Trip to Shining City Part 1

In early December we took a trip back to the city we lived in for almost 3 years, the Shining City. We went for about 5 days, and were able to see lots of old friends. It was such a blessing!
Here's Micah and Reister on a pedestrian cross over on a busy well known road - #81 road.

Me and Mason facing the opposite direction on the same cross over. We LOVED seeing the blue skies and sunshine that are so hard to come by where we live now. It was colder, there, though, but we went prepared!


I took a lot of pictures that included the sky... ;)

I thought this door was pretty

This was a new building since we left - at the end of "Big North Road". Again, beautiful blue skies (even with the haze of pollution lower down)





Although the city is less modern and developed than where we live now, it is really nice. We reminisce about the small size and how easy it was to get around, meet friends, shop, etc. We often took buses rather than taxis just because it took about the same amount of time. I'll post some more pictures in another post.

Open House at Reister's School

At the end of November, Reister's school had a open house morning where parents could come and observe what a "normal" morning at school looked like. I went and got some pictures:
Every morning they do "exercises" to music and sometimes use props. There is one other American boy in Reister's class, and he's to R's left.

I was impressed with how well Reister knew the routines and moves

After exercise time, they went to the bathroom and then had an interesting activity in which the teachers slowly led the kids in a line around their classroom in a follow the leader type thing. The kids were supposed to be quiet and they had music playing. I assume it was supposed to calm them down.

Later on they had their Montesorri time where the kids could choose the toy or activity they played with. Actually Reister was supposed to be in the back with the group of kids watching the teacher - she was teaching them Math with manipulatives. But he didn't want to do that and the teachers encouraged me to not force him. He is playing on a carpet mat with a developmental toy.

Here are some of his classmates playing with blocks during that free play time.

Here is the other side of the classroom where children are playing or coloring at tables.

This boy, Li Zhuo Long, is the one that grabbed Reister's hand the first day he went back to school last summer. He is still Reister's favorite friend in the class, but he also has several other kids enjoys playing with.

Here is Ms. Li, the head teacher of his class, helping him complete the challenge of the building toy.

I enjoyed the morning but I did learn one thing. Our goal in putting Reister in local preschool is for him to learn Chinese. But i observed that he didn't have much opportunity for language practice when he got to chose his own toy and play by himself on a mat. I know they do lots of other things that require him to listen and interact with the local teachers and kids, but it did kind of change my perspective on the advantage of Montessori type classes. I think it's still good because that's the kind of environment he's somewhat used to at home, but I think the more formal classroom setting will be good in the future when he's required to listen and respond more. His Chinese really has improved a lot in the last seven months but he's got a long ways to go. :)

More Thanksgiving activities

If you remember I took up running in 2010. (I'll let you decide if it's running or jogging based on my time) I had been running with two other girl friends here in our city and we decided to organize an informal 10K for Thanksgiving. About 15 people participated, I believe and it was fun. I ran it in 54 minutes 55 seconds. I was pleased with that! We did it at 7am on Thanksgiving morning, so we "earned" our right to feast at lunch! :) My friend Liz made certificates for everyone:

Then the Saturday after Thanksgiving a bunch of (mostly) American guys (and some girls - but not me) got together for some good ol' American football. They even had shirts made! They played on a really nice field that is on the campus of a sports university. They assigned teams (enough for 4 teams!) ahead of time and played 3 games. I took the boys out to watch and there were other kids too that they played with. Honestly it was kind of hard to actually watch the game with all the sideline action of kids and moms visiting!
Here's the action: Micah is on the left side with the red shirt and white longsleeves underneath.

Here's Mason and his buddy, Josiah. Josiah and his family live in another city. They stayed with us the night before Thanksgiving and his mom ran in the race with me.

Self- portrait

Reister's back is to the camera - he's in the brown fleece. He's playing with his good buddy Micah.

Heres the group shot of everyone who played. The boys are with Micah on the front row.

Our Kitchen

I thought it might be interesting for you to see my kitchen here. Comparatively, it's pretty big - a lot of kitchens here are very small. I like the layout, too. I have an oven (it's more of a toaster oven, but big enough for a 9X13!), a microwave, gas range, rice cooker, a coffee pot and toaster. I don't have a dishwasher, but I am blessed to have a househelper who comes 5 mornings a week to help me with the dishes and other household chores!
I love that I have such a big window in the kitchen - it provides a lot of light and and least something to look at while washing dishes - my view is of other buildings, but I can see some sky!

We put both the microwave and oven up on racks from IKEA (yes we have one here!) to save counter space. By the way, the standard height for counters is much lower than in America. I considered trying to have them raised, but the lady I checked with wasn't into the job :( It would have been a complex job!

I promise I'm trying to get better at regular blogging! I'm going back through pictures by date and will try to post in order.

Mason Goes to School

On December 1st Mason went to his first day of preschool. We found a little school that is mainly a place for "Mommy & Me" type classes but also has one class for 1 1/2 - 3 year olds to go half days or all day. The class has about 10 kids and there are 3 teachers. They agreed to let me pay only for Mason to go two mornings a week from 9-12. He can eat breakfast and lunch there. It is in a really nice building and the classrooms are clean and bright. They take the kids to go potty at least every hour and there is a little toilet that Mason has enjoyed using so that he can flush it. He is by no means potty-trained, but has gained an interest in going #1 at school and sometimes at home. He still wears diapers all the time, though!
Here is Mason outside his school on the first day. The school is called "Star Baby" or "Xing Bao Bei"

He got a backpack when he enrolled.

Here is Mason with two of his teachers - Teacher Kelly (yes, she goes by an English name!) and Teacher Li.

Here is a view with more of his classroom

Kelly Laoshi (teacher) is the main teacher and is very sweet. There is a book they send home each week with teacher comments and ratings in several areas, like "taking care of myself", "personal sanitation", etc. It's sweet to read her comments. She says he especially likes when they sing songs and he really enjoys his classmates.
Mason really likes school. Although he has cried a little bit when I leave him, it's nothing compared to the way Reister would cry when we left him at this age. Mason talks about school at other times, prays for Kelly Laoshi at night, and when asked, will tell us the names of his favorite friends at school (one is Zi Han, a little girl about his age).
We hope he can start going 3 mornings a week in a couple months and continue at this school until he's 3 or a little older. The class appropriate for his age at Reister's school has 40-50 kids in it, and they don't discount for going less days. So this was more economical, and I think a better environment for Mason. Actually because it's getting close to Chinese New Year, some kids have already left or stopped coming and he was one of 3 kids in the class this week.
I'm proud of Mason for doing so well. Today Kelly Laoshi told me she's seen a marked improvement in Mason since he started. She said he enjoys story time and has learned the names of characters in books, can sing some of the Chinese songs they learned, and even makes "jokes" with his classmates and teachers. What a big boy!
Mason is 2 1/2 now and we love him so much!