work at CHOP. He is very busy.

So we arrived at Anna's apartment. A middle-aged, very well dressed Chinese woman came to the gate to let us in. We walked up to her high-end apartment. As I started to take my shoes off (an Asian cultural norm) she motioned for me to keep them on. We went into the living room and sat down. 

In Chinese, Anna asked if I had eaten breakfast. Daniel translated to me the question. I had eaten. Anna still put out grapes, bananas and also took a bag of potato chips from the fridge. She also brought us all a cup of water.

So far I was getting the vibe that this morning was going to be interesting. 

I learned SOME Chinese 5 years ago. Since then I had a baby (Alex) and hadn't really practiced any Chinese. Whatever was still stuck in my head came out that morning, which wasn't much. I was able to use a few words and a phrase or 2.

Anna spoke no English - oh wait - she could say "Hello," and "Thank you."

Cheryl could say some things, but couldn't communicate much of what she wanted to say in English. 

All I can say is thank goodness is was Veteran's Day and Daniel had no school! He was translator, back and forth, all morning. 

I taught them a phrase or two. They helped remind me of the bits of Chinese I had once learned.

As I told them I had to go to get Alex from school, Cheryl asked if we wanted to come over for lunch.

I paused and thought of our schedule for the day; clear. I said sure!

Cheryl then laid out the plan, "Daniel and I will come with you to get Alex. Then we will all drive back to my house for lunch."

"Ok." I replied. What choice did I have.

We arrived at their tiny apartment. We walked into the kitchen and she began to heat water for dumplings (mine and Alex's favorite.)

She then pulled something out of the fridge I had seen before, but had never eaten.

Chicken's feet.

Served cold.

And in some weird jelly-like substance.

She then asked me in Chinese, "Ni xihuan ma?"

I remembered what that meant instantly.

Do you like this?

Thankfully in Chinese culture you can be honest.

"Bu xihuan."  I don't like, I replied.

I proceeded to tell her in Chinese, "Americans don't like this dish."

Dumplings or Jiaozi

Cheryl went over to the stove and added homemade dumplings to the salted, boiling water.  Minutes later she served Alex and I a steaming bowl of our favorite Chinese food. I added some hot Chinese sauce to mine, but I just a tad. I knew to be cautious. These were hands down the best dumplings I've ever had. 

We enjoyed lunch and their generosity. They offered us ice cream, candy, peanuts, and Chinese snacks to take home.

Even though it was an awkward morning of listening, but not understanding a lot of Chinese, and only communicating a little of what both parties wanted to say. I was rewarded with a fantastic lunch, some new friends and even leftover dumplings (3 bags!!!) for another day!

"Ni xihuan ma?"

Happy Halloween

 This year Lilia was a colonial girl, and Alex was Captain Rex from Star Wars. He got the costume for his birthday from Aunt Julie.
Dave's mom made Lilia's costume for Julie (Dave's sister) when she was in elementary school.

Lilia chose to not smile and wanted her picture in black and white to fit her perception of the time period.

 We went trick-or-treating with good friends in the neighborhood. Jonah and Luke are 10 & 8. Alex adores them. The four of them have a lot of fun together. We were out for an hour and came home with loads of candy!

Lilia's Quote of the Day

"Dad can we bike back from school." - Lilia
"Why?" - Dave
"Because we rode past a dead squirrel and I wanted to get a better look at it. I only got a couple glimpses." - Lilia

Alex's Quote of the Day

"I'm gonna bring my Legos to heaven."  -age 5

Like a kid again

Thursday mornings are my favorite. I really look forward to them.
It's Thursday mornings when I get to go to the Wissahickon. If Dave's with me I get to hike; otherwise I walk along forbidden drive where there are more people and its safer.
This past Thursday morning was absolutely the best. The weather was brisk, and sunny. The trees were displaying their best fall colors. I was happy as a lark.
As I walked along the path a leaf floated down in front of me quite quickly. I tried to catch it, but failed. In this attempt I realized that trying to catch the leaf was more fun that the trill of catching it.
As I kept moving I tried again and again to catch falling leaves. Each time giggling more and more.
I kicked a large stone. Then it occurred to me it would be more fun to throw it in the river, so I did. It was a terrible throw and I never hit the water. As I kept going my mission was now to find another stone to this time get into the water. Mission accomplished.
I also stopped at this beautiful spot. I sat on the rocks and soaked in the sun. I'm convinced I need exuberant amounts of vitamin D.
Then I got distracted by the shape of a leaf. So I went on a search to collect different shapes, colors, and sizes of leaves. Hence, leaf art.

leaf art

It was a perfect morning of exercise (fast walking), nature, and having fun the way a kid would - catching leaves and throwing rocks in the water. Which goes back to a previous post about why I never want to become a runner. As a runner you are so focused on "RUNNING" that you can't run after a leaf falling and try to catch it, meanwhile cracking yourself up!

Lego Mania Birthday Party

THE BIRTHDAY BOY (and sister)

LEGO BINGO

PHOTO BOOTH

LEGO BRICK PINATA

 What I didn't think about was how strong and sturdy a box is, especially when taped up. My mom had to jump in there (well she wanted to; she's a kid at heart). Finally Dave had to cut slits in the box so we could get to the goodies inside!

"Happy Birthday to you..."

THE GANG

A big thanks so everyone who everyone who came! Alex felt so loved and celebrated!!! To quote my mom, "That was the best party you ever threw! I had the best time!" (Thanks mom)

Lego Mania Birthday Party!

         

Can you guess by the title who this is about...?
It could only be Alex!! The boy who plays Legos (playing and building) 7 days a week morning, noon, and night. (Quite literally, he plays before school, we play together after lunch until it's time to get Lilia, and then he plays for a good hour before bed.)

So in order to celebrate my great big boy turning 5 we celebrated Lego style (much thanks to Pinterest!!)
What I lack in math skills (seriously), I make up for in creativity. I went through Alex's Lego face collection and made faces on cups.

Thanks to yellow spray paint I was able to turn a former amazon box into a yellow brick pinata.
I cut out the shape of a lego head, cut out eyes and coated those faces in yellow for our photo booth (pictured later).

I also saw the idea of turning yellow lanterns into lego heads. Oh yeah - that happened too. I finished most of the cups and lantern heads late one night. That night's dreams were filled with Legos - red legos to be specific. We needed more red legos!
It was clear in the morning that I was spending way too much time on all this. However, when Alex came down in the morning and saw the lanterns and cups; his reaction made it all worth it!

I can't believe my snuggly, master-builder, tender hearted, incredibly observant, detail-oriented little guy is 5!!! I wouldn't trade his younger years, but I'm thankful that he's growing up. He's so much fun to play with, make up crazy games while Lilia is at school and it's just he and I, and build Legos with. I am enjoying him more and more!! He still has his beloved Stinky Bear. Although, just after his 5th birthday he stopped sucking on the ear. I'm pretty sure because half of it is dangling off. Maybe he's aware of the possibility of swallowing it? It wouldn't surprise me. Now he snuggles it to fall asleep and rubs Stinky's ear against his face. Could he moving away from Stinky? It's hard to picture them not together. 

The Gift of Dyslexia

On Tuesday evening we sat down with Lilia's former kindergarten teacher as we went over the test results. As she talked through page after page of her findings she read her conclusion, "Lilia has dyslexia." Mrs. Sanchez gently held my hand as the tears flooded my eyes. She had walked through this twice already with both of her sons. She told me that this evening was part of the healing process for her. She then talked through what incredible changes would happen in the classroom for Lilia, and how cared for she will be. She added that if Lilia had not gone through the
"fundations" program at The City School (a way to teach phonics and reading) then she would be far worse off.

Dyslexia is a language processing problem. It has absolutely nothing to do with your IQ. It's hereditary. Most people's brains have one side that is 10% smaller than the other. For someone with dyslexia, both sides of the brain are the same size. They are also right-side dominant. They learn best through concrete things that use the five-senses. They have a difficult time with abstract concepts.
Lilia is very gifted verbally. She can have an adult conversation with you very easily. However the disconnect comes with writing that down on paper. She has trouble with spelling, writing and sequencing. Her testing showed she is still unsure of the order of the days of the week and does not know the months of the year, let alone in order. She has a very difficult time copying thing off the board too. However, give her a book about animals and she can retain so much of that information and tell you (very passionately) all about sharks, or whatever she is reading.

Since we moved to Philadelphia in September of 2009 I had been praying where Lilia should go to school. God made it abundantly clear that He wanted her at The City School. As I look back over His perfect Sovereignty I am blown away. If she had not been through the "fundations" program she would have been far worse. Even the story of how we learned about her dyslexia can only point to an incredible God who cares so deeply for my daughter. Here's the story...
At the end of 1st grade a letter went home that Lilia would be re-enrolled in Phonics help. Being an elementary-ed major and a natural teacher I called the school to see what I could do to help over the summer. I never got a call back (not typical, but all part of God's plan).
Sometime in July we were all at the King of Prussia mall (largest mall in the country) and we ran into a teacher from Lilia's school, Miss Evans. Miss Evans' new role at the school is to be a bridge between teachers and kids with learning disabilities. She gave me her number and we later got together to discuss Lilia's trouble with phonics. She gave me some invaluable tips to help Lilia with phonics. She also told me how Mrs. Sanchez had just finished a dyslexia grad class. My interest was peaked because Lilia still had trouble with the direction of "b,d,p,q, and 9". We met with Mrs. Sanchez and she did some testing on Lilia.
Now - what are the odds of us running into Miss Evan at the KOP mall? What are the odds of the timing of Mrs. Sanchez taking this class? Very, very, very slim! God is so good! He is always in control!
I recently learned (about a week after I wrote this story) that The City School uses the Wilson Program to teach  reading, writing and phonics. "Fundations" is one of the pieces under the umbrella of Wilson. They are the ONLY school in Philly to use this program. (Most schools only use it as an intervention.) What's even more amazing is that the Wilson Program was made for kids with dyslexia! Now read that again. Can you believe it! God made it abundantly clear that He wanted her at the City School. Wow. Wow.

Today we explained to Lilia (I think we did a good job) about her dyslexia. She is excited about it. We watched a video explaining it a bit and talking about famous people with dyslexia - Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci, Pablo Piccaso, John Lennon, etc. A full list can be found here. Lilia wants to tell everyone about her dyslexia! Praise God that she sees it as a gift, because it is! People with dyslexia are gifted. One young girl gave a Ted talk. She said, "Find out what your strengths are and pursue them." Many CEO's are dyslexic.
I'm so thankful that we found out early. I see dyslexia as a gift for her. If she wants to go to vet school, she's going to have to work really, really hard. She's going to need grit. Dyslexia will give her the grit she needs to pursue whatever it is God has for her. Here's a short Ted talk about why grit is so important to succeed. I love the ways God has gifted her! Plus, who needs to know how to spell now-a-days? Every piece of technology has spell check!

Anniversary Weekend

La Peg

This past weekend was our 12 year anniversary. My parents generously watched the kids for the weekend. Friday night we went to a pop-up beer garden at 15th and South St. It was beautifully done by the Horticultural Society. Then we walked around the city.

Saturday after breakfast we had coffee/tea at our favorite coffee shop, Bodhi at 2nd and Front st. I love to sit in the window along the cobblestone street. They have the best jasmine tea and free coffee refills.
Then we walked to Talula's Daily on the west side of Washington Square. They have a restuarant, which is pricey, but now they have a little take-out market next door. They offer salads for $9 or cheese plates for 2 starting at $20. They give you beautiful bowls from Anthropologie and real silverware to eat with.
We went home for a few hours to relax. Plus it was raining so there wasn't a whole lot else to do!

La Peg

 Dave had made us dinner reservations at La Peg. It's a fairly new french tapas restaurant with an extensive beer menu. The food was really incredible, which went really well with a Kronenbour Blanc beer.  It's a fresh and fruity white beer, slightly bitter with hints of citrus and coriander spices. 
The atmosphere is really cool. The restaurant is in an old pumping station just behind the Race St. pier.


Sunday morning we biked down to Honey's for breakfast. Oh, how I love their food. The biscuits are so AMAZING!! It was really fun to bike there - one of the many perks to living in the city! I felt like we were a couple in a movie scene or something. Biking there made it so real, like a real date. I can't quite explain it. 
It was a really fantastic weekend. We are still so crazy about each other. I am thankful for those moments where we can remember that and have uninterrupted quality time together.

Ben Franklin bridge

At the Race St. pier overlooking the Delaware river.

Alex's First Week of Preschool

Alex was beyond excited for his first day in the Green class at Overbrook Preschool. He was dressed and ready in no time. As we were driving there he said in disgust, "When are we there?"
Well this brave and excited 4 year old also decided to leave Stinky Bear behind. You know, at home. Wow! We were shocked at the decision.












So leaving Stinky Bear behind was a really bad decision. I made it worse for all of us because in the parking lot I said to Alex, "Wow bud, I'm so proud of you for leaving Stinky Bear at home!"
DUH!!! What a DUMB move!!! Why do I tug at emotional heart strings right before a huge moment like walking into the first day of school.

I had to hold him at the door way of the room and carry him into his class. He wouldn't let go or even lift his head from my shoulder. Oh boy!
We tried different tactics like playing with Legos, but even his all-time favorite toy didn't matter.
His teacher was amazing at trying to get him to stay. Eventually she had to hold him crying while we quickly left. Later she told me he calmed down probably by the time we got to our car.

 Well on day 2 we were smart and brought Stinky Bear with us. It helped a lot! He had a bit of a hard time saying goodbye, but nothing at all like the first day.



Again, his teacher Miss Lexie is amazing. I love her! She loved on Alex so much. She was so great with him in the beginning. She brought him over to check in. The kids have to move their name from the "out" slot to the "in" slot. (pictured below)

By the end of the week Alex confidently walked into the room. Hugged me goodbye and checked himself in. It was amazing to see the transition! Now we are into the second week. Some days he doesn't even say goodbye. He just dives right into his day. It's beautiful, and I am so thankful!

1st Day of 2nd Grade

My 7 year old is now in 2nd grade!
We had a really fun summer, but by the end of August we were all ready for school to start. The two best friends (Lilia and Alex) were now annoying each other very often and we were having trouble just enjoying our days.
Dave took her to school on the trailer bike. It puts her in the best mood! She's so happy on the bike with him, and she very willingly runs off to school.
Her teach is amazing, and all the kids have returned, except one new kid.
In fact, when we arrived on the first day, 3 saw Lilia, shouted her name, and they all embraced. (pictured below) I was one happy mama and I could easily kiss her goodbye.

New Hampshire Nature

This is a gorge near Woodstock, VT. If you ever have a chance to stay in Woodstock or visit there, do it. It's an adorable little town with lots to do in the surrounding areas.

Simon Pierce Glass Blowing place has a waterfall behind their store/factory

Reflections

Moss & fungi

River rocks